Town Council - Regular Meeting

Council meeting to order for August the 17th, 2026. Would we all please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

If everyone will remain standing. I would like for us to have a moment of silence honoring the family of Theda Bird and invocation.

Yeah.

Heavenly Father, we come to you this evening with heavy hearts. We just ask you, Lord, to put your hand upon the family of Bleeda Bird and all of her friends, coworkers. We just ask you to touch our hearts, Lord, and comfort us knowing that she is in your arms right now. Lord, we ask you to be with everyone during this meeting. that they tend to the town's business in a way that will be fair and just for all of the citizens. We pray this all in your name. Amen.

Amen.

I need a motion to approve the agenda.

Make a motion we approve the agenda as amended.

I have a motion by Councilman McGowan, seconded by Councilwoman Dobbins. All in favor? Aye. Anybody opposed? At this time, I would like to read a proclamation honoring the life and service of Mayor Fleabag. Whereas Fleeter A. Burr dedicated much of her life to the town of Wilson Mills and its residents, giving generously of her time, knowledge, talents, and heart to help save the community she loved. And whereas since the town's incorporation in 1996, Fleeter served the Wilson Mills community in numerous capacities, beginning as a dedicated volunteer supporting recreational activities, community programs, and town events, and continuing her service as the town's part-time planning director from 2006 through 2012, where she played a foundational role in establishing the town's planning framework and was instrumental in creating what's now the first planning ordinance, outplaying the groundwork for the town's future growth and development. where as we continue her public services that will take as a member of the Wilson still real town council from 2,013 to 2017 bringing her knowledge of the town its people history. So table. And whereas we look we elect the mayor of the town of Wilson meals beginning in 2021 and continued serving until her passing. carrying out the office with dedication, compassion, wisdom, and unwavering commitment to the community and its residents. And whereas Flea's service and compassion extended far beyond her official municipal responsibilities, as she demonstrated visionary leadership and unwavering faith during the foundational stages of welcoming Hope Center Ministries into the Wilson Mills community, and was instrumental in establishing the first Hope Center House in Johnson County, opening doors of hope and transformation for women in need. And whereas Fleva and her husband Donald devoted their time, hearts, and lives to pouring love, grace, faith, and support into the women of the Wilson and Mills Hope Center, generously opened her greenhouses on Wednesdays, and offering the women a place to work, learn, connect, and experience therapeutic fellowship surrounded by nature. And whereas through her gentle spirit, exceptional ability to listen, and genuine compassion, Flea became a trusted confidant and sounding board to the women she served, consistently offering wise, faith-filled encouragement and guiding each woman towards spiritual growth, healing, and a renewed sense of hope. And whereas through this quiet and deeply personal ministry, Fleeter demonstrated that her greatest legacy was not found solely in the offices she held, but in the lives she touched through her faith, compassion, generosity, and willingness to serve others. And whereas throughout her years of service, Flea became widely known as the town's unofficial historian, preserving stories, memories, tradition, and knowledge of the people and events that shaped Wilson's Mills and ensuring that the town history would not be forgotten. And whereas Flea witnessed and contributed to the growth and evolution of Wilson's Mills over three decades, leaving her mark not only to the offices she held, but through the countless relationships she built and the lives she touched because her commitment to Wilson Mills extended far beyond any title or elected office. And whereas the town of Wilson Mills recognizes that the loss of Flea is felt deeply by her family, friends, fellow public servants, and the entire community she served so faithfully, her faith, compassion, and devotion to others are enduring parts of her legacy, and her contributions will remain a meaningful part of the story and history of Wilson Mills for generations to come. Therefore, be it proclaimed that the Mayor Pro Tem and Town Council of the Town of Wilson Mills, on behalf of the entire community, hereby honor and celebrate the life of an extraordinary public service of Flea A. Byrd and express our deepest, deepest gratitudes for her nearly three decades of service, leadership, friendship, faith, compassion, and devotion to the town of Wilson's Mills. Be it further proclaimed that in recognition of Mayor Byrd's dedicated service to the town of Wilson Mills, And in mourning her passing, the town council has determined that all flags displayed at the town facility shall be lowered to half-mast and shall remain at half-mast through sunset of the day of her burial, August 19, 2026, as a visible expression of the town's profound respect, gratitude, and sorrow at her passing. be it further proclaimed that the town council respectfully requests that residents, businesses, organizations, and other entities throughout the town of Wilson Mills join in honoring Mayor Byrd's life and service by voting their flags to ask staff to the day of her burial as a community-wide expression of respect, gratitude, and remembrance. Be it further proclaimed that the town of Wilson Mills extends its heartfelt condolences to Flea's family and loved one and recognize that her legacy will go on in the community she helped to build, the history she helped preserve, and the people she so faithfully served. be it further proclaimed that this proclamation shall be entered to the official records of the town of Wilson Mills as a lasting tribute to Fleeta A. Byrd, whose life of service helped shape the town of Wilson Mills and whose memory will forever be a part of history. Duly proclaimed this 17th day of August, 2026. Thanks to everyone. Okay, we have the consent agenda items.

Make a motion we approve the consent agenda items as presented.

Second. We have a motion to approve the consent agenda items as presented by Councilman McGowan. Seconded by Councilman Brown. Any more discussion? If there is no more discussion, all in favor? Aye. All opposed? Okay. Pick 41. PM, I'll open the first open forum. Anyone wishing to speak, please come to the podium, state your name, your address, and you have three minutes to speak.

We can do the public comment first. It's fine. And then there is a public hearing on the agenda before public comment. Oh, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry, let me go back to the public here. I just skipped right over it. I'm going to open the public here in the ordinance to extend corporate limits, Wilson Mills Fire Station number 3, parcel ID 05105022A. Do we have any?

We received an application from the Wilson's Mills Fire Department for Station 3 to have that annexed into the town. You have a copy of the ordinance as well as a copy of the map on where that is. They supplied all information needed and the clerk did everything that she needed to do also to make sure this was handled correctly.

Any more comments? If there are no more comments, do I have a motion?

I make a motion that we extend the corporate limits to Wilson's Mills Fire Station 3 and bring it into the corporate limits. Parcel ID being 05105022A, Adam.

Second. We have a motion to extend the corporate limits by Councilman Brown, seconded by Councilwoman Riley.

Any more discussion? I'd just like to make one statement. Are we being taped today? Yeah, I'd like it on the official record so everybody can see it. This has nothing to do with a data center. There's too much information going throughout Johnston County and Wilson's Mills that even though it plainly says it's a fire station, people think it's a data center. This is not a data center. Let's move on.

Okay, all in favor? Aye. All opposed? All right. That would be, we have extended the corporate limits. Now, well, I will open at 644. I will open the first form to anyone wishing to speak. Hold your comments for three minutes. Please come to the podium, state your name and your address, and three minutes to speak. No one wishing to speak. I will close the first open forum at 645 p.m. We will go to the regular business, and I'm first up, so I just want to say that I will be trying my best to do what Florida had been doing. I've got to get a call update on some meetings and stuff that I'll have to go to. But other than that, I'm going to try to keep doing whatever I can to keep us going until we find a mayor. And there will be a process coming up probably to select a new mayor. But right now, We're not going to worry about that, but that's basically all I want to say is we're going to try to keep this council moving like it's been moving, and I'm going to try my best to do what I can to make the mayor's office Hopefully you'll make it.

If I may, JC, I think I speak for the entire council that whatever you need help with, to attend meetings, the council's ready to do so.

I appreciate that. We're going to work together as a council to get this done. Any suggestions or anything, any one of you want to tell me at any time, my phone is open 24 hours a day. Thank you. And now I'll go to Leanna, the town manager.

Great. The first item on your agenda is a joint RFQ with Johnston County. This comes from the agreement that you just recently adopted with Johnston County. And one of the things in the agreement that we discussed with them was the town creating a master utility plan. Part of that will have to do with the county because the county maintains and builds for our sewer lines. We have a meeting scheduled this coming Friday, but they went ahead and sent this draft request for qualifications because we will need to find someone to to do the master plan. And this is in your budget this year. This is something that you've already budgeted for. But the county did offer to go in half and half because they. asked us to do that in the agreement and sending out a um joint request for qualifications for something like this because it's a larger project could save us some money so i just wanted to make you aware of that i can give you more information at your next meeting after we meet with them on friday but again this is something that you already knew that we were going to be doing this master plan and that the county has offered to to split the cost 50 50. so

I think that's very good that the county is going to offer to be a part of paying for it. So are you at this point looking for somebody?

More information, and if you have any comments that you'd like for us to take to the meeting on Friday, this isn't for you to approve the RFQ. That will come later once we've tweaked all of the fine lines, but I just wanted you to be aware of it, that the meeting was taking place.

and that this is a draft that we've come up with and we're going to discuss that on friday as well but this is this is not holding up any progress for the town based on us agreeing with what the county no sir us coming to an agreement that we're still enrolling this process of rolling forward in fact we've already received one two two three

three um letters of of will serve so on some of the projects sounds good that's moving forward correctly and and going very well this is just the next next step in what we discussed in the agreement and for those that are watching or going watch rfq simply stands for the request for quotation request for qualifications right qualification yeah so just to get more information on on what we have to do correct The next item on the agenda is the review of the town hall monument sign renderings. And I put another copy on your desk this evening. It is the same thing that you received at your work session. I just didn't know if you would all have those with you tonight. And I got mixed opinions on what it needed to be, but we have to move forward with one opinion. And because you are all not in agreement, then you need to come to an agreement tonight and vote on it so I know which way you want me to go with it.

If I may, I like option... I'll just start it off by saying I like option C. But with respect to option C, it boils down to, in my opinion, the seal or the logo. The seal is nice for formal documents, things that we send out, letters, proclamations, et cetera. When we're showing something to passersby or the populace, I like the logo that we put out because it says this is Wilson's Mills and it says this is who we are as opposed to the seal. So I'm option C with the logo.

All right, which one's option C in this packet?

It's the last one.

On the top left, it gives the option letter. And unfortunately, I sprang this on Emily, so she doesn't have it ready to go up on the screen, but she's looking for it.

Next to the last page.

For option C, I'm not I'm not against either one of the things, but I do like the seal.

The seal to me, it's official. It's letterhead, mailings, things like that to the public. It's official stuff. We've spent a lot of time and a lot of money on the logo, and I prefer to show it to the world as they pass by on the interstate. I like it. It's got color to it.

I hope we'll have opinions from everyone.

I like option C. I like option D.

But then I thought about it because it had the white bricks. I think it was all white bricks. And then I thought about it's going to be hard to keep that clean, especially with the trees. Will it be near the trees and the grass, all of that stuff? It's going to be hard on the trees. option D and I like option option C also because I think this is the same brick ain't this Leanna the same brick that's when we are entering into the town hall it's similar to that and similar to the brick on the one town sign that welcome sign that we have on fire department okay um Yeah, I like that, but I like the logo instead of the seal.

Thank you.

But I didn't like the logo in the brick. Couldn't it go on the top of like Town Hall campus, that name, where you can see it better?

I think if you put it up there, you're gonna have to then lower everything down and make the font on town hall campus smaller. And then there's no need to have that brick column on the right-hand side. So now it just looks like every other sign.

You're talking about taking the brick down on the right?

Well, yeah, there's nothing on the brick, whereas we have the logo or whatever we're gonna put there on the brick. So just take the brick down But then it looks like every other side.

And you were saying put the logo where?

Right there where the brick is. It's going to have color to it. So it's not going to be blending in with the brick. It's going to have a little color to it like our logo does.

What option is that? Option B.

these but that was great this one thing you just mentioned um it is we're trying to get it pulled up there but were you saying that you thought the logo would have color because i don't believe that it will okay well it's got more of a design than just a circle that says okay that's fine if it doesn't have color that's okay too it just says more than than the seal does yeah i like that i like the logo um

So if you, what you're talking about, not to be confusing, but if you'll back up and look at option B, the logo above where it says Town Hall Campus, Town of Wilson-Smills, that may be kind of how that looks, but the brick would be a little longer on the bottom. So it just decreases the wording. It does. Yeah.

Yeah. So would it have a brick wall on the side?

For which option? Okay, that's A. I don't think anybody wants that one. So you can keep going. Right, that's option B. So that would be if the logo was above the writing, the writing is a little smaller. But option C, and scroll down two more pages, that's, so what you were originally saying was that with the logo, but not on the brick. Right. Instead, because this is the town seal.

Yeah. And that's where, like I said, that reduces the font size and it reduces the overall size of the printing. So with the logo on the right, like this, it gives it, makes it a little bit more interesting.

And as a reminder, and you can see on the second page of every one of these, this will be in a, it'll be set up in a V shape. So it will be double sided so that from any. Yeah.

Oh, okay.

So from each side of the highway, you can see it coming down the road.

At an angle. Very nice.

Yes. Scroll down just a little bit.

Tim, what's your vote?

See how it's going to be. It'll be like that. Right.

I'm with y'all. You're what? I'm with y'all. I can't hear you. I'm with you guys. I'm good. Doris?

Well, I mean...

I didn't hear what Ms. Doris said.

I did. I said the one option C with the town seal, but looking at the colors, well, like she said, Leanna said, we won't have color. I mean, I'm sorry.

So I've kind of... Yeah, there wouldn't be color on it.

You changed the logo?

i guess proceed yeah okay so now it will it be brown is that is that i mean it'll be that's the closest he could get in the renderings but it'll be the the accent colors that we have from the work that we had done here okay like a dark yeah all right like a rust color so there would be no color in the logo at all I can ask him about that, but not normally. I mean, because we had the black and white version of the logo created as well for things such as this or stationary, anything like that. I can ask him. I don't know. I'm not sure. I don't know how that would look.

Let's just go with C. I'd say just go with C with the logo and roll on.

The logo, not the seal, because the seal is what's on it. That's too plain.

Do a straw vote there, Mayor?

Well, I think we've got a five-person alliance on C. Okay. Okay. From what I can see.

I got that. I got that.

Hey, David, let's see if we can have some, if we can see to have somebody make a motion.

Looking at you. All right. So we're going with what? We're going with option C with the logo, correct?

Good.

All right.

I'll make a motion. We go with option C and do the logo. Second.

I have a motion by Councilman Brown to go with option C with the logo, seconded by Councilwoman Riley. Anybody have any more discussion?

How long is this going to, or when is this proposed to be built?

Now that I know which option you want, I will probably know that by tomorrow afternoon.

Okay, cool.

All right. With no more discussion, all in favor? Aye. All opposed? Aye. We will be doing option C for the new town sign out there for Interstate 42.

I don't have any other comments.

All right. Planning Board, Ms. Overland, Ms. Winding.

I have to planning board members that are resigning their positions. As of the end of this month and they are they are Mister Donald Byrd and Mister Jim as well. So we need to replace those 2 and we actually had quite a few applications for that. The planning board. Recommended Mr. Benny Cherry for seat four and Mr. Alvin Hardy for seat eight. They are both in-town residents. You have their applications in front of you and we will need separate votes on those seats, please. And I think both of those are here tonight. If you have any questions, just they can come up to the mic.

I would like to give, can I do this, Councilman, or can I give them the opportunity to speak?

Certainly.

If either one or anyone else, I think, I don't think they're here, are they?

Mr. Cherry's not here, but Mr. Hardy is here.

Okay. Mr. Hardy, would you like to come up and say anything?

My name is Alvin Hardy. Excuse me. I've been living in Wilsonville since 2010. I'm retired, 75 years old, former police officer. a minister of the gospel. And I love analyzing data. And I understand there's a lot of data that has to be analyzed on the planning board. So if you have any questions to ask me, here I am.

One of the, Mr. Hardy, one of the big things I think over the years has been a lot of the folks on there, not a lot, but some of them have not been able to attend on a regular basis. Can you sort of commit to being there as part monthly, on a monthly basis, every time, because the planning board is such a vital part of this community. And we take their advice seriously. So when we have people like you who seem to be highly qualified, we pay attention to what they put before us for a final decision. But I'd like to make sure that you're going to be able to attend all the meetings.

Only if the Lord wills.

And the wife. Well, can't overlook that part.

That's so true.

Okay.

I will say that Mr. Hart and Mr. Alvin has been coming to our meetings every month to get a gist of what goes on and being a part. Thank you for doing that too. Thank you, sir.

I would just like to say, and I guess I'm, I think I might be, no, I know Ms. Riley was on the planning board before I decided to run for the council. I was on the planning board, I think seven or eight years. And, and, Again, what Mr. McGowan said, I don't know whether I missed a meeting in the eight years I was on the board. So I'm like him. I want somebody that's going to be there, and I think you're going to be the person for us. So I really feel good about this. Thank you for being here. Thank you for answering our questions.

Yes, sir. I make a motion that... That we approve Mr. Benny Cherry.

Mr. Hardy.

We have to do one. We got to do one at a time. To fill vacant seat number four.

We have a motion that Mr. Cherry fill vacant seat number four. Do I have a second?

Yes.

Seconded by... Councilwoman Dobbins, discussion.

I thought we were going to approve Mr. Hardy first. We're doing them in order. I'm just going in order. Stay there, Mr. Hardy. Don't go away.

Okay, I have a motion made by Councilman Brown, seconded by Councilwoman Dobbins. Any more discussion? I will just say I know Ben Cherry. I think he'll be here most all the time. I would recommend approving him. If anybody else got anything to say, they can. If there's no more discussion, all in favor? Aye. All opposed?

So Mr. Cherry will now be on the board. I make a motion that we approve Mr. Alvin Harding to fill vacant seat number eight on the planning board. Second. Second.

I have a motion made by Councilman Brown to approve Alvin Hardy as on board number 8C, seconded by Councilwoman Riley. We've heard from Mr. Hardy. Anybody else wants to say anything they can?

Welcome.

All in favor?

Aye.

I'll oppose. Thank you, Mr. Harney. Thank you, sir. I got one question for you, Ms. Wendy. With Mr. Byrd resigning, have you all figured out who will be the next chairman of the town planning board?

We actually had our organizational meeting at the August 3rd meeting, and Mr. Jay Mauser is who they elected for the new board. planning board chair, and Marvin Dodd was re-elected as the vice chair.

Okay, that's two very good choices.

Mayor, if I may? Can I speak for a second? Yes. You indicated that Donald Byrd and Jim Uzzell are no longer, they're resigning and they'll be okay. Mr. Byrd obviously isn't here for obvious reasons, but I know Mr. Uzzell is here. He's sitting right back there.

We're going to do something next month.

Well, that's okay. I'd like to do something right now. Okay. I've known Mr. Uzzell since I've been here, and he was the mayor of Wilson's Mills. We've had our differences over the years, but they went by the wayside a long time ago. And I just want to say how much I appreciate, and I'm sure the rest of the council does, Jim Uzzell's participation on the planning board. And like I said, Mr. Hardy, that's... As opposed to the council, it's one of the most important positions you can have within Wilson's Mills or any town. And Jim Muzzle did a fine job, and I certainly want to just say I appreciate everything. Thank you, Jim, and we wish you the best.

Yes, I want to say the same thing. Mr. Muzzle has been a major asset to this town, a major asset.

Very good.

Okay, Ms. Wendy.

The last thing I have on my agenda is the planning board had a discussion at our last meeting about the potential of changing our meeting time from 7 to 6.30, backing it up 30 minutes. That way we could leave a little earlier. Okay. There are several things you need to consider with this. Our work sessions for the town council is the same night as the planning board meeting. Some nights we're pushing it. We may need to move our planning board meeting to another night in order to change the time.

I don't know. I have a concern with changing it to 630 and keeping it on Monday night because you need to be in the planning board. There's times you also need to be in the meetings if we go into the closed session. So my suggestion would be that at your next meeting, We tabled this to the next meeting to see if the planning board would consider a Tuesday night rather than a Monday night. And even then, if it was a Tuesday night and they wanted to start at 6 o'clock rather than 6.30, whatever the time frame for them would be best if they want to get a little earlier if they're fine with 6.30, because I know we meet at 5 when we do our work session. But then you can ask them. Is 6.30 really the perfect time, or do they want to come and be at 6? I mean, I can go either way, but I just feel like we don't need to have them the same night and be fighting to get through what we're doing by 6.30 and do that.

I agree. I agree. And that was part of the discussion that they had was just to see what you said and what you recommended for me to take back to them. We'll discuss that next Monday night.

If anybody else. I don't like to be squeezed. You know, we've had it happen that I can remember at least three times where we had to rush so Wendy could get back. Or we just had to terminate our meeting a little bit early so that we can fit in the planning board. If they can do anything. So Mr. Hardy, you got your work cut out for you for the first shot. We wish you the best.

So the third option would be to table it until the September.

No, that's my suggestion that we table it.

September 21st meeting.

That would be the 21st. You need a motion? I make a motion we table the request by the planning board to meet at a different time until, was it next month, our regular meeting next month? September 21st of 2026.

I have a motion that we table the change of time for the planning board. until next month so that they can make a decision amongst themselves about what they would prefer to do. I have that motion was made by Councilman McGowan, seconded by Councilwoman Riley. Any more discussion? If no more discussion, all in favor? Aye. All opposed? The ayes have it. uh we'll talk we'll take that up next week next month after uh the discussion by the planning board at this time are there any councilmen who want to make some comments i i would just ask leanna have you heard anything about

re-signing I-42 slash US 70, whatever it may be. Have they ever decided when they're going to redo this section, the I-42? You're talking about adding the I-42 signs? Yeah, I'm not even sure how they, like for accidents. Did they dispatch it out at the intersection of Wilson's Mills Road and I-42 or U.S. 70? Mervin?

I don't know the answer to that. Both of them are at I-42. Okay. And it depends on what kind of thing. If it comes in with an automated track notification, if it gets them on telephone, it could be sent to I-42.

i i so that's that's confusing within itself i i i didn't know if you had any update on that or not not since the last time we talked i know the budget's tied on probably signage for d.o.t and you know i'm sure they're strapped the other battles the one i've been pushing more than anything i don't i don't know that's all right i don't have another another update for you on that

I just want to say that I'm not looking forward to this until we get done. And could you give me kind of a time frame of when we will start? Do we have an exact procedure for selecting someone to become the mayor? Sure.

There is a procedure. I didn't put it on the agenda tonight just out of respect. But you can certainly, I would think, maybe discuss it at your work session next week and figure out what you want your time frame to be.

Well, I mean, whatever the time frame that we have to have is fine with me. I'm just, you know.

It is, counselor, is there a set time frame or do we make that time frame as a council?

There's no set time frame. The statute merely says that town council shall fill a vacancy, but it doesn't give a time frame. So you can fill it as quickly as you'd like, or you can take your time and vet applicants, that sort of thing. So if you need more instruction on the mechanics of filling it, I can do that. Just let me know when you need some input.

okay that's all that's uh basically all i have anyone else have anything surprisingly no

I'll make a motion we go into closed session in accordance with general statutes. I'm sorry.

What are we doing? Excuse me. At this time, we'll have the second open forum at 7.14 p.m. Anyone wishing to speak, please come to the podium, state your name, your address, and you have three minutes to speak.

I'm Jim Uzzle. I reside at 138 C Uzzle Industrial Drive. Lived in Wilson's Mill since I was born. Extremely proud of where we are and what we're doing today for the most part. But this past week, we got an eyesore that I thought this was the perfect place to address it. The crew that cuts the grass on this wonderful I-40-70 bypass, 70 highway, have done the lousiest, poorest job I have ever seen. And if they get paid for doing it, it's ridiculous. They've robbed us. They don't have the right equipment. They haven't done a great job. And I hope the town will contact DOT and express, just look at it. Don't take my word for it. Just look. It's pitiful. And I think we need to complain because they put it through our town. I love the road. I love what it does. But I don't like it looking like that. I keep my grass cut and everybody in town pretty much does. And if we don't, we find them. So that's just my two cents worth.

Have a good day. Thank you. We'll look into that and see what can be done. Anyone else wishing to speak? If no one else is wishing to speak, I will close the open forum at 7.17 p.m.

I don't want to do it now. You chastised me the first time. Make a motion we go into closed session in accordance with North Carolina General Statute 143-318.11a, parentheses for economic development.

Do I have a second? All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Aye.