By: Brianna Balogh
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
On September 19th at 7:02pm the Holiday City Village council was called to order. With many items on the agenda, including a guest presentation, roll call was taken. Members present were Cooper Clark, Shawn Clark, Jodie Faunce, Chelsea Funk, and Jarrett Funk.
All members voted to excuse Fiscal Officer Lauri TenEyck-Rupp and council member Beau Zuver. Immediately following was the Pledge of Allegiance.
With no objections, the minutes from the August 15th meeting were approved. Business moved on to two resolutions.
Presented by Mayor Pamela Clark, the first resolution 2024-8 which authorizes a Then & Now Purchase Order (41-2024) issued for September 3rd. Explained by Mayor Clark this is an emergency resolution for the annual asset management for $7916 to AMP.
Village Administrator Blair Campbell explained further that AMP was able to provide supplies for the electrical system. The motion to declare an emergency, made by Shawn Clark, was approved as well as the motion to adopt the resolution.
The second resolution was 2024-9. This emergency resolution was to authorize the agreement for a water system study. The study would investigate the water supply and ensure that both Chase Brass and the village would have ample supply. The study would cost $14,800.
The emergency motion was introduced by Jodie Faunce and seconded by Shawn Clark. The emergency motion and the motion to adopt were approved by all members.
Reports and announcements followed. With the fiscal officer being absent, Mayor Clark presented the report. Receipts were listed as $672,415.73, with payments list being $559,957.10, and a balance $4,786,139. After reviewing the bills, all members approved.
The mayor’s report was next. Clark spoke about WEDCO (Williams County Economic Development Corporation) meetings she had attended and some of the new things to expect.
With a new chairman, new committees are being formed to ensure efficiency and there is a goal to be able to reach out to communities and businesses at the same time.
She briefly talked about the special guest speaker, Brock Mealer, at the Mayor’s meeting the previous evening. She finished by informing the council of the planning commission meetings she had been attending and plans to attend the AMP virtual meeting October 1st along with Administrator Campbell.
The visitor’s bureau update centered around the upcoming Christmas holidays. In coordination with the decoration to be placed at the Holiday Inn, it was requested to have the decoration theme of stars. Being that an outside company puts up these decorations, a timely decision was needed to change the decor. An all in favor vote was taken and approved by all members.
Administrator Campbell presented his report. He touched on the water study agreement with Montpelier that had been passed in the meeting. Campbell updated that test wells were being drilled for the aquifer modification. Ascend Mechanical has performed maintenance on the three heating units which are up and running well.
Jarrett Funk inquired about the ongoing repair to the weather siren, to which Campbell responded that it is still in process and no quotes had been received at that time.
Mayor Clark provided the council with an email update from the Williams County 911 communication director which outlines the protocol of when they would be using the sirens.
Shawn Clark provided the safety report, indicating 1 accident, 27 nonspecific incidents and 13 citations and warnings.
Mayor Clark provided a short planning commission update, stating the meeting was held on September 5th at 5:30 pm where they read and discussed sections 102-121. The next meetings will be October 3, 17, and 31, all at 5:30pm.
With no unfinished business to discuss, new business was brought to the council. Jarrett Funk proposed an ordinance repeal which currently outlaws the cultivation, sale and distribution of medical marijuana.
Funk explained the intentions of the repeal were to be able to collect tax revenue on the sale of medical marijuana instead of raising wage taxes. Some key points discussed were the amount of tax revenue that would be received, which at this time was unclear, and cultivation within town.
Council discussed what other surrounding towns were planning, where Mayor Clark informed that other towns were entertaining restricting the sale to outside of the downtown area.
Ultimately after much discussion, the council consensus was to allow zoning laws to be determined prior to repealing the ordinance. This may be added to the agenda to continue discussion at the next meeting.
Shawn Clark introduced another item of new business to address the subdivision progress in regard to farming. Paul Haines was concerned about whether he was able to plant winter wheat. The planting would take place in the near future with cultivation in June/July. In the current agreement, there is a provision for crop reimbursement.
Jarrett Funk questioned if the reimbursement is for the seeds planted or the expected profit of the crop. With the fiscal officer not present, Campbell is to follow up and verify.
The final new business item is an application for a new liquor license. The application is for Fire and Iron NC Station 84 at the revival hub.
Fire and Iron is a motorcycle club of active and retired firefighters as well as dispatchers, mechanics or inspectors who work in direct support of the fire service.
Being as this is a new liquor license, and the council normally issues renewals, many questions were brought up. Most of the questions were in regard to the purpose of the liquor license and more information on the MC itself.
This motion was to either request or waive a hearing with the liquor commission. Once it was determined that the issue was time sensitive, needing to be postmarked by September 30th, the council approved the request for a hearing and to have it take place in the county seat instead of Columbus. Even though there was no clear guarantee, the council hopes that a Fire and Iron representative will be present at the hearing to answer some of their questions.
The final order of business was a special guest speaker, Steve Lankenau with Remax Exclusive. Mr. Lankenau presented and outlined a proposal to the council to purchase land near the turnpike.
He began by thanking the council for the opportunity and for their service to local government. The proposed purchase would be for 55 acres, 25 for highway commercial and around 30 for residential development.
The land nearest to the turnpike would be used for food, fuel and hospitality. He spoke about the resources and relationships he could offer to assist in residential development. There is a building company already active in the local area who would be interested in purchasing lots.
Mr. Lankenau distributed a map to each member identifying the proposed land. During the discussion, the council presented concerns about traffic. Mr. Lankenau explained that there are a couple of options to keep commercial traffic out of the residential area and that some kind of buffer would be put in place to separate the two areas.
He offered his time to come back or answer any questions that may arise. He finished by thanking the council for the opportunity.
With no public remarks to report, the meeting was adjourned at 8:20pm.
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