Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good morning everyone. Uh, thank you for the birthday wishes. Appreciate that. Um, my kids haven't even called me yet. It's really sad, isn't it? Isn't that sad?

Your other kids say happy birthday. Yeah, the other kid said happy birthday. Uh, okay. So, let's talk about the agenda for today. Um, what we have this morning for um uh everybody's edification are uh the report outs from each uh of the people. Uh commissioners, you folks have uh paper copies of everything. Um, this will all be followed up electronically for you as well as a report out from yesterday. So, one of the things you probably ought to spend a little bit of time at the end of today talking about and of course our uh we're we're shooting for noon to to get everybody out and back into the their their normal life. Um, is uh that this will come back as a report. the board can then make it an agenda item and discuss it and uh make some uh uh adjustments to it and then uh my wishes would be that you affirm that. In other words, the work that you've done and the priorities that you folks have that you'll have them in a in a report in a packet and that the board will then debate that, talk about it, maybe reorganize some things in it, whatever you need to do, edit it, and then affirm what it is that is your um uh goals and uh moving forward through this year. So, uh we'll set that and then you'll have all of this data here. So the challenge to um uh the department and division heads was to do um uh following um the COGS lead. It was really nice to have them here uh both for staff and for you folks uh to be a third party who could kind of help facilitate it. Didn't have a stake and so that they could speak freely and and help move you folks along and everybody

in the room. um uh was to give some guidance to our reports and uh with some help from Bradley and everybody at the table. We all talked about how to best present this. So what you have um you don't have some people with a 30-page report, some people with a half-page report. You have a one pager from each. And uh so what we're going to do this morning is take a little bit of time and this here's the here's the ground rules. Uh folks are going to come up. They have three to five minutes to talk about. And I say three to five because they get graded an A if they go three and they get an F if they hit five. So um but they they have some time to do this and then you have time to ask initial reaction questions back um about what it's telling you, what else is to it, you know, the things that might occur to uh you folks that you might want to know some more. This isn't the end of this. Obviously, when you get your report throughout the whole year, work sessions, future meetings, you folks will be able to pull this stuff and um have breakout discussions on particular things. Uh whether they're issues within reports or departments and and getting a fuller understanding of what's going on. We'll use your report as guidance on the narrative for our operations and capital. uh that I I'll be recommending to you folks later on and in your budget work sessions and things like that. So, uh that's the way we're going to kind of move along. Now, what we have up here is from yesterday. We kept up the tier one issues um as they were ranked. Uh some of them are tier 2. Um but uh essentially we kept these up front so that we could remind ourselves what they are um and how we move forward and what the bigger bigger chunky things are and then we'll start talking about other

things. Are there any questions before we start? Yes sir. is the thinking that this one pager is something we'll maintain throughout the year. Yes, it will be a guide. Um, however, they will modify and change also, you know, as you would expect. So, um, the numbers will obviously change. It could be that you folks look at and say, what about this piece of information would that that would be more helpful to us as we debate issues. And that question was really to highlight that we want to maintain an update throughout the year keeping it as a one pager that we can then easily reference at any time knowing that it's been updated. Right. That's awesome. Yep.

Fair enough. Okay. So, who was first on our list? We're going alphabetically. All right. Is Dan here? He is. Kevin, you're doing that for all. Before you jump into this, Kevin, uh, I feel obliged to share some feedback that I got from the community. Um, I had the opportunity to attend the ribbon cutting at, um, what is it? Travani, our new Indian rest. Uh, this is bothering me.

Is it? Sorry. Thank you. It bothers me, too. I appreciate that. Thank you. Um, but anyway, the owners there were kind enough to share with me the feedback that this store was one of their easiest to open. So, that's some feedback I wanted to give the town and the inspections group and how responsive the town was. He was he sang nothing but praises about how easy it was to work with the town of Waxaw to get that store open. So, I just wanted to extend that compliment. So, thank you.

That's excellent. Thank you, mayor. It's a credit to our staff, Dan. Um so um so building inspections is a sevenperson uh department primarily external um responsible for ensuring basically um all construction in the city is safe up to code. It also includes the fire marshall which provides emergency services support to the town. Um let's see. Um and this year I'll also just a little tip of the cap to the uh department. Um we have one of the highest certified and competent teams in the state for inspections based on level of certificate and years of experience. I think that's very important. I think that goes into that quality of service as well. Um this year's primary focus areas uh were on restructuring commercial permit submission requirements uh and establishing a formal plan review process. Um we actually brought on a new uh staff member, new uh inspector um who's been working with Dan on that um very successfully. Um ensuring staff receive required training and education is always important. Um inspections is also coordinated with planning staff on making changes to our permitting um so that we can actually better uh report out uh progress throughout the year to you guys. That's uh it's very important to kind of know where we're at and where we stand in terms of construction. Um you've got our numbers there, our outputs. Um roughly 6,000 inspections performed um throughout the year, 197 fire inspections completed. Um only 91 new home cos issued um which is up over a three-year period, but overall is low uh for the town. Um we have uh we had 59 cos uh for commercial or completion that were issued as well. Um the uh the industry trend right now, as you can see from those numbers, uh poor home sales has resulted in slower permitting submissions for new residential construction. Um all four active residential communities of Waxhaw have

temporarily stopped submitting new permits. Uh some of those voluntarily, some of those in um involuntarily, but either way, we uh we are at a little bit of a slump on those. Um we do expect that to pick up though um just kind of depending on what the nationwide trend does um with housing. Um let's see. Um uh the the team is uh has a fast turnaround time uh on average uh 3 to 5 days. I think even 5 days is a stretch for a lot of our permits um on plan review. I mean um beating the required 21 days that the state has set out. uh currently providing next day service for inspections. Requirement is within two business days or 48 hours after first requested. Uh why does this matter? Uh fast, safe, and legal. Uh homeowners are quickly able to get services they need from contractors operating in a safe and legal manner. Keeps up up to code, everything uh in the in the town safe. Um safety, compliance, and documentation. Um, again, making sure that work meets minimum requirements, recordkeeping, um, and holding individuals accountable. And I have, uh, the chief building inspector Dan

I have Chief Building Inspector Dan Pros here as well for any questions. How How many was that? That was three. All right. Good deal. So, um I know that there's been some disconnect between the county and and the town as far as the the permitting, you know, or or at least that's what I've heard. So, yeah. Um

can you tell me if that's improved? Is there something that we need to do to reach out to the county partners and and let them know about it? You know, I know you've had um conversations with the town, the city manager. Yeah.

Um Scott and uh Dan and Orion uh and um I think Matt was there also. Um Todd um we actually met when we went to the county a few months back um and met with uh met with them about that. Um it's a sewer and water is typically the slowdown on most of this stuff. Um their policy is that they will not begin their kind of their plan review until everything else is finalized. Um they also won't allocate sewer and water until that point also. Um which is different than a lot of places do it. A lot of places will give you an early allocation um and we'll run things concurrently. Uh unfortunately we can't do a lot with that policy. That's their policy. So, what the best that we can do and what we've been trying to do is when applicants come in early on, both at the planning stage and then also just at the permitting stage, if they don't have any large development to deal with, we try to remind them early on to go ahead and get in contact with the county and we facilitate that if we can. Um, I've also been hopping on on Fridays. Usually, they have um they have plan reviews there about once a month and uh taking a look at those and that's kind of given us some um some red flags, some things to look out for to try to help keep their process moving along a little bit quicker. That's about all we can really do with that at this point is just work on the coordination side.

When you say finalized, are you talking about architectural engineering plans complete and final and signed off? Yes. Just so all the engineering work has to be done. All the architectural work has to be all the design work has to be done. Correct. Before they even think about doing a hookup. That's right. And they also they also do send their they send their permitting to the state as well. That also adds on significant amount of time. That can be a a month. It can be is it is it 90 days, Dan? 30 to 90 days. Sometimes that takes. Yeah. They had 45 days.

45 days. Yeah. So, that can be frustrating to somebody that's been working, you know, elsewhere in the state and they come here and it and it takes a lot longer. Um, and again, I'd love to speed that up a little bit more. I I do know that some of it uh is primarily on the sewer side um with um you know, their their their capacity. Um they are limited on capacity. So they don't want to allocate out and lock up capacity and then something not happen and have it, you know, tied up. So that's part of their concern. Um, but either way, it does affect, it does slow things down.

Great. Oh, Dan, the clicker's right there.

Thank you. Appreciate that. Okay. Business development.

I'm sorry. I think I may get an F. I'm going to try to go faster. do my best. But before I walk through the dashboard, um I just wanted to provide a little context about what you're looking at. Um and I also promised that I created this one pager and presentation before the conversation yesterday as there will be a lot of similar phrases and uh themes from those conversations. Um but this dashboard that you're looking at reflects our department at full capacity. Right now we are operating leaner than that. Um, with recent staffing changes, most of our day-to-day focus is centered on downtown and the transition areas. Uh, because this is where much of the town's economic activity, redevelopment pressure, and private investment interests is currently concentrated. Uh, but even operating lean, our role remains the same. We connect business development, downtown revitalization, and economic strategy into one coordinated approach that supports both near-term needs and long-term growth. Uh, and our purpose is pretty straightforward. Uh we help strengthen Waxaw's commercial tax base while protecting community character and supporting the small businesses that define our identity. We serve residents, business owners, property owners, visitors, and internal departments. Uh we help them by turning ideas, investments, and infrastructure into real economic outcomes. We often sit at the center of a ven diagram is what I kind of like to say. planning, engineering, events, infrastructure, economic development, business engagement, and nonprofit groups frequently meet in the same places, especially downtown and our commercial corridors. That center position allows us to connect the dots and align efforts that might otherwise operate in silos. So, the dashboard in front of you again highlights three core areas of work for our department. First is business development and economic strategy. That includes supporting our existing businesses, attracting new investment, and aligning growth with community priorities. Second is our main street and downtown program that

includes uh focusing on retention, revitalization, placemaking and maintaining the town's highest visibility economic district. The third is partnership leverage through the downtown Waxaw Association and volunteer engagement. We expand capacity without expanding cost. Last year alone, volunteers contributed more than 950 hours uh valued at over $31,000. that allows us to deliver more services without increasing the burden on taxpayers. We also operate with a lean model as I mentioned. So two staff managed three major programs with many peer communities staffing those separately. The outcomes on the dashboard also reflect measurable results. Last year we saw over $2 million invested in downtown uh including both public and private dollars. And since 2009, every $1 invested by the town uh results in roughly $9.30 30 cents in private investment. That's a huge leverage. Downtown m maintains 0% commercial vacancy. It's extremely rare uh and reflects strong demand in business confidence. Since 2020, town investment in business development has coincided with a steady growth in sales and use tax, which is now the second largest revenue source for the town. And these numbers matter because they represent a shift toward diversifying that tax base and easing pressure on the residential taxpayers. You all had an important conversation on Tuesday about the cost to serve and the balance between residential and commercial growth. Economic development exists to help address that challenge. Communities like Waxa often face the reality that residential growth increases service demand faster than revenue. Commercial and experiential investment helps rebalance that equation because those uses tend to generate stronger net tax revenue. So the question for us is not whether to pursue more commercial growth, but how intentionally we plan for it. We still have meaningful undeveloped land available and there's an opportunity to think strategically about what percentage of that land helps move us toward the long-term balance the board wants to see. So that requires

planning, infrastructure alignment, and clear direction on priorities. So going forward, our focus is continued economic diversification, supporting local entrepreneurs, and coordinating infrastructure and redevelopment. Lots of three point words today on a Friday. Big vocab. uh all in ways to protect Waxaw's character while strengthening our financial sustainability. So my role is to help connect policy direction to real practical outcomes. Uh and I'm here to help this board move from goals to strategy to results. So the too long didn't read version is uh our word work exists to help Waxaw grow in a way that protects what residents love while strengthening the tax base that supports everything else the town wants to do. How much time do I have left? 43.

Okay. I have a little rally cry for something from yesterday. Um, so one final note from the group activity yesterday. Um, I knew that community character in historic preservation would rank lower on everyone's tears. It did ours as well, even though Jan and I would put it number one. Um, I just wanted to provide another perspective and kind of reframe that a little bit as I think we all not only undervalued that, um, but everyone in here undervalued their importance and role in it. Um, I want, you know, think about the words from yesterday, charm, quaint, character, leafy, community. Um those aren't just fluff words. Those are all key economic drivers. Um they were all important and powerful enough to be in the vision statement discussion we had yesterday. So people which are residents, visitors, businesses, investors spend money where they spend their time. It's this is a really good rally. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Um something even as small as fresh flowers and planners downtown or someone calling town hall and getting their question answered professionally, you know, and quickly that all makes an impact. Um, great places don't happen by accident. Um, I just want to remind everyone in this room that yes, historic preserv preservation and downtown revitalization are priority. Um, but everyone in this room is also included in a community's character. Public services keeps it clean, functional, and cared for. PD and fire and EMS keeps it safe, secure, and builds trust. engineering and transportation, infrastructure, safety, accessibility, planning, quality of life, safety, sustainable growth, parks and wreck, health and wellness, arts and culture, tons of economic activity, clerk's office, transparency, trust and vital services, customer service, IT, comms, connecting, informing and engaging the community, finance, facilities, admin and HR, managing resources. I'm almost done. Assets compliance and talent commissioners, fiscal integrity, policy, and advocacy. You all help create a community full of character uh that people care enough uh about to want to preserve its history. So, thank you. I just wanted to mention that you are all part of the community character. That's all. But thank you.

I don't know. No, no, stay floors. Now, try to go fast. Thank you, I just wanted to get a little more detail on the $930 in private investment.

Yes. Uh so that is just statistics we track for where the main street program. Um and that is everything from I think one of the largest influx of that is when the apartments were built. Um that was a huge private investment. So um and it's something as small as even the facade grant. Um a private property owner putting money into the facade, but we help them with a small incentive to get that done. So leveraging those dollars to get private investment and take care of their buildings. Uh was there something specific about the number that uh so the building of the apartments was considered a private investment then? Mhm. Okay.

That yeah on the industry trend you're saying and I've seen this before uh the trends are shifting towards experience-based models. are what's like a good example of that? Are you talking about breweries or are you talking about more like lawn bowling and arcade type or or even wider theme

makes people linger or want to stay for a while. Um so it could be a brewery if that's you know it just depends on the person. Uh right now we are seeing a lot of interest in kind of recreational youth programming uh which is what we're kind of focused on some more uh culture you know pickle ball mini golf those kinds of things but that would be an experiential type of retail. So um so not just traditional kind of just like brick and mortar but something that draws you downtown and keeps you there but those places need to be walkable and accessible and things like that. So Sure. Yeah.

Okay. Is there any data on um and and I don't know if you would have the data, but if the uh like Middle James has a lot of events that where they um close off that street and it's usually successful for those businesses. The businesses I've spoken to said it's even a higher um they they see higher profits on that day more than Black Friday. Um, so is there other than what they've told me, have they said anything to you about how that's impacted their business? And um,

Middle Jane specifically or the block? Just the block because I know that they wanted to do kind of like a pedestrian prominade where uh, it wouldn't be a social district. Yes. Yeah. Let's not say that. No, no, let's stop. just um closing it off maybe one Friday a month and see how that goes and see if it brings more people to the area where they are just putting out their you know their wares outside. We're not going to have outside vendors come in that they're going to be able to showcase their vendors. I know that um uh the boutique IA

yeah they had said that they wanted to partner maybe with Queen South and do an Italian festival. Yeah. And and that sort of thing. And maybe if uh we could facilitate that, maybe can we partic but if they sponsor So that's also leveraging private dollars.

That's what I'm saying. Yes. So I am working on getting the businesses and working really hard with Robins for, you know, third party applications because Middleames, yes, they want to do that possibly once a month. Um it is a huge economic driver to that block. Um, but that is we want the businesses to take on more of that role of filling in some of these gaps of events. So, we're not having to do that or pay for that, but we're helping manage and coordinate, make sure it's safe and everyone can get around. Um, but they do bring people downtown. Anything with that's visible, tents, balloons, you know, people stop and see. So,

so yeah, I guess a question that you might have to research and think about is if we how can we facilitate that without putting on the event but help facilitate it where um we can partner with them but it's really their responsibility to if they want to hire a DJ they do it. if they want to, you know, have some type of, I don't know, party or something, they do it, but maybe we can provide the barricades. How does that work? That's actually what we're doing right now,

which is great. So, um, they submit a third party application. Um, and they also have a rental application. So, for right now, we're trying to figure the details out. They may be getting their own, but right now they can rent our barricades. Um, they work with PD to get off duty officers if needed. Um, so we help them coordinate kind of the back end, but they're the ones taking care of it right now. Right. But I'm saying as a town, can we just if we close that off and to to aid them because I know some of the smaller stores um are concerned about the liability, their liability if they were to take it on, they would be solely responsible for something like that.

And we can do that through the downtown Wax Association. That's a benefit of that partnership. So the that third party can take on and they have their own insurance and can do that with the small businesses as so yeah absolutely

anything else. So we have zero downtown commercial vacancy

and I I guess one thing that I would like to know is like what are the immediate opportunities to either develop what we already have and help the business owner maybe expand their business or something like that? Are there immediate opportunities? Because I I see, you know, opportunities are really what you might include in the primary focus area at the top of this page, but like are there immediate um initiatives that you're working on right now that um might be examples of how we're growing the the business community downtown?

Downtown. Um right now, so that for me, my biggest focus has been retention of the downtown businesses. I focus on them first and trying to retain them and help them grow and move them to maybe a larger location or you know um from either Milview down to the main block uh and things like that. Help them hire employees so they don't have to be the single owner operator and things like that. Um and then in terms of expanding space or or just right that is the transition area for me. We have a couple commercial corridors that are going to be coming up. They're still walkable to downtown. So, that has been a lot of my last few weeks is working on um with some property owners and kind of trying to strategically get kind of what we want in those areas that would benefit the downtown businesses. It could be more room. It could be more retail space. Um but that's just part of the position is just working with these property owners when they talk to planning and then they come to me kind of what are some great uses for that space and so then we have a lot of conversations about that. So, my goal is to always complement downtown not compete with it. So, um, the existing businesses are my priority first and then how can we, you know, get more space. So, I'm not sure if that answered your question.

No, I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Anything else? Yes, sir. Hey, Lauren. Good morning. I have a question about the note of efficiency and and uh what how we do what we do. Volunteer capacity offset uh 950 volunteer hours, which is awesome. that that is a great thing. My question to you is on the role and scope of essentially coordinating those volunteers. Is that through our business development team or is that through our parks and recck team? That is through me. Well, that they may have their own uh volunteer hours and that their own data, but this is for our business development department and what we've coordinated.

Okay. And now walk walk me through a little bit of the snapshot of what the volunteers would kind of be doing in partnership with our business development team and kind of be the roles and scopes that we just walked through. So they are part of the main street program with the downtown wax association that helps us uh administer that. So there are promotions team economic vitality and design. Um so we fill the planters downtown, there's small promotional events downtown uh that they help us with with fright nights. Um our board members are constantly walking downtown. Economic vitality, they do a lot of data and resources uh to provide for the businesses. Um so through those um that four-point approach of that main street program is those volunteer activities.

Got it. So it's essentially through a four-point program in our main street essentially scope. Correct. My question to you is while we are operating lean, is that something role shiftwise that would be feasible to have our coordinated and ran through our parks and wreck team while you operationally wise hone down and focus more on the uh business and business development side?

I mean, that's certainly a discussion that we could have, but um the second staff member would kind of be that main street manager. Uh, and I would focus more on the economic development and the recruitment. And then the second staff member is going to be focused more on the retention mainstream program. So they could help coord that would be part of their role is coordinating those volunteers. It's just as a different um these volunteers have a little different um goal. Okay. Yeah.

Okay. I just didn't know if if the program administratively can be coordinated through essentially the mechanisms already in place through the parks and wrecks volunteer systems and where you're essentially you still assign scope of essentially the volunteer portion but um that essentially is ran through the mechanics of the park and wreck volunteer that established system. So instead of running two congurrens congruent systems essentially requiring two separate pathways the volunteer sections maybe can be combined that way one of two things. It can be in a uniformed place where someone does want to volunteer in a certain program or at a certain event in through the parks and wreck but maybe sees a supplementary event that's also through the main street program. I mean, I'm not sure I can fully speak or answer that right now, but certainly something that we can consider. Okay.

Um, as we move forward. Yeah. But I know they have their own whole volunteer core and their own nonprofit program to run to, so Okay. Well, thank you. Yeah. I appreciate it. Yeah. Good. Thank you. Okay. Appreciate you. Thanks. Thanks. Okay. Communications next. Thank you. Buenos Diaz. See? C.

All right, let's switch back to English.

I did. That was my fault. Uh, hello everybody. Uh, my name is Bradley Lucor and as you might recall from yesterday, I am your public information officer and communications manager for the town of Waxaw. And um, let me know when I'm on the clock. I'm on the I'm Okay, the clock has started. So, in front of you, you have our communications one sheet. It's also on these screens up here. Um, feel free to look on it and write on it as you wish. Communications is responsible for strategic messaging and public information for the town. That includes media relations, social media and website management, police PIO functions, crisis communication, internal communications, brand management, advising, senior leadership, and many other things that cannot be quantified right now. This year uh my primary focus has been transitioning from a marketingled approach to a comprehensive strategic communications model. And that means moving beyond just promoting events or feel-good stories and instead ensuring that every department communicates with one unified voice aligned with policy direction and organizational priorities. One of the biggest accomplishments this year uh we've had was aligning our departmental messaging into that unified voice, telling our story proactively rather than reactively. Uh we've also updated the town's brand standards, streamlined website content, improved digital accessibility, and strengthened internal intake processes so messaging is more consistent, timely, and accurate. From an output standpoint, town-owned social media channels generated 6.9 million views in 2025. 6.9 million views. Uh the town website also received 386,000

views, again showing our reach and the impact that our digital platforms have in communicating our message. Uh we distributed more than 24,000 email newsletters with a 99.86% 86% delivery rate and a 46% open rate. Both of those are well above industry averages. And all of this is managed in-house with one full-time person. You're looking at them. In terms of trends and pressures, the most significant external driver that we're looking at moving forward is the federal department of justice digital ADA compliance rule that will take an effect in 2027 for the town of Waxaw. This requires that local governments bring their website, social media, and any digital content that provides services to residents into accessibility compliance or they could face potential litigation. That mandate alone requires continued modernization of our digital platforms. From an efficiency standpoint, output and strategic alignment have increased significantly since transitioning from contracted communications to in-house. Consolidating oversight of communication tools across departments has also reduced duplication, improved response time, and strengthened message control, particularly during high-profile or crisis situations. Most importantly, the outcome for residents is visibility, transparency, and trust. Residents are receiving timely, accurate information directly from the town. We are reducing misinformation by becoming the primary source of truth. And we're ensuring that board decisions and town initiatives are communicated clearly and consistently. Not saying we don't have room to improve because there's always room to improve on communication for sure. Uh but at its core, communications protects the town's credibility, strengthens public trust,

and ensures that our message is aligned with town priorities. Thank you. And with that, I'll have any questions that you may you have. Thanks. Um the 6.9 million views on social media, are there any uh locationbased metrics on that? Like most of them are coming from um the US. It's like 99% US. Uh but most of our views do come from the Waxaw area. Okay. I can pull specific measures for you uh later. I don't have the specifics in front of I was just curious ballpark, you know. Uh

or I would say Waxaw Union County is basically our highest amount of traffic. So like 80% or something like that, potentially even higher than 80%. Yeah. And uh the messaging and communication for the uh PD, I I think that used to be handled separately. Is that now all being handled by you? Uh well they um it's a partnership I would say. Um but crisis comms are uh big things. Um I've been taking the lead for messaging for the police department as well. Okay. Thanks. Mhm.

Uh thanks for that. That was really good. You're welcome. Thank you. Yeah. Really good concise overview. And uh also I want to thank you for taking care of Mr. Rose's uh interview. That's really cool. I'm looking forward to the link. Uh on the state or legislative pressures, the Department of Justice ADA compliance, do they what kind of tools do they give you for complying or is that you just kind of have to figure it out based on what their mandate is

and what are we complying to? So the Department of Justice uh does not provide any tools. They just come out with the rule and then it's up to the municipalities to come up with the tools to ensure that the ADA compliance is bringing your uh website and other your digital assets up to a a WICAG level 2.1A standard, which I forget what WICAG stands for, but I remembered the the acronym because of the funny sound. Um but basically it's bringing your uh your digital platforms uh into accessibility for people who are using screen readers. Uh so um blind people, people who um uh are hard of hearing um etc. Um so making sure that all residents can receive the same information about services as able-bodied residents. Um there has been talk under the current federal administration of extending that rule. Um because I think they're starting to realize what goes into that and how much that may cost municipalities across the board because you're talking about turning uh it sounds like you're talking about turning text into audio stuff and then ensuring any audio stuff is um what's the word I'm looking for? Close captioned.

Right? So we need closed captioning features on the website. We need audio readers on the website. Um, I've seen websites where I think the what is it the Wall Street Journal has the button where it'll read the article for you. Stuff like that has to be added at our expense, I'm assuming. Pretty much. Yeah.

Okay. And uh also the feedback that we see on the post on the um Facebook post about this is great information. keep the uh communication basically they want you to communicate with them just the way you're doing and probably a little bit more uh you know it's the same people look I don't know how much more you can do you're doing uh the all the weather updates all that stuff was really timely and and very informative so uh but I read the the comments and the most if not all were really positive so we appreciate what you're doing Thank you. And that's something that we're really proud of too, um switching the narrative on social media because people come out um on social media and they like to share their opinions um which are typically negative. Um but what we're very proud of is the more we're putting out and the more we're communicating, the more that negative is turning into positive. Um so we're very proud of that. Thank you.

Yeah. And you should be, we should all be proud because you've got some compliments from people that I've not seen a compliment from in many years. So, just saying very good job. Some very negative people have become positive because of you. Well, I I would attribute that to the the team as well. Um, I'm only as good as the information that I receive from the team. I am just the conduit. I think it's your charm and good looks. Um, I just more This is going really well for me. Okay. Exactly. In in more ride alongs with the um service guys and Oh, yeah. That was good. On location.

Yeah, that could be a regular thing. That was really cool. No, I I think your work during snowmageddon was uh really valuable and I certainly enjoyed seeing those posts and I'm hoping the town and the community as a whole got something from them as well and sort of received the message that you know let's stay home, let's give services the time to catch up and all that. So just want to compliment you for that work and that effort. So thank you. Thank you. I'd definitely echo that the work during the snowmageddon iceeddon it was awesome. Great communication. question for you on that state legislative piece. WICAG 2.8A I how many vendors are available to service that?

Uh there are uh plenty of options out there. It just depends on how much you want to pay for it. Okay. So there there's there's a a likelihood of a menu of suite of options on on how to come into compliance and and would it have to be multiple vendors to come into compliance? Does um the closed captioning vendor differ from the uh whatever vendor it ADA compliance would require?

Potentially. Yes. So the biggest one would be the website. Okay. Um, and you know, our current website, we've taken as many steps as we can to bring it into compliance before the deadline. Um, but the platform is um a little bit outdated. Um, so it's more of a manual lift. If we were to switch and get an improved website, they would hand it to us up to ADA standard. The trick comes in with once they hand it off then anything that we add in we have to make sure remains ADA compliant. So that's where the it gets a little hairy.

Okay. So, so it there are levels to this onion for lack of better words to where once we start moving it and to come in just to come into compliance. There will there will be a lift part a and then there will be a continuous maintenance essentially behind it for any new essentially uploadsformational pieces. Uh it it would have to run in concurrence. Yeah. And another one would be PDFs. Okay. You know, you you no longer can just scan a document, make it a PDF, and put it online. Yeah.

Because without the accessibility features in it, someone with a screen reader is just going to see this is an image. Yes. And they're not actually going to be able to read the text on it. Got it. Yes. So, it's it's a pretty involved process. All right. Well, thank you for that snapshot. You're welcome.

Yeah. I really appreciate everything you're doing and I I especially like the uh summaries that you've been posting about uh board meetings. Um and I wonder if we could uh bring even more transparency to decisions by uh perhaps um depicting how each commissioner voted uh something like that. um perhaps on the website. Um I I would be happy to explore that with the the clerk's office. Thanks.

Hey, Bradley. More of a statement than a question. Um I was a communications major, so back in the day, the medium was a message. Remember all that fun stuff? We had print media, radio, and TV. Now you have this whole beast called the internet. So, I've just heard nothing but positive things that you've done and it's quelled and silenced some of the negative stuff that was out there prior to. So, kudos. Great job. Really appreciate it. Thank you, sir.

Back to the ADA thing. Sorry. Um, is there any solutions that basically I hate to sound like a simpleton, but is there any solutions that AI offers? uh the chat models that are out there, is there any way to maybe link those or integrate that into our website so that folks can then go to the AI and then access the website and instruct the website to do what they need it to do. That's definitely something we can explore. I don't have any specifics on that.

All right. Thank you. Thanks. Good job. All right. Customer service. Susan, you coming up.

Thank you.

Hey, good morning everyone. Thank you for this opportunity to tell our story. As somebody said to me this morning, I wear many hats and this morning it's the customer service hat. And uh what we do, this is the ladies you see sitting out front. And when you come in the lobby, we serve as the town's front door. We're the primary contact or residents, contractors, vendors, visitors, and staff. How do we do this? Three part- timerrs. I'm listed here as a full-time, but I'm their backup. If and you'll sometimes see me when you come in, I'm sitting there. Uh just just as a backup. What do we do? front office phone assistance, permit intake, inspection, scheduling and support, mail distribution, meeting room and vehicle reservations. We also now have a bilingual customer service staff member, which has been a great advantage to our team. Call logging and voicemail routing. Uh we do this in person. We don't use any AI. Several years ago, we did have a phone tree. What we discovered over the course of tracking, our residents didn't like it. They were not using it. What they would do is bypass that to go to O for operator. So yeah. Yeah. Uh as we kid representative, it wasn't working. We discontinued it. What we have found is our residents and our community want to talk to someone. They want to have a voice. They want to be heard. So that's the service we provide and it's showing uh outputs what we do. We track every call, every visitor that comes in. 7763 interactions. Last year, 71 interest, 71% increase from 2024. How that breaks down? Phone calls, 6,257 phone calls, 77% increase from the prior

year. 1,56 in-person visits, 51% increase from the prior year. So, what that shows me is people like what we're doing and they appreciate it. Uh, and we do this with three part-time staff that cover a 40hour schedule. So, they rotate. So, if you come in on a Monday, you're going to see April sitting up front. On today, you're going to see Katherine that is covering. And Jennifer is our Monday through Friday person. and she kind of does a mid from anywhere from 10 to 2 or 11 to 4 just depending on scheduling and staffing. These ladies are wonderful in that they coordinate if somebody is taking time off for the most part they flex their schedules to cover. So, uh they just do a wonderful job at it. Uh just like I said, while many there is AI out there, I don't think that's what our WAX residents want or need. And this shows we've also this past fall decided that they are so intertwined with the permitting and so many people are coming to ask for permits or calling for inspections that we are now doing a crossraining model with those ladies. Some of them are familiar with permitting from prior years but some of them are not. So at this point we have staggered training and we're bringing them slowly all up to speed to assist building inspections with what they do. So, as that volume will start to increase, as those projects become online, these ladies will be proficient and be able to help our permit tech Heather so she is not overburdened or overwhelmed. Uh, like I said, that is staggered right now. I started in permitting, so I can speak and Dan can speak to this. It's a complex process. This is about anywhere from a 12 to 18month learning curve before they're really proficient. So, this timing will be just perfect for what we anticipate is coming down the pipeline.

uh they deescalate to and it's a it's if somebody calls angry, they are empathetic. They try and help. They try and support. They do everything they can to serve our residents. They're also our first line. We work closely with Bradley. We get a trend coming in. We notice numerous phone calls coming in. We're immediately reaching out to Bradley. Is this something we need to put on the website to clarify? But also our resource this past week has been Duke power bills and Pedmont natural gas bills. We're limited. There's not much we can do. But how can we serve our residents? We are supplying them with what they've asked for. The attorney general's hotline thinking that this is might be a scam or fraud. And also the state utilities commission as well as our state and house representatives. Uh we've also improved our messaging on that to explain to folks why their bills have gone up. Uh we've done our research on that. So it's it's multiaceted what we do. So now our messaging for folks calling is understand yes your thermostat is still set at 65 but it was so cold for such an extended period of time. Your heat's had to run longer to maintain that temperature. Thus why your bills are up. It's an explanation. They might not like it. they still might want to go, but at least we're providing the explanation and it's sensible and logical. So, yeah, and we're laughing, but it it just makes sense to us, but but when you're on a fixed income and you have rent or other things due, it's stressful. So, we try and help and provide that support. And this speaks to the numbers and the activities, but I'd like to speak to the culture. We have over 80 years experience with that team and our expectation is simple. If you call or visit us, we help. This includes non-T town services as well. So, if they

call and they're asking for help, we route them to the direct people that can help them regardless of whether it's a town service or not. We see every person who calls or visites is somebody requesting assistance and we do whatever we can to provide that assistance. Ah, and I thought I had this memorized. Uh, that's the level of care we provide. And we come each and every day with that same attitude and perspective, whether it's this internal team here or our community. We're here to serve and we try and do that the best way we can. And I am so grateful for this team and the opportunity to represent and tell their story this morning. Be glad to answer any questions you have. I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to start. Appreciate that, Richard. Um, first thing I a couple of things that I picked up and your story that you weaved was so well well spoken, Miss Susan. Um, customer service team is the central hub of kind of an or a central switching station of information. old school kind of phone switching station where getting the right people in the to plugged into the right information. Um is it sounds like what our customer service team has done and excelled at um with yourself as the full-time and then three part-time team members. It the way that that team sounds it is very balanced and working well together, very cohesive. Um, again, years of experience, time on task, um, everybody kind of knows the workflow, and then to also cross train. Thank you so much for stretching your resources and crossraining to help with permitting and permitting intake. Um, so I just wanted to say thank you uh from from the

residents for everything that the customer service team, the first greeting team uh does at our front door and so much appreciated.

Thank you. Yeah, thank you very much for everything you guys are doing. Really appreciate it. Um I love that you guys are coordinating with Bradley and uh helping him with proactive messaging, you know. Um you mentioned about the great increase uh last year was it in the increase was last year in volume of calls. Uh what was that primarily driven by? Was that more uh inspections requested or or We've um since we started tracking, we started tracking about four years ago. Uh and we've seen a consistent increase in calls every year. Uh driven in the top three, and you'll laugh, uh Miss Paula will appreciate this. Trash, trash, and trash. Uh people love their trash. And uh during the the two winter events, I switched the calls to my town cell phone and monitor those calls all weekend just to keep up to date and let people know what was going on. Trash was the number one. Is our trash going to be picked up? Bradley did a great job of updating that so I could convey that information. Uh trash is always number one. Building inspections and permitting are all will depending on the month. Number one, number two, and number three are trash building inspections and permitting. And those will fluctuate. So those are the number three calls. Uh we do have an online permit portal and Dan could speak more to this and Kevin as well, but folks still like that personalized touch. They want to reach out and talk to somebody if they have a question. Technology is great, but not everybody trusts it. If you're talking to a person, you know your inspection is going to get scheduled. If you have a question, they can route accordingly if it's not something they can answer. So those are the top three. Uh we have

sometimes funny ones. Uh where we kind of act as 311 as well. Uh so we get a hodgepodge of calls, not like I said, not all the town services. I have remember and I asked the team some funny ones and uh yes, we looked up for for a gentleman one day. There was a vacuum cleaner um uh service that repairs vacuum cleaners in Monroe. So, we found out for him one day. Uh the last year for Jamming at the Tracks, they had a Tom Petty tribute band. And I'm sorry, I'm still laughing at this one. Jennifer, our rep, got that call. Uh, this caller was not familiar with Tom Petty, was thinking of going, "What type of music does Tom Petty play?" She started singing it into the phone while she was watching. Jennifer has a singing background. She started singing some of it into the phone while she was searching Google on her private phone to pull up some music. And then she said, "Oh, here." and she started playing some of that music from her phone through the phone so the caller could hear. From what I understand, that woman really enjoyed the show. But then we have some heartbreaking ones, too. Uh, gentlemen, you you have seniors that you're the only person they talk to all week. You get familiar with them. They become your buddies. They become your friends. A gentleman that I had talked to in the seven and a half years I've been here pretty much on every few weeks. I hadn't heard from him in a while. I got concerned. And that's the call lock. I called his wife and she said to me, "I'm so glad you called." She was in the process of trying to find nursing home care for him and she could not find any vacancies in Waxaw. Everything was in Charlotte, 45, 50 minutes away.

We and I sometimes feel there's divine intervention. That same week, we have books and manuals and all kind of things we look through of social services and and things through the town. We're the entire team and I were scrging through trying to figure out how to help or what we could do. There was a networking event here that day. There were agencies um area agency on aging and some other private individuals that work with with this exact thing of placement. I got those business cards within two days. She had called me back. She had worked with two of the groups I had provided her information with. They got them placed at White Arkansas. So, do we have those cards in our file now? We sure do. And so, when we get stuff like that, we keep it. But that's the kind of thing that we do. And that's This was heartwarming. It really made me feel good.

Thank you. uh you mentioned about you know getting back to the coordination with um Bradley and you know suddenly you get a bunch of calls about one particular thing um and then you communicate it to Bradley have you noticed that after you communicate it to him and then he puts it out um that there's suddenly a drop you sort of see a reaction there

there would be or it's messaging we have then if Bradley's putting it out there if it's on the website if it's on social, then I'm alerting the team, hey, it's out there. Bradley is alerting the team, it's out there. So, he communicates, no pun intended, very well with the team. It's out there. Then we can let the folks know it's out there. We do see a increase in a decrease. If they continue to call, we have consistent messaging. Then we are messaging what is on the website that Bradley has already put out there. So, it is a it's a multiaceted process. Hi, Susan. Uh, is there a customer service interaction chat on the website? I've I don't know if I've ever looked for one or needed.

There isn't and we're continuing to explore and look at new things and Bradley is probably noting that right now, I'm sure. Um, any type of interactive bot on the chat. Far be for me to make more work for somebody. Yeah. Yeah. there is

and I guess I was I was just going to say what are like response timelines and targets for something like that but since we don't have one I I think maybe as people are used to or more used to utilizing them in the private sector on other manufacturers websites that type of thing that may be an opportunity for us to service the public uh to even greater extent by offering that service. Yeah, we have talked about it. When Bradley came on board, we had kind of mentioned it and talked about it and tossed it around and it's one of those that are just a review in progress right now. We're also looking and I'm working with it on how to improve our messaging on weekends and after hours and so we're always looking at process improvements and way to improve it right now. Yeah, I think a lot of people uh just don't like to try and find things in menus on websites and when they, you know, so they say, "Oh, the website sucks." But it's it's not

it's not that the website's bad. It's just that people don't want to click anywhere. So, yeah, if there was something that popped up and said, uh, looking for something, type a word in here or some, you know. No, I mean, that's a great point. And uh the website has got a lot of information on it. Um I almost everything cuz being on the campaign trail people ask us, oh where do I find this and is that information? Yeah, it's on waxaw wax.com,

right? And so, um, that that all most of the information is there, which is wonderful, but you get to be the beneficiary of people's sometimes laziness. Sometimes it's just hard for them to navigate a pretty vast website. So, having that chat function might be helpful. But, um, and whoever is doing the website is doing a great job, by the way, because all of that all the stuff that people would ask me for when I see him around town, it's there. So, I always direct them to the website.

Yeah. And I agree. And not everybody is technically proficient. Um, you have an elderly base that still wants to talk to a neutral person. So, we become the web masters for them as well. We become Google for them. Uh I compliments to Bradley because navigating and talking through people through a website or they can't find it, they're on their computer. He has done a phenomenal job of making it easier for myself and my team to navigate our website too to be able to talk instead of multiple layers. It might only be two steps to they get to the parks and website they want. uh just all of that has just made it more efficient for us too and it introduces people to that so they're a little bit less fearful of trying to go out there and find information but we're Google for people too um you know we're just like I said we're 311 people just know there's a friendly voice at the end of that line they know they're going to get an answer and they that's why I think the increase in call volume too our residents really appreciate that there's just a voice on the phone instead of Betty or Sandy that puts you, as I experienced the other day with my bank, puts you through multiple layers and by the time you try and get to the operator, you have a 24-minute hold time. And so what did I do? I hung up frustrated. And that's what we want to try avoid here. I u some of my background. I worked for a uh cable company for three years. So I remember the call center and I know exactly what you're talking about. I can't remember all the stats, but we had a on the on the wall that we could see visible for all of us was three stats. And I can't remember them now, but yes, we were always in the red. We were never green. And that's what we we don't want to do here. And that's why it's just so personalized. Those phones are answered. As a matter of fact, even though I'm upstairs, I am still part of the queue. So after three rings, if that phone is

ringing, I'm picking it up. and and so we try and avoid letting anything go to voicemail. So I'm still one of the resource backups as well. If it's not answering, I'm looking on the cameras. Those ladies might be helping somebody at a window. Somebody else is on a phone. I can see that I'm picking up that phone. So

I your staff is I happen to know a couple of them before I started as a commissioner, but um they regardless they're very friendly people and they treat everybody with a lot of respect and and a big smile when you when you uh greet them. So or when they greet you. So that that's re really refreshing. I come from a heavy customer service background since I was a kid and I know these guys do too.

Uh everybody you're servicing people all the time um in our job. So I know that's that's really appreciated by us and uh they do a great job and the fact that they're doing the cross uh training with the permit folks is the building inspections. It's going to be a great initiative and uh really looking forward to even more service in that regard.

Well, thank you all. Thank you all. Yeah. Um some of the folks know this, but um I'm a Chick-fil-A alumni, so that core culture and training resonates way too many years ago, but it sticks with you and and that's what we look for in these ladies. And they just you can't um you can't teach empathy. uh some of it you can teach, but it's just core to personality out there. And that's what we specifically look for is just yeah, just a team. And it's a phenomenal team, and I'm so proud of them. And so, thank you Good morning. So, engineering engineering provides technical expertise in transportation, traffic, storm water, erosion control, infrastructure review. We have five employees. Um services we provide are planning, design, inspection, maintenance of public infrastructure development, plan review, advanced infrastructure planning, technical assistance to residents, public engagement and education. Um key outputs for this last year are we've had 15 plan reviews, customer storm water erosion control. Those are construction document reviews. So that's going to be a different number than what planning has. planning has different types of reviews like plats and we we assist with those but those aren't our initial dive in and long-term investment basically a lot of our time doesn't go in that that's quick plat reviews a short review um we have 74 miles of roadway to maintain I'll go later on to

kind of discuss that um we have a hundred plus million dollars of in transportation initiatives programmed and you've heard many stories from James about all these dollars spent or planned to be spent. Uh efficiency development review productivity engineering uh review process averages approximately 45 staff hours per development reflecting technical complexity and compliance standards. There's no real way to measure that, but just the plan review itself, uh DeAndre doing the engineering review checklist, making sure all the construction plans have meet the engineering standards. James going through the TIA. I'll be looking at the storm water. Chris looks at erosion control. There's a great deal of engineering invest time invested into each plan that's submitted to the town for review. Um grant funding and leverage leverage state and federal grants uh to offset 100 or 50 to 100% of the project costs reducing local government burden. So James showed you that list of our investment versus the funding that we've received from for projects in the past. Uh standard modernization modernization engineering standards to improve consistency and streamline review process. So recently we've redone the engineering manual. Basically we have a approximate it's just over a nine-page checklist of every requirement that is that is necessary for a construction plan review. And with down the checklist, it's a streamlined review of what's needed to get a plan that meets the engineering standards for the town of Waxaw. Primary focus completing the roadway and inspection improvements um and updating the engineering manual and storm water design manual. So, we have recently updated the engineering manual as of January 5th or 6th. I think it's the new one is dated and we've already got

plans. We basically that's a living document and as we realize hey wait this needs to be fixed we fix it and it'll be in the next revision and storm water design manual is something we are planning on updating this year as well. Uh currently we have the 10-year design requirement. We're changing that to the 25-year design requirement in our next plan review um or next modification to the design manual. the top highlight or accomplishment engineering manual. Um and then the Prescott Gen Park and the Pineoke roundabout working with the developer to get that project done. And now we're excited that that the Pine Oak intersection will be done later this year as well. The best biggest challenge would be aligning advocacy efforts to ensure Waxaw infrastructure priorities remain at the forefront of local and regional decision-making processes. uh trends infrastructure costs increase two three costs 300 to $900,000 per mile to pave and reconstruct roadways. This is where our 74 miles of roadways comes in. Um we only receive $700,000 annually from the POW bill. Um, if we were to just use that and get two miles of resurface per year, it would take us 37 years to resurface every road in town. So, if you figure you got a road right now today just built, we would not get back to that road for 37 years. The life cycle of a road would be 20 to 30 years. So, likely that road had would be in disrepair for 15 10 to 15 years before we even got to resurfacing it. And by the time that happens, you could have alleged cracking. And if you don't understand what it is, basically the road where you see the cracks in the road are big squares. It looks like the back of an elevator. And that's where the cracks, the water gets through. And that can damage the road even further. And it's

not just a simple $300,000 fix per mile. That's the $900,000 fix per mile, possibly more because your subgrade has been destroyed because water's been seeking through it for 15 years. Um the almost done here we are focusing on connectivity intersections and balancing long-term obligations. Um planned on improved roadway safety proactive and getting those designs in our manual high quality infrastructure um meeting compliance with the long-term standards. We upgraded our roadway standards just I think a year or two ago in the in that in our that engineering manual to meet the state standards. Um and then the clean water and we're always seeking out that Chris is out daily doing erosion control inspections making sure the cons existing construction projects are on task and meeting the erosion control requirements.

Quick question. Uh you got design manuals and standards that you maintain. Is the width of the road something in your design manuals or is that in the LDC? Correct. That's in the design manuals and there's multiple risks depending on what type of roadway it would be. Okay.

Uh thank you for that. Uh when I was at the WMA meeting last night, the gentleman from Stallings uh was talking about uh new technology for roads like new polymers and whatnot. Does any of that uh play into what we're doing here in Waxaw? Like he he quoted a few different prices per mile of resurfacing roads. And you know there's various ways of doing it. Um it was anywhere from 120,000 a mile to three times that much. Um is that something we're looking at here in Waxaw? the the the various uh new technologies that come out.

So, we haven't looked into different polymers. I'm not aware of that if you James is, but uh we've we have used geogrid. So, some of the culde-sacs that have had some serious damage instead of just resurfacing with asphalt, we put a geogrid base underneath it to give it a a stronger support. Um I don't know, are you familiar with the

Yes. So, a lot of those new technologies still need to be proven to be tested. So there needs to be more research that needs to be done first because what we're seeing in a lot of these emerging technologies is is a good sales pitch and it's not really as effective as as it's portrayed. Um some things that are effective though that we are seeing are like the microacing treatments. Those are effective at a low cost um along with just your um mill and overlay is your obviously your what we do primarily but then also chip seal crack seal those sorts of methods. There is a lot of emer uh emerging technology with the polymers but those still need to be tried and tested.

Right. One of the things he mentioned and I forget the term for it was a type of resurfacing where uh after it's done it kind of looks bad for a couple of months and then they clean it up but then it lasts longer. So anyway,

well we was I don't remember what the product was. We tried it a couple years back. It basically it was it was supposed to be some type of chemical that we sprayed on our roads and made the roads look really pretty, but we didn't ident we didn't feel like having watched it for the last two or three years, we don't see that it has really done anything beneficial to our roads and we feel like we've tried the this latch project on SAS Fras. We did the chip seal and resurface and we really feel that that is going to be the best way for us. It's a it's a cheap rather than completely milling the road, providing a chip seal and then resurfacing over that is a is a more economical efficient way to resurface our roadways. Sounds good. Thanks.

So, this is the cost now to resurface, right? Um, and I know that we were pretty upset when 382 got passed, but that did not include any um changes to roadway standards and upcoming legislation I think does. So, what do you think that would I think in that swimming pool bill um they were changing they were trying to change what would be considered a state standard and and uh having municipalities lower their standards on the roads. So, that's going to cost us more money in the long run. So, um, do you guys get updates on that at all in a different way than we would from Deborah? Because by the time we get it, it's already in in process and I I just want to get ahead of something like that.

No, I'm not too familiar with that, but we basically our road design meets the state standard. So, the DO whatever the DOT standard is, that's what our standard is. And we that's I mentioned it. We had just updated ours to have the the same amount of of subgrade, same amount of binder, same amount of surface material is is exactly what DOT has on. Have you heard anything about that?

Yeah. Um I think Orion covered it right there. Um what they're referring to specifically is is this the the materials um the wid the depth of the the grade and everything all everything that goes into it. Um they're not talking about how wide the streets are or anything like that. We are allowed to have city standards when it comes to that. But just on the materials alone, um yes, we cannot exceed the uh DOT requirements on that um that's what was in the bill at least. Yeah.

Is there a difference between uh or a difference in life cycle between secondary roads and subdivision roads? because you mentioned that a life cycle on a a town road would be 20 to 30 years. Um but we have secondary roads and we have subdivision roads, right, that the town owns. Uh is there a difference in that in those life cycles?

So yes, I mean it would really the road life cycle depends on the traffic on the road. Um, so a lot of the roads, you know, the the shorter roads, I mean, the worst they're getting is one garbage truck and some FedEx trucks down there every day. Whereas a main road in a subdivision like Waxaw Parkway has three to two, three, 4,000 vehicles on it a day, you know, versus whereas another culde-sac might will have a 100 trips on it, 200 trips on it a day. The park the parkway is not going to last as long. That's a wider road and we're going to want to and it's going to be more difficult to replace because there's more vehicles on it. We're gonna have to close one lane at a time and have to work with all the the residents concerns about, hey, I still need to get up and down the road and you're resurfacing it. Whereas a culde-sac, one lane at a time, people can get in and out to their house pretty pretty easily. So, yeah. Yes, it's definitely a difference between the based on based on how much traffic is on on a road and the garbage trucks beat them up pretty bad, too. Are we prioritizing based on road condition, not just, you know, some life cycle of well times up,

correct? Yes. Road. So, we do the good road study and then they identify what our roads are, whether they're red means they're terrible or pretty bad anyway. And then yellow is they're getting bad and then green, we're in pretty good shape. I think 75 85% of our roads currently are are in good shape. We're going to be doing another uh good road study here in the next month or so. Um, and we'll we'll definitely know that. Then there's the feeling then there's the opinion of which ones do you want to fix first? You know, my feeling is is if it's almost bad, I want to fix that first because once it's bad, it's already going to cost us $900,000 to replace it. If I can prevent a road from getting bad and I'd only cost me $300,000 to do that, that saved me $600,000 three years from now before that road got bad. So, we and we only have well, as of last year, we only had a half a mile of really bad road. So at that rate, we can fairly fix that half mile. And the goal is to not get any more bad roads and just have not so bad roads and fix those at the cheap when we can do it for three $400,000 a mile.

And how often are we doing the raid gring? Is that an annual thing that we grade all the roads? Not grade as in to surface, but grade as in letter grade. So we've been doing that either for three years. Right. Every three years. Correct. Okay. And that's a townwide type of thing that we Correct. Perfect. Other questions.

In the mids south in some of the service roads which are airport service roads they Mississippi Memphis they have they're trying this polymer blend on the roads because they have heavy GSSE equipment that service it and they're trying that. Is that something is there an appetite in Waxaw to at least look at that or monitor that technology as we go forward? So I think that would go back to the state requirements and what type of layers when that we can require but we have gone to the C type concrete or asphalt instead of the B on on occasions.

Thank you facil Okay. Yeah. Dave, before we do that, why don't we take a five minute

ecology break food last night. That's awesome. economic development as far as has a skill set to do that. They certainly understand

there's already a crossover. She may It was just something

she's working very closely with right now. So they work and I work very close. I think they're cheating together. All that um those blends have aircraft 18 of concrete, but I would hope she really

meets all the department. It's a lot. I was gonna say it can't be very durable.

Exactly. I mean, it's different than regular. You never heard of that?

But they did it. You can't shut down the road. I get rooftops in California desert all day long. Knock yourself out. walkway.

They probably could have figured that out before they spent all the money. I already saw what an Eric kicked football did California wasn't good.

Let's get back uh to our seats and keep this thing going. I want I want to be able to get out of here on time. So, um because I appreciate everyone's time. So, we're going to turn it over for facilities now. Um David, you ready? Sure, why not? Alrighty. So, we're going to talk buildings now. So, my name is David. I do the facilities and buildings and maintenance, all that fun stuff. So, um I like to say that we kind of have our hands in a lot of different areas. We do maintenance. We do repair, we do, uh sustainability, uh aspects, asset protection, um operational support for the rest of the departments. Um, so we like to uh kind of get around and also like to be invisible. If you don't have to need us for anything, then we probably are doing a good job with what we do. Um, so really over the past year has been a lot of building the department uh building maintenance programs that come with it as well as going through some historical data to find out uh where we have some uh opportunities for improvement. Um, one of the biggest, most visible things that we've had the opportunity to take care of is over at our police department. Um, when we first started this conversation, it was all fluorescent lights. We got able to update to LED. So, we saw a massive reduction in not just usage, but cost. So, one of the biggest things that we're fighting against is that cost per unit aspect. Uh when you look back at the 2000 calendar year 22, anything prior to COVID is kind of useless information to a certain point. Uh but when you look back to calendar year 2022 and compare

it to calendar year 25, we saw a 9% reduction in our energy usage at the police department, but a 5% increase in cost. So that's the biggest battle that we're fighting in regards to how we're managing these facilities year over year over year is that huge swing in cost per unit. And it doesn't sound like much because we're talking on average about 1 cent per kilowatt hour on average, but you obviously adds up quite a bit over time. So, um, realistically, we're fighting that aspect of things as well as managing the health and safety aspect. So, I can maintain a system and make it as efficient as possible, but I'm going to freeze a lot of people out by doing that or I'm going to heat a lot of people out by doing that. So, we have to kind of manage that human comfort aspect of things with the asset protection aspect of it. um managing the building envelope itself, things like roofs, windows, exterior facads, all that fun stuff. Um, one of the things that kind of was a struggle for the town that I noticed as we came in was without being dedicated to certain aspects, you're kind of asking the chief to manage the HVAC system at the police department or public services to handle changing filters and checking VAV systems or you're handling um your uh IT department is handling certain aspects of things. So, all of these different departments, but we've been able to kind of pull that in together. Um, inspections wise, uh, things like our backflow uh, inspections that are statemandated. We had a couple over here that the parks department might have used one vendor, but then the backflows for the police department was handled by

a different vendor that was managed through the fire marshall. Well, now that's all kind of brought into one. Um, so we can handle how the uh a when the vendor comes out, the fact that they only have to come out one time instead of multiple times or we can get a discount for having um more assets to take care of. Uh biggest one like pest control. We had 14 different Terminex accounts spread over Terminex and Monroe and Terminex commercial. And they were refusing to combine them all to make life easy. So we said, "Okay, we're done with you. We now have one EcoAB account and they come out once a month as opposed to once a quarter is what Terminates." So, okay, you guys are being too much of a hassle. We're going to bring in someone else. um and makes it easier for us. They have one point of contact. I can work with our parks team um coordinate when they're all coming out, all that kind of fun stuff. So really really narrowing it down as to uh where we're spending our time and resources so we don't have multiple people essentially doing the same thing. Um and really and um the next one is repair aspect of things. So in-house repairs are always cheaper and faster. straight as as easy as I can say. Um there are some things that doesn't make sense from an in-house repair perspective at this point in time that as we look towards the future is something that we are going to have those conversations about. Uh for instance, right now uh HVAC refrigeration specific repair is not most effective to do in house simply because we have a lot of newer equipment. There's a lot of EPA regulations that have to go involved with that. And because the equipment is newer, it makes more sense to have a third party come in, take care of it. They can

handle the regulatory stuff. All we have to do is cut the check. As the systems start to age, it's going to make more sense to handle that stuff in house. The biggest issue that we're going to have is, yeah, we have a lot of newer systems, but they're all for the most part of refrigerant that's no longer allowed to be produced. So as we start to get into that 10 to 15 year cycle of uh say for instance the rooftop units at the police department which are 10 years old or so 11 years old or so rooftop units have a 25 to 30 year lifespan that usually can get eaked out because you can replace parts on those. The problem is is 410A. We're not allowed to produce 410A anymore. We're not allowed to build components for 410A anymore. So when we come down to that 10 15 year cycle, what does that look like? Are we looking at having to replace a unit that we might have been able to repair? So that's the stuff that we have to look at as we go down the line and look further. So really it's just a matter of looking towards sustainability and making sure that we can handle things inhouse um that we can so we have less contractors, less cost involved with that and really centralizing things. So I got to speed it up. So what questions you guys got?

So yeah, I had heard that um what you were just saying about the systems changing and not being able to then fix the system, but when did that go into place? Because the building is fairly new. So

So that regulation went into place on January 1st, 2025. That's when the drop dead date was. However, that was also pushed back. So, the original EPA regulation was effective January 1st, 2025. Uh, 410A was no longer allowed to be produced. Manufacturers, however, and then the current administration has relaxed that regulation and said that, "Oh, no, you definitely can keep doing it." Problem is, manufacturers said, "We already changed our plant. We're not going back." So even though technically speaking that it's still allowed to be made, manufacturers have made their decision. Um also the bigger issue is the 410A style of refrigerant is not the global popular choice. The newer refrigerants are. So those manufacturers don't want to make it anyway because they don't want to make two separate popular systems, one for the US and one for the rest of the world. So the issue really is that by the when the like for instance these buildings when it was designing when it was being engineered when it was all being specked 410A was a great refrigerant it was popular was ready to go by the time the buildings were completed things changed. So, it's not that we just got what was left over on the shelf. It was the requirements changed mid-process and once all the permitting and once all the planning and once all that stuff's engineered, you're kind of have a hard time going backwards. So, yes, it is a new building. Um and yes it would make it would have been great had we chose or had we had the engineers been able to choose a different refrigerant but at the same time that newer stuff is also harder to come by because it is newer. So over the past year systems that were needing to be replaced have not been able to be replaced

because they can't get the refrigerant that's needed to replace the systems. So that's kind of where you have that is it was one of those this is what's spec we have a stock available or we can wait 6 months for this stock. So it's you're where you going to go? I just want to say thank you and uh I appreciate your consciousness of efficiency and cost savings.

It's it's I like to say that we're we're very visible in that aspect of things. you know, the lighting aspect and all that kind of fun stuff. Um, so it is a very visible aspect. Um, but like I said, it's it's the toughest part is managing that cost aspect when you have usage. Uh, you you've used the PD building well to paint a picture of essentially uh where there's likely going to be future retrofit.

Um, we still have some time based off of the information you're giving us here. We're 10 years into a 20 to 25 year systems life cycle. Is there any other systems outside of the PD that in your mind says, "Hey, uh, this one also would be it needed an evaluation and an uh point to understand where we can be more efficient andor um avoid compounding cost structures in the in the future.

Yeah. So, I'm working with our parks team, Andrew, on some of the the the buildings over there that might be showing a little bit of age. Um, a lot of their structures are a little on the newer side. Um, things like um the the wreck bar in which we took over has some uh opportunities there and I know I've talked I've worked with Andrew on that. Um, structurally, which is where the big capital costs are going to come in, your structurals and your mechanicals. Um, that facility is in a relatively new position as well. Um, one of the things that I know Andrew and I have talked about is kind of consolidating all of that and bringing it all in. Uh, we have a centralized HVAC system at PD and these two buildings um that the parks buildings are not tied into. So, we talk about data management figuring out um kind of where life cycle really is. That's all part of the predictive uh maintenance aspect of things. uh being able to have uh those parks facilities that also roll into our um HVAC control system to be able to gain that information and understand where we are at. The problem is those facilities are on the smaller side. They don't don't justify a full system in and of themselves. So that's where we start coordinating with our IT partners with uh with parks to say how can we kind of make this work on a costeffective way because you don't want to spend dollars to save dimes. So um that's where we're at. But as far I guess to go back to answer your original question, uh as PD is probably the facility that I'm I have my eyes on the most simply because it is a uh slightly older and the problem is with that building it was um built and unoccupied for five or six years prior to the town purchasing it. So a lot of that envelope aspect of things was just

sitting there. Okay. that always good to get a little bit of history especially when you're dealing with mechanical systems and stuff like that because you know even though it's not hours on it's time now then there's a time effect too and if those systems aren't being even operated on a consistent basis small things go out seals gaskets it wear and tear life cycles compounds

yeah just compounds um so uh we do have a lot of newer buildings things in in a handful of our our systems and parks and you know the buildings we have a hodgepodge of of older buildings that we're also ma managing those systems and mechanicals through. Um, one of my questions then comes back to uh with that the wreck barn and the newer systems. Do we already know are we uh where we're at ma maintenance-wise in those mechanicals because those are larger mechan mechanical spaces. Those are uh smaller warehousing type units. Um that that are we in a s place where we can are they appropriately scoped to service the buildings over over the next few years or is that something that we're going to have to invest in over 5 10 years and looking at making sure that those spaces are fully wreck worthy and used. How many buildings are over there as well? Three

for the recck barn. for the rec two buildings.

Yeah. So, uh I I think to answer your question, um as far as engineered specwise go, I mean those buildings maintain uh fairly well. Um Andrew, his team, um prior to my arrival, uh have been doing the maintenance on those. Uh I've been working with Andrew as far as um more specialized maintenance regarding um the uh the actual refrigeration side of things. Um but as of right now though that equipment is still running in a at a at a good level. Um it's something that as we we look at budget years a come to come we start looking at okay well where do we want to put and plan for that um in the next 10 years or so as we're as we're looking forward as of right now there's nothing on fire that I'm I'm saying we need to take care of this right this very second or we're not going to be able to use the building because it's not going to have any heat. Um, so it it that's all a monitored aspect of things and allows us to to get a better idea. You you pretty much answered the question I had which is a concern because EPA they regulate you know refrigerants and when and there let's they just come out and do it and a lot of people like a 410A they don't want to work on it anymore even if it's current that you can't buy it you can't find it and a lot of the vendors won't even work on it they replace your units I'm replacing two from 2003 um and it's like clockwork 23 years later they're not working and the parts are coming from China and I work in a logistics company I still can't even get them on an aircraft. So, I get that part of it. A lot of folks use Service Channel and I I like the idea that you're going to one vendors being that we have multiple uh buildings that we use one vendor. Before we had multiple and the fact that using the same vendor for multiple departments is a is fiscally responsible. So, I appreciate that. Thank you.

Since we're on the subject of lights and conservation of electricity, I'm wondering what your department can do to help some of the folks that aren't as diligent about uh about turning their monitors and such off. So, I like to say that anytime you can remove the human element, you're always going to get better results. Um, Chief and I have had a conversations about some lights over at the police department that absolutely frustrate him. Um, and the last thing I want to do is frustrate the chief of police. So, we're having uh we're actually working right now on various uh uh light sensor options, but that's an older lighting control panel system. They don't make parts for it anymore. So, we're trying, okay, how can we do this or that? But, um there is I know from an IT perspective things like you mentioned monitor like computer monitors and things like that. Um you know, they can put stuff to sleep on their back end. um automate how stuff goes to sleep, which that would be a Nick Nick thing. Um but what we're doing on our side of things, again, visibly the lighting aspect is where do the where's the need? What is the timing of it? Um I know for instance like the this patio out here, the lights are on all night. Well, that's that's a design choice because it becomes a dark space when those lights are off, but we're able to dim those lights to around 50%. This way, when our police partners at night and weekend are doing their patrol rounds, they can see into that space without having to get out of their car. So, it acts as a safety measure in that regard. So, that's the balancing aspect of things. Um, but yeah, to to your original question, anything we can automate makes things a lot easier in that regard. Um, but I go back to the spending dollars to save dimes. You know, the water the water heaters for instance, I know they're running.

They're set just like your home water heater is for instance here. But the sensors to find out how often they're actually running are going to cost more than what the system's going to use in a day. So, where do you spend your time? Cool. Thank you.

Finance. Okay, I'm technically challenged. That's why. All right. So, good morning everybody. So, we are finance and finance is exactly what it says, right? We are the stewards of the money, right? We maintain the financial integrity of the town. And in reality, what does it mean? Finance being the internal an internal service provider, we are the gatekeepers. Um it is our duty to tow the line for everybody here. We monitor the spending. We make sure that we're following the laws, the statutes, the policies. Um, we do our best to educate and enlighten and inform people and give them the guidance they need to do what they need to do to get their jobs done, as well as how it pertains to finance. because everything everyone else does in some ways affects us as well. So, and we we work as a team. We work really hard to keep everybody basically safe. All right. So, we have three full-time

staff, one part-time. Um we provide services, accounting services, cash management, payroll, um audit and compliance, budget control. Um we're involved in employee benefits. Um we have our hands in everything. And what that means as well is we as a team m we do our best to maintain an inner working of what goes on in all the other departments. So we have an idea of how best to serve them. So we've noted here our outputs. Our average monthly cash flow through the general fund is $1.48 million. That's money in and out. It's, you know, it's circular. So, it's our duty to make sure that everything is coded correctly and reviewed and processed and that we maintain um good balances in the bank account so that we don't have any issues. You know, it's it's kind of a daunting challenge when you really think about how much money you're you're watching over on a on a daily basis. um we averaged out to be 6,742 invoice lines during the course of a year. So if you when you think about that, all those invoices and purchase orders and everything is seen by two to three people in the finance department. So you could multiply that number by three and that's not counting how many people in the individual departments also look at those invoices and to are balancing them and making sure they're correct. So it's

it's a total team effort. Total total team effort. Um, we also review about 5,000 credit card transactions. And I would say the credit card is great. It's very convenient for people. It's um great for smaller invoices, for purchases, for traveling. Um the sometimes it it's a challenge for us because we are also reviewing those transactions and the receipts for every single transaction more than once because somebody sees it, somebody approves it, somebody puts it into the system, somebody pulls it out of the system. So it keeps us busy. Finance is very busy all the time. So we work on our efficiencies. Um we are constantly striving as a team to improve the way we process and we um work together. Finance talks, we discuss. If we come across a challenge, we figure out the challenge together so that we all know what we're doing at the same time. So that there's no question. So that we all agree that we're doing the correct process. So for our year in review over the last year, finance did implement new um financial software system. Um we did this beginning midy year last for FY25 and um this was a a super challenge for us. We were working in two systems. The implementation of the new system was more than a challenge. It was grueling. Um the team begged me not to move forward with it once we got into it. Um but we persevered because we spent money

and we weren't going to give that up just to stay with an old antiquated system and we worked through it and it is it's still a challenge but it's much more efficient. It gives all of the departments um a better visibility, better access to what they want to see, what they need to see on a regular basis. And it improves our process function where um it's easier for them, the department heads, to go in and approve purchase orders or invoices that they know that they want to have paid without us having to track them down and shoving paper in front of them. So, it's been a really great really great thing. Um, our um we're working on budget preparation and audit. Those are two things that are always constant in finance. Um, there is no downtime in finance. So, we go from one to the other, budget to audit to budget to audit and it's just a vicious cycle. Um so the some of the biggest challenges for us is the um legislative updates. LGC um constantly making changes to their to their to their rules and their guidelines and some things um present challenges for us where we have to figure out what is the best way to accomplish what they want us to do to follow their guidelines and our community pressure. It's as our since I've been with the town the trans number of transactions that we see on a regular basis has increased tremendously. I mean as the town grows there's there's more spending. There's

more employees. There's more just more things to look at. There's more issues. And so it's our we are constantly working to improve our efficiencies to to improve our process to make sure that everything is just we're doing the best job that we can. But we still need to work harder to find time for education in finance because it's difficult if one person is out or down for two or three days then it's difficult to pick up the slack because we run a very tight lean ship. So but how we've improved so with our with our um am I good on time? All right. your thought.

All right. So, just we've improved so much with the new system and the the the processes that we do where we it used to take us until the middle of the month to be able to process all of the month end entries and create financial dashboard. We're now able to do it within um three to four days at the at the end of the month. And that I think that is significant to how far we've come. So, thank you.

Thank you for that. And uh I really appreciate what you said about um pushing to go forward with the new software because I understand how difficult it can be for people to change when they're used to using something and then to go to something new. And I'm sure you as the the department head were instrumental in pushing to continue with that. So, I really appreciate that.

Thank you. Um my background is IT and so uh I think finance you know can really tie in a lot with that. Um you know I really believe we need to make the computers work for us not the other way around you know um we we shouldn't be uh spending hours and hours doing manual uh trudging through spreadsheets. You know all these things really need to be automated as much as possible. And you know with your increased uh volume of transactions and things like that, it shouldn't necessarily present a human burden if we have the right queries in place, you know, and uh reports set up and alerts set up. Um so uh yeah, I I'm I'm guessing you guys do some collaboration with it on some of these things.

We do.

Yeah. there. It is always there to support us and um they um they um at the beginning of this fiscal year at the end of the last fiscal year we upgraded the laser fish software um which um gives greater visibility for the storage of all the information and it helps us we can put so much data out there and so much backup and it it's you know It's literally it's we can just scan it and drop it in and attach it and it makes it especially at audit time this makes it so much easier for us because the auditors come in and they ask for hundreds and I mean hundreds of transactions to to review and all we need to do is look for the transaction number or a dollar amount and pull that out and present present that to the auditor and we couldn't do that if they weren't there to support it for us. So great. Kudos to Nick and his team.

I'll just echo Commissioner Daunt's praise of sticking with the new software. I remember when the board approved that expense. So I definitely I'll just echo the appreciation. Thank you for sticking with that software and suffering through those growing pains. Um, and I'm also heartened to know that it is helping and it's making things more efficient and more productive for your team. So, that's good news. Thank you. Thank you. Be good. Thanks.

Thank you. Good afternoon, good morning. Uh uh I've enjoyed yesterday uh getting to connect with you in the small group. So I appreciated that. That was really good. Um today I'm talking about the human resources department. We are a staff of two here. Um, so it's myself and our uh HR assistant, Gabriella Jer. Uh, we're currently supporting uh 111 employees and that's 98 full-time and 13 part-time. Um, what we do, we're we're mostly internal. Um, but we also have our external uh facets as well. So, what we do, we ensure the town attracts uh, supports, retains uh, the a qualified workforce and of course maintaining compliance um, with laws and policies at the same time. So, I like to think of it as um the life cycle of an employee. We're we're connecting with them before they walk in our doors. Everything in between until the end of that life cycle of an employee. Um mandated services. So, of course, we have law and policy compliance, wage compliance, um FMLA administration, workers compensation, but then we also have the non-m non-mandated services. So, that's those compensation studies, employee engagement and culture. And I would like to highlight here that even those are even though those are non-mandated, those are very important because that's what helps retra attract and retain um the top talent and keep them here. Um just a couple highlights from outputs. Um so because benefits and salaries fall under HR's perview, uh 12.2 million um of our operating cost, our general fund is for salaries and benefits. So um normal that's about half of the general

fund. And while that is pretty normal, it is I want to highlight that because that is such a large part of our cost. Um, couple stats. Uh, in January, since January of 2025, we actually saw a big uptick in applications. Um, which kind of speaks to the larger climate um, out there in the job uh, market. Um, we saw about a couple thousand applications come in for our various positions that we posted. And we interviewed around 150 candidates. So that was a lot of time um and attention given to the hiring teams on that part. We brought in about 24 uh new hires and got them onboarded. Um efficiency. So this is kind of how we do it. So one thing I want to highlight here and then I'll come back to the top two. The speedy hiring process. We have reduced the time that it takes to fill from the time they apply until until the time they actually get hired. We have reduced that time to fill. Um, and we always want to make sure that we are reaching out to every candidate that we've interviewed. This kind of goes back to that customer service and that we're kind of a a brand ambassador for the town on that part. That we are communicating with those applicants that we're making those connections um and that even though if they didn't get the job this time that they're interested in coming back um for any future positions that may they may be interested in. So, we think that's really important. I'll come back to the uh other two in that efficiency part year in review. So um one of the areas that we focused on um if you remember from last budget cycle is we had done a a salary compensation study in 2023 to be implemented in the 2425 budget. But we then identified from that um a firm did that part for us. But then we identified last budget cycle that we'd like to implement some um adjustments to areas where we were uh lagging behind in and compared to the market in some of those positions as

well as some compression issues. So we did um work to uh look at other entities um especially the league salary survey and our greatest competition in the area to look at where are we in comparison to them. uh and so we made those adjustments and implemented those in. Of course, it's always an ongoing process. Things can change in the market so quickly uh in salaries. Um so it's it's a it's a constant um monitoring of that. And then something we're currently going through is one of our um top priorities in the year was looking at personnel policy updates because some of ours have not been updated in quite some time. And so we want to make sure we're maintaining best practice, following proper procedures, and making sure there's things in there that need to be in there at, you know, um, as required by law. So, we are currently going through that process actually with Central um, and they've been great. We've worked with department heads to get their feedback and and they're they're in the draft mode right now and we are estimated to have that back um in the April time frame and that will actually uh come before you um to adopt that personnel policy once we get everything revised and updated. Um some major revisions, some things are just um uh changing some language, some verbiage, so it's not just a huge overhaul um thankfully. But so there's some places in there that we have had missing information that we should have in there. So, that's being addressed. Uh, top highlight, we did help with the town manager recruitment process that took that was a almost year-long process, as you remember. Um, it took a couple firms um involved, but we worked with Central with that as well, and we helped coordinate that process. Um, uh, and and got in place. uh biggest challenge always. So we did have a lot of leadership turnover uh in the last uh year year and a half and that always causes some disruption and momentum. You know you you lose that leadership you're having to hire out get them onboarded

get them situated and they're have you're kind of starting starting back over and figuring out that path forward. Um so just you know that created a lot of organizational uncertainty um requiring some you know change management workforce stabilization in that process. So that was absolutely one of the biggest challenges and what we're seeing you know across the nation is really those rising health care costs that's hitting everybody right. So health care very expensive um from claims and those claims increase because of the cost of those services in that in the healthcare. So that's always a a huge pressure. Um, and then I'll come back to that on what we're looking at for our uh our benefits coming up uh in our new plan year. And then as always, staying competitive uh in salary and benefits is is always a challenge as well because things do change so quickly. Um I want to turn our attention to uh some trends and pressures. So you know how I talked about that speedy hiring process. Well, there's something from the state that any position that require that works with children frequently, you have to go go an extra step in that background check and do fingerprinting. That has to go be sent to the North Carolina SBI. And that process can take a while um for us so far. So, this is mostly our parks and recck positions um that we're talking about for us specifically. That timeline has extended the process by about a month which you risk losing candidates that way. However, everybody in the state is is dealing with that. So, if they're looking for something specific to local government is it's going to be the case across the board in the state. Um, but you could lose them to the private sector. Um, but that's just something that's mandated. That's not something we really can control. So we are following that process but it is extending our timeline to hire for those positions specifically. And then uh the statemandated local retirement contribution increases. So this is something that's mandated as

well. The state puts these number percentages down um and we incorporate it into our budget. Um this year wasn't as is not going to be as big of an increase but we've we've seen seen big increases before. Uh that's 15.10% for the general employees and about 17.10% for law enforcement. So we incorporate that into um budget for those items. And then back to that industry trend I talked about the rising healthc care cost. We are seeing for our new plan year about an 8% increase for our medical um coverage. Um dental we're seeing a little bit of an increase. Visions about staying steady. And then life and disability, we've got a decrease there, too. So, um, little bit of balancing there. Um, but you know, as I mentioned, everywhere is seeing those rising health care costs. So, that's just not something that's to us specifically, but everyone. Um, outcomes, why it matters. So, we are, you know, a very reputable employer. Um, we've got strong candidate experience. Um, and back to that brand ambassador that we were talking about, um, for future recruitment efforts, uh, competitive salary and benefits. I think, you know, we are competitive in our salary and benefits. We're constantly monitoring that, um, across the the state and specifically our closest competition in the area. Um, but it it is a very much a constant monitoring because it does change so quickly. And then one thing I do want to highlight which I I think is really a positive is we did see an uptick in our internship uh interest um in the last year. So I think that that speaks volumes as well um having people reach out and wanting to come here and learn. Um and so I think I think that we've structured their our internship program a little bit more. So I think that's really good and I think they're having really good experiences with staff here. Um and a couple things I want to highlight uh on back under the efficiency is um what we're going to be strategizing going forward is the

innovate innovation and cost optimization. So that's that efficiency program um that you've you've talked about. Um and I think there's definitely ways to look at where we can save cost and and staff does they look at cost constantly trying to strategize and be creative where they can. Um but just really honing in on that. Um and then anywhere we can improve processes or efficiencies um that leads to more capacity on staff's side if we can identify those. Um and then looking at specifically our uh performance-based compensation. So strategizing where we go with that just to make sure our merit application uh allocation actually you know combines employee performance budget and organizational priorities. So we're looking at all those things to make sure um we've got ourselves in a good position within the budget. Um and then I know we've we looked at organization capacity and workforce sustainability as one of the top priorities um tier one issues. So, um, you know, I think a lot of the these items speak to that. It is just a matter of strategizing, um, and positioning ourselves the best that we can, um, going forward.

On a health care cost, is there some predictability now from on in that trend year to year and what the percentage increases are going to be? So there's not you kind of you can you know going into it just kind of the trends kind of across the nation. There's some predictability to it but every year we're looking at a fluctuation in cost which is from some of the frustration right like it's not stabilized. We don't we don't know that each year hey I know it's going to go up 2% 4% etc. So that is one of the challenges in that because it's not stabilized. Um, now there are some options we can look at, but you got to look at the trade-offs of course, but there are some options out there that we that that is a little bit more stabilized. Um, specifically looking at like insurance pools. Um, again, there's some trade-offs to that as well. Um, so we just have to have to look at those.

Do we pool our health insurance and benefits with other municipalities? We do not currently. Uh, currently we use a a a standalone insurance broker. I know some of the pools have collapsed. Um, and that's what I'm talking about in the trade-offs of that is that's the risk. Um, the league insurance pool collapsed and that left everyone scrambling that was in that pool to find coverage. Um, so that's one of the things that I I don't want to get ourselves in that position where we're all of a sudden without coverage and scrambling. And is a state pool or there state programs to pool as well or

there are a couple programs out there. Um I've I've looked at at information and webinars um trying to weigh the risk of it versus um the the pros. Um but there are some options out there that I think they'll we'll explore of course to see is it is it worth the the risk how what's the risk and if we can stabilize our cost a little bit more um we'll absolutely explore it. Uh the other question I had too uh was regarding interns. Do we have a sense of right sizing our quantity of interns? How many do we want and then how long are we keeping them?

So uh we we've structured our internship program just a little bit um to where a lot of the departments are incorporate trying to incorporate within their budget uh room for internships. Right. Um, now when we don't necessarily post that, hey, we have an internship available. Now, that's something we can certainly explore doing is that that we actually post that out like we would a job. Um, and some places do that, but really they're they've been reaching out to us, the interns. Um, and some are high school and some are college. Um, some are paid, some are unpaid. Um, and it just depends on what the requirements are for their schooling. Um, but I think it we've we've tried to structure it a bit more in that regard. Thank you for staying on the efficiency program. Um, you know, the

it's it's a positive thing. It's not to say that people aren't already conscious of efficiency. I can see that they are. Uh, but, you know, a material reward is was going to be a motivating factor and I think that we all benefit when we support each individual in that way.

Agreed. Agreed. And I I think you know when we're looking at the organizational capacity, if we can identify some areas where we can make a process easier, that lightens someone's load just a little bit and then all of a sudden we've got capacity increase, right? So um so if we can really hone in on that and strategize, I think we can improve on that. And just to touch base on the internship program, um there are schools that specialize in business and engineering and I know that you know personally my son had a hard time finding internships for well he was in athletic training so

we couldn't help him out here but um UNC Charlotte's nearby Windgate's nearby uh would it be worthwhile to get in touch with advising and put that out there because a lot of times they need it as a graduation requirement and so there is no it's usually a non-paid in in that respect and quite frankly they're not going to learn any you know what they're going to learn here more than they will at school it's practical knowledge here

so maybe that would be helpful yes we are in especially in the high school we are in in contact with um the adviserss on that so that they to contact us and like, hey, we've got some students interested in this. Do you have anything available? And then we start reaching out to our departments. Do you have capacity for an intern? Um, and so I think that can really take off and especially yes, on the college side getting getting in touch with the with the adviserss. Um, we have been at sometimes you'll find it at job fairs. You'll find the adviserss there too to be able to place their students in internships um and and shadowing experiences. So, we've connected in that way. That's some some ways we've kind of haven't done before with the job fairs, but we've started doing that. Um, attending those and that's I think increased some um interest as well.

Thanks. Thank you. And out from behind the screen comes Yeah, I was going to say from behind the curtain. Here he comes.

The exciting one.

It'll be exciting for you. Okay. Uh I'm going to try to be brief because I know that you got the uh the powerhouse peas coming up. Police, parks and wreck, and public service. And they're going to take all the time. Yeah. Uh so uh I challenged myself to be around 45 seconds, but obviously we'll go as long as you need. Um

yeah. Uh so it everybody pretty much knows what we do. Uh just a couple highlights to uh um give you some ideas. We've got 700 tickets that we process every year. Uh help desk tickets. Now, that's not a real number because as we all know, as people walk or as IT staff walk down the hall, somebody may uh especially the police may say, "Hey, Matt, could you come in my office? I got a printer issue." And, you know, we'll do a couple other uh uh fixes uh of that nature. And not every ticket gets recorded. That's just the nature of uh the business. Uh I think we're all aware of that. Uh so, this number probably is a little undervalued. Uh devices around 200 devices. M said we've got what about 110 111 employees. So obviously we service all those uh they have laptops, desktops, some have cell phones, things of that nature. So uh even though there's uh you know an individual, they don't just have one item. They may have two, three, four, you know, and and so on. Uh security cameras. So camera right there, Wi-Fi right there. Uh we've got, and you may not know this, 95 different security cameras throughout all of our buildings. Uh and some on Main Street. One of the topics that we can talk about down the road is Main Street right now has um one or two cameras on East North Maine. Hopefully in the future we might have some in other areas. Uh I'm sure that the police would uh like to have that for uh video surveillance and other nature uh other things. Um so it's something that to think about. We would have to put in some infrastructure to support that. I don't want to get too deep into the weeds here, but I want to just put that bug in the back of your uh mind so you can think about that down

the road. Uh wireless access points. Uh we also supply free Wi-Fi for the town. Uh and uh the IT team made a decision since we've got all this fiber in the ground, why don't we split the fiber up and put the Wi-Fi on its own fiber? So if somebody hacks our our network, the the Wi-Fi, they're only getting everything that's on the Wi-Fi. They're not getting access to any of our servers, any of our desktops, any of our infrastructure whatsoever that makes the internal town work. they just get the Wi-Fi and they can have it. So, um, we've, uh, put that into place. So, technically, uh, your IT team, which is three individuals, we run two networks side by side, one on top of the other, completely isolated. Uh, we service 14 facilities. It's actually 13 facilities, but we count uh, Main Street as a facility. It's a area. Uh, so we got three different firewalls and that's for the most part all of our um big bullet points. Uh, couple other small things. You may not know it. We had at one time a camera on uh the water tank that would require a little effort to get back up and running. It got hit by lightning. So that's been down for about a year or two. Uh not too many people have said much, but the people that did know about it loved it and uh a lot of us used it at times. It was nice to see the weather and all that other stuff and some traffic jams and some, you know, cars that got hit by trains and whatever else. Uh it had a neat point of view, right, from you know, a bird's eye view. So

yeah, exactly. Yeah. So just something to think about for again, you know, the future. Um, and then also the lights on the water tank. Um, I don't know if any of you knew about that. That's we've had that for a while and then again lightning hit that. Um, so those have been off for a while now. The town knows about it and they ask me all the time, hey, can you turn the water tank blue for police week and stuff fortunately and you know until we um find some funds and allocate time and effort to that, it's it's going to be down for a bit. Not going to cost a lot. But again, I don't want to take up time now. we can talk uh after hours and stuff to see if there's something that you want to do. Um I wanted to put a lot more on there at one time, but then I heard some elderly folks in the area say that we don't want to turn the water tank into uh what do they call it? Las Vegas or something like that. So we don't want to make it goddy, but you know, useful, pretty uh attractive. It's u you know, nice selling feature.

Careful with the tank. It's precious. Yep. Yep. Uh so for the most part, that's it. Three guys, pretty lean. Uh, we support everything. Uh, any questions? Okay. Sounds like you need a carbon copy ticket book for your drive by IT services. Well, you know, I had a joke that I was kind of uh holding back. It's funny because most of our tickets that don't get written are by the police officers who should be very good at writing tickets, but Am I going to get pulled over on the way home tonight? Maybe they got a carpal tunnel.

You do have to get They got a little riding carpal tunnel. Yeah, it's all computerized. That's true. Uh thank you to our our staff of three and the IT services support. Um I know for my business I don't enjoy wearing that hat, but my father has bestowed that IT hat upon me. And let's put it this way, I enjoy asking questions, but at a certain point the answer is over my head sometimes when it comes to the IT side, but I know that it's a labor of love at times, too.

And we running two systems essentially for our PD and then our our town facilities. So, thank you. Yeah, I know you our IT services is sounds like they're always available and it sounds like they're always busy.

Yeah. Uh there was one thing I didn't touch on and uh I don't want to get too deep in that. Um our year in review uh actually included unfortunately uh the ransomware event that uh some of you may have heard of. Um we fared in my opinion uh quite well in that and the reason being is because of a word I learned 40 years ago in college distributed computing. And that's where you have for instance finance in the cloud. you have um our document management which Rosie mentioned earlier called laserfish that's also in the cloud. Um he had certain things here and there so if a bad actor did get in they saw bits and pieces there's no way they could put their hand around everything and really hold us down. So um we we lucked out in that. Uh and then we uh we actually got up to running again within two weeks. So, um, and that was a decision to rebuild everything, not just let's fix what they got. Wipe the slate clean, rebuilt everything back up somewhat accessible within two weeks from re rebuilding everything. So, um, that was I'd like to say fun, but my wife tells me that I'm not supposed to say that here. So, it's it was a big chore. It was very hard to do. Uh, but we we got it done. So, meanwhile, I was smiling the whole time. Uh

yeah, I wanted to ask about that. Um are we closed out on that cyber incident? And for the most part, yeah, uh there's a couple small things that are so small. Um

I can't even think of them right now. I'm going to have to sit down and kind of jot out what little part of something because we've also added a lot since then. Um well, the learning center for one, uh ran the network in the south side of the tracks. um got all that up. New firewall. Uh well, all the firewalls, we had three firewalls. All three of them were replaced because it was discovered that that actually was our vulnerability. Um which coincidentally was um requested from the North Carolina League of Government Information Systems. They said, "Use this firewall." Okay, we'll buy two, three, whatever we need to to cover our ends. And that was the open door. Unfortunately, that was the root cause. and and that

well that was the door that they came in on. They found a vulnerability with that system um that apparently uh everybody knew except for us. Um the uh well when I say that the FBI knew um the National Guard knew and all the top levels knew. So they were kind of waiting to see all right who's going to get hit next and you know we were the one of the ones. Um and then when they came in and said, "Oh yeah, we've known about that vulnerability for a little while." Um we'd recommend that you get rid of that brand of firewall and and get something new. And so that was Saturday. Sunday night, new ones were already on their way over here. So

So uh with the involvement and help from the state, uh we more plugged into the vulnerabilities now, awareness of the vulnerabilities. It it's not like we've got an avenue to check all the vulnerabilities and see if we have I mean just popularly reported vulnerabilities, you know, well-known vulnerabilities. Um are we plugged into those now so that we're proactively aware of them?

Not necessarily. It's not something that they would publish because for instance we had u forinet is our brand of firewall. If you all of a sudden have the national guard or the FBI say hey by the way we know of this vulnerability with this particular brand you know they run the risk of shutting that brand down and out of business. So I don't know if they published to the extent that we would have benefited from um well vendors usually point finger saying that those that's the bad one don't buy that one buy all these over here. So

vendors really have a responsibility to let their customers know about vulnerabilities and but there are also general vulnerabilities that get published and are applicable to a swath of different vendors and uh so I'm just hoping that we're uh we have increased awareness or more plug more well plugged into that uh than we were before the incident. uh there hasn't been any additional avenues that we were able to find to go after. For us, it's all patching. As soon as a patch is available that a vendor that we have their product has a known vulnerability on their system that we own, we get that patch immediately and then we deploy it. So, we're relying on them knowing what their own vulnerabilities are, getting their patches as soon as they come out and keep things updated. That's the best we can do.

Yeah. And it's a balancing act because sometimes patches can break things and then they uh turn around and have a new patch for the patch. So, um yeah, it's a judgment call. You don't want to necessarily install every

update that comes out, but to prioritize based on security. Yeah. And buzz words that you may know, we're not large enough to have a separate sandbox to test everything first before we deploy it. All we can do is deploy it and if it doesn't work, roll back. So, we always have that roll back, you know, part to it. But that's about the best we could do. There's no way my budget, our budget, um, would allow us to buy a whole third network with switches, firewalls, servers just to test. there. It's just not feasible. So, okay.

Thank you. Good morning.

Time limits. Uh, so your I'm your park and rec director, Dina Spinsky. I am here to uh do a an overview of your worksheet, but I'm going to go off a little script um to kind of give you the evens and flows of park and wreck. Um behind the why. Uh data confirms our residents see the us as essential. this first um half quarter, that's the last six months, we've recorded over 115,000 visitors, and that's mainly at Nesbbit in downtown Park. In that six months, we've had 91% participants of Waxaw residents that see us as their service provider that they are weaving themselves into the fabric of their of their everyday lives, which is awesome. a few challenges that we're seeing. The the rapid growth. Wagsaw experiences growing pains, but many successful towns do. Parks and wreck is trying to strive to balance between the knowledge of that popularity and al and honest about the logistics strain on that property popularity creates. We also are looking at um how to do smart infrastructure, not just nice to have. We look at our parks, our facilities, our greenways, and look at the town's value and how to extend that. Another challenge, cost pressures. The park and rec department is committed to physical responsibility. The department offsets

some of those through these strategic resource managements leveraging our volunteers like another department. We also have over 1,400 volunteers hours um in the last six months and that is just the first um quarter. That equals up to a little less than 50 $50,000 in direct costs. That helps out with the bottom line. Also, capital high market demand of 325 facility rentals. That's over $22,000 of income that's coming back in to the pipeline. This also is related to our customer service with Miss Amy, with the downtown park, with Miss Robin facilitating all those rentals and then with our new software helping that the streamline which is awesome work efficiency. We have a fourperson travel team there. They manage over 40, excuse me, 74 acres of land. That's 4,000 labor hours that help keep our facilities at the highest um preserved and then also helps with that offset the cost. Running a high traffic, high impact operation factors in to what we do for the park and wreck. accomplishments through this road map. We have um updated the park master plan. We have also um which I use on a daily basis, take it to all of the meetings. The friends of the

Wagsaw parks and trails got accomplished this year and that is going to help leverage some of that outside investments which we're super excited about. Then also a milestone is the Waxel Learning Center is going to come online um this spring. Focusing innovative on our connectivity are we're about to break ground on working on the trail connectivity for Millbridge to Town Creek which is completely awesome. And that helps out my engineering folks on keeping um our citizens out of their cars and actually walking to their destinations, which is going to be a great benefit um for our citizens. Also the learning center is going to hu bring a a gap between repurposing the old library for technology needs, health and wellness and then also ensuring that um is a safe space for our our next level population needs outcomes. the park and record is responsible um just feedback from the last six months of enriching our citizens lives. One is our shuttles bringing our citizens into the downtown. We um had over 2,000 uh citizens able to use in the last six months so they're not frustrated and congestion of the parking in our downtown for events. citizens. I don't know why I'm so nervous with y'all this morning. I don't know why I don't like reading off a paper.

That's I don't like them. I don't like it.

Oh, you let everybody else go past our seniors and youth. We have given them dedicated spaces which that is part of our makeup of making Waxaw Waxaw stabilizing as y'all heard on Tuesday night and I did not give him a plug to say that just to give you a heads up um is the stabilizing the value um for our homes but also tangible community belonging third place I always get when I'm talking to citizens. This is my hometown. They feel like home here. That is that's the community glue that we're we're bringing together. We're not just building parks. We're weaving that unique texture that is the fabric of our community of Waxaw. So careful a careful balance high tier resident appreciation long-term infrastructure that we're we're having here for Waxon. With all that said, there's a lot of information on your sheets, but I wanted to get some feedback from y'all on questions, of course, but what is your favorite spaces? What do you when you think about Waxaw, what do y'all feel and how do you see the residents using our facilities?

I thought this was just free association time. So, the first thing that popped in my head was the D the new downtown park. And when I when I go down there and see uh young families using it, toddlers on the playground and the little kids getting uh their feet wet and their parents are like, "Oh my gosh, my kids clothes are all soaked cuz they're in the little stream. It's wonderful." And um going down there in the summer, it gets used a lot in the winter. Um, obviously I saw some people down there the other day when I was down there, but um, uh, not not so much, but also we need our the facilities have time to recover all the grass and all that stuff. But, um, and all the upkeep, the maintenance, everybody's working very diligently in the parks and reccks team, uh, when when I'm down there and and they're just working away. So, it's great to see. Uh, but I I think that's probably my favorite. And I think it's also somewhat of a obviously there's work in progress because there are a couple more a not awnings, but coverings that we still need,

the shades, all that stuff. Uh but there there may be a um more trendy use of space uh in some of those open areas too that we might look at at um rounding out. But yeah, the downtown park's great. Uh, but one one question I had about the program participation. Mhm.

You said it increased 77% year-over-year. Is that and and without pro proportion proportional staffing increases, which is wonderful. It's great use of uh space and employees. That that program, how is that measured? Like what does that entail? So our like our day-to-day programming, is that what you're asking or Well, you you have it in participation growth in efficiency. So what just what does that entail that um what are you measuring out of what programs?

So we're pro we're measuring the amount of participation in the program. So from if it come from last year, how many more people are coming to the program? I understand that programs in general, I mean not in general specifically. Yeah, thank you. Specific programs, what does what are you capturing there? What specific programs? The educate me educate me. So is is the programs that we have at um example specific examples and what goes into that? Um figure senior coffee

the 11 o'clock to what is it? Your 11 o'clock tots hour at at the at the recck barn. So yes, so for example, we have um a very uh high attended senior fitness that Miss Julie teaches. They love it. Um that is in barn B, the back building. Uh we've grew it from like five participants. I think they have over 30 now. Um

that there we go. Okay. Um then we also uh our inclusion classes which is new to us that we had maybe one or two families now we're up to closer to 10 to 15 families. Um so that's how we're measuring that growth. Sorry it took me a second. Sorry I was like I don't know why. Like I talk to y'all all the time. Uh where are we with the utilization of the wreck barn? Uh the utilization rate of the wreck barn. How how fully booked is that throughout the week? And and I certainly understand there's times of days and stuff. And if it's not fully booked and fully used, what are the impediments to getting it fully booked and fully used?

Thursday night, it's being used a lot by those boys in baseball practice. It was incredible all the the amount of activity down there last night.

That's awesome. Um the so right now we have long-term rentals and then short-term rentals and then we have open play. So the long-term rentals are Monday through Thursday. We do have one opening coming up. Um one of our long-term rentals are finishing up in March. So we'll have that open, but that is Monday through Thursday nightly. Those are rented out. Then we have open uh space or open time for the facilities as well because we want to make sure that everybody gets to play. Um so that's a big part of it. And then during the day we have staff there um that has some open play with it. But then a lot of our programs are happening during that time. Uh but we have a lot of homeschoolers that come in too and then seniors that come in as well. So, it's a balancing act between the constant community request, but majority of the time it's already being rented or a program in it. And so, we're just trying to figure that balance out.

Do we have a sense kind of what I'm thinking of is like if you made an Excel spreadsheet of all the hours in a day

and say this is how much is available, this is how much is occupied. Do we have a sense of the percentage of usage and occupancy of those spaces? In other words, for all the hours that it's available, is it available? Is it occupied and in use 50% of the time, 75% of the time? Are we monitoring that in a way that helps ensure we're getting maximum efficiency out of that space? And then also and and and again this is where this question can help you as well is in determining what is needed. So in other words, if you have that data then it allows you to say I'm fully booked. I got nothing for nobody. Um so it might help you answer that question as well. I know we looked at the especially the night rentals um that were at capacity for those except for that new opening that's about to come up. The I definitely think we can be more strategic about in the day. Yeah, I just I know you probably can't put a precise percentage on it, but you know, like Robert was saying, uh, the mayor was saying, uh, if you were to just say what's the overall usage, you know, compared compare all the unused time with the used time, you know, could you give a ballpark of, you know, how of the utilization of the wreckbone? So we can definitely get more information and bring that back to you because I I don't want to just throw out a number and not be precise because you're def my my engineering brains are they need to be precise.

Yeah. And you know the revenue the gap between the revenue that the rec bar brings in and the cost of running it. Um could that be closed with uh perhaps a different fee structure? Um, I mean, I think it's just a way of getting a signal from the public of what's needed, you know, if um if it's not being used a lot or um I mean, it's a public good, right? So, we're not there to make a profit, but if you could imagine a private business operating it, they would have the cost of property taxes or a mortgage or something like that. But we don't have that. We don't have to pay tax to ourselves, right? And so, um, with that great benefit of not having that cost, um, could we look to at least run it so that it's not a big cost or, um, maybe even cost recovery,

you know? Yeah.

No, we actually started looking at that too about our program cost and rental costs. We did do a like a survey with other municipalities to kind of see where that rental is. And then we've just got a new private entity in town to see what that kind of or we where we compare. Um the we have a very low non-resident fee right now. That's something that we're looking at as another cost recovery. Um because we are really heavily with our residents participating in our programs which is super awesome. Um but we also know that Waxall has some donnut holes and then we are supporting regionally for programs and events um because we're so popular.

Right. So with having that fee structure of resident versus non-resident um what's the breakdown there of you know is it a large percentage of nonresidents? So with our new software, we're actually getting a better data on that. Um it just started implementing in the beginning of January. So we've actually had to tell some because they have the zip code, they get up they get confused um that we you're actually not, you know, in the municipality of of Waxaw. So now you have we gave you grace this f first time but then you have to start paying the non-resident rate but our non-resident rate is very minimum and that's something that we were looking at to increase to help with that cost recovery.

Yeah, I know it's hard because Waxaw kind of looks like an ink block on the map, doesn't it? they don't they don't quite understand because even y'all know we have donnut holes inside and um we're very community-minded. Uh but we're also trying to bring back funding to help out with that cost recovery. So we're very mindful of it. I just had a question about your um I know you're working more with adults with disability and kids with disabilities. Are you consulting with anyone on types of activities and and the parents probably have to be present correct because of their levels.

Um I was just curious how you're um getting that information and getting those ideas because it is a there is a gap here for that. Um you know we have a cousin who is an adult a on autistic and so there are very few activities. So, I'm just curious how you're are you working with the autism the ABA facility that um

So, we're actually working with lots of different um community uh involvements on that, but we just did a training with staff on how um to combat of when you see a person that has you don't know who are you coming up to, right? and then and making sure that we are being mindful but also respectful and learning some tools to be able to facilitate a situation. Um, our instructors are certified just like a fitness instructor would be certified, but we're also parents are they're they're participating in the class. um that is that's a twoperson programmer in the room as well because the ratio needs to be a little bit different. But again, there isn't this one's closer to my heart as well. So there isn't services or activities for our cognitive disabilities in our area. And I'm just so grateful that we're able to to provide especially with the small trailer as well.

Yes, that's super awesome. And we're the first in North Carolina. Just saying. We're leaders. Any other questions? Thank you.

Okay. We on. Okay. Um, I want to start by giving a quick shout out to customer service. Um, we talked about coordination earlier and um, planning is often an ambiguous term. Uh, a lot of residents do not know what it is. I am used to getting anywhere from probably 35 to 40% of calls that are really not related to my department. Um, they are very good at what we do. It's probably less than 5 to 10% here. Um, it helps us be more efficient and get a lot more done. So um that is appreciated on our end. Um what is planning? Um we are a sixperson team that are both internal and external in our functions. Um we offer long range planning and uh for for anyone wanting to uh build a new u home, add an addition, a new business, want to develop their land, we're the first stop for that in most cases. um does it meet our goals that we have in our long range plans um and the tools we have to implement it in zoning and subdivision ordinance etc. Um we provide several internal services as well including GIS mapping um and assistance in planning um and coordinating projects with other town staff. Um and we also provide code enforcement uh once it's built keeping it maintained. Um that's so we're involved in that as well. Um some of our quick outputs, 478 zoning permits issued last year. That is up 34%. Uh 37 plan reviews completed. Um that is also up significantly from two or three years ago as well. Um over 200% in fact. Um 13 ordinance adoption cases as well, annexations, resonings primarily. Um some conditional uh zonings. Um the uh as we saw in the inspection side of things, um we're overall down on homes,

but we are up on what is planned. So we are kind of in a transition zone right now. Um if you guys remember that chart that I showed going back to the 60s or 70s, we're kind of in a third era, so to speak, of um of development here in the town. So that's that's getting started. Um let's see. Um six resoning cases in 2025. Um I think that's a good indicator. of that for the most part our zoning ordinances are well calibrated to the needs of the residents in this town. Um six for a town with as much development as we have is not really that much. Um we we do have a uh we do have a uh relatively quick review uh turnaround review time. uh code compliance health also um I can tell you compared to a lot of other towns um you may see a few h few houses a few properties here that um you're not real happy with but by and large um the housing stock and the commercial structure stock in general is in very good condition we do have one or two of those um we have cases on right now um and we may be coming to you to ask for some funding to help on one of those at some point um let's the some top uh accomplishments um big this year at least for me uh coming in um was trying to uh integrate planning, engineering and inspections into a more cohesive development services team. Um staff was already um doing a wonderful job of that. Um we just tried to kind of push it along a little bit further as well. um biggest challenge balancing strong development demand with changing public expectations and market conditions and uh preparing for significant code updates next year as well. We will be bringing in some changes that we've noticed over the past six months or so trying to bring those through um in some batches for you guys to consider uh making changes to. Um big part of that is trying to stay in compliance with

state law as well. Always tricky. Um let's see some of the trends and pressures. uh the state law which you're all well aware of the industry trend uh construction market conditions and involving state legislation um they can reduce local flexibility in shaping development outcomes. Um and then that community pressure um simultaneous inward growth demand and outward resistance to change creates heightened scrutiny on development decisions. Um and that's in full effect at many of our meetings as you guys are all well aware. Um outcomes why it matters. um transparency and coordination. Um improved permit tracking, enhances transparency um and the plan re from plan review through final inspection. Vision for downtown um that there is a a a strong vision for downtown moving forward. um from the um the downtown master plan that uh staff worked on with business development um then also SS4A which you're familiar with that um um planning staff worked on with engineering staff um and then also various uh parks and recreation plans as well. Um we see a a strong focus on downtown um for the coming year. Um, also updates with uh real improvements. Um, as I mentioned, the ordinance um, updates that we have coming up. And if I could close out with one thing here, and I do have Janet, our, uh, new assistant planning director here as well, who can answer any questions. She tries to keep me on track with everything as much as possible in the department. Um, uh, coordination with staff. Um, I've got one just very recently. Um, we did have a potential historic resource loss that came in. And I think most of you realize or or understand about that already. Um as soon as that came in, uh planning staff, inspections, business development, public services, admin, and then other staff as well were all trying to offer perspectives on that and ways that they could jump in and try to help

out with that as much as we can. Um this is private property, but you know, what can we do to try to provide some other options here? Um that's not something you'll see in a lot of other towns that are really siloed. um those things will fall by the wayside. The public, other department heads won't even know until they see a bulldozer there on site. Um so I think that's important. Um when you have a well functioning team um that knows and appreciates what the other departments do, um it really and and knows what the town values, that really helps and makes a big difference um in um trying to improve things. I just had a question about um I guess code enforcement in general. Um a lot of our buildings are older.

Um are we even are we able to put something in writing uh in order to I guess require them to upkeep their bill. I mean, I don't know what the law is, but you know, some by the time they come to us, they're waiting for a facade grant, but the buildings fall there's mortar falling out of some of these buildings like onto the pavement. They're going to fall apart. Uh, is there anything we could do as a town to encourage them to keep up their buildings similar to uh, you know, an HOA with

our homes, you know what I mean? Not so stringent maybe, but we should be allowed to not have a building fall apart and have mortar or a brick fall on someone's head.

Yeah, I think that was two important things you mentioned right there. Um, yes. So, um, code enforcement is never going to regulate pretty uh, it's never going to regulate nice. It's never going to regulate anything to the standard that everybody wants, but it is going to try to maintain the minimum standards on those buildings. So yeah, if there's a brick that's about to fall out, those are the types of things that code enforcement can do. Um, traditionally, um, here, as with most towns, I believe it's more of a reactive thing when we get complaints in than proactive. Um, we are working to change that right now. We are going to start once it gets a little bit warmer, we're actually start getting out and probably walking around downtown, being more proactive, choosing some zones and going through there. that can ruffle feathers a lot of times because when you've got the city out looking for things then rather than just getting a phone call you guys might be getting calls about that but I do think it's important that we do that. Yes, absolutely. I've I've got one in in the planning and and it kind of touches it a little bit on what we've talked about of being good stewards of our downtown

in that aspect and and one of the things that I've thought about in in the code enforcement side, excuse me, pardon me, is is essentially in those transitional zones that there's equipment when equipment does come in and is get left there. How do we go about one being publicly safe about that equipment and then two as long-term storage, for lack of better words, it it still is over time becomes a blight. And I kind of use it uh as a broken windows philosophy. If it just stays like trash, it'll stay it'll keep looking like trash. At a certain point, even just the basic minimal effort of putting um similar to what our county did at the Pep Boys project, they did have uh green screened uh fencing during the construction process of a large portion of that.

And have we thought about or are there codes and ordinances already in place to give us the tools or apply the tools

in those aspects? Yeah, I can think of there's there's definitely one example of that in particular over on uh Broad Street right now. Um and um and that um um case in point um you know we can issue citations, we can issue notice um you know 15, 30 days, what have you. Um then they can start getting cited for that um on a weekly or daily basis even. Um, more often than not, um, it it code enforcement is a it's a tight rope of trying to make sure things get enforced, but also working with property owners and working with business owners in town and and not upsetting anyone. Um, that one there is a a time limit on that. They have until the end of the month to clean up clean that up particularly. Um, and we try to temper that with, um, you know, what is it actually going to take to do? Um, if it takes heavy machinery out there, uh, to clean stuff up, then they may need a little bit longer. So, we try to be reasonable with that to the greatest extent possible. Um, when it comes down to the when the rubber meets the road, if things aren't happening though, um, the town can and should get involved um, with um, and actually go through and abate um, some of these properties. Um, that is costly. It's something to consider. you have to prioritize that. Um, but we do also have another case coming up with that that I think we may have to address soon too. I

I I wonder too if taking a look at the way we structure about when to apply certain certain aspects of the screening, fencing, safety um you know in in those and can we apply it uh more on the front half instead of leaving it as an an open construction lot, right? uh can't hey is it designated and here's the pre- requirement especially in our downtown spaces we know that that the charm of Waxaw right is going to go through a facelift at some point in certain areas yeah we and do we want it to be an open construction lot or do we want it to be somewhat hey this is kind of noticed and you're supposed to put up screening and fencing

maintaining some of that charm throughout that process because that process is going to occur most of our zoning ordinances The zoning ordinance itself is intended for kind of permanent things on a property, but we do have some temporary stuff like that. I think that's something that either in our zoning ordinance or engineering. I mean, you know, inspections across the three different departments, we could probably add something like that in to have temporary construction sites fenced and screened when there's going to be stuff out there like that for a while. So, we can we can definitely take a look at that. I think think it's worth investigating just a little bit. Absolutely.

Hey, thanks. Uh you mentioned uh you know about the downzoning prohibition and one of the things about it was that it was um 6 months retroactive and unfortunately that meant that some of staff work uh went by the wayside but um if I recall correctly we are sort of maintaining now two land development codes um because that just so that that staff work doesn't completely go to waste because then you know if somebody uh has a new application. Uh we can still legally apply some of those new items. Um is is that uh sort of working out or um well, we only have the one. Um I I wasn't here when that went went into effect. So I don't know. I would believe those items probably would have been removed from it administratively. Janet,

maybe something that you haven't had to deal with, but um that was my understanding. Yeah. uh of what happened at the time was sort of maintaining two land development codes almost, you know, just so that that work of staff didn't we have not lost that work. Um we do still have a backup of that on the server. Um but we did administratively remove any of that those text amendments from the land development code. um you know once that law was passed um but you know it's still available and if that law ever gets repealed we can move that back into the LDC.

Yeah. One of them was coordination with the schools and I know that Mayor Murray was uh spear he spearheaded that and uh unfortunately now that's considered downzoning. Um,

so there there is some language in the land development code and I can't quote it off the top of my head. U, but it does say that if there is a plan in place from UCPs that shows an area on a map that would be a good location for a school that a developer would need to consider that and we would work with UCPS on, you know, getting that land donated. And then I know that um Scott and I have had a couple of conversations about this and the graffiti on some of these abandoned homes. Um but my understanding is the state kind of prevents us from going in and being able to take care of that. Is that correct? Is there a general statute about that?

Uh it depends on which uh code you're enforcing it through. Um I've I typically and I do now also default to PD on that. Um they have some some law they can take care of those things and I believe we're primarily taking care of that just by working with the homeowner at this time. Um but I yeah I couple cases that I know what you're talking about with that. Um um it would be the same thing. Uh code enforcement is not an overnight thing. We can't just go in and take something down, but we could site them and then within a couple weeks if there's no compliance, we could say, "Hey, this is a big enough issue, um, we're going to send a crew out and pull boards down, put new boards up, something like that." Um, the cost for that could go on as a uh workman's lean on the property um for them to pay off. That's kind of how you keep up with it. That's the basic process. Yeah. It's one thing when it's an eyesore, but then when it's hateful,

right, garbage. Yeah. You know, and you know, we're fielding calls from constituents wondering why we haven't taken care of it. And I, you know, I've explained it, but they're not happy with that explanation. I just wanted to know if there was anything else that we could do to push it to just, you know, get this taken care of because it's in such an this particular in instance is an ugly spot. I mean, we had it. I I know. Yeah. Yeah. They graffitied the crosswalks at another point too a few months back and we were able to take care of that cuz that was ours. But yeah, I don't know. I think we need to stop applying a little bit of pressure on on whoever owns that and get it taken care of.

Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. Typically, if it's a life safety thing in emergency life safety through either building code or u minimum housing code, we can do some things. That's not really that although it is extremely offensive. Um um yeah, but um yeah, we we're we're working on that. I have one more. Appreciate your time this morning. Um next,

ETJ uh and a little bit of on that side. And where are we at in our coordination with our county partners and and having some mapping synergies? Are we in a conversation piece with them? I was not I was I was under the impression we had absorbed all of our ETJ through annexation already. Okay. And I and and I and I is there because I know we have donnut holes and then there's some air. So is there are we done with our ETJ? We've never had an ETJ a few years back uh when Lisa Thompson was here there was some conversation with the county uh but that never worked out.

Okay. So, so there uh have we So, that's about two years old of a conversation at least. Yeah, probably. Okay. So, was the county in that conversation the not willing to explore partnerships in this key corridors and essentially there was no interest at that time. Okay.

Yeah. the the the ETJ stuff is used to be very popular um in the state and I still think it does serve a good purpose as long as it's not abused um and it's used on a minimal basis but unfortunately uh the state law on that and then the counties uh requiring the county's permission to uh to do those things um it it's they're they're going by the wayside now in a lot of towns um as towns annex into them most counties aren't relinquishing more ETJ to them um and the legislation doesn't really help us out either or so. Okay. I because I was just curious on how does how does that play into effect a little bit if there was any mappings left over?

Uh do we is there any areas that we can continue those conversations and especially in those donnut hole categories that we we wanted to maybe put on a hey let's let's talk about this in this c this corner or something like that.

I think at the very least uh we do have several donnut holes. They're relatively small but we have several of them. Um, and I think from a a base level at least in zoning in terms of your uh, you know, nuisances and stuff, trying to kind of keep those out. Um, maybe you don't regulate every aspect of it through zoning, but keeping some of the more, you know, obnoxious uses out of those, I think would be in the interest of the town. Um, I don't know if the county would be willing to do that, but on a minimal basis. So, right now when the county gets an application for a donut hole or something that's adjacent to town, they'll recommend that the applicant contact the town uh to talk about annexation. Uh and then any if they don't want to annex the county's procedures are to contact us and let us know what's coming and allow us to comment on it.

That's good to know. Okay. That's good coordination at least if nothing else. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, thank you. Thank you.

Let's tack this on to Kevin's time, not mine. Uh, talk about the graffiti on that house. So, I've got a really good rapport with the project manager. Uh, the last two times he was really reactive. uh within minutes would call me back or text back and then get the job done as quick as he could. Uh this time I have not heard back from him. I've text him three times. I'm still waiting to hear back. He may be on vacation. He may I mean I don't know. Now the last time I spoke with him, he stated if he could not get it done quick enough, he would give us permission to spray paint over it, doever whatever we needed to get it off of there if it wasn't fast enough for us because I told him I needed it done that day. Uh, and I think it took him a day later to get it done, but it was still pretty quick. Uh, I'm trying to work with him now to uh, put him in touch with the fire chief and hopefully maybe do a control burn of that house, get rid of it because that it's just a pain in the butt. It happens all the time. So hopefully we'll get something worked out in the future.

All right, now it's my time. Okay, you see your time.

All right. All right. So, has everybody got a chance to look over the the one page for the police department? Okay. So, there's a lot of stuff on here that that I'm going to talk or a lot of stuff that's not on here that I really need to talk about, but uh so I'm going to get right in. So, in 2022 compared to 2025, 2022 was postcoid uh and we were trying to get back into the swing of things at the police department. Everybody knows for the past three years I've harked on proactive policing, neighborhood policing, community policing. Everything combined together in my opinion and what the numbers show reduces crime. So in 2022, number of citations issued was 2275. 2025 we can see 3386 which is a major major jump. Uh number of charges was 28.40 compared to 4,626. arrest 435 compared to 2025 is 290. So even with the number of charges, the number of citations, all that going up, the arrest actually went way down. Why is that? So I would attribute that to proactive policing. If people coming in from Charlotte, people coming in from South Carolina, people coming in from Monroe, they like to come to Waxaw to break into cars, to break into houses, to criminalize our citizens because they think they're easy targets. And a lot of people in Waxaw make us easy targets because they're not going to lock their doors. They're not going to they're not scared because they feel so safe here. Correct. So when those uh wouldbe criminals are coming into the town and they see the blue lights on on 75 on Wax Marvin on 16 on Howy Mine Road in their mind, well wait a minute, these guys are really active here. Let's go somewhere else. So that

happens a lot. Uh number of arrest charges, we went from 731 to 612. reports. We went from 1,125 to 1,023. So, we went down 102 reports, but in calls for service, we went up 700 from 10,75 to 10,84. So, we were receiving more calls for service, but taking less reports. Why is that? Education. So, in neighborhood policing, we're talking to more citizens. telling them, "Hey, if you see A, B, and C, call us. If you see a guy in June walking down the road with a trench code, is that out of place?" Yes, call us. You're not wasting our time. You could be stopping a crime from occurring before it happens. So, just because we get more calls for service in, we like that better than writing more reports. So, uh, Proactive Patrols went from 19,544 to 26,298. uh vehicle crashes 434 and stayed around the same 50 more to 489. So from 2022 to 2025, that's a four-year span. We had an extra two officers during that time, but you could see those stats are way different. So I'm really proud of the work that the guys have done and the ladies have done in the last four years. And every every one of them understand the first conversation I had with everybody when I took over as chief was I expect you to do 12 hours and give me 12 hours of honest work. Everybody that comes to work at the police department, the first conversation we have is I expect you to come to work and give me 12 hours of honest work. So during CO it was don't pull people over.

Don't uh interact with people unnecessarily because everybody was afraid you're going to get COVID. Now it's I want you out of your car. I want you talking to people. I want you walking into businesses. So those proactive patrols that would include your neighborhood patrols and vehicles that would and foot patrols, business checks, anything proactive is in there. Uh the biggest challenges that we're facing right now, I don't know what happened in June of real quick. I don't know what happened in June of 2025, but I've got three babies coming in the next three weeks. I've got four people out for surgeries that are going to be prolong prolonged absences. So that's seven people out at one time. All of those are on patrol. So when you look at patrol, patrol currently has uh 16, actually 20 people assigned to patrol. Out of those 20, I've got 13 that will be working. So I'll be pulling people from investigations, pulling people from command staff, and we'll be working patrol just to make sure that that stays covered. But to put in perspective, most well the national average is 60% patrol officer and 40% office and specialty areas. Currently, the Waxaw Police Department is 68% patrol and 32% office and specialty areas. So, we're operating with less command staff, less specialty units, and a lot more on patrol already. That's all I got.

Outstanding. Thank you. Marine Corps. I think the reputation of the PD has has spoken loud and clear over the years that I've been in this position. So, it's it's just a pleasure to work with you guys. It's a pleasure to be a part of Waxaw. And I think your department, your men and women of the Waxaw PD helped make Waxaw what it is, a quiet, clean, safe, comfortable place to raise a family. And I think everybody and very charming of course and uh I think people appreciate that immensely. They see it, they feel it, they live it, they love it. Thank you.

Thank you. Yeah, definitely the increased presence. I mean, I see it in my neighborhood. So, I appreciate that. Everyone does appreciate that because you want people to think twice before they're coming through. Right. Right. If you're going to come through here, the possibility is you could get pulled over. So, uh don't do anything wrong. But, um my question was it's a little different about I know last year we adopted a new dog uh animal ordinance. We we updated Yes. that. Um did were there any issues over this past winter? was cold and the snow. I know I think last time we focused more on tethering. Was that am I

It was It was tethering as well as the amount of time that dogs could be out in the cold or the excessive heat. Right. Was there any issue with that? I saw some non some stuff online and I don't know how accurate it was. And we had one place in particular that animal control spends a lot of time and they continue to spend a lot of time. uh they really try to help this person because they know the financial situation they're in. Uh so they provide a lot of services. They provide a lot of uh extra things to this one resident. Uh but it's it's worthwhile. Okay. Do you think it needs any further looking at or anything or do you think we covered everything?

I think it's I think it's covered. Uh I don't know if if you could think of anything else you would want in there shelter like the shelter. I know we would we were talking about not making it expensive for people to have to provide but at the same time if they just don't have to be tethered they could be outside in blizzard conditions and so you know well they still have to provide shelter and they still can't be out but so much time right so in extreme temperatures okay whether those be low or high we covered both sides I just want to say I I'm sure I speak for the board that we appreciate and support our police department. Thank you.

Thank you. Like to echo that sentiment very much. Uh support and appreciate everybody that serves in our in our Waxaw PD. Uh compliments um to that that transaction of uh passive policing versus active policing that in and that presence. I know it I believe it's paying dividends in my personal opinion. Mhm. I think the stats show it's paying dividends. I also know that um many members of of our PD the way if I remember correctly you've kind of assigned community uh contacts correct

and those community contacts um have uh been integral in addressing just small issues at times and taking care of neighbors and neighborhoods um on a personal level. And so I just wanted to uplift uh everybody that's serving on the Waxaw PD and thank you uh for the job that they do on and off hours. Well, thank you. I feel like Bradley. Oh yeah, sorry. I I'm not as Devonire as he is, but uh thank you very much.

There has been an increased uh presence, support and engagement in your uh website activity and and Facebook activity. So, yes, Bradley, uh, boosting boosting engagement over there for our PD. Thank you. He's done a heck of a job. Good job, Bradley. And you look very good today.

The the house locking and car locking education. I know you guys are doing a lot of that. Are there more opportunities to do that with within the HOAs and that type of thing or or that's just a constant battle that you're going to have to use the same? It's definitely a constabella and it's and it's a frame of mind. So some people have the frame of mind, I would rather leave my car unlocked than lock it and somebody break a window. They're not going to break a window unless they see something of value in the car. So if you've got your your purse or your computer bag or something in the car, they're going to break the window. But otherwise, they're not going to break your window and go in your car. The problem is if you don't lock your car and you have that frame of mind that I'm not going to lock it because I'm not anything of value, don't call us. because you call us that we have to come out there and take time to come to your residence to talk to you and you want to report for somebody breaking in your car because now you feel violated because somebody looked through your car and you're mad because your papers are straight about your car but you didn't lock it because you don't have anything of value but you still want us to come out. So if you have that frame of mind, don't call us. But if you have the frame of mind of look, I lock my car nine times out of 10 90% I just forgot today. Yeah, call us. Well, I I'm glad to do a report. I'm glad I I want to know what cars are broken into. I want to know what areas we need to watch extra. And we do look at patterns every year. And I'm telling you, June of this year, we will have a rash of car breakins all over as soon as school's out.

So, get ready. That was my uh question about the education specifics on actions that that you guys are taking on with the communities. Yes. Because you I mean you could probably probably take care of half the calls just by educating the people in Milbridge. So we we do educate during HOA meetings and No, I'm not singling out Millbridge. I live there and I just know that it's a

no but so so John I'll tell you we do educate during HOA meetings so but the problem is nobody goes to HOA meetings I go to Millbridge edu HOA meetings at least twice a year to speak to the HOA board and the five people that show up no well Milbridge is actually 10 to 15 out of how many people yeah so But and that's why it comes back to Bradley cuz then he has to work with the folks that manage the um HOA boards online

to yeah to to distribute those uh those alerts and education post on their websites but stuff like that I mean that I don't know what else we can do but I think more opportunities in the education of just the breakins and the carpet. What I did ask Dennisello was when I do speak at your HOA mini, can you video and shoot that out as a as an email to say, "Hey, the chief spoke tonight about A, B, and C." And if they have an interest in it, they could watch it. If they don't have an interest, then just delete it. And they're going to get their car broken into. Yeah. Right.

And Milbridge gets hit a lot because they're right at the South Carolina line. So they jump over South Carolina through Walnut Creek and half the time they don't even know that they're out of Walnut Creek. They think they're still in Walnut Creek, but now they're in Millbridge on Rich Haven and breaking all those cars. So that's why I'm on Rich here and I lock my car. There you go.

Uh yesterday at the Woomer meeting, I heard from a Weddington group uh focused on safety and they were talking about um South American burglary groups that come through uh that are pretty technically sophisticated. They even put uh monitoring devices around houses to see when people are out and everything. Um and they're using tape techniques to you a lot of different techniques to see when you pull that tape. Yeah. So they could tape your door, they could tape your window. They to see if you arrive home, you go, "What? Why is there tape on my window?"

Take it off and then they know, okay, well, it took them two days. and even jamming equipment on uh cameras and you know ring doorbells and things like that. Um so one of the uh things that was mentioned um because you know Weddington is taken care of by the sheriff's department and um so they said well you know this was for Weddington residents. They said if you're going to be away for an extended period of time call the sheriff's department and let them know. Um should Wax residents also do that with Wax PD?

Yes we've had that forever. So, if you call us and let us know, we put a uh a watch on your house and then they go through during the shifts and check the house. All you do is put what vehicles are there, what lights you're going to leave on. Uh if anybody's going to be coming over to watch the dogs or check on the dogs or cats or whatever, anybody that would go by there, make sure you leave their information. And other than that, yeah, we we check the residences. Great. Thank you. Yep. Thank you. Great job. Appreciate it.

Appreciate it. Hey everybody, I'm Matt Cohen, your public service director going on about three and a half weeks now. So been here for 20 years. So I just wanted to give you all a little overview of our department and uh a little bit about what we do. Uh we're responsible for the town's infrastructure and maintain all the assets that make Waxaw work. We have a staff built of 13. Uh we have a career development plan and everybody's organized from director down to maintenance workers and so on. Mandated services. We maintain the road, sidewalk, storm water, solid waste management, fleet maintenance, cemetery operations, street lights, leaf vacuuming, maintenance, and inspections. Some of our non-mandated services are downtown beautifification. I feel like all these are mandated, but uh some of the rightway mowing, sidewalk grinding, reducing trip hazards, and storm cleanup. Some outputs for our department was we vacuumed 5,491 cubic yards of leaves collected in the physical year of 2025. $6,800 was brought in uh due to our new construction road inspections. Uh we charge $400 per inspection for our uh proof roll inspections. We are since January, we started uh charging a $150 per linear foot for sidewalk inspections and new developments. This year we uh since July we sold 12

plots in the cemetery uh which brought in a revenue of $10,800. Uh we sold six niches uh in the columbarium which brought in $6,000 and that's just since July of this year or last year. Some of our efficiencies, we uh in-house services, we take care of the fleet maintenance of 80 plus vehicles and all the townowned equipment inhouse while delivering same day service. Advanced equipment. We invested in a new sidewalk grinder that has doubled our sidewalk smoothing production. We can do twice as much in half the time. Experts on staff. Our staff members with excellent expert level knowledge reduce reliance on outside consultants and contractors. Uh everything from electrical work to concrete work, grading work. We can do that kind of stuff etc. in house. Um year in review we are proactive in infrastructure maintenance. grinding sidewalks, trip hazards, and crack sealing uh roads is uh intended to extend the asset life and improve safety as one of our primary focuses uh this upcoming year. some of the top highlights and accomplishments. We vacuumed the most leaves on record this season and we collaborated with the town departments uh our engineering department and some of the contractors and opening up the Prescott Glenn Parkway and completed the Pine Oak Road roundabout. Some lessons that I have learned and we have learned as a department uh is we want to be proactive in communication with the public. Uh we feel it yields in results and achieving desired actions. Something we've tried to do more this year uh was Mr. Bradley has helped us out a whole lot um is getting us out there on Facebook and giving the town citizens and residents uh the information that they need so they know what we're doing. Um state legislative sidewalks must be

compliance with the American uh Disabilities Act. So we're trying to go through town and get everything in compliance with those ADA standards. uh technology trends. We're prioritizing digital recordkeeping and customer service phasing detail interface facilitate request in a timely manner. Uh we get a lot of tree replacement requests. We get a lot of sidewalk grinding requests, trip hazards, so on. So we're really trying to get that all organized in spreadsheets and such. Some community pressures. Um I'll relate some of this to maybe our tier one uh at the top there. some of the rapid growth. Uh our solid waste costs are rising due to new residential growth. Um this year we we expect for 101 is the best estimate that I can give you as far as towns that will come in as far as hopefully CEOs and they'll become trash customers that will have to pay for that. Um they are expecting a 4.3% uh contract increase in that trash. Uh this is based upon customer price index or consumer price index. Um so there will be an increase in our trash cost for the next year. Uh street street lights is another uh rising cost uh due to growth. And just for your information that some of the planned developments that are coming that are that we know are coming are on the Duke power side. and all the Duke lights uh street lights that we pay for on average cost us about $5 more dollars a light. So that will be a rising cost on we got Rogers Pond, you know, PY, a lot of that's on the south side of the tracks that's coming on. So it would be a rising cost there. Um some of our outcomes uh our single service uh equals double benefits. Residents receive leaf vacuuming services through through those leaves. Uh we then compost them and the

residents can come back and get that for free. Uh it's a dual purpose benefit there. uh rapid response service requests are handled promptly. Essential storm emergency preparations and responses are immediate such as storms uh summer storms, winter weather, flooding, etc. Uh just so you guys know, and I think everyone maybe can tell, we take a lot of pride and and have our community pride. We set high standards in and uh of beautifification, high visibility areas. Uh we feel like our town uh really sets sets the standard in western part of Union County. Um you all probably notice, you know, we keep our sidewalks edged. There's not grass growing over the curbs. I mean, we keep a nice looking place on purpose. So, any questions you guys have for me? It seems like

it seems like the side sidewalk grinding is going to be more of the daily work of of your folks. It is. Yes. And you you expect that to increase? I believe that will always increase. Okay. Um I believe with the tree growth uh and the more trees that we put in these planting strips Yeah. Okay. that is going to be an effect. Those sidewalks will come up. Uh we we're we're working on it every year. Um but it's it's one of those things we're going to have to battle with it. I don't think we'll ever catch up. We'll just keep up. So if that makes sense.

Just want to say thank you to you guys. Uh I view your department as really part of the nuts and bolts of this town government. So or town services. So, thank you and and uh wish you all the best with your new role. Appreciate it. I need it. I echo that. I wish you the best with your new role. Congratulations. Thank you for your department's work and all the extra hours that I'm sure you guys put in recently here taking care of uh the town downtown walkways and roadways where necessary and the recent weather conditions. I know you guys put in hours there.

Yes, sir. Um, one of the things that, uh, I did want to bring up, and this is more maybe again I'm picking back on Bradley now over here on the communication side. Um, the mulch pickup. I know one of those uh, it took a while for me to realize that we even did a mulch pickup service and when and what days and and that information getting out there. And so I I I did a quick Google search here just out of curiosity. Our Google search did pop up that the town of Waxa does not currently offer a mulch pickup. Uh if you s if you s just do a dummy search.

Yeah. So we we suggest customer service. Call us. Don't Google, you know. Um but we have kept that not a secret, but as we move from our other compost facility, it took us three years. The leaf piles go through a three-year process to make good quality compost. So we had to kind of keep it quiet there for just a little bit. It takes three years to get that built up. Now we're build up. So this spring, look for it, Mr. Bradley, to post that. And then we will we will need to get rid of that stuff so we can make room for more. That's Yeah, that was going to be my next question is is with the trend of leaf pickups and I'm on the oaks on Providence. We have plenty of leaves for you.

Yes, you do. um our year over year I'm sure we're seeing cubic uh feet essentially increases in volume uh we also have more trees that we're planting back that we're going to be maintenancing in these new communities um and they will drop more leaves as they mature y um so I I understand that there's longer term visions and where we we needing equipment

one of the things though that I have thought of um uh with that equipment is whi when we phase in essentially those more more leafax and more services uh refurbished and is there any refurbished opportunities in in taking

that's what we're doing. Yeah. Last year we requested uh $5,000 in CIP to put a new engine on our older leaf act. A new leaf act cost $150,000. Um, so that's what we did. We we got that requested that money. We achieved that money. We got the engine put on inhouse in our mechanic shop. So, no expenses there. $5,000, brand new engine, same old Leafac back at it for 10 15 more years.

Well, awesome. And that and and I had a feeling that that was the case. And that's what I wanted to say. Thank you for all that because I know then at a certain point with that refurbishment now it's labor on our team and our staff members to to go through that mechanically. Yeah. But our folks are qualified to do that stuff which makes us that much more valuable. So wanted to highlight that and say thank you. Yes sir. Appreciate it.

I know we talked about this yesterday in our group about um the trees and being put in the planting strips and possibly not the correct trees for those planting strips. We've been able to remedy that remedy that from years past so that we don't continue to have that problem because sidewalks are expensive and if we have to it's one thing if the homeowner has to then all right whatever right but since we have to take care of it what can we do? Unfortunately, uh you probably all will make fun of me, but last night I went home and watched a board retreat for the town of Waxaw from 10 years ago. And my wife was like, "Did you not get enough today?" you know, and I'm like, well, you know, yeah, you know, I just kind of wanted to see where we were back then, and you wouldn't believe what they were talking about 10 years ago, and it was street trees in the planting strips and willow oaks and the damage that they cause to our, you know, our infrastructure. I would like to say that those changes have been made. Um, and I believe our planning department has assisted in a lot of those changes. Um, we're still getting trees put in the plan strips. The plan strips are getting wider. Uh, they feel this is important to have that shade for street trees, but we'll I think Mr. Orion has helped out in our engineering manual. We're making better specs for the developers when they put in the sidewalks. We're inspecting the sidewalks, so we're getting the thickness that we want. So, all this combined effort is we're getting better products for our our town's developments. Um

I guess because when um couple years ago we were talking uh with Todd and he had mentioned Lawson that the trees are in a good position in Lawson um rather than other developments. So is that is that the model that maybe we could use? I'm hoping so. Do you know what the difference is? That will be up to our planning department to work with that. Um you know ideally I prefer the trees to be on the back side of the sidewalk. It doesn't cost the town any money after that.

On the planting side, I think they prefer to have control and make sure those trees are in those planting strips so we can make sure they stay planted. If it's on the back side of the sidewalk, residents can cut them down. There's nothing we can do about it. Um, so it's a give and take. So, we're it may be a great discussion for you guys later in a in a work session to really figure out what you want in the future. Yeah, I I would like to avoid replacing sidewalks. Y policy. Yeah. recommendations.

One thing I know trees and leaves seems to be the topic to jour but the ask is as we move forward into budget season coming up in a couple months. Um I think the ask is if you could lay out any kind of projection in terms of your staffing and equipment needs, you know, two years out, five years out, 10 years out. Um because I I know we got a lot of young trees especially in Millbridge and then I'd like to think that maybe the Blemill town homes will be planting some trees there at some point. Um but the idea that if we can set up some kind of projection so we can kind of predict what what might be coming in terms of staffing needs to just purely just to accommodate the trees.

Uh yes sir, I understand and it depends on how what quality and how far we want to get into it. You know, as you may recall, we were in the tree trimming. Uh, and that was very labor intensive. Um, so, and right now, as we speak, the guys are in to replanting trees. Uh, the dead diner disease trees. We're switching some of them out. Not today because it's pouring raining, but right in this general time frame. So, yeah, we can do that for you. No problem. Yep. Any other questions? Just to thank you again. Yes, sir. Thank y'all. Appreciate it.

And now batting cleanup.

So, I guess you saved the best best for last.

All right. So, as you know, the town clerk's office is the oldest profession. We've been around since biblical time. Um, we are a statutory board uh position. So, we have to be in in all the counties and the towns. So, we are an office of two people, myself and my deputy clerk, Brandy Straoud. Uh, yes. So our statutory requirement is to maintain all the records within the town. That is what we are statutoily charged to do. However, we branch off across all of the departments. We are a department that's works internally and externally. We uh provide all of the agendas and minutes and we also do perform our public records management with our public. Uh we also strive to maintain um all of the legal aspects of our job as well as administer the oath of office both staff and for advisory boards. We support you as the board of commissioners. We support the advis all the advisory boards as well as all the departments across the board. Um the numbers that you see up here are are from 2025. This does not uh count for all of the uh activity that our department does. Um when you think about our public records and our records in general, they go back to 1889. and um so we can't really capitalize on but we have a lot of those documents that are not captured here. Um one of

the efficiencies that we are trying to do is trying to approve our efficiencies and try to standardize a lot of the practices that the town um uh goes through. Uh we standardize our agendas and um processing where uh and it's helped quite a bit. So staff is uh has there certain deadlines to get the information to you all at a timely manner and to keep up with your um um adhere to your rules of procedures to getting those those that information timely. Um, we want to work with uh James and the flash vote because we're interested to find out how the public wants to um receive their information and how they are want to access that information. Um, we were instrumental in uh establishing a youth council which add to our advisory boards. uh we felt that that age group was not being utilized as far as um having a voice in front of government. Um so one of our outcomes that we are we strive to do is we try to provide transparent governance. Um we um help with the keeping our legal sound. We try to keep you um out of trouble as much as possible. So, we work closely with our town attorney and the town manager to ensure that um we are doing what's legally required for us to do. Um we have also uh modernized our um recordkeeping. So, a lot of things are on laser fish. Um, so we strive to make sure that our retention periods are adhered to and that all those records that we hold hold a retention uh

requirement. Um, and we're starting to look at um making our agendas and minutes a little more efficient. Uh we're working with a um a software now that we've had since 2015. And so it's used up its its usefulness now. So we're trying to figure out a better solution to be able to cross over into laserfish. It connects with our town codes. And so we don't have to manually do that over time. And our challenges are clear uh workflows, consistent tracking and early coordination um are critical to um um publishing accurate agendas and minutes. Um we also uh maintain the compliance of a high volume legislative environment. So, um we do a lot of uh tracking based on on that. Um and our volume of um public records depends on what you all talk about during your meetings. Uh depending on if it's a controversial uh subject, then that will increase our public records. Um but so far we have based on using our when we used just FOIA and we used HubSpot now we're using next request we've probably have an average of 420 records that we have maintained and um given um to the public. So that's that's the basis of our public records. But as you know, most everything unless it's confidential is all public record. And if there's any questions, I'm

finished. Just thank you for all your support of our meetings. Uh you've seen our struggles and responded. Uh I appreciate the uh in the last meeting having that extra paper with the motions written out on it and everything. um with the minutes. Um I I know that there's AI tools out there that you can just run on your phone and they'll like listen to the meeting and then at the end it'll give you a summary. It might be just helpful. Not that it would do all the work for you, but just as something for you to reference. Uh

well, we already have a nifty little program that's called uh clerk minutes, and it's through a program called uh HGV. And um it's has it's from the time I've I've been in um local government and uh state government and doing minutes, it's the best program that I have seen um in the years that I've been doing minutes. Um so it does exactly what uh you're uh describing. We put in the agenda, we load up the video, and it spits out that the minutes. What we do is we make sure that they're accurate. Um we go through to make sure that it captured everything that your uh motions are um as you said them and they're accurate. Um so that has really um um decreased our um level of trying to sit down and transcribe minutes where we can do it in an hour where it was taking us all week to do one set of minutes. And with you all having two meetings um within two weeks of each other, it helps us get it turned around quick quicker. Being new in this position, the transition, I just want to say thank you for making it smooth, seamless, friendly, and I do like the cheat sheet for the agendas for the meetings. Very helpful. So I appreciate you. Thank you.

Good. I'm glad they're working. Yeah, it's you've been a tremendous help over my two years so far. And uh little ice for that, Shin. And um yeah, I appreciate how you've been keeping us on track and on the up and up as well. It's definitely a valuable service that you're adding and I I always appreciate the fact knowing that you're there and you got our back. So, thank you always. Thank you.

Um, that's the extent of our presentations and that was your question and answer all built into one one process. So, Mr. Mayor, I'll turn the meeting back over to you and u uh to uh do what you need to and to adjourn it when you feel necessary.

All righty. Um, I know I've collect a few, we sort of started parking lot items, uh, yesterday was discussed. Um, I've collected a few things that I just things that I wanted to kind of get through at some point. Um, it doesn't have to be today, but it's sort of kind of outputs of this meeting, ideas that were generated. Um, but if there's anything else the board wanted to go through to address um, immediately as part of this meeting, we can certainly do that today. So, I'll open it up to the board. Nobody does that at a staff meeting, mayor. No, nobody ask questions at the end of a meeting. She wanted to get hurt. I just wanted to thank everybody and it's uh after 12 and it's been uh two really great days and uh we really appre I think I speak for everyone on the board. We appreciate all your hard work and uh we know you're doing everything you could do and um we we help you articulate that any way we can. So, thank you very much.

Have a good weekend.

Yeah, I think this was a much improved retreat over the previous two years that we've had retreats and uh Central's help was really instrumental as was uh your vision uh Mr. Town Manager. Yeah, just everybody's engagement yesterday and uh all the discussion all the the honest discussion and everybody's involvement. I my first one I thought it was really useful for me and it helped getting all the feedback from the staff and u enjoyable day long day but it was you know really really good exercise. Biggest takeaway for me was seeing what you folks do. You know we know what the titles are but actually see the steps you have to take to do your job and be high performing. It helps us make decisions. So, thank you very much and appreciate you and getting to see everybody meet meet uh face to face. So, thank you.

No, uh let me echo essentially the sentiments across the board. Uh say thank you. I appreciate everybody's time these past two days and it's been an honor to just get to spend that with y'all. Uh getting to know a little bit about each and every one of you. Getting to get a nice one pager of each department. uh getting a little bit of uh finger on the pulse on essentially kind of what's going on currently and then looking forward to working with you and we I think we've set out some good outlines and frameworks for long-term discussions and addressing those tier one tier 2 issues. So appreciate that. Yeah, I'll just kind of repeat a little bit of what I mentioned yesterday in in in the exercise that we went through with some of these priorities and the fact that it it did go through the filter of both board and staff. And one of the most telling parts about that exercise, I think, is the unity on those issues and how as a board and as a staff, we all seem to feel and agree the same thing that these are the principal concerns. And I think if we stay focused on those over the coming year as stuff comes before the board and as things come up from the staff, I I think that'll do good to to serve the larger community by staying focused on those and keeping an eye on on that output. And then maybe at next year's retreat, we'll take a look and see if we've made any progress on any of these in any way. Um or what new ideas have come up to make progress on those. So, I just want to thank everyone again for their effort and coming up with that list and helping us um help guide us through that lift list and guide us through some of the obstacles that you all face in your jobs as you do what you do. So, thank you. It's been a great couple of days. Thanks, Scott. I appreciate it.