Board of Mayor & Commissioners

MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING OF THE PIPERTON BOARD OF MAYOR AND COMMISSIONERS August 16, 2022, 6:00 P.M. The Piperton Board of Mayor and Commissioners met in regular session on August 16, 2022 at 6:00 p.m. at City Hall, with Board members: Mayor Henry Coats, Vice-Mayor Mike Binkley Commissioner Preston Trotter, Commissioner Hugh Davis, and Commissioner David Crislip present. City Manager Steve Steinbach, Police Chief Phil Hendricks, Fire Chief Reed Bullock, Public Works Director Richard Mills, Building Official Elizabeth Reed, City Planner Brett Morgan and City Recorder Beverly Holloway were present. William Meacham, Elizabeth McCommon, Carolyn Rhea (Fayette Falcon), Letha Granberry, Vicki Hancock, Josh Burnette, Jim Ragon, Bret Morris, Diane Green, Officer Scruggs and et al were present in the audience. Finance Director Maria George and City Engineer Harvey Matheny were absent. Agenda item 1. Call to order, establish quorum Action taken: Mayor Henry Coats called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m., and established that a quorum was present. Agenda item 2. Prayer and Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag Action taken: Public Works Director Richard Mills led in the opening Prayer and Mayor Coats led in the Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag. Agenda item 3. Any changes to Agenda; Motion to adopt Agenda Action taken: There were no changes to the Agenda, Commissioner David Crislip moved to adopt the agenda, seconded by Commissioner Preston Trotter. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 4. Any changes to the Minutes of the Regular Session of July 19, 2022: Motion to adopt the Minutes of the Regular Session of July 19, 2022 Action taken: There were no changes to the Minutes of the Regular Session of July 19, 2022, Commissioner Crislip moved to approve the Minutes of the Regular Session of July 19, 2022, seconded by Commissioner Trotter. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 5. Review/approval of Financial Reports, Building Inspector’s Report, Public Works Report, Fireman’s Report and Police Report City Manager Steve Steinbach stated the financial report before you reflects the first month of the new fiscal year, we entered this fiscal year with a strong financial position and it continues to grows, balance for the various funds are strong and our cash and cash equivalent holdings continue to remain stable at just over 6.1 million dollars, correspondence was received from the Comptroller’s office acknowledging the receipt and approval of the budget. Building Official Elizabeth Reed stated there are 61 active new single family dwellings, there were 4 CO’s issued, 29 total permits issued for the month of July, conducted 160 inspections, and handled 24 code compliance issues. Public Works Director Richard Mills stated I received Geotechnology’s report today and it has been forwarded to Harvey Matheny (Pickering) and hopefully an opinion soon, we have placed another ad for bids to be opened on September 8th at 2pm and we have already received 5 bids at this time, on Shaw’s Creek Drainage project, the contractor has backed out and I have found another contractor (HMC) who has looked at it and should be getting back to me by the end of the week or first of next week, the sewer flow going to Rossville last month was 1.2 million gallons that is an average of 44,407.43 gallons per day (55.51% of the allotted 80,000 gallons per day), there were 110 Tennessee 811 locates in July, there were 84 work 1 orders completed with 4 outstanding for July, and there were 8 after hours calls (5 were sewer and 3 were street related). Fire Chief Reed Bullock stated during the month of July, inspections have slowed down but conducted 7 rough inspections and 5 final inspections, conducted 3 business safety checks, there were 34 total calls (32 in the City), one the year to date comparison the MVC and Medicals Calls are trending up, on July 20th there was 2 first responder calls received at the same time, at the bottom of the incident report it shows the comparison for calls at the end of July for 2020, 2021 and 2022. Police Chief Phil Hendricks stated in the month of July, there were 53 dispatched calls, 2 incident reports, 1 arrest reports and 3 motor vehicle crashes, the auction of the Tahoe was completed and it has been sold. Action taken: Commissioner Trotter moved to approve all reports, seconded by Commissioner Crislip. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 6: Mann Drive Bid approval/awarding of bid Mr. Mills stated bids were opened this past Monday with Madden Phillips bidder as the only bidder at $198,127.88, and my recommendation is to reject the bid with hopes that the prices will come down. Action taken: Commissioner Trotter moved to reject the bid of Madden Phillips at $198,127.88, seconded by Commissioner Hugh Davis. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 7. Recess – hold Public Hearing concerning Ordinance No. 360-22, amending Title 11, Chapter 3 of the Piperton Municipal Code by amending building operations during sever heat conditions Action taken: Vice-Mayor Mike Binkley moved to recess the meeting to hold a public hearing, seconded by Commissioner Davis. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Building Official Elizabeth Reed stated this is to allow the builders during times of extreme heat conditions to start earlier to hopefully avoid overheating and dehydration, this is an existing provision that allows them to contact the Building Official for an allowance to begin work earlier at different times and this will allow them to check the National Weather Service for extreme heat advisory or heat warning they are allowed to start their operations at 6:00 am in the morning and stop at dusk. Action taken: Vice-Mayor Binkley moved to reconvene the meeting, seconded by Commissioner Davis. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 8. Second Reading, Ordinance No. 360-22, amending Title 11, Chapter 3 of the Piperton Municipal Code by amending building operations during sever heat conditions Action taken: Vice-Mayor Binkley moved to accept Ordinance No. 360-22 on second reading, seconded by Commissioner Trotter. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 9. Recess – hold Public Hearing concerning Ordinance No. 364-22, amending the Master Development Plan of the Piper Hollow Mixed Use Planned Development (Approved by Ord. 309-19, Amended by Ord 335-20 Action taken: Commissioner Trotter moved to recess the meeting to hold a public hearing, seconded by Vice-Mayor Binkley. The Motion received all affirmative votes. City Planner Brett Morgan stated this amendment that was discussed at last month’s meeting is to amend the Piper Hollow Mixed Use Planned Development to allow for space for the cluster mailboxes that are now required by the United States Postal Service, Piper Hollow is the first of our developments to try to be proactive and get ahead of this but because these mailboxes are put in areas that are common open space it was deemed necessary that an 2 amendment should be made to the overall plan to show those areas and identifying them, Phase 1 has already come but when the next phases come in those will be a part of phase and will have to bring the plans in as to how they will address those mailboxes. The former Beesinger lot (lot 176, 865 Keough) was added in December of 2020 to the overall mixed use planned development and has a mailbox that is on Keough and will not be required to go into the development to get mail but all the rest of the development will use one of these three locations. Action taken: Vice-Mayor Binkley moved to reconvene the meeting, seconded by Commissioner Davis. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 10. Second Reading, Ordinance No. 364-22, amending the Master Development Plan of the Piper Hollow Mixed Use Planned Development (Approved by Ord. 309-19, Amended by Ord 335-20 Action taken: Commissioner Trotter moved to adopt Ordinance No. 364-22 on second reading, seconded by Commissioner Crislip. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 11. Resolution No. 22-256, accepting the reallocation of funding from Fayette County Commission and accepting responsibility to meet all criteria for the TDEC ARP Funding Guidelines Mr. Steinbach stated Fayette County was the recipient of $ 3.6 million dollars and change for the American Rescue Plan Act being administered by TDEC specifically for water, wastewater infrastructure and Fayette County like many counties does not operate water or wastewater facilities and at its discretion decided to distribute those monies to municipalities throughout the County, they have acted to allocate $593,894.00 to Piperton with reasonable conditions and the requirement to receive that is this Boards acknowledgement and approval of the Resolution before you absolving the County of administering the grant-the match so this will require that we adjust our project list as some of the projects that we had already identified for our own allocation will have to repositioned and additional projects brought on namely the railroad sewer extension, staff recommends the acceptance of this Resolution along with appreciation to the County for the allocation. Action taken: Vice-Mayor Binkley moved to approve Resolution No. 22-256, seconded by Commissioner Davis. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 12. Resolution No. 22-257, to retain the services of Community Development Partners, LLC to administer the City’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Funds Mr. Steinbach stated the City essentially requires someone to help us with all of this money and that is the burden we would prefer to leave in the hands of a professional who does this on a daily basis. Mr. Mills has made a request for qualifications. Mr. Mills stated yes sir, we are required by TDEC to submit RFQ’s to other professional services that does this type of work and I did that and CDP was the only one to respond, I did receive an email from another vendor who stated they were too backed up and couldn’t accept any more. Action taken: Commissioner Trotter moved to approve Resolution No. 22-257, seconded by Commissioner Davis. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 13. Resolution No. 22-258, to enter into an agreement with Norfolk Southern Railway Company (“Railway”) to permit the proposed installation and construction of an underground sanitary sewer pipeline across Railway right-of-way Mr. Steinbach stated one of the capital projects the Board considered and approved was the extension of sanitary sewer to the northside of the railroad from the Wittichen subdivision, we would have to bore under the railroad line to get to the northside and it is very critical for the 3 City to be able to facilitate and accommodate urban commercial development of the type that the City envisions there whether it be restaurants, hotels, etc., we started that process several months ago, Harvey Matheny the City Engineer completed the design, submitted the design documents to Norfolk Southern who subsequently reviewed the documents and indicated its approval, that was accompanied with their standard agreement and I have sent the agreement to our city attorney, Gerald Lawson, to review and it is very similar to the agreement we enter into 2016 when we were doing the sewer line extension to Rossville, it has some requirements that are not applicable to a municipal entity and this resolution would authorize the City Attorney to enter into negotiations and there are a couple of terms that we want clarity on as it relates to liability and there is a term that is part of this agreement that we didn’t have in the previous agreement so some clarity following the negotiation of that matter between the attorneys, the resolution further authorizes the Board enable Richard Mills (Public Works Director) per the contract to execute that document, part of this agreement is a licensing fee in the amount of $11,500.00 that is new and we simply paid a liability insurance premium the last time but never the less it is something that I believe we need to do by extension if the Board approves this resolution staff will bring back as part of its first budget amendment for this fiscal year an amendment to our Enterprise Fund identifying that and hopefully by that time we will additionally have an understanding of the construction cost that will be additional and that is why this ARP monies are timely amount to assist with that. Action taken: Commissioner Crislip moved to approve Resolution No. 22-258, seconded by Commissioner Trotter. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 14. BZA reappointment approval for expiring terms of Mr. Harry Hartwig (1 year) and Mr. Darryl Dixon (2 years). Mayor Coats stated they have been on the BZA for several years and they both would like to be re-appointed if possible. Action taken: Commissioner Davis moved to approve the reappointments, seconded by Commissioner Trotter. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 15. Any other old/new business, questions or matters from the audience Letha Granberry stated on item #14, what does the BZA stand for. Mayor Coats stated is the Board of Zoning Appeals, it is a non-political Board. Diane Green stated on item #12, retaining the service of Community Development Partners, you stated you had already dealt with them, I did a little research on them and there are 15 companies by that same name and the closest one I could find is in Nashville, is that the one you are dealing with? Mr. Mills stated yes ma’am that would be the one. Ms. Green stated this is required to have an outside company. Mayor Coats stated it is not required but they know the ins and outs of dotting the I’s and crossing the t’s of what the City has to do and the City is not familiar with this and it is well worth the 5% to have them do it for us, anytime there is government money and it is free you have to report it the way they want it. Vice-Mayor Binkley stated it is to keep us out of trouble. Ms. Green inquired who would we be in trouble with. Mr. Steinbach stated it is federal dollars and there are specific requirements and the rules change, we have had preliminary rules, final rules and amended final rules and moving forward there are specific reporting requirements that can be tricky and we want to make sure we are using a professional. Ms. Green inquired how much money are we gaining from this. Mayor Coats stated almost $600,000.00, its TDEC money. 4  Ms. Green stated from the Federal Government through the State so it is worth it to which the Mayor stated yes, it is worth the 5%. Ms Granberry stated so this company will keep up with rules so they won’t miss anything and it keeps us out of trouble. Mayor Coats stated it would be an administrative nightmare to try to keep up with this and that is what they do. Mr. Steinbach stated the Mayor noted previously the City was the recipient of a Delta Regional Grant to aid with the sewer extension that was brought about as a result of the Pyramex Project and so as part of that project because it was federal dollars there was specific reporting requirements and my experience with this particular company is that they handled all of the administration of the contractor, payments-kept up with those and reconciled those at the conclusion of the project when you have to finish out and final all the reporting requirements and this is something we would have struggled to do internally with the limited staff we have so it was well worth it and it’s over a million dollars in leveraged federal dollars and there are some matching requirements. Ms. Green stated the City of Piperton has no liability at all when you sign that contract with this company, they will take all responsibility for whatever needs to be done, and this City will have no responsibility. Mayor Coats stated we have responsibility to verify everything, we have worked with Maddie before and she will sit done with us weekly if necessary and they do state in contact with us so we would meet and go over the numbers per the predetermined frequency. Commissioner Davis stated I talked to the Mayor last week and I choose not to run for re-election the next election cycle which is in November and hopefully we will get people to pull paperwork that are interested in servicing the City, I have done this for 16 years for the BMC and 2 years for the Planning Commission and it is time to let someone else do something. Vice-Mayor Binkley stated that is a long time and we thank you. Agenda item 16. Adjournment Action taken: Vice-Mayor Binkley made a motion to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Commissioner Davis. The Motion received all affirmative votes and the meeting was adjourned at 6:31 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Beverly Holloway, City Recorder Approved: _________________________________date:______________________ 5