TOWN OF STOKESDALE REGULAR' TOWN COUNCIL MEETING 8325 Angel Pardue Road STOKESDALE, NC: 27357 March 14, 2019  1.C Call to Order: 7:05 Mayor Flynt II. Invocation: Deputy Chief Randy Southern III. Pledge of Allegiance: Lead by Mayor Flynt Thearon Hooks 2nd the motion. Vote! 5-01 to approve. minutes asi isv without reading. Frank Bruno 2nd the motion.  IV. Review and Adopt Agenda: Frank Bruno motioned to approve the March 14, 2019. Agenda asi is. V. Approval of Minutes: January: 10, 2019: Mayor Flynt motioned to approve the. January 10, 2019  VOTE: Tim. Jones: NO Bill. Jones: N NO Frank Bruno: YES  Thearon Hooks: Yes Mayor. John Flynt: Yes  February 14, 2019 Minutes: Frank Bruno motioned to approve the February 14th, minutes. Mayor Flynt 2nd the motion. Tim. Jones said Item #10 regarding the vote remove Mr. Nadel from the Planning Board did not reflect who voted No and who vote yes. He wants the names recorded in the minutes. The vote to approve the February 14, 2019 minutes have been continued until the April 11, 2019 Town Council meeting so the Town Clerk and amend them to reflect the names of the councilmen that voted yes or Guilford County Sheriff's Report: Captain Hall of District 1 reported that the Sheriff's Dept. responded to 68 service calls in the month of February. Five oft those calls were Part: 1 crimes, 30 of those calls did end in arrest. His tipi for the month was for citizens to keep their cars and homes locked and don't leave valuables in your car. Al lot of their cars in the last few months have been for cars being broken into and Sheriff Rogers, was also in attendance he came to the podium and introduced himself and spoke ai few minutes about his plans fori the Department to work on a re-entry program fori inmates at their release from prison, also explained the Yellow Dot program and asking officers to do vacation checks when you Chief Deputy Parr came to the podium and spoke about their work withi the High Point Opioid Program and his plans tol bring that program to Northwest Guilford County. Thearon Hooks commented to Chief Deputy Parri that Stokesdale Town Hall is hosting a Northwest Guilford Opioid Meeting at Town Hall March: 21, 2019 andi that Captain Hall is bring a Detention Employee with him to the meeting and that any alll law enforcement as well as citizens are invited to come to ther monthly meetings. Col. Vic Maynard was also present and spoke about the Dept. studying ways to be more proactive in preventing speeding and DWIs in County the Highway Patrol do a good] jobl but they are under staffed SO the plan is for the Sheriff's Dept. to help out any way they can. Also, plan to bei more proactive with  no.  VI. Public Safety Reports:  items left in the cars stolen.  go ony vacation. Sheriff Rogers also had Chief Deputy Steve Parr with him.  3401  Book 13    a  druge enforcement and the SROs with the school system. The SROs do a great job andi the plani is to add Stokesdale Fire Dept. Report: Deputy Chief Randy Southern from the Stokesdale Fire Dept. reported that it's unusual but the Fire Department actually ran more calls this month than the Sheriff's Dept. They had two building fires, 1 grass fire, 8 accident calls, 2 hazardous condition calls which were a gas leak and a gasoline. spill from a ruptured fuel tan on a tractor trailer. 6 other service calls, 10 good intent calls, and 42 medical calls. Total 71 calls. Randy's tipi fori the month is to please check and replace your Vil: Citizen's comments from the floor (3 Minute Limit per Speaker) Stokesdale Girl Scout Troop 02469 gave a presentation and asked the town ift they could place a "Little Free Library" in our Town Park. Frank Bruno asked them to send us the information and specifications and we would be happy to work Catherine Buntoff came to the podium as a Representative oft the Friends of Stokesdale, a group of Stokesdale citizens that are promoting quality of life, gathering history of Stokesdale, and welcomes new  more.  smoke detector batteries.  with them. See attached presentation. members to come and meet with them.  VIII. New Business:  1. Monthly Financial Review: Town Clerk/Finance Officer Alisa Houk gave the financial report. Bill Jones stated that he still can't figure out what accounts the money is going into. Tim. Jones agreed with Bill and sand said he still doesn't understand whyi it's taken: six months to get financial reports. Bill. Jones added that Council hasn't been advised of what money is being spent. Tim. Jones made a motion to have Dana Luther who is on our vendor list or Rex Rouse from our auditing firm to come in and help us get ouri financial records up-to-date. John Flynt 2nd the motion. Mayor Flynt asked Mr. Bain if asking Rex Rouse to come in to work with our financials wouldn't be a conflict ofi interest. Mr. Bain: said it could possibly be and wes should ask Mr. Rouse about it. Bill. Jones said he spoke with Mr. Rouse and he said he would do it for $90.00 an hour. Bill said he didn'ti think Mr. Rouse would offer to dot this ifi it was a conflict. Mayor Flynt then reminded everyone thati the NC Treasury Dept. sent two representatives to us ai few weeks ago and we received a clean bill of health. Bill Jones said he spoke with those representatives after the visit and they told him differently. Mayor Flynt asked Tim. Jones and Bill. Jones ife either of them were prepared to obtain a proposal from Dana Luther or Rex Rouse. Tim. Jones asked if any other councilmen had a suggestion ofa CPA with Municipal experience to come in and help with the books. Thearon Hooks addressed Tim and said all CPA's are booked up right now with taxes until at least April 15th. Frank Bruno asked Tim and Bill if their main concern was Budget VS. Actual. Tim said Ithink so. Frank said we already have someone working on that. Kim Thackeri is working on it. Frank said what Alisa is trying to explain to youi is when we voted to upgrade the system that wel have to transfer numbers manually into the new: system from the old manual system. We have numbers in the old system from July to December 31st.. January 11 through February 28, are on the new online system. It takes time to move all the numbers from the old to the new manually. Bill said well the problem is Kim Thacker was only hired to work to the end of March. Frank: said yes she was hired asi thei temporary Budget Officer. In Frank's opinion Kim Thackeri is the best choice as: she has already been working on the financials and she knows what  3402  Book: 13    VINC  ENP  needs to be done. Mayor Flynt said if one of them wants to make a substitute motion, it's going to be hard to hire a part time Budget Officer at $15.00 an hour. Mayor Flynt said if you want to hire a full time CPA he will 2nd the motion. Mayor Flynt went back over the motion to hire Rex Rouse or Dana Luther to come ina and help us with our financials. Tim. Jones had made the  motion. Mayor Flynt had 2nd the motion  VOTE: Tim. Jones: Yes Bill. Jones : Yes Frank Bruno: No  Thearon Hooks: No Mayor John Flynt: No  Bill. Jones commented that this was the second time that council had voted against hiring someone to come in and do the financials. So, he guesses council is good with the way they are. Frank, Mayor Flynt, and Thearon Hooks all three in unison said "No, we are not." Frank then motioned to hire Kim Thacker to be our Budget Officer and work out the contract with her. John Flynt 2nd the motion. Bill. Jones said he doesn't understand why we are going tol hire somebody that hasn't been able to do that job yet. Thearon Hooks spoke up and said this happened about a year ago when they asked Dana Luther to come in and consult on our operations. In the contract she had said will not be available until these specific dates. And we are in that same back circle now. CPAs and Accountants are alll booked up right now. Kim is probably the best one at this point because she has already been working on the numbers and knows our system. Thearon said let's give it six more weeks. Bill still disagreed. Thearon said well then why don't you find someone and bringi it back to board for review. Mayor Flynt said he would withdraw his 2nd ont the motion and said Bill your make a motion that you will go out andi find someone bring back at time and at firm price and council will consider it. Mayor Flynt told Bill. Jones to get proposals in writing and ifv wel have to have a Special Called Meeting we will to consider the 2. Council to set date for Public Hearing: Resolution of Intent to Close Loyola Drive Case #: 19-02- STPL-01373: That portion of Loyola Drive (Secondary Road #2055), approximately 295.54 ft., and running north from its southern intersect with Stokesdale Street in Stokesdale NC. John Flynt motioned to set the Public Hearing for May 9, 2019 Thearon Hooks 2nd the motion.  proposals. Bill. Jones agreed he would do that.  Vote: Tim. Jones: Yes Bill Jones : Yes Frank Bruno: YES  Thearon Hooks: Yes Mayor. John Flynt: Yes  3. Discuss SunTrust Account: Mayor Flynt explained that the SunTrust account has been our savings account where the Town's franchise taxes are drafted to and these funds are used quarterly to help fund our General Fund account for expenses. The interest rates at SunTrust have only been around 0.1%. Also, we have been keeping up with! 5 banks handling different accounts. We want to consolidate some of our funds sO we don't have as many banks to keep up with. In talking to Bank of Oak Ridge they! have an Insured Money Market Sweep account that we can open checking and savings in with a much betterinterest rates of1%% and we will  3403  Book: 13    still have the capabilities of writing a check quarterly to move money as needed over to Fidelity General Fund without penalties. Mayor Flynt motioned to close out the SunTrust Account and  move those funds to Bank of Oak Ridge. Frank Bruno 2nd the motion.  VOTE: Tim. Jones: No Bill Jones: :N No Frank Bruno: YES  Thearon Hooks: Yes Mayor. John Flynt: Yes  4. Park Maintenance and improvements: Frank motioned for Beaver Outdoor Solutions to become our Town Hall and Town Park lawn maintenance and landscaping vendor for the rest oft the fiscal year beginning April 1, 2019. And to have Town Attorney John Bain  work up a contract for all to sign.  Tim Jones: NO Bill Jones :NO Frank Bruno: YES  Thearon Hooks: Yes Mayor. John Flynt: Yes  Frank motioned to approve a proposal from Larry Ellington Services for putting in new wood fiber safety surfacing (ADA) compliant, and playground molded borders, an ADA compliant ramp to enter the playground area, remove and dispose of all ofthe old deteriorating wood borders. Total Cost $5582.00 Mayor Flynt 2nd the motion.  Tim. Jones: NO Bill. Jones : NO Frank Bruno: YES  Thearon Hooks: Yes Mayor John Flynt: Yes  Frank motioned to approve a proposal from Superior Recreation of the Carolinas for installing molded borders for the volleyball area for a cost of $3868.62, subject toa contract prepared by Attorney John Bain and signed bya all. Thearon Hooks 2nd the  motion. Tim. Jones: NO Bill. Jones: :NO Frank Bruno: YES  Thearon Hooks: Yes Mayor. John Flynt: Yes  Frank then brought up the broken water fountain in the Town Park. Gauldin Plumbing has been out several times to look at the fountain and has advised it would be less expensive to replace the fountain instead of trying to repair the current one. He isn't even sure he can find parts fori the old one. Frank has pricing for a replacement. Bill asked ift the one Frank is suggesting is frost resistant. Frank: said noi it wasn't he suggest just shutting it off ini the winter. He said there is a $1000. - $1500 more for a frost resistance fountain. Bill said with what they've spent tonight what's another $1000- $1500 for a frost resistant one. Bill had sent a copy of one he found to the Town Clerk. Alisa said yes she does have the pricing and can includei iti int the pricing. Frank agreed to remove his motion and continue the purchase ofar newi fountain until the April meeting.  3404  Book 13    Frank motioned to approve a proposal from Superior Recreation of the Carolinas for 12 new picnic tables, 6 new benches like the two we purchased last year. Mats to go under the swings and the slide. Total cost using undesignated funds $15,277.89, subject to a contract prepared by Attorney. John Bain and signed by all. Thearon Hooks 2nd the  motion. Tim. Jones: NO Bill Jones:NO Frank Bruno: YES  Thearon Hooks: Yes Mayor John Flynt: Yes  Frank said lastly we need to spend the next several weeks to price electricians to trench Mayor Flynt asked to take a 5minute recess at 9:00PM. Mayor Flynt called the  and run electric to the shelter. meeting back to order at 9:10PM.  5.1 Installation of Town Clock: Frank received a call that our clock is ready. He has met with Chief Gauldin of the Fire Dept. The Fire Dept. has graciously said they will allow the clocks electrical use to be included on their electric bill and they will pay for the electricity use. Frank isc coordinating with the Clock manufacturer and the Fire Department for delivery and installing the electrical lines. Frank motioned to approve the installation oft the clock, a concrete base and electrical lines be installed at no more than $1000.00.. John Flynt 2nd the motion. Frank motioned to approve a proposal from Superior Recreation of the Carolinas for 12 new picnic tables, 6 new benches like the two we purchased last year. Mats to go under the swings and the slide. Total cost using undesignated funds $15,277.89, subject to a contract prepared by Attorney. John Bain and signed by all. Thearon Hooks 2nd the  motion. Tim. Jones: NO Bill Jones: : YES Frank Bruno: YES  Thearon Hooks: Yes Mayor. John Flynt: Yes  3405  Book: 13    Frank presented the cost of clock $14,560.70 including tax. Tax was $920.00. Balance of clock after tax back is $13,640.70. -$7280.35 already paid by the town, $2418.97 take from balance left of the Downtown Revitalization grant. Leaves al balance of $4000.00, which Eileen Thiery has graciously donated this remaining balance of $4,000.00 to the clock. Frank motioned to give the Town Clerk the authority to accept Eileen's donation oft the $4,000.00 and pay The Verdin Company the balance for the clock plus the $920.70 tax and balance oft the clock. Accept Eileen  Thiery's donation of $4000.00. Tim. Jones: Yes Bill. Jones: : Yes Frank Bruno: Yes  Thearon Hooks: Yes Mayor. John Flynt: Yes  Frank made a second motion to authorize the Town Clerk to cut a check to The Verdin Company  for $ 7280.35 balance oft the clock.  Tim. Jones: No Bill Jones : Yes Frank Bruno: YES  Thearon Hooks: Yes Mayor. John Flynt: Yes  5. Planning Board - Training and Rules of Procedure: Mayor Flynt presented the copies in the councilmen's packet ofi information we have acquired from the NCSOG. This isas set ofwebinar training modules that council would like fort the members of the Planning Board to watch these webinars as part of a more comprehensive training program that council isi implementing for these members. Frank Bruno motioned to have Alisa Houk coordinate with Mr. Bain and Mr. Bass to set up training and this webinar and work out the schedule to have the Planning Board members attend these webinars. Mr. Bain said he will watch these webinars first and then determine after watching what further he  may need to add. Mayor Flynt 2nd the motion.  Vote: Tim. Jones: Yes Bill Jones : Yes Frank Bruno: Yes  Thearon Hooks: Yes Mayor. John Flynt: Yes  3406  Book 13    IX. Old Business:  1. Discussion regarding Meter Tampering Policy drafted by Town Attorney. Tim. Jones wants something added to the policy to allow someone to cut offt the: stopcock ini the event of an emergency. This item willl be continued until the April meeting in order to allow Mr. Bain to revise the policy toi include an 1. Discussion and Vote on MBD Proposal: Bill Jones presented MBD Consulting Engineers proposal for Bidding out, inspection, and contract administration producing documents and painting the elevated water tank. This proposal isa alli inclusive from the Bid to the finished painting for a total of$1 194,055.00. Bill motioned to hire MBD's based on the proposal in council's hands. Tim Jones 2nd the motion.  emergency: allowance.  VOTE: Tim. Jones: Yes Bill. Jones :Yes Frank Bruno: No  Thearon Hooks: No Mayor. John Flynt: No  2. Discussion and' Vote on S & ME Proposal: Mayor Flynt presented! S & ME, Inc. proposal fori the second phase as part ofs & ME's original proposal, this follows after S & ME's team has already washed out and inspected the elevated tank. This next Phase is to prepare the inspection reports, provide the technical specifications, and send out the bids. Cost of this phase is $2900.00.. John Flynt motioned to approve S&  ME'sp proposal for $2900. Thearon Hooks 2nd the motion.  VOTE: Tim. Jones: Yes Bill Jones :No Frank Bruno: Yes  Thearon Hooks: Yes Mayor John Flynt: Yes  X. Committee and Board Reports:  1.  Budget Amendment Frank motioned to do budget amendments out of the undesignated funds for the Park improvements. $5582.00 for the playground, $3868.62 fori the volley ball courts, and $15,227.89 for the picnic tables, benches, and mats. Thearon 2ndt the motion:  VOTE:  VOTE: Tim. Jones: No Bill. Jones: : No Frank Bruno: Yes  Thearon Hooks: Yes Mayor John Flynt: Yes  3407  Book 13    2. 3.  Setting a time for the budget meeting: Frank set Budget meeting for April 25, 2019 at: 10:00am Update on Town Hall and Park improvements: Frank: said we have been doing al lot ini the Park. Got lucky with weather and we got the Shelter built. We've gotten mulch and seeding done. We had damage during Hurricane Michael that took down a number oft treesand had to get those cleaned up. We have started redoing the landscaping. He is talking to different people about the drainage issues in the park and is still working on what to do for that. He added that we have had issues with the locks on the bathrooms int the park and he has Jessup working on those. He hasi installed our second doggie pot Quarterly employee performance reviews: Frank said he and I have performed Priscilla Hunsucker's 90 day review, which was past due. Priscilla currently makes $14.42 per hour. Frank motioned beginning April 1, 2019 to give her a raise to $15.00 per hour.. John Flynt 2nd motion. Tim wants to be on the record that he objects to the performance reviews and that he has not been given  int the morning. Kim Thacker has confirmed she will be available fort that meeting.  in the upper part oft the parki neart the playground.  4.  the opportunity tos see these reviews.  Vote: Tim. Jones: Yes Bill. Jones Yes Frank Bruno: Yes  Thearon Hooks: Yes Mayor. John Flynt: Yes  XI. Departmental and Administrative Report: See my attached reports  XII. Citizen Comments from the Floor (3 Minute Limit per Speaker): Catherine Buntoff came to the podium. She just wants tot thank council for supporting our Town Park. She appreciates thati iti is tough tos spend tons of money to keep the park up but she believes the park is al huge aspect oft the quality of  life in Stokesdale.  XIII. Closing Comments from Council  Tim. Jones thanked our one citizen for staying for the entire meeting. He also thanked Patti Stokes for being present and ifs she has any questions about his perspectives ont things she is welcome to call him. Bill. Jones also thanked our two citizens for staying for the entire meeting and he wants her to know that he appreciates her comments on the park. He supports the park. He doesn't mind having differences of opinion. Hej just thinks we are spending too much money at one time. Bill said he would be a lot more conservative. He has problems with the process. Unless that tree was laying on somebody he thinks it should have been brought before the council to see if removal could have been done cheaper. Frank Bruno thanks Cathy Buntoff for staying. He also thanked Eileen Thiery since she has left for her generous donation for the clock. He also wants to thank the Stokesdale Fire Department, they have been very helpful working with us and the citizens for the clock and everything they do for the  community.  3408  Book 13    A  Thearon Hooks: Thearon was, going to give the current update on the FEMA project. Tim. Jones asked him why he was going back to an agenda item. Thearon asked him what he was talking about. Tim. Jones said you are asking me to reopen my packet. I've already closed it and I'm packing upi to leave. Bill Jones said there was SO much stuff added on in the packet he couldn'ti find his. Thearon said he was withdrawing his comments. Bill said it's already been voted on so he doesn't know why we are going John Flynt said he appreciates Alisa and Thearon's hard work to go through the FEMA process. It'sa time consuming process. Thearon made probably 501 trips to Hwy 1581 to visit with the workers and inspectors. We've been able through FEMA to get approved to make our $75,000. back. Otherwise we would have had to payi it out of pocket ourselves.. As fara as the money we' 've spent on the park. Nothing ist free. Last year we received at total of$7,0001 to $8000. Based on 0.1% in interest. He and Thearon have spent a lot of time looking at our finances and shopping the rates and now we are getting between 2 and 2-1/2 % which means ouri finances are going toi increase by $70,000-$ $80,000. He thinks everything we've done tonight is appropriate. He and Randy. Jones went out and worked out with Mrs. Martin to XV.Announcements: The next Planning Board Meeting scheduled for March 28, 2019 is cancelled no  back overi it.  purchase the park land and hei is proud ofit.  cases 1.  Adjournment Mayor Flynt motioned to adjourn at 10:50PM, Tim. Jones 2ndt the motion.  Vote: 5-01 to adjourn.  Approved. April 11, 2019 QLAAA by:  Dngau Town Clerk/Finance Officer  3409  Book 13