BROADCAST VIA FACEBOOK LIVE SITE: CITY OF HIAWASSEE
OPEN TO PUBLIC – September 29th, 2025 6pm
Hiawassee City Hall 50 River Street Upstairs Training Room
WORK SESSION AGENDA
1. Call to Order
1.1. Invocation –Nancy Noblet
1.2. Pledge of Allegiance
1.3. Approval agenda as distributed
- Consent Agenda
2.1. Minutes of September 2, 2025 Council Meeting
2.2. Minutes of September 29, 2025 Work Session Meeting
2.3. June 2025 financials
- Mayor’s Report
- SPLOST discussion
- 120 Water contract
- Taser contract change
- Motion to approve the second reading of the amendment to the sign ordinance
- Motion to approve the second reading of the Offenses Against Public Peace and Order ordinance
- Department Head Report – Clint Royce
- Executive session
- Adjournment
WORK SESSION MINUTES – September 29th, 2025 6 pm
The Hiawassee City Council met for the September Work Session in the Upstairs Training Room at City Hall on September 29th, 2025, 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 Amy Barrett, Scott Benton, Nancy Noblet, Patsy Owens and Jonathan Wilson. Staff present were Deputy City Clerk Sheryl Branson, Police Chief Paul Smith, Wastewater Operator Clint Royce and City Clerk Bonnie Kendrick.
The Invocation was given by Council member Nancy Noblet and was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.
Mayor Chastain stated that the agenda would need to be amended to include 7.5 the extension of the sign moratorium.
Motion to approve the agenda as amended was made by Council member Amy Barrett seconded by Council member Nancy Noblet, with all in favor.
Next week at the Council meeting the Consent Agenda will include the minutes of the September 2, 2025 Council Meeting, the Minutes of September 29, 2025 Work Session Meeting and the June 2025 financials.
In the Mayor’s report, Mayor Jay Chastian updated the Council on the subjects of Economic Development (introduced new PBC Coordinator Jinelle Bramante, made the final payment to Storm Construction for the PBC construction, currently no tenants in the building, but have some prospects, restaurant owner is still on track to open in early 2026, planning with Economic Development Director Lily Ponitz on discrete tasks), Water and infrastructure (2-3 leaks repaired each week, cleaning out ditches to help control storm water, contracts with EMI and American Tank have been executed, WaterWorth is working on importing financial data they have been sent and have added additional requested documents, the SCADA for Victoria Woods is in progress, the Master meter is at the sewer plant and should be installed this week – needing DOT approval for the vault, Kimsey Ridge bore is done and City Attorney Thomas Mitchell is working on the easement needed for the pump house, the Berrong-Oakley house clean up is complete and water and sewer should be in place by the end of the month), Property (Shook House will be auctioned on October 16th at 6pm), Administration and Training (Police Chief Paul Smith, Deputy City Clerk/Court Clerk Sheryl Branson, City Clerk Bonnie Kendrick as well as Mayor Chastain have attended various training sessions.), Grants for Roads and Streets (LMIG, even with two years together, is not enough to take care of any of the worst roads – such as Omega Way, North Mountain Drive, Bell Street/Lit ‘lil Rd area, or Bel Aire Drive. Mayor Chastain has secured an SAP grant for restriping and signage on Bell Street. The Bel Aire Drive repair is still to be done.) Intergovernmental relations (TVA meeting was very good – two options are being considered for the Water Treatment Plant to make sure potable water can be provided during the significant draw down periods; one would be a temporary fix; one would be permanent and the difference between the two option is only about $200,000. However, if the drawdown should go into a third year, the permanent fix would be much less expensive. TVA is being a good partner to the City in this process. Mayor Chastain attended a Hometown Connections meeting with Senators Stan Gunter and Bo Hatchett. The meeting was productive as the Cities had the full attention of the senators to understand the issues they face. Senator Gunter stated that there was not much money that the state would be providing this year. He also found out that Blairsville also is losing a significant amount of water (40%) and Hiawassee is not alone with this issue. The Master meters will help with finding the water loss as we will be able to segment the system to see where the loss is occurring and will be able to use zone meters to narrow the area) Public Safety (Mayor Chastain has not been contacted by GBI in regards to the sheriff’s investigation) Community Events (Thank you to the Hiawassee Garden Club for decorating the Square for Fall [Cheryl Deering, Lisa Ledford and Amy Barrett]).
The SPLOST discussion centered around the plan to pay for the loan on the PBC before the SPLOST runs out. The current amount in the Economic Development portion of the SPLOST allocated to the PBC is $167,824.28 combined with the DDA funds from the USDA grant and the fundraising account totals $279,340.96 to pay down the loan amount. This will leave a balance of approximately $412,000.00. The final pay out of the ARC grant for the PBC is approximately $60,000.00. As Council voted in April of 2024, the SPLOST payments over the anticipated allocation ($1,080,000.00) are to be used to pay the down the PBC loan – we have exceeded the anticipated allocation, and all SPLOST income will now go toward the loan – average payments are $25,000.00/month.
The 120Water contract will be on the agenda for next week. These are the folks who host the state-wide real time state of all water inventories as required by the EPA. They support our efforts regarding all the lead service line inventories, as required by the EPA.
The taser contract was approved for $21,699.00 for (2) Taser 10s. When the Tasers arrived, Chief Smith asked to renegotiate the contract for Taser 7s instead. Chief Smith was able to negotiate the return of the Taser 10s and receipt of (5) Taser 7s. The Taser 10s would require retraining the officers as the Taser 10s deploy in a substantially different way. He felt the first generation of these new tasers would likely have some issues that would need to be worked out. The Council will be asked to approve the change to the contract next week.
The second reading of the amendment to the sign ordinance will need to be tabled as the ordinance will not be ready for the meeting next week. Because of that, there will be a resolution on the agenda to extend the sign moratorium until the sign ordinance can be completed.
The second reading of the Offenses Against Public Peace and Order ordinance will be on the agenda next week.
Clint Royce, Wastewater Treatment Operator, gave an update on the progress on upgrading the lift stations – the Sandbar lift station check valves are done, C&J Outfitters lift station is the next to be worked on. 3 pumps are being repaired at Midway Electric. Sewer tie on is completed at the pickleball courts. He also spoke about the grading that needs to be done at the plant to accommodate the Water Department Equipment Building. The grading and riprap will be completed for approximately $25,000.00 – this will also be on the agenda for next week.
There being no need for executive session, motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Council member Patsy Owens, seconded by Council member Jonathan Wilson will all in favor. Meeting adjourned at 6:34pm.