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HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-24-24 RegularHim Dunn City Council Regular Meeting Tuesday, September 24, 2024 6:30 p.m., Dunn Municipal Building Minutes PRESENT: Mayor William P. Elmore Jr., Mayor Pro Tem J. Wesley Sills, Council Members Raquel McNeil, April Gaulden, Billy N. Tart, Alan Hargis, and Dr. David L. Bradham. Also present: City Manager Steven Neuschafer, Assistant City Manager Billy R. Godwin, Finance Director Cary McNallan, Chief of Police CaryJackson, Planning Director George Adler, Parks and Recreation Director Brian McNeill, Human Resources Director Connie Jernigan, Public Works Director Dwayne Williams, Collections and Distribution Manager Billy Cottle, Water Plant Manager Ian Stroud, Wastewater Plant Manager Donrie Dukes, Administrative Support Specialist Sidney McKoy, CityAttorney Tilghman Pope, and City Clerk Melissa Matti. CALL TO ORDER AND INVOCATION Mayor Elmore opened the meeting at 6:30 p.m. Reverend Cameron Cloud, from Central Baptist Church gave the invocation. Afterwards, Council Member McNeil led in the Pledge of Allegiance. AGENDA ADJUSTMENT AND APPROVAL Motion by Council Member Bradham and second by Council Member Gaulden to adopt the changes to the September 23, 2024, meeting agenda to include adding #9A to award Wayfinding Project and adding #913 Approval of Eastover Sanitary District water storage. Motion unanimously approved. Public Comment Period Gloria Farmer 85 Bell Rd. Benson, NC. Zip code 27540 Ms. Farmer wanted to know why she's being harassed like a dog. if she goes to the store {Walmart}, even the people in the store thought she was stealing. They rushed the door and looked at the cameras. She claimed to have dates and times the occurrence took place and said that she's been keeping a log. She hasn't filed a complaint She talked to Benson, OK, and it's going a little bit further. Nobody can give her the answer. So, she's going to ask the chief tonight if it's alright with the council member. Why all the harassment? Mayor Elmore advised Ms. Farmer that the council will not be making any comments, and her comments need to be held to three minutes. Ms. Farmer said she has proof that they (Police) chased her down like a drug dealer. They think she's a drug dealer because she drives a nice car. Let them keep on. She's going to consider harassment as of tonight and she will be seeking an attorney. Again, she said she's got proof and video proof of what's going on. She said when she leaves tonight, she hopes she gets home safely. She claimed to have had a police officer break her down the other night outside city limits. Mayor Elmore informed Ms. Farmer, that her time was up and reminded her that the Chief of Police has an open- door policy. He told her If she wanted to go by and see her sometime, make an appointment 11(W M W1-8 �II�Iu fy • Minutes of the July 23, 2024 - City Council Meeting. • Minutes of August 13, 2024 - City Council Meeting. • Minutes of August 27th, 2024 - City Council Meeting. • Condemnation for Easement Acquisition for East Side Pump Station. A copy of the Resolution of the City Council Authorizing Condemnation Action on A Parcel for the Eastside Pump Station Project (R2024-34) is incorporated into these minutes as Attachment #1. Motion by Council Member Hargis and second by Council Member Tart to approve all consent items as presented. Motion unanimously approved. ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION AND/OR DECISION I-95/I-40 Crossroads of America Economic Planning Alliance - Revised MOU Harold Keen give a brief history of the alliance and then let Tilghman clarify any questions. A few years ago, the City of Dunn engaged with the Town of Four Oaks to create an Economic Development of clients that run along Interstate 95. Both towns have participated for three years now, and we have some good things happening. We've just announced this past week that the Alliance has partnered with Harnett County on a 65-acre piece of property, and we have a spec building that's going to start out there in early 2025. It's going to be 160,000 square foot building. Were it not for the Alliance folks, this would not be happening. We have the renovation of a building here in town, the old Magnolia School building that's going to be a Workforce Training Center that's going to be somewhere in excess of $13 million that they're alliance has been a key partner in putting this together. The Town of Four Oaks has also put in a Workforce training Center. We had discussion with Benson about them coming in and being a part of it and I'm happy to say tonight that the Town of Benson has decided to join this force. I think it's going to be good for us. The regional outlook along the Interstate is going to pay dividends for many, many years to come. I think it's going to create many jobs. I hope we're going to be able to put in industry that will create higher paying jobs and average paying job in this area. I hope our people will be able to stay at home or within just a few miles of Dunn in Four Oaks to work and live here and spend their time and money here. Tilghman is the attorney for the Alliance as well as the City of Dunn. He has participated in rewriting the memorandum. I'll let you go over that previously distributed information to the Council regarding the differences M between this memorandum and the original memorandum with Four Oaks at that time. The Alliance was not yet formed, so the original memorandum discussed the formation of that nonprofit entity. Now that that nonprofit entity is in existence, this memorandum of understanding will replace the original and its primary purpose is to bring Benson into and make them a part of the group. Who is currently on the board? David Bradham is the Vice Chair of that group. Walter Massey serves on that board. Jeffrey Dunn from this area serves on the board, and Matthew Smith, a local resident attends on behalf of Dunn. Motion by Council Member Gaulden and second by Council Member Hargis to approve the revised MOU with the Town of Four Oaks for the development of the I-95/I-40 Crossroads of America Economic Planning Alliance Incorporated as presented. Motion unanimously approved. A copy of the Memorandum of Understanding is incorporated into these minutes as Attachment #2. Capital Project Ordinance - Water Asset Inventory & Assessment Finance Director McNallan explained that this item is related to the Water Asset and Inventory and Assessment project At the last meeting, council approved accepting a grant for that. The grant is $150,000. There's also a $7,500 Match from the City. This agenda item creates that project for that, so we can track that money and then track its related expenditures. Council is being asked to approve the capital project ordinance to establish that Motion by Council Member Gaulden and second by Council Member Sills to approve the Water Asset Inventory and Assessment Capital Project ordinance and related budget amendment. Motion unanimously approved. A copy of the Capital Project Ordinance - Water Asset Inventory & Assessment (02024-25) and Budget Amendment (BA-2024- 33) is incorporated into these minutes as Attachment ##. Bid Award for Tracy Lane Water & Sewer Improvement Project City Manager Neuschafer explained that this agenda item is a Bid award for Tracy Lane water and sewer improvement project This will install 600 linear feet of 6-inch water main and over 500 linear feet of gravity sewer along Tracy Lane, connecting to existing utilities on either end. This is going to bolster the service that's already on Tracy Lane and provide new service to five (5) parcels that are already on the line but have no access to water and sewer even though they're in the city limits. We had the project engineered. It was approved by the state. It has to be permitted by the state as well because it is an extension and then the bid came back. The bids are included as attachments in your packet with the low bid of $249,747.55 for the Ascot Corporation. Motion by Council Member McNeil and second by Council Member Gaulden to award the project to the Ascot Corporation so that they can begin construction for the Tracy Lane Water and Sewer Improvement project. Motion unanimously approved. Award of Bid for Wayfinding Project Assistant Manager Godwin addressed council concerning wayfaring signs. Item 9A was added to the agenda and is put before you to ask the council to consider awarding a bid to get our wayfinding project fabricated and installed. The bids were submitted in July. We had four (4) bids and the low bid; it was quite a range from a high of $348,000 to a low of 165,000 dollars. $165,000 is the bid that's been recommended for the council to accept Right Light Signs is a North Carolina corporation. It's a HUD certified business. They are out of Concord, NC and council has previously approved the $250,000 Project Ordinance for this project last year. Right Light anticipates a completion date roughly six to seven months once they get the authority to proceed. You may recall that this wayfinding project is the number one priority of the vision group. This will enable that priority to be fulfilled and that's what's before you. There's also a budget amendment, a project ordinance amendment to just move some money from one line item within the project to another. That's sort of an administrative thing, but that would be part of the motion. Does this mean that we save almost $100,000? It's under budget and it is for change. We'll see how the monies go. Hopefully as the project gets underway and if things hold like I think they will, we may be able to add a few more signs to the project I'll make a motion to award the wayfinding project fabrication and installation bid to right light signs incorporated in the amount of $165,816 and authorize the City Manager or his designee to execute any necessary documents on behalf of the City of Dunn and to approve the budget amendment as presented. Motion by Council Member Bradham and seconded by Council Member Billy Tart to award the wayfinding project fabrication and installation bid to Right Light Signs Incorporated in the amount of $165,816 and authorize the City Manager or his designee to execute any necessary documents on behalf of the City of Dunn, and to approve the budget amendment as presented. Motion unanimously approved. A copy of the Budget Amendment (BA-2024- 34) into these minutes as attachment #4. Approval of Eastover Water Storage Agreement City Manager Neuschafer explained that this is a simple agreement between the City of Dunn and the Eastover Sanitary District, where the Sanitary District, in order to meet their obligations to the state as far as the amount of storage they have available, would like to designate some storage in our water tanks as part of their overall storage for their water system. Since we sell a significant amount of water to Eastover, we figured it appropriate to allocate a certain amount of storage for them and we took a percentage of the overall number of gallons that we have in storage and divided the maintenance cost for that storage. Because we do have an annual maintenance fee that we pay a company to maintain our storage and it came out to about $3500 for the $100,000 hundred 1000 gallons that we're looking to allocate to their water supply plan. We feel that if we engage in this agreement That fee and annual fee of $3500 will cover our costs and also allow them room to grow and their ability to grow is going to increase our ability to sell them water as well. You'll see in the agreement there's a couple of caveats to win. They have to make the payment as well as the end of this agreement would be December 31st to 2031 or when they complete their elevated storage tank because their plans are to construct an elevated storage tank so they won't have to have part of ours as their storage system. Mr. Neuschafer assured the council that a significant amount of our water is already sold to them. So, it's really just allocating a small percentage of their purchase in our tank. Motion by Council Member Gaulden and second by Council Member Hargis to approve the water storage agreement with the Eastover Sanitary District to authorize the, City Manager or his designee to execute the agreement on behalf of the City of Dunn Motion unanimously approved. A copy of the Eastover Water Storage Agreement is incorporated into these minutes as attachment #S. Administrative Reports City Manager Neuschafer Finance Director McNallan provided the following financial report for the period ending August 31, 2024: • The city has $9.8 million cash and investments, compared to $5.9 million last year. The increase is we've received a lot of our grants, construction grants and we're two months into the fiscal year. • Property Taxes collected for July was $60,000, compared to $48,000 last year. • Sales Tax receipts were $310,000 for June, down $7,800 same period last year. That's the second month in a row that we've had a decline for year over year receipts. • Building Permit Fees collected for August were $7,555. To date, we've collected $13,985. Reports were also received as follows: Planning and Inspections Report, Public Works Report, Public Utilities Report, Parks and Recreation Report and Police Report. Announcements/Information Mayor Elmore announced upcoming events and activities. Closed Session Motion by Council Member Hargis and second by Council Member Gaulden to go into closed at 7:04 p.m. Motion unanimously approved. No decisions were made, and Closed Session adjourned at 7:37 Attest: LML,��O%tt� Melissa Matti, CMC, NCCMC City Clerk