Norris City Council Minutes Monday November 9, 2009 BE IT REMEMBERED THAT THE CITY OF NORRIS CITY COUNCIL MET IN REGULAR SESSION ON NOVEMBER 9, 2009 WITH THE FOLLOWING COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: CHRIS MITCHELL, TOMMY MARINER, JACK BLACK, LOY JOHNSON AND JOY WILSON HEAR THE PUBLIC Gene Oates asked if the city could put a “Welcome to Norris” sign up at the Norris Dam. City Manager Hester stated that one has already been ordered. Gene Oates stated that his question to the council in last months meeting regarding “who is the responsible party to enforce the city’s codes?” it was not written correctly in the minutes. MINUTES Council Member Loy Johnson asked if changes could be made to the October minutes. Council Member Loy Johnson typed up changes which the council reviewed and held discussion on. City Council Tommy Mariner moved to approve the amendments. Seconded by Council Member Joy Wilson. Motion carried by voice vote. (See attached changes) County Mayor, Rex Lench stopped by to present to Tony Wilkerson, Norris Water Commission Superintendent a plaque from Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Tony was not present. The award is for “2008 – Water Fluoridation Quality Award” “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention commends this water system for its consistent and professional adjustment of the water fluoride content to the optimum level for oral health for 12 consistent months. Consistent, high-quality water fluoridation practice, as demonstrated by this water system, is a safe and effective method to prevent tooth decay, improving oral health of community residents of all ages”. Norris is the only city in the county to receive this award. A picture was taken of County Mayor, Rex Lench presented the plaque to Mayor, Chris Mitchell and City Manager, Tim Hester. OLD BUSINESS 1. Public Safety Addition Update. The work on the structure has been completed. The oak timberframe has been stained but there is still some lighting and wiring to be installed which has already been paid for. City Manager, Tim Hester put out a thank you to all the volunteers and citizens of Norris who put in time and money. 2. TEA-21 Grant, Dairy Pond Sidewalk Update. A survey of the area to identify property lines and City Right of Way has been completed and the preliminary engineering work for the project is underway. Will be presenting an overview to the Planning Commission at their December meeting and per TDOT requirements, a public meeting reviewing the preliminary plans on Tuesday, December 8th at 5:30 p.m. at the Norris Community Building. All Dairy Pond Road property owners will be encouraged to attend this meeting to review the proposed site plan and to ask any pertinent questions regarding the project. To go over location and timing of the project. Council Member Loy Johnson stated that while looking through our charter all contracts over $1000 needs to be put out for a bid. Did we put that out for bid? City Manager Tim Hester, the charter was updated to $10,000. 3. Community Development Board Update on Norris Merchant’s Signs. One of the merchants wants the sign to say more than just the name of his business they would like to list their signature items. The city’s current sign would not be able to accommodate this. A new location has not been decided yet; the current location may not be a good location. Council Member Jack Black said there are four (4) parcels that could be considered. Property owners need to be contacted. Community Development Board will continue to work with the city’s merchants to design the signs. Merchants are willing to help with the cost, but that they want something more than just a sign with their name on it. Mayor Mitchell asked about the timeline. The board isn’t in any really hurry. The board would also like to request that we increase the membership from 5 to 7 Mayor Mitchell has asked that we first stagger the terms of our current membership. A lot of interest has been expressed to the Community Board about revitalizing Community Theater, however they do not want the responsibility of running it, but they would not mind serving as a panel to work with getting people together. Hopefully, they could find the person or persons to take over or spearhead it. Mayor Mitchell said that he has talked to the Norris Woman’s Club and the Lions Club and received a lot of interest. 4. Recycle Commission (RC) Update on Proposed Recycle Bank. George Miceli reported on the Recycle Commissions visit to the RockTenn Recycle facility in Knoxville. Report attached. a. Commission’s recommendation is to decline (when requested) to participate in the Waste Connections “Recycle Bank” program. The council voted yes to support the RC recommendation. b. Commissions’ recommendations is to replacing the current cardboard roll-offs with slotted bin roll-offs and replace the mixed paper roll-off with a 20 cubic yard roll-off bin for sorting glass recycling. Council Member Loy Johnson motions to accept this recommendation. Seconded by Council Member Jack Black. Motion carried by voice vote. c. Commission recommendation on other solid waste issues: 1) place bottle/can recycle containers on the City Commons, Lions Pavilion, and Archers/Post Office area 2) Pursue getting a stipend for our roll-off recycle bins from Anderson County Solid Waste Commission as an off-set to our paper and glass pick-up costs. Council Member Loy Johnson motioned to replace the current mixed paper bin with a divided bin to sort glass and replace the current cardboard bin with a slotted bin. Second. There was more discussion to clarify the sorting of glass. Voice vote passes. CITY MANGERS REPORT 1. 2009-2010 Budget, Y-D Review. We are on track with revenue we’ve collected $523,000.00 about 97% of the property tax revenue. The state and local sales tax are running slightly below budget but are being offset by unexpected higher wholesale beer tax sales. 2. New City Web Site Update. The new web site is up and running but we still have quite a bit of work to do on it. Council was asked to check out the site for content and layout. The site address is “cityofnorris.com” and it’s available to the public now. The information is good information but not complete on some pages yet. The old site will eventually go away. 3. Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Update. The state did announce that this grant program is still going forward. City Manager Tim Hester went to a meeting in Nashville last week, the major population centers of the state, cities and counties are working out of separate pools of money. So we are competing with the smaller communities in the state for this money. They are looking for applications from communities that are making commitments from their savings generated from these upgrades back into additional future renewable energy projects, so you can except to see this as future budget items. Grant deadline is December 30th. This grant does not require matching funds from the city. 4. New City Maps. The City has been working with the county with the recent annexation to get that complete. The GIS office has completed an updated map; we are now trying to get some records resolved. The county property assessors’ office and the state planning office all had slightly different boundaries for the city. Once this is resolved we can wrap up our annexation, which has us notifying the State Department by July 1. 5. Anderson County Three-Star Certificate. Chamber of Commerce announced that we were certified as only 1 of 10 counties in TN, this is a benchmark three community. Norris is now eligible to receive additional incentives under the guidelines of the Three-Star program, incentive for grant points on CDBG applications, 3% reduction CDBG matching, and an increase in CDBG loan limits. Norris Water Commission has already applied. NEW BUSINESS 1. Annual City Financial Audit. Guest John Sutton, City Auditor, Bacon Howard and Company, CPAs. The CPAs have issued an unqualified (“clean”) opinion on the City’s financial statements for the year ending June 20, 2009. This is the highest possible rating. John Sutton stated that for a town of our size, it is very well organized and that Norris has a good accounting system, Local Government. Mayor Mitchell asked if any questions. No questions were asked. 2. Discussion of Revised City Charter. Another meeting is scheduled for December 7th at 5:30. Mayor Mitchell encouraged the public to attend the meeting. The City will make available copies of the City Charter to the public. It was suggested by MTAS for Margaret to help develop the changes to the charter. Some of the changes discussed; City Manager vs. Mayor - division of roles. Council terms to have them staggered, recall provisions, term limits, documentation of the role of Public Safety and Fire Department. 3. Animal Commission. The Animal Commission is requesting permission to make a proposal to the council on three items 1) limit the number of animals per household 2) update the city’s current pet pamphlet 3) change the terms of tag renewals. Council voted “yes” to all thee. Frances Oates stated that the current Norris laws definition of a vicious animal is unclear. Council voted to also have the Animal Commission recommend the definition of “vicious” animal along with the other three proposals. PAYABLES City Manager Tim Hester asked if there were any questions regarding the payables. No questions. City Manager continued regarding the Public Works Department working 129 hours this month and 122 last month in the watershed. At the request of the Watershed Board we took on the task of doing some significant repair work on Reservoir Hill’s stonewalls. For just the cost of material, and the hard work of our volunteer, Corky Phillips, who brought his many years of stone laying experience to help our Public Works guys make the repairs that should take our wall into the future another 25 to 30 years. MINUTES AND REPORTS were presented. Council Member Tommy Mariner moved to adjourn. Seconded by Council Member Loy Johnson. Motion carried by voice vote.