More unapproved minutes from past week's Watkinsville City Council meeting, Christmas edition

MINUTES OF MEETING

OF MAYOR AND COUNCIL

CITY OF WATKINSVILLE

December 13, 2006

PRESENT: Mayor Luken, Council members Link, Purcell, Brodrick, Walsh and Walter and City Attorney Reitman.

VISITORS: See attached sheet.

QUORUM CHECK: Mayor Luken acknowledges a quorum is present. Mayor Luken also asks those with non-emergency cell phones to turn them off or down. All speakers are asked to approach the lectern and address Council.

CHRISTMAS PARADE AWARDS: Mayor Luken thanks Maridee Williams for all her hard work on the Watkinsville Bicentennial Birthday Party and the Watkinsville Christmas Parade. He thanks all for getting involved. See attached list of parade award winners.

WATKINSVILLE BEAUTIFUL YARD AWARD: Councilwoman Samantha Purcell announced _____________ of ____ Jeremy Drive as receiving the Watkinsville Beautiful Yard Award for the month of December. The selection was made by Details Plus.

MINUTES: Councilman Link moved and Councilman Brodrick seconded the motion to approve the minutes of the November 8, 2006 Council meeting as presented. Motion carried unanimously.

Councilman Brodrick moved and Councilman Walter seconded the motion to approve the minutes of the November 29, 2006 Called Council meeting as presented. Motion carried unanimously.

CONSIDER AMENDMENT TO THE MORATORIUM: Councilman Walsh moved and Councilman Brodrick seconded the motion to extend the moratorium until January 31, 2007. Motion carried unanimously. This will open the moratorium slightly to include anyone who made specific efforts prior to August 9, 2006 could be considered even though they did not submit for a building permit prior to August 9, 2006. This will also extend the moratorium until January 31, 2007 to allow additional time to complete the update to the codes of Watkinsville. Discussion was held regarding the passage of update to the codes. Councilman Brodrick notes we are looking toward approval by January 31, 2007. Attorney Reitman adds that we may need to have a public hearing the third week of January and then pass the update to the codes at a special called meeting at the end of January. Further discussion was held to include the having our own planning/review board. Councilwoman Purcell added it would be wise to have people in mind to fit into the board. Councilman Brodrick adds we may need to advertise, etc. to assist in establishing the board. No further action was taken at this time.

MARK PRESTON: Mr. Preston requests a business license for a used car lot, which will have up to six cars at the location. There will be no banners, just the price of the cars on the windshields. There will be no accumulation of parts outside. Councilman Walter moved and Councilman Link seconded the motion to approve a business license for Diversified Automotive, Inc. at 1260 Greensboro Highway conditional upon:

1. There will be no more than six vehicles on the lot for sale at one time.

2. There will be no additional signage other than approved by Code Enforcement.

3. There will be no spare parts, used parts or junk cars on the grounds.

Motion carried unanimously.

REGINA CHASTEEN: Councilwoman Purcell moved and Councilman Walsh seconded the motion to approve a business license for Carpets Unlimited at 1021 Industrial Boulevard, Suite C. Motion carried unanimously.

FLO WILKES: Councilwoman Purcell moved and Councilman Walter seconded the motion to approve the plumbing and flooring plan for Oconee Preschool Academy II at 1420 Greensboro Highway contingent upon Ms. Wilkes will return before Council for final building plan consideration. Motion carried unanimously.

DAN ELDER: Councilman Link moved and Councilman Brodrick seconded the motion to approve a building permit for two second floor apartments at 10 North Main Street with the installation of the load bearing partition wall downstairs (no sheet rock). Motion carried unanimously.

RECONCILIATION REPORT: No report presented at this meeting. No action necessary.

MAYOR’S REPORT: Conditional items are necessary as we consider licenses and permits. If conditions are not formalized, we can’t enforce them. There are two or three places in the City now that no conditions were placed and we can’t enforce conditions on them that they agreed to verbally.

We have had two annexation feelers with one being a little more formal than the other. My concern personally was not to end up with a boarded up downtown. A big impact on the City of Watkinsville has been the beer and wine ordinance, streetscape and an active council. Council accepted about 12 changes to the beer and wine ordinance to eliminate/require certain conservative things. I don’t know if these two annexations will become reality [presented to City Council], as legally they need to be contiguous to the city limits. I don’t think the people of Watkinsville will want anything coming into the city based specifically on beer and wine. I don’t want to wind up with restaurants leaving the City. Extending the city limits for financial reasons is not necessary. We don’t need more money.

The only problem with streetscape is we have asked the Department of Transportation to mitigate the size of the signs. There are several items they are working on and some things are smoothing out. The street lights are now working. We will try hard to mitigate signage.

The traffic signalization at Simonton Bridge Road and Main Street should be finished early January. The mast arms will be black to match the streetscape streetlights.

Councilman Brodrick expresses concerns about the business license for Gourmet BBQ regarding the complaint received. Mayor Luken explains he has talked with Dennis Dunn with Oconee County Environmental Health and the bathroom only has to be for employees, essentially for people to serve food. Mayor Luken adds we are about to put out new codes and it was suggested that we include we do not want mobile businesses. Some discussion held regarding traffic, safety hazards, bathrooms and parking. City Attorney Reitman suggests he, Mayor Luken and Chief O’Dillon get together and look at the parking issue more carefully. Mayor Luken also suggests we begin a file regarding this matter and accept any other complaints, letters, etc.

CITIZEN’S COMMENTS: Johnny Lay states the lights downtown look great. Mr. Lay adds the mobile BBQ unit needs to be moved. Mr. Lay commends the Council for all they are doing and appreciates them having Watkinsville’s best interest in hand.

OLD BUSINESS: Councilman Link notes that the north side of town is also growing and when putting up banners, lighting, etc. consider extending more northward. Mayor Luken states we can expand Christmas lights north. We can look toward streetscape II and III to extend in both directions. Councilman Link adds a business owner has asked if the city could assist with the purchase of lights to extend them out Highway 15. Mayor Luken notes if we can do things like that it would be good.

NEW BUSINESS: 1. Water tower consideration: Councilwoman Purcell suggests hiring a structural engineer to look at the water tower at Athens Seed. Athens Seed is willing to deed this to the city. Discussion was held regarding concerns of cost, liability, etc. Councilman Walter suggested we price out the costs for engineers first and go from there. Councilwoman Purcell will check into some engineer costs. No action taken at this time.

Councilman Walsh would like to see the “Welcome” signs updated and agreed to do the work. Councilman Brodrick agreed to assist with landscaping .

EXECUTIVE SESSION: Councilman Link moved and Councilman Brodrick seconded the motion to go into executive session. Motion carried unanimously.

Councilwoman Purcell moved and Ms. Walsh seconded the motion to exit executive session at approximately 9:15 p.m. Motion carried unanimously.

Councilwoman Purcell moved and Councilman Walsh seconded the motion to approve employee bonuses as discussed. Motion carried unanimously.

ADJOURN: Councilwoman Purcell moved and Councilman Walsh seconded the motion to adjourn the December 13, 2006 Council meeting at 9:16 p.m. Motion carried unanimously.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

JULIE A. SANDERS

CITY CLERK