BROADCAST VIA FACEBOOK LIVE SITE: CITY OF HIAWASSEE
OPEN TO PUBLIC –City Hall Training Room Upstairs
HIAWASSEE CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION
Monday August 28th, 2023 6 PM
All comments and questions regarding the proposed Overlook of Lake Chatuge will be addressed at the Public Hearing on Thursday September 7th at the Civic Center behind the Towns County Library.
We will not be addressing this issue at the work session.
1. Call to order
1.1 Invocation – Anne Mitchell
1.2 Pledge of Allegiance
1.3 Mayor’s Introductions of Guests and Announcements
1.4 Approve the Agenda as distributed
2. Old Business
2.1 Mayors Report
2.2 Feather Flag Ordinance discussion
3. Consent Agenda:
3.1 Minutes from August 1st 2023 City Council Meeting
3.2 Minutes from Work Session 8-28-23
3.3 June Financials-Pending
4. $10,333 PBC Furniture Grant Match Grant $93,000
5. DDA/City Council Retreat
6. GEFA- Resolution for Water Treatment Plant
7. Building & Planning Committee Assignments
8. Zoning Discussion – Anne Mitchell
9. Police Report
10. Economic Development Report
11. Executive Session
12. Adjournment
HIAWASSEE CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION MINUTES
Monday August 28th, 2023 6 PM
The August Work Session of the City Council was called to order by Mayor Liz Ordiales on August 28th, 2023 at 6:00pm. Present in addition to the Mayor were Council members Amy Barrett, Anne Mitchell, Nancy Noblet, Patsy Owens and Jay Chastain. Staff present were Economic Development Director Denise McKay, Police Chief Jeremy Parker, and City Clerk Bonnie Kendrick. City Attorney Thomas Mitchell was also present.
The invocation was given by Council member Anne Mitchell and was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.
Mayor Ordiales welcomed guests including the two candidates who have qualified for Council Post 4 – Elizabeth “Babette” Dunn and Jonathan Wilson. She also welcomed DDA Chair Peggy Gardner, Towns County Historical Society President Tyler Osborn, Paster Steve Taylor of McConnell Baptist Church, Queen of the Square Joan Crothers, Queen and Princess of Victoria Woods - Stephanie and Caitlin Ayers - and Mike Berkman retired City Planner as well as Noel Turner.
Mayor Ordiales announced that Queen of the Square Joan Crothers will celebrate her 90th birthday next month prior to the next work session.
Motion to approve the agenda as distributed was made by Council member Nancy Noblet, seconded by Council Member Amy Barrett with all in favor.
In Old Business, Mayor Ordiales updated guests and Council on a National Police Association mailing you might receive – It is designed to appear to come from the Hiawassee City Council, but it did not. The document requests donations to the National Police Association. The City has never received any money from this organization. The Blue Ridge Country magazine identified Hiawassee as a Trail Town in an article in their September edition. She also provided updates on some of the Thru hikers we met early in the season, MountainTrue asking for volunteer water testers, parrot feather (an invasive lake weed) found in the lake near Macedonia. Several groups (TVA, MountainTrue, etc) are working on ways to address the proliferation. For now, if you can, avoid boating through it (that is how it spreads). It can also get tangled up in your prop. She also provided updates on the Berrong-Oakley House, Water Treatment Plant upgrade, Paris Business Center progress, the Georgia Mountain Fair parade, and TC Football. The Coca Cola company provided us with 2 new recycling bins for bottles. September 1st (this Friday) is the FirstFriday on the Square (music by Trevor Congioli) and this weekend will be the final Music on the Square for this year with Danny Dawson. Halloween will again be at the Fairgrounds and the Fairgrounds are managing the spaces this year. Please call the Fairground office if you would like to reserve a booth. The two vehicles we replaced this summer are up for silent bid (bids are due by September 13th) and Mayor Ordiales also reminded all about the Public Hearing for the proposed Overlook at Lake Chatuge variance (September 7th at 6:00pm at the Civic Center). The occupancy limit at the Civic Center is 145.
Also in Old Business is the Feather Flag portion of the Sign Ordinance discussion. Mayor Ordiales has not heard from Council regarding changes, but she has suggested several (allow to promote a product or service offered, only out while business is open, tattered flags will be removed, limit of 2 -3 for multiple business in one building) and is also suggesting that new businesses be allowed to use feather flags to announce their business for 1 month. Non-compliance will result in fines. City Attorney Thomas Mitchell advised that the first point (promoting a product or service offered) is not legally permissible. The Council would like to work on this further, so for now the policy in place will be enforced.
In New Business, the Consent agenda will consist of the Minutes from August 1st, 2023, City Council Meeting and the August 28th, 2023 Work Session. June financials have not yet been received.
The Paris Business Center has received a grant to purchase furniture for the building ($93,000.00) and there is a $10,333 match required which will come from SPLOST. Council member Amy Barrett asked about the status of SPLOST as we have taken considerable money from there. Mayor Ordiales stated that there is approximately $500,000.00 in SPLOST at this time. 55% of the SPLOST income was to be applied to economic development, other areas are Parks and Rec, Public Safety and Streets.
The DDA has requested a retreat with the Council. Denise will email Council will some dates to choose from. The decision was made not to hold a portion of the meeting for a Council retreat. The Council would prefer to wait until after the first of the year so that the new Council member will be able to attend and participate in a full Council retreat.
On the agenda for vote at the September 2023 Council Meeting will be the GEFA- Resolution for Water Treatment Plant. This is a modification of the original to update the projected completion date of the project.
A discussion of the Building & Planning Committee Assignments – to replace Josh Alexander who is stepping down due to other commitments. Josh has agreed to stay on until the current projects he has worked on are completed. It was discovered that the committee by our Charter should be two Council members and 3 citizens. As such, the Council has decided that Council member Jay Chastain will join Council member Nancy Noblet and Matt Espalin and Paul Scherer will join Ken Pollard as the three citizens on the Committee.
Council member Anne Mitchell reopened the Zoning Discussion. She said there is much negative connotation to zoning and asked several questions to the Council and the citizens present in the room as to the viability of introducing zoning. Jay Chastain and Nancy Noblet opposed initially to the concept. Ms. Mitchell said she feels like the Council needs to ask the citizens if they want zoning and if they would be willing to come and learn about it. She rhetorically asked the Council “What are we doing to protect the city?”. City Attorney Thomas Mitchell was asked by Council member Amy Barrett about an accessory structure ordinance. Mr. Mitchell will send a proposed ordinance to Council. After the discussion, Mr. Mitchell said that what he thinks he understands the Council would like to review is a commercial overlay ordinance (he will send an ordinance for Council to review). Zoning is just classifying land for use in a certain way (residential, commercial, agricultural, etc.). Mr. Mitchell said that any zoning could include “grandfather clauses” and they can be set up in different ways. Babette Dunn said that Zoning is very complicated, and she wondered if it might be advantageous to bring a zoning expert in to explain to the Council and perhaps the citizens how zoning works, the pros and cons of zoning and how it might benefit the community. She stated that it can be protective in nature.
In the Police Report, Chief Jeremy Parker updated the Council on the Chief Training he attended in July, the Shop with a Hero program, and Emergency Room drug overdose statistics in the surrounding areas. He is also considering a corn hole tournament as a fundraiser for the Shop with a Hero program.
In the Economic Development Report, Economic Development Director Denise McKay updated the Council on the Art Committee’s Firefly project, the Thank You event for Ashlyn LaPorte and all who assisted with the FUNdraiser event and gave an update on the funding for the Paris buildings. The mailing campaign in the spring netted $44,428.20, the FUNdraiser event netted $25,792.89, the USDA grant resulted in $93,000.00 for a total this year of $163,568.09 and a grand total of funds raised by the DDA of $507,855.14 for the Paris Building project. Babette Dunn has agreed to commit 20 hours per week through the end of the year to organization of the Paris Business Center operations. The DDA has received a donation to fund this work, so Babette will receive a stipend. The DDA is targeting May 1st, 2024, as the opening of the Paris Business Center Building and they have their first client for the incubator space – Hightower Sweets (Sandy Bradshaw). The NightMarket committee is working on evaluating where the NightMarket is, where it is going, how they want it to grow, etc. They will also be evaluating other Night Markets to provide comparisons.
Discussion turned to the progress on the buildings and where the DDA is financially. Economic Development Director McKay state that the Steel for the building has been ordered and once that bill come in, the finances will be virtually depleted. Discussion then turned to the loan/bond. Mr. Mitchell stated that the bond process takes a minimum of 60 – 75 days to complete. The loans are backed by the City and as such there will need to be public hearings on budget amendment (there will need to be a line item on the SPLOST budget for the project). There is a statutory process that will need to be followed (Mr. Mitchell will send this). If GMA has a white paper, he will send it as well.
Motion to enter Executive Session to discuss pending litigation, was made by Council member Amy Barrett, seconded by Council member Jay Chastain with all present in favor. The meeting moved to Executive Session at 7:17pm.
Motion to exit executive session was made by Council member Nancy Noblet, seconded by Council Member Amy Barrett with all in favor. There being no further business, the motion to adjourn was made by Council Member Anne Mitchell, seconded by Council Member Patsy Owens with all in favor. Meeting adjourned at 7:29pm
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