MINUTES WAYCROSS CITY COMMISSION PLANNING & INFORMATION SESSION MONDAY, MARCH 31, 2025, 5:00 P.M. WAYCROSS CITY COMMISSION CHAMBERS (417. PENDLETON STREET, WAYCROSS, GA) ***NO QUORUM*** I. CALL TO ORDER: The Waycross City Commission Meeting was called to order on Tuesday, March 31, 2025, at 5:00 pm by Mayor James. The meeting was held in the Commission Chambers ofCity Hall. Present were. Alvin Nelson, and Mayor Pro Temp, Sheinita Bennett ***NO QUORUM*** A. Invocation: Mayor Michael-Angelo James Invocation led by Mayor Michael-Angelo James B. Pledge of Allegiance II. GUESTS: There were none. III. TRAVEL/TRAINING SCHEDULE AND REQUESTS IV. PLANNING & INFORMATION SESSION A. Bids: 1. WAYXL25-06 Surplus Property B. Discussion Items: ***SEE DISCUSSION NOTES*** 1. Infrastructure & Property Set-back Requirements 2. Property Code Violations Mitigation 3. Utilities Rate Increase 4. Meter Pilot Update 5. City Services Zone Concept 6. GDOT Projects C. Privilege Licenses Renewals: n/a Page 1 of2 Section 6.00.02 -Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) The ADA prohibits discrimination against qualified individuals with a disability. The City will provide reasonable accommodation to qualified applicants and employees when necessary toj permit them to perform the essential functions of their jobs. D. Privilege Licenses: n/a E. Proposed Ordinances: n/a F. Proposed Resolutions: 1. A Resolution of the City of Waycross, Georgia, To Declare 85 toner Cartridges To Be Surplused Property; To Provide For Sale On GOVDEALS.COM; and for Other Purposes G. City Attorney Report: H. City Managers Report: I. Last Call J. Adjourn to Executive Session K. Adjournment Meeting adjourned at 6:15pm CITY OF WAYCROSS BY: Muha-dnn Lan MICHAEL-ANGELO JAMES, Mayor ATTEST: x AAue Paoui JACQVALINE POWELL, City Clerk Daouos Page 2 of2 Section 6.00.02 -Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) The ADA prohibits discrimination against qualified individuals with a disability. The City will provide reasonable accommodation to qualified applicants and employees when necessary to permit them to perform the essential functions oftheir jobs. ***DISCUSSION NOTES *** WS 03/31/2025 MAYOR: Ijust have a look to our city clerk. Mr. clerk, do we have a guest tonight? ASSISTANT CLERK: None tonight, Mr. Mayor. MAYOR: With that, I can turn the remainder of our time together to our city manager, who will handle travel training and support. CITY MANAGER: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. mayor, I attended some training and actually some traveling coming up for next week. We'll make sure that's on here for tomorrow's meeting. I'm doing an extra session. That being said, we'll move into the planning information session, starting with bids by the procurement officer, Miss Jackson. MAMIE JACKSON: Mr. mayor. Commissioners. Purchasing has one item before you this evening. It is for some surplus property. It is for toner. Toner cartridges for printers and copiers. We have approximately 85 that are no longer needed or obsolete. Wel have updated our copiers and printers over the years. So, these, uh, toners that we have currently, uh, the ones that we want to surplus, the ones that we have currently are no longer needed or cannot be used and do not fit the copiers and printers that we have. We are asking that these items be surplus sO that we can sell them on gov deals.com. MAYOR: Very good. Thank you SO much for presenting that. I do know I open the floor for conversation around it ifthe commission would like to talk and because we don't have quorum tonight, we'll just have more information being dispensed and distributed. So, Commissioner Bennett, did you have any questions? COMMISSIONER BENNETT: No sir. MAYOR: And Commissioner Nelson COMMISSIONER NELSON: No, sir. MAYOR: Thank you SO much. CITY MANAGER: Thank you, Miss Jackson. Next, we're moving to the discussion items. And we will start with item number one, infrastructure, property setback requirements. Uh, this was a request by some of the, uh, some of the commission to, uh, look at some of our business practices as far as residential and business and making them more: attractive to potential investors. And that was presented by Mr. Mark Hawkins. Mr. mayor, uh, my apologies. I'm going to start first, and then I'll bring it back up. Okay. Sounds good. Yeah. And, Mr. Mayor, as always, we are going to put the vision and the mission up here for those citizens who might not be aware of what our vision is and our mission. And again, Mr. Mayor and commissioners, we will be going over this again at the retreat on April 11th 12th, in case the Commission wants to update the vision or change the mission. Ort the priorities don't change. And again, these are just the buckets, the four big buckets infrastructure service, quality of life, city workforce. And these are the bands within those buckets. And we did add a new one on there for the city workforce. As far as budgeting that's a new addition. And again Mr. Mayor Commissioner we have these up for review or revision at the retreat. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The city plans. The ten-year plan. Uh, we're at midterm. Unfortunately, this time, 2t to 4 years. Most ofyou are aware ofthose items within those 2 to 4 years. Uh, the. So what? Here is the part down at the bottom. Um, innovation, modernization, infrastructure, divesting and investing. Those will be major things. The budget process that we start this month as well. The month of April. So tomorrow we start, um, and for those citizens who might be watching, um, we're going to put these on the website. I have heard concerns and questions about this not being available, although it's always in our slides and the slides we posted. This Page 1 of 15 ***DISCUSSION NOTES *** WS 03/31/2025 is always the first part of those slides. T'll make sure it's a standalone. Um, this does connect to the comprehensive plan that the city developed about four years ago. Um, once again, all of that will be conducted and. Discussed at the city retreat for modifications and revision, or just an update of where we are at the particular area in those plans. And again, this is a 2-to-4-year mark. And actually, this is year two of the ten-year plan. Now Mr. Mayor, we're moving to the discussion items starting with infrastructure and property requirements and SO on here. We're trying to make changes to actually meet the future growth of the city of Waycross as far as businesses and residents. And I pass it on to Mr. Mark Hawkins. MARC HAWKINS: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Commissioners. So, in looking, um. At specifically for our residential areas, our lot sizes, our lot requirements, just looking at a couple of, um, different cities around, particularly Douglas, since it seems to be growing Valdosta, um, places like that, just to see where we compare. So, what I did was took a snapshot of, um, for our zoning. On the right-hand side is R 50, which is the smallest zoning. Those lots say they have to be 50 by 105,000ft2, the smallest for Douglas. Um, 1 forgot the name ofit. I think it was, uh, REM, um, their minimum lot size, their smallest residential lot size was their rem district. Iti required 9000 square feet with a width of70ft. Um, and then the city of Valdosta, theirs was a little more comparable, their smallest based on their residential lots. They are each one has a lot of residential lot or zoning districts like we do. Their smallest comparable was 6000 square feet with a minimum lot of 5060. Excuse me. So, as you can see, we have we allow some lots that are smaller. Um, one of the big things that I did see in this highlighted the minimum setback. Their minimum setback is 7.5ft on each side. Um, the way ours is written, our minimum. Well, 7.5ft in Douglas. asked to sleep for it. And then as the lights get bigger, the setbacks get bigger. Um, sO there's several variables, but compared to staying comparable with our kind of comparable zoning district, um, our minimum side yard is six feet on one side and a total of 15. So, what I would make a recommendation we do is just make both sides six foot. That would give them an additional, um, you know, three foot to build. Um, SO that would cut back on any variances. Um, the next thing you notice, the minimum square footage for houses in Douglas, it's 900ft2. For Valdosta, it's 800ft2. And then for us it's 1000. But we do have the caveat in our, uh, ordinance that says you take the average of the homes in that block. So, if the homes in that block are 750ft, then you can go down to 50ft2. Um, again, ifyou look at City of Valdosta, City of Douglas, when you geti in their bigger lots, which would get more like our, our 90 or our single-family residence, those homes. Um, I think Valdosta is their minimum size, and some of theirs were 3000 square feet for a home minimum size. Um, SO I think the way we have our language with the minimum of 1000, but then you base it on the average of the homes in the area or in that same block kind of puts it on the same, uh, with these other, you know, 800 and 900 square feet. So, what I would recommend is changing just the setbacks, um, on the side yard SO that it's the same for both sides, not a six on one side and then a total of both, ifthat makes sense. Um, looking at some of the front yard setbacks. Some of them did reduce it. Um, but it was based on, Stone. Certain areas. Um, the biggest part where they reduced was in the rear yard. Our rear yard says 25ft. Some of it. There's one zoning that requires 30ft, most in. Um, Douglas was a 15-foot rear setback. A 15-foot setback in the rear yard. Um, SO it just depends on if you want them to have a bigger front yard. A smaller front yard, in which way you go that way, but definitely on the sides, just to make it easier. Just make it the same that it's a 6 foot or 9 foot or whatever per that zoning district on both sides, if that makes sense. MAYOR: Commissioner, did you have any questions? Okay. Mr. Nelson. COMMISSIONER NELSON: Um, SO in a nutshell, the, uh, let's say, for instance, we have existing homes and in those lower income neighborhoods. IfI wanted to add on towards the front, ifi it's not a safety hazard, would it be possible ifl fall just outside of those limits? MARC HA WKINS: So, there's always in all the cities have the same thing. You can seek a variance. Um, SO they can come to a variance, um, and apply to the Board ofZoning Appeals to get a variance to encroach on that setback. Um, there are standards that they have to meet. And then the board would hear that, and they would make that recommendation. Um, or, um, we could do what some cities have Page 2 of 15 **DISCUSSION NOTES ** * WS 03/31/2025 done is they still have the variance, but then they also have an administrative variance. So, ifit's 10% less than, you know, 10% or less of an encroachment, then that can be handled in-house and not have to go through the Board of Zoning appeals. So, if your setback is 30ft, you're only needing three feet of. You're only going to encroach three feet. Then that can be handled in house. Ifyou were going four foot or more, then it would go through the Board of Zoning Appeals. COMMISSIONER NELSON: Okay, sO if there's a vacant lot and my plans are just outside ofthat limit, can I go up? Yes, sir. MARC HWKINS: Yeah. You can always do two stories. So, it's just measure to the front walls. And then that was the other thing. So, a lot of these, their setbacks, um, our setbacks are from the property line to the wall of the structure. When you start looking at Valdosta and Douglas, it's any part of that house. So, ifyou have a back deck or a side deck, they're including that in those setbacks. Whereas we don't we just count to the wall. Um, SO if you're within that, um, you can always go up and build a second story. Yes, sir. COMMISSIONER NELSON: So, what about firewalls in between the two? Well, not the existence. MARC HA WKINS: Well, because the single-family residence, you wouldn't need firewall. So, is that what you were asking? COMMISSIONER NELSON: Yeah, because ifit's not, ifI build too close to an existing home and that home does not have a firewall ifl fall within those guidelines. Sacred purposes. MARC HA WKINS: So. Yes, sir. And that's why I would say the minimum in our R 50 is six feet. Not go any less than that. Um, because the building code says once your buildings get within five feet of each other, you have to have firewalls on both. Both of them. So, if you got six feet, you got 12 feet there between the two buildings. Firewalls aren't needed. Plus, you have enough room for two firemen and a hose to get between the two structures. Um, and if you like I said, ifyou look, City of Douglas requires 7.5ft from the property line, SO those buildings are 15ft apart. Valdosta. They're 16ft apart. Okay. COMMISSIONER NELSON: So how soon can we get this done? Because this has been going on since 2015, since I left. MARC HA WKINS: So, we can take this to thel Planning Commission. And because it's on in the zoning, we'll take it to the Planning Commission, get their recommendation and bring it here for public hearing. Okay. So is it just the side yards that in the residential districts to do that or shrink up the back or. COMMISSIONER NELSON: I'm not too familiar with businesses other than mine. Um, sol I can't speak on that, right? MARC HAWKINS: Yeah. I think, and like, I was telling Mr. Raiford, um, we don't have a seem to have a lot of that, because if we were getting variances monthly for setbacks, then you would say that we would have a problem. But we're not getting enough. We're not getting any variances on setbacks except for 1 or 2 every other year or something. So, I think the setbacks are fine, but I think doing this would actually give them a little more room as well. CITY MANAGER: And Commissioner two points. So, this will be a topic retreat and the retreat. We're going to talk about this in detail. Uh, as we mentioned, uh, I'm not sure if the again, promotion to the citizens to know certain things about the variance because I think sometimes, they just bill some not out of spite, but not knowing. You know, like I said, even as written right now, we have a lot of flexibility in our in our policies, in the code. But unfortunately, a lot of times, uh, you know, unfortunately, cities don't take the time to just come check, you know, the building codes and permits and that's been a Page 3 of 15 ***DISCUSSION NOTES **: * WS 03/31/2025 struggle since I've been here. So, uh, on top oft this, we want to do a better job promoting entertaining that we make. Um, as you mentioned in the commission body itself, we do want to be more, uh, applicable to our sister cities. Uh, at the same time, we got to be careful on safety wise. But, you know, I'm going to talk about this in the next discussion item, but we have almost 400 properties, if you count abandoned homes and vacant lots, depending on the sizes, you know it could be more than that. Um, SO that's a lot of lot of areas there that could be for development. And um, and even with that, go back to the, the, the 1000-foot, 1000 square foot requirement. Uh, that's the issue too, because a lot of these, a lot of those areas, they're not next to smaller homes for that average. They're next to big homes. So, we can't even get smaller. So that would be something that we would need to change. Um, and I think our citizens, Ihope that they, they'rekind ofunderstanding how the world is going with, with smallerhomes. Uh, definitely for energy purposes. So, um, um, that's something we'll have to be part oft the discussion as well. But I think if we make some of these modifications, uh, Miss Hawkins mentioned, it will allow potential investors to come in and do more building on the single lots for the single homes. Uh, right now, we're only attracting the apartment complexes because of some of these setback rules, as you asked about ai few meetings ago. Yes. MAYOR: Okay. Thank you, good job. I wanted to ask a question before you Move away from. This. And that question really is around the idea of those modifications that you mentioned, who would be in charge of making those modifications? Would that be sitting, or would that be planning and zoning? MARC HAY WKINS: So, I'll take the recommendations ofwhat I presented, making both sides the same instead of a six and 15 or depending on the lots there. Um, I'lI take those to the planning commission. They'll make ai recommendation and then y'all will have final approval on that. MAYOR: The reason I bring that in because I served on that one before. So, one of the things that I remembered, if we were to change anything, it had to be changed there first, but then it had to come through the city or the county, depending upon which entity was in charge. And then afterwards they would make a decision based on what the recommendation from the commission. MARC HA WKINS: Correct. Yeah. They're recommending body. And since it's the zoning ordinance that has to go through them, ifit was just a regular city ordinance, it would just come straight here. CITY MANAGER: And once again, Commissioner, Mr. mayor, this will be on the agenda, I think. Uh, I think we had the opportunity to really revise all that and make it work for the citizens. And again, to the citizens who might be watching. Um, please be involved with this process. Like I said, we have we have flexibility now. Um, SO come ask the questions before. And, you know, that way, um, you can have those resolutions prior to making mistakes and force us to do other things after the fact. Uh, next, Mr. Mayor, we're moving to, uh, and this is part of the, uh, this is property code violation mitigation, and this is about strengthening our code enforcement procedures. And we'll go to the numbers here. So right now, we have currently about 400 cases pending. This is for various high grass blight, trash, abandoned cars, all those things. And this is in various stages. So, you might have initial cases, you know zero through 30 days mid cases then over 90-day cases. Um, I'm bringing tot the commission right now because we will talk about this at the retreat. Um, the one thing, um, that we don't have is a true forcing function for corrections. As you can see, the average case resolution time is about 18 months. The 18 months is like, you know, from getting the call or doing a route checking, you know, coming to the abandoned property, coming to the overgrown grass, um, being talked to the residents, then give them a letter. And then by the time it goes to court and these cases have been kind of pushed to the back compared to the abandoned houses because of the safety factor. Um, but they're still out there. So, and once, it makes it to thej judge, the judge a lot of times gives them extra time as well. um, prior to the penalty phase of these things. So, um, that is not working under my assessment right now. And - just want to relook at this process. Um, because we got to start holding people accountable a little bit early on in the process. Um, this may be a thing about raising the fees, um, basically, um, to push, um, you know, compliance. Um, because right now it's not working. And also speaking to the judge, um, about this, about how he views these types of events, um, our longest ongoing case is, you know, it's up to 48 Page 4 of 15 ***DISCUSSION NOTES *** WS 03/31/2025 months. And that's that goes back to trying to find the proper property owner and all these things, you know, you know, um, other higher priorities. And sometimes we got a blight situation and then we try to knock down a drug home,. you know, we got people using drugs and stuff. Um, it puts us back further. So, our code team, Mr. Hawkins team, they work really hard about these cases, but it is a litigation process in the court system that takes a while. Plus, the other things going on as well. But I think we got to get on the front side oft this and just increase the fines and a few other things. Mr. Hawkins going to present during the retreat will present during the retreat, but we'll both be tag teaming. This about making the strength of our code enforcement officers a little bit stronger, if that makes sense. Um, they've also, um, Miss Hawkins has brought up some ideas about changing how they are set up as well as them. They've done some training and looked at other cities where they do some things differently. So, we're going to look at those models and maybe kind of incorporate that into our day-to-day stuff. Um, but I think this is very important. Another situation here, it says the certified letter cost about $10. Doesn't seem that much. But ifyou can time that time 400 cases, uh, time four times a year, times going to court. It just keeps adding up, adding up, adding up, adding up. I know, uh, Mr. Hawkins was preaching that before I got here about getting rid of the certified letter. I think we're talking about that because it cost SO much. And again, it's not pushing anybody as far as compliancy, you know. So, the other ways to do this without spending customer money on these letters. So, we're going to look at all means possible, uh, during the retreat. But I want to go ahead and bring it to the commission now sO you can kind of start thinking about that. Um, prior to the retreat. Um, and we require charter and process change. Um, SO, uh, its home rule, SO it's not like we have to take it to legislation, but I think this is one of the areas where I'm talking about divesting investing, and we've got to divest from the old system and invest in a better system. Uh, for one, to make sure all those citizens who are cutting the grass and, you know, doing the right way by the trash and the Big Island and all that stuff, um, to get their backs to this whole there's two whole others of compliance that don't want to be in compliance. And then three, you know, help us identify those that need help in some cases. So, um, but that's the for the for the five-family moved there. Um, Mr. Mayor Commission. And again, none of the decision required tonight, but I want to bring to your attention. So, we have the retreat you can be thinking about, um, how we want to look at changing these policies, um, with the code. And I apologize for any questions. MAYOR: I do have a few, but the first thing that's crossing me is I know that our city attorney. You've had to deal with these cases What seems to be a consistent issue that you're encountering when you bring these cases before judge? CITY ATTORNEY: Well, a lot oft times, um,just finding out who the owners are. Um, we start with a, with doing the title searches, and as long as, um, uh, there are no heirs, property situations, we pretty much can find who the owners are. But when it's heirs' property, then that takes a little longer because you have to identify who the heirs are. You have to go to probate court to see if anything has been bio, and if so, then you have to notify 2 or 3 heirs or 15 or 20 heirs to make sure that anybody who is connected to the property gets noticed. So that slows it down a little bit. MAYOR: I found that, I mean, we've had people come into the office and they're frustrated with one of the heir's concerning property, and they want us to go on to that property. What is a problem? And I know, I know the answer, but I want to kind of say to, to those who are listening, what seems to be a major issue that may arise out of multiple people having these properties and say, for instance, it's overgrown. What seems to be a major issue here. CITY ATTORNEY: Well with overgrown vegetation we actually can handle those without taking them to court for the unsafe building properties. We have to take those to court because we have to get an order to demolish them. And we also can get orders from the court regarding overgrown vegetation as well. But the code does have a procedure where the city can send out, again, certified letters to the property owners, notifying them that they are in violation of the code because of the overgrown vegetation and give them sO many days to abate it. I think it's usually 10 or 15 days. Ifthey don't abate it within that period of time, then they are informed that city staff will go upon the property and abate Page 5 of 15 ***DISCUSSION NOTES *** WS 03/31/2025 the nuisance, cut the grass, cut the hedges or whatever the overgrown vegetation is, and then put a lien against the property for the cost of those services. Now, before that happens, before the city actually goes on to the property, the property owner is also advised that they have the right to file an appeal. I believe it's with the city manager as opposed to the city clerk and have the city manager review what the city proposes to do before actually going upon the property. But this is all through an administrative proceeding, which can be handled more quickly than having to go to court. CITY MANAGER: Can I chime, Mr. Mayor? MAYOR: Yes. CITY MANAGER: You can see how this can be. Um, with the fee being sO low, um, they won't likely they will let us come on there and cut it, and then we already we can barely maintain our own right of ways. Parks, um, everything we could as it is. And then we, um. That's why I made a mention of conserving our fuel, you know, and we don't want to get in the habit of doing this. Um, that's part ofthe solution. But I really think we got to change even that process. Um, because as I've learned my two years, nobody's going to do it. And then, um, and then we do take them to him to court and paid a small fine, or they might cut it that day. That particular day. And then he would go another year on the same stuff. Um, sO although we're losing money, resources and fees. We're also losing time, um, with our employees having to keep going back and back and forth with this. I think an extremely high. Fine. We'll put an end to this right now. I'm not sure what the whole thing is right now. What's the fine for? Um. Yeah, it's 800. But, like, like many things here in the city, we are very low when it comes to fines compared to other cities and doing a retreat, we can put that up on sO you can see it face to face. Um. How far? How far we are behind. Um, I was giving credit to Douglas because it finds a way steeper like this, and I think it's something we have got to look at. Uh, I know the other argument behind this will be, um, some of our citizens don't have, you know, the money to do certain things. There's always an argument. Um, and in those situations, it will be case by case. We'll figure it out. But we can't have people being non-compliant for years or decades in some cases. So, wejust got to do better at this. And some of this is process changing and priorities. Like I said, we made a focus right now on abandoned properties, more for safety and because ofthe gangs and drugs. But we had a lot of leeway on those on those homes. So, it's time to move into this direction as well. So, I don't want to make it about just about the overgrown vegetation because there's other situations too. We need to kind of fix, but I just want to bring it to your attention, because this is one of those areas that it's costing us money, and you don't even realize it until the end of the year, how much money we spent on certain things. And then to the commission, like I said, we really want to focus our resources and our capacity and our capabilities on the city owned stuff. You know, the parks and the right of ways and all those things and the canals that we have to keep maintaining, you know, for operational use and for citizens. So, and I have another question. So, I'll pause there. MAYOR: I did, and it was in relationship to the cold. And we were talking about particular codes and then code enforcement and then cold cases. The concern I had, especially if you bring it before the commission as a retreat item, is, will we have a list of potential ways of addressing this? Because I know, Iknow that sitting in the seat and looking at the events and activities that's been going on, because we've been seeing this, I know Alex sends us out a list of those things quickly. One of my concerns would be how would we list them first, and then how would we prioritize them as to what we need to do as far as codes are concerned. CITY MANAGER: So, I'm going to prioritize it for you, Mr. Mayor. Just like, you know, as I said before, esthetics versus operational, we got to start looking at things that way. In some cases, we'll never be able to cut everything here in the city of Waycross. It's just too, um, the area, you know, which was initially built for 5000, 6000 people, square footage wise. Now we're talking about 13,000 people for the for the staff we have is just too small. But I will prioritize them on locations because some areas, you know where the where the overgrowth presents a danger to, to drivers you can't see around the corner. There's a lot of those situations or anything close to the canal. You know, certain animais need Page 6 of 15 ***DISCUSSION NOTES ** * WS 03/31/2025 both water and shelter to survive and thrive, and they're not the friendliest animals. So those situations will be a little bit different. So, we will prioritize it that way. And then you got overgrowth. You got black. It's different scenarios as well. And ofcourse, I mentioned abandoned houses and homes. So, the homes will always take priority pretty much first and then probably more like when I say black, I'm talking about all those, you know, people with ten cars in the yard and four broken down sheds and things like that. And then we get to the overgrowth, which will be probably last Friday, but we'll have that kind of set up and then we'll have recommendations on raising which fines and then some of the processes um, city attorney did mention about the court proceedings. I just want to talk about that in detail. Um, about speeding that up. Um, those title searches or can take a long time. Um, and although city attorney's been doing a great job, that takes a lot. And we're really behind already because the number of homes that we already had Covid hit got pushed back even further. Um, with the number of times that you can appear before court. So that's another area we got to look at, too. Um, I'm going to ask the judges, you know, they have got to pick up, um, court times. I just said that out loud. So, and that's ai recommendation to be on there as well. CITY ATTORNEY: And Mr. Mayor, just in terms of the tools in the toolbox, we have the nuisance abatement statute, which we, uh, use to take cases to court with. We have the overgrown vegetation, um, ordinance, which can be handled administratively. And ifl'm not mistaken, I think a few years ago, the city did adopt the property maintenance, um, ordinance where you can tax the property owner at a higher rate ifthey have properties that are that have overgrown vegetation and junk. Um, I think Mr. Curry actually prepared that ordinance, and I think I saw where it was actually adopted. So that's something. MAYOR: That since I've been sitting here, because if I'm not mistaken, it was district two. Commissioner three at that time was the person who brought it up. It was a blight tax. Yes. So, we were we voted on that maybe 2021 / 2022. MH. Yeah. And it passed unanimously. CITY ATTORNEY: That's another tool that we're not using I don't think. CITY MANAGER: But that's another situation where once we start that um, you know our situation with our citizens that can be really adverse. Yeah. Um, SO like I said, I just want to look at something that's really applicable that can really be, you know, pushed, um, without putting an additional burden on the workforce. Because all those all those, um, and I'm not trying to counter what the city attorney said because Those are tools, but I want to keep pushing our cold team out here and we can't really have no teeth behind a lot of us of our actions. So, but that'll be on the agenda. And I'm, I'm confident that we can craft something that's doable. That's really doable. And then I will ask the citizens to understand that, because if they call and say, look at these things, look at these things, I hope they can like review the processes themselves and understand even with the process. It does take some time. And again, though, I think we do got to make things a little more, uh, the fees a little higher just to push everything forward to begin with. Do you have any other questions, Mr. Mayor? Commissioner. MAYOR: I'll open the floor for Commissioner. Did you have a question? ALL:1 No, sir. MAYOR: I gather that I'm the only person going to talk about this part. But it just sounds like to me, just the concern L have when I hear. Because I know ifthey're not paying on this level. Yes, to increase the fine doesn't mean they're going to do anymore. It just means that we'll have more on the book, but less as far as numbers, but less response because they're not responding now. And I think that's one of my that was my concern. CITY MANAGER: Well, that's true. I guess one of the five pieces, like sometimes they will just pay the fine and do nothing. So, there's a lot of cases too. That's 50% oftime. So, I think by forcing them to pay a higher fine, that might make them just clean it up versus you know, SO but we'll dig into that. Um, Page 7 of 15 ***DISCUSSION NOTES *** WS 03/31/2025 at the retreat and then we'll come out to the retreat with a better plan of action for everyone. And then we'll brief it a couple of times to make sure everybody's understanding what's about to happen. And then we'll probably go live at the beginning of the next budget year. All right. Next, we move on to the utility rate increases. I mentioned this a few times before, but I want to go ahead and mention it one more time. Uh, prior to us going into the city retreat. So, you see, the utility increases and the system development charge. Um, all these actions are to account fori inflation. Um. expenses increased expenses and then revenue increases. As you all know this, Mr. Mayor, I put this up for the public. Um, most of our systems are, you know, was in the 60s and 70s 60 years old. Um, sO we're constantly battling the age, um, situation now. And then in 2020, uh, ESG did come up with a capital gains plan for the water and wastewater systems. And this is all kind oftied together by mentioning this. And then again, this is not capacity building, just rehabbing existing systems. So, but I'll get to that part uh, later on in the slides. So again, you remember 2020, um, it was estimated almost 20 million to rehab all our water and sewer parts. Um, some things at the plant that's about 20, 25 million now, um, with inflation and, uh, cost adjustments. So just make sure everybody understands that. We've talked about this, about our commercial residents, uh, using, uh, more waming, paying less and the need to invert that back the way it should be. Well, the residentials pay less versus commercial. So, to do that modification that's about uh, that itself is about a 5% adjustment. And I missed that before. And as I mentioned before as well. So um, they will make that adjustment. This is not including the 3% proposed raise to the rates. This is just the adjustments to get them back to the right conversion. That makes sense. Okay. And once we did that, we were then moving to the rates adjustments. And before a lot of times, we just had the averages on here. This is the actual rate increase. It would be at 3%. Um for commercial rate increases. You can see that I'm talking three years. And you see in reality, and you only went up to eight meters size, um, size eight-inch meters. We have a few more, a few bigger than that. But most of our larger corporations are going to be, uh, at the eight meters size. It's not asking for a whole lot. Um, if they won't go up a whole lot at 3%. But if we'll do compound interest over time, that necessary money we need, uh, for those grants, we need that matching money. Um, this will really help us out. So, I want everybody to see that. And you'll get this in detail at the city retreat. But this is the actual 3% increase built in. Those are the actual numbers. MAYOR: Our Commissioner Nelson made mention of this in ours. I think it was a vote we were trying to get sO we could pass it over into making a resolution. And I think he made mention that we wanted to have more financial push to the corporations as opposed to the residential. So that was a concern. And Iunderstand what you're saying, because I think it was a 3% on the residential and 7% on the total. CITY MANAGER: And once again, these are the numbers I'm going to move up to the um, and these commercials to make Rate adjustment. Now sewer is a little more expensive on the commercial side. It's a little different setup. But even that, you're talking like I don't want to minimize any funding, but it's not like it's, you know, break some banks with any type of money. MAYOR: For those Who Are looking at this. I'm sure that gray is difficult. CITY MANAGER: I just saw this morning. Yeah. What we'll do, we'll, um, we'll update this slide and push it back out. I didn't see that one. I missed that one slide. And this will be the proposed residential water and sewer rates. And you see that over three years we're talking $2 and we're talking maybe 350 over three years. Now we can be more aggressive. And one thing I forgot to mention at the beginning ofthis. Uh, once we balance the commercial sides, uh, these numbers will actually decrease anyway, as far as residential size. So over time, they will go down. I mean, once we get the right size balance between the commercial usage and the residential resource usage. So right now, we off balance. So that's why it kind of looks the way it looks. But over time it will go down. MAYOR: And you're looking at about what space of time will it start. CITY MANAGER: If we pass this and, um, get the next budget cycle in July rates. I'm talking about three years, um, from that point. So, three years we're doing this. You talk about the most customers, Page 8 of 15 ***DISCUSSION NOTES ** * WS 03/31/2025 um, you're paying about $2 and $2 more than you were paying, uh, 2025. So, and again, this is not geared for us to, um, make, generate a whole bunch of money. Uh, this is allowing us to get some matching money SO we can have that matching requirement for all those grants. And then with that grant money, we can reapply that to fix some of our water and sewer utilities issues. So, uh, and we're going to have three different studies at the retreat. Uh, you remember that y'all requested, uh, the commission requested one from GMA. The city engineers did one, and I found an older study done. Um, when Mrs. Miller was here as a city manager, she had another corporation do one. And, um, I'm bringing that into forward because you all paint a similar picture, uh, picture, meaning that we should raise our rates a lot more to be compared with other cities. Uh, we're going to use Douglas. Wel have Douglas up there early on about how their how their model works. Uh, their rates go up every year with the CPI. Um, sO definitely higher in ours. But, um, I do want to get us to the point that we had the CPI model as well. And when you had projected CPI, it might go down depending on what the CPI model is that that year. So that's always a factor too. But at least it stays in line with inflation consistently. So, these are the actual rates, Mr. Mayor, Commission. Uh, sO that's really it on that that part. Mr. mayor, and once again, we will go into detail on these numbers, but I did go back and make sure I put that 3% in there, because the first two times we briefed this, it was on average. This is the actual 3%1 to those bills and those size meters. So, and I apologize before I move on. Mr. mayor, Commissioner. MAYOR: And you said this was 2% or 3%. CITY MANAGER: 3%, Mr. Mayor. Like I say, this 3% is probably going to get us anywhere between 300 to $500,000 a year in revenue. Like I said, that will then turn into money we use for matching for grants. So, um, and of course, all that money has to go back into water and sewer. Can't go in the other account. Um, but that will definitely help us out with all these issues we have with our water and sewer lines right now. Um, right now, it's very difficult for me to, um, for the city, uh, to match a lot oft these grants because wejust don't have the extra revenue. So, hope citizens, uh, you know, everything that we get from them, it goes right back into the system to make, you know, make their lives better. And T'll cover some other ways. We're going to enhance their, um, enhance their water and sewer on the next couple of slides. Any further questions on this? Mr. mayor. Commissioner. Uh, next, Mr. Mayor, and this is the, uh, we were talking about. You know, the city engineer had briefed us a few times before. Um, this is in reference to, um, taking that meter, uh, across the city county lines with Blackshear. And this is that system development charge I've been talking about. Um, and just saying what it is. I mean, we've discussed this before. Um, the big thing on here, I'm hoping that all citizens can understand. You have to put it back in expansion. You can't really do, uh, current lines that make sense, but expansion. Me, we could expand anywhere. So,. you could expand into older systems. Does that make: sense? That's why this is kind of critical that we take an opportunity to utilize this, um, this method of increasing another, um, not increasing, but another way of getting revenue to address our water and sewer needs. So, um, and of course, this future expansion. So, if we had any new development, it could go and go that route too. That would be another way for us. When we talked about incentivizing businesses to come here, um, this would kind of bet I would call it free chicken, but it would be another way for us to put our monies towards that development. But the main thing is, like I said, once we bring this extra funding in, uh, we could expand to new systems, not necessarily new pipes, if that makes sense. And here, Mr. Mayor, this is kind of what the charge would be about meter signs. Now, this isn't actually the gallons usage because we don't know, uh, all the gallon usage. Uh, I think this is kind of prorated. Um, and the city did this. I can't talk too much into it, but it's kind of like, prorated. I want to say he said 350 gallons, but I'm not: sure I have to check back on this, but to retreat, the city engineer will bring this to you in detail. So, um, because a lot of this won't really know the actual, um, benefit until we know the actual gallon usage. So, I kind of had to model this. Um, we did know about, um, 3 to 4 businesses. They wanted to go, uh, on the black side, and, um, you know, car wash is going to use a lot of water. Gas is going to use a lot of water. So, I kind of model this behind just on averages. But like I said, this isn'tthe real numbers. Until we get the actual, uh, meter size they're going to be using on their end and the amount of water they're going to be requiring. But I did want to show you a snapshot of how this could work. So, in reality, you know, 18181 eight meters. Uh, you know, that's about $337,000 a year, you know, which varies. So again, that could really help us out with our systems. So, this brings Page 9 of 15 ***DISCUSSION NOTES ** * WS 03/31/2025 us to the commission's attention. And once again, this will be a home rule adjustment we can make. Uh, it will not require legislative action. And do we have any questions on that, Mr. Mayor? MAYOR: Just a comment. And that comment is based on the economic development. And knowing that President Bauer probably will come to us regarding things that I know that we don't have some of the ways of drawing people into some of these events. But what we're just trying to do is make sure, Because I hear people talking about abatements and various other things, and I know in the finance that the commissioners have to take the course like I do, along with our director of finance, that municipal finance one and two. Yes. And these are the conversations we're having regarding the meter size, the amounts of funding that have to go to make these things work. And if this is going to come before us, I'm sure, in the retreat. This is a retreat item. CITY MANAGER: Yes And, Mr. Mayor, these aren't just conversations here on the way across. It's everywhere. MAYOR: I mean, I'm very much aware. CITY MANAGER: Yeah. You know, there's. So, we definitely got to get on board and start being more creative with our revenue generating capabilities, regardless of what they are. Um, and we've been unfortunately talking about it for some time. I fully understand if we talk about this personally, Mr. Mayor, that the commissioner has a lot ofimportant decisions you have to make, and I want to make a decision that might be adverse later on for the city of Waycross. So, um, but this model has worked in other cities. Um, the one thing we do have is the capacity. That's the one thing about Waycross. We do have the water capacity to go both sides of the city. So, um, Ijust think it's time to take care of that. Um, expansion could also mean, uh, new wells. And we do need new wells as well. So, it's a lot of it's a lot of ways to make this work for the city of Waycross. Uh, I know the big thing will be to make the citizens understand this. Um, it's going to be a challenge, and I'm going to I'm working with Director Simmons on, um, messaging. So, they can we can get it down to everybody's level of understanding and clarity. Um, sO we might we've been doing some pilots with certain groups of citizens to just ask them, how do you interpret this? And we're getting good feedback. Um, SO I will have to do the, the sO what and the why and make that more universal to everybody. And I think we can talk about that in retreat and what that really says. And once we establish that, I think the citizens will buy in when they really see that, hey, this is going to impact the city. Um, and sO much positive ways and then save time for what we got going on right now. Is there any question before I move on to the next area? MAYOR: No question. Just a comment. And that is I know working meters are going to be the main thing when it comes down to capacity. And then the next part is the proper reading of those meters and the amounts of funding that's going to be requested of the city. CITY MANAGER: Yes, Mister Mayor. So, um, thank you for the lead in Mister Mayor. So, this is the meter pilot update. It was moving into as well. Um, and of course, this update current status and future requirements for inoperable meters. And I try to keep this simple because I know I've been putting up these all these charts and figures and phases, and I know it's been confusing. So, we tried to keep it as simple as possible. Um, definitely for the general public to look at. And I hope everybody can understand these bullets. Ifyou if you can't understand this, please let us know and we'll try to explain it again as best we can. Um, SO right now we're roughly about 1700 meters that are currently not working. This number reflects, you know, it flexes up and down every day. Um, meter replacement is about $156 per meter. That's just the meter itself. That's not the labor and everything else that come with it. But I want to keep this as simple as possible. Um, trash bin replacement. That's about 170 per transmitter. Um, and then, um, it's estimated total equipment cost. Ifyou remember, um, Commissioner. Mr. mayor, I gave you three scenarios. Uh, one, ifwej just bought all the meters alone and then, uh, and then did some financing with Georgia Power's network or two, we built our own network and did all that and then did get the upgraded transmitters and all that. So that's that cost of us, just the I guess I'm Page 10 of 15 ***DISCUSSION NOTES ** * WS 03/31/2025 going to call it the wine budget. Now, the bid budget is a little cheaper if you've got $350,000, and that's us financing some of these areas, which we'll talk about. Retreat. I'm kind of guessing right now. Um, and then a few other things that we will purchase later on down the road. Um, I haven't I'm going to put the director on the spot right now, but we're going to talk about this $500,000. I think we got to figure this one out sooner or later. Um, I'm more comfortable going out and buying that cost upfront, because every time we push it off, it just increases. It just increases. Um, and then all the other savings down there, ifI, ifIjust jumped on Georgia Power's backbone, we probably would just pay them a monthly usage fee, be on them versus, you know, uh, and that's about $600 a month. It's actually more than that. Um, because that's just for those 700m. But ifwe replace all 5000m, then it will be a little bit more. But it's one if any. If there's one way to say this expense is worth it, it's going to be worth it. So, if we fix all the meters, then we'll get the right readings. And then that's going to bring in more revenue too. It'll create less headaches and problems for our citizens and our engineering partners and our public works and our utilities management. The finance director, because we all keep dealing with these meters. That's thinking about, I would say 4% of our work week is dealing with these meters in some form of capacity. So, this money will be well spent. I mean, I'm go back to divesting and investing. This is the main thing I'm talking about is getting away from an unforced decision. Some years ago, when we bought those meters and getting back to the right side of fixing everything, and then eventually over time, and once we got everything in place, everything would catch up with itself. And it would, you know, our citizens would benefit long term by doing this. So, what I am going to give you the option is to do your wine budget or do your beer budget when the time comes. But we'll give you all the data you need to make that decision as a retreat. And then we come out of the retreat. I think the next week hopefully we can take a vote then. So, we'll come out of retreat that Saturday, that Monday this will be on the agenda. We're voting on a Tuesday to go and play July Ist. So, um, but that gives the commission time right now to talk to their residents and their constituents about what possibly might be going on. And then the retreat is wide open to citizens as well. They can come watch. We'll talk about that. And, um, you know, I've read this many times before. I think, um, like I said, ifthere's enough time to divest from a failed from an unforced decision, unforced error, it's right now and just move forward with something new. And the pilot itself, we've had run about six months and those new meters, we have had no problems with them, you know. And plus, I knew IT systems. When you get notification, ifyou got leaks. Ifyou sign up for your email, you got a leak in your house or using you using, um, 50 more gallons this week than you did last week. So, it's going to really benefit citizens. And I pause there, Mr. Mayor, on this slide ifyou have any questions. CITY MANAGER: And once again, this will be on the agenda for the, uh, next, Mr. Mayor, moving to the city services zone. Concept update. Um, you already have this in your working books, and y'all get this on email and then the report. But I want to just kind of highlight for those who might not get it or have a chance to read it. Um, sO, uh, a few months ago, not a few months ago, actually a year ago, when the previous, uh, public works director, um, we sit down because, you know, summer months, we lose a lot of people. Um, uh, once that temperature gets about 110 degrees, they start dropping off or you don't come to work. And we get behind on a lot of cut areas. And we used to have we have teams on the East, and we try to do it by districts. All five districts have a have a lawnmower here or a push mower here and a weed team here. And they're all trying to cut the areas and what's not working. Um, sO what we did, we came up with the zone concept and we got four zones there. And they comprised, you know, each zone got at least two districts in there. And like zone one and this kind of rotates. But like zone one is a Monday. And then we got there with all our capacity, all lawnmowers, all our weed eaters uh mowers everybody. And they cut that area. Um, the parks, um, ifthey're in that area, they cut it that day and then they come on zone two the next day, and they cut all those areas and they zone three and zone four. So, you're thinking Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Um, then we do all that. Friday is an off day, but it's but not often since they off. It's a maintenance day for equipment, and it's a work from home day for some of the employees. As long as all their routes are cut Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday, Thursday. Ifit rains like it's raining right now for some reason, then Friday becomes a makeup day. And ifyou look at that map, Mr. Mayor, you see all the area that's in blue. That's kind of Page 11 of 15 ***DISCUSSION NOTES *** WS 03/31/2025 all the city owned properties and all that stuff. If you look closely, um, the parks are, is, um, I think once they green up and they got the canals in there, that's the lines of the greens. So, it kind of displays everything that we handle for those days and those zones. So anytime when we're doing the, um, when you get the city recorded, y'all, did y'all get daily and biweekly reports? And I think we post that daily for citizens it might say zone one North. So that means north side oftown zone one. And I want to make this clear to everybody. So, um, it might be certain days that you might not see anybody cutting hedges in your district because you might be not on that zone day, you know. Um, it's also it's the same way that our code departments work. They work in zones as well. We have five. We have four code enforcement officers and then one supervisor. So, it's the same concept. They each had an area each day. And then the supervisor kind of spot checks everybody. This allows us to save on fuel as well. Um, because we are using rescue because we're not spread out across town. We moved to a certain area that day. Um, SO we're not just rotating around town trying to get everything done. And we've already saved a lot of fuel once again at the budget during the budget discussions. Few overtimes and insurance are our biggest expenses, sO I'm trying to cut down those areas. And this is a simple cut down here. Um, because we know, um, when the storms come this summer, when we use the extra fuel to. We'll be better prepared. So, I just want to show y'all this because I know we have a lot. Of questions on this, on how we how we do maintenance for the city. Uh, this is how we do maintenance for the city. Now, this does not include, uh, ESD and water leaks. Uh, they do jump around because they have to. Um, but I am I am developing a plan for utilities where we start, um, we're trying to get the data on this. We're going to start in one area and work our way towards the river. That's all we can do right now because everything is breaking. So, it doesn't matter where we start at, um, how we fix it. Um, we just got to start somewhere and have a methodical plan, um, down the road. So. But everything else as far as, um. Public works. Because he needs one of these zones, um, daily. And I called it Mr. Mayor. Of course, I know y'all get this. And y'all seen this already, but I want to make sure that the some of our citizens that might not know how we operate. Um, if you look at the daily report, you'll see on there where it says, um, like I said, tracking moves on to you can see that real time, and then you can better understand how we how we manage our, our properties doing work with inflation. COMMISSIONER NELSON: So, Ijust want to give kudos. Shout out to the city manager. He does a great job of sending out info emails and stuff. And this this is for me because we're in the military. Um, I understand like one I understand. I tell my constituents it may not be this week, but it's coming around and then they go out there and see it rotating around. And other commissioners would have to understand that and stop being sO territorial. We're one city. CITY MANAGER: Yeah. And this way, Commissioner, like it takes that away from us. We were doing the five districts. Ifyou missed the park or something, and stuff still happens. Don't get me wrong. Um, during the summer months, people are going to call in. They're going to call in. If it's already 110 degrees at 8:00. Now, we do try to cut early like, you know, they do have the flexibility. Come in at six and go through lunchtime. That's one thing that we're all doing as well. But this way is not like we're just picking a district. We're hitting we're hitting at least two districts every day. So that's a good thing about that. And I'm proud of the team. They bought into this. It took a little bit. Um, but they bought into this. And like I say, everybody's out there in one area cutting hard because they want to get everything done by Thursday. You know, sO they can like, kind of put the equipment in the shed and let it cool down. COMMISSIONER BENNETT: You're doing a great job. Matter of fact I saw him today and Dave was doing a wonderful the job is great. Thank you. CITY MANAGER: And we also developed a way to, um. Even when it rains, you're going to see us cutting certain grass. Uh, we know certain areas you can cut during some rain versus other areas. So, Page 12 of 15 ***DISCUSSION NOTES *** WS 03/31/2025 you know, uh, last thing, Mr. Mayor. Um, as far as agenda item update, sO you've seen both the support letters y'all put in for memorial and corridors. Those are the raised mediums, the enhanced, uh, lights, um, the restriping, all those things. And the last one I sent y'all, uh, I left it off. Here was the request for support on Ozzie Davis in the same capacity that being Jamaica, um, the same route as Albany Avenue, meaning the center lane, the center turn lane with, um, two, two outside lanes. Uh, requested, uh, feedback on that. I want to say I got an acknowledgment the last time we briefed that, but, um, I would like to send him a support letter signed by the mayor and the commission saying we're okay with that, but if not, we rethink it. Then we probably need to talk about this at the retreat and just make sure we all feel on board with this. Um, because they're about to start construction pretty soon. Or the bypass. They want to know right now, um, what we're willing to do. And again, just for the public, ifwe allow that, um, and it doesn't change the speed of actually, ifyou drive on Albany Avenue right now, you will see it. You move faster on Albany Avenue than you do all the days, um, for a lot of reasons. But the big SO what is this going to fix all the utilities on the other days. And that's, that's double digit million dollars that we do not have to fix. Um, sO they fixed that along with the bypass. That'll give us more flexibility to put money towards other streets and other priorities. That's a big supporter of that. So, um, we can talk about that retreat again. Um, but at some point, soon I'd like to let them send in that support letter saying, y'all okay with that, um, Mr. Mayor. And that way, uh, once they get started on construction, they can go ahead and add that to it as well. COMMISSIONER NELSON: Can we do that before the retreat? Because I know time is oft the essence. CITY MANAGER: Um. We can. Commissioner, uh, they're aware of the retreat. I told them that, um, are they aware of the retreat? But, um. COMMISSIONER NELSON: They're kind oftired ofkicking the can. CITY MANAGER: Yes, yes. And I'm just making sure I don't want to commit. Y'all not commit to it as well. And with that, Mr. Mayor, I have another question that moves into, uh, that moves into the rest of the agenda. We don't have any license renewals or licenses, proposed ordinances. Uh, we do have, uh, one proposed resolution. And with that, I will turn it over to the city attorney for his remarks. CITY ATTORNEY: The resolution is simply, uh, backing up. What? The purchase and director presented to surplus 85 toner cartridges to be surplus and sold on gov deals.com. MAYOR: Okay. CITY ATTORNEY: And that's all I have. CITY MANAGER: Thank you, Mr. City Attorney Uh, this was me. I moved to my report and, um, you get this daily. But, um, moving forward, we're going to start making sure we post this in my report. Um, SO again, for those who are watching infrastructure pothole repair in zone two, that's all potholes. Um, we went around checking all the streets. Uh, street signs are on one. Um, all my light switches for the fire department. One crews in zone three. Um, the house demos in zone four. Um, and unfortunately, we only have one sweeper truck working today. I know that's very important to our citizens. Uh, that's one thing that we're going to look at when it's time to start purchasing, uh, vehicles with that Splits 2023 are getting a better sweeper truck. So. Engineering. You see the dirt street pavers. So far, we have street three streets done. Um, we're looking at that that design for the Waycross Middle School drainage, the area that kept flooding. And we're trying to find a better way to run that drainage, sO it doesn't become an issue once the school is totally built. Um, and then, um, as far as water and sewer department, they're just doing hydrant maintenance across the city. And then the park improvements with the park, Mr. Mayor. Um,just tell citizens we will be, um, I noticed the permits put in for those three parks. Uh, right now, we're just paying on if you're trying to use those three parks, Carlton, Elizabeth and Bailey, that you wait. Um, probably until July Ist. Be honest with you. Um, for any event, I know that's a long way. It seems kind of awful, but we don't want to. Especially those big events, those big, big events because, Page 13 of 15 ***DISCUSSION NOTES **: * WS 03/31/2025 um, those parks, they'll just be finishing up. I want to give them time. Um, SO we don't destroy them on that first day. Make sure everybody gets some use out oft those big, big events. Um, I have I have turned down some permits on that because I want to make sure, like the football field for Baylor, that those flag football teams we have, they need to get first access to that prior to everybody else. Um, and a few other things that citizens have requested, the splash pads and all those things. We'll make sure that's available first before we have those big, big events. So, uh, hell, if you got questions about that. Anybody. just comes see. Um, first you go to the police chief, and you'll come see me, and we'll figure it out. We have other parks besides those threes that can present the same, uh, fun filled Saturdays and Sundays. But these three parks, I want to get them totally completed and totally done. Um, the fence might come down earlier, but again, we want to be careful about just getting anybody out there. Um, too fast out there. And with that, that completes my report. items. MAYOR: Thank you I'll start with Our Last call. Commissioner Nelson. COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank You, Mr. mayor. Um, as always, keep up the good work. You and your team are doing a great job with. The dumpsters are starting today. CITY MANAGER: Yes, Commissioner. So, they'll be in, uh, Moore Park today. Okay. Um, for the week, and then Elizabeth Park for the next week, and then Gallatin Park fort the next week, then Monroe Park and the Oakland Cemetery. Okay. COMMISSIONER NELSON: Thank you. Okay. Thank you. COMMISSIONER BENNETT: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, if I may, city manager, I just want to address to the citizens that ifyou have anything that you cannot take to the dumpster, put it out on the side of your yard. Call us and we'll come by and pick it's five items, correct? CITYI MANAGER: Yeah. Correct. That's normal pickup. But for these dumpsters, like I said, we. haven't had anybody call yet I was. COMMISSIONER BENNETT: Well, no. I arrived by, and I see where people have tires thrown in wood lines or some extra furniture. So, I'm saying they can call the number and we can come by and pick it up. CITY MANAGER: Yeah. Everything but tires. But everything else, they schedule appointment. We'll make sure we put that out on. Um, right now we put that in the comments. Um, about that number to call. Call that number. Set up appointment. Uh, give them at least 72 hours. Because ifyou call on a, on al Friday, it's going to be the next week, you know. So, we'll figure at the end ofthis up. Okay. Yeah. COMMISSIONER BENNETT: Well, with that being said, I had a phone call about some tires in the wood line. MH. So, what should I tell them or what should you tell them. Uh people come in dumping these tires. CITY MANAGER: We'll come we'll do. We can do. Commissioner, I want to overpromise that. That's been a big promise. Uh, I wish you could. We're still trying to figure out a way to repurpose the tires, because if we could find a way to use something else, it'd be a plus. We haven't figured it out yet. Um, but if they become a safety hazard or too much, uh, too much blight, we will come get them. We just don't have any ability to. All we can do is storm, you know? COMMISSIONER BENNETT: But other than that, everybody be safe. Kids, enjoy the rest ofthe week. Um, don't forget about, um, Swamp Fest. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. MAYOR: Thank you, Commissioner, for mentioning the swamp is. The dates for Swamp Fest will start April the 4th and will end on April 5th. And along with that, we have a spring Career Expo. And this is Page 14 of 15 ***DISCUSSION NOTES *** * WS 03/31/2025 going to be on the third. And this starts on 10 a.m. him. This will be at RCC McCray city's auditorium, and it will be from 10 to 2. And you can feel free to come in. All vendors, we have about 40 vendors there, and this will be done through the Waycross and the Work source Georgia. And if you need to contact anyone, our contact person is our business Integration and Information technology director, Mr. Patrick Simmons. His number is (912) 337-6062. For any questions you may have. And with that I want to say to families that are bereaved, and I know several families that are going through bereavement at this time do want to send our condolences to Pastor Blair, his family, and also to Miss Angela Stanford's family. Uh, do appreciate each person who came in tonight and was able to sit in on the time that we have together, do want to commend our city manager for what he has been doing as far as getting things orderly and organized sO that we can have a better response time. And with that in mind, I also want to remind the citizens to use your city app. You can go to that ifyou have a situation, you want to take a picture ofi it and you want to send it by way of that app. It helps us to not only know what the situation is, but when it is dealt with in any community, whether it be district one, two, three, 4 or 5. That information will be gotten back to not only our city manager, but our commissioners, as well as the persons who have done it. So, we'll keep those tickets. But I really appreciate each person being present tonight and also appreciate these commissioners for what they've done. I do want to make a note concerning Commissioner Felder Commissioner Roberts both are out today for reasons. One with the work that work related and the other with the medical related. But we're really appreciative of their work that they do and just want to make sure, you know, they're not just playing hooky. So, with that being said, do you want to thank Commissioner Nelson and Commissioner Bennett for being present tonight? And just for each of you, be safe in our city. I do know that we are under a very eventful weather watch tonight, and some ofyou are probably already experiencing it as I'm talking to you. But be safe as you travel in the city and have a great evening. And with that, I'm going to adjourn the meeting. Since we don't have quorum, I get to just strike the gavel. So, this meeting is adjourned. Page 15 of 15