The City of Reidsville Regular City Council FILE Meeting May 9thth 2022 5:00pm Reidsville City Hall DRAFT- Not approved until June 13, 2022 The regularly scheduled meeting of the Reidsville City Council was held on Monday May 9th 2022 at 5:00pm. Member of Council present: Mayor, Curtis Colwell Council Woman, Carolyn Blackshear Council Woman, Lindsay Bennett Council Woman, Verdie Williams Councilman, Donald Prestage Councilman, Doug Williams Mayor Curtis Colwell called the meeting to order and welcomed the public guests to the Council meeting. Donald Prestage was asked by the Mayor to lead the meeting in a word of prayer. The Prayer was followed by the Pledge done in unison. The Mayor requested for a motion to accept the last meetings minutes. Motion by: Lindsay Bennett 2nd by: Carolyn Blackshear Vote: Carried unanimously The meeting continued with Department reports. Jimmy Brown presented the statistics for the Fire Dept. No discrepancies noted. Stacey Wilds presented the statistics for the RPD for the month. No discrepancies noted. Ronnie Willis was not present during the meeting to make a report. Councilwoman Bennett interjects the reports to refocus on the building inspector. Bennett is addressing the Mayor to clarify his comments from the planning session a week prior. Mayor Colwell announced in the planning session that after the last Council meeting, Willis told the City Attorney, Clerk, and Mayor verbally only that he had resigned. The Mayor had since been in contact with the Mr. Willis since the planning session. Willis was advised that if the would be resigning, the City would need to be informed of this in writing. Willis rescinded his verbal resignation with the Mayor and never issued anything in writing. Councilman Bennett is asking for clarification from Mayor Colwell. The meeting was redirected by Councilwoman Williams by asking the City Attorney, "Mrs. Davis aren't we legally supposed to discuss personnel issues in Executive session?" Davis answers, "Yes, this is a matter for Executive Session." Councilwoman Bennett, disagrees and says "I think he should be fired and I believe that he has done enough to cause this City to be in enough bad situations. Bennett offers a motion to fire Ronnie Willis as Building Inspector. Motion: Lindsay Bennett 2nd. None Motion: Does not carry Davis is asking that Council regain to discuss in Executive Session. The Recreation Dept was next on the reports. Lindsay Bennett gave the report. The department will start on its new baseball field in July. Baseball is currently in session. The Recreation is in talks to purchase the old Reidsville Elementary gym according to Bennett. The Recreation Dept currently only has access to the gym through a provision set by the new owner of the building but plans were being made to purchase the gym by the Recreation Dept according to Bennett. David Wilson has purchased the old Reidsville Elementary School building. The Recreation Dept has been using this gym during basketball season and wants to continue using the gym for future basketball seasons. Councilwoman Verdie Williams made the statistical announcements for Water/Sewer in the absence of Rodney Deloach. Williams is reminding the public that fire hydrants will be worked on in the coming week causing a City wide shut down of water overnight. The local paper is informed. Carolyn Blackshear made Administration announcements. Blackshear announced we will be working on the 2023 fiscal year budgets for votes. She also mentioned that we will discuss later in the meeting about the contracting of Brian Forrester. Next were Commission reports. Earnest Armstrong, Chairman for Akins-Surrency Playground and Karen Deloach, Treasurer are present to make the report. The Playground wants to rearrange the parking so that it is more useful to the pedestrians to park and use the playground. The Playground has been ascertaining bids using the local paper for the construction of bathroom and concessions. They have had only one turn-key bid. They are asking for funds to begin the construction. They want to pour the foundation and have the buildings plumbing set up. The Playground Commission will continue to seek bids and bring it before the Council in hopes to start construction soon. The Commission will also look into getting bids to resurface the basketball court. Downtown Development Authority resented their reports. Mike Caldwell, Chairman, has announced that members, and Council have attended the required classes and have certificates available. Guarantee signs has purchased an adjacent property in hopes of using the property to expand his current business. There has been a safety violation reported to the DDA on the hotel construction project site. Caldwell says there is a giant hole which will be a retaining pond for the business that needs to be addressed with the Constructor. Huddle House will officially be open on May 17th. It will close daily at 10pm until a night shift can be hired. Next under old business, SBA towers, has sent over final changes to the contract. The meeting was interjected by Sara Smith, from The Tattnall Journal, "What is SBA towers?" The meeting was stopped to explain to Sara what this was. The document was given for each Council member to sign. Next was the Peebles/Bass property. Davis, City Attorney, is advising the Council that she has changed her finding from the aforementioned findings. Davis says that some last minute information was given to her concerning the property. "After talking with the homeowner, it has been brought to my attention that the property was surveyed and separated some time ago by the homeowners. The way the property was separated makes it fall under the scrutiny of the zoning board because there are now two mobile homes on the same lot." Lindsay Bennett offers a motion to accept this recommendation from the Attorney. Motion by: Lindsay Bennett 2nd By: Donald Prestage Motion: carries unanimously New Business is next on the agenda. Carolyn Blackshear announces that we will continue working with Brian Forrester. He. will become a contractor and will be hired to produce the water bills and work on upcoming projects as well as improve issues with billing and water problems. Sara Smith asks, "will the public get a copy of that contract" She, Blackshear also is asking the Council to vote to upgrade the Hospital water meter with ARPA funds. The hospital meter is outdated and the tunnel needs a lot of work. Blackshear offers a motion to hire Brian Forrester for a contract of one year for billing. Motion by: Carolyn Blackshear 2nd by: Doug Williams Carries: unanimously The Mayor is asking for a motion to go into Executive Session @ 5:57pm. Motion by: Carolyn Blackshear 2nd by; Lindsay Bennett The Council returns from Executive Session by vote at 6:24pm Vote by: Verdie Williams 2nd by: Carolyn Blackshear Vote: Carries unanimously At 6:25pm the Council returns and Bennett offers a motion for the 2nd time to terminate Ronnie Willis. Motion by: Lindsay Bennett 2nd. None Motion: Dies to no 2nd Davis, City Attorney advises that we will reassess this personnel issue after 30 days in order to review the details of the situation and advise Council. Donald Prestage adds "Let's assess whether all of the requirements of the position are being met. Councilman Doug Williams requests to review job functions and let Council discuss. With no further business to discuss, Councilwoman Bennett makes a motion to adjourn. Motion by: Lindsay Bennett 2nd by: Doug Williams Motion: Meeting adjorned