Board of Mayor & Commissioners

MINUTES OF THE REGULAR SESSION OF THE PIPERTON BOARD OF MAYOR AND COMMISSIONERS October 15, 2024, 6:00 P.M. The Piperton Board of Mayor and Commissioners met in a regular session on October 15, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. at City Hall, with Board members: Mayor Henry Coats, Vice-Mayor Mike Binkley, Commissioner Russ Fletcher and Commissioner David Crislip (arrived late). Commissioner Bret Morris was absent. City Manager Steve Steinbach, Police Chief Jonathan Roney, Fire Chief Reed Bullock, Building Official Elizabeth Reed, Public Works Richard Mills, City Planner Brett Morgan, and City Recorder Beverly Holloway were present. William Meacham, Elizabeth McCommon, Ronnie Gross, Carolyn Rhea (Fayette Falcon). Vicki Hancock, David Bartlett, Joel Townsend, Lt. Charles Taylor, and et al were present in the audience. Finance Director Maria George City Engineer Harvey Matheny was 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 Commissioner Russ Fletcher led in the Pledge of Allegiance to the American led Flag. Agenda item 3. Any changes to Agenda; Motion to adopt Agenda Action taken: There were no changes to the agenda, Vice-Mayor Mike Binkley 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 Session of September 10, 2024, and the Minutes of the Regular Session of September 17, 2024, Motion to adopt the Minutes of the Special Called Session of September 10, 2024, and the Minutes of the Regular Session of September 17, 2024 Action taken: There were no changes to the Minutes of Special Called Session of September 10, 2024, and the Minutes of the Regular Session of September 17, 2024. Commissioner Fletcher moved to adopt the Minutes of the Minutes of the Special Called Session of September 10, 2024, and the Minutes of the Regular Session of September 17, 2024, seconded by Vice-Mayor Binkley. 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 this is the third month of fiscal year 2025, 25% is the number we are looking for. Property tax is starting to trickle in. Sales taxes has been lagging somewhat, we had a strong month last month, so I am encouraged by that. Other line items seemed in line with our budget. Balance sheets are strong, and cash positions continue to be strong, favorable and growing. I was pleased on behalf of Maria and staff to receive a letter from the Comptroller’s Office congratulating the work and effort on the part of staff to get the budget in. There were no issues of concern. Building Official Elizabeth Reed stated for September, we have 42 active new single- family dwellings and had issued 3 new single family dwelling permits. We issued 1 certificate of occupancy, 32 total permits, and our revenues for September were $7,236.10 There were 126 total inspections along with 24 code compliance contracts with the majority of that related to grass and mud in the streets. 1  Mr. Steinbach inquired when the new fees went into effect. Mrs. Reed stated August 20th. Public Works Director Richard Mills stated TDEC/ARPA engineering is still moving forward with our three projects. I have a meeting J. R. Wauford this Friday at 9 am. On the sewer line project for Piperton Farms, I hope to have all easements acquired by the end of the week. TDEC did site inspections at the decentralized drip fields (Madeline Farms, Twin Lakes and Shaws Creek) back in January, and in July. We received a violation in each drip field for tall grass and ponding water. The grass situation has been taken care of and TDEC is aware of that. The ponding water is difficult to deal with, in Shaws Creek due to design there are swales through the drip field. When crews were working on the swales, we created additional leaks as those drip lines are very shallow. Crews are working on repairing the leaks. The sewer flow going to Rossville for September was 1,866,700 million gallons for 08/27 to 09/24/24 (28 days). That is an average of 66,667.86 gallons per day (83.33% of the allotted 80,000 gallons per day). There were 107 Tennessee 811 line locates. There were 136 total work orders with 10 pending. There were 11 after hour call outs. Fire Chief Reed Bullock stated during the month of September, permits and inspections were slow. We responded to 21 total calls (15 in the city). Call statistics through September 30th shows 297 calls, with 15% for mutual aid (46 calls), and 7% were on I-269 (23 calls). Police Chief Jonathan Roney stated in the month of September, there were 58 dispatched calls, 5 incident reports, 1 arrest reports and 4 motor vehicle crashes. We have finished our in-service training on firearms. We also completed our Narcan training and our Fayette County training dealing with domestic violence. We received final approval for our Tennessee Safety Officers grant in the amount of $10,000.00 to be used for equipment and overtime. In-car videos were installed last Wednesday on seven of the vehicles with 2 still awaiting additional parts. Since last Wednesday, the five vehicles have read a total of 4,075 tags, City Planner Brett Morgan stated the Urban Growth Boundary was approved county wide recently. He showed the former and new plan for the audience’s benefit. The amendment to the urban growth boundary was approved by Resolution in March 2024, signed in June but retroactive to March 1st by the County and it is now in effect. Pyramex is proposing to double their size plus adding a third phase. They received preliminary approval and will be coming back to the Planning Commission for final approval. Piperton Preserve Phase 7 has submitted for preliminary approval of 24 additional lots on about 7 acres. There are two planned developments that have been to the Planning Commission and received a recommendation to move to the Board of Mayor and Commissioners is 57 Floors. I don’t know if they will appear at the next month’s BMC, the Planning Commission gave them a few conditions that need to be met before they go before the BMC. I have not received any updates on that. 57 Floors is a multi-use planned development that will be allowing commercial on highway 57 and a mix of uses to the rear which would include the 57 Floor facility. Next is Ashley Estates which is a residential development on Hwy 196. They received a recommendation to go before the BMC, but they also had to make changes prior to going to the Board level and I have not received any updates from their consultant. I expect Ashley Estates and 57 Floors if not next month for first reading to certainly be in December. Hopefully by the next Board meeting we will have a sign in front of City Hall. Mayor Coats stated he went to a ribbon cutting/groundbreaking ceremony yesterday for Ameriflo. Hopefully they will start moving dirt. Action taken: Vice-Mayor Binkley moved to approve all reports, seconded by Commissioner Fletcher. The Motion received all affirmative votes. 2 Agenda item 6. Consideration of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Town of Collierville and the City of Piperton to utilize space on the Town of Collierville’s radio tower building and existing UHF antenna Fire Chief Reed Bullock stated this is to use space on Collierville’s radio tower building and existing antenna as a more permanent arrangement. They are asking us to do maintenance of the wire and the antenna. We both use the same vendor. This has already been approved by Collierville’s Board. Action taken: Commissioner Fletcher moved to approve the agreement, seconded by Vice-Mayor Binkley. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 7. First Reading, Ordinance No. 398-24, amending the Municipal Code of the City of Piperton, Tennessee to establish reasonable Municipal Court Costs Police Chief Roney stated that current court costs are $100.00 established in 2013. The cost of the court has increased and proposing a cost of $110.00. This charge is still the second lowest charge in the county. Action taken: Vice-Mayor Binkley moved to approve Ordinance No. 398-24 on first reading, seconded by Commissioner David Crislip. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 8. Recess – hold Public Hearing concerning Ordinance No. 396-24, to delete and replace Ordinance No. 378-23, as to the adjustment of Water Service Rates and Charges Action taken: Commissioner Fletcher moved to recess the meeting to hold a public hearing, seconded by Vice-Mayor Binkley. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Mr. Mills stated several months back the city hired a RateStudies of Tennessee to look at Piperton’s water and sewer rates to ensure our rate structure was able to provide sufficient revenue to pay all expenses including depreciation. This study included a five-year review and a five-year projection of revenue funded operations and maintenance expenses and the city’s related capital improvement projects. A significant driver of increasing rates on the water side is Collierville’s rate increases which Collierville has voted to approve for the next nine years. So, for the next eight years, Collierville’s water rates will go up and effect the City of Piperton. Based on the results of the study, it is my recommendation to the Board to increase base water rates from $19.90 to $20.90. The usage per thousand would go from $3.60 to $3.80. Mayor Coats inquired on the effect on the average customer. Mr. Steinbach stated the rate study that we included in the previous package showed the increase over a range of volume uses. I believe the increases with all due respect to the residence who are paying the bills was nominal higher by five or ten dollars depending on usage. Commissioner Fletcher stated his average was about five dollars. There were no other comments from the audience. Action taken: Vice-Mayor Binkley moved to reconvene the meeting, seconded by Commissioner Fletcher. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 9. Second Reading, Ordinance No. 396-24, to delete and replace Ordinance No. 378-23 as to the adjustment of Water Service Rates and Charges Action taken: Vice-Mayor Binkley moved to approve Ordinance No. 396-24 on second reading, seconded by Commissioner Crislip. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 10. Recess – hold Public Hearing concerning Ordinance No. 397-24, to delete and replace Ordinance No. 379-23, as to the adjustment of Water Service Rates and Charges Action taken: Vice-Mayor Binkley moved to recess the meeting to hold a public hearing, seconded by Commissioner Fletcher. The Motion received all affirmative votes. 3  Mr. Mills stated in that same rate study by RateStudies of Tennessee, the sewer rates were also looked at. It is our recommendation that the residential sewer flat rate would go from $50.55 to $ 53.10. Sewer commercial’s base rate of $97.90 would go to $102.80 and the usage per thousand gallons would go from $6.55 to $6.90. Mr. Steinbach stated there are additional rates changes for Marshall Utilities using their methodology. There were no additional comments from the audience. Action taken: Commissioner Fletcher moved to reconvene the meeting, seconded by Vice-Mayor Binkley. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 11. Second Reading, Ordinance No. 397-24, to delete and replace Ordinance No. 379-23 as to the adjustment of Sanitary Sewer Service Rates and Charges Action taken: Vice-Mayor Binkley moved to approve Ordinance No. 397-24 on second reading, seconded by Commissioner Fletcher. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 12. Any other unfinished/new business, questions or matters from the audience Joel Townsend stated there was a survey done from the State I believe not too long ago of residents with septic tanks. Were there any results from that? Mayor Coats stated yes, there are several failures in Greenbrier. We are working on a plan to sewer those customers. There will be a pump in their septic tank and a line going out to the pressure line. It won’t be gravity. TDEC is supposed to go through all the neighborhoods and report the number of failures. We need to devise a plan to cope with this. Agenda item 13. Adjournment Action taken: Vice-Mayor Binkley made a motion to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Commissioner Fletcher. The Motion received all affirmative votes, and the meeting was adjourned at 6:32 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Beverly Holloway, City Recorder Approved: _________________________________date: ______________________ 4