Town of Woodland Board Minutes
Date: October 7, 2021
7:00 PM
Board/Staff Present:
David Cooper – Mayor Pro Tem
Barbara Outland – Commissioner
Brian Christison – Commissioner
Ricky Morris - Commissioner
Donielle McDermott – Town Clerk
Eddie Hoggard – Police Chief
Raymond Eaton – ORC
Mayor Beale was absent.
Call to Order: Mayor Pro Tem Cooper called the meeting to order at 7pm. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited followed by a moment of silent reflection.
a. Blaine Humphrey joined the meeting via Zoom. Mr. Humphrey stated he received the request for additional information from John Tucker with DWI regarding project plans and specifications for the Sewer Collection System Improvements 2020 CDBG Project. There were very few comments and tomorrow those comments will be addressed. The fast track application is not quite ready, but hopefully next week. As soon as the permits are approved, they will be given to John Tucker which can then go to the CDBG. The tentative upcoming schedule is November 8th we will advertise for bids, November 23rd is the pre bid meeting, and December 7th will be the bid opening. The project should be bid out by Christmas. With this schedule, the hope is by March we will receive the notice to proceed and start construction by April or May.
Commissioner Cooper explained to the public in attendance what this project was and explained the Town received a $983,000 grant to cover it. Commissioner Christison asked Mr. Humphrey what would happen if the prices have gone way up above current project budget. Mr. Humphrey answered we would have to wait until the bids come in to see if that happens, and if so, we may need to look for alternate funding.
Approval of Agenda: The first item of business was the approval or amendment of the agenda. Commissioner Christison made a motion to add 1a Blaine Humphrey regarding the CDBG and 9b Powell Bill Funds. Commissioner Morris seconded the motion carried.
Approval of Minutes: The next item on the agenda was the approval or amendment of the minutes of the Public Hearing dated September 2, 2021 and the Regular Meeting dated September 2, 2021. Commissioner Morris made a motion to approve the minutes as written. Commissioner Christison seconded and the motion carried.
Consideration of Bills: Commissioner Cooper excused himself from the voting on the bills since there was a bill from Bryant and Lassiter in the folder. Commissioner Morris made a motion to pay all the current bills and to also pay all the regular bills that come in throughout the month. Commissioner Outland seconded and the motion carried.
Public Comments:
a. Wendy Morris was on the agenda but unable to attend.
b. Jimmy McDermott told the board he was experiencing a cat problem with his neighbor. The neighbor has many cats, possibly twenty or more, and they are always at Mr. McDermott’s house. They spray his barn, scratch his vehicles, use the bathroom all over his yard, even right by his grill. What can be done about this? The board told Mr. McDermott the town has an ordinance for this. Chief Hoggard said if Mr. McDermott does not see traps in his yard next week to let him know. Commissioner Cooper said we need to pick two weeks to advertise in the newspaper and give notice that strays will be picked up if they are out running free. The board agreed and it was decided to move forward with the animal quarantine.
c. Jean Bryant told the board she never paid much attention to the sidewalks until recently when her husband became wheelchair bound. Mrs. Bryant said the sidewalks are not handicap accessible, and the handicap accessible parking is in the rocks making this parking spot inaccessible. Mrs. Bryant asked the board to consider using Powell Bill funds to repair the sidewalks in front of Town Hall and the Grapevine.
d. Jean Bryant thanked Commissioner Morris for all his hard work he recently did in the cemetery. A couple of months ago, Mrs. Bryant went to the cemetery and was very upset at how neglected it was. She wrote up a complaint at Town Hall and that very weekend Commissioner Morris cut and weedeated the entire cemetery by himself. Thank you to Commissioner Morris!
e. Barbara Lockett said Ashe and Carter Street both need repaving. The holes are very big. She requested the town put some benches out at the Woodland Park behind the Woodland Olney Apartments. Mrs. Locket lives at the Woodland Housing Authority and during a recent storm, the outside lights went out and have not been repaired. The board said the lights would be the responsibility of the Woodland Housing Authority and Chief Hoggard said he will pass this request on to the maintenance supervisor there.
Fire Department: Robbie Collier gave the report which will be included in the Minute Book.
a. Several of the old pipes have been crushed. Those, along with the drain boxes, have been taken out and need to be replaced. The fire department is requesting that Powell Bill funds be used to pay for this since it is an acceptable use of Powell Bill funds. They would like to tie the gutters into an underground drainage pipe and run that pipe out the street to tie into the drain box. The other option would be to grade the parking lot in a way for water to drain down one side of the parking lot to the one existing drain box. They do not have any prices for this project right now, but Mr. Collier is willing to get prices.
b. Someone made a $20,000 donation to the fire department to fund the concrete for in front of the building on Spruce Street side. The quote they have is for $54,000. The Department of Transportation money will be lost if the fire department goes the concrete route rather than asphalt. Even knowing this, the fire department would rather use concrete because it will last longer and be sturdier with the weight of the heavy trucks, especially during the summer heat. It was noted that we would need to bid this project out since the cost will be over $30,000. Mr. Collier will get the details together for the request for bids and give it to Mrs. McDermott to be advertised.
Mr. Collier is also looking to get some prices on the asphalt work as well. He has made some contacts, but no one has been able to come by and give an estimate at this point. He believes we will be under the $30,000 threshold for bids with the asphalt.
Mayor Pro Tem asked when Dominion Power will come by. Mr. Collier said they are hoping to finish the meter base on Saturday, and if they do, they will plan to get it inspected on Tuesday. When it passes inspection, they will call Dominion to have them come put in the three phase for the siren. The rest of the building will be single phase. The building will be fed by two meters.
Police Report: Chief Hoggard reported that he was out of work the majority of September and Officer Kellett spent some time in the hospital due to Covid.
• National Night Out went well for the first one.
• The new equipment grant for this year is waiting for final approval from the state.
• There is a $5,000 surplus with the current equipment grant. The grant has been extended until December 31, 2021 in order for the town to be able to spend the money. Chief Hoggard is coming up with items on which he would like to spend this surplus.
Clerk Report:
a. Trick or Treat for the Town will be on Sunday, October 31, 2021 from 5:30 to 7:30.
b. The board reviewed the updated golf cart registration packet. The town will issue a sticker to be placed on registered golf carts. This sticker will be good for two years. The main thing the board wants the town to enforce is the sunrise to sunset part of the golf cart ordinance and to keep them off the main roads. Mrs. McDermott will remove some of the items from the checklist part of the registration as not all the items will be needed for a golf cart to be registered.
c. Mrs. McDermott reviewed the Walk Audit meeting with the board. One main thing the walk audit group discussed was putting trash cans out along the sidewalks to help keep the sidewalks and streets clean. Commissioner Cooper said the town did this before, but it did not deter people from littering, and it created more work for the town because these cans had to be dumped weekly. Another idea was putting benches along the walking trail in the park for people to rest. The county extension office has about $2,000 in grant money for the town to help improve walkability.
d. The voting precinct for Woodland has changed from Woodland Community Building to Jerusalem Baptist Church.
As a point of information, we have $19,956 left to spend out of the $200,000 budgeted for the new fire department building.
The first Powell Bill allocation was received, but it was $3,109 less than what we budgeted for the year. The Powell Bill allocation has been less and less each year. We have three Powell Bill CDs which currently total $56,314. If we cash them all in there would be a penalty of roughly $12.
Maintenance Report:
a. Mr. Eaton told the board there were benches for the park at the maintenance shop already, but they needed to be painted. A quote from Julian Odom to paint them has been received.
• Jason Morris with the DOT wants to fix the potholes on Main St, two on Myrtle Street, one near the well on HWY 35, one near the intersection of Main St. and Linden, one near Charles Timberlake’s shop, and one near Hotsy. The maintenance department has been working on the leaks so the DOT can go ahead and do the patch work.
• The Town recently got credit with Rightmyer, therefore we can start using them as a vendor.
• Blaine Humphrey, with Rivers and Associates, sent the contract for the wastewater map to be signed. The contract was signed by Mayor Beale and returned to Mr. Humphrey.
• The Town got a “ding” on their record for not turning in the PT test by September 30th. Mr. Eaton is working on this now and the information will be sent into the state.
• The dump truck chassis needs straightening. Commissioner Cooper told Mr. Eaton to take the truck to the place near Jamesville to get a quote to fix.
• Commissioner Christison made a motion to accept the bid from Julian Odom to paint the park benches in the amount of $450.00, which includes supplies and labor. Commissioner Morris seconded and the motion carried.
• There is no estimate yet to repair Carter St., but Main St. will run approximately $6,000. Commissioner Christison said we need estimates for all the asphalt work because with this being a qualified Powell Bill expenditure, we can move the Powell Bill CD money into the checking account at one time for the entire cost. Powell Bill money can also be used to cover the storm drains for the fire department and the sidewalk in front of Town Hall. There was discussion on getting estimates from different companies for the asphalt and have the maintenance department do the work. However, the board decided it might be best to have the DOT do all the potholes in the town at one time instead of the maintenance department. Mr. Eaton was asked to get bids for this work.
• Commissioner Christison made a motion to close out all the Powell Bill CDs and move them into the Powell Bill checking account. Commissioner Morris seconded and the motion carried.
• Mr. Eaton would like to rehab lift station 4 on Olive St. The cost of labor is estimated to be $2,000 and the cost of parts is estimated to be $2,000. Commissioner Christison said part of the capital outlay money in the budget was to be used for this project.
• One of our part time employees would like to become full time and receive full time benefits. This was discussed during a recent closed session meeting, and the board said they will work on this.
CDBG: The monthly report will be included in the Minute Book.
Water Asset Inventory Assessment (AIA): The application for the AIA has been submitted. It will be after the first of the year before this grant will be awarded and for us to hear anything.
Comments from the Mayor: Mayor Pro Tem Cooper thanked everyone for coming tonight.
Comments from the Commissioners: The commissioners thanked everyone for coming to the meeting.
Public Comments: Barbara Lockett said thank you for putting the park benches in the park.
Adjourn: At 9:04 pm, Commissioner Outland made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Commissioner Christison seconded and the motion carried.