City of Hiawassee Special Called meeting
Wednesday July 24th, 2024 at 6 PM
Council Chambers
HIAWASSEE CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL CALLED MEETING AGENDA
1. Call to order
1.1 Invocation – Amy Barrett
1.2 Pledge of Allegiance
1.3 Approve the Agenda as distributed
2. Motion to approve the purchase of Water Department Truck -Dodge 2500 for $63,900.00
3. Presentation regarding the Water Treatment Plant – Fletcher Holliday
4. Discussion and possible approval of Rules of Decorum for COH meetings
5. Executive Session
6. Adjournment
HIAWASSEE CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL CALLED MEETING MINUTES July 24th, 2024
The Hiawassee City Council held a Special Called meeting on Wednesday July 24th, 2024 at 6pm. The meeting was called to order by Mayor Pro Tem Jay Chastain. Present in addition to the Mayor Pro Tem, were Council members Amy Barrett, Patsy Owens, and Jonathan Wilson. Council member Nancy Noblet was absent. Attorney Thomas Mitchell attended by telephone. Staff present were Water Treatment Plant Superintendent Andrew Sims, Water Treatment Operator Aimee Andrews, Economic Development Director Denise McKay, and City Clerk Bonnie Kendrick.
The invocation was given by Council member Amy Barrett and was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.
The motion to approve the agenda as distributed was made by Council member Jonathan Wilson, seconded by Council member Patsy Owens with all present in favor.
The motion to approve the purchase of Water Department Truck - a Dodge 2500 for $63,900.00 least expensive of the 3 comparable bids - was made by Council member Amy Barrett, seconded by Council member Jonathan Wilson with all present in favor.
Mr. Fletcher Holliday of Engineering Management, the City’s engineering firm, gave a presentation regarding the recent Water Treatment Plant upgrade. The construction of the third filter for the plant, and the required 30 trial run is complete. The maintenance and operations manual is nearing completion. Once that is complete, the final step is applying for EPD approval which may take 90 days or more. He gave the history of the project as well as the intent of the project. The project objective was to provide for redundancy not increased capacity. This was precipitated by a catastrophic failure of one of the two filters at the treatment plant in 2009. Currently, the plant has a permit to withdraw a maximum of 2.72 million gallons of water from Lake Chatuge in a 24-hour period and not to exceed a monthly average of 2.04 million gallons per day and a permit to produce (treat and deliver) 2 million gallons of water per day to the distribution system. A prior request to increase capacity was denied due to the water loss ratio at the time (43% loss). EPD prefers a loss ratio of less than 15%. Current water loss is over 50%. When asked about finding the water loss, Mr. Holliday stated that a Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) would be a good first step. The first step would be a plan to find and stop the water leaks and lower the loss percentage. Mr. Holliday said he was aware that the City had done a leak survey some years ago. Also included in the CIP would be an evaluation of water and sewer rates – are the rates set correctly based on cost of operations. A hydraulic water model would identify flow, velocity, and pressure and help to define areas where improvements are needed. The CIP would project out 10 years so that they City could plan and budget for the expenses associated with necessary improvements to the infrastructure. The cost of the plan would likely be between $30,000 and $45,000 and would be a 4 – 6-month process. There are grants and loans available to offset some of the costs. When asked about a Water First Community designation, Mr. Holliday stated that the City would not qualify due to the water loss, but that it would be a worthwhile designation to have. Council will need to determine if they wish to have EMI proceed with a CIP and, if so, to allocate the funds.
The discussion and possible approval of Rules of Decorum for COH meetings was facilitated by Attorney Thomas Mitchell who described each item and the intention behind the rule. The overarching goal is to provide for orderly discussion. The public comment could be limited to 3 minutes (or some other amount of time) per person with a maximum time limit on a subject. There was discussion around allowing registered voters of the City to speak first, however in practicality, it seemed somewhat labor intensive to enforce and Council felt it made more sense to allow city residents and business owners to speak first and then allow others the opportunity if time allowed. Attorney Mitchell stated that the rules should be in the form of an ordinance, and he will provide one to the Council tomorrow based on the Council’s preference as stated in the meeting. The procedure will be in the form of a sign in sheet (name, address and topic) and the speakers will be recognized by the Mayor or presiding officer. Motion to approve the first reading of the Rules of Decorum for COH meetings was made by Council member Amy Barrett, seconded by Council member Jonathan Wilson with all present in favor.
There was no need for an executive session, therefore motion to adjourn was made by Council member Amy Barrett, seconded by Council member Patsy Owens with all present in favor. Meeting adjourned at 6:56pm.
