City Council prioritizes recruiting more police officers at Tuesday meeting

The Statesboro City Council met for their regular bi-monthly meeting on Tuesday morning, October 3, 2023.

During the meeting, Council member Paulette Chavers brought up that the City of Statesboro is currently down 17 police officers to create a push to fill these police officer positions for maintaining adequate control within the community.

City Manager Charles Penny responded to Chavers stating that the department recently approved some recruitment incentives that he believes will help the department in its quest.

Council member Phil Boyum additionally requested a coordinated campaign for police officer recruitment to help fill the remaining 17 police department spots within the next 12 months. All council members supported his recommendation.

Consent Agenda - ALL APPROVED

1) Approval of Minutes

a) 09-19-2023 Work Session Minutes

b) 09-19-2023 Council Minutes

c) 09-19-2023 Executive Session Minutes

Public Hearing & Consideration of Approval

1) APPROVED-Public Hearing and consideration of a motion to approve an application for an alcohol license in accordance with the City of Statesboro Alcohol Ordinance Sec. 6-13(a):

Reliance (Convenience Store) 17412 US Hwy 301 North Statesboro, Ga 30458
License Type: Package Sales – (Beer and Wine only) and Sunday Sales

No new alcoholic beverage license to sell, dispense, pour or offer to sell, dispense or pour any distilled spirits, alcoholic beverages, wine, beer or malt beverages within the corporate limits of the City of Statesboro shall be issued to a new owner or new location until the application has been approved by the mayor and city council after a public hearing.

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2) APPROVED-Public Hearing and First Reading of Ordinance 2023-16: An Ordinance amending Chapter 38, Article VII Blight Tax of the Statesboro Code of Ordinances.

On December 3, 2019 Chapter 38, Article VII establishing the Community Redevelopment Tax Incentive Program was passed by Council 5-0. Mayor McCollar disapproved and adjusted the item of appropriation in Sec 38- 162 from an additional multiplication factor of 7.0 for all properties to zero for residential properties and 10.0 for commercial properties located within the South Main (“Blue Mile”) TAD and DSDA district. Proposed amendment was brought forward at September 19, 2023 work session for presentation as first reading

3) APPROVED-Consideration of a motion to approve Resolution 2023-44: A resolution approving application for funding from the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority to conduct a lead water service line study.

The Environmental Protection Agency has mandated that all municipal water systems evaluate the presence of Lead Service lines within each system. To comply with this order each system will have to inventory and inspect every service line within the system. In order to help systems with the cost to perform this work the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority has initiated a Grant funding opportunity. The City of Statesboro has been included as an approved grant applicant for up to $650,000.00 in funding to pay for field investigations and program administration. We have instructed our consultants at Hussey, Gay, Bell Engineering to proceed with the grant application in hopes that we can procure this funding source for our system.

4) APPROVED-Consideration of a motion for award of contract to Vickery Farms Sodscapes, LLC in the not to exceed amount of $61,200.00 for supplemental maintenance of the Eastside Cemetery.

The Eastside Cemetery requires routine maintenance during the growing season. Currently, the Public Works Parks Division is responsible for routine grounds maintenance of the Eastside Cemetery, McTell Trail, The Blue Mile, 12 passive parks, 20 + public parking lots, and multiple City facilities grounds. There are currently six groundskeepers positions in the parks division. Currently, there only 4-5 depending on vacancies and the variability of workers in the division. The Eastside Cemetery is approximately 40 acres in size. As a result, this work requires four groundskeepers 3-4 days every 3 weeks to mow grass, cut weeds, cleanup and leaf blowing around plots. Contracting a landscape company to perform the maintenance of the cemetery during the growing season (April-October) would allow the groundskeepers to effectively maintain and keep pace with all the other daily and weekly scheduled areas of maintenance duties in the City. With the growth in the City, new areas of maintenance are being added every year.

Since the growing season overlaps the City’s fiscal year, this contract will only be valid from October 2023 to June 2024. The department will then re-bid the contract, and bring it before Council, for the next fiscal year to keep in continuance with the growing season and as funds are appropriated each fiscal year. Multiple quotes were solicited but only two were received.

5) APPROVED-Consideration of a motion for award of contract to S.A. Brown Enterprises in the amount of $128,140.00 for the “Bulloch Street Sidewalk Project”. Project will be funded from the 2018 TSPLOST Fund.

The Bulloch Street Sidewalk Project will construct sidewalk along Bulloch Street from South Main Street to South College Street. Additionally, this project includes installation of sidewalk along West Cherry Street from South Walnut Street to South College Street. The general “Sidewalk Improvements Project” will provide improved pedestrian connectivity between existing sidewalk segments on Tillman Road from East Kennedy Street to South Main Street and North College Street from Proctor Street to Northside Drive West.

To encourage participation the City of Statesboro issued requests for proposals for construction services for both projects concurrently. Only three bids were received and S.A. Brown Enterprises provided the lowest responsive bid. The bid received from S.A. Brown Enterprises meets the requirements of the bid package and an acceptable bid bond was submitted.

6) APPROVED-Consideration of a motion for award of contract to S.A. Brown Enterprises in the amount of $100,250.00 for the “Sidewalk Improvements Project”. Project will be funded from the 2018 TSPLOST Fund.

7) APPROVED-Consideration of a motion authorizing the Mayor to execute a purchase agreement and related documents for right-of-way and easement acquisition at 323 West Main Street for the West Main Street Sidewalk Project. Funding is provided from 2018 TSPLOST.

The West Main Street Sidewalk project is proposing to install sidewalk along the street from Ivory to Foss Street. Multiple Right-of-Way Acquisitions are needed to facilitate this work and to allow construction where an insufficient width of ROW currently exists for such improvements. The following parcel has a negotiated purchase agreement:

West Main St. Sidewalk, Parcel 6, 323 W. Main St. $2,100.0

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8) APPROVED-Consideration of a motion to amend the West Main Street Drainage Improvements Project contract with McLendon Enterprises in the amount of $119,947.44. This work will be paid by fund balance in the 2018 TSPLOST Fund.

This project is located in a historical part of downtown and has high volumes of traffic due to residential, educational, and commercial sources of traffic. The records for the infrastructure constructed in this area over the years are incomplete. As a result several unknowns were encountered that were unforeseen during the design phase.

Storm:

The presence of terracotta clay pipe on this project dates the existing drainage conditions to before 1960 when these pipes fell out of the industry standard and were replaced by reinforced concrete pipe (RCP). The main goal of this project was the removal of this pipe and replacement with appropriately sized pipes that account for the growth in that area. Water and sewer utility lines that were different than expected increased the amount of the existing roadway that needed to be removed.
A layer of unsuitable organic soil was encountered at the depth excavated to place the new pipe. This layer was under the better material used to construct the road. When the excavation was deeper this resulted in some sloughing off of the walls of the trench cut. This resulting in undermining of the roadway asphalt and required additional quantities to repair the affected areas. Basically the width of roadway that had to be removed to lay the new pipe was wider than expected.

Roadway:

Additional quantities needed to be added in order to reestablish a true crowned cross section of the road. The wheel paths were badly rutted to the point the contractor had to increase the area of their milling to establish a suitable base to begin repaving from.
The additional area of base and pavement work created a domino effect requiring a new curb and gutter line and reconfiguration of the adjacent business driveways.

Other Business from City Council

Councilmember Shari Barr stated that "it's First Friday Time again, and for October this First Friday is Ag Night Out. It will run from 5:30p-7:30p and have tractors, vendors, rides, and more. It will be a lot fun, so everyone be sure to come out."
Councilmember Paulette Chavers commended the Mayor on his communication techniques regarding rectifying and clarifying information to the citizens at a recent ordinance meeting. She additionally brought up that the City of Statesboro is currently down 17 police officers and to create a push to fill these police officer positions for maintaining adequate control within the community.
- City Manager Charles Penny responded to Chavers stating that the department recently approved some recruitment incentives that he believes will help the department in its quest.
Councilmember Phil Boyum additionally requested a coordinated campaign for police officer recruitment to help fill the remaining 17 police department spots within the next 12 months. All council members supported his recommendation.
Statesboro Chief of Police Mike Broadhead gave an update on the recent shooting on Johnson/Spruce Street. Broadhead stated, "We had 5 independent shooters at that event. But generally speaking, we don't have a single eyewitness willing to work with us. People from 5 different counties showed up to this party. We have one perpetrator in custody at this time. The individual who was wounded at the event is fortunately doing well."

City Manager's Comments

"From the Transit report, ridership has increased. Habitat for Humanity received a $9,000 grant, to help increase the information about our transit system and to help increase our general ridership."
"Back in 2020 during Covid, the council approved some funds with Action Pact to help with water sewer and natural gas bills at that time. The city staff has asked that we continue to use those funds, as they are CARES Act Funds (previously had to be Covid related though). I am asking council if you are still interested in having those funds available. And then at the next council meeting we will bring a revised agreement to you if you are interested. Currently, we know that there are people who still need assistance with electric bills, water, natural gas, etc."
- Council was interested in continuing the use of these funds and will discuss these matters more at the next council meeting.
"Regarding the event space ordinance, we are still working through that process and trying to find the balance in how to best move forward with that ordinance."
- Mayor McCollar responded stating that "On October 15th at 3pm, we're doing a walk to take back our neighborhoods. We'll be meeting at the park located at West Grady Street and ultimately culminate at Luetta Moore Park to address any additional issues that may be on the public's mind. Taking back our neighborhoods needs to be a community effort. We stand with our Statesboro Police Department and Chief Broadhead in keeping our community safe."
- Councilmember Barr stated that on October 7th the fire department will be out passing out free smoke alarms starting at 9am and concentrating on the mobile homes in the area. They will even come in an help install it. October 14th will also be Family Fun Resource Day to help local families lead healthy, positive lives. We commend Dr. LaSara Mitchell for all of the work she is doing to pull the Family Fun Resource Days.