A pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic which extends one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. This time I'll ask the council to review the meeting minutes from little bit of the same thing. I'm going to motion to accept. Second. All in favor? All in favor. All in favor. All in favor. All in favor. All in favor. All in favor. All in favor. All in favor. All in favor. All in favor. All in a meeting today with CPL to discuss those. The price to prepare that, that will take up to a couple of weeks to prepare to the additional parties that are needed for preparing the bid. It's a no update other than they're working on preparing it. Correct. Any questions or comments? exactly how does that work? So the intent will be that we get a proposal from the CPL group to prepare the bid documents, specifications of the road projects as we discussed. Once we have that bid to create that call it the scope of in the bid documents The council would then vote to approve or disapprove the creation of the bid documents once if the if approved Then we would work with CPL to create the full bid package and submit the project offer bid for requirements with the state. And then once the bids are received, we would also have them work with on the leveling process and the bid evaluation. Then that pricing comes back to the council to approve or disapprove of the road projects. Are we required to take the lowest bid? No Not that I'm aware of the approval of the road projects. Are we required to take the lowest bid? No. Not that I'm aware of. So the party, they're truly apples to apples with all qualified parties. There wouldn't be a reason to sometimes there are differences in the way that projects are put together that could drive that decision different. Okay. Any? They're not going to come up with estimates on how much going to cost and all that. They would not come up with the estimate until we send the work out to bid. I, you know, without knowing we can go through the exercises of working with a contractor to get estimates as to what the road projects will cost ahead of time but we cannot, you know, depending on price points and where things fall, we have to follow the additional bid processes. But we still going to be responsible for working up estimates in our lab. Correct. But we already have the money in the bank from the so we're yeah. This just formalizes the bid process. All right. And if there's nothing else, we'll move on to item number two in the agenda, which is updating the purchasing policy, which is an item that we discussed. I guess I was about a month ago, the initial round. So we don't have Council President tonight, which I think, I don't think we're ready to formalize any changes to the policy. We can make adjustments to this and it doesn't necessarily have to be all at a time so we can look at it a couple of ways like major changes. I would still want to continue reviewing You know working with council on the purchasing policy, but Definitely like to discuss that for what we're you know how we're working through this now So we want to leave it just like it is I mean we can make make some changes. I thought we had talked about making that you had the mayor, whoever's the mayor, could make purchase up to 10,000. That was one that was discussed. No, we discussed it in the five. No. No, that's up to him. And we do have a draft. That's the, this is 3000. Yeah. Well, that is a direct, so this is not the official policy. These are comments that are written. These are what I made. Correct. That I looked at the one that we have and I went by yet and just picked the numbers in that I thought look good and wanted to bring them before the council as far as this is what Starting point so we were talking at raising what the mayor can purchase The clerk and the maintenance employee can purchase Right modifying all three that's correct Because I was thinking like 1,000 for the clerk. And then maybe 1,000 for maintenance. I'm probably going to get a low right now. Well, I think it's 300. Right. No, because you got a five 5 on the next round. Yeah, 5 on the air, I raised it some, but like I said, that was a starting point to just discuss. And I guess my question was when I was even doing it, I was wondering even about African Kathy. Is there times that you need to be approved for more than 500? That comes up a few times to 300 mark whether it's repairs on equipment such as weed leaders, lawnmower, parts, and and equipment It's not all the time, but it is a more common So 500 it sounds like it they cover is the majority it covers the majority of everything that they would need Correct for the maintenance or you're saying for the clerk Is it one of the same They're different different. Yeah, they're different. Two different positions. So, maintenance 500. So, the weedier gets fixed. It's $500. Does Kathy authorize it? Do you send a check or does Jerome send? Well, he's mentioning, like, under the current process at $300 if it's an excess of 300 They would typically reach out to contact me and would discuss that specific purchase There's a lot of times repair I'm sorry we don't use a car. Did just swipe? We're not riding check. I'm just wondering about the process. I wouldn't give them maintenance. Hello. I'll do lawn mower. Yeah. I know. That's an outlier though I think. That was just as an example. Yes. He's like oh by the way it's going to be 540 so you know what they're not good about giving estimates that's why I was asking. No No, I get a phone call whenever something's closing in on the $300 mark. I know a lot of phone calls. No. I know what's happened, but maybe. So what do you recommend that you be all the all the ones still with it? I think the $500 mark works for maintenance. For both parts. The clerk and the town maintenance. Correct. What would work for you? $5,000 or $10,000. I mean, I'd recommend it to $10,000,, 5,000. Those are beneficial, you know, from having the call to meetings. Every expense is completely known and explained through that part. I'm thinking 10. So you think 10 instead of 3 and not do anything about emergency versus non-emergency. Right. I think it falls very similar from that. Chuck, it's over 10,000 that we have the... Correct. ...called needy. In. Okay. I think it's okay. The answer was that over the other day. So that wasn't here. 9,000. 7800. Well, when you look at the net between the two, yeah. It was just under 10,000 for one project and a reduction in the second project. That's right because I remember seeing in half it was 7,000. It's not one. The difference between the two. Correct. Yeah. I mean, this is a very rare, any expenses of that nature. But, you know, at the times when we are doing that. We are growing. Things are changing. They are. And just so you all know that from if you were looking at what I put here, I added up there in the mayor's absence that you know, it would go to the mayor's program. Correct. In the absence. Because it's not in the other exactly what would happen. So I kind of changed the wording a little bit on all that. Well, it goes that far then we should have had it at the point. Well, so we need to know, that does part that I flagged is a clarification for the council is what does that mean in the mayor's absence? I'm not looking today. I'm looking five years ten years down the road. What does that? Yeah, they're behind it sitting in these chairs. It's not just it's not related to the person. It's just a correct. So it's just defining in the absence of meaning out of town unable to attend the, you know, or unable to attend the meetings as necessary for the expenses. Just think of it, you know, down the road as a qualification mayors, the city work for a day or wherever working and gone so then you come in mayor pro-tem steps into the office makes an expense and then steps back out of the office. I don't think that's the intent of what you're looking at. You know, under that type of scenario. To me, your absence would be like you're on a crew someplace from the other person. Correct, that's where I'm just mentioning clarification. Yes. But just from a... It's something come up. From a hundred percent would meet that intent, but having a clarification in the policy. Yeah. Okay. Actually, an example of it. So back to a question earlier, you're asking procedurally with the quotes to move forward with with what we're doing from the consulting portion with the roads under the current process because it'll most likely be greater than a thousand we have to get the quote from CPL firm I have to come back to the council with that quote to move forward with the roads that last meeting the council wants to look at From bidding out for the repair projects. So it adds that extra Period of time. Would you either have to do a special call meeting or wait till the next Planned meeting in order to move forward with those parts we could do like we did on some other things saying you've got the authority to. You can. In one off scenarios, we can do that as well. Because it does slow everything down. It does. So do we need to make a motion on changing the purchasing policy? I think where you want to table it is what you were saying. If the council is okay with making the adjustments to the existing policy we can do that. Sharon, where did you get the $10,000 number? Okay. I don't know if I just because what they were saying at the meeting. Who's they? Somebody was talking at last meeting and said that some of the places, Mason. Yeah, Mason. How hot, different places were. And it was a whole lot more than the teen. Yeah, I think he was saying 20. Yeah, he was going 20 and up was most of them. And so I came up with a TN. It was less than the others, but I felt like that we don't usually two of the purchasing. 0.1 and 2 would be changed to 10,000. Bullet point 3 would be changed. Both parts would be changed out to 500. 0.4, both parts would be changed to 500. Bullet point four, both parts would be changed to 500. But we don't write that many checks, correct? Checks? Checks. You were talking about writing to do with the right check. A lot of checks. What? We're not using a card. That we get like, or cash back. So do you write a check when a lawnmower needs to be picked up for repair or give the credit card? Just a second out there. Okay, let's take him out of the. You don't find many businesses requiring checks. If he goes to, uh, what's the one that Winder? Winder outdoor power. What? What for long equipment? We also wanted to add something about Mayor Pro Tem. Oh. You want to do the wording of the draft? Full it. Well, he was wanting to clarify applicant a little bit more so. So I'm saying that we want to just see. Any thickness? I'm not. I'm going to go back to the next one. I'm going to go back to the next one. I'm going to go back to the next one. I'm going to go back to the next one. I'm going to go back to the next one. I'm going to go back to the next one. I'm going to go back to the next one. I'm going to go back to the next one. I'm going to go back to the next one. So really it would be an additional sentence added to for the clarification. Or it could possibly just be added in the bullet point number one I would think because it has to do with that. So add it into bullet point one that the-tem in the mayor's absence which is defined as. So just that second sentence. Not available with within same day or what not available within one business day. Yeah. But if your and Cruz is a long Cruz. No, meaning we're saying if the mayor is not available within one business day that the mayor pro-tem may step in and fill that expenditure. We don't have to make that change today. We can adjust additional pieces as we see fit to the policy. That sounds fine to me if everybody else is good with it. One day you can't make it. I don't see that that's an issue. We don't need to address it today. The one day. I don't. So just put it in this. Absolutely. Or not put anything. That second sentence in your first bullet on the draft, I think that's worded well, and that would work. Which one? The second sentence on the first bullet of the draft. Oh. Well, the third sentence in the event of an emergency or an issue. Oh, sorry, the third sentence. Okay. Yeah, okay. In the event of an emergency or an issue that could. In other words, it wouldn't be up to the mayor pro-timid. It's just something in general. But if it's an emergency or if somebody's life could be in danger because of it, then they have the right to OK. So is this suggestion to use on the draft policy? Line on them one, but adjusted to $10,000. And then add the third Senate from the draft. Then it's later on if we want to define absence anymore so we can do that. So it's the third and final sentence. Okay. Just want to make sure I'm reading this correctly. So the motion would be to updates on page 2, bullet point 1, replacing the $1,000 to $10,000. Bullet point number 2 would be replacing the $1,000 with $10,000. Bullet point number 3, replacing the $300, two instances with $500. Bullet point 4, replacing the two instances of $300 with $500. adding a fifth bullet point that is in the event of an emergency or an issue that could lead to harm of any individual, the mayor or the mayor pro-tempt and mayor's absence may make purchases of $10,000 or less without the consent of the council. They're motion to so moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. 4-1, all opposed. The record reflect. We're voting. Okay. Can we talk about the financials? Or do we have to add that to the agenda? I was thinking about that too. Can we talk about the financials or do we have to add that to the agenda? We need to add that to the agenda. I'd like to make a motion to add playground update and financials to the agenda. So we'll do that as items number four and five. Okay, all in favor? Okay. I've updated the playground to be item number four and the financials to be item number five. As I mentioned. Item number three is hiring CPL for code enforcement at $95 to $125 per hour. Is the rate this was included within the contract that we have with CPL when it was done, but I wanted to just bring that to the attention of the council and make sure there's any questions and agree of using the CPL for the code enforcement at the 95 to 125 per hour rate as the council. Are they physically going on site. Are they hearing a reflectur vest? Something that's interesting. It will be marked and indicated. And I'm confirming the final pieces with our attorneys on, you know, as far as having this more in deputized piece or whatever the correct terminology phraseology is. But yes, they will be official code enforcement. Which- Did they do that for other counts? They do. Such as Mulberry that was newly formed is one of the locations. There are other, there are more locations that that is done because it's such a part time. As we remember our previous code enforcement cost, was a hundred dollar retainers and twenty five dollars an hour. Right. For each additional this falls into just on an as needed basis. Anyway that we can recoup that price from the people if they continue to not want to abide. We'll have to deal with that during the process of as each individual situation works unfold as to how that looks. I don't know everything in writing anywhere that we do in the charter of those there are there are fines that can be levied for noncompliance. Again the intent the whole time is to bring the residents and businesses into compliance Come into a part compliance at least the first time say Tell them that they will be paying Those are you know in speaking with the attorneys that there is additional language that they're working on for the next portions. And that would be in all cases. So what we're looking for now is just to just make sure it's, you know, very clear would the council that we would be engaging the CPL firm as the code enforcement per the contract that's been previously signed at this rate for the enforcement whenever if necessary. So it's already in the contract, so I mean we don't need to vote or do the thing. I would like to just call it out and just say that they have the council recognize that we will use CPL for the code enforcement. Okay. I'll make a motion. We're using CPL for code enforcement. Okay. There's second. Okay. All in favor? Okay. That passes unanimously. Okay. All right. Item number four on the agenda of the playground. You know, the thought I had on the playground additions, or, and I'm assuming there might be park additions also. I'd like to get the council's input. As I'm developing a survey, we'll give the citizens who use a playground an opportunity to rank things from one to five and priority to them to get their input. And I'll have Kathy print out a bunch of and maybe Jerome can give out some every day. But you know things like additional swings, roundabouts, additional tables, additional benches, maybe a dog park, maybe basketball court, slads, and another playground system. Some parks have two systems in the middle. Shade covers for playground systems are available. Spring ratters, they're really cute. They're shaped like a bus, a fire truck, police cars. These are that nature. Seasaws, clamors, spinners, log tunnels. For an eight foot fallen balance beam that kids like to be on tree stumps, like the clam on, but all this stuff is pretty pricey, but I just wanted to get your all's input on stuff like that or additional stuff that I didn't mention. But one of the things I found looking at CoreCat, so catalogues they do have shade covers for our system, where we could put our shade cover. I think that's nice. Yeah. But, so- So something that I forget which municipality it was, they created a call it a Citizens Board, but they used some of the kids that used the playground to form a committee to help shape what the playground would look like. Would that be something that the council would be open to? And you can find out who wants to do it through a couple of mechanisms, right? We can use the Facebook page in parents, and it would need to be residents of the town of Bethlehem. Right. And we can also put out something on whether it's SurveyMankee or some other program where you have a QR code where they can scan while they're at the playground with a sign that would allow them to find out some more information about what we'd be looking for. Those are a lot of really good ideas. Those are, that's phenomenal. I'd love to bounce that off of what the end user. Yeah, the QR code. That would be, because they're hanging out, chitchat, and while the kids are playing, they could do their survey. Well whether they do that survey or we get the, you know, the initial pieces get together a group of say five youth, or yeah, both, and we're on them together. I wonder if kids today understand the joy and pain of the sea solace and the little spending thanks. What about the, yeah, what about a mixture of parents and kids on the committee? I would definitely be open to it. I think that's a good way to me to be more interested in the kids. You could have, you could moderate it or have any parent moderate it. Yeah, that's a great idea They said that they had really good success by bringing the kids together that had created a playground that they Did they help design I think that's awesome Any any additional equipment ideas or park additions or? There's I mean like the little zip line thing over in Winder. That's pretty cool. The climbing that we have about nine or 10 playgrounds we got to. Those are about those are about 50,000 Yeah, that's why I didn't include it They'll probably be never one on the kids Web climbers with the court But if you if you guys have any any additional thoughts just call me text me, email me. No, but I would think if the council's up open to that of working to create that committee of, you know, I'd throw out five. I don't know what the right number is. Give or take. I know too large and it doesn't work very well, but I have in a group of highly motivated kids that want to participate. I think we just still would like to have a bulletin board or some sort of thing at the playground. And do the QR code and also post that we're forming at committee or a team or whatever you want to call it. Playground team, playground, whatever. And they can contact us. I guess we could post it or we could go to Bethlehem Elementary and talk to the principal. I think we could. We should start with a little bulletin board to go right there. Yeah. That the entrance to the playground. We really do need that. The boys Scouts were working on that. Are they? No. That didn't happen. We can ask if there are any Boy Scouts working on a project. Eric, could you use some of the cedar stalks? Yeah, we still need a simple bulletin board down there. that's our audience or the people who are actually using the playground. Correct. Yeah, they're usually 10 and under. Kathy, do you give a set of plans for that to some money? I'll pick up 16, so. Yeah, no, but I gave it to you because I thought another organization was going to look into it it Like the boy Scouts, but I can't remember it's been a while. It has I don't think there is I talked to the truth that meets with the Y and they didn't have anybody at the time that needed an Eagle project I can volunteer Paul to build something. Poor Paul. Since he's not here. Now he came and he flew in last night. He's back. Just back. Now that you're dead tired. You got a full tall digger. So I guess the steps are, you know, we wouldn't need to create that group. I don't think that's anything we have to vote on. Well, you can find something that the child ten or less wants to play, because you don't want anything bigger than ten on your stuff out there. Brother, you're just going to tear it up. Yeah, a lot of playgrounds. They do have to like the little kid area and then the older kid area. The lily pad, that's our expenditure that's always over 200. We ain't even got them yet. Just no monkey bars. I hate the monkey bars. I always put my hands hurt. You know, going across, please favorite. Do you have any idea what a budget would be for this? Or put it in the budget for 26? Can you use our passport revenues? Well, what do you look at? What you've seen, what do you, and you've looked at the pricing. What do you think? I have no idea how much any of this will be lost. Just a tree stump that you can stand on is $4,500. We can build that. A forest seat seesaw is $10,000. We can build that. We can do that ourselves. You can do a forest. I mean, crazy log tunnel 89 hundred you can build that get a culvert yeah set it on two salt works That's it. The plastic one, then roll around. Correct me though. Rescue funds can be used for the capital improvements such as the playgraces. Is that right? Is that? It blew me away. That's why I started writing it down down here. It's like you can get a new swing set. I don't know how big it is in comparison to that one for 20,000. That was about 55,000, wasn't it? Well Harrison, don't I did it right? Yes. No. Ow. We paid for the swings. I don't know. We paid for the mulch. We paid for the barrier. We paid for the labor and the swings. But it's probably going to be a lot more now. So we'll just have to think about a budget. 50,000 comes to mind initially. I mean, kids are like, that's how you might get two of those things on the list. I'm going to throw a box out there and they'll play with it all day. A box. But a f***. I mean kids are like that's how you might get two of those things on the list Box out there and they'll play with it all day at box, right? But if we you know can look at one year's and reevaluate the budget, no just a regular box Work throughout this month to reevaluate the budget if we have you know 50,000 through there and then start planning each year You know if it's Part by part but, but kind of laid out into a phase approach for the plan overall. Well, did we ever get the table put up that we already have? Yes. We did get it put up. We put it up, I don't know, four or five months ago. Two benches in a table. OK. Well, I don't play on the playground. What's that? I don't play on the playground. We frequent it a lot with the grandkids. Yes. Before your landscape project, I don't know what it is. Okay. Alright, let's work on how we can get that group together. Kind of a youth committee to help youth playground committee. Anything else on the playground? All right. Can you ask for the financials to go with? Yeah, I was wondering, do we have anybody that's, I was looking at the business licenses? Is everybody current other than the people that we've already cited on business license renewal? I haven't got the storage facility by Chinese Tans and they're emailing the new owners to tell them they need to renew. I've called everybody that is not renewed, but it's mostly people that work at home. Does the lawyer need to send them a or or she's been able to clear them up I think we've got through this some people are falling the march which we're in now but it's usually not too many strikers so if we don't I'd say by next meeting if we have people that haven't paid the business license fees that we would. Okay. What about the CDs? Are they any CDs come and do? There's one rates are now down in the four and a half percent or so. They continue to come down. Yeah, are we just going to let it roll over or do we need the money for the road projects? So. Most boss. Just one more on that. He said, are there any comment, Dave? Because of CED, we have, we're probably just keep rolling. They're probably going to be the cheapest or the highest rate that they're going to get. Look at those splosks, revenues. The risk key clients will take care of what we're doing right now. What do you got it. There's no glass in here. You can get everything better. The 600,000, 50,000. 6,000. So we don't need to pull anything out of the... Bimes. Not at this time. I guess not. Good. Do we use the CLBs? You got it. I mean, is there anything coming in here? I'm going to make mine somewhere. That's all we use. When it gets available at a physical address? Oh, I guess I just stop by. OK. Sorry. I guess I've nailed anything. How much cash is in the general fund right now? Is that $243,000? Yep. That's the balance. Should we roll some lead and CD if we got enough? Well, with the road projects it's been asked about. You need to know enough? With the road projects that's been asked about, you know, just thinking through what those could entail, you know, start using up. And I know we do have a lot in the T-SPLOS. How about I will do a detailed analysis of the, of those so we have it sitting in front of for the next work in session. Right now we're in good, we're positioned well. Yeah, I didn't know if we were going to use the T-splot's money if we wanted to leave a cash set in there, but I know it's making an interest. It's not 4%. A little over 4.5 with all the rates are... So when it's saying this Georgia Power Star poll $1015 and 31 cents, is that a month? No for a month. It is, but it'll go back down. When we turn off the light. It gets up over. First the sun. How's it the sun? It's a sun, too. It's a sun, too, but it still jumps up over $500 during the Christmas time. That's where the old bulbs, once the new ones go, and it'll be a lot less of an increase. We do have a refund coming in from Georgia Power on that as well. For purchasing LED bulbs. I believe it's $251. So we need the 243. I'll put together that full analysis kind of what we're- I was out of the juice said earlier. Yeah. Do you want to finish? I want to make it more interesting. It's staged in a way, but I don't have it in front of me today to show you. I mean, the interest, you're only going to get it from, I think those are gifts, probably, to high act on the interest, didn't it're all. They're always the ones. Renaissance. And the other thing, Renaissance, was lower one. Which is our son, China. Is there any other questions on the financials that we want to go through that part? That's all the questions I had. I like to cut cash flow report. It looks good. We're bringing in good money every month. We're spending more and more. We are, but we've got some big expenses coming. Bigger. Bigger. Okay. Are we having to work, shop, and march? Yes, and we'll have that full financial so we can spend some time. Okay. Just discuss that financial strategy. Okay. When can we talk about the buildings across the street? We'll add that to that agenda. We'll add that to the agenda. Next, Mark. Oh, you mean for the workshop this month? No, I was asking, don't you, a week. Yeah, this one's like this workshop for March. For March. We'll walk around and work on the layout for campers. Okay. Got it. All right, was there a motion to adjourn make a motion to adjourn All in favor Doug all right On the 24th of March