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HomeMy Public PortalAbout20070823CCMinutes20070823 City Council Minutes Mayor Buelterman called the Consent Agenda Meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. Present in addition to the Mayor were City Council Members; Sessions, Crone, Doyle, Pearce, Williams and Wolff. Also present was City Attorney Bubba Hughes and City Manager Diane Schleicher. Mayor Buelterman listed the Consent Agenda items as; Festival of the Arts Special Event on October 19-21st on the Pier City Council Minutes for July 26, 2007 Mayor Buelterman said in regards to the American Legion’s request for assistance in obtaining permission to erect a permanent Korean War Memorial at the end of Hwy 80, he asked Gene Kindrick to come and talk to council during their workshop on September 4th. Mayor Buelterman said Wanda Doyle and Shirley Sessions will be taking the information on the New City Flag and bringing back a recommendation in time to have a new flag for Tybee’s birthday in October. Mayor Buelterman closed the Consent Agenda Meeting. Mayor Buelterman called the Regular Meeting of City Council to order at 7:00 p.m. All city officials present during the consent agenda were still in attendance. Mayor Pro Tem Sessions gave the invocation and everyone recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. City Manager Schleicher introduced Brannyn Allen as the City’s new Economic Development Director. Mayor Buelterman reminded everyone of the August 28th Deadline for filling out the Master Plan Survey. Karen Grainey representing the Sierra Club presented Mayor Buelterman with a plaque recognizing Tybee Island as a “Cool City”. Henry Levy said; something that is lacking from our zoning and planning ordinances is road classification. He explained that a basic road is a residential street. He said next is a collector which is a street that has several residential streets intersecting into it. He said next is semi arterial streets that would connect collector streets and major arterials such as Butler Avenue. He said Streets are made for automobiles and if people are concerned with safety they should put in sidewalks and curbs. He said to put speed bumps on streets that are arterial is an anathema which means contrary to reason. He said speed bumps hurt his back when he goes over them in his car. He said arterial and collector streets should be widened and the speed limits increased in order to accommodate the traffic. Page 1 of 4 Ms. Schleicher gave an update on the lights at Memorial and JC Parks. She said a crew would be working on Memorial in a few days and the sports lighting would be installed in time for the fall league. Ms. Schleicher said she would talk to Ms. Allen in Community Development about rescheduling the workshop for Short Term Rentals. Ms. Schleicher said the Fire Department had reduced the original amount requested for a budget adjustment for the Lifeguards. Mayor Buelterman said last month city officials had decided to request the additional money from Chatham County. He said in speaking with County Officials it was made clear that the likelihood of Tybee receiving money at this point in their budget cycle was slim. He said Tybee should go to the County and State for lifeguard support next year. Ms. Schleicher said the requested adjustment is $79,642. She said the contingency balance after paying that amount would be $104,060. Sessions asked if the contingency balance included the $80,000 for road improvements. Ms. Schleicher said the $80,000 had been deducted already. Ms. Williams asked if Ms. Sessions was referring to the Lift Station repairs. Ms. Schleicher said the Lift Station repairs could not be paid out of contingency. She said the city would lend that money to the Sewer Department in order to make that repair. She explained that the money would not be taken from the general fund but it would be taken from the fund balance. Chief Sasser of the Tybee Island Fire Department gave a brief summary of the needed adjustment. He said basically they increased patrols on the beach due to changing conditions regarding the rip currents and beach erosion and increased salaries due to the class and comp. which allowed for better trained personnel to staff the lifeguard stations. Ms. Williams said the Marine Science Center had ordered signs that would be installed in the near future alerting beach visitors to the plight of the sand dollar as well as rip currents. Mayor Pro Tem Sessions requested that everyone involved with budget planning for the Life guards budget accordingly so that this problem does not come up again. Ms. Schleicher assured her they would plan accordingly. Mayor Buelterman said the Lifeguards are doing a great job this year. Ms. Schleicher said the Beach Task Force has recommended that the City move forward with Beach Renourishment and hire Eric Olsen to help with finding a borrow site and move forward with the permitting process. Ms. Schleicher said the task force recommended moving forward with tasks A through G. She said they requested the contractor complete the task according to federal standards in order for the city to seek reimbursement at a later date. Ms. Schleicher said tasks A through G amount to $523,000. Mayor Buelterman said Beach Renourishment is about a 10.5 million dollar project and a large part of that involves permitting. He said the county has been setting aside all the Page 2 of 4 money they have designated to us over the last several years plus interest which will be over $450,000. He said that money will pay for a portion of this task list. He said Tybee has been banking money from SPLOST and setting aside money from the General Fund. He said if we seek the 206 reimbursement and the Senate approves 2 million that would leave us at only 1 million short. He said the Channel Impact Study will be completed on September 21st and if it shows that there is an impact it should give us the needed leverage to get money from the State, County, Ports Authority, LNG and the Federal Government etc. Ms. Schleicher requested that Mayor Buelterman write a letter to the County requesting the funds that they’ve set aside and also send a letter to the State regarding the Bonds they promised towards renourishment. Mayor Buelterman said that is an ongoing effort with the State because they budgeted 2.93 million towards renourishment in the 06 legislative session but they haven’t sold the bonds to get the money. He said we are in the process of trying to get that money in hand. Ms. Schleicher said in regards to repairs on lift station number 6 that is located at the corner of Jones and Hwy 80; she said the pipe that goes to the pump has corroded along with the fittings and they are afraid that if they don’t do repairs it will go down. She said Hussey, Gay and Bell did a competitive bid with pre-qualified companies out of Savannah. She said they are recommending BRW Construction for $52,597. She said that cost is a lot better than the early estimates that were done. She said the last work done on that lift station was in 1994. She said everything south of Jones goes to that lift station and they will use a bypass pump while the work is being completed. She said the newer pumps are cheaper and last longer. Mr. Wolff asked if a maintenance schedule had been determined to get maximum life out of the newly installed pumps. Ms. Schleicher said we are doing better than we have in the past. Ms. Williams requested this be an action item. Mr. Wolff moved to approve the Consent Agenda items as listed, Ms. Williams seconded, and the vote was unanimous. Mr. Crone moved to approve the budget adjustment for the Lifeguards, Mr. Wolff seconded, and the vote was unanimous. Ms. Williams moved to approve the Beach Task Force task list items A-G as recommended, Mr. Wolff seconded, and the vote was unanimous. Mr. Crone moved to approve the recommendation on the repair to Lift Station # 6, Mr. Pearce seconded, and the vote was unanimous. Ms. Schleicher said she is in contact with EMC Engineering and will talk to them about having the roads rated to determine if they are arterial or connectors. Mr. Levy said the Council had just saved 1.7 million dollars by contracting with a private contractor for beach renourishment. He said the cost of the Corps of Engineers doing the previous beach renourishment was 27% of the total cost of the project. He said Mr. Page 3 of 4 Olsen’s cost will be 10% and if beach renourishment is 10 million than they’ve just saved 1.7 million dollars for the citizens of Tybee. Mr. Pearce moved to go into Executive Session to discuss Litigation and Real Estate, Ms. Williams seconded and the vote was unanimous. Mr. Wolff moved to go back into Regular Sessions, Mr. Pearce seconded and the vote was unanimous. Ms. Doyle moved to adjourn, Ms. Williams seconded, and the vote was unanimous. ________________________________ Mayor Jason Buelterman __________________________________ Vivian O. Woods, Clerk of Council Page 4 of 4