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 May 9, 2023 • Call to Order o PJ Rathbone called the meeting to order at 6:32 p.m. In attendance are the following: ▪ Jimmy Laws, Kathy Rhyne, Bobby Vassey, PJ Rathbone, Bo Rhyne, Denese Cook, and Dennis Cash. • Invocation • Pledge of Allegiance • Approval of Agenda o Would like to revisit the vehicle for out of town conference. Motion to add made by Mr. Laws, seconded by Mr. Vassey, all in favor. o Motion to approve amended agenda, seconded by Mr. Laws. All in favor. • Approval of Minutes o Motion to approve the minutes made by Denese Cook, 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). Ms. Taylor would like to speak. She is not happy with the water lines. The mayor asked if she still has a drainage issue, there is water still pooling. The ditch, where they removed the erosion fence, it’s still running over. Has been told they are going to replace power poles. Ms. Taylor’s concern is the guywire. A sub-pump had to be used for a neighbor’s house. Mrs. Cash signed up to speak. She has asked why the grass in the city looks so bad. The mayor said he could answer part of it. The grass that was put out was rye grass and grows stalking and quickly. The other, I’ve noted some areas that we are going to address with the sidewalk and such. Jimmy states that we have lost four days due to rain. Denese said that yesterday, it only rained for 15 minutes. Yesterday was roadside/curbside pickup. Jimmy said the guys started mowing before it started raining. However, it isn’t easy to blow the rain off of sidewalks and such if it’s wet. Jimmy said, he made the decision to pull the guys off grass cutting. Mrs. Cash asks why we see one employee riding around in the truck, two employees working. PJ said there are a lot of reports and water samples to be done. It is quite time consuming that have to be pulled and submitted. We take those to Ranlo and have to go to Ranlo to pick up supplies for water. The actual management for who and what does whichever. Employees are complaining. There is an open door policy to speak. There is no favoritism, Dennis states the employee is scared to say anything. We have to get to a point where we can focus on an end-goal. PJ requests to be told so that he can address it. Mrs. Cash asks what time the employees come in. Kathy said we changed it to two coming in at 7, and one coming in at 8. So, we can have someone here until 5 p.m. The employee was given the choice to rotate and he said no, he wanted to stay until 5p.m. PJ said, we are going to address, Friday, any concerns. There seems to be a constant micro-management. We have to have a level of trust. Mrs. Cash said there were only two employees and two done everything. Kathy said we had a part-time employee in the summertime. PJ said it doesn’t matter how many we have. PJ said he is going to speak the employees, Denese asks if the council has concerns, if they can bring it forward. Mr. Peedin asked a question about the grass not being cut on the side of the sidewalk, that is the city’s. Judy asks, before Covid, her bank had always been taken care of (weedeated and mowed). Mr. Silas shows his appreciated the council for their civic duty. He states he has lived at his house for fifteen years and the ditch has never been cut by the city. He’s requesting if it is something the city is suppose to be doing, then it should be done. The baseball field is sad and going to waste. We could make basketball courts or fitness parks there. Also, the facilities are always locked so they can’t be used. We do have employees that can go check on the restrooms. PJ states, we just spent some money to have the facilities redone. During the middle of the day, someone broke into the concession stand and stole equipment that was new. It has been a target of break-ins and tore the signs off the doors. Perhaps come up with a plan and would like to work with the council to give input and a plan. We need community involvement. The ballfield looks better than it has in the past. We are waiting on a non-windy day to drag the field. PJ states we need to start a softball league. Danny Cook stated the park hasn’t been cut in two weeks. 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. Dennis Cash asks if the fire hydrant will be replaced. PJ said we have a hydrant that we can replace it with. We have accumulated enough parts to fix it. Dennis requested numbers to be pulled off the hydrants two weeks ago and it hasn’t been done yet. Move the numbers and change locations of the hydrants. ➢ Departmental Reports: • Police Report-Gaston County ▪ Reggie Bloom was recently promoted to captain. • Clinton Rucker was arrested for larceny • Clayton Campbell arrested for assault • Non-fatal overdose • Found property (recovered trailer from Gastonia) • Two drug arrests Sander Velazquez & Carlos Mendoza • 44 calls total, officer initiated calls was 89 o PJ requested to add the park for a special check o Denese said there will be a group of vehicles parked at the church June 8- 10th, Jimmy said he would be a point of contact o There is a high amount of traffic 226 River St to 413 N Lincoln St. two to three dozen times a day. Car traffic (blue Honda Civic and gray Kia Soul) and foot traffic. • Financial-Dennis Cash ▪ Checking = $459,504.58 ▪ Savings 1 = $11,101.47 ▪ Savings 2= $160,236.45 ▪ Cap Mgmt = $45,133.95 ▪ TOTAL = $675,976.45 • Cemetery-Denese Cook ▪ Mr. Bowen’s military plaque was stolen. Will is going to fill in the holes.  • Water/Sewer-Bo Rhyne ▪ Water is flowing well. • Streets/Maintenance/Sanitation-Kathy Rhyne ▪ Streets & Maintenance—there is only one drainage ditch on Church St. We will be addressing cleaning out the drainage ditch and Eidson to clean out the culvert and side ditch. The pipe is stopped up and there is no where for the water to escape. The ditch area needs to be cleaned out and then we will address cleaning out the pipe. Then look into paving and adding speed bumps. The entire road is patched. ▪ Sanitation truck—the speedometer has stopped working, due for inspection. Have Sullen’s look at it while up there for inspection. • Parks/Recreation-Bobby Vassey ▪ Yard of the Month: • 207 River St. • Florance Neal ▪ We are looking in to extending the playground, there is only one representative in the area in Matthews. • Vehicles-Jimmy Laws ▪ Equipment is fine ▪ We’ve purchased new lawn mower blades ▪ Tractor is running well • Denese asked if there was a mower broken • The battery cables came loose on the smaller mower • Administration/Mayor Report-PJ Rathbone ▪ We talked about the water upgrade earlier. We did the first walk through today and went through a long list that needs to be addressed. We passed all resolutions for the Revitalization Grant this past winter. It’s a slow process but is still in the works, we’re waiting to hear from the state. The county zoning board will be voting next week, we will have final say in June. If you have any comments from residents, please bring them forward so they may be addressed. ➢ Old Business: o Ad Valorem tax rate at 32 cents per $100.00 ▪ We’re aware of what the county did and reevaluated the properties. We thought as a city to off- set the costs. Our current tax-rate is 38 cents per 100. • Motion to change tax-rate to 32 cents per 100 by Ms. Kathy Rhyne, seconded by Denese Cook. All in favor. o Renewal of Audit Contract ▪ Eddie Carrick has done the audit for quite a few years. There aren’t many auditors that do towns, if we want to change, it would be quite difficult. Dennis Cash made a motion to renew, seconded by Mr. Rhyne. All in favor. o Rental Vehicle ▪ With the truck, I don’t trust it going to Greensboro and back. The power-steering pump is leaking, and needs new brakes. We have line items for travel expenses. If you look at page two, 10-4200-8140 is only at 67%. There is $1782.42. We may need to come up with a policy for a rental car. The truck needs a service. o Motion to rescind previous decision to drive the city truck to the conference by Kathy Rhyne, seconded by Jimmy Laws. Bobby, Bo, and Denese all in favor, Dennis Cash opposed.  o Motion to obtain rental car for $677.00 made by Jimmy Laws, seconded by Kathy Rhyne. Bobby, Bo, and Denese in favor, Dennis Cash opposed. Motion to Adjourn: Motion to adjourn by Denese Cook, seconded by Bo Rhyne. All in favor.