Town Council - Regular Meeting

Call the meeting to order. It's uh Monday, January 12th, 2026. Can you believe it? 700 p.m. Um looks like we have everyone here for a quorum. Uh let's stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [clears throat] [cough]

Okay. So, do we have any additions uh adoptions to the agenda? Staff requests to [clears throat] add item 9E to the agenda for the um to amend the um audit contract. Okay. [laughter]

Okay. Any other uh additions? Okay. All right. I get a motion to uh to adopt the u consent agenda as amended. I'll make a motion to adopt the agenda as men amended. Thank you. All right. Can I uh I'll second that motion. Okay. Yes. All in favor?

Okay. It's unanimous. Okay. We move forward. Thank you. Um, conflict of interest statement. In accordance with state law, it is the duty of every council member to avoid conflicts of interest. Does any council member have any known conflict of interest with respect to any matter matters on the agenda? If so, please identify the conflict and refrain from any participation in the matter involved. Any conflicts? None. No conflicts. Okay, move forward. Mayor and council reports. Anybody have anything you'd like to share, Ed, at this point?

I would just say that I've been in correspondence with DOT about road repaving and as of this date, they have no schedule for us of anything updated. So, they have not been able to schedule anything new for the town, unfortunately. And I keep on a very regular basis. Gotcha. Okay, that it, Tom, you good? That's it. Anyone [clears throat] else? Okay, we'll move on to uh public safety. Um, comments. Oh, skip skipped right over it, didn't I? Um, public comments. Do we have that, Debbie? [clears throat and cough]

Okay. Before we start the public comments, uh uh public comments are limited to four minutes. Uh public hearing com public hearings are are limited to three minutes. Comments are to be directed at the entire board and not individuals are not the public uh attending the meeting. If you turn that way, I'll have to stop you and refocus you. Uh a designated spokesperson for the group of three or more may be allocated six minutes to speak. At least three members of the group must be present and names and addresses of those members present u must have been submitted to the town clerk before the meeting begins. Other than pursuant to these rules, you may not give your time to any other person to increase the speaker's allotted time. You must be civil in your language and presentation and act within reasonable standards of courtesy. Use of slander, name calling, personal attacks or threatening speech or behavior is prohibited. The audience must uh maintain order and decorum in their conduct. Please refrain from any kind of applause, comments or disorderly speaking during the meeting. Disturbances will be prohibited. Mayor or majority of the board may suspend these rules at discretion. Failure failure to uh abide by these rules after receiving notice by the mayor may result in one termination of your comment period andor your removal from the meeting. So okay uh first on the public comment is uh Chad come on up. Good evening and thank you town council

Chad and Eagle Road. Um I had a couple things that I wanted to mention. First, it looks like an item in appendix 2B needs to be have the wording updated to where you get the proper information that you want. In item B54, it states, "A copy of notification submitted to the facilities director of Union County Public Schools and the chairman of the board of education stating the number of lots proposed." You can see Keystone did this for their project tonight, but you'll see in the pro in the packet there, the Union County's response was just received. The intent of that item in appendix 2B is to really request a residential impact statement from Union County to see how this project may impact the schools. I've seen an example of this with Belmar was submitted and it provides the detail of each school's capacity based on the current status and how many homes are in the pipeline. I know the council does not decide on developments based on school capacity, but is it important to know this information so you know if we're close to potential redistrict or how full the schools are in terms of what the schoolboard standards are? I spoke with someone in that office and they said an email must request that impact statement and a sketch plan, otherwise they'll just acknowledge it and keep that information for their records. Based on that, I was asking if council will determine the best way to update that verbiage in order to have that information as further projects go before the planning board and council. Um, the second item is in regards to the parks committee. In the rules of procedure statement, it states that if there's not a sufficient number of applications that applicants from outside of Weddington shall be considered. I ask that you revise that to be only Weddington residents. The purpose of this is to provide a means of encouraging and I believe to effectively do that it must be comprised of Weddington residents only. They have a vested

interest in their town and the community. The seven spots were to remain vacant for a period of time to find a Weddington resident. I don't think we should go outside of the town for members on this board. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. shed. Tracy Stone.

Tracy Stone, Longleaf Court. Uh, after the October 29th meeting with the mayor, Jim Bell said to me, quote, "You constantly interrupt. People have complained about you for years. I've gotten emails about you. That's why we put the sign out on the door because of you. People have called you out and sent me emails and called me." So, I sent a a foyer request for all emails with my name in them. After going through 142 emails, I found that they mostly had my name because I was a meeting attendee. Not one about interrupting at a meeting. Not one from anyone about me about anything. So, he lied about me to me. If he'll lie about such a petty thing, what else will he lie about? I'd like to suggest in the interest of low taxes and transparency that you have the retreat workshop here at Town Hall. Instead of paying a private facility that's not close, have it here and cater the lunch from Harris ter or a restaurant in the shopping center. You won't spend anything for a venue and the money stays in town. No one wants to drive to Monroe. Darcy doesn't. She complained about it last year. I don't. Since you're so proud of the streaming capabilities, please use them so that everyone in town is able to see and hear the discussions. Jim Bell said in his comments at the January 8th, 2024 meeting that I want to start streaming the meetings. If you can't be here, you can tune in. I'm all about public involvement. You can watch it. Your input, we need it. We don't want or need a park. No one is calling for a park. We have at least 43 parks within 43 within 30 minutes of town hall. That doesn't even include spaces within neighborhoods, churches, or schools in town. Why doesn't the town collaborate with Weddington Corners to have some activities in the parking lot? There's room and it would create opportunities for the businesses. In 2023, the town paid a consulting company $135,000 to complete surveys and open houses to revise the land use plan. On March 6,

2023, the consultant had a steering committee meeting with 13 people. The notes in the land use plan say a few members expressed a desire for a park or trail within the town boundaries. Not most, a few. An open house was held on April 21st, 2023 for 9 hours. 76 people attended. Under the number one wish category, only 52 even wrote anything. Of these, five or less than 10% said they wanted a park. Another said, "Do not add more parks." Approximately half a percent of the town's population even cared enough to come to the open house, and fewer than that made comments. So, there's not exactly a high demand for a park. In the last section that has the online survey comments, there were four comments that specifically mentioned parks. There were more down votes than up votes on all of them. One had 41 up votes and 107 down votes. Less than a third agreed. Now we're spending $95,000 more to discuss park options even though we said we didn't want it. You say you won't do it if it will raise taxes, but it's cost $230,000 already with nothing to show for it. Please think long and hard about creating a park. [snorts] [clears throat and cough] Okay. Public safety report. [clears throat]

Come on up. Uh, Lieutenant May. [clears throat]

Well, uh, mayor, town council, residents, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you tonight. I'm not here to deliver the public safety report, per se. I'm here to introduce our newest Wedding Town of Weddingington Deputy, Deputy David Pler. He's going to be delivering the public safety report. Um, Sergeant Ren, congratulations to him. Um, is starting his first shift in his new assignment tonight. We hope him a good quiet night. That's not what you're supposed to say in law enforcement. [laughter] So, um, but we we just hope he has a good quiet night. Naturally, nothing happens, right? So, so no, I'm sure he'll call me tomorrow and and say some choice words to me. But David has been with the sheriff's office for a little over 10 years now and he's worked in multiple assignments. Like I said, he'll take over uh Deputy Ren's position is what we call our admin car for the town of Weddington, which means he works a 7 to 4 Monday through Friday schedule. Um he is great with people. Um he's great with animals. He he's got some services or animal services background as well. Um and we really look forward to him joining our team out here and just know he's going to be a great addition. And I won't say replace Deputy Ren because he's a he's a hard one to replace, but he will fill those shoes to the best of his ability, no matter how small they are. So, uh, I'm just [laughter] kidding. I'm just kidding. Deputy Sergeant Ren's going to beat me up when he sees me. But, uh, for those [clears throat] of you who don't know who I am, like I said, I can't remember if I introduce myself. I'm Lieutenant James May. I supervised all five small town contracts. That's Weddings and Wesley Chapel, Marvin, Wing, and Lake Park. So, I I'm also out in the field with these guys, but uh to say that they absolutely make me look good through their hard work and effort is an understatement. They're out here every day u working in your neighborhoods and your communities. I did want to uh mention something specifically because I know social media is a great tool, but it could also be used to um to create some panic. Uh we did have a residential breaking and entering case in Weddington over towards the end of 12 mile creek towards New Town um on Saturday night. uh a family came home and realized their

home had been broken into, some personal property had been stolen. As I said, it happened Saturday night. It's still very early on in that invest in that investigation. We know that social media has already been alive um with theories of different types. Um we don't like to to say confirm anything until the evidence leads us there. Um so we all know that and if you don't know, I'll just go ahead and say it. We did have some South American Theft Group related breakins in the western part of Union County, including Weddington in 2023 and 2024. The last activity we have had was November of 2024. So, it's uh it's been a long time. We are not absolutely not confir or uh attributing this breakin to that group at this point. Um a lot of the the MO doesn't match just to be honest with you. Um but if that changes then we'll absolutely be transparent and let you folks know. Um, I say all that to say it's just better to to hear it from the horse's mouth sometimes. I live in Unionville, not Weddings, so you have to excuse my my country slang, but um, out there we just say it's better to hear from the horse's mouth. So, if there's anything to be worried about, I assure you that the sheriff's office will be the first one to tell you because community safety doesn't happen without community support. Um, so we all work together to accomplish this. Uh it's a great time for me to remind you though, lock those car doors, lock those house doors. Uh take those valuables out of your cars and set those alarms on your home. Whether you're going out to walk your dog, whether you're going out to uh to work for the day or vacation, um please, you know, use the tools that we have to protect our community, we we still by far remain one of the safest counties to live in in North Carolina. And you live in the safest part of that county. Um, so we're not immune to crime, but I can promise you that if happen happens here, we're gonna work hard to solve it. And we've proven that through our track record. So, um, if you have questions about that specific case, I'll be willing to speak more, but um, we want you to get your information firsthand, not through, uh, not through Facebook. So, if the board has any questions for me directly, I'm happy to field those questions. And if not, I'm

gonna turn over to Deputy Pler and uh let him make his inaugural uh crime report speech and we'll all judge him at the end and hold up cards with numbers on. [laughter] Okay. Right. Thank you all. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, council. As far as the uh size comment goes, I'm not that much of an upgrade, so I [laughter] do apologize. I'm not that good at public speaking, but I think we'll we'll get through it together. Uh I just want to highlight some stats for you. In the month of December, we did have 70 business checks. Uh we we kind of wanted to ramp up those business checks, especially during the holidays. We wanted to check in with the gas stations, check in with the businesses, check in, just kind of make our presence known. U we really wanted to hammer that. There's, like you said, there's been a lot of uh activity. So during the holidays when you're not home or when businesses are around, we definitely want to take advantage of that. Now, the next stat I want to get to is uh fraud. We we did see a little bit of a increase in fraud and but fraud is a very broad category. It could mean somebody getting a hold of your bank account information or any kind of simple fraud by making you go get gift cards and delivering them to a different person. Um if it somebody calls you on the phone and it sounds like a scam or it sounds too good to be true, it it probably is. If it has you secondguessing, just hang up. Give us a call. We have a non-emergency number. just go ahead and call us and we'll try to help guide you through it. You County Sheriff's Office will never ask you for money. If you get a phone call that says, "Hey, you know, you have a warrant for your arrest. You got to pay us money and we'll make it go away." That is not true. We will never call you and ask you for money. So, wanted to highlight that. Another stat is uh prevented patrols. Now, that's us being seen in your neighborhoods. That's us riding around. You know, if your kids are out playing, it's us waving to your kids. It's kind of just cruising the streets, making sure that, you know, our presence is known throughout the neighborhood, especially with this most recent breakin on that Lieutenant May brought up. We really want to make our presence known in the neighborhoods. We had 935 of those in the month of December. So, I'd like to see, you know, that continue. That's a lot of preventive controls and we think that really did dampen the uh

activity and that we think that's a reason why since November of 24, we haven't seen anything. Really, we really think that's the case. Now, also in the month of December, we had a bunch of traffic stops. We had 96. Again, that activity is more than likely from people coming out of town, you know, visiting family. [clears throat] We think that uh not a lot of people know the area and uh we really want to make our presence known on 16. We've been getting a lot of complaints about speeders on 16, especially right here in front of town hall at that interception. So, again, I know I keep hammering at home, but we really want to make our presence known. You know, that's that's the whole point of it. So, we wanted to get out there, turn our lights on, you know, make sure we're seen, make people slow down. Now, I know Sergeant Ren liked to leave you guys with tips and tricks. I know that was his thing. He loved the tips and tricks. I didn't have time to really plan for a a tip or a trick, but I do have something that I want to bring up, and that's residential security checks. So, if you're going out of town and you know you're going to be gone for four or five days, maybe even an extended, you know, vacation, two weeks, union sheriff's office.com is our website. We have a a free form you can fill out. You go on there, you enter in your resident's uh address, you know, how many cars are going to be in your driveway, how many pets you have at your home, any kind of pertinent information for your residence while you're going to be away, fill out that form, that'll get sent to one of us. We'll enter it into our system and while you're away, we can do security checks on your house. Make sure everything's going correctly as it should. Nothing's been tampered with. So, I really do want to hammer that home. It's a free tool. Just please use it. And also to hammer on what Lieutenant May said, we want you guys to be the first to know. So, we do have a UCSO mobile app. So, if you guys want to download that, we post that'll be the first place to find out information that that we put out. So, I'm hope my nerves didn't show too bad. My voice got a little shaky there for a little bit, but uh I do think we got through it. So,

yes, I'm gonna go back to my corner if anybody has any questions. So, any questions? [clears throat] I may add, we also have the resmite as well. There we go. Good point. Okay, awesome. Thank you. Thank you for being with us and thank you for uh to see everybody filling the shoes. Well, again, not not a hard I think we actually might have the same shoes. Great to have you with us. Okay. uh was moved forward for the uh consent agenda. Can I get a motion to uh the uh approve the amended consent agenda as presented earlier? I make a motion we approve the amended consent agenda. Okay. All in favor?

Okay. It's all unanimous. We'll move forward. There is uh no old business, so we're going to move into new business. Um, we're going to have a uh I want to ask uh first well item A of the new business is Weddingington High School Athletic Booster Club presentation and possible consideration of resolution 2026-02 in support of the Weddington Athletic Booster Club funding proposal to construct a multi-purpose athletic facility at Weddington High School. And I'm going to ask uh Sarah Van Gundy to come up. Uh she's the president of the Weddingington High School Athletic Booster Club. And uh welcome Sarah.

Thank you. Um as you know, this area has grown and our high school has grown and our high school is I think we're overpop populated now. We're at 106% capacity. Um, we started in 2023, went to Union County Public School System and asked them if they would allow us to raise funds to build an expansion for a wait room and a gym expansion that would hold cheer and wrestling um, gyms that could also be a multi-purpose facility. Union County told us no. We didn't weren't asking for any money. They said it was not equitable to the other schools in Union County that did not have the means to raise the funds. So, we got really got back at it this school year. And again, we've been we were told no and we pushed and we went to the um the school board meeting and we've been communicating and we got facilities more heavily involved and they have come out and they have done some research to determine that there is a need and that Weddington has the greatest need for a new weight room and expanded athletic facilities of all the schools. Um they still have not told us that we can raise the funds. We're still working through that. Um, and at this point, we are ready to ask them to help provide some of the funding. It's about $4 million is what we have had drawn up. We and we did everything they asked us to do. They told us the architect to use that was approved by Union County. We spent $10,000 and we did everything they asked us to do with their vendors and then they told us no. And what we have put together will also work at Marvin and Cuthbertson. So we are working with Marvin and Cuthbertson as well. Our schools are the exact same um plans and what they build at our what we have

drawn up will work at Cuthbertson and we'll work at Marvin. So Marvin went to the village of Marvin and they got a resolution from the village of Marvin just supporting the need for the high school. And so I'm coming to you guys asking for a resolution that you are in support of the need that we have at our high school to help put pressure on the county, the public school system. [clears throat] We know that there's not a means for you to provide funding. We're not asking for funding. We are just asking for support from the town uh to help put pressure in other areas and get this project moving along. Um, yeah. Do you have any other questions?

I don't think so, but uh I think you said earlier Weddington is at 106%. Correct. They they are um Weddington is at 106% capacity. Marvin is right behind us at 104 and Cuthbertson is at 100.6% capacity. We are the three most over capacity by far. the next uh well, Porter Ridge falls in at 98% and then there's a significant falloff, right? And it's been an issue for years of getting money to the west side of the county, which is really the bigger issue [clears throat]

that we are we are continually told no, no, no. In fact, tomorrow we're just trying to get a locker replacement at Marvin that they've been told no for. And it makes at no cost to the county. The booster club is paying for it. Um, so again, we're just trying to get some support to put some more pressure on the county to Right. Do you have Sun Valley first uh capacity rate in front of you? I do. 76.5%. Yeah, [clears throat] there is a desperate need and I am in full support.

Yeah. No, and I'd like to read the resolution too to to get a vote approval from you guys. And and again, guys, you know, we don't fund the schools. You understand how that works, you know, so they're not asking for money and don't get that on social media that we're paying the $4 million or whatever it would be. Don't don't go down that rabbit hole. But uh so no uh we we would just like to support the school and uh and I think it's important to to do that and to give them you know stand behind them and uh and so with that being said I'd like to read the resolution to you know that we can support them on uh resolution support of Wington Athletic Booster Club funding proposal to construct a multi-million dollar or multi-purpose athletic facility at Weddingington High School. Uh it's resolution 2026-02. Whereas Wington High School opened in 2000 to serve approximately 750 students. Whereas since the opening student population is 2.65 uh 2.65 65 times higher uh at approximately 1,900 students reflecting the rapid residential growth in Wington community and the continued excellence of the Union County Public Schools. And whereas Wedington High School now serves between 650 and 750 a student athletes. uh meaning the number of student athletes alone nearly equals to school total enrollment when it was first constructed. And whereas Weddingington High School is ranked number one for public high schools for ath athletics for three years in a row row according to Nish ratings. Whereas student participation in athletics at Wington High School continues to increase each year. Whereas

participation in athletics promotes physical health, athletic engagement, discipline, teamwork, leadership, and a sense of belonging to all values that strengthen both individuals, students, and the community as a whole. And whereas the current weightlifting and strength and conditioning facility was designed for a student population of roughly a thousand and is now operating well beyond the intended capacity, resulting in crowded and extended use from early morning till late evening. And whereas these coni conditions have created safety challenges limited access for student athletes and increased risk of injury due to insufficient space and equipment availability. And whereas Weddington Athletic Booster Club has offered to fund the construction and improvement of a new or expanded strength and conditioning facility entirely through private donations at no cost to taxpayers or Union County Public Schools. And whereas such investment would would improve safety, enhance athletic performance, and reinforce the Weddington community long-standing commitment to excellence in academics, arts, and athletics. Now therefore, be it resolved that the town of Weddington, North Carolina, hereby expresses its strong support for Weddington Athletic Booster Club's proposal to fund and construct an improved strength and conditioning facility at Weddington High School through private donations. And be it further resolved that the town council, Weddingington Town Council, encourages the Union County Board of Elections to approve and facilitate this facility.

This privately funded improvement project in partnership with Winningington Athletic Booster Club, ensuring compliance with all relevant construction, safety, and district guidelines. And be it finally resolved that the town of Weddington commends the Weddington Athletic Booster Club parents, students, and community supporters for their dedication to enhancing safety among the students, health and opportunity, and for the continuing to make Weddington High School a model of community pride and achievement. Can I get a motion on on the uh

motion? Yes. Okay. Second to accept the resolution. Yes. Okay. 2026-01. Okay. We don't need a second. Oh, 20262. 2602. Do I have a wrong copy? Anyway, yes. Yeah. Resolution 20262. [laughter] Okay. 202602 [clears throat] in support of eliminating the connection of Weddington. Do I have to say all that? Okay. Yeah, you're good. [laughter] All right. Whatever. Do I even have the right month here? I don't [laughter]

I get all in favor. Okay. It's unanimous. So, we will present this to you and thank you so much. And uh we are totally supportive of the school and what you guys are doing. and I know you work work work to raise money and I'm going to have you to come back and speak on another subject here in a second. So, thank you for all you guys are doing down there. You're welcome.

Okay.

Oh, I see.

Okay. Uh next we have um uh Kindle Communication uh the presentation and possible consideration of allowing environmental testing of town property. Uh I will say this before um uh Kyle comes up. Um we have Kyle um Himbright. He's the founder and CEO of K Kindle Communication with us tonight. And uh several months ago um um we've all experienced um uh drop calls uh sections of town that just you know your sales service doesn't doesn't work. Kendall came and did a presentation for the a number of us uh sort of letting us know our deficiencies in our sales service. You know uh drop like I said drop calls. There's actually areas of town that uh the deputies uh reached out to uh Chief Deputy Underwood and uh he informed me that there's areas of town that uh the sheriff's office when they get outside their car, their personal radios don't work. To me, that's a safety issue. Um they have to get back in their car to to reconnect. And uh so uh I'm not saying it's all over Weddington, but there are pockets where that is an issue. There's also issues uh uh at our schools uh the Weddingington the three the cluster schools down there. It's like a it's like a pocket. There's there's like no cell service. And in fact, I'm gonna have Sarah to come back up here in a second before before uh Kyle comes up and just sort of, you know, share with some of the things that goes on with the schools down there. I've reached out to um um the um principal Kevin Bills of Weddingington High School. have a lengthy letter here

stating the uh the safety issues uh uh that's going on with that pocket of no communication. The um actually um uh Union County Public Schools have gone in and tried to do a uh like a uh like a little subtype uh Wi-Fi system and uh Principal Bills tells me that it's spotty at best. It's in and out. Um, Chief Deputy Underwood uh actually had the deputies at the RSO officers go in and do a test for me and there's classrooms there is just no cell service and um and there's certain areas that you just can't get out and it just it's not just one carrier, it's every carrier. So, we have an issue there in that school. Even up here at um the school up here, uh it Marvin um um

Ray Ray View, the same situation in in that school. Uh the deputies did a test up there for us. So, uh we we have we have an issue with with that. Um in fact, Chief Deputy Underwood sent me a letter of the situations and the problems that we're we're having with our schools and with the communications in town. Um, with that little bit of said, I'd like to have Sarah come back up and just, you know, share some of her experiences down there, what they have to deal with with the booster club, with a, you know, when they have events on campus.

So, as times have progressed, everybody wants to pay with Apple Pay or Card, and we don't have good enough cell service. So, the booster club pays $315 per month to run three ticket booths and two concession stands. We couldn't even run. We couldn't even do digital ticketing, which Union County Public School System has made us go to to digital ticketing. We don't have any control over that, but the booster club pays for the Wi-Fi for that. That is cheap. Um, I went back and looked and in previous years the cost was as high as $375 a month. We have been paying that since at least co so at least 2020 if not a year or two before when we started taking digital payments um or online payments. Um well actually I have it at 2018. I did go back and check. So since we've been paying that, so those funds could be allocated to other things, but instead they're allocated to using a electronic ticketing system that we have no choice but to use and then to accept payments in our concession stand. I have been a parent at the Wellington campus since 2011. Um, and progressively over the years, the service has gotten worse. Um, I spend a lot of time at the schools. Um especially be before an athletic event or at on the times when nobody's at the school, my phone works fairly well. As more people, as the students come, as the parents come for events, especially the football games, the service is just non-existent. And it doesn't matter. It does not matter who the self carrier is. Everybody's going, "Do you have service? Do you have service? Do you have service?" When we're trying to

communicate between our concession stands, we might get a text might go through, a phone call might go through, or we're running between the stands to communicate to each other. But overall, it is a safety issue. Um, you can't get a hold of your kids to pick them up after an event. You don't know where they're going to be or if they're going to be there. You always have to have [clears throat] another plan in place. But it has always been an issue for as long as I have been there. And as the population of the school has gotten larger, it's become worse of an issue. And then sometimes when I leave the school, I've got to get past 12 Mile Creek or past Deal Road to even get a bar and then have to sometimes I have to restart my phone to even get it to connect back up.

So, it's very frustrating. Um, it is there is no blockage either. The school is not blocking. I just talked to a friend on the way here who thought she goes, "No, they're blocking it." I said, "No, they're not blocking it. It's never been blocked." So, that is a myth as well. Right. Did you say you pay 315 plus 375 a month? No. Previous years it was as high as 375 a month. We are currently at 315 a month. Got it. And you're having to raise that each time just to pay for that. I mean, donations to booster club. Yeah. Yes. Right. It's not like the school is paying that. your your your Oh, no. That's the booster club is paying that. Yeah, it's coming out of it's a cost of business.

It's a cost of business. It's the cost of being able to run the concession stand, but it's also the cost of being able to run the ticket booths. You know, maybe we would choose to not have electronic ticketing, but we don't have a choice in that matter. I don't know if the booster club said that they wouldn't pay for the mobile hotspots. Maybe school would have to pay for it, I guess. But we're saving the school, I guess, having to spend their funding on it.

And and really too, you know, with all the craziness that's going on in, you know, across the country, you know what I'm talking about, this is a major safety issue. If you can't, if something were to happen in a classroom or whatever, and can't call out for help, we got a problem. And we've gotten emails where there's been lockdowns because of things happening around the perimeter of the high school and it was hit or miss if you can get a hold of your kid or they might message you. But you you there's no reliability at all right with it. So a better cell service would be fantastic for the parents. Yeah. Well, thank you Sarah. I appreciate that. But [clears throat]

uh Kyle uh Heimbrite is like I said earlier is the founder and CEO of Kindle Communication. Um, come on up, Kyle. And, uh,

Mayor Bell, council members, thank you. Um, it's good to see you all again and happy new year. Wow. Um, thank you so much that you've got so many thoughts rolling through my head right now. [laughter] Um, I will try and keep it condensed. So, um, as Mayor Bell said, my name is Kyle Hbrright. I own Kendall Communications and as such um I am contracted by Galaxy Towers um who specializes specifically in tough to get into jurisdictions. And what I mean by that is um we all want cell phone coverage, right? But nobody wants to look at a tower. [laughter] Um and it it plagues a lot of communities, right? Um, you know, when you get into uh some rural areas, you know, sometimes you don't have so much say in in design of a tower and how that works. Um, you see the standard Monopole or Lattis tower out there. Um, Galaxy working with the um all three carriers, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. uh they work with their RF engineers in identifying areas that really need coverage, especially in urban areas. And then on top of that, um what we like to do is kind of work with the jurisdictions and finding a solution that we can get coverage into the areas that really really need it. Um, you know, I've had a lot of time driving around Wington. Um, you know, looking at the coverage maps, seeing where we need coverage. The topography here is challenging. Um, you know, it's it's why you're experiencing some of the issues that you have. Um, you've got the trees, you've got the hills, all of that plays into coverage. And with the areas that have been narrowed down to where, you know, we're looking to put towers, we

decided it was in our best interest to approach the town. Uh I believe that was last September and have just a general discussion and see what the flavor was of being able to to work through and and come to a solution to provide coverage for the town. Um as such one of the parcels that uh we are looking at um which I'll show later in the in the presentation um one of those parcels is town property and as such there's a lot of environmental studies that we have to do before we can even get to the point of even building a tower and those take months on end. Um we have to do soil tests, we have to do regulatory approvals etc. Um, and so part of me being here tonight is one to kind of inform you of that conversation that we had back in September and then also um hopefully gain approval to start moving forward to at least look at doing those environmental studies. And this would be at no cost to the town. Um, we need to make sure that the ground is actually okay for us to even consider going there. Um, so what I'd like to do is kind of walk through some of the slides pretty quickly here. Um, the very first slide, Karen, is uh just a brief explanation of Kendall Communications and Galaxy Towers. Um, again, Galaxy primarily focuses on There we go. primarily focuses in jurisdictions where it's a little more challenging and we come up with some design solutions that make it a little more aesthetically pleasing in the communities. Those certainly costs more, but it's certainly worth it to provide the coverage. Um, as Mayor Bell had uh had mentioned, you know, coverage and connectivity,

especially when it comes to schools and EMS, it's becoming more critical. Um, I am aware that EMS has had some challenge here in the area. I've spoken with the fire department and we were in here in September. Um, so we're hoping to mitigate a lot of that with uh the addition of the tower in the area. Um, when there are issues, you know, I know that we are we're moving away from the traditional copper lines out west in California. AT&T has already started pulling out copper lines. it actually costs them more to run the legacy systems than it does wireless now. Um you'll see that there's a lot of communities that have moved over to fiber. So you know maybe you have a who's your cable provider here

spectrum. So you have like the two in one or three in one bundle where you get the home phone etc. Well if there's a fiber issue that phone goes down right? So cellular would be your backup to that. Um the next slide Karen if you would please will uh this is going to be repetitive for literally the three next slides but um each carrier has frequencies dedicated solely to EMS. um AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon uh have dedicated its own slice of the network purely for EMS. That way it is not hampered by regular public communication in the event of emergencies etc. So that will be the same on the next slide with Verizon and the same thing with AT&T. Uh the following slide kind of shows um what we're looking at here as far as a proposed site location. Uh you would look right here at the middle of the map and that will give you a star right there. Um this is the township or I'm sorry the town parcel. And then what we're looking to do is I know you can't see it too well on that legend, but within the different colors of the little octagons that are out here, you can kind of see what the coverage currently looks like. So you can see it's very spotty. There's a lot of areas, you know, the white areas where there's no coverage or limited coverage. Um, so we're really looking to improve that for the community.

Uh, the next slide actually talks about the parcel um itself. Um, we're kind of working this backwards. Um, and what I mean by that is traditionally I reach out to a property owner and I look for interest within the given area that we're trying to provide coverage. Um, we work on getting a lease agreement together. We've already done our zoning due diligence and we know that we can go there. Um, in this case, we're working backwards because we know it's a very beautiful town here. Um, and we want something that's going to be more aesthetically pleasing. So, we're really looking more for your input. And as we go further into the slides, you know, in terms of design and things of that nature, um, what I'm showing you is just something that was proposed, just an idea. And with that, again, it's looking for comments back from the board here. Um, you know, as we kind of work through this process on on what that may look like. So, anything uh depicted here is is purely for uh for deper uh viewing purposes only. Uh at this particular location, we had proposed a uh what we call the stealth monopine. Um I know that there is one right over by my hotel. [laughter] Um it's probably not the best monopine that I've seen. Um I have seen some that are much more robust than the one that's over there. Um but for this particular location, what we had had thought would blend in in the trees and in the area would be a monopine. Um the next slide kind of show you uh just a rough idea of what this will look like. [snorts] Um again the parcel

and then the next slide after that again we'll give you the uh street corner here the parcel itself and then a little more detail on um exactly where the the pine would sit um based off a survey. Next slide please. A little more granular detail. Um, this kind of shows that we can put multiple carriers. So, T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon being able to effectively cover that area. And the next slide, this one here will show you um the photo simulations from various viewpoints of again that monopine and what it would look like as you're driving around town. The next slide please. So here you would see this is view number one. Um so this is west of Deal Road. Uh you would see uh the very top of the pine. Uh if you're looking at the before and the after the red arrow depicting where the monopine would be. The next slide. Again this one here is going to be east of Deal Road. um a little more prominent here, but again blending into um topography here in the area. Next slide. Uh this one here is going to be um let's see, Buddington Road looking west or east of Deal Road. Um so again um you would see the before and after here. And next slide. This one here is Weddington Road looking

east from Shannon Woods Lane in the B before and after and it's not visible um in the after. The next slide, this one here is um corner of Weddington High School Stadium Road and Deal Road looking south towards Weddington Road and you should not be able to see the tower there. And again before and after here looking Weddington Road looking west uh again from the high school. And then um let me see here. The next one goes into the fire department. And I'm going to kind of roll through those kind of quickly. It's it's basically the same thing that you know we're looking at here. So with the volunteer fire department, uh we did speak with them um on a few different occasions. They do have interest, but again um we are looking for town input here. And what I'm going to show you here again is just a proposed design from things that we've seen that have worked in other communities. And again, we're open to design and and how that may um transform over time. Next slide, please. This here shows the current uh coverage over by the fire department. I should note that fire department did tell me that they also have um several pockets throughout the county where they do lack coverage. Uh, one thing that Galaxy Towers has committed to on both towers is um providing free of charge space on the tower for any EMS equipment should they choose to to move in that direction and help improve coverage. Next slide, please. This here we are proposing a clock tower. So, this is

kind of more like a triangle, if you will. Um, this clock tower again should be able to accommodate all three carriers and all three carriers have expressed interest in locating at at this parcel. This would kind of be back in the back corner um of the fire station and it's going to be kind of right back behind I believe they've got a trash um trash bin back there and a fence. Um, and you can see where we've kind of highlighted there the compound where the tower would be located. Next slide, please. This here would be a before and after of the tower on the actual parcel. Next slide. This here um again will mimic just like we went through the other one showing the different viewpoints. Next slide, please. This here would be um the view Marvin School uh road looking west. So you would see the tower. Uh this one here would be Marvin School Road looking east. You would see it just barely above the tree there. The next one would be Marvin Road between Churchill Downs and Rockford Glenn. And the next one would be Crane Road looking uh to the northeast. Following would be Corner of Providence and Marvin School Road looking west and the next one would be Weddington Church Road looking south. That's the end of those slides. Um so really what we're looking to do is kind of take the next steps with the town. Um looking to get in and at least do some environmental surveys.

um we would need to do a nepa shipo um phase one um as we discussed before and then that should tell us if you know the soil is adequate enough for us to to consider putting a tower in there and again that would be at no cost to the town. We would then continue working with the town throughout this process um on design and then eventually get into the entitlements piece of that. Um so that would pretty much wrap up the presentation that I would have here tonight. Trying to be cognizant of time. Um but do any of you have any questions?

I'm not clear on what locations. It's I don't have a packet. I don't have any information that you gave me. So, I don't know. I'd be more Well, I've kind of got the same question. Um I [clears throat] know the corner down there on 84 that you talked about that the town owns. I'm not familiar with the fire station property. Are you just looking for approval to do the town property? just the town property because the station property is is private property. Well, that's kind of what I thought. So, you're just looking for permission to the corner on just for the town. Correct. For the town [clears throat] property.

And and just to remind you, you know, this is this is no commitment to the you know, the council is not committing to anything, you know, whether the council does this or not, you know, in the future. It's just looking at the doing a soil test just to see if it work. Then if if it did work, then then that would be something that the town would move forward on. Or if they chose not to, you know, that's just they're just doing a presentation, right? Well, so I'm sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead. I just [laughter] I was like, where is it and then what will that service and what will it still not service? Like before I'm willing to say, okay, let's go test. I need to understand some of the details, I guess.

Sure. So [clears throat] what I can do is I can provide you directly um detailed coverage maps of what that's going to look like. So the enhanced coverage um for that particular parcel. Um what I'll do is I will take the presentation that we have tonight. I what I did is I took presentations and just condensed it for the purposes of this meeting. Um, but I would be more than happy to send you the presentations that we have that actually have exact location. [clears throat] Sure.

Address, parcel number, whatever. Sure. And on top of that exact location, I would like to see I know we saw a map where it showed like the star of the location we were looking at. I would then like to see what the proposed coverage like how do those colors change in terms of coverage. That's what I would send. Yeah. Correct. Correct. I have one additional question. Sure. I mean, you heard a connectivity problem down at the high school and the school's there. You have any forecast as to whether that tower will help that situation down at the school?

I will look specifically at that school. I will go back to the RF engineers and see what that coverage looks like with that tower being at that location. And have you before we look at building new, have you looked at doing any changes to anything that exists and does that take care of anything? So with the existing towers, the topography around here is creating the issues that you're currently seeing. There is currently a stealth cross. Um trying to remember the proper the name of the property

went to Methodist Church there.

Yes, thank you. Um AT&T is hampered by the design of that cross to be able to put in any additional equipment there. When you get into certain stealth designs, like a cross or let's say a flag pole, there's a lot of equipment that has to get crammed inside. I'm going to use a flag pole for example, inside a canister. So, you've got the antennas, you have the radios, um you have the the fiber cables coming down to the ground equipment. Um, I can tell you right now that FirstNet will never be on on that cross. There's not enough room. First of all, AT&T needs gets