BROADCAST VIA FACEBOOK LIVE SITE: CITY OF HIAWASSEE
OPEN TO PUBLIC – March 30th, 2026 6pm
Hiawassee City Hall 50 River Street Upstairs Training Room
COUNCIL WORK SESSION AGENDA
- Call to Order
1.1. Invocation – Andrea Bell
1.2. Pledge of Allegiance
1.3. Approval agenda as distributed
- Consent Agenda
2.1. Minutes of March 3, 2026 Council Meeting
2.2. March 30, 2026 Work Session
2.3. January and February 2026 financials
2.4. Payment to PBC loan from SPLOST $20,561.30
- Mayor’s Report
- Waterworth presentation – Jacob Pahnke and Adam Duddy
- Density change discussion
- City of Ethics recertification
- Paving the remainder of Hiawassee Estates and Bell Street repair
- Yard sale fees discussion
- Fire Alarm system at City Hall
- First reading of the 2026-2027 Budget Ordinance
- Second reading of the Alcohol ordinance amendment – Tasting ordinance
- Economic Development update – Lily Ponitz
- Department Head Report – Police Chief Paul Smith
- Public Comment
- Executive session
- Adjournment
COUNCIL WORK SESSION MINUTES – March 30th, 2026,
The Hiawassee City Council met for March Work Session in the Upstairs Training Room at City Hall on March 30th, 2026, at 6:00PM. The meeting was open to the public and broadcast over FaceBook Live. The meeting was called to order by Mayor Jay Chastain. Present, in addition to the Mayor were Council members Andrea Bell, Scott Benton, Nancy Noblet, Jeff Scott and Jonathan Wilson. Staff present were Economic Development Director Lily Ponitz, Police Chief Paul Smith and City Clerk Bonnie Kendrick. Attorney Thomas Mitchell was unable to attend.
The Invocation was given by Council member Andrea Bell and was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.
Mayor Chastain advised the Council that he needed to amend the agenda to include ratifying the sale of the trailer.
Motion to approve the agenda as amended was made by Council member Nancy Noblet and seconded by Council member Jeff Scott with all in favor.
The Consent Agenda will be on the agenda for vote next week and will consist of the minutes of the March 3, 2026 Council Meeting, the March 30, 2026 Work Session, the January and February 2026 financials, and the payment to PBC loan from SPLOST for $20,561.30.
In the Mayor’s report, Mayor Chastain updated the Council on the TVA meeting regarding the drawdown – no decision has been made at this time, meeting with TCWA last week, we will reconvene in May after doing some additional research, we continue to repair leaks and have replaced a galvanized line. The Georgia DNR obtained gravel for Mayors Park and Mike Whittemore of the Water department completed the grading. The concrete work at the Nursing Home hill is nearly complete and a no wake zone has been established around the Water Treatment Plant. He also updated the council regarding meetings with GDOT on turning lanes and the GMRC is almost finished with the aerial mapping of our water/sewer systems. This will help with locating and managing water and sewer lines.
Jacob Pahnke and Adam Duffy of Waterworth presented the work done on behalf of the city. Jacob explained that Waterworth is a software company that assists cities with financial forecasting in a continuous process. As information is available, it is uploaded to the software and allows the city to see the information in a graphical format. Revenues and expenditures are placed over each other to present a view of where the city is financially. Forecasting can be accomplished by entering expected loans and forecasting the resulting debt and its effect on the budget. Jacob also stated that the software includes a rate design tool which could be used as the city considers increasing rates and the impact to the forecast
The Council will be asked next week to ratify the sale of the ramp trailer. It has been sold and the city will net $2,500. This will help to offset the purchase of the new trailer.
The Council discussed the density ordinance briefly. As Attorney Michell was unable to attend the meeting to provide context to the discussion, Mayor Chastain explained that the current density ordinance places a limit of 4 structures with 6 living space which encourages duplexes and triplexes and while those are good, allowing 6 separate structures per acre would encourage more work force housing arrangements. Council member Scott Benton added that the ordinance, as it is written, is somewhat confusing, needs to be cleaned up, and needs to specify that this type of arrangement would only work if there were water and sewer available to the acreage.
It is time to do the City of Ethics recertification. The resolution will be presented next week. City Clerk Bonnie Kendrick will provide the resolution before the Council meeting next week.
Mayor Chastain would like to pave the remainder of Hiawassee Estates and repair Bell Street. There is money available from the LMIG grant and the LRA grant and he suggests using SPLOST for the matching portion of the funds. This will be on the agenda for vote next week.
Mayor Chastain stated that he has heard complaints regarding the yard sale fees. Currently the city charges $15.00/day for a yard sale permit. Most Council members felt it was too high and offered suggestions for revising it. Some suggestions were to waive the fee for 1 weekend (3-days) of yard sale per quarter and if they wanted more, they should have a business license. There was discussion around what was really a yard sale and what was someone actually conducting a business (selling their creations or “new” wares). Council decided to wait until Attorney Mitchell was able to review the legal requirements of these decisions.
Last week, we had a light bulb malfunction and cause smoke in the Court room – the light fixture had burn marks. It was fortunate that it was during the day when there were people in the building to notice it and call the Fire Department because the building does not have a working fire alarm system. We do have a quote from Ford Security, but it needs to be updated to include the elevator. The elevator was inspected last week and failed the inspection. The city has also reached out to another company to get an additional quote. These will be provided to Council as soon as possible. Council member Andrea Bell felt this should be addressed as soon as possible because it is a life safety issue for the City employees.
The Council was provided with the proposed 2026-2027 budget document, and it is available to anyone who wishes to have a copy. The first reading of the 2026-2027 Budget Ordinance will be at the April Council meeting. There will be a public hearing on the budget immediately before the April Work session (April 27 @ 6pm) and it will be on the agenda for the meeting that night for discussion. The final budget will be voted on at the May Council meeting.
The second reading of the Alcohol ordinance amendment – Tasting ordinance will be on the agenda for the Council meeting next week.
In the Economic Development update, Economic Development Director Lily Ponitz updated the Council on the very successful half marathon event. The event gathered twice as many people as expected (110 half marathoners and 149 5K participants) and raised $8,000 for the Hikeawassee program. This was a great community event – several businesses participated/sponsored – local businesses benefitted as T-shirts and medals were sourced locally. Many of the attendees were first time visitors to Hiawassee and others would not have come to Hiawassee this early in the year. Local hotels, restaurants, etc. were patronized by participants. The day turned out to be wonderful weather for a run and a great view of Lake Chatuge.
Council member Jonathan Wilson asked Ms. Ponitz to provide an update on some ongoing projects (Firefly and QR codes) at a future meeting. Ms. Ponitz stated that the DDA has 3 vacant seats now, which is making it difficult to complete projects, but she will provide a status update as soon as possible.
The Department Head Report was provided this month by Police Chief Paul Smith. Chief Smith told the Council about 2 grants the Police Department has received – one for a canine officer. Officer Tava Morales will attend training with the dog in Texas and bring the dog back with her. The dog will be certified in drug detection and search and rescue. The grant paid for the dog and the training will be paid for from Drug Seizure funds – no taxpayer money will be used. The second grant is for body armor for 5 officers – these are custom fit vests. In other news, Officer Jose Carvajal has attended two weeks of instructor training. He will be able to provide training in-house and to other agencies. Work is continuing with the Sheriff’s Office and Chief Smith expects a joint program announcement to be reveled soon – more to come on this. Hiawassee PD hosted the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety event and several agencies attended, including Woodstock. They had a safety check stop on Bell Creek Road and took several people to jail.
There were no requests for public comments and no need for executive session. Motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Council member Jeff Scott, seconded by Council member Nancy Noblet with all in favor. Meeting adjourned at 6:52pm.