The Toccoa City Commission met in Regular Session at the City Hall on Wednesday, July 23, 2008, five o’clock p.m. with Mayor Andy Pavliscsak presiding.
The invocation was given by Police Chief Jackie Whitmire followed by the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.
On roll call the following were present:
Mayor Andy Pavliscsak
Vice Mayor Ron Seib
Commissioner David Austin
Commissioner Bob Troup
City Manager Billy Morse
Asst. City Attorney Lee Hicks
Clerk Jo Gleason
Motion by Commissioner Austin, seconded by Commissioner Troup and unanimously carried to approve the Agenda as presented, a copy of this Agenda being attached as Exhibit “A”.
Under reports the following reports were heard:
Commissioner Troup reported they just realized they had three vacancies on the Ethics Committee. He explained to be a City of Ethics they had to keep a standing Committee of ten people ready to respond to any ethics situation and so with the Commission’s permission, he had contacted three people and he hoped they would approve the three people to fill the vacancies. He advised the first one was Alan Coker who was Vice President of Operations at Toccoa Falls and lived in the City, the second one was Laverne Cox, retired employee of the Department of Agriculture, and Diane Lawson who was a business owner downtown. He advised all these people seemed to have reasonably good character and would be good on the Ethics Committee. He said with that he would like to move that they nominate them and elect them as members of the Board and that was a motion. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Austin and unanimously carried.
Commissioner Austin reported he had a lot of questions about the news that WNEG News Channel 32 had been sold to the University of Georgia. He said he decided he would use this time to let everybody know what exactly was going on. He explained the University of Georgia had bought News Channel 32 from Media General and within the next year the bulk of the operation would move to the campus of the University of Georgia. He advised however, there would still be WNEG TV in Toccoa, Georgia and the sales offices here, there would be news people here covering the news of northeast Georgia like they had been doing. He said being owned by the University of Georgia would give them an opportunity to add to their news presence which had been their forte and their main calling card for the 24 years they had been in existence. He also said he had been here 24 years. He advised they would have more people covering news, they would have the standard newscast because of their association with the University of Georgia.
Commissioner English reported she happened to be present when they were doing the news story with Kipper, the drug dog, and how well Chief Whitmire represented the Police Department and she was saying this to him. She said she watched as they were doing the demonstration with Kipper and he was a delight. She commented she was impressed with how well he loved Officer Norris, his trainer. She said they were fortunate to have the drug dog.
Mayor Pavliscsak recognized Attorney Hicks who reported he would be glad to address the question about soliciting charitable donations. He advised he did not see any reason under Georgia Laws why that could not be authorized. He advised he had spoken to Mr. Dickerson about this and he agreed. He mentioned there was a code section that authorized municipalities to issue ordinances that allowed permits to be issued to charitable organizations that gave them permission to solicit donations on city streets if the city wanted to exact such an ordinance. He advised they had the Code Section and would be glad to draft such an ordinance if the City wished to do so. He advised they would have to get permission from the State if on a State Highway.
Mayor Pavliscsak next asked if there were any persons present who wished to speak on any of the Agenda items.
There were no persons present who wished to be heard.
I. CONSENT AGENDA:
Motion by Vice Mayor Seib, seconded by Commissioner Austin and unanimously carried to approve the following Consent Agenda items as submitted:
A. Approval of Minutes of July 7, 2008 City Commission Meeting.
B. Approval of Minutes of July 7, 2008 City Commission Work Session.
II: UNFINISHED BUSINESS
C. Consideration of Visual Projection System for Commission Room:
Commissioner Austin reported he did talk with their engineer at the TV Station. He advised they went over all the items listed under the estimate from Toccoa Computers and they did a pricing of those items as close as they could to the actual models that were listed. He advised the conclusion by the engineer was the prices were fair and good prices as far as cost.
Vice Mayor Seib asked if he determined if they were comparable systems. Commissioner Austin replied based on what he used, he felt the system from Toccoa Computers would do the job, particularly the size of the projector for this room. He mentioned they could save money by having a pull down screen.
Commissioner Troup remarked he would probably be the only one to vote against this but they asked all their departments to cut every penny they could out of the budget. He said it would be great and he had been strongly in favor of it from day one. He added he thought it would be a nice thing to have , but they already had a projector, they had a computer to connect to it and they had a screen that could be opened up, they could do all those things less convenient now than if they had the system. He added he thought under the present economic conditions, they should wait until next year.
Commissioner Austin said since it was unfunded, he would be happy if it was in a funded budget. He said he agreed with Commissioner Troup that they look at it next year for possible inclusion in the budget.
After general discussion, it was agreed they look at this next year for possible inclusion in the budget.
III. NEW BUSINESS:
D. Consideration of Street Name Change of Morgan Street Extension (Dead-End Section) to Robinson Way.
City Manager Morse told the Commission they had a petition submitted by the residents of Morgan Street Extension asking that their part be renamed to Robinson Way. He advised this had been reviewed by the Planning Commission and they were recommending approval. He advised they had copy of the petition in their packets.
Commissioner Troup made the motion that the street be renamed to Robinson Way. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Austin.
Mayor Pavliscsak advised he spoke to Rex Nelms at the 911 Center and he was telling him there seemed to be some confusion in answering emergency calls. He explained when they had a dispatch to Morgan Street they automatically went in on the North side of Collins Road and went into The Housing Project as opposed to going down Robinson Way which ultimately ended up in a delay of emergency of services.
He recognized several neighbors who were present in favor of the name change. He also advised he had statements from Juanita Hardin and Mamie Powell approving the name change.
He called for a vote on the motion that the street be renamed to Robinson Way. The motion was unanimously carried.
E. Presentation by the Municipal Gas Authority of Georgia Concerning Toccoa Natural Gas.
City Manager Morse told those present that Chris Strippelhoff, Vice President for Member Services at the Municipal Gas Authority of Georgia., was present to give an update on their Natural Gas System. He explained as everyone knew, they had weathered some difficult times in recent years with their gas system and he was very proud of their ability to move forward.
He said, however, he thought they might like to hear the perspective of someone with years of gas business experience and knowledge of other gas systems throughout the country. He advised at this time he would like to call on Chris Strippelhoff to give them an update on Toccoa Natural Gas.
He next called attention to Toccoa and what was happening here. He said they were pleased to point to Toccoa as one of their top model systems in the State. He said the Toccoa system was one of the top five in their membership and was one of the top ten public systems in the State of Georgia and was in the top 300 nationwide. He noted there were 1000 public systems in the United States.
He mentioned the Toccoa System was always innovative in marketing, they effectively promoted their system, they communicated with the public, and it was one they always pointed to other members as this was the city they ought to try to mimic in the way they operated their system. He mentioned Toccoa had won several marketing awards for their marketing program and he knew they were in the running for one with the American Public Gas Association this year, in fact there were three or four systems in Georgia that were in the running for AGA awards which was at the national level. He said they hoped this to play out for Toccoa to receive that award.
He commented he did not say this just for flattery but they worked with 76 systems, 62 of them were in Georgia, they had others in Florida, Alabama and Tennessee, they even had one in Pennsylvania they worked with. He said Toccoa did an outstanding job, they were proud of Toccoa.
He advised Toccoa was now approaching 9000 customers and it was a big system, an expensive system, and it was not just a provider in this one community, they were a regional provider in northeast Georgia and going into Macon County, North Carolina and the system was in some key growth areas as Clayton and Macon County, North Carolina were fast growing areas.
He also mentioned they had been in some tough times but they had turned the corner now and he believed things would be good for Toccoa in the future. He advised they did some recent projection work in economy looking at the Toccoa system and just looking at a modest growth, about 2% a year, it was showing the system would see significant growth as a result of that.
He advised the thing they had to keep doing was to continue, marketing the way they had been marketing. He said it had been effective and they had a good program. He commended Marie Morse for that.
Following his presentation, Mr. Strippelhoff advised he would be glad to answer any questions the Commission might have.
Mayor Pavliscsak remarked they had been having some discussion in the last few months and he wanted the Commission to be aware of the asset the City of Toccoa had. He advised after one of the conversations he had with Mr. Strippelhoff a few months ago, it was not until after that conversation that he realized they were sitting on about a two hundred and fifty million dollar asset. He said they needed to understand the value of that, if they were to start out with nothing today and try to put it into place, they would be making a hugh investment. He said it was like Mr. Strippelhoff said, they jumped in at a time when it was tough and they had made it over the hump and things were looking good, their future was looking good, their customer base was growing and he wanted them to be aware of what was going on. He said if they had questions to ask Mr. Strippelhoff to please do so. He brought out that it was critical that the citizens of Toccoa and their gas users understand what an asset the system was.
Following a question and answer period, Mayor Pavliscsak thanked Mr. Strippelhoff for coming and for his presentation, a copy of this presentation being attached as Exhibit “B”.
Gas Director Alan Yearwood, Marketing Director Marie Morse and the whole team was commended by the Commission for their work.
F. Bid Opening: Tub Grinding Services for the Alewine Mulch Yard.
Mr. Morse advised they had received one bid for Tub Grinding Services at the Alewine Mulch Yard. He asked Attorney Hicks to open the bid.
Attorney Hicks opened and read aloud the following bid received from Rider Grinding Services, LLC.
“ Job bid is for price per hour – 600 Horsepower grinder @ $365.00 per
hour . Loader work to pile mulch @ $110.00 per hour. I have had the
opportunity to grind your brush and limb yard for the past two years. I
ground at least three times each year. At an average per year price from
$32,000 - $36,000. We appreciate the opportunity to submit our bid.
If you have questions concerning our bid please give up a call.”
After discussion, a motion was made by Commissioner Austin that they accept the bid of Ricer Grinding Services at a price not to exceed $36,000. .
Motion seconded by Commissioner English and unanimously carried.
G. Consideration of Pin Point Public Works System.
City Manager Morse told the Commission there was a very innovative product on the market today called Pin Point Public Works. He explained briefly, a GPS System was used by the garbage truck to mark the exact locations of trash and brush pieces. He explained the next day the trash and brush trucks take a map of those locations and drive directly to them for collection instead of driving the entire route searching for them.
He explained they believed this would save a considerable amount of gasoline and manpower in the process, making their public works department more efficient. He said he was proposing they purchase three of the units at a cost of $17,095.
He advised Jim Oswald of Pin Point GeoTech and Pam Helton of the Georgia Municipal Association were present to discuss the product and benefits.
The Commission heard from the products “inventor” Jim Oswald who described his product in detail. They also heard from Ms. Helton who explained GMA’s role in negotiating a lower price.
After consideration, Vice Mayor Seib offered a motion that they approve the City Manager’s recommendation that they purchase three of the units at a cost of $17,095.00, they pay half the amount now, and at the end of the year they re-assess and pay the rest with GMA financing, and re-evaluate the system in twelve months. Motion seconded by Commissioner English and unanimously carried.
H. Discussion of Amendment of the Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance.
Mr. Morse explained that if the City wanted to continue to participate in the National Flood Prevention Program, then they must update their flood ordinance.
He advised in their packets, they would find a draft ordinance prepared by the City Attorney and the Planning Department as well as a copy of the ordinance adopted by Stephens County. He advised the significant changes had been identified by them in a memo from the City Planner.
He advised that night they were asking for the Commission’s permission to move forward with adoption of the new ordinance at a Public Hearing to be held on August 25th.
A motion was made by Commissioner Troup that they accept the City Managers’ recommendation and move forward. Motion seconded by Commissioner Austin and unanimously carried.
III. Recognition of Visitors Wishing to Speak on General Items.
There were no persons present who wished to be heard.
IV. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned by Mayor Pavliscsak at 6:30 P.M.
