Board of Mayor & Commissioners

MINUTES OF THE REGULAR SESSION OF THE PIPERTON BOARD OF MAYOR AND COMMISSIONERS March 19, 2024, 6:00 P.M. The Piperton Board of Mayor and Commissioners met in a regular session on March 19, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. at City Hall, with Board members: Mayor Henry Coats, Commissioner David Crislip, Commissioner Russ Fletcher and Commissioner Bret Morris. Vice-Mayor Mike Binkley was absent. City Manager Steve Steinbach, Building Official Elizabeth Reed, Police Chief Jonathan Roney, Fire Chief Reed Bullock, Public Works Richard Mills, Finance Director Maria George, and City Recorder Beverly Holloway were present. Elizabeth McCommon, Billy Meacham, Charlotte Johnson, Vicki Hancock, Harry Hartwig, Mike Hartwig, Kay Long, Elizabeth Gallagher, and et al were present in the audience. City Engineer Harvey Matheny and City Planner Brett Morgan 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: Commissioner Russ Fletcher led in the opening Prayer and Commissioner Bret Morris 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 Fletcher. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 4. Any changes to the Minutes of the Special Called Meeting of February 6, 2024 and the Minutes of the Regular Session of February 20, 2024: Motion to adopt the Minutes of the Special Called Meeting of February 6, 2024 and the Minutes of the Regular Session of February 20, 2024 Action taken: There were no changes to the Minutes of the Special Called Meeting of February 6, 2024 and the Minutes of the Regular Session of February 20, 2024, Commissioner Fletcher moved to adopt the Minutes of the Special Called Meeting of February 6, 2024 and the Minutes of the Regular Session of February 20, 2024, seconded by Commissioner Morris. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 5. Review/approval of Financial Reports, Building Inspector’s Report, Public Works Report, Fireman’s Report, Police Report and Development Activity City Manager Steve Steinbach stated the financial position is great, balance sheets across all funds continue to be strong. On the financial statements, 66% is the percentage for the 8th month of the fiscal year. We have exceeded that in Property tax with $29,288.00 still uncollected. Sales tax continues to be strong. Building Permit income has already exceeded its budget item. Building Official Elizabeth Reed stated for the month of February, there are 36 homes under construction. Two certificates of occupancy were issued along with 2 new building permits issued. There were 30 total permits issued,119 total inspections and 13 code compliance contacts. Public Works Richard Mills stated construction on the Piper House is still moving forward. A portion of the elevated ADA sidewalk concrete has been poured, the lamp posts concrete has been set and the upstairs has been completely painted and they have started on 1 the downstairs today. There is a TDEC wastewater inspection scheduled for Wednesday March 27th, this is an every two-year inspection of the plant and records. The sewer flow going to Rossville for February was 1,547,200 million gallons for 01/29/24 to 02/27/24 (29 days). That is an average of 53,351.72 gallons per day (66.69% of the allotted 80,000 gallons per day). There were 78 Tennessee 811 line locates. There were 148 total work orders with 2 still pending. There were 3 after hours call-outs. Fire Chief Reed Bullock stated during the month of February, there were no commercial permits/inspections, there were 2 residential permits/inspections. We responded to 37 total calls (32 in the city) with 16 calls being medical. There were 5 mutual aid calls. There were 72 calls at the end of February 2024. Police Chief Jonathan Roney stated in the month of February, there were 62 dispatched calls, 9 incident reports, 2 arrest reports and 4 motor vehicle crashes. Officer King and Officer Jackson attended fingerprinting school at the Memphis Police Department and received their certification. Officer Pardue graduated from firearms training. We have received our ORI’s from the FBI so Watson will be able to go live within the next week. Mr. Steinbach (filling in for City Planner Brett Morris) stated last week the Planning Commission gave conditional final site plan approval for Tuscan Iron (northwest corner of Milton Drive and Hwy 72). Shaws Creek Subdivision (south side of Raliegh LaGrange) received preliminary approval for a 17-lot phase 3 and this gives us an opportunity to extend the road on the east side of the subdivision. Pyramex was issued a land disturbance permit, they are preparing to expand their facility on the west side of I-269. Action taken: Commissioner Morris moved to approve all reports, seconded by Commissioner Crislip. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 6. Consideration of Resolution No. 24-287, authorizing a charitable appropriation to the Fayette County Carl Perkins Center in the amount of $550.00 Mr. Steinbach recommended approval of the appropriation for their upcoming event. Action taken: Commissioner Fletcher moved to approve Resolution No. 24-287, seconded by Commissioner Morris. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 7. First Reading, Ordinance No.389-24, amending Ordinance No. 369-23, setting fees for residential and small commercial garbage, yard waste collection service and voluntary recycling collection service and adjusting such fees Mr. Steinbach stated this recognizes and memorializes the terms of the new agreement with Waste Connections. The Board previously approved the bids earlier in the year. We are still working on buttoning everything up but we will address the concerns of the residents. The most significant part of this was the City’s desire to reduce its cost along with the residents cost by utilizing the new knuckleboom truck. The City has no desire to get into the solid waste business. The rate schedule that was proposed by Waste Connection was favorable to us and the customers but part of that was the removal of the yard waste cart. The previous contract had that as a mandatory prevision whether the customers use it or not. The City underestimated the value of the yard waste cart to the residents and we received a lot of feedback on that. So, Mr. Mills negotiated with Waste Connections and they have agreed to provide that cart back into our rate schedule. The ordinance provides for a cost of $19.60 which includes residential curbside garbage and the return of the yard waste cart. We are working with the vendor to address a voluntary basis on the yard waste cart since not every resident utilizes that service. There is an extra component in that rate that addresses the City’s responsibility for large waste debris such as limps, sticks and household item pickup. The City will engage in a weekly pickup of those items. Again, we are still working on the voluntary basis and we will break the fee schedule out further on that for those that choose not utilize a yard waste cart. The rate is a wonderful deal for the residents at $1.33 increase relative to our neighbors. Rate comparisons 2 show Oakland at $28.50 and Rossville at $22.00 with additional carts at $10.00. Our additional carts have gone up to $5.55 which is a tremendous saving that we have been able to negotiate again using the knuckleboom for the services we can provide. We will have everything worked out before the second reading. Mayor Coats stated the garbage pickup will be split into two sections. Everything north of Hwy 57 will be picked up on Thursday and south of Hwy 57 will be picked up on Friday. The boom truck for limbs and such will be the northside on Monday and the southside on Tuesday, assuming most of the yard work will be done on the weekends. You can use the bags you want to. Action taken: Commissioner Crislip moved to approve Ordinance No. 389-24 on first reading, seconded by Commissioner Morris. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 8. Recess – hold Public Hearing concerning Ordinance No. 388-24, amending the budget for FY 2023-2024 (Second Amendment) for the City of Piperton Action taken: Commissioner Morris moved to recess to hold a public hearing, seconded by Commissioner Crislip. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Mr. Steinbach stated this is the second amendment for fiscal year 2024. The ordinance before you consist of proposed amendments to Exhibit A (General Fund), Exhibit B (Water Fund) and Exhibit C (Sewer Fund). The expenditure items for the General Fund are broken up by department. The color coating consists of yellow items which identifies a line item that was not approved as part of the initial budget and the pink indicates changes after the 1st reading. Building Department, adding a new line item for 3 mobile wi-fi hotspots. Line item 2-Special census reflect additional expenditures that were not anticipated. The Development District that the City will utilize to certify the census results had additional expenses. The previous Development District had billed on a labor basis and the new version has billed us based on a dollar per head of the previous census count of 2,363. The final result of our census was 2,801. Line item 4-Hospitalization Insurance has changed based on the influx of new personal and the characterizations of their profile across the departments. Also, employee related expenditures dealing with uniforms, telephones for the Police Department, education stipends for Police and Fire, vehicle maintenance for Fire. Cell phone stipend, vehicle maintenance and then an additional expenditure that changed from our first reading for facilities maintenance (gas pump repair) for Public Works. On Exhibit B (Water Fund), vehicle maintenance is shared/distributed across the water and sewer funds for unexpected repairs to 2016 F150. Vehicle lift-this was a capital budget item that was miscoded when we paid the vendor, so we are correcting the distribution. Telephone & Data-under estimated the expense. Water Purchased from the Town of Collierville-reflects a rate increase. On Exhibit C (Sewer Fund), Potable Water (Bills @ Sewer Bldgs)-reflects the rate increase. Vehicle maintenance-shared between the two funds. Telephone & Data-shared between the two funds. Water Purchased-Town of Collierville-as with the water expense the Town of Rossville’s sewer fees have increased. Vehicle lift-addresses the sewer fund portion of that expenditure. That concludes the overview of budget amendment number two for fiscal year 2024. There were no comments/questions from the audience. Action taken: Commissioner Morris moved to reconvene the meeting, seconded by Commissioner Crislip. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 9. Second reading, Ordinance No. 388-24, amending the budget for FY 2023- 2024, (Second Amendment) for the City of Piperton Action taken: Commissioner Morris moved to approve Ordinance No. 388-24 on second reading, seconded by Commissioner Fletcher. The Motion received all affirmative votes. 3 Agenda item 10. Appointment of Jeff Maddock and Pete Pinckney to the Piperton Industrial Development Board (replacing Rich Miller and Mike Smith) Action taken: Commissioner Morris moved to approve the appointments of Jeff Maddock and Pete Pinckney to the Piperton Industrial Development Board (replacing Rich Miller and Mike Smith), seconded by Commissioner Crislip. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 11. Any other unfinished/new business, questions or matters from the audience Billy Meacham inquired I don’t want to use the yard waste cart, I can turn it in but if you turn that cart in, can you put it in the garbage cart. Mayor Coats stated yes. Must be bagged. The Vesta Home Show starts April 6th in Piper Hollow. Kay Long inquired on the paving for Twin Lakes Subdivision. Is this total repaving or pot hole filling. Mr. Mills stated that will hopefully start first of next month. It will be a total repaving. Elizabeth Gallagher inquired if they are also going to work on Wright Road. Mayor Coats stated that is not on the schedule yet. I believe the next subdivision will be Lakes of Greenbrier and Greenbrier. Wright Road will probably need to be widen a little when we do something on it. Chief Bullock stated on the radio project that was approved last month, Public Works has the handheld radios and mobiles are in and will be scheduled for installation within the next few weeks. The railroad crossing will be closed for repairs in Wednesday morning. Mayor Coats inquired if Commerce was open tomorrow. Chief Bullock stated it is was shut down earlier, they have completed all paving and are waiting on the asphalt to set. Chief Bullock stated the City App is live in the Google play and Apple Store. Mayor Coats stated you will receive notifications on your phone when the City sends notices. Mrs. Gallager stated she received a phone call about a shooting range that is going on somewhere. Mayor Coats stated that is dead. Miss Long inquired on the cell phone tower that we so desperately need for the subdivision, is there an update on that. Mayor Coats stated he calls every six months. It is the tower people that have to install the tower. They are still saying we are too small but our census is now 2,801. I will followup on that. Harry Hartwig stated C-spire in installing fiber optics in Olive Branch but the only thing we have is Comcast and it is expensive. Is there anything coming in? Mayor Coats stated yes, Aeneas Internet is working in Moscow right now and they are expected to be in Piperton this fall. I will update as I hear more. Agenda item 12. Adjournment Action taken: Commissioner Morris made a motion to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Commissioner Fletcher. The Motion received all affirmative votes and the meeting was adjourned at 6:36 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Beverly Holloway, City Recorder Approved: _________________________________date: ______________________ 4