THE CITY OF REIDSVILLE  REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING  MINUTES  MONDAY -. JUNE 12, 2023  DRAFT COPY (NOT APPROVED UNTILJuly 17th)  The regularly scheduled meeting of the Reidsville City Council was held Monday June 12, 2023, at! 5:00pm at the Reidsville City Hall Council Meeting Room. Members of Council  present were:  Curtis Colwell- Mayor Carolyn Blackshear-Mayor Pro Tem Lindsay Bennet-COuncilwoman Donald restage-counciman Douglas Willams-Counciman (absent) Verdie Wilams.counclwoman  Duann Davis, City Attorney, Nivea Jackson, City Clerk, and Kelly McRae, Finance Clerk The Mayor began by calling the meeting to order at 5:00pm and welcomed the Council and citizens to the meeting. The Mayor led the meeting in a word of prayer. The The Mayor calls for a motion to adopt last month's meeting minutes. Donald Prestage is asking for a correction to the Minutes. The Mayor asked him to elaborate. Donald Prestage contends there was not a vote to proceed with the Concrete Project outside of City Hall. Nivea Jackson defends that Rodney submitted a second bid from Porters Concrete in Glennville, GA for double the bid of. Jose Gonzalez. Donald Prestage says that Rodney did not have that bid at the time of the meeting. Nivea Jackson disagrees and says that Rodney presented the bid in the meeting. Mr. Prestage does not feel it was. His recollection on the subject that a vote would be held off until three bids were secure. Verdie Williams contends that they did receive the second bid of $6000, from Isaiah  were all present in their respective roles.  audience recited the Pledge of Allegiance in unison.  Page 11    Councilwoman Blackshear is asking Chief Jarrell about the tractor trailer parking on Brumby in the front parking lot of the old City shop. Blackshear is reporting that the trailer parking there is obstructing the view of drivers coming from either Alexander Ave. as well as Lloyd St. Cars are having to pull out into the roadway on Brumby to see the traffic past the trailers causing possible hazards. Blackshear is wanting the drivers to be: notified of the hazard, but not cited for the parking. Councilwoman Bennett is also discussing tractor trailer parking, but on Industrial Drive. Bennett's complaint is that the truckers are parking on both sides of the street and causing breaks and tears in the City road that the City will be responsible for paving later. Verdie Williams chimes in that the weight of the trucks causing pot-holes and road tears, on Williams St. when truckers are parking to go inside the Jackie's Food Mart. Drivers who live in the residential neighborhoods, do.r not have a close location to their homes to park. The Council recognizes that there are very limited places to park for tractor trailers but is putting driver safety and road as the priority. Lindsay Bennett makes a motion for Reidsville Police Dept to begin issuing warnings for parking in areas that limit driver safety and visibility. The purpose of the citation is to encourage truckers to park elsewhere by giving guidance and other options. Chief Jarrell is emphasizing that his point is to keep court related violations and incidents down.  Motion by: Lindsay Bennett Motion: Carries unanimously  2nd by:  Carolyn Blackshear  Councilwoman Blackshear has one more issue to address with Officer Jarrell. She reports that there is a lot of traffic turning onto and off South Main St. near the new Dollar General and Food Lion entrances. Drivers are riding in the middle turning lane to go around the traffic. Blackshear is asking that Officers monitor from Medical Arts Drive through Memorial Drive with driver's riding the middle lane. The Officer says they will monitor. that area during high traffic times like in the morning. She is also requesting that officers speak with TCM owner or Zuber Malek (property owner) to maintain the lot and control their business traffic and deter customers from driving through the Action Pact parking lot. Officers have been called there before to handle disputes about the drive-through issues. The portion that people are driving through to get to the Liquidation business is actually the Action Pact parking lot. Asst. Chief Jarrell is suggesting Action Pact set  upa chain to deter drive-through traffic.  Page 13    equipment. A tower with a slide on it will cost $2400 and a climbing tower would cost $2244. The Playground has spoken to T-Mobile, a new local business, who asked the organization to donate to the playground. The business is considering purchasing the equipment. Armstrong says that he would put together a proposal and present it to Council before presenting to T-Mobile. Armstrong says they are trying to organize the proposal before the next meeting. The Playground has on their agenda to construct a walking trail, and has partnered with Mr. Kennedy, County Commissioner, for help. Mr. Kennedy has suggested that the Commission put the fence and playground equipment in first, and then do the track around that. He is on board awaiting their progress. Councilwoman Williams is asking what the Committee was planning to do with the current playground equipment? Armstrong states that it is of no-good use, not even to refurbish. Rodney, the Public Works Director agreed per Armstrong. Rodney's team will come and remove the existing fence inj preparation for the installation of the new fence. The company is completing backlog orders, and Surrency Playground is waiting for its turn. Verdie Williams asked about the difficulty of the project. Armstrong says, "breaking the concrete is the biggest thing. Once we get that done, it will go smoothly from there. Verdie Williams says she spoke with someone from the Heart of Georgia to inquire about funding. She says that the City has missed funding for this fiscal year but funding is coming and the Playground Commission should keep watch for opportunities especially like the Department of Natural Resources. Williams is specifically looking for grants where there is no City match to help funding. Councilwoman Blackshear adds that there are several surrounding Cities that have received a lot of funding in the millions. She said The City is interested in pursuing nonmatching grant opportunities. The Mayor added that there all kinds of opportunities out there but, you "won't grow if you don't Greg Carr and Mordena Richardson were in the audience from the Ethics committee. He was asked if the Ethics committee had a comment. Carr answered  go"  that they had no complaints pending but will always on standby.  OLD BUSINESS  Dilapidated property was next on the agenda. The Mayor is directing the City Attorney, Davis to give the Council an update. Davis is updating the Council on the Burns property. Davis has not filed the paperwork but will file soon to have him in court on July 18th. Davis acknowlèdged that the building Inspector, Jarriel, had given her a list of properties to add or update the list. Davis has sent letters out to most of the property owners.  Page 15    be a City of Civility. If voted and adopted by Resolution, the City of Reidsville would join the ranks of other Municipalities in becoming a Civility minded City when conducting business. Councilwoman Blackshear is encouraging the Council to support becoming a City of Civility. She expressed that during the Council retreat it recommended to become a City of Civility to create a peaceful and respectful environment for the City. There are rules of Decorum that would need to be followed and on the back of all future agendas monthly the Rules of Decorum will be available. Councilwoman Blackshear offers a motion that The City of Reidsville adopts by vote and resolution to become a City of  Civility.  Motion by: CBlackshear Opposes: L. Bennett Motion: Carries by majority  2nd by:  V. Williams  Duann Davis will draw up the resolution for the adoption.  Councilwoman Williams is addressing the City's notification system. "The City has a notification system but when we had to cut the water off, there was a glitch with the system. We have partnered with the County to make sure we notify as many citizens as possible" says Williams. Citizens will need to sign up for Code Red notifications through the County. Forms can be found in City Hall as well as at 911. We are working together to keep citizens informed. An Advertisement will go in the paper and on the website for Duann Davis has a meeting in the coming week with the DOT. In 2001, the City transferred ownership of the Reidsville Animal Shelter to the County. The problem is the City of Reidsville didn't own the property, the Airport Authority did. The City did not get permission to transfer property that belonged to a Federal Aviation site. The FAA is withholding funds from the Airport until the City resolves the issues. The County must now deed the Animal Shelter back to the City. The City will then lease it back to the County. Duann proposes for a 30-year period. Davis is seeking a vote to move forward  citizens.  with correcting the deed.  Motion by: C. Blackshear Vote: Carries Unanimously  2nd by:  V.V Williams  Councilwoman Williams is suggesting for a City Wide clean up. A lot of City's are doing this work to help citizens get things clean. Williams wants to do a 2 day clean up. All Green will provide 2 dumpsters free of charge. Williams says Rodney Deloach would have staff man the dumpster to ensure no one dumps tires which is strictly prohibited  Page 17