Board of Commissioners Regular Meeting

TOWN OF ROBBINS Board of Commissioners Regular Meeting Thursday, October 12, 2023 – 6:00 PM apMeetingVenue Robbins Fire Department I. CALL TO ORDER Called to Order by Mayor Dockery at 6:01pm II. INVOCATION – Mayor III. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE – Mayor IV. PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD NC G.S. 160A-81, 160A-81.1 Crystal Roberts, a nurse for all daycares in Moore and Montgomery Counties, signed up to be a voice for the kids who use Tracy Brown Park. Ms. Roberts lives outside of Town limits. Recently in a visit to Hope Academy while the kids were out playing, she had reached out to Clint Mack to repair a broken gate. He fixed it the next day. Ms. Roberts reported leash law violations in the gated play area and dog feces not cleaned up in the play area. The park is not properly maintained, and kids have ant bites from fire ants, and this must be treated. V. CONFLICT OF INTEREST – Does any Commissioner have a conflict of interest concerning agenda items the Board will address in this meeting? none VI. APPROVAL OF CONSENT AGENDA All items below are considered routine and will be enacted by one motion. No separate discussion will be held except on request of a member of the Board of Commissioners. Motion made by Mayor Pro Tem Bradshaw. Voting Yea: Mayor Pro Tem Bradshaw, Commissioner Phillips, Commissioner Britt, Commissioner Stewart, Commissioner English A. Ordinance for Text Amendments with Table of Uses Attachment A B. October Board of Commissioner Meeting Minutes VII. PRESENTATIONS EnterTextHere A. Joe Morici-Brownfield Presentation Joe Morici from Stantec presented the assessment of the Mill Site. At the time the EPA only offered $200,000 for clean-up grants. To tackle the cleanup of the site it was divided into 5 parcels. One of the parcels was sold to the Marble Granite Co and there were 4 remaining with contaminants. We received 2 grant awards in one year where the North and South slab sits. 3rd award was the Smokestack parcel which has petroleum issues. This has been cleaned and closed. EPA finally closed the grant. The final parcel is the slab (eastern side) near the fence line which originally planned was to extend the neighborhood and street grid, however, that is not possible. NCDEQ has revised its regulations and single-family housing is no longer allowed on Brownfield sites. NCDEQ's position is if a risk is discovered they want to be able to remedy it with a large corporation with the ability to fix it quickly rather than to deal with individual homeowners who may not have the means to address it. It has some high metal hits and PHs, however is less than a cleanup burden now that you're not going to go to single family housing. It can still be addressed, or it can be incorporated into the State Brownfield agreement. It can be left in place and restricted in some way. The size of the parcel remaining is very small triangular size. Before we acquired the site, we enrolled the site into the NC Brownfield Program which is totally separate from the EPA Brownfield Program. on it now. The EPA Brownfield Program provides the grants and funding to do assessments and cleanups, the NC Brownfield program provides the town liability protection. The parcel may be 100x50 feet area to be fenced in or covered with clean soil. The restrictions are in the Brownfield agreement, depending on what the future site will be. Once we are ready the draft will be sent over and negotiated with NCDEQ, and then it will be completed. Yes, the concrete slab is broken, Joe addressed that pad was reviewed and they haven't really looked under it, but chances are there isn't much there. From the results it doesn't suggest there is a big issue there. Current zoning of industrial seems fine. Joe reviewed the agreement with Commissioners and stressed the State part of the parcel is what is not closed as of yet and it's a long process. The Town doesn't have to complete the Brownfield agreement. The option to transfer to a corporation is viable and they complete it or they can void the Brownfield agreement. Remaining is a small parcel left to be clean, the rough cost estimate from Joe is under $50,000. Town is currently working on 2 assessment grants. The next round is November to apply. VIII. OLD BUSINESS Mayor Pro Tem added an item to Old Business and inquired about why the audit was not on the agenda. The manager corrected that he has it listed in his Manager Report but went over it here.  The manager requested our CPA Jimmy to complete a deep dive to find $20K and what was found was the 2016 CDBG Grant was not closed out and balanced on books. Altogether we had 19 pages of adjustments done on Tuesday and Wednesday to reconcile and send to the auditor. It came out of the general fund and not the project fund. Not sure how the auditor from 2018 until now hadn't caught it. The auditor is confident this will clear up his questions. If requested line for line it can be provided, but please take a look at the summary of the budget. The manager is very happy with Fund 30 and the funds performing conservatively. IX. NEW BUSINESS A. Fire Code Ordinance Sample Had some complaints of fire-related instances. This sample ordinance came from another town. The town had an instance where water was turned off due to tenants moving out, yet they were burning trash. Without water and having a fire should be a violation of fire safety. This ordinance addresses setbacks for fire. If you want to add or take away, please get with the clerk for the next meeting. X. MANAGER'S REPORT A. October 2023 Report An Economic Development Assessment (EDA) for the strategy grant was submitted. Letters of Support from Sandhills, First Health, Moore County Schools, and Rotary Club for this grant prove commitment to themselves as stakeholders. EDA directly relates to these organizations. This grant is called the Recompete Pilot Program because it targets the areas that were successful and had progress, but some factors declined. This grant is for a strategic EDA that if awarded will put the town one step towards Phase 2 to gather data from EDA and bring the plan to life with funding provided for Phase 2. This goes off of the Prime Age Employment Gap (PAEG). The whole mill age range is much higher than average, and this is why we are eligible for this grant. The award range is as high as $500,000 but we put in for $70,000. This grant is more for jobs not facade related. RPD partnered with Moore County Sheriff Dept in removing narcotics in a Robbins area subdivision. Commissioner English stated an area of concern. Town Manager stresses narcotics are a top priority. RPO/MPO coordinates with NC DOT. Vass, Cameron, Robbins, and Carthage will elect a mayor representative to be the chairperson of the RTAC meeting in January 2024. Reviewed the concepts of RPO and MPO. Fire ant and mosquito spray has been addressed along with the gate at Tracy Brown Park. Suggested signage to prohibit dogs inside the fenced area. Tracy Brown is on weekly maintenance. Mayor suggested there are several dog unleashed, is this an animal control problem or town problem. The town has a leash law, attorney states the question is the animal "annoying" or is it "biting" citizens. Moore County has an animal control department, the Town does not. If the leash law ordinance is violated citizen owner will be cited. Also, to clarify for record, chickens are fowl and they are not birds covered by bird sanctuary, citizens will be cited for fowl in the town limits.  Cemetary has had some issues with livestock from the property adjacent, which is an animal control issue. Updated policy for the cemetery requested and is policy given to burial plot purchasers? Requested update on paving, Manager stated Town has $2000 in paving and Town is waiting for the convenience of the vendor in an effort to save taxpayers money. Stewart would like to move forward with Brownfield cleanup and if that doesn't go through be prepared for next funding round next November. XI. COMMISSIONER'S COMMENTS Stewart: No English: No Bradshaw: Attended County Opioid meeting, monies have been allocated for the year to facilities with solid track records for treatment. Such as Moore County Buddies, Boys and Girls Club, Samaritan Colony, First Health, and Adult and Teen Challenge. Moore County lacks a treatment facility for women. This allocation will not help someone open a facility, if they give to outside the county organization it has to assist a Moore County resident. A lot of us thought it was going to the Sheriff's dept. Right now, that is where the money has been allocated so far. Phillips: Remind everybody we have municipal elections next month. Most people tend to not attend or vote in the municipal election. I encourage citizens to show up and vote because local town government has a greater say on your life than your federal government. We're responsible for your tax rate, your pot holes getting paved, the mill site getting cleaned up. Encourage everyone to vote. I would also like to say I typically refrain from commenting on anything national or local becuase its outside the scope of what we do here. I will be praying for the people of Israel and strongly condemn the barbaric, cowardly attacks of Hamas, they are truly evil in our time. Dockery: I would just like to celebrate that Robbins had a really big day last week. Our legislatures brought a lot of money to the Town for much needed projects. We are very appreciative of that. XII. CLOSED SESSION The permitted purposes for closed sessions, listed by the subsection numbers as they appear in G.S. 143-318.11(a), are:  (3) Attorney-Client Privilege. To consult with an attorney employed or retained by the public body in order to preserve the attorney-client privilege between the attorney and the public body. Go into Closed Session 7:11pm Motion made by Mayor Pro Tem Bradshaw. Voting Yea: Commissioner Phillips, Commissioner Britt, Commissioner Stewart, Commissioner English XIII. COMMISSIONER'S UPCOMING MEETING/EVENTS October 14- Pet Care Day at Robbins Elementary School 10am-1pm October 9-13 Fire Prevention Week October 16- Smoke Detector Giveaway to Robbins Residents in Robbins Fire District October 31- Harvest Fest at Greenspace 6pm-9pm November 15- Community Shred Day at Depot Lot 11am-2pm