City Council

Minutes Forsyth City Council Meeting August 3, 2020 Call to Order Mayor Wilson called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. Pledge of Allegiance, Invocation and Roll Call Mayor Wilson led the Pledge of Allegiance. Mr. Hewett gave the invocation. Present for the meeting in person was Mayor Eric Wilson, Councilmembers Mike Dodd, Greg Goolsby, Chris Hewett, and Melvin Lawrence. Present for the movie by video conference was Councilmembers John Howard, and Julius Stroud. Also present in person for the meeting was City Attorney, Bobby Melton; City Manager, Janice Hall, and City Clerk Regina Ivie. All members of Council were present for the meeting therefore all unanimous votes will be six (6) votes (Goolsby, Dodd, Stroud, Howard, Lawrence and Hewett). Approval of the Agenda Mr. Hewett offered a motion to approve the agenda as presented. Seconded by Mr. Dodd; the motion carried unanimously. Approval of the Minutes for the July 20, 2020 Council Meeting Mr. Goolsby offered a motion to approve the minutes from the July 20, 2020 Council Meeting as presented. Seconded by Mr. Dodd; the motion carried unanimously. Public Hearing – Alcohol beverage pouring license for BMK Group LLC at 12 W. Main Street Mr. Melton stated the application is for Lucio Castillo with the BMK Group at 12 W. Main Street (formerly Blue Tick Restaurant); for the sale of alcoholic beverages (beer/malt-pouring, and wine pouring and distilled spirits by the drink); tax parcel F26 047. It was advertised in the Monroe Reporter on July 22, and July 29, 2020. Mayor Wilson opened the floor in favor of or opposition of the alcohol beverage pouring application. There being no interest to speak for or against the application Mayor Wilson closed the public hearing. Mr. Hewett offered a motion to approve the alcohol beverage pouring license. Seconded by Mr. Dodd; the motion carried unanimously. Approval of resolution authorizing second amendment to intergovernmental agreement Ms. Hall stated the resolution for the amendment is to allow for reduction of energy consumption while computer equipment is replaced. Mr. Dodd offered a motion to approve the resolution as presented. Seconded by Mr. Hewett; the motion carried unanimously. Approval of agreement with Norfolk Southern Railway Company Ms. Hall stated Norfolk Southern Railway is requiring the City to increase the height of the poles in several locations; once complete AT&T and cable company will move there’s too. A correction on page 1 and page 8 was requested with the agreement regarding the name to reflect City of Forsyth; remove electric department; and to update the address. A permit fee of $8,500.00 was waived; we will pay the $1,900 Risk Management Fee. After some discussion regarding the need to remove the lines, and fees Mr. Goolsby offered a motion to approve the agreement with Norfolk Southern Railway Company. Seconded by Mr. Dodd; the motion carried with five (5) votes (Goolsby, Dodd, Howard, Hewett and Lawrence); one abstention by Mr. Stroud.  Page |2 Set tentative 2020 Millage Rate and Public Hearing Date Mr. Dodd offered a motion to set the tentative millage rate at three (3) mils and to set the public hearing date for September 8, 2020. Seconded by Mr. Hewett; the motion carried unanimously. Approval of Requisitions Greater than $5,000 Ace Pole Company Inc. - $5,960.00 Davis Plumbing - $13,426.00 Mr. Hewett offered a motion to approve the requisitions as presented. Seconded by Mr. Howard; the motion carried unanimously. City Manager’s Report Ms. Hall provided the following report: • Residents on Pinkney Circle have complained regarding the undeveloped property on Pinkney Circle; two of the residents have been paying someone to cut the grass along the edge of the property. Code Enforcement has been out and spoke with the property owners that have complained and has sent a letter to the property owner; however because the residents on the street are keeping up the grass, there is not a lot code enforcement can do. I have spoken with the daughter of one of the complainants, Winifred Berry who is here tonight, and advised her of the same that code enforcement has previously told her and the other property owners. As long as they keep up the property, we cannot begin the process of contacting the property owner to maintain the property. There is nothing in the code regarding allowing trees to grow on undeveloped property. We have contacted the property owner and advised the residents that are maintaining the property that they might want to contact them as well to advise that they will no longer be cutting the grass. • Code Enforcement has asked if council would consider a panhandling ordinance to assist the police department with the increased number of destitute people frequenting Forsyth. If so, we can begin writing an ordinance to bring back for approval. • Night Market has decided to not hold any concerts until next year. Our first concert with them would be the first Saturday in April 2021. • Regional Commission has begun work on rewriting of our personnel manual; will write city manual first then CVB to compliment it; should be completed by end of November. • Working with Regional Commission to find grants for Park Master Plan; will most likely still be several large grants and not just one due to size of the projects; may change up the phasing a little to cover more park areas each time rather than the phasing the TSW included in their last presentation • 1st round of Cares Act funding was received $64,858; will be submitting documentation for funds expended and hope to qualify for additional funding. • Only received response from Lawrence and Hewett regarding wanting to attend a roundtable review with the department heads for COVID-19 shutdown; Stroud has now returned back to school so don’t know if afterhours meeting would work better or not; tentatively scheduled for this Wednesday at 9:00 am • We continue to receive violations for copper at the NEWWTP; remediation is in the plant upgrade, Hofstadter will be submitting report to EPD again on our behalf for CAP. • Highway 41 water line project bids due 9/14. • Letters were sent to all property owners/residents in the Blount Street area advising of CDBG project NTP for 8/3 • LMIG NTP 8/24 for W Johnston, Phelps and Pinkney Circle • Incode upgrade and migration was completed Wednesday; all software on new server except 1 and that is being scheduled. • Post forwarded to me regarding concern for number of accidents at 4-way stop at Indian Springs/Johnston; researched and found that since 4-way installed in October 2018 there have been 3 accidents which is considerably less than before the 4-way was installed. Post was requesting that stop signs with solar flashing lights be installed. Cost of stop sign is $126 and cost of stop sign with solar flashing lights is $1425. Just reporting to you and not recommending that signs be changed. Forsyth City Council – August 3, 2020  Page |3 • GDOT completed one of the traffic studies. They will be recommending that the speed limit from Patrol Road to North Frontage be reduced from 40 to 35; speed limit from North Frontage to Town Creek remain at 45 and speed from Town Creek out remain at 55. • Working on the last of the 2019 audit; we did decide to not submit a CAFR report this year since 100% of the audit has been done via email, phone and scanning due to COVID-19. Regina has done a remarkable job with this being her first full audit and the first year for a new auditor. Waiting on one final report regarding IT and audit will be ready to submit. • We will have a seat on Planning & Zoning coming open in couple weeks. I will be sending out the board appointments listing for your review and to remind you of the qualifications of serving on the boards. • Planning & Zoning meeting and recommendations: o Recommend not approving the sign variance request from Forsyth Liquor o Tabled sign variance from Fox City Brewing for owner to attend meeting and provide additional information on sign/mural o Tabled parking space widths – Planning and Zoning withdrew request to amend the parking space width. Mr. Dodd offered a motion to take no further action regarding the parking space widths within the City. Seconded by Mr. Hewett; the motion carried unanimously. • Reminder to those that have not responded to the Census, to please do so; State self-reporting as of 7/30 was 58.6%; Monroe County was 59%; and Forsyth was 54.4%. Our response rate is very low. Census will begin sending out letters encouraging those in low responding areas to submit their response. This can be done online and only take a few short minutes to complete. Please help get the message out that everyone needs to respond, and everyone needs to be counted. So many times the young are missed in the Census count – everyone counts so please respond. City Attorney Report Mr. Melton stated it’s in everyone’s best interest to complete the 2020 Census; and it can easily be done online. Mayor’s Report Mayor Wilson stated he’s feeling much better; expressed his appreciation to all that reached out to him while he was sick. He encouraged everyone to do the right thing, wear a mask, social distance, to wash our hands to stop the spread of the virus. Council Board Reports Mr. Hewett stated Housing Authority has a meeting planned for Thursday, August 6, 2020 at 9:00 a.m. Additional Business No additional business was brought forward. Public Comments No one came forward for public comments. Executive Session Mayor Wilson stated an executive session was necessary to discuss a personnel matter. Mr. Goolsby offered a motion to adjourn the Council Meeting and enter into Executive Session. Seconded by Mr. Dodd; the motion carried unanimously. The Council Meeting adjourned into Executive Session at 6:47p.m. Mr. Dodd offered a motion to adjourn the Executive Session at 6:59 p.m. Seconded by Mr. Goolsby; the motion carried unanimously. Adjourn There being no further business to discuss Mr. Lawrence offered a motion to adjourn the Council Meeting. Seconded by Mr. Hewett; the motion carried unanimously. The Council Meeting adjourned at 7:00 p.m. Forsyth City Council – August 3, 2020