City Council

City of Bowdon Mayor and Council Meeting Monday, February 12, 2024 7:00PM Mayor and Council Chambers, 182 Grammar School Road I.- VI. Agenda Items: The Mayor and City Council met for a regular meeting on Monday, February 12th, 2024. The meeting was called to order by Mayor Randy Saxon at 7:00PM. The invocation was led by Councilmember Wes McEntyre and was followed with the Pledge of Allegiance. Members present: Mayor Randy Saxon Mayor Pro-tem Marty Johnson Councilmember Jan Johnson Councilmember Wes McEntyre Councilmember Bobby Elliott Staff present: City Manager Gary Bullock Police Chief Mark Brock City Clerk Susan Pierce Main Street Director Jan Gibbs The minutes from January 8, 2024 meeting and the called meeting on January 18, 2024 were approved with no objections. The agenda was approved with no objections. Recognition of Bowdon High School FBLA Week Mayor Saxon recognized the Bowdon High School FBLA with a proclamation from the city recognizing February 11- 17, 2024 as National FBLA Week. VII. Public Comments None. VIII. Business Session A. Security Gates – Mr. Bullock reviewed the comparison bid sheets for installing security gates (identified in our risk assessment) at the Water Treatment Plant, the Wastewater Treatment Plant, and the Public Works shop. The plans are to install an automatic security gate system with pedestal and intercom capability at the water plant, install an automatic security gate with 2 keypads at the sewer plant, and modify the existing gate system and install an automatic open and closure gate with keypads and remotes at the Public Works shop. The bids are: Simply Solar Gates and Fabrication - $31,050 (requires a minimum of $14,000 down) Piedmont Fencing, LLC - $27,826 (pay when finished) West Georgia Fence – no bid received to date Mr. Bullock recommended Piedmont Fencing, unless West Georgia Fence comes in with a significantly lower bid. Piedmont’s bid is good for 30 days. Simply Solar’s bid is only good for 7 days. Councilmember Jan Johnson asked if the project would be funded from SPLOST. Mr. Bullock said it would come from ARPA, because it is part of infrastructure safety.  City of Bowdon Mayor & Council Meeting Minutes February 12, 2024 Motion by Councilmember McEntyre to approve recommendation for the security gates using Piedmont Fencing LLC at $27,826 as presented, provided West Georgia Fence does not submit a significantly lower bid in the next few days; second by Mayor Pro-tem Marty Johnson; motion carried unanimously. B. Bowdon Housing Authority Re-Appointment – Jill Richards Motion by Councilmember Jan Johnson to approve the re-appointment of Jill Richards to the Bowdon Housing Authority; second by Councilmember McEntyre; motion carried unanimously. C. City Manager reports – Mr. Bullock reported that we received a memo from our accountant Rick Hartley addressing the delay in the audit report, noting that changes due to the implementation of GASB #96, Subscription-Based Information Technology Agreements (SBITAs) were taking longer than anticipated to implement. There has also been an increase in workload and time related to the monthly bank reconciliations since the change in collateral arrangements at the bank associated with the cash sweep program. Rick hopes to have everything to the auditor in the next week or so. We have received renovation plans from an auto supply chain for the empty Walgreen’s building. We have not received the site plans for the Plunkett property as of now. We will forward to the Planning Commission as soon as we receive them. Councilmember McEntyre asked if the plans could be sent to the council as well. Mr. Bullock went to Smokin Pig as well to check on the progress of the new smokehouse and the change in the location of the driveway. The plans have already been approved by the Fire Marshall. D. Department Reports – no comments Mayor Saxon remarked that the Chamber Board met for lunch today at the Bowdon Senior Citizens building. IX. Financial Session A. Property Tax Unpaid Balance summary – no comments B. December Financial Reports – Mr. Bullock said we are on target with our budget. He also reminded council that we had received $38,287.06 from the Governor’s office to help cover the amount lost because of the tax break for homeowners. He also reported that we have not adjusted our commercial sanitary services rates since GFL’s increase of January 1, 2024, so we will have to look at increasing fees for commercial customers. We are also going to review all our fees, including fees on the coin operated amusement machines in the convenience stores. C. Cash balances as of 02/05/2024 – no comments Motion by Councilmember McEntyre to adjourn the meeting; second by Councilmember Elliott; motion carried unanimously. XI. Adjournment _________________________ ________________________ Mayor Randy Saxon City Clerk Susan Pierce