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 January 10, 2022 • Call to Order o In attendance are the following: Dennis Cash, Denese Cook, Bo Rhyne, Bobby Vassey, Jimmy Laws, Kathy Rhyne, and PJ Rathbone. Mayor PJ Rathbone called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. • Invocation • Pledge of Allegiance • Approval of Agenda o Would like to add plumbing lawsuit to the agenda (update with decision under Old Business). ▪ Motion to add made by Jimmy Laws, seconded by Kathy Rhyne. All in favor. ▪ Motion to move the closed session to the beginning made by Dennis Cash, seconded by Denise Cook, All approve. ▪ Denese Cook to approve agenda, seconded by Kathy Rhyne. All in favor. • Approval of Minutes o Motion to approve minutes by Kathy Rhyne, seconded by Mr. Vassey. 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). No one signed up and no one asked to speak. 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. ➢ Departmental Reports: • Police Report-Gaston County ▪ Captain spoke of case highlights. Aggravated Assault at Armstrong Circle apartments. Arrested during foot chase outside of Mt. Holly. Non-fatal overdose on Frye St. 28 calls made in December, officer initiated calls were at 109. 19 special checks on Frye St. and four special checks at post office. • Financial-Dennis Cash ▪ Checking $518,082.25 ▪ 2nd Checking $1046.00 ▪ Savings: $160,125.02 ▪ Capital Mgmt. $44,408.12 ▪ Total: $723,661.39 • Cemetery-Denese Cook  ▪ Headstone sitting up against a pole. Wasn’t supposed to be delivered at this time. Lady is to meet to find where it should go. ▪ Pole needs a tractor to pull out, it’s encased in concrete • Water/Sewer-Bo Rhyne ▪ Tim has everything not leaking, as of right now. • Streets/Maintenance/Sanitation-Kathy Rhyne o Everything is going well • Parks/Recreation-Bobby Vassey • Yard of the Month: 107 Holly Ridge ➢ Gloria Stokley • Microwave at concession stand • Bump, someone is still going through the grass to go around it • Vehicles-Jimmy Laws ▪ HS1 & HS2 is completely set up for water meter issues/replacing pipes. Have made small pieces to help along. Both trucks are set up completely the same, to fix meters quickly. ▪ HS3-snow plow is on it and wiring has been repaired. Feet and plow repaired. ▪ Sullen’s called today about our trash truck, aiming for Tuesday after trash run, will take no more than a day or two but I want it in as soon as possible so we can receive our truck back quickly. ▪ Equipment, tractor is ready to go for snow removal. Mowers have been winterized. • Administration/Mayor Report-PJ Rathbone ▪ A learning curve, with new meters being put in. Calls are coming in about higher bills. Can pull graph and water usage in the time frame. Has been informative with the leaks. ▪ We are waiting for the state for the other grant that we have applied for. ▪ State St. culvert was repaired by 2-Brothers. ➢ Old Business: Plumbing lawsuit • At the last meeting we had agreed to allow the amount of $5,000 to close out this case. This case was during the construction of the building. The subcontractor was not paid by the general contractor. In the packet is a proposal from Tim Caldwell’s attorney to settle the case. This was a part of Jim Wendell’s workload and Mr. Aaron Low is here and it is scheduled to go to trial next week. We will incur the trial preparation for this case. • TM Caldwell Plumbing—Summary Judgement was refused – Caldwell claims that Dan Weekly promised payment. Extra work was approved, a change order was put in for said work. It could cost $5000 trying the case. Another thing to keep in mind is that attorney’s fees don’t come in to affect. No attorney’s fees are not a consideration in this case since no lien. • 2 options—settle or go to trial o Jimmy Laws- Settle o Kathy Rhyne- Settle o Bobby Vassey- Settle o Bo Rhyne – Trial  o Denese Cook – Trial o Dennis Cash - Settle 4 votes to settle, 2 votes to trial. Settle is the decision for the amount of $8,000, plus attorney fees. The only case that is still outstanding is the HVAC, but the contractor stole the equipment on site. The man was arrested. ➢ New Business: Discussion/Action: Closed session to discuss Employees Motion to enter closed session by Ms. Cook, seconded by Bobby Vassey. All in favor. Nothing to report from closed session. Motion to come into regular session made by Kathy Rhyne, seconded by Denese Cook. All in favor. Jimmy Laws left the council meeting; therefore, all of his votes are in the positive. Discussion/Action: CDBG Neighborhood Revitalization/Grant Administration Contract • We advertised in the paper on two separate occasions. Because we only had one submission, we had to re-run. We ran in the Hickory paper, Shelby Star. • 1 sealed bid for administration proposal. • Mr. Austin is the only person that has put in a bid. He has done a lot for a lot of cities, ours included. • Kings Mountain, Pinehurst, Midland, McAdenville, Norwood, Belmont, Trinity, and High Shoals. • Fixed fee price, $3500 for view and release of funds • $85,000 to be paid proportionately as funds are expended o Not to exceed $88,500 for rehabilitation functions ▪ This is to manage the funds based upon our decisions, Mr. Austin would be the grant administrator (not making the decisions). ▪ We are to pick two people to sign off on the decisions. ▪ He speaks with the state, administration piece of the grant, and sets up the requisitions. • Motion to approve Stephen F Austin for the CDBG Neighborhood Revitalization made by Kathy Rhyne, seconded by Denese Cook. All in favor. Discussion/Action: CDBG Revitalization Grant Signatures Authorization (at least 2) • Kathy Rhyne nominated herself to be a signer, seconded by Dense Cook • Bo Rhyne nominated himself to be a signer, seconded by Bobby Vassey. • Kathy nominated PJ Rathbone to be a signer, seconded by Denese Cook. o All in favor. ▪ The next step will go through the list of folks who put in applications. We will vote on who we will be able to do and do ask many as we can. Discussion/Action: HeyGov (packet information)  • We have had $57,000 paid through credit cards. $3500 in transaction fees paid. • HeyGov is cheaper by 3%. o Our cost is a subscription for $600 and we will purchase a POS pad for $300. ▪ Denese made a motion to go with the subscription of HeyGov & purchase the apparatus, seconded by Mrs. Cook. All in favor. Discussion/Action: Park (playground equipment) • We had springy things for the kids to ride. One was broken and installation was an issue. • The duck is $1,059 • Motion to approve the spring rider duck by Kathy Rhyne, seconded by Denese Cook. All in favor. Discussion/Action: Manlift for Banners • Prices have gone up. Kathy states we will be looking to purchase next budget season. • $1300 for the lift, taking down the Christmas banners and putting up the Anniversary banners. o Motion to rent manlift made by Denese Cook, seconded by Bobby Vassey. All in favor. Motion to Adjourn: • Motion to adjourn made by Denese Cook, seconded by Mr. Vassey. All in favor. Meeting adjourned at 8:14 p.m.