City Council

MAYOR P.O. Box 6, High Shoals, N.C. 28077 CLERK PJ Rathbone Tel: (704) 735-1651 - Fax: (704) 735-5595 Brandi Strange City of High Shoals Regular Council Meeting October 11, 2022 • Call to Order o Mayor Rathbone called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. In attendance are council members: Jimmy Laws, Kathy Rhyne, Bobby Vassey, Bo Rhyne, Dennis Cash, and the mayor, PJ Rathbone. • Invocation • Pledge of Allegiance • Approval of Agenda o Suggest moving the current open position and move into closed session regarding personnel. ▪ Motion made to move the current open position to the top of the agenda (close session) made by Jimmy Laws, seconded by Bobby Vassey. ▪ Motion to approve updated agenda by Denese Cook, seconded by Bo Rhyne. All in favor. • Approval of Minutes o Motion to approve by Ms. Rhyne, seconded by Mr. Laws. All in favor. Citizens’ comments/concerns: The City of High Shoals Council offers citizens the opportunity for Public Expression issues per NCGS 160A-81.1 (limited to 3-5 minutes per speaker). • Mr. Bowman put resume in for the opening for the city. He didn’t put in skill set of working for Dallas for 13 months. Mr. Bowman went over his skill set including a CDL, class B. Requested chance to speak and would like to help keep the area nice and clean, being a resident of 2 years with High Shoals. Good of the Order: This is a time set aside for members to offer comments or observations (without formal motion) about the organization and its work. The good of the order is also the time to offer resolution to bring disciplinary charges against a member for the offenses committed outside a meeting. The mayor spoke about attesting to someone who sees an issue and wants to address it. He commented on a council member who would like to take the lead on City Hall and make a difference of it. Thanking all the council members for all they have done and are doing. Kudos to Jimmy Laws (via Kathy Rhyne) for driving the trash truck and going above and beyond. ➢ Departmental Reports: • Police Report-Gaston County  o Captain apologized for having to run out last month for an emergency call. Safe month, normal number of calls. 118 officer-initiated calls. The Police Chief will be changing next month. • Financial-Dennis Cash o Checking $ 587,764.62 o Savings $ 150,087.14 o Capital Mgt $ 44,023.26 ▪ Total: $781,875.02 o Mayor spoke about the financial aspect and asked the council if anyone on council has seen such a Total amount. No one had. It speaks volumes of being good stewards of the tax money. • Cemetery-Denese Cook o Cemetery is pretty good. Had a vehicle towed that was hidden in the back part of the cemetery. Will had called the police to have it towed. • Water/Sewer-Bo Rhyne o Water leak at 204 School St. I had called Tim’s Trenching to have him come look. o Today, we had Rural Water come out to look at the sewer line at the Lincoln Terrace Apartments. We did the sewer upgrade 3 years ago; the dead leg was not replaced. We had a blockage due to roots in the line. There is more rootage in the line and other issues. It is chemically corroding/burning the line. That portion of line is 300 feet, being a candidate of being replaced. We will not have to replace the man-hole basins. The chemical heats up to 500*, a joint or connection is where the root is coming in and worried about the chemical. Will need to be contracted out. The Mayor plans on giving a few quotes. • Streets/Maintenance/Sanitation-Kathy Rhyne o Sanitation truck had an issue, trash will be picked up tomorrow. o Streets/Maintenance-Banners are up (the new ones). We had a citizen to stop, while installing, and told the employees thank you. o River Street has been paved and residents are happy about the work done filling in the holes. • Parks/Recreation-Bobby Vassey o Yard of the Month: 233 School Street, Ms. Betty Jo Toney o Wiffle Ball tournament will be at 9 a.m. at the ball field. We will have multiple fields marked off. Up to a 7-person team. We have 5 teams dedicated. o Also, would like to do a trunk-or-treat from 6 p.m.-7 p.m. on Halloween, October 31st. ▪ Please make yourself available to support Bobby, if possible. • Vehicles-Jimmy Laws o HS-1, working on a tool-box project for it. I’ve purchased two toolboxes. o HS-2, completely lockable toolboxes. o HS-3, all is good o HS-4, trouble with tire, took to Sullen’s and it is now repaired.  o Equipment-tire on front of tractor keeps losing air. Would like to take it to Andy at 321 to see if it is fixable or have James River come get it. No issues with other equipment. ▪ We need to investigate purchasing new weed eaters, in the future. • Administration/Mayor Report-PJ Rathbone o I was happy and pleased to get a letter for the CDBG Revitalization Program and should hear something November 9th. Announcements of who are rewarded the grant is expected November 9th. o We are getting ready to have our audit, so be aware, we may need to have a Special Meeting-prior to November 1, depends on how we stand to move some line items around. I purpose November 25th for that special meeting. ➢ New Business: Motion to go into closed session by Ms. Cook, seconded by Mr. Laws. All in favor. ➢ Discussion/Action: Current Open Position (copies of resumes are in your packets) o Discussed in closed session ➢ Nothing to report from closed session Discussion/Action: Culvert Repair at 412 N Lincoln Street • Identified during installation of water lines. Two-brothers’ said they could correct it for $2300.00. • Dennis Cash suggested we contact the state to see if they would fix it. Denese made the motion that PJ contact the state about the culvert at 412 N Lincoln St. to assess, within two days, then move forward with Two Brothers the job for $2,300. Seconded by Mr. Laws. All in favor. Discussion/Action: Banners • Positive feedback. $130 now 5 banners o Motion made to authorize up to 5 additional banners and hardware of $1500 made by Denese Cook, seconded by Mr. Laws. All in favor. Discussion/Action: Employee Christmas Bonus • $400 per employee, year before that was $500 per employee. All employees now are full-time. Jimmy Laws made motion to give each city employee of $500. Two seconds by Mr. Vassey and Mr. Rhyne. All in favor. Discussion/Action: Christmas Décor • Look at the 9’ Pre-lit Grand Spruce for $349.98. • Denese made motion to set aside $1,000 for Christmas decorations, seconded by Mr. Rhyne. All in favor. Motion to Adjourn: Motion to adjourn made by entire council, seconded by entire council. All in favor. Meeting adjourned at 8:10 p.m.