Demorest The Heart ofHabersham City of Demorest City Council Work Session Work Session Minutes Demorest Municipal. Building Tuesday, March 7, 2023,6:00P.M.  ATTENDEES  Shawn Allen, Councilman John Hendrix, Councilman Jerry Harkness, Mayor Andrew Ferguson, Councilman  Donnie Bennett, Councilman Mark Musselwhite, Interim City Manager Thomas Mitchell, City Attorney Megan Chastain, City Clerk  The March 7, 2023, Demorest Work Session was held in the Demorest Municipal Building located at 125  Ivy Street.  AGENDA ITEM: 1: INVOCATION AGENDA ITEM2 2: CALLTOORDER agenda (item 13).  Mayor Harkness opened the meeting by leadingi in prayer.  Mayor Harkness called the meeting to order at 6:03 p.m. Mark requested to add FEMA GRANT1 to the AGENDA ITEM 3: CONSIDERATION OF DEMOREST SPRINGS PARK ACCOUNT SIGNERS Mayor Harkness stated that normally the City! Manager or the Councilman over finance would be a signerand then the mayor as a backup but asked if someone on the Park Committee should be an authorized signer? Councilman Allen and Councilman Hendrix agreed. Councilman Bennett recommended Councilman Hendrix as an authorized signer. Councilman Hendrix accepted and AGENDA ITEM 4: CONSIDERATION OF TRADITIONS BANK SEIZURE FUNDS ACCOUNT Mayor Harkness stated we need to open a seizures funds account for funds that are seized. Chief Krockum stated that thei funds cannot be comingled with other funds. Councilman Allen recommended adding Mayor Harkness and himself as authorized signers as it would be easier for accounts payable being that they already sign the checks. Councilman Bennett volunteered to be al backup signer. AGENDA ITEM 5: CONSIDERATION OF CHANGE OF SIGNERS ON CD ACCOUNT ATI PINNACLE BANK Mrs. Chastain explained that the account we have with Pinnacle Bank has Kim Simonds and Sean Moore as authorized: signers. We cannot access that account and the auditors are needing the balance of the CDasof12/31/2022. Councilman Allen recommended adding Mayor Harkness and himselfas  recommended having ai third signer as back up.  1Page    authorized signers as it would be easier for accounts payable being that they already sign the checks and  then add at third in the near future.  AGENDAI ITEM 6: CONSIDERATION OF PURCHASE OF SCAG LAWNMOWER  Mr. Musselwhite presented bids on a lawnmower that Bryan provided. They have a Kubota currently that has 10,000 hours and 12 years oni it. The trade in price fori the lawnmower is $1,500. They plan to continue to use it to cut around the pump: stations. Bryan is asking fort the $10,065.66 SCAG. Mr. Musselwhite stated that Bryan has $13,000 in a maintenance account that was budgeted for this. AGENDA ITEM7: CONSIDERATION OF MEMBERS FOR HABERSHAM COMPREHENSIVE PLAN Mr. Musselwhite stated that Adam with Georgia Mountain Regional Commission is doing the comprehensive plan fori the county. A comprehensive plan is required by state every teny years but has to be updated everyf five years. The deadline to submit to the state is October 31, 2023 but it has to be submitted for review in August. Mr. Musselwhite asked Council to provide two to five members to represent Demorest. Mayor Harkness questioned whether or not this was for the county or for Demorest meaning he wants to know if we have to prepare a second document to submit or does this suffice as Demorest's comprenensive plan. Mr. Musselwhite will confirm and report back via email. Mayor Harkness challenged everyone to provide nominations to Mr. Musselwhite by Friday. Mr. Mitchell did some research and found out that Demorest does not have to do their own, aj joint  comprehensive plan will suffice.  AGENDAI ITEM 8: CONSIDERATION OF PARK TREEIS/REMOVAL  Mr. Musselwhite presented a quote from McAllister's Tree Service to remove two dead trees in the park. There was a short discussion about using the funds from streets budget. Mayor Harkness: stated thisi is an administrate decision and asked that we strike this item from the agenda.  AGENDA ITEM9: CONSIDERATION OF NGMCSIGN  John Couch from NGMC presented a presentation of the signs they are requesting to replace the current  HMC: signs with.  AGENDAI ITEM: 10: CONSIDERATION OF PARTICIPATION IN GEORGIA CITIES WEEK Mr. Musselwhite explained that GMA is hosting Georgia Cities Week from April 23 -29, 2023to showcase and celebrate cities and the many services they provide. Iti is an effort to raise public awareness about the services that cities perform and to educate the public on how city government works. Mayor Harkness stated that he thought this was a great idea and asked Mr. Musselwhite to get with Piedmont to see if he could get students involved. Councilman Bennett volunteered to reach out to his school. Mayor Harkness asked if we needed to decide what level we are, going to participate and Mr.  Musselwhite volunteered to put some ideas together and make it happen. AGENDA ITEM: 11: CONSIDERATION OF1 TWO MEETINGS Al MONTH  Councilman Ferguson stated that het felt like there are al lot of projects as far as City Hall moving, what to do with the rest of the new City! Hall, what we want to do with the gym, the restroom inside the gym needing repaired and that we could discuss items like these in two meetings instead of one. Councilman Hendrix agreed and said he felt like we could get together every two weeks to talk about what happened and how we can move forward and not have to wait another1 two weeks. Mayor Harkness  2/Page    stated that he is more than happy to do more meetings when he: sees that they are necessary, He stated the meetings are expensive (on average $1200-$1400) SO we have to keep that inr mind and he pointed out how useful the park committee has been and recommend that we start more committees that focus on these projects specifically. Mayor Harkness reiterated that if we need more than one meetinga month then we: should schedule those when needed because we are here to do the city's business but asf far as having two meetings a month, he is against that. Based off of the city's ordinances and charter, Mr. Mitchell stated that we are only required to have one meeting a month. After a short discussion about committees needed, Mayor Harkness recommended communicating via email about council's member recommendations. Mr. Mitchell referenced ordinance selection 30-75 historic district. He stated that a city historic preservation advisory committee is referenced and said that council may want  to think about creating that committee.  AGENDA ITEM 12: CONSIDERATION OF USES FOR BRENT LEE MOORE PARK  Councilman Allen wants the publics recommendations on uses for Brent Lee Moore Park. Councilman Hendrix said there isa a committee that sponsors/helps parks in the same way GMA helps cities. To become a member, we would nominate one person from our city and when accepted we would get support that could help us with various things such as how to get a grant for a tennis court, etc. We could use this option for our gymnasium or even the basketball court. Councilman Hendrix plans to present this option to the park committee tomorrow night to see if anyone would like to volunteer to be arepresentative fort the Park Committee as well as for the city. Mayor Harkness and Councilman Allen recommend publishing something on our Facebook requesting the publics input. Councilman Bennett  stated it all comes downi to what could be serve our community. AGENDAI ITEM 13: CONSIDERATION OFI FEMA GRANT  Chief Knight stated they were awarded the 2021 AFG Grant for the amount $81,196.19 with a match from the department of $4059.81 and we owe a consulting company $3866. Councilman. Allen stated this would cover all oft thet fire departments radios and some of the police departments radios. AGENDAI ITEM1 14: CONSIDERATION OFI MOTION TOI ENTER INTOI EXECUTIVE: SESSION  There was not an executive: session.  Meeting  Demorest CityiClerk  e  5  0  3Page