HomeMy Public PortalAbout20070524CCMinutesITEM City Council Minutes 5-24-07
Mayor Jason Buelterman called the Consent Agenda meeting to order at 6:30 PM. Present in
addition to Mayor Buelterman were Council Members Crone, Pearce, Williams, Doyle and Wolff.
Mayor Pro Tem Sessions was absent due to illness.
Also present were City Attorney Bubba Hughes and City Manager Diane Schleicher.
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Mayor Buelterman listed the Consent Agenda Items as:
Council Minutes from April 26, 2007
Washington DC trip for the Mayor, June 5th.
Donation of $500 out of contingency for Coastal Georgia RDC to help with Re-
Construction cost.
Council Minutes from May 10, 2007.
Park and Sports Lighting proposal from Georgia Power.
Change Order for up to $5,000 for Tennis Court.
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Ms. Doyle requested larger warning signs for Rip Rap and Sea Wall remains at 2nd Ave North
towards North Beach. She asked that this be added to the action item list. Mayor Buelterman
asked Ms. Schleicher to check with Joe Wilson on the possibility of larger warning signs.
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Mr. Crone requested that no ice be allowed during the Beach Bum Parade because of injury
complaints regarding people throwing ice with water. Ms. Doyle said she received a complaint
that riding in the parade is brutal. She said one woman had bruises all over her body. Mayor
Buelterman asked Ms. Schleicher to check with Chief Price for suggestions on taming it down a
little bit more.
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Mayor Jason Buelterman called the regular meeting of the City Council to order. City Officials
present at the Consent Agenda were still in attendance.
Reverend Eddie Atkins of All Saints Episcopal Church gave the invocation and the Tybee Island
Color Guard posted the colors. Everyone recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.
Ms. Schleicher introduced Mr. John Redmond from Lagrange Georgia, as the new Chief Finance
Officer for Tybee.
Ms. Doyle asked for monetary donations for food for the Firefighters that are fighting the fires
around Waycross. She asked that the donations be made out to B.D.M.I. and brought to her at
1207 E. Hwy 80 and she would get them to Brighter Day Ministries.
Mr. Ronnie Tatum read a poem about the American Flag.
Mr. Jimmy Carter of the Tybee Island Memorial Color Guard issued badges to Mayor and Council.
Ms. Sandy Major gave a Tybee Neighbors update and shared a snippet of the Tybee Treasures
Video.
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Mr. Larry Nesbitt gave a TIRPOA update and said his citizens group recommended locating the
Tybee Island Veterans Memorial in front of the Gym because of its prominent location.
Mr. David Postle expressed appreciation to City Officials for their prompt attention to building
code violations concerning the Village Subdivision.
Mr. Henry Levy asked council to make sure Ga. Power respects the Dark Sky Initiative when
designing the Park and Sport Lighting.
Mr. Levy expressed concern over the Master Plan. Mayor Buelterman requested a meeting to
discuss Mr. Levy’s concerns.
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Mr. Hughes explained the Minor Revision to the recorded plat for Rocker Development. He said
this is approval of a revised plat. He said the code allows minor revisions to a subdivision plat as
long as it doesn’t alter the layout of utilities or the road. He said essentially they are moving lot
lines to correct some setback issues that have arisen as a result of an error.
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Freda Rutherford asked to go on record as stating Tybee does pay their dues as required by state
law to the Coastal RDC at a rate of $3,000 to $4,000 a year. She said if we use their services we
have to pay for them just as we would any consulting organization. She requested a detailed list
of what construction cost might be and an explanation of why Tybee would be asked to share
those expenses.
Mayor Buelterman responded that the RDC building suffered damage during a tropical storm that
came through the Brunswick area a couple of years ago. He said the requested amounts are
based on each community’s population.
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Ms. Schleicher responded to Mr. Levy’s concern over the Sport Lighting proposal. She said the
proposal is for new lights for Memorial Park that will light the new playground as well as the
volleyball and basketball courts and replace the lights at the tennis court. She said it will consist
of down lighting, spot lighting with shields to respect Dark Sky as well as turtles.
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Ms. Schleicher said the recommendation for the Water Sewer Plant operation is for OMI. She said
it will be a 6-month agreement that can be extended. She said we need a class II licensed person
working at least 20 hours weekly along with a company that can sign our permits and work with
the EPD.
Mr. Lovett said the proposals were very similar in price but OMI had more experience in
operating plants of the type and size of Tybee’s.
Ms. Schleicher explained that the Water and Sewer employees will still report to George Reese
the acting manager of the department and the contract with OMI will not affect that.
Mr. George Cartledge with OMI said they have over 30 projects in Georgia with over 400
associates doing wastewater utility services. He said they have 150 employees within a 50 mile
radius of Tybee.
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Ms. Schleicher requested a budget adjustment of $58,700 from Contingency (100-9000-61-1000)
to Parks Administration (100-6210-54-1110). She said the adjustment would help pay for the
tennis court reconstruction including the change order, Asphalt overlay in Memorial park on the
basketball court, Jaycee Park basketball court, and also $39,000 to complete the path
reconstruction. She said the current balance in contingency is $279,311. Ms. Schleicher said the
contractor is concerned about altering the roots to the trees along the path to make it smoother
and damaging the trees. Ms. Williams suggested putting in brick pavers in those areas to make
repairs easier. Mr. Crone suggested altering the path to avoid the larger roots. Ms. Schleicher
asked for flexibility from council to allow her to work with the contractor to protect the trees.
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Ms. Schleicher said the City had budgeted the money this year to have a GIS done for storm
drainage only. She said it came to her attention that the Corps of Engineers had received an
influx of money for GIS and has a grant program on a first come first serve basis. She said it is a
50% grant program. She said we really need to know what’s in the ground for Water and Sewer.
Mr. Lovett said the Corps of Engineers called him the week before and told him about this grant
program. He said basically they take your water and sewer and drainage plans; whether they are
as builts or construction plans; and scan them into a computer system and geo reference them
so they know the locations. He said that creates a base map for the water, sewer, and storm
drain system for Tybee. He said they give that to the COE and they put it in a GIS format so that
eventually it would be possible to have a GIS system with water, sewer and storm drainage on it.
He said the Corps had revised the contract to read the system would be in AutoCAD format. He
requested approval be based on Mr. Hughes and Ms. Schleicher’s approval. Mr. Lovett said the
beauty of this system is you will have squares on the city that represent different plans. He said
you take a laptop and click on any square and it will bring up that plan that shows where the
water and sewer and storm drain system is within that intersection.
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Mr. Crone moved to approve the Consent Agenda items as previously listed, Mr. Wolff
seconded and the vote was unanimous.
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Mr. Wolff moved to approve the recommendation of OMI to manage the Waste Water
Treatment Plant, Mr. Pearce seconded and the vote was unanimous. Mr. Hughes said
this is a proposed contract and after his review he will send it to be signed.
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Mr. Pearce moved to approve the budget amendment for $58,700. Mr. Wolff
seconded and asked to amend the motion to have a 5% (roughly $3,000)
contingency amount built in to give Ms. Schleicher flexibility to work with the
contractor regarding the trees. Mr. Pearce accepted the amendment. And the vote
was unanimous.
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Mr. Wolff moved to approve the agreement with the Corps of Engineers to do the GIS
mapping for Water, Sewer and Storm Water Drainage contingent on approval by the
City Attorney and City Manager. Ms. Williams seconded and the vote was unanimous.
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Mr. Yellin, Attorney for Walt Rocker of Rocker Development and George Weeks of Ward Edwards,
told council that they are requesting a revision to a recorded plat. He said a mistake was made
and houses were built that were improperly sighted resulting in setback violations between 3
inches and 2 feet 4 inches. He said fortunately code section 5-130 allows subdivision lines to be
moved and defines major and minor revisions. He said they are requesting a minor revision
because they are making no changes to the street or utility plan.
Mr. Pearce moved to approve, Ms. Doyle seconded. Mr. Wolff asked for documentation
showing the elevation was shot based on the pre existing grade before any fill was added as
required by code. Mr. Rocker said he submitted that documentation to Mr. Bargeron in the zoning
department and added the elevation was 7.1 before the pads were ever put on the lot.
And the vote was unanimous.
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Ms. Williams moved to approve the 2nd Reading of the Ethics Ordinance, Mr. Wolff
seconded and the vote was unanimous. Mr. Hughes said the effective date for this
will be July 15, 2007 to give staff time to get educated. Mr. Hughes said the Prohibition
portion has been removed to allow persons serving on other commissions to also serve on the
Ethics Commission and any conflicts will be handled on a case by case basis. He said there was a
slight change to gratuity regarding public servants receiving tickets. Ms. Schleicher said Ms.
Gladin has volunteered to help educate employees on the ordinance.
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Mayor Buelterman gave a presentation concerning Hurricane Katrina damage on the Gulf Coast in
a town called Bay, St. Louis. He showed before and after pictures from a book called West Side
Stories. He said he didn’t want to scare people but encourage them to leave when a hurricane
comes. He said even though it was a category 3 storm the storm surge was a category 5.
Mayor Buelterman announced a public forum on May 29th at City Hall with John Oxendine to
discuss flood insurance concerns.
Mayor Buelterman said he was told a particular problem was not being able to get in touch with
Council members after Katrina went through to get their government functioning again. He
requested council contact Jimmy Brown and update their emergency contact information.
He gave the public information number as 877-615-3277. He said the public can call that
number to get information if a storm comes. He said it will be on the web and channel 7. He said
a lot of people stay during a Hurricane Evacuation because there is no one to take their pets and
they will not leave them. He advised everyone to make arrangements to evacuate to a place that
allows pets.
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Mayor Buelterman asked council to get permission from DNR to begin looking into the possibility
of moving sand from areas of accretion to areas of erosion until Tybee can get the beach
renourishment money. Mr. Pearce said the designated Wildlife area at North Beach should no be
considered for any activity. Mr. Wolff moved to approach DNR about giving us a permit
to move sand between renourishments from points of accretion to points of
depletion. Ms. Doyle seconded. Ms. Williams asked where the money would come from.
Mayor Buelterman said we have more money set aside for renourishment than our 40% match
would require. Ms. Schleicher said with Eric Olson helping us we should be able to come back to
City Council with cost and a financing plan. And the vote was unanimous.
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Mr. Hughes asked for Council’s opinion on how to move forward with the Coastal Protection
ordinance. He said he has not heard when it will come back to council from the Planning
Commission. Mayor Buelterman asked if council could set a deadline date. Ms. Williams said the
Planning Commission has requested maps and overviews for their information in working on this
ordinance. She said it would save time if the Planning Commission and Council met jointly for the
review so that they would see the same information at the same time. She asked Ms. Schleicher
to coordinate a joint meeting between the Planning Commission and City Council. Mr. Wolff
requested Lou Off and the Corps of Engineers be included to furnish the aerial photographs and
topographic studies. Ms. Doyle said Ann Thran of the DNR said she would help get the aerial
photographs. Mr. Wolff said Jennifer Kline with DNR will be here with the ARK, which is a
modified RV that has GIS data in it. He said they will be here the 4th of July behind the Shrine
club doing public outreach. He said the city could use it for free and literally map out the island.
Mr. Wolff moved for Ms. Schleicher to set up a joint meeting between Planning
Commission, City Council and Lou Off, Mr. Pearce seconded and the vote was
unanimous.
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Ms. Williams introduced the Animal control Ordinance draft for 1st reading. She said there
are some items that need to be reviewed but it was important to move ahead and have the fist
reading. Ms. Williams said the group reviewing the ordinance would meet before the second
reading is proposed and any modifications will be available to the public.
Ms. Doyle said there seems to be a lot of rules regarding vicious dogs. She said she didn’t know
Tybee had such a problem. Ms. Williams said Chatham County adopted the much stronger
ordinance when the Florida Hunt Case was made public. She said the group meshed the Tybee
ordinance and Chatham County ordinance together to make it a more effective document. Mr.
Pearce requested the Game and Wildlife section should refer to the federal laws that apply for
migratory birds. Mr. Wolff moved to approve for first reading, Ms. Williams seconded.
Mr. Wolff said he would forward the highlighted changes to Mr. Hughes before 2nd
reading. Mr. Hughes said for the section on Dogs at large as this stands now the only
mandatory minimum fine would be in connection to Pets on the Beach. He said the Chief is in
favor of this. Everyone agreed. And the vote was unanimous.
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Mr. Pearce moved to approve for 1st Reading the Text Amendment to create Chapter
34-Article VI-Shuttle/Transportation Services, Mr. Wolff seconded. Mayor Buelterman
said for clarification the City Manager has to approve the location of benches. Ms. Doyle asked if
the locations will be marked with a banner or flag. Mr. Devivo said there will be a laminated
schedule attached to the back of the benches. He said in many locations it is not suitable to have
a bench. He requested having flags or banners to show the location but there will be no attached
schedule.
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Mr. Wolff moved to go into Executive Session to discuss Litigation, Real Estate and
Personnel, Mr. Pearce seconded and the vote was unanimous.
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Mr. Pearce moved to go back into Regular Session, Mr. Wolff seconded, and the vote
was unanimous.
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Mr. Pearce moved to adjourn, Mr. Wolff seconded, and the vote was unanimous.
______________________________________
Mayor Jason Buelterman
_____________________________
Vivian O. Woods, Clerk of Council
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