THROUGH SALUDA,N.C. HEGNA  City of Saluda Meeting Minutes Board of Commissioners  December 11th Regular Board of Commissioners  Date Time Location 1-Call to Order  12/11/2023 07:00PM  Saludal Library Chambers Room  Mayor Morgan called the meeting to order on December 11th, 2023 at7:00 pm.  2-Invocation  Ar moment of silence was observed. 3-F Pledge of Allegiance The pledge of allegiance was recited.  4-F Roll Call  Attendance was taken, and those present were Mayor Tangie Morgan, Commissioner Walker, Commissioner Talbot, Commissioner Marion, Commissioner Oxtoby, City Attorney. Janal Berg, City Manager Steven Orr, Assistant City  Manager & Finance Officer Julie Osteen, Chief Price, City Clerk Pam Waters  5-A Agenda Additions and Deletions  None  6-Approval or Correction of Minutes  Commissioner Marion made a motion to accept the minutes as written for November 13th 2023  Commissioner Walker seconded and all were in favor.  December 11th Regular Board of Commissioners Meeting 12/11/2023    7-Consent Agenda None  8-Public Comment None  9-Budget and Financial Report  Assistant City Manager & Finance Officer. Julie Osteen wento over the November Budget Report.  December 11, 2023 Report for: November 30, 2023 General Fund: Property Taxes received of $712,018 Sales tax distribution of $51,214 Total Revenues are $898,833. Expenditures: Administration: Police: $16,347 spent on repairs: 2011 Tahoe $4,045 2015 Dodge $2,087 2018 Dodge $1,845 2019 Dodge $3,128 2010 Explorer $2,612 Transportation: Repairs of $19,219 Storm Damage $2,200 Stump Removal $750 Culvert repairs $1,266 Mowing $15,250 Streets Laurel Mtn $482 Henderson $1,620 Salisbury $2,777 Cemetery St$ $1,800.00  37% of budgeted expense - below! budget. Nothing unusual fori the month.  5 distributions have! been paidt toi the Saluda Fire Department for thisy year's Tax Levy. 47% ofbudgeted expenditures. 6% over budget due tol liability and workers compensation premiums.  December 11th Regular Board of Commissioners Meeting 12/11/2023  2    WColumbia culvert $6,664 Other supplies/repairs $1,593 28% of budget Sanitation Cultural and Recreation: painting at! Library of $10,345  5months payment to GFL for Garbage collection has been incurred.  Annual insurance premiums for thel library total $2,095. Elevator inspection of$ $4,600. Repairs to windowsills and  Pace Park CO final inspection punch items: $3,252 No other major expenses for Cultural and Recreation. 5p payments has been madet to First Citizens Bank on City Hall.  Tennis Court renovations $33,372 $30,000 covered by Polk County Community Foundation  Debt Service: Surplus at November 30 $142,387. Water Fund: Anticipated surplus $12,394. Sewer Fund: Totalr revenues $130,469 Anticipated profiti is $29,313 Budget Amendments attached.  Total revenues received are $275,159. Water purchases fori thru November total $95,455 whichi is 17 % over budget.  Capital Outlayf for a new' WWTP chart recorder of $2,428  Commissioner Oxtoby made ar motion to approve the Amendments as presented To increase budget $500.00 forr repairs to Dumpster Sites and $2000.00 for Engineering Analysis at the Interstate Commissioner Marion Commissioner Oxtoby made ar motion to approve the Amendments as presented to the Budget Ordinance Commissioner Marion made amotion to approve the Amendments as presented for the (Audit) Financial  Seconded all were in favor.  Commissioner Talbot Seconded ally were in favor.  Statement Commissioner Walker Seconded ally were in favor.  10. F Public Safety Report Participated: Clay Price  Chief Price went over his November report. Total Miles 4652, Total Events 1011  December 11th Regular Board of Commissioners Meeting- 12/11/2023  3    State citations: 30 City Citations: 2, Warning Tickets: 7, Written Wamning 0, Verbal: 7,E Expired Registration 17,No Operators License 6,Drug paraphernalia Possession of Narcotic/ Alcoholic Beverage 1, Registration Violation, Careless and Reckless Driving: 0, Speeding 2,Faulty Equipmento, Driving' While Impaired 1, Driving while license revoked 9,Inspection Violation 12,Stop sign violation 0, No Insurance 3, Open Container 1, Arrest, Warrants Served 4, Order for arrest served 1,Business Checks: 481, Church Checks: 68, House Checks: 38, Total Monthly Checks: 587, Written Reports/ Calls answered, Vehicle Accident 3, Larceny:0, Breaking and Entering, Welfare Check 4, Alarm calls Open! Door, Suspicious Person/Vehicle calls 4, Assault 1, Vandalism 3,Fraud 0, Communicating Threats, Hit & Run 1, Calls Thru Police Department Phone: 78, Information only 3, Walk In Calls at the Saluda Police  Department: 9, Total Monthly Written Reports: 13, Total Patrol Calls 106  11-Outside Resources and Funds Mural on the outside of the library.  City! Manager Orr went to speak on ag grant from the Polk County Beautification Commission Grant to possible do a  12-Zoning and Planning Department Report  Nothing  13-Administration Department Report  City Manager Orr went over thel McCreery Park Phase 1A and 1B also the Tree/Brush trimming on the city's right of Demolition in 1A and 1B are being done mainly by public works this will allow the contractors that will beb bidding oni it tos see what they will be working with. Working on the ADAI Ramp and the. Amphitheater. We hope they willl be done before the top-of-the-grade concert. Ther monument will ber moved and plaçed on at two-tier pedestal. The steps will  way.  be new, and we willt take the Brass name plates and put ont the pedestal. Doing tree and brush trimming ont the City's Right ofv way thats should bet finished soon.  14-SDF Report Fund Baiance is 45,300.00 11-3 closed Tuesdays and' Wednesdays. Arts Festival will! be May 18+h  Commissioner Oxtoby went over some of the things from the! December 5th meeting.  Visitor Center willl be closed from December 31st through January 11th opening back on the 12th with new winter hours There willl be al Lasagna Competition on February 3rd att the Saluda Center Tickets are 25.00 each with Teenagers less and littie ones free. Also looking for 20 cooks to bringi in a tray of lasagna fort the Competition. Looking for sponsors to hopefully raise some money to send our teachers over tot thes summer immersion program. Italian Dinner att the Orchard Inn March 14th the Blazers willl have an! Italian Gala Dinner with ap portion oft the profits  coming toi thes sister city.  They had one cancellation for the June 1st trip the Flower Festival in Carunchio. Mountain song has about 75 People that come in and out oft the choir. December 11th Regular Board of Commissioners Meeting- 12/11/2023    The Visitors Center signed a 5-year contract with a 2%1 increase pery year. TDA will take over 2/3 oft the Payments and will be getting the income from the posters in the visitors center to supplement: some money for that.  15-Friends of McCreery Park Participated: Melanie Talbot  Commissioner Marion the next meeting isi in. January.  16 Special Event Permit  Lynn Casey went over the. Arts Festival special event permit for May 18h and asked thatt they be able to close Erwin Streett tol be able top put artists out that way. The Park would need to be done by April 1st because of all the logistics thati isi involved. Ifthep parki isn't done, they wantt top put the kid's tent int the parking lot. Commissioner Talbot madeamotion: to Approve the specialevent permit for The Arts Festival for May 18th 2023 and approved the closing of Erwin St. Commissioner Walker seconded all were inf favor,  17-Planning Board  Commissioner Marion made a motion to approve the Renewal Application for Planning Board from Mr. John  Wilkinson as presented Commissioner Talbot Seconded all were in favor.  18 - Saluda Community Land Trust  Gerard Prendergast started off by howl lucky and blessed he was to live here in Saluda. we have almost doubled our lands stewardship this year to close to 1100 acres. With that comes greater obligation and responsibility in terms of volunteers and! hours and financial responsibilities. When someone tums their land over to us it's usually in the form of an easement there are different types ofe easements. Wel have to watchi thel landt the wayy you wanti ity watched it maybel leave ita alone or we can do something on it. With that wel have to walkt that property every year and report on the condition ofi that. With this, it's al lot of pressure on volunteers because itt takes al lot oft time to do this and it'sa good problem to have. We have been working with ADFP to purchase farmland so that farmland will: stay farmland andr noth be developed. Henery's Nature Center showed what the sign will! look likei its shows what the landi is ak brief history and ai map ofit. We graveled the parking lot we had stone pillars att the entrance. There will be al big metal sign welcoming people. Wel have taken down al building that was readyt to fall apart keeping the chimney intact because that is al historical marker. We have planted numerous native plants there with volunteers from thel High School and the gardening club. We puts signs up telling what the native plants are. Nexty yeart there is an old barnt that we willr restore for historic purposes. We're putting stone walkways and fixing retaining walls. We hope to have itd open in April. We are waiting for a site plan approval from Henderson County. Thisp past year we have spent 40,000.00 and going forward another 30,000.00. We willl be doing fundraisers fori it. Polk County Community Foundation! has been a great help. Int the Dog Park we added a silt pond there because ofe erosion was sol bad. We did Kudzu removal and are going tot try andi remove the crowns. We planted a lot off flowers. Starting in. January every third Thursday we will have volunteers come out and pull and clean. Wej just added a sidewalk. We are starting with Polk County High School they have service clubst there. The Service club is goingt tos start walking ourt trails and report back what needs to. be. done.. We. hope. to. have. a new. web- page. up. by. the. end of. January.and hope.t to. linki itt to the. cify's. page. reference events and activities. These are things that compliment Saluda. The YAK players its startedi int the UK where people made a video about cleaning the Ocean, rivers, and streams working with the producers oft the BBC made  December 11th Regular Board of Commissioners Meeting. 12/11/2023  5    their own 3-minute video and it's going to be av worldwide event they startedi filming in Uganda, Kenya, and Mexico right now Saluda is representing the entire United States. You need to watch the video and support them.  19- -Parcel $1-C7 Non-Residential or Abandoned Structure Ordinance City Manager Orr went over Parcei S1-C7 Non-Residential or Abandoned Structure Ordinance and everything that has been done so fari trying to get the property owner to comply with the ordinance. Mr. Pace was non-compliant. We wenti in andi removed the vehicles' and cleaned upi the areas some. Wel have sent him al bunch ofr notices and he has notr responded and not! kept up with it. We have received more complaints. Ihave spoken with Janal because of his previous violation I'm asking for al Resolution based upon the fact we havet two years of non-compliance in addition to there being an administrative hearing before that we passed another Resolution to go and demolish the house, underbrush the lot and place al lien ont thel lot. We will be able to sell some oft the vehicles to offset the cost. This individual isr non-compliant on many fronts. We have served him papers tol his house and wasn't there or he won't answer the door. We had tol leave them there. We will got through  that process again. Wer need to push this to the conclusion.  Commissioner Marion, have we recouped any of our money from two years ago?  City Manager Orr Noi it's an ongoing action.  Commissioner Marion soi isi itj just the house left? Is there no other option toy pursue what money we spent and have it turned over to us instead of demolishing it? Are we sure thati iti is int teardown condition? City Manager Orr just the! house andi it's not worth keeping. Itwas int teardown condition twoy years ago. Commissioner Oxtoby thel House and Land was gorgeous. But now iti isi in teardown condition. Commissioner Marion, could this be liket the Saludal Inn, are we pursuing itt thes same way as the Inn? City Manager Orr we were trying to save the Saluda Inn were not trying to save this it has no redeemable value. The  Saluda Inn had redeemable value.  Attomey Berg the threshold ist the cost of repair versus the value.  Commissioner Marion wherel I'm goingi is ifv we take this action does, he still! has the opportunity to selli ita and someone and they will come In and renovate ito or once we start down this road we're goingt to demolishi it. He has until March? City Manager Orry yes if he were to walki in on February: 28h and sayl l'm goingt to selli itf fine bute even ifh he doest that and turns around 15 days later nothing has! happened what are we going to do? Your will still have a problem piece of property andp people complaining thati iti is degrading the valuation oft their neighborhood. There are other homes in City Manager Orr read the Resolution fori the Enforcement oft thel Non-Residential or Abandoned Structure Ordinance. Commissioner Oxtoby made amotion to approve the Resolution for the Enforcement oft the Non-Residential orA Abandoned Structure Ordinance as read Commissioner Talbot seconded all were inl Favor.  this community that are similar to this. 2024 is going to be an interesting year.  20-Stormwater Feasibility Analysis and Policy Development  City! Manager Orr Stormwater Feasibility Analysis and Policy Development. City Manager Orr Read the Resolution. Commissioner Marionmade: a motion to approve the Resolution: as read fort the Stormwater Feasibility Analysis and Policy Development Commissioner Walker seconded all were in favor.  December 11th Regular Board of Commissioners Meeting- 12/11/2023  6    21 Personnel Policy  City Manager Orr went over ther new Personnel Policy  Hourly-non-exempt: will be required to enroll and complete 161 hours or more ofj job skills-related education, service training, or certification pery yeart to qualify for a 3% merith bonus, if only 81 hours are completed then only a 1.5% merit bonus can be considered, failure to accomplish the yearly metric can be considered in the evaluation of one's position Houry-Salany-Exempt (Crew Leader, Supervisor, Department Head, Manager) will be required to enroll and complete 16 hours or more ofjobs skills-related education, service training, or certification pery year to qualify for a 3% merit bonus, additionally, 8h hours of personnel, organizational, team building, or leadership educationy will bei required oft the employee for ai total of 24 hours ofe educational requirements. Ifonly 161 hours are completed, then only a 1.5% merit bonus can be considered. Failure to accomplish they yearly metric can be considered int the evaluation of one's All educational courses will be pre-approved by supervisors, department heads, and managers, Commissioner Marion made ar motion to approve the Personnel Policy as read Commissioner Walker  with the organization.  position with the organization. seconded all were in favor. 22-Closed session  City Manager Orrr read the Resolution to enter a Closed Session to discuss Economic Development NCGS 143- Commissionerlalbotmadeamotion to enterac Closedsession for the purpose of discussing Economic Development! NCGS 143-318-11A)14).: and NCGS 143-318-11A)/6). Commissioner! Walker seconded all were  318.11(A)(4), and NCGS 143-318.11(A)(6).  inf favorand entered ac closed session at 8:03 pm on December 11th, 2023.  23-Adjourn and all were in favor. With noi further business to discuss,  Commissioner Marion made ar motion to enter a regular meeting at 8:21 pm Commissioner Walker Seconded  Commissioner Marion made ar motion to adjourn the meeting Commissioner Walker seconded and all were in  favor.  The meeting adjourned at 8:22 pm December 11th, 2023.  Respectfully submitted by Pamela S Waters, City Clerk. Adopted this gth day of. January 2024.  Clagpelloy  Board  fhblen  December 11th Regular  of Commissioners Meeting- 12/11/2023  7    Fomk a wabo S Waters, City Clerk  Tangie Morgan, Mayor Clao  Pamela  December 11th Regular Board of Commissioners Meeting 12/11/2023  8