SIMPSONVILLE CITY COUNCIL MINUTES SPECIAL VOTING SESSION March 25, 2008 6:30 P.M.
CALL TO ORDER: Mayor: Call the March meeting of Simpsonville City Council to order; the March Workshop Meeting which is a Special Voting Session. Ms. Bodkins if you would call the Roll now that I’ve got all that out.
ROLL CALL: Ms. Bodkins: Yes sir: Councilmember Bridges: Here Councilmember Garrett: Here Councilmember Sanders: Here Councilmember Bagwell: Here Councilmember Curtis: Here Councilmember Larson: Here Mayor Waldrop: Here Thank you Ms. Bodkins
Ms. Bodkins: Yes sir.
INVOCATION Mayor: Anyone here who would like to ask blessings on this meeting in your own personal way. Ms. Sanders would you ask blessings on this meeting in your own personal way.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Mayor: Will you all join us now in the Pledge of Allegiance to our Flag.
CITIZEN COMMENTS Mayor: All right this is the portion of our program where we invite citizen comments. There is no one who has asked to be placed on the Agenda so we will allow those who signed up to speak tonight and will listen to anything you have to say and this being a workshop session we’ll try to answer – we’ll try to respond if you’d like for us to do that. Looks like we had one person sign up. Mr. Wade Shealy. Mr. Shealy if you’ll approach the podium and give us your address for the record please. And you may begin.
Wade Shealy – 202 W. Fernwood Dr Simpsonville , SC 29681 My name’s Wade Shealy and I reside at 202 W. Fernwood Rd in Simpsonville, 29681. Honorable Mayor, distinguished members of the Council, City Officials and guests, I bring you greetings of joy from the Simpsonville Arts Foundation, a non-profit organization in Simpsonville dedicated to supporting the Arts in our community. I also bring to you an invitation to attend an affair this coming Saturday, a reception that will be at 2:00 pm adjacent to the City Hall parking lot on the grounds of the Provident Community Bank parking lot at which we will recognize and honor an artist who is presenting on loan to the City of Simpsonville two outdoor sculptures that will be installed and unveiled that day. I certainly hope that you will attend. I think it’s a momentous occasion for our town and I feel we are fortunate to have this art on loan for a year.
Secondly, I’d like to invite you to a community sing a long to be held at the future Arts Center – the little blue paper on your desk. You already know about it. And I hope you will attend that. This is a free event. We want all of the community to attend and join us and have fun. We will have musical entertainment along with the singing. Singing is not required but if you would like to join we would certainly invite you to do so. It’s informal. You may come and leave at your pleasure or stay for the entire program. Thank you for your time.
Mayor: Well thank you and this event will be this coming Saturday. The one in the parking lot next door.
Mr. Shealy: The art installation will be this Saturday, the 29 th of March.
Mayor: All right, thank you very much and thank you for all that the Simpsonville Art’s Foundation does for us.
COUNCIL COMMENTS Mayor: Next item on the Agenda is Council Comments. Does anyone have anything they’d like to say.
Mr. Larson: I was going to see if Mr. Shealy could repeat his introduction.
Mayor: I don’t believe he can. No – no that’s okay – that’s okay but thank you.
Mr. Larson: Seriously, I wanted to ask Russ if he’d heard anything about the drainage over there on Tamwood behind Capewood Place
Mr. Hawes: My understanding is they’re re-engineering that right now. They have been notified by DHEC and by the City of Simpsonville that it was an inappropriate technique used and definitely outside the standards that the City would require under any circumstance. They did not notify the City prior to doing that so we basically found out about it after it was done. But they are re-engineering that and will keep all of the flow underground as is appropriate with a direct connection into the catch basin.
Mr. Larson: Do you have any idea when they’ll start finishing up the construction part of it.
Mr. Hawes: I couldn’t tell you because they’re re-engineering it right now. I don’t know what their procurement is. It’s quite involved. It involves probably double to triple the amount of work that they put in very quickly before because this is more involved.
Mr. Larson: Okay thanks.
Mayor: Okay – anyone else. Wow – okay, thanks.
NEW BUSINESS: Quarterly Project Update Mayor: Next item – New Business. Mr. Hawes tell us about the quarterly Project Update.
Mr. Hawes: Yes sir, Mayor and Council, I try to give City Council an update on all the things that we’ve got going on in the City on a quarterly basis. And here we are at the end of the first quarter of the fiscal – well the third quarter of the fiscal year ’08. First quarter of calendar year ’08. So I’ll give you a quick update on where we are on some of the major projects and some of the lesser projects, things we haven’t talked about so much. Not lesser necessarily of importance, but maybe just a little bit quieter and behind the scenes type projects. So I’m going to start out first of all with
Hunters Woods Sewer Project – as you all are aware that project basically is complete other than the pavement, the resurfacing being completed. We did work with the contractor to address the curb – the way that was installed as replacement curb. And as I understand he was out there yesterday and today redoing the curbing so that it would look better overall. And hopefully that will be to everyone’s satisfaction as the new layer of asphalt is poured I think it will be a very fine road. So that project generally is wrapping up and as soon as we have an average temperature in the 50 degree range that resurfacing will commence.
New concrete at the Fire Stations – this was something that was discussed last summer and fall as part of the budget. Our Public Works Department has been working with a concrete contractor to do the work at Fire Stations 3 and 2 – 2 and 3. I believe 3 was finished – is that correct Chief. 3 is finished and 2 is underway. That’s what – it is not quite finished yet but this will allow a safer ingress and egress for the fire vehicles at station number 3 by allowing a through connection to an adjoining road rather than having to back out onto highway 14 and at station 2 it will allow a less slick surface for any activities on the fire station property. It also will remove some of the cracking and worn, generally worn concrete that was there. So we’re excited about that improvement at those fire stations.
The City’s also been working on another project that was a discussion at last year’s retreat regarding Wi-Fi service downtown. Extending WiFi. And we’ve been working for over a year with the providers the City worked with at Heritage Park to provide WiFi. On exactly how we could do it downtown. It’s going to require about 16 access points and then another 20 or so translators to cover the general vicinity of downtown and that would be from the Veteran’s Monument all the way up to Pliney and from the City Park all the way down to the Public Works facility. That will – that should be installed by the end of summer and we’d be real excited to have that because there have been a lot of hoops to get over there that we really didn’t expect regarding the placement of some of the access points and how exactly that would be accomplished – logistics were just a little more involved than we expected. Especially since we’re taking down some of the utility poles that they were looking to hook to. But downtown we’re removing the utility poles by putting the utilities underground which won’t service WiFi very well. So we had to find some other places and the access points should be good there now.
Web Site Re-Invention – is underway. We’ve been working with the consultant on that and had a meeting with them this week and they should have a Beta program, in other words a beta site for our future web site complete in the next two weeks. And with the complete web site done by the end of April. That’s about 30 days later than they had indicated previously but they want to make sure that it’s fully functional and has all the capabilities that we’re looking for which is an interactive map where you basically just click on an area and bring up information about that area. That’s pretty involved, but it’s a really nice functional addition to our web site that we currently do not have. We’re going to be creating a document center where you can download documents, forms, applications and also have the ability to fill them out on line and just send them right in. We’ll have job applications, building permit applications, things along those lines. So those are just a couple of the great improvements that we’ll see with this new web site. Also I have seen a re-design of the front page and what the overall web site appearance is going to be and it’s going to be very updated and classic, is the best way I can describe it. So when we have that Beta site up I’ll let you all know where to go visit it. It should be real exciting.
Streetscape – as you all are aware is moving forward. The mast arms have been installed. I think they look great. I hope you all do to. I’ve had great comments from people just coming up to me and saying you know those are really going to be a nice addition to downtown they add a little touch of class and I think that it’s just going to add to the appearance of the streetscape by getting the wire hung traffic signals removed and the old poles and so forth. The mast arms are in. We’re waiting for the actual delivery of the new traffic signals, the LED signals. The actuation grids have been placed in the street surface. You can see where the cuts are as you drive through there. So that aspect is virtually complete. The next step in the process is really Phase III of the streetscape. The mast arms and where we are right now completes Phase II. Phase III is where we actually put in the medians and begin the lane rechannelization of traffic. The actual channelization of traffic with regard to traffic signals will not occur until the medians are complete but people will get a feel for how the traffic will be a little bit as we cone off and barrel off to create the medians. So we ask that everybody who is going through downtown have patience. The thing is when it is complete there will be protected left turns and while it’s under construction there will not be protected left turns at the intersections. So it won’t be a true feeling of what the traffic flow will be because as you go down to one lane right now while we’re putting the medians in you’re going to see that one left turning vehicle will back up traffic. And we’re real sorry about that and we hope that people can use some alternate means around downtown. We may even consider detouring if we observe that traffic is backing up too much while we’re putting the medians in. But that’s always a consideration.
Mayor: Excuse me, but during that phase can we get Joe Carter to make some signs to post on Main Street with your home phone number on it.
Mr. Hawes: Yeah, no problem at all. I’ll give them my cell phone number. (laughter)
Mayor: I just wanted to make sure people have a source of information and a place that they could express their joy over changes in the traffic.
Mr. Hawes: I understand.
Davenport Road – the – COTRANSCO is working on the pre-engineering of that project right now. Pre-engineering is basically identifying the locations and creating maps of where the road will be on the existing topography and so forth. Then you get into the engineering of the road which will come upon the completion of pre-engineering. The pre-engineering phase should take about 30 days on this project. So they’re just beginning that now. As soon as they get into the engineering and get that underway we’ll begin a bid process and work with exactly who the contractor will be on that project.
800 Megahertz Radios – this is a project City Council entered into about 8 months ago. We have now taken delivery of the necessary radios for the Police Department. This is about a $266,000 purchase for these radios and this radio equipment to equip our police with the top of the line standard communication as recommended by the Homeland Security Department. This allows inter-agency communication that previously was really unfeasible or infeasible. So basically now our Police Department can click a channel and talk directly with a SLED Agent or you know in an emergency situation directly with Greenville County or Greenville City or any inter-agency type aspect can be completed over these 800 megahertz radios. Particularly with regard to state because they’re already equipped. Now the City of Greenville is equipping themselves and Greenville County is as well. So as we move forward in the coming years more and more will equip themselves with these 800 megahertz radios.
The City has also taken delivery of some of the capital equipment that was authorized in the current budget. We received 3 pick-up trucks. Two for Public Works and one for the Recreation Department. We took delivery of our Pro-patch System Patcher. Joe Carter was unable to be here and he was going to have the Pro-patch truck out here tonight but he was unable to be here because of a family matter. We expect to have that Pro-patch truck out for the next council meeting so you all can take a look at it. But that allows us to do hot patching instead of cold patching which will really extend the life of any deteriorating road and we’re real excited to have that in the system. We also may be able to work with the neighboring cities for them to lease that piece of equipment as well. The City also took delivery of our new sewer camera truck which is state of the art sewer investigative truck with close circuit video camera and all the capabilities including DVD creation and internet connectivity through this camera truck.
With regard to the Amphitheater at Heritage Park the installation of the stage covering and performance area is underway. The peers and caissons have been poured for the structural steel to be placed. Steel delivery should occur in mid-April with erection and completion prior to Freedom Weekend Aloft on the steel stage covering. The installation of buildings will occur in the next two months. You can see some construction work out there right now at the gate to the amphitheater. We’re building sort of a trellis gateway – 80 feet long and 15 feet deep that will shade people who are ticket takers and so forth and really give a grand entrance to the amphitheater. That trellis gateway structure is based on the trellis swings that are throughout Heritage Park and carries on the theme as the rest of the amphitheater is going to carry on the theme of the rest of Heritage Park . As a matter of fact the stage building color scheme will be the same as the CentrePlex building color scheme and the exposed beams are going to be similar to the exposed beams of the CentrePlex Building . So it should have a nice coherent appearance as you go through the park and then into the amphitheater and so forth so you’ll see elements of architectural design cues throughout. We’re real excited about that coming together and right on schedule. We just had a meeting with the contractor this morning and they indicated that everything is right on schedule right now for completion.
The Tub Grinder that City Council has discussed previously is being prepared right now for delivery in about 60 days. And we’re working to prepare a site for that. We’re looking right now to place that behind Public Works on some empty land that is city property behind the Public Works facility. So that’s where we would locate our tub grinder operation. That basically concludes my quarterly update. I’d be glad to take any questions regarding these or any other projects the City is working on.
Mayor: Okay – well I’m going to go first this time. Because, you said a couple of things that peeked my memory. First of all I want to thank Chief Major and also Ralph Bobo – thanks for being here tonight and showing an interest in what we’re doing. Secondly, you mentioned it was the end of the quarter and that reminded me to remind all of council that if you have not closed out your campaign accounts for those of you who recently campaigned you’ve got to file a campaign report before the end of this month – well that give you until April 10 th – 15 th – no it’s the 10 th . And also all of you have to file a Statement of Economic interest by then – so if you haven’t done that be sure and do that – you can get the forms on line off the Ethic Commissions Web Site or I think Pam has some poorly copied copies by Pam can help you get that.
Ms. Bodkins: Yes, and I’d like to keep copies of whatever you send in in your files because they have lost them before –
Mayor: Absolutely – they lost mine.
Ms. Bodkins: And if I keep copies in the files then when they call I can just fax it down to them real quick.
Mayor: So there you go – you’ve been informed. And since I’m going first I’ll go ahead and ask my question. Tell me about SMG and their bookings. Have they gone forward in pursing entertainers and bookings down there.
Mr. Hawes: Absolutely, without naming names at this point because they’re in discussions regarding exactly how the arrangements for the bookings would work with individual entertainment so I really wouldn’t be comfortable naming names right now. SMG is – has hit the ground running. Basically, Cindy Ogletree, who is the General Manager of the Amphitheater has been on the job here in the City for right at one month today and she’s burned up the phone lines I know and she’s worked with us closely on the construction making sure operational aspects will be taken care of in the best way possible. She’s been in contact with all the top promoters, Live Nation to AEG Live to Outback. These are your top 3 promoters in the country for touring acts. We’re definitely on the map with these locations. She’s finalizing the Tech Pack as we speak. Tech Pack is a document that is forwarded to promoters and artists and their agents identifying exactly what your venue has and how it can accommodate the needs of those artists so they know basically what to ask for and what to demand – artists. So she’s finalizing that Tech Pack as we speak. I’ve got a draft that was forwarded to me today as a matter of fact. And that identifies the backstage building, number of dressing rooms, number of offices, production information, grid capabilities, sound, sound delay capabilities, lighting, spot lighting, everything that goes into the production of a show specific to the venue is identified in this Tech Pack and it’s a very important document and she’s basically created it from scratch in less than 30 days. So we’re very happy. As far as bookings, we do have one solid booking for July 4 th , which I’m not going to name at this point but we have a solid booking 4 th of July and we have a number of very close to solid bookings thereafter.
Mayor: Okay well good. I just wanted to make sure she was staying on top of it. And I think that it needs to be said that she’s out there looking for acts that would fit our niche down here which is an amphitheater and we’re not trying to compete with anyone else. We’re not trying to compete with the BiLo Center and we’re trying to be different from every other entertainment venue and I just want to make sure that everybody understands that. Okay.
Mr. Hawes: I would agree 100%.
Mayor: All right – feels good to go first some times. Now does anyone else have anything – Mr. Curtis
Mr. Curtis: You mentioned streetscape program and the mast arm lights. Just curiosity – in the event that something happens to those mast arm lights, like someone crashes into them – what is the procedure that we have in place to replace those in a speedy manner.
Mr. Hawes: Well those mast arms are the City’s property but the DOT will be hanging their lights on those mast arms so the City has a contractual agreement with DOT for anything that occurs to those mast arms. First of all those mast arms have to meet the DOT spec to start. And they are very heavy duty. Now, if they were to be damaged it would be very similar if there was damage to a mast arm in Greenville or down in front of the hospital – those white mast arms. DOT would most likely set a pole and run a wire across to the other mast arm. Those mast arms can handle that type of arrangement, until a new mast arm can be delivered.
Mayor: Okay. Anyone else. All right thank you very much.
Budget Progress and Schedule Mayor: All right Mr. Hawes tell us about the Budget Progress – how are we coming on that.
Mr. Hawes: Well, I mentioned the retreat last year where we attacked some of those issues. I’m going to talk a little bit about the retreat that we had this year and talk about the priorities for the coming year and how we’re integrating those into our draft budget to put before City Council.
Mayor: That sounds like a lot
Mr. Hawes: Well I’ll give you a quick synopsis.
Mayor: Thank you.
Mr. Hawes: Certainly among the priorities for the coming year identified by City Council were getting the amphitheater up and running and making it a quality venue. Certainly work to implement our tub grinder that we’re working on right now. This tub grinder would be for the purpose of taking mulchable materials, yard waste and other items that are picked up throughout the City and being able to create a mulch and use that mulch in City landscaping and possibly have a mulch day where people could come and get mulch and things along those lines. It has a dual benefit that ties in directly with what the front page story of the newspaper was today of not having to pay for the tipping fee for that mulch if you can grind it and use it yourself which you would have to with the yard waste and branches and other tree/wood type waste that you pay a tipping fee now going forward as of July 1 at the County landfill. So we’re going to be able to limit the amount of tipping and the impact on the City taxpayer and just City citizen with regard to these tipping fees that the County has imposed on us.
We’re in the process of revising ordinances that City Council identified as a priority, signs and how they impact businesses. There has been a committee that was formed by the Chamber of Commerce to look at the City sign ordinance. Businesses are interested in the impact of that ordinance and we’re glad to work with them and glad that they’re working together to approach the City with ideas. Because we’re always open to ideas.
The Old Library was a priority and certainly there have been discussions as to how that could be utilized in the future. We’ve discussed a museum, we’ve discussed the Chamber possibly moving into the Library building. These are still in discussion and we’ll be coming forth very soon I’d expect with some proposals.
Georgia Road – certainly design standard – overall we’re looking at overlay standards for certain road sections in the City – not just Georgia Road but not really road design standards but more sections of roads design standards. The best way I can describe this is as you go through downtown you’re going to have a different design standard than you would on North Main or on South Main, so rather than having an entire Main Street design standard we want to be very specific and hopefully create what’s appropriate in specific areas. That’s something that we’re definitely looking at and had been looking at prior to City Council prioritizing that as an important aspect looking forward.
Completion on parts of renovation of the Arts & Civic Center – that’s the old Simpsonville Elementary School . We’ll be looking this year to hopefully provide air conditioning and basic clean-up and fix-up of that building. That’ll be something that we’re going to put before City Council in the budget.
Underground utilities – we’re going to be working in what’s now called the Greenville program with Duke Power to see if there’s a possibility as that is finalized from Greenville ’s standpoint on City of Simpsonville doing something similar with regard to placement of primarily residential utility lines underground.
We’re going to continue proactive planning on sewer infrastructure throughout the City. The sewer camera truck is part of the SSES as identified and that’s the sewer system evaluation and study identified two years ago. We’re right on schedule with that SSES program and compliant with all EPA and Western Carolina requirements through the agreements that we have.
We’re going to be working – one of the priorities for the coming year is working on communication with the citizens. I think our web site will further address the ability for people to interact with the City. We want to have calendar capabilities on that web site that we don’t have now. Meeting bulletin type information and we’re actually going to be looking at some print type communication as well as we move forward for citizen updates that can be placed on their trash cans as we go by on a quarterly basis conceivably.
So that’s basically the priorities we’re trying to work into the budget right now as a result of the retreat. Also I want to let City Council know where we are in the process. I’m going to be receiving second draft reviews with all the department heads by the end of this week and early next week and basically finalizing the final draft by March 31 st . Between March 31 st and the City Council Budget Workshop which is scheduled for April 24 th I will be taking those departmental final drafts and coordinating those into a comprehensive budget for the City with the City Council’s goals in mind and with all aspects of fiscal propriety and every – squeezing every dime out of what we can. So – also as part of the budget this year – part of the budget process this year is the creation of a Capital Improvement Program which will be a five year program that identifies capital needs and replacement plans for the coming five years. That will be updated on a yearly basis and that will be a component of our bond review every year to have that CIP so we would have City Council adopt that CIP going forward. And this is a new aspect of our bond review which will help solidify and actually raise our stature in the bond and credit markets of the City.
We are currently under review of our health insurance plan as to what the best way is to provide the necessary health insurance coverage for our employees and their dependents. There have been a number of innovative approaches to help insurance recently and we’re taking a look at those. I know the City of Mauldin has undertaken a wellness type plan which is quite different than what we have in the City of Simpsonville right now. We’re looking at some aspects of that and also health savings plans, health – other types of health plans.
Also the City is looking to at least – at we are looking to in creating the budget here put forth City Council proposal regarding Police and Court software. This new software would allow us to eliminate handwritten tickets. Basically you would be able to – a Police Officer would be able to take a driver’s license, scan it on site and that would create the printed ticket out of a printer right in the scanner with the information. And that information would automatically be logged into the City’s proprietary system that would really eliminate a lot of the input error that you can have with human error inputting tickets. So that’s one aspect of this new software system. Also this would allow us to have laptops in every police care and we’re actually working on a grant for those laptops right now.
So basically that’s where we are in the budget. We will have a Council Budget Workshop on October 24 th – and first review of the budget for you all and from there
Mayor: October 24 th –
Mr. Hawes: Did I say October – I meant April
Mayor: I’m not sure I can wait that long
Mr. Hawes: I wouldn’t ask you to Mayor. April 24 th , I misspoke.
Mayor: You said you were going to be squeezing it but we’re just anxious to do our part on squeezing.
Mr. Hawes: Fully expected – but well taken. May 8 th we have first reading of the budget ordinance scheduled and June 10 th will be second reading of the budget ordinance. And that concludes my report on the budget.
Mayor: Thank you very much for that. Does anyone have any questions about that. Good.
EXECUTIVE SESSION Three contractual matters – 2 Administration and 1 Public Works Mayor: Next item on the Agenda – I mean we’re going to have all these budget workshops that we can go through all those details so – but thank you for giving us that brief report. Next we have the need for an Executive Session to discuss unlike as shown on your Agenda to discuss a Contractual Matter regarding Public Works and 2 Contractual Matters regarding Administration. So before I take a motion to go into Executive Session I’d like to have a motion to amend the Agenda to reflect two contractual matters in Administration. Do I hear a motion.
Mr. Garrett: I make a motion that we amend the agenda to two contractual matters in administration
Mayor: Thank you Mr. Garrett do I hear a second.
Mr. Curtis: Second
Mayor: Second from Mr. Curtis. All in favor signify by saying Aye (AYE) opposed No. Aye’s have it it’s unanimous. Now, I’ll entertain a motion to go into Executive Session to you know what your supposed to say – Ms. Bagwell
Ms. Bagwell: I move that we go into Executive Session to discuss a contractual matter concerning Public Works and two contractual matters concerning Administration.
Mayor: Thank you Ms. Bagwell do I hear a second.
Mr. Larson: Second
Mayor: Thank you Mr. Larson. Motion has a second. I’ll call for the vote. All in favor signify by saying Aye(AYE) opposed No. Aye’s have it it’s unanimous. So we are in recess in Executive Session. Thank you all for coming.
CAME OUT OF EXECUTIVE SESSION AT 7:43 P.M. AND NO ACTION WAS TAKEN. BACK IN REGULAR SESSION.
Mayor: I have a question for your Mr. Hawes. Have we registered everyone who is interested in going to the Municipal Association Convention this year or is that.
Mr. Hawes: It has not occurred yet.
Mayor: Okay well we’re going to have somebody there standing at the desk –
Mr. Hawes: We’re going to do the same way we always do which is to have a person take care of that.
Mayor: Someone asked the question I just wanted to make sure. All right does anyone have anything else.
Mr. Curtis: I move to authorize the City Administrator to conclude negotiations on a land purchase contract on the terms discussed in Executive Session.
Mayor: Thank you Mr. Curtis. Do I hear a second
Ms. Bagwell: Second
Mayor: Ms. Bagwell seconds. Any discussion. Hearing none I’ll call for the vote. All in favor signify by saying Aye (AYE) opposed No. Aye’s have it it’s unanimous.
ADJOURNMENT Mayor: I’ll entertain a motion.
Ms. Sanders: I move that we adjourn the March workshop meeting for Simpsonville City Council.
Mayor: Thank you Ms. Sanders do I hear a second
Mr. Bridges: Second
Mayor: Mr. Bridges seconds. All in favor signify by saying Aye (AYE) opposed No. The Aye’s have it it’s unanimous. We’re adjourned. Thank you all for coming.
Respectfully submitted,
PAMELA J. BODKINS City Clerk |
|
|
| 118 N E Main Street, Simpsonville, SC 29681 |
|