The Mayor and Brooklet City Council led discussions about their intentions to request additional SPLOST funding outside of their percentage allocation, hopefully to be used towards the sewer plans of the new SEB schools. They also considered the request of emergency relief from the owners of El Maguey Mexican restaurant, as the septic system issues that have cost them their most recent passing of a health inspection, have become extremely expensive.
Read on for this and more at the Tuesday, July 30, 2024 meeting.
The Tuesday July 30, 2024 Brooklet City Council work session/called meeting was called to order at 6:30pm by mayor Nicky Gwinnett, with councilman James Harrison then leading a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.
After the agenda was approved, the council moved into the first item of discussion regarding Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST).
The council wants to ask for “$5 million off the top” of the projected $120-140 million dollar revenues of SPLOST for the Police Department and new school’s sewer agreement plans. The mayor and council members have been advised by the interim city manager, Carter Crawford, to define wide categories for the use of SPLOST funds allocated to Brooklet so they may be used for a wider range of projects.
The council considered that the need for the funds to be used for the school improvements would make a good “selling point” in asking for the additional funds outside of their population based fund allocation from SPLOST.
Mayor Gwinnett is also concerned that citizens will not agree with the county's plan to expand the jail and judicial annex at the cost of approximately $70 million.
The council then approved the service agreement for Interim City Manager with no discussion.
APPROVED 6. Discussion and Consideration of a Motion to Approve the Brooklet Community Development Association's (BCDA) request to use the Festival Grounds & the Randy Newman Community Center for the 2024 Brooklet Peanut Festival; THE CITY OF BROOKLET HAS AGREED TO WAIVE the $1,500.00 Sponsorship Fee for the use of the Randy Newman Community on September 21, 2024.
Councilman Brad Anderson said that the city was previously audited for paying the $5,000 fee in the past and by approving this fee to be waived “in kind,” the city will not run into the same problem
Next, the owners of El Maguey Mexican Restaurant, Seleste Carmona and her husband Genaro Carmona, discussed with the council how they could help provide emergency relief for the eatery that was recently flagged by the health department.
Carmona says since opening, the restaurant has received excellent health inspection grades, but upon the most recent inspection, multiple issues appeared in the report, in addition to remarks that Carmona claims are possibly defamatory.
Ongoing problems with sewer lines in the building where El Maguey is housed are the source of the low scores, with Carmona stating that the septic systems have to be pumped four to five times a week at a cost of $4-500 per pump.
Mayor Gwinnett recalled plans that the city began drafting to run a sewage line from the building to a drain field on Goodman St.
The Mayor and multiple council members agreed that El Maguey is a well loved restaurant in Brooklet, and intend to have city engineer Wesley Parker look at the plans made a few years ago in order to bring a solution to council during the August meeting.
APPROVED 8. Discussion and Consideration of a Motion to Approve the Estimate from MS Tire Company LLC for purchasing (4) tires for the Hydro Dig for $2,321.00.
Mayor Gwinnett stated that this cost is nearly half the price that the city has paid for the tires before.
Mayor Pro-Tem Rebecca Kelly suggested that before the adjournment, the council ask that the city manager and attorney work on revising the city meeting protocols to reduce the “chaos” that has taken place in previous meetings.
Mayor Gwinnett attended the district 12 Mayor’s meeting this morning, and has suggestions about the city charter he believes require updating.
The meeting was adjourned just before 7:15pm.
