HomeMy WebLinkAbout11-03-1999 Regular Meeting
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REGULAR MEETING COMMISSION CHAMBERS
November 3, 1999
Augusta Richmond County Commission convened at 2:03 p.m.,
Wednesday, November 3, 1999, the Honorable Bob Young, Mayor,
presiding.
PRESENT: Hons. Beard, Bridges, H. Brigham, J. Brigham,
Colclough, Handy, Kuhlke, Mays, Powell, and Shepard, members
of Augusta Richmond County Commission.
Also present were Ms. Bonner, Clerk of Commission;
Mr. Oliver, Administrator; and Mr. Wall, County Attorney.
THE INVOCATION WAS GIVEN BY THE REVEREND J.R. HATNEY.
THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE WAS RECITED.
Mayor Young: We have a presentation that we’d like to
make at this time, and I hope this is the first of many such
presentation. I’d like to call up Mrs. Catherine Windbush and
also like to call up Mr. Kenneth Pressley. It’s always a
great opportunity to recognize people in Augusta for the
contributions they make to this community and to recognize
them for making Augusta a better community. And Mr. Pressley
is one such person. I’d like to read a letter that was sent
to me by Ms. Windbush and share this with you. Ms. Windbush
writes, I’m writing this letter in response to a heroic action
by one of our citizens. It’s very possible that this action
prevented serious injury to someone. On September 19, 1999 I
was parked on Augusta Avenue. I was waiting for my
granddaughter to come out of church. One of our senior
citizens came out of the church. She got into her car and
instead of putting the car in drive, she put the car in
reverse. She started backing up toward my car and in her
panic, she really pushed her foot down on the gas pedal, and
backed into my car. After she had hit my car, she put her car
in drive and drove off at an accelerated rate of speed. She
did not have control of her car. At this time, Mr. Kenneth
Pressley, who was standing on the sidewalk, proceeded to chase
her car on foot. I still don’t know how he managed to stop
her car. But he was able to reach in through her car window
and stop her car. And then she says, I believe the Lord was
with him. He did not consider that he could have been hurt or
even killed if her car had run over him. He saw that she had
hit my car and was driving away in an uncontrolled manner. He
saw a need, and he came to our aid. I don’t know what the
reason was that prompted her to drive off--panic, confusion,
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or what. I can say I was, and still am, glad to know that
there are people around like Mr. Kenneth Pressley. There were
a lot of other church members looking around, but no one took
action. Mr. Pressley, in recognition of your heroic action in
this case, preventing any further injury or damage to property
or perhaps even saving this woman’s life, I would like to
present you with a certificate recognizing you as a Citizen of
Character for your unselfish act of heroism to render aid to a
fellow citizen on September 19, 1999.
(A ROUND OF APPLAUSE IS GIVEN)
Mayor Young: Okay, Madame Clerk.
Clerk: Mr. Mayor, members of the Commission, we have a
request to add one item. As per our addendum agenda:
Item 1: Approve purchase and installation of self-
contained hydraulic power unit to replace antiquated hydraulic
system at New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam by the low bidder,
C.W. Hayes Mechanical, Inc., at a cost of $18,150.00.
Mayor Young: Is there any objection? Okay, we’ll add
that item.
Clerk: Item 2: A request to appoint Mr. William Roger
Giles to the Augusta aviation Commission (District 6
appointment).
Mayor Young: Any objection to adding that item? None
heard. So that item will be added.
Madame Clerk: Under delegations, Mr. Greg Kist,
Executive Director of the Central Savannah River Resource
Conservation and Development Council.
Mayor Young: Good afternoon, Greg. Good to have you with
us.
Mr. Kist: Thank you, Mayor Young and Commissioners for
allowing me to be here today. As the lady said, my name is
Greg Kist. I’m with Central Savannah River Resource
Conservation & Development Council. I come today to invite
each one of you on the County Commission to a dedication
ceremony at the Spirit Creek Environmental Education Forest.
Each member of the Commission should have already received an
invitation to that. Just in case, I brought some extras with
me to pass out. It has all the specifics about the meeting
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and where it is and the directions on how to find it and
everything. The ceremony will be Wednesday, November 17,
starting at 10:00 a.m. at the Education Forest. You’ll see
the map and the directions that are in the invitation. Some
of you have been out at the Education Forest in the past. Mr.
Colclough is very familiar with it, since he is serving on the
advisory board for the education force. Mr. Bridges is
serving on the RC&D Council and has heard numerous updates
about the Education Forest, so they’re both very familiar with
it. At the ceremony, Mr. Fred Allen, chief of the Georgia
Forestry Commission, will be there to help dedicate the
center, and all of our local State and Federal legislators
have been invited to attend. Our own Mayor Young will be
there to do the welcome for the ceremony. After the ceremony,
there will be refreshments served and also tours of the
facility to look at the things that have already been
accomplished, like a five-acres arboretum and trails, 800 foot
boardwalk through a wetland area, numerous forestry
demonstrations, and a demonstration timber bridge. We hope
th
that y’all have the opportunity to come out on the 17 and
visit with us, and also hear about all the planned activities
we’ve got for the future, and for when the school children
start to come out to the center. Any questions? Thank you
for your time.
Mayor Young: Thank you, Greg. The next item is Mr.
Watkins. You’re here to speak to rezoning, correct? In Olde
Town?
Clerk: Mr. Watkins, are you yielding your time?
Mayor Young: Oh, okay.
Clerk: Mr. Watkins, Mr. Mayor and members of the
Commission, he submitted a request to yield his time to Mr.
Terry Leiden.
Mayor Young: All right. Let’s do this. Let’s go ahead
and take up that zoning matter now, Madame Clerk. If you’ll
read the caption. We can go ahead and deal with that at this
time.
Clerk: Under our regular agenda:
Item 25: Request for concurrence with the decision of
the Planning Commission to approve a petition from Edward
Heffernan, on behalf of Knox community Service Center Owners
Association, Inc., requesting a change of zoning from Zone P-1
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(professional) to Zone B-1 (neighborhood Business) and also
requesting approval to utilize the Peter S. Knox Conference
Center for banquets, receptions, etc. by resolution per
Section 21-1(d) of the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance for
Augusta Richmond County, on property located on the southwest
right-of-way line of Greene Street, 300.42 feet northwest of
the southwest corner of the intersection of Third Street and
Greene Street (326 Greene Street).
Mr. Kuhlke: I’d like to move that we approve this with
the conditions set forth by the Planning Commission staff and
with any compromises that have been reached between the two
parties since our last meeting if there are any.
Mayor Young: Is there a second?
Mr. Handy: Second.
Mayor Young: Okay, we have a motion and a second. Mr.
Leiden, the Chair will recognize you since you’re on here as a
delegation, we’ll give you five minutes.
Mr. Leiden: Thank you very much for letting us come
back. I know we’ve taken up a lot of your time. In fact,
that’s one of my issues here today. We’re requesting that you
deny this application. We had this type series of zoning
ordinances come up in Olde Town about 20 years ago. They were
denied. The applications stopped. And then we stopped
wasting, I think, the County Commission’s time. We do
appreciate the County Commission giving us an opportunity to
go back and see if a compromise would be effected. Basically,
the compromise that was offered was that they would continue
to stay in operation just as they are now, but there would be
some type of special exception. We have handed to each and
every Commissioner a letter that came from the Sheriff’s
Department indicating they’ve not been made aware of any
complaints or problems at this location. We have attached to
that letter information that was readily obtained from the
Sheriff’s Department of incidents that have occurred in the
last ten months at 326 Telfair Street. They number
approximately 14 incidents. This is a significant number of
problems. Loud music, loud noise, public disturbances, and
certainly indicates that this area is not what we thought it
would be, certainly not what was projected to you at the last
meeting. I think after reading these police reports of these
incidents, you can understand why we have a concern for this
being permitted to continue to operate in this area. And on
behalf of many of the petitioning institutions, they go home
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at five o’clock. The residents stay there. I would like you
to strongly consider that and also at this time, I would
request that Mr. Henry Brigham and Mr. Freddie Handy recuse
themselves from voting on this, as I believe they have a
conflict of interest as outlined in the Georgia Code 36-67(a)-
1, which lays out the conflicts for public commissioners in
this case as having an interest in the outcome of the case.
Thank you very much.
Mayor Young: Thank you, Mr. Leiden. Mr. Pat Rice wanted
to speak to us on this issue, too.
Mr. Rice: Thank you, Mr. Mayor and gentleman, I also
thank you for having us back for a last go at this matter.
I’m not going to beat it to death and re-hash what we said
before. I do want to thank those representatives of the Olde
Town community who met with us last week and who came very
close to a lobby at something that would have hopefully been
agreeable to everyone. I understand, however, that there are
certain people in the community who are opposed to any type of
use of this nature. We respect that opposition and we can
understand that we cannot come forward today and say we have
met an agreement. However, I think what we have submitted to
you goes far beyond what Mr. Leiden has suggested to you. It
allows this operation to continue only until the first of
2001, during which time we would come forward and present a
new zoning amendment to you which would allow for this type of
facility under very certain and specified and restricted
circumstances. I have submitted that document to you. I hope
you’ve had a chance to read it. I do not have time to go
through it completely. I want to thank Mr. Leiden and I want
to recognize Mr. Leiden, and I hope that each of you got the
letter that I sent to each of you apologizing for anything
that I might have said that in any way detracted from what Mr.
Leiden’s contributions have been to Olde Town and to our
community as a whole. If anything I said heretofore could
have possibly been interpreted in that manner, I retract it
and I pay tribute to Mr. Leiden and his contributions to Olde
Town and to our community, to his church, to his schools that
he supports, and to the community at large. Now I want to
address quickly, and thank Mr. Leiden for being gentleman
enough to share with me this police report. I want to go down
this with you item by item if I can very quickly in just a
minute of time. On the first page, there are five incidents,
one beginning on the week before and one through Christmas,
and they all involve a situation of loud music. That was
before we had any type of a special agreement and stipulation
in effect. It was before we had police on the scene for each
and every party. I remind you that that did not come into
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effect until July 1 of 1999. I want to take you to the bottom
of the first page. We have an incident on May 12, 1999, a
complaint by Ms. Boyd. She is an employee of ours. She
complained about a stranger in the parking lot. She
complained on behalf of the Conference Center. That, as you
might see, occurred at four o’clock or 4:45 in the afternoon.
No function going on. There are people in the neighborhood
from time to time who we cannot control. The next is over on
the third page. It’s an incident on 6-13. This, again, was
before our policy went into effect on July 1. I point out to
you that that incident--let me get my dates right, I may have
skipped over one. May 12, I think is the first one we talked
about. That’s correct. The next complaint was a complaint
that somebody was causing a loud disturbance. That was a 9:37
in the evening on a Saturday night. That was an anniversary
th
party, a 10 anniversary party. Again, a stranger in the
parking lot unassociated with the party. The next incident is
not an incident. It’s 6-24-99, when a policeman reported that
he was checking out, going in to follow up on something that
had happened at some other time. There is a police substation
there, as you know, and that no doubt is what he was doing. No
incident, no action taken as you will see. On 8-19-99, the
next call, the call was made from Mr. Ron Edson, the manager
of the Conference Center about a male that was creating a
disturbance in the parking lot at 1:30 in the afternoon. No
function going on, just a stranger to the area, uninvited. And
the last incident, ladies and gentlemen, was on October 9,
1999, and I really don’t know what was happening then. I
can’t report it to you. This does not explain it. There was
no function in progress. It was at 6:00 o’clock in the
evening, and we have not idea of what that was involving. So
I think the record remains pretty darn clear. I want to say
three things.
Mayor Young: Let’s go ahead and wrap it up, if you will.
Mr. Rice: I want you to remember the prior use of the
property has been exactly what it is today. I want you to
remember that the neighborhood plan--I’ve given all of you a
copy of the neighborhood plan--the neighborhood plan agreed to
by the neighborhood itself and the neighborhood association
says this property will be used for business purposes in the
future. And I want to respond to Mr. Mays’ concerns, which I
share about a precedent from a legal point of view. I don’t
know what your City Attorney has advised you. I do not think
that the zoning of this one location under the circumstances
of this case will set any binding precedent. I ask you to
allow these agencies to continue the good work they’re doing
in the community. I’d like to get Rev. Hatney up here to give
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that prayer again because that’s what these agencies are
about. We request the rezoning of this. We are agreeable to
anything that will allow this continue and allow us to come
back with some special type of zoning, whatever you want,
we’re amenable to.
Mayor Young: Well, it’s not everyday, Mr. Rice, where
we’ll get a lawyer who will come in here and agree to
anything. We’ll see how far that goes. We had two other
people who wanted to speak. Mr. Brigham has the floor.
Mr. H. Brigham: Speaking of lawyers, I was going to ask
our attorney to give some direction, notwithstanding how I
would vote, but certainly to the extent that I could vote if I
was so given the choice. It was indicated I ought not vote on
this item.
Mayor Young: Mr. Wall, before you do that, I think the
record ought to reflect these objections were not registered
when this item came up two weeks ago.
Mr. Wall: That is correct. I have been made aware of
the objections being voiced as to both Mr. Henry Brigham, as
well as Mr. Handy, and have discussed both of those, the
situations, with each of them. It’s my opinion they do not
have a conflict under the statute. Mr. Brigham is not
involved in the decision-making process of United Way and so
therefore is not involved. Mr. Freddie Handy is a Commission
appointee and designate on a committee, and likewise is not
involved in the decision-making process of United Way, and
therefore I think each one of them has the right to vote on
this matter and do not have a conflict under the zoning
statute that Mr. Leiden has cited.
Mr. Mays: Mr. Mayor?
Mayor Young: Let’s do this. Mr. Mays, we have two other
speakers that want to speak. Let’s hear from them and then
we’ll bring it up here. Dr. Anthony Cressi? Did I say it
right? He’s asked to speak on this please. Please, if you
would come up to the podium, give your name and your address,
please. And the next, Mr. William Mondell will follow.
Dr. Cressi: I live at 250 Greene Street with my wife,
Gail. We’ve lived there for two-and-a-half years. We’ve
actually done what a lot of citizens in the area have done.
We’ve moved from Evans down into the city of Augusta, and we
think that Olde Town is really a beautiful neighborhood and
that’s really what we’re trying to keep it as, as a
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residential neighborhood. And the other thing is that it’s
the oldest neighborhood in Augusta, and with all the good
things that are happening with your leadership and stuff,
downtown Augusta, I think it’s also very important that we
have the residential neighborhoods to support all the things
that are happening. So I hope that you remember that when you
make your decision. Thank you.
Mayor Young: Thank you. Mr. Mondell? Give us your name
again and address for the record, please.
Mr. Mondell: I’m William Mondell. I live at 459 Greene
Street. I’m president of the Olde Town Neighborhood
Association. I’m kind of surprised to be speaking because my
request to speak was turned down by Ms. Bonner, but I’m glad
to speak anyway. I don’t know that we can rely on the
policing by the Augusta Police as far as noise is concerned.
Right now, what we’re looking at is a voluntary agreement by
the Knox Center to police themselves. How in the world are we
going to enforce that if they simply ignore any compromise
they make with us? Certainly the police have been loath to
enforce some of the ordinances. I'm not sure how we can rely
on a group to enforce some kind of restriction voluntarily. I
appreciate the attempts by the Center to meet with us. I met
with Mr. Rice and I thank him for that. We’re not trying to
close the Center down. I believe what they should do is
explore other funding initiatives. I read in the newspaper
that they were planning to raise $150,000 through the use of
this facility. Clearly that figure is unworkable. $3,000 a
week. That’s a lot of use for that facility. I simply do not
believe that the figures are accurate. We’re willing to work
with them, come up with other ways of raising the funds they
need to be better neighbors with us in Olde Town. Thank you.
Mayor Young: Mr. Beard? You wanted the floor.
Mr. Beard: Mr. Mayor, I’d just like to know that since
we have a motion on the floor and been second and we’re
probably voting on it in a few minutes, I’d just like to hear
from Mr. Patty as far as the special exception so that maybe I
can get some direction, get some feel of what those are. I
know he told us at the last meeting but I need to hear them
again prior to my vote.
Mr. Patty: Section 26 of the zoning ordinance allows
certain things in any zone by special exception or by special
use permit as known in other ordinances. Right now, there are
certain categories of things that are allowed and the use
we’re currently contemplating does not fit into any of those
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uses, but one of the ideas that has been thrown out is to
amend the zoning ordinance to provide for a classification
that would allow those type uses as a solution to this problem
that would be more palatable than rewriting professional or
something like that. We talked about it at the last meeting.
As it’s currently written, there’s nothing in special
exceptions that would provide for this use.
Mr. Beard: And this will deal with that establishment
only?
Mr. Patty: It would deal with similar establishments.
Establishments, similar establishments where social events
might be held. Weddings, meetings, whatever. Could be
written to accommodate those type uses by special exception,
not by writing, by special exception.
Mayor Young: Mr. Mays?
Mr. Mays: Mr. Mayor, I’ll yield for 15 seconds to Mr.
Kuhlke.
Mayor Young: Mr. Kuhlke, you have the floor.
Mr. Kuhlke: Mr. Mayor, I’d like to ask Mr. Wall, since
we’ve gone through this twice, have you done any research on
this to see if there is another avenue that we may be able to
take in this regard?
Mr. Wall: Well, I have looked at the situation, another
situation that existed in Olde Town, the beauty shop and what
was done there, although I didn’t hear Mr. Rice comment today
about already having bookings down there, he has told me
privately that there are a number of functions already booked
for the Telfair Inn in early 2000, and what I would suggest is
this, and in light of Mr. Patty’s comments concerning the
special exception, is that you allow them to continue to
operate until July 1, 2000, that you don’t rezone the property
but you simply allow them to continue to operate just as you
did with the beauty parlor, and that prior to July 1, 2000
they will have to come back before this Commission for a
rezoning or for a special exception at that time, and that
also will give the opportunity for the owners as well as the
neighborhood to continue to work to try to reach some type of
agreement and will further give an opportunity to demonstrate
the good faith or lack thereof insofar as the Knox Center and
the operation and abiding by the voluntary standards that they
apparently have imposed upon themselves as far as the
activities that are carried forward there. And I’ve talked
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over this possibility with Mr. Patty, and I think that that
would be our recommendation. In that way, you do not have the
potential for a precedent insofar as rezoning the property B-
1, you recognize the possible hardship that you would create
on those users of the facility that have already booked, and
give an opportunity for both the owner and the neighborhood to
have further discussions.
Mayor Young: Mr. Wall, if they were allowed to operate
under some restrictions that were set up by the Commission,
and those restrictions at some point were ignored, not
followed or whatever, we’d have the authority to shut them
down at that time, would we not?
Mr. Wall: You would. I think that that would be written
into the special exceptions. If y’all want to make that a
part of the conditions of their continuing to operate to July
1, I think that they have expressed the provisions that
apparently at least a majority of the neighborhood, I’m told,
is in agreement. Well, perhaps not everyone. And I have a
draft of what was presented to the neighborhood association. I
can read in those limitations if the Commission wishes to
impose those restrictions as well.
Mayor Young: I think we all have a copy of that.
Commissioner Mays?
Mr. Mays: Mr. Mayor. Mr. Wall has done an eloquent job
today. We might even agree before we leave. Let me say this.
First of all, right off the bat, two things that I greatly
respect and that I have held to hopefully the same, consistent
manner as it relates to zoning, regardless of whatever
governmental body that I have sat on. And my good friend, Mr.
Rice and I, we have the right to respectfully disagree. I
think inasmuch as not only have I lived and continued to live
in a neighborhood that was victimized by past spot zoning, and
also what the precedents of changing drastically zoning can
do. Some of us have seen and lived through those effects.
And I think it’s a matter of riding through and looking to see
what can happen when that’s done. And so I still stick with
that principle in reference to changing from professional to
B-1. However, I made it clear and I reiterate it today that I
had no problem. Many time you had what I consider good and
friendly zoning from petitioners that come forward. I think
this is a case. I think the organizations are very
worthwhile, and in voting against it, it was not to deny their
usage or staying open. But I’m trying to find a vehicle that
they could co-exist within a residential neighborhood. I
think there is a mechanism to do that. I don’t think that the
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current motion that’s on the floor will be able to do that. I
I want to
probably agree with what Mr. Wall has suggested.
make a substitute motion that may not be parliamentary totally
in order and I’m making it in that way, so that amendments can
be accepted or rejected, that would be, Mr. Mayor, to allow
either the non-conforming status of the Center to remain and
that they have to reapply during that period of time, which in
essence I think gives us a chance to look at some overall
zoning in this city which does not have to drastically change
residential areas or semi-residential areas which may contain
professional and residential, but gives a chance for good
neighbors to co-exist, but does not open the door and possibly
set the precedent for having drastic change on zoning. In
that same motion, either to allow that non-conforming co-
existence for that period, or at the same time, to allow for
the special exception, which we have already basically done on
one other piece of property
. And I remind this Commission we
have, we are talking about zoning precedents, but we also set
a precedent in the denial of a business previously owned, even
though smaller, not of the magnitude of this Center, but of
one young female, in reference to where we have done the same
thing and allowing that business to remain open, possibly
because it may not have needed to even been under a business
zoning from the very beginning. This would then soften that
zoning. I think you could then have the time to put in the
restrictions that you would need, be able to see what the
operations are, thus satisfy the neighborhood by not changing
to a B-1 and not putting the existing Center out of business
and their operation so that they can continue. That way, you
achieve both of them but you do not change the zoning that’s
in that area. But I do still stand by my first principle. I
And I’d like to offer that as a
will not change to B-1.
substitute motion and I accept any parliamentary direction or
argument that Mr. Wall might have and accept any amendments
from any other Commissioners.
What I’m deeply searching for
is a way that we don’t alter the zoning in this neighborhood,
but we don’t put these folks out of business as soon as we can
send somebody down there to close it down.
Mr. Beard: I second that, Mr. Mays. But I would like to
know what time--you didn’t put a time span. Are you still
talking about that time that Jim indicated?
Mr. Mays: What I’m--I’m open, but what I’m trying to get
to give us, Mr. Beard, I think if you’re going to have
something similar to Café duTeau, I think if you’re going to
have a noise problem, if you’re going to have a law
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enforcement problem, then you make sure that that’s handled on
that side and in that manner. And then if that’s done and if
that’s violated, regardless of what the zoning is, then I
think you bring--
Mr. Beard: I’m not talking about time of day, I’m
talking about the--he mentioned up until 2000.
Mr. Mays: I think to either coincide with the other one
that we’ve done or to run the distance of the following year,
because I think we’ve got some that are in residential areas
that probably have been, quite frankly, missed and are either
going to put us--and I remind the audience, this is not the
only neighborhood where we might have this to occur in. It’s
just that this one has happened first. You’ve got some where,
I think, there needs to be some common sense corrections in
zoning, but do not take us to the drastic type of zoning, so
that if a building is abandoned that we end up with a
convenience store, we end up with any of the other drastic
uses that could happen in B-1. And that’s where I disagree
with those who say that you cannot set precedent from that
manner, because you can. There are enough neighborhoods in
this city where you can see that that’s happened, and we’ve
had enough decisions in Superior Court that have gone in and
said you’ve changed it, you did this for one, this is what
we’re going to have to do for the other. So the precedents
are there. And I’m trying to avoid that precedent.
Mayor Young: Thank you, Mr. Mays. Mr. Bridges, you’d
like to address the substitute motion?
Mr. Bridges: Yes, Mr. Mayor. The substitute motion is a
little bit confusing to me. But both motions, if I understand
them right, what we’re basically saying is we’re going to
allow the existing facility to continue to violate the zoning
code for two years, and then after that, we’re going to come
up with an ordinance, with a different classification, with a
new classification, so that it can continue to operate in the
manner that it is, and the whole problem, the whole time with
the residential people in that area is that it’s operating in
the manner that it is. I mean that’s the feed that I’m getting
in this regard. So on the one hand, we continue to say that
we want residential areas downtown, we’ve got one, that’s what
we want, in Olde Town, and on the other hand, we say--and I
understand we’re trying to accommodate a different facility,
but it seems that we’re bending over backwards to change the
zoning to suit the Center without showing the same regard for
the residents in that area. So I’m having trouble supporting
either one of these amendments, Mr. Mayor.
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Mayor Young: Thank you, Mr. Bridges. Mr. Shepard?
Mr. Shepard: Mr. Mayor, thank you. I think it was last
time that I inquired about the record of this Center and we
didn’t have anything in our record then about what had
happened in previous occasions. It’s pretty clear to me that
during the Christmas season last year, there were numerous
complaints, and I understand that there was a lack of policing
and I think the neighbors can anticipate if something’s not
done that there will be similar problems come this party
. And so I would
season which accompanies the holiday season
ask that the maker of the motion attach not only what
conditions Mr. Wall might think are appropriate, but I’d ask,
Mr. Mayor, that your conditions, since I have the power to
request an amendment, be amended that if there are violations
in the present season, whether it’s celebrating this Christmas
season or other celebrations while we look at this, that there
be an immediate revocation and there be a cessation of this
authority.
I think that there is a substantial case here that
there were violations, maybe the management was poor then, but
if we give them a change, I don’t think they should be given
much of a chance because the neighbors are asking for really
no change, Mr. Bridges, as I understand it. But if we do
support this, Mr. Mays, I’d ask that you include the Mayor’s
condition that we’d have the authority immediately to stop the
operation of this Center as a party and holiday center that
would operate in these late hours.
Mr. Mays: I’d have no problem with placing that in, Mr.
Shepard, but I do think that and any other case would be any
complaint under any type of violation of any law or any
allegation that you would still need to have that type of
allegation proven as well. When you say immediate cessation,
the only thing I wouldn’t want to do there is you have
somebody there that’s not connected with the Center
whatsoever, and you get a situation to start--I’m just
throwing this out hypothetically. That if it’s done and has
no relationship to anybody there in the Center whatsoever, but
could be started basically on purpose to achieve basically
what you’re talking about, about putting them out the next
day, that’s the only thing that bothers me about that. But I
can still accept that. I’ll accept that, Steve, and I’m even
open to the fact, Mr. Mayor, that if somebody wants to suggest
that we be allow it to be withdrawn without prejudice.
Mr. Shepard: Mr. Mayor, if I could speak to Mr. Mays’
concern, I didn’t mean that it would be a self-executing
Page 14
revocation. I mean that it would come back to the next
meeting of this body where a hearing could be held on the
allegation of late hour noise.
If there was going to one
more, you would be back here pretty soon.
Mr. Mays: So agreed.
Mayor Young: Any other discussion? Mr. Powell?
Mr. Powell: Mr. Mayor, I think we’re fooling ourselves
if we think we can give a zoning approval or waiver or
whatever you’d like to term it, with the stipulation that if
they’re running a center where you’re going to hold parties,
in a neighborhood that don’t want it, and you’re going to give
them one more change to have a loud music complaint, how long
do you think that’s going to last? I mean it might last the
first night. Might be the second night. But I assure you
these people here are going to call. I can look out across
this audience. They’re going to call. So we’re just
basically putting this thing off. To even attach that
stipulation to it, something that you know is going to happen
already, so we’re really fooling ourselves. I just want to
comment on that.
Mayor Young: Thank you. Anyone else? Mr. Kuhlke?
Mr. Kuhlke: I’d like to ask the maker of the motion if
he would accept a time line of October 31, 2000.
I think Mr.
Beard was asking that question earlier.
Mr. Mays: So accepted.
Mayor Young: Any other discussion on the substitute
motion?
Mr. Wall: My only concern is--he asked about
parliamentary--there are two terms that were used in Mr. Mays’
motion that I am concerned about getting wrapped up in there.
One was non-conforming use, because I don’t think you can
classify it as a non-conforming use for a limited period of
time. The other one is granting a special exception, and
there is no special exception. What we’re saying is not
changing the thrust of the motion, is to allow them to
continue to operate as they have done, as we did with the
beauty parlor, and we did not use those terms with the beauty
shop.
Mayor Young: Does that work for you, Mr. Mays?
Page 15
Mr. Mays: Mr. Mayor, I was searching for some wording,
and since Jim’s salary is higher than mine, I figure we pay
him enough to get it in order. What I was trying to do was
basically get it to that point without changing that B-1
zoning, and allowing that situation to occur. And what’s
going to happen, and I think Mr. Powell is correct, one of two
things is going to happen. I think if you don’t change the
zoning, and I’m going to wrap this up real quick, Mr. Mayor.
If you don’t change the zoning, if you’ve got a monitorship
that’s in there, you’ve not gone to B-1. That’s one thing.
The second thing, if there are constant violations in theorem
then you don’t have to worry about whether or not you’ve got a
deal with anybody else dealing with precedent, because that
one has never been changed. And it’s still there in
operation. The third thing, which I haven’t said which I hope
will be done, is that there can be further dialog between the
neighborhood association and the Center to work out some of
these rough edges that’s in there. Cause the other thing that
bothers me is the fact that if you shut it down December 31
and you go back to a situation where even though it may be in
a professional zoning, we’ve had enough problems with
properties that we’ve had to inherit in the new government
that Mr. Patty knows full well in terms of their trying to
find new ownership, trying to get folks in there, is that it
may not be the worst situation of what’s in there, of what it
could become, if we get in there in total abandonment of that
area, and then we don’t have anything in order to deal with
for a certain period of time. But I can’t support a change of
zoning in there. If we can work it within those confines and
deal with it, I can deal with that as a Commissioner. That’s
not going to make a lot of folks happy. I’ll get cussed out
on both sides of it, and I’ve had that happen, too, but I can
live with all of that. But the one principle I will stick
with, as I said from the very beginning, I would not vote to
change to B-1. And I’m not going to do that.
Mayor Young: All right. Thank you, Mr. Mays. We’ll go
ahead--
Mr. J. Brigham: Mr. Mayor?
Mayor Young: --and call the question. Mr. Brigham?
Mr. J. Brigham: I just want to make sure in the special
exceptions or whatever we’re doing here that there are time
limits of operation. Hours of operation?
Mr. Oliver: I think the agreement was, the stipulation.
Page 16
Mayor Young: Mr. Mays, would you like to incorporate
these in your motion? Did you see this letter? Do you want
to incorporate those time limits in there for operation?
Mr. Mays: I have no real problem with that, because I
think regardless of whatever the time is, if it gets to be a
problem, as J.B. said, we’re going to be back dealing with it,
if it’s 11 p.m., 9 p.m., 12 noon, or whatever. If it’s a
problem, you’re going to have end up addressing it again.
Mr. J. Brigham: The other question I had is I wanted to
make sure we’re going to look at the zoning ordinances and
rewrite this before this time frame is over. Is that what is
the understanding?
Mayor Young: That’s part of Mr. Mays’ motion, and the
date we set was October 31, 2000.
Mr. J. Brigham: I know that’s not part of his motion,
but I want to make sure I’m on the right train of thought.
Mayor Young: Okay.
Mr. Mays: On the time frame, I have no problem with
that.
Mayor Young: Is there any other question about the
substitute motion?
Mr. Mays: He asked, Mr. Mayor, whether that contained a
provision to deal with--
Mayor Young: Mr. Mays, I believe if you just want to
adopt those by reference in your motion, it includes in there
a request to review the zoning in the Olde Town Neighborhood.
Mr. Mays: I don’t have a problem with that. The one
thing I wanted to answer on the record, since he asked and he
was referring to my motion, was in reference to how we rewrite
the law, and I don’t think we can put that in the form of any
motion, to rewrite a law, to deal with a specific situation.
What I said in the part of the discussion was that this was
not the only situation that we probably have in this city,
that I hope that this allows Zoning, and I think they’ve been
very busy, they have had a lot of work. That’s not picking on
anybody, but those came from the old county Commission in
places where some folk didn’t even want to see zoning done.
They had to concentrate a lot of time in getting a lot of that
Page 17
zoning straightened out. From agriculture all the way over
into subdivisions. So we’re back now with some of those. I
hope that gives them the opportunity to go into what was the
old city and deal with those exception in there and to be able
to write a softer zoning that would accommodate that type of
mixture, not only that would deal with Olde Town, the same way
we did with professional areas in Summerville, around St.
Joseph, in former residential areas, and that that would be
able to have a comfortable mix in there, that everybody could
live with. That was what I said in the discussion, but I
don’t think you can put that--am I correct, Jim?
Mr. Wall: Right.
Mr. Mays: You can’t put that into a motion that deals
with rewriting the law.
Mr. J. Brigham: I wasn’t asking it to be in a motion, I
was wanting to make sure.
Mr. Mays: I just wanted to get it clear on this record,
cause I didn’t want to get sued for making a motion to make a
law on something I know is as illegal as the devil. I agree
with Jim on that.
Mayor Young: The record will reflect that Commissioner
Mays does not desire to be sued. Let’s move along with the
vote. Do we have any other questions on the text of the
substitute motion? All in favor of the substitute motion,
please vote.
MR. POWELL, MR. COLCLOUGH, AND MR. BRIDGES VOTE NO.
MOTION CARRIES 7-3.
Mr. J. Brigham: Mr. Mayor, while we’re on this, before
we leave zoning, George, where are we at with our five-year
plan? Is it--wasn’t the last one done in ’95?
Mr. Patty: What you’ve got is a 20-year plan, and that
plan, in order to comply with State law, has got to be
readopted by October of 2002.
Mr. J. Brigham: Are y’all going to update this plan,
then?
Mr. Patty: We’re going to update it. The question is in
the air right now as to whether we get a consultant to work
toward a growth management type plan or not, and once that
Page 18
question is answered, then we’ll begin one way or the other.
Mr. J. Brigham: So we can expect all neighborhood plans
to be updated in the next year?
Mr. Patty: Yes, sir. Well, by October of 2002.
Mr. J. Brigham: Okay.
Mayor Young: Madame Clerk, we’ll move ahead with the
order of the day. Those of you who are here for that zoning
item, that they’ve just approved the substitute motion, you
can leave the chamber unless you'd like to stay and visit with
us.
Clerk: Under the consent agenda, Items 1 through 24-B.
Mayor Young: Madame Clerk, I know we have people here to
speak to Items 13 and 19. So if we could go ahead and pull
those.
Mr. Beard: I would like to pull 13 out.
Mayor Young: 13?
Mr. Beard: Yes, sir.
Mr. Shepard: And I’d like to pull 19, Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Young: 19. Anyone else have an item you’d like
pulled from the consent agenda?
Clerk: Items 1 through 24, with the exception of items
13 and 19 being pulled out.
FINANCE:
1. Motion to abate balance of 1999 State, County, and School
taxes on the property at 2441 Riverlook Drive which the
City bought from Charles T. mills and Eva Elizabeth Mills
on 8-27-99. At that time, the sum of $921.67 was pad as
the sellers’ prorata share of these taxes. (Approved by
Finance Committee October 25, 1999)
2. Motion to abate balance of 1999 State, County and School
taxes on the property consisting of 2.20 acres on Morgan
Road, which the City bought from the Estates of Johnnie
W. Raborn, Sr., and Maudell C. Raborn on 10-8-99. At
that time, the sum of $924.94 was paid as the seller’s
prorata share of these taxes. (Approved by finance
Page 19
Committee October 25, 1999)
3. Motion to abate balance of 1999 State, County and School
taxes on the property at No. 1 Broad Street, which the
City bought from Irma H. Hatfield on 9-28-99. At that
time, the sum of $396.91 was paid as the seller’s prorata
share of these taxes. (Approved by Finance Committee
October 25, 1999)
4. Motion to approve Gene Cockerham of Augusta as the vendor
of choice for the purpose of auctioning excess County
vehicles and equipment (Bid #99-110A). (Approved by
Finance Committee October 25, 1999)
5. Motion to approve a request from the Boy Scouts of
America, Georgia-Carolina Council, Inc. for partial
waiver of 1999 taxes in the amount of $1,236.48 (Map 70-
2, Parcel 50 - 44,625.48 on property located at 1804
Gordon Highway and 2833 Milledgeville Road). (Approved
by Finance Committee October 25, 1999)
6. Motion to approve a refund of 1997 taxes in the amount of
$465.45 to NTFC Capital Corporation for overpayment of
taxes on account 2060390. (Approved by Finance Committee
October 25, 1999)
7. Motion to approve a refund of 1996 taxes in the amount of
$294.32 to Richard R. Barbee for overpayment of taxes on
Account 24703. (Approved by Finance Committee October
25, 1999)
ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES:
8. Motion to approve the reprogramming of $30,000 in 1997
(CDGB) funds and designate the funds for the New Hope
Community Center Project. (Approved by Administrative
Services Committee October 25, 1999)
9. Motion to approve resolution authorizing the submission
of the year 2000-2004 Consolidated Plan and Year 2000
Action Plan. (Approved by Administrative Services
Committee October 25, 1999)
10. Motion to approve Final Version of Year 2000-2004
Consolidated Plan and Year 2000 Action Plan for Community
Development Block Grant, Emergency Shelter Grant and HOME
Investment Partnership funds. (Approved by Administrative
services Committee October 25, 1999)
11. Motion to approve and ordinance providing for the
demolition of a certain unsafe and uninhabitable property
in the south Richmond neighborhood: 3858 Crest Drive
nd
(District 6, Super District 10); AND WAIVE 2 READING.
(Approved by Administrative Services Committee October
25, 1999)
Page 20
ENGINEERING SERVICES:
12. Motion to authorize execution of the Augusta-Richmond
County Regional Flood Control Feasibility Study and
Associates Capital project budget (CPB) in the amount of
$1,637,946. Account CPB #323-04-299823999. (Approved by
Engineering Services Committee October 25, 1999)
13. Pulled from consent agenda.
14. Motion to approve Change Order #3 in the amount of
$38,408 to chandler construction services for work to be
completed and materials supplied on the 60% Raw Water
Transmission Main. (Approved by Engineering Services
Committee October 25, 1999)
PUBLIC SAFETY:
15. Motion to approve an expenditure of $9,966.99 for
relocating the data communications lines and associated
communications hardware to 901 Greene Street, subject to
receipt of forfeiture funds in an equal amount.
(Approved by Public Safety Committee October 25, 1999)
16. Motion to accept recommendations from the facilities
maintenance Manager regarding additional space for Law
Library and other relocations. (Approved by Public
Safety Committee October 25, 1999)
17. Motion to approve $7,200 for purchase of 3 PC’s for EMA
with EMA Director to pursue funding from LEPC and GEMA.
(Approved by Public Safety Committee October 25, 1999)
18. Motion to approve application for Grant to fund Mobile
Data Terminals in the Sheriff’s Department. (Approved by
Public Safety Committee October 25, 1999)
19. Pulled from the consent agenda.
20. Motion to authorize renewal of the 1999 stop Violence
Against Women Act Grant Program and approve $16,676 for
matching funds (25% of the grant amount). This amount
necessary for the procurement of $66,705 in federal grant
funds. Funds available in Sheriff’s budget - no new
equipment or personnel required. (Approved by Public
safety Committee October 25, 1999)
21. Motion to approve/ratify the renewal of EMS Ambulance
License no. 121-01 in the amount of $5,350 for license
renewal. (Approval by Public Safety Committee October
25, 1999
PUBLIC SERVICES:
22. Motion to approve change order #3 for A/E services for
Diamond Lakes Regional Park with Cranston, Robertson &
Page 21
Whitehurst, P.C. in the amount of $58,470.05 as a
deductive change order. (Approved by Public Services
Committee October 25, 1999)
A. Motion to concur with the recommendations of the
Director of Recreation regarding the upcoming
Mayfest Event, which includes combining activities
to include the Fairgrounds; with the Director to
report back to the Committee with a more defined
plan for the event. (Approved by the Public
Services Committee October 25, 1999
PETITIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS:
23. Motion to approve the minutes of regular meeting of the
Augusta Commission held on October 19, 1999.
24. Motion to accept letter of resignation from Ms. S. Susan
Sammons to the Community Services Board of East Central
Georgia.
B. Motion to accept the resignation of Mr. John
Strelec from the Augusta-Richmond County Library
Board.
C. Motion to appoint Mr. N. Staten Bitting, Jr., to
the ARC Library Board due to resignation of Mr.
John Strelec representing District 7.
Mr. Handy: I so move.
Mr. Shepard: Second.
Mayor Young: All those in favor of Mr. Handy’s motion,
please vote aye.
MOTION CARRIES 10-0.
Clerk: Item 13: Motion to authorize Public Works and
Engineering Department to prepare contract documents and
advertise for Solid Waste Collection in Urban Service district
and certain portions of the Suburban Service District and look
into the possibility of placing a referendum on the
presidential preference ballot. (Approved by Engineering
Services Committee October 25, 1999)
Mr. Kuhlke: So move.
Mr. J. Brigham: Second.
Mayor Young: We have a motion and a second. Mr. Oliver,
did you want to address this?
Page 22
Mr. Oliver: As stated in the committee meeting, the only
purpose of this is to obtain pricing. We’ve received interest
from citizens, talked with some Commissioners about possibly
expanding the areas. They’ve expressed some citizens have
contacted them. This in no obligates us to do anything. At
the point these bids come in, they can either be accepted,
they can be rejected, they can be continued, it can be put on
the ballot, or whatever you all would like to do. The key
thing is when you do an undertaking of this magnitude, it
takes some time to get the bids and the pricing back, and
that’s the reason for the term. My recollection is, and Mr.
Goins can correct me if I’m wrong, I think the current
contract is up February 1.
Mr. Goins: February 3.
Mr. Oliver: February 3.
Mayor Young: Mr. Shepard?
Mr. Shepard: Mr. Mayor, and I address my question to the
administrator, for the areas that have been not included in
the committee mapping, how would they identify their interest
to you? Just through us? Like I’ve had a community outside
of Bobby Jones that is fairly compact saying they were
interested in being considered. How would we study the
pricing there?
Mr. Oliver: One of the things when you draw this is
there are economies of scale, and if you have a subdivision or
two subdivisions beside each other, you can get more
competitive prices if it’s everything versus half of it. We
tried to do this based on some input that we received at prior
meetings, as well as input from Commissioners. If there are
other areas that people are interested in, we’d be glad to
expand those boundaries. But what we tried to do in
configuring these districts was to configure them in such a
way that it would accommodate the small hauler or the large
hauler so that essentially one truck could go through an area
on a twice-a-week pickup and be able to accommodate all the
houses and for all the properties there. And that’s the way
the districts are configured because that’s the way you get
the optimum productivity. If we get those, we’ll try to
configure other areas if there is sufficient desire.
Mr. Shepard: Couldn’t you just configure them and if the
pricing doesn’t work out, then you could report that back to
us? I mean this is conceptual, is it not?
Page 23
Mr. Oliver: This is conceptual, but again as I say, the
areas are configured so that one truck can cover a given
amount of space in a given amount of time.
Mayor Young: We’ve got some people in the audience, I
think, some of the garbage haulers who wanted to speak to us.
Would you come up to the podium, please, and give us your name
and your address? I didn’t mean to offend you by calling you
a garbage hauler. I don’t know the technical title for what
you do.
Mr. Polonus: That’s fine. My name is Bill Polonus. I’m
with Augusta Disposal. My company and my subcontract, Mel
Coleman, pick up about 10,000 of the homes of the 16,000
homes. We’re in support of where you’re heading as far as
bringing in the rest of the county, but there’s a lot of
logistics that have got to be worked out. You have smaller
towns like Blythe that is half way to Wrens. To send a big
truck out there to get 30 or 40 homes is going to be a
logistics problem. But, I understand it’s still in the
planning stages, but there’s going to be, there’s got to be a
lot of discussion about how that can be done. There are some
small haulers out there with one truck, and if you divvy up
the city into too big portions, those haulers are not going to
be able to compete. So we have to look at everybody involved
here. Now, there are people who haul garbage in pickup
trucks. Now that’s a horse of a different color. But if
you’ve got a small hauler that’s got compaction equipment and
he can only handle 500 homes, he can’t compete for a section
that’s 5,000 homes or 2,000 homes. So there’s a lot of things
that we need to look at before we jump into something like
this.
Mr. Oliver: I would note this is just north of the
Gordon Highway. We’ve not considered anything south of the
Gordon Highway. And one of the things that I think that the
neighborhood associations have shown me and it’s proving out
is that this would incorporate both rental properties and
property owners, because property owners tend to take better
care of their property and would do that. And it also would
insure that whoever the hauler is for that district would get
paid. They would not be responsible for the collection, but
rather they would look to us to do that.
Mayor Young: Did anyone else want to speak? Mr. Powell?
Mr. Powell: Yes. Mr. Oliver, when we first began this
contracting of the garbage service in certain areas, we put
Page 24
some stipulations on it and I think myself and Mr. Brigham
down there agreed on the size of the zones. And we want to
know does it conform with what we’ve already passed before as
far as the size of the zones and all that. What we’re not
wanting to do is block the whole city together and have one
garbage hauler. We want to keep it in smaller zones so that
it kept the small business haulers competitive with the large
haulers.
Mr. Oliver: I agree with that, and Mr. Goins and I have
talked about it, and he can speak to how those districts are
proposed to be configured better than I can. Drew?
Mr. Goins: Under the proposed collection areas, we have
seven areas that are proposed. The smallest is 1,061 units,
and that happens to be actually smaller than the smallest unit
we have in the existing districts that we are serving now, Mr.
Powell.
Mr. Powell: A follow-up question, Mr. Mayor, for Mr.
Oliver. Mr. Oliver, when you establish these zones for
garbage service, as you establish each zone, are you going to
have a public hearing in the area versus putting it on the
ballot, or are you just going to put it on the ballot, let
whoever wants it, vote for it, and go on? I’d just like to
know a little bit more about your process.
Mr. Oliver: I would note as background, I think many
people in certain areas of the county got a recent
notification of the applying for a rate increase. I don’t
what that rate increase, but I’ve heard represented, it was
going to be about $2.50 a month. As it relates to that, Mr.
Powell, I think that that’s a decision that can’t be made, and
we want to keep the term of being able to exercise these
number open for a while, and that’s part of the reason for the
longer lead time, because if the prices come back and $10 per
household per month, I think that there will be perhaps great
interest. If, on the other hand, they come back at $18 per
household per month, I think there will be no interest. So I
think it’s largely going to depend on the prices that come
back. Then based on the prices that come back, I would expect
that the Commission will provide guidance on whether you feel
it would be appropriate to have hearings within the districts
that would be affected, whether you feel it would be more
appropriate to put it on as a ballot question perhaps in March
or whatever. But I don’t think that we can know that in the
absence of having good information and good number regarding
the cost.
Page 25
Mr. Powell: One other question for you, Mr. Oliver,
while I’ve got you on a roll here. Just say that a district
is drawn out and they vote for it 51 percent for garbage
service in that district. Is that going to make it mandatory
for the other 49 percent to use that hauler?
Mr. Oliver: Well, that again would be a decision for the
Mayor and Commission to make, but the way that our bids are
currently configured, yes it would. And the reason for that
is because as I think history shows us, in neighborhoods again
that people who own their property take better care of it and
part of the reason to do this is to insure that everybody
complies with the hauling regulations so we don’t wind up
picking up a lot of trash. I often say it’s kind of akin to
cleaning up your kid’s room every day versus making your child
do it themselves. And unfortunately everyone isn’t always a
good neighbor, and this is one of those things where I’m
hopeful that we can treat the cause rather than treat the
symptom and go out and pick that up, and at the same time
provide a service in a more cost-effective manner.
Mayor Young: We had another vendor who wanted to address
the Commission. If you’d come back up and give us your name
and address please. And then Mr. Bridges had his hand up and
then Mr. Beard and then Mr. Handy. Then we’ll come to the
other side here.
Mr. Coleman: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. My name is Melvin
Coleman. I’m at 3010 Georgia Road. And I have Coleman
Sanitation, which I’m in association with Augusta Disposal.
I’d just like to say that I’m not opposed to progress and
therefore appreciate all the consideration and a chance to
serve. Thank you.
Mayor Young: Thank you. Mr. Bridges?
Mr. Bridges: Randy, my understanding at the committee
meeting was not only was this to be north of the Gordon
Highway, which I understand is the case, but that we were
saying we were going out to get pricing, just to get pricing,
and then we were going to look at it. But if we decide to do
something about it, is this going to scrap the present bids
that we have out there for trash haulers? I think that was
under some kind of four-year limited contract or whatever?
And will every, will all the areas be back up on bid and not
just the additional areas north of the Gordon Highway that
we’re adding in with this procedure?
Mr. Oliver: The original contracts that were done were
Page 26
done just slightly before my coming here. We were responsible
for implementation. It was a two-year contact with two one-
year options. We're currently in the first option year. There
remains another option year. The reason for this approach is
that if we go out and bid this because we have had to
reconfigure some of the districts to make it economical to do
it, because there are certain areas like in East Augusta that
we couldn’t set up as a separate district because they would
have to haul from here and go pick up in areas here and it
just wasn’t cost effective. If the information that comes in
is something the Commission doesn’t want to pursue, this
provides us the flexibility to scrap that process and to
exercise the final year of those option contracts and then go
forward. So I think we have flexibility both ways. And I
know I’ve had one company that’s contacted me about, well, you
know, that they had anticipated getting the fourth year, and I
understand that but I think that that really puts them in a
competitive position in that the cans and things that they’ve
bought have already been amortized three or four years if they
did what they said. But the contract was a two-year guarantee
with two one-year renewals.
Mr. Bridges: But what I’m asking, I don’t think I really
understood your response to this in this regard, but if we say
we like the pricing, we’re going to bid it, are we putting the
whole area north of Gordon Highway in?
Mr. Oliver: No, what will happen is the pricing will
come back and we won’t say we’re going to bid it. What we’ll
say is we’re going to award a contract for that and you could
award it in a given district and not in another district the
way we’ve got it set up. But yes, when the pricing comes back
in, if you decide to hold district meetings, if you decide to
put it on the presidential primary, whatever, the decision, it
could be implemented by any of the geographic districts we’ve
outline and effectively what would happen, you would implement
it in those districts and then you would not exercise the
contract. If on the other hand you decided to scrap the
information that came in, you said, hey these prices aren’t as
good as we currently have, you could scrap what we’ve got and
then just exercise the existing contracts and I think it
provides us the greatest flexibility. Or not exercising the
renewal I guess would be more accurate.
Mayor Young: All right, Mr. Beard?
Mr. Beard: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have a couple of
concern over this, and this is why I asked that Item 13 be
pulled. And I guess my first concern is the present haulers.
Page 27
As I understand it, and Mr. Oliver, you may want to correct me
if I’m wrong, that my concern would be in the old urban city,
we do have these contracts with the people and some of those
have just spoken to you. And as I understand it, presently it
would just be a renewal or extension of their contract. What
will happen if these, if we do go to this bidding process,
what would happen to those people who are presently in the old
urban city who are presently haulers in the old urban city?
Mr. Oliver: It was a two year contract. A two year
guaranteed contract with two one-year renewal options, solely
at the option of the county. We are in the third year or the
first year of the renewal option. You all can elect today if
you would like to extend those contracts into the fourth year
and we’ll go forward and leave the garbage districts exactly
the way they are. Alternatively, we can get the pricing for
these configured the way the districts are configured, because
they’re configured in a way to try to optimize and achieve the
lowest possible pricing based on the geographic area we’re
trying to cover. If you decided to go into the preference
primary and put it on the ballot, for example, I can see a
situation where we would be going to the haulers and saying we
would like to extend this on a month-to-month or a couple-of-
months basis until the results of that election are known,
because those results--if you make an election to do this, we
aren’t going to be able to implement this overnight, even if
the prices are perfect. But that’s a decision you all will
have to make. Unfortunately, it’s not one that we can just
configure, add the additional areas without reconfiguring the
districts, and the way that it’s currently provided, no given
hauler is guaranteed any district at all.
Mr. Beard: And that leads into my second concern, that
you’re just talking about north of the Gordon Highway. Why
would we go to all this trouble to study zones just north of
the Gordon Highway? Why not extend it throughout the whole
city and you would have it there whether the people elected to
do this or not? But to me, from an example just immediately
past the Gordon Highway, if those people wanted to do
something, they couldn’t do anything because we wouldn’t have
the zone or we wouldn’t have the figures there, and it doesn’t
make sense to me that if we’re going to do it, if we’re going
to do it, then we should include the whole city so that we
have it so that those people who elected to do this would be
able to come in.
Mr. Oliver: If you like, we can get pricing for the
entire county. It was just felt based on the prior public
input that was received that there appeared to be less
Page 28
interest south of the Gordon Highway, and that’s based on
casual observation, than there was north of the Gordon
Highway.
Mr. Beard: That was what I was going to ask you, how did
you come up with that?
Mr. Oliver: As I say, we’d be more than willing to
secure pricing for the entire county, if that’s the desire of
the Mayor and Commission, and then we’d have the information
and you could make your decision based upon that.
Mayor Young: Mr. Handy?
Mr. Handy: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have a two-part
question. One is that, to Randy, when this first came up
about the small haulers and about changing the truck sizes and
all and we had a conversation concerning that, then the next
thing, within the next couple of weeks, then we came up with
this idea here of offering garbage pickup from north of the
Gordon Highway, and what I’m asking is this is something to
bypass the proposal?
Mr. Oliver: This is something that’s been worked on,
Commissioner Handy, for months. This is not something that
when you configure these districts that you just take an ink
pen and you draw the boundaries, because you have to go out
and you have to count the number of people you’re going to
provide service to so you can get the district. I mean you
don’t want to configure a district, for example, that a truck
goes through and the truck is only half full when it gets
done. You want to configure the district optimally so that
when a truck goes through, that the truck is totally full. So
this is not something that’s done very, just casually. It
takes some thought and some study to get good numbers.
Mr. Handy: Okay. Second part is that what will happen
to the smaller haulers who are picking up in that area now?
Mr. Oliver: The same thing that would have occurred in
the former city. In other words, this would be an exclusive
area that instead of having six or eight haulers, for example,
going through a neighborhood picking up trash, that it would
go to whoever was the low cost provider and then all the
property owners there would be provided the service and they
would pay for that service, but you’d have one truck, they’d
pick up every house in the subdivision, there would be less
wear and tear on the road, there would be less air pollution,
and we believe there would be some economies of scale in doing
Page 29
it. While we see that there are a number of areas of concern,
we also see there are a number of area of potential benefit.
Mr. Handy: My reason for asking is that will they be
eligible to put in proposal for this same service?
Mr. Oliver: Certainly. Anybody can put in a proposal.
Anybody who is qualified to provide the service is more than
free to put in a proposal, and we welcome that proposal
because it’s through that competitive process that we keep the
service at the highest possible level and also provide the
lowest possible cost.
Mr. Handy: Okay. Qualify. Can you identify that for
me? Qualify it to provide the service.
Mr. Oliver: Well, in other words, we don’t want Randy
Oliver going out and buying a truck and doing it. We want
somebody that has experience in doing that and that type
thing, I think the prior go-around, I think when Mr. Goins
worked very diligently to privatize the city’s service, I
think he worked very carefully with the CSRA Development
people as it relates to a number of small haulers to insure
they were able to participate in the process, and we intend to
try to do everything to we can to encourage maximum
participation by individuals the same way that it was done
before. And as far as I know, and I know it’s a difficult
thing for the Mayor and Commission to do, but we want to
promote that competition. We don’t want to put anybody out of
business but we would like to have a cleaner city and this is
a way that we can potentially try to work towards that end to
do that.
Mayor Young: All right.
Mr. Handy: Okay, that’s all for now.
Mayor Young: Thank you, Mr. Handy. Anyone on this side?
Mr. Jerry Brigham?
Mr. J. Brigham: Mr. Goins, the concern was about the
smaller size districts. What about the larger size districts?
Mr. Goins: The larger size district would be 7,919
units.
Mr. J. Brigham: Is that larger than what we now have?
Mr. Goins: The largest unit we have now is 5,266.
Page 30
Mr. Oliver: Isn’t that based, Drew, on what the haulers
currently have?
Mr. Goins: Yes, sir. The current largest single
contract we have is 5,266, and the proposed largest is 7,919.
Mr. J. Brigham: The other thing that I was concerned
about, there is going to be recycling within our
specifications?
Mr. Goins: Yes, sir, there will be recycling.
Mr. Oliver: We would note that we are obtaining pricing
a number of different ways to know what the options are, and
that is one of the options we’re going to request pricing on,
but the jury, if you will, will still be out based upon
whatever that pricing is, because many of you know outside of
where garbage service is currently being provided, that if you
have recycling service, it’s typically done.
Mr. Goins: We tend to have a base bid and then
alternates such as bulk trash, recycling, and several other
items.
Mr. J. Brigham: Leaves and limbs?
Mr. Goins: Well, leaves and limbs would be in the base
bid. It would be a two day pickup plus leaves and limbs in
the based bid.
Mr. Oliver: And we’re also proposing to include bulky
trash pickup, meaning that if somebody puts a sofa down at the
road right-of-way, we want to get Public Works out of that
business.
Mr. J. Brigham: Okay.
Mayor Young: Was there a comment from the floor? Did you
want to say something, sir? Please come up and give us your
name and address for the record.
Mr. White: My name is G.B. White. I live on Old
Savannah Road. Mr. Mayor, what I’m here for, I run a little
truck. A pickup truck.
Mayor Young: Are you a commercial hauler? What’s the name
of your company?
Page 31
Mr. White: Yes, G.B. White.
Mayor Young: Do you have a business license?
Mr. White: I got a business license. I’ve hauled for
years.
Mayor Young: All right.
Mr. White: From the way it looks like to me that it’s
going, you want to put the little trucks completely out of
business. That’s what I’m doing here, to find out. The
little man got to eat just like the big man. What I’m saying,
now I’ve been a retired man, long ago. Now I’ve been into the
garbage business a long time, but [inaudible] truck because I
do my own work. I never have gotten a ticket for littering or
nothing. And it just seems funny to me to, in other words,
picking up where a lot of big trucks can’t go. In other
words, the individuals that I’m picking up for, they would
have to cut them a road to go back in there to get it. And
the old people, they can’t roll no big can or nothing. I go
from door to door, to the house, and pick it up. So now what
are y’all going to do about that? To get a big old truck and
you can’t get to their house? An operator like we got here,
they ain’t going to walk no, almost a mile to pick up nothing.
They got to drive back there to get it. So what I’m saying is
I think y’all ought to continue letting the little truck
continue to pick up. That’s my saying.
Mayor Young: All right. Thank you.
Mr. Oliver: Do you have any accounts north of the Gordon
Highway?
Mr. White: North of the Gordon Highway? I don’t know.
Mayor Young: Mr. Oliver, but the request for prices would
not preclude a larger hauler from contracting with a smaller
independent hauler to service part of the area; is that
correct?
Mr. Oliver: That’s true. They need to come up with the
best business arrangement they can come up with to provide the
best level of service at the most affordable cost.
Mayor Young: Mr. Mays?
Mr. Mays: Yes, Mr. Mayor, let me say this. When you all
did this in committee the other week, and I came in and kind
Page 32
of sarcastic what I said, but I wasn’t joking about it, cause
I was out on the public hearing trail dealing with this, and I
think you had a lot of folks who spoke loud and clear. I
think while the intentions may be good, we need to clarify a
few things. First, the same night that you all got through
with the committee meeting, I heard several stories in
reference to residents that lived in the old city who received
free garbage pickup. Let’s pick an asterisk by that. That
was the first thing. That was wrong. And I’ve cautioned
about the PR that went out from this. If you were going to
start this messy campaign all over again, even though you
can’t control what somebody else says. I think we need to
deal with apples and apples and we need to deal with oranges
and oranges. We dealt with dealing with the old urban area,
old city, because there was an obligated situation of which
people had been taxed for with a sanitation system that
brought about, which I do agree, it progressed the method of
going to. But that was one that we were obligated because
that old government provided that service inside of the old
city. When we started talking about anything beyond that,
even the areas that were continuous to the old city, we heard
some loud and clear voices. I think progressive people have
to be open to change, but I got two problems. If you are
putting something on a ballot that you say, and I know this is
getting beyond that, but it’s part of the motion, to possibly
look at. That’s kind of a vague term, but you start to
possibly looking at things, you can get a lot in return that
maybe you don’t want. When you put something on a ballot for
a district to vote on, it could be the way you’re talking
about, I think you need to distinguish between what may be a
sanitation district and what may be a voting district, because
the voters in a particular district may go to the poll and
vote and vote for something that may be affecting folks in
that same district who want no parts of it, but they’re
saddled with it because you put it into a total voting area. I
don’t think unless you’re going to fine tune it to where
you’re going to voting precincts, and that’s going to be hard,
to break down neighborhoods on how you deal with individual
garbage pickup. That’s something else that is very cumbersome
and confusing right now. Maybe to me only. But I thought we
left that last scenario, that people had the opportunity in
the given neighborhoods, suburbs, or wherever to come back
like we do with various forms of street lighting, paving of
streets, and to do a majority a petition in those areas to
their government if they wanted a change in how those
situation were done. Now either we’ve abandoned that or we’ve
forgotten that. Because we’re back now, and I don’t have a
problem with us finding out how much something is going to
cost, but it seems though we jump to an either/or situation.
Page 33
And I think all of us are receptive that we get folks, whether
they are north or south of the Gordon Highway, if they raise
enough sand to come in and say we want to change this, we want
to put this under your control, this is what we want, then I
think we will listen. The last time we listened, a whole lot
of folks said they were totally satisfied because the
misconception had gone out that if we were going to provide
something, we were going to do it free. When they found out
that they were going to be paying for it as well in many of
those areas, they said, hey, my wheel’s not broken, I don’t
need you to fix it, I’m satisfied, be it a large truck or a
small truck, with who I have. I think you need to return some
formula to those folks and find out what’s on their minds
before you start dealing with this new wheel. You move ahead
to almost get to a presidential preference ballot before you
even know what the feelings in some of these areas are. And
since we left that public hearing scenario, I stand to be
corrected. I don’t know of one neighborhood that’s been
represented by anybody that’s come to this mike and officially
said we petition to change the way we are, that we had in
those public hearings. Now if that’s so, I stand to be
corrected. But I think we are moving a little fast without
knowing all the parameters of what we’re dealing with. We
dealt with the apples and oranges in the old city because we
had to. It either had to mean we were going to upgrade the
sanitation department or we were going to privatize it. But
this is a whole different animal, government versus in some
cases the elimination of private competition and those areas
have to be studied. And I think before we move into that
deal, we need to hear every aspect of that, because the next
set of PR that will go out tonight is that we’re fixing to
find some prices and it’s going to be on a ballot in March,
and you’re going to do decide what you’re going to do. That’s
the way your headlines in your print and your electronic media
is going to highlight what you’re doing. And then you’re
going to back into a hair-raising situation of those folks who
cussed us out on that public hearing trail that we went to
deal with. And I just beg before y’all get too modern, return
to some of the minutes that you took at some of those
hearings, and if you want to go back and solicit some of those
areas, no problem. They’ll turn up in here and line up all
the way out to the elevators. I’ll be the first one to say if
that’s what you want, we find a way to get it for you. But
that line hasn’t gotten beyond one, Mr. Mayor. Ain’t nobody
been here. And I think we got a lot of things we can start
solving, get some prices on. And when those folks start
rattling our cage, then let’s answer. But I think if we’re
going to go forward with this, then let’s have an answer for
the folks in those neighborhoods, all of them, that currently
Page 34
aren’t under the governmental supervision of garbage, what
it’s going to do to the haulers, both large and small, under
whatever contracts they are under, and hear from them as to
whether or not they want to be placed on a ballot for a
particular service.
Mayor Young: Thank you, Mr. Mays. We’ve had a lot of
discussion, but we still don’t have a motion on the floor.
Mr. Bridges?
Mr. Bridges: Mr. Mayor, I want to make sure I understand
this motion. We’ve heard a lot of discussion, like you say,
about different things, but I think we’ve got 26, where we’re
discussing some of the haulers and small transports in with
this motion.
Mayor Young: I’m sorry, I stand corrected. There is a
motion.
Mr. Bridges: In with this motion. This motion that’s
before us is simply to ask for bids; is that right?
Mr. Oliver: That’s correct.
Mr. Bridges: North of the Gordon Highway?
Mr. Oliver: That’s correct.
Mr. Bridges: Okay.
Mr. J. Brigham: Call the question, Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Young: All right, the question has been called.
The debate is over. Let’s go ahead and vote. All in favor of
the motion, please vote aye.
MR. BEARD AND MR. COLCLOUGH VOTE NO.
MR. MAYS AND MR. H. BRIGHAM ABSTAIN.
MR. POWELL OUT.
MOTION FAILS 5-2-2.
Mayor Young: Madame Clerk, let’s go ahead and take up
Item 26. That relates to the same thing we’re talking about
now and we can get the trash and garbage behind us.
Clerk: Item 26: Motion to approve an ordinance to amend
the Augusta Richmond County Code to regulate the commercial
transportation of refuse and to adopt the State Code provision
Page 35
concerning the transportation of hazardous wastes with an
effective date of July 1, 2000. (No recommendation from
Engineering Services Committee.)
Mayor Young: Mr. Oliver, did you want to address this?
Mr. Oliver: This is a recommendation that we’ve been
working with the Mayor’s Task Force on cleaning up Augusta
with, and I think there are some representatives from the Task
Force here that may want to address that.
Mayor Young: All right. Mr. Gene Tanzemore, who is
chairman of the Task Force, is with us today, and if you’ll
come up to the microphone and give us your name and address
for the record, please.
Mr. Tanzemore: Thank you. My name is Eugene Tanzemore.
I live at 2757 Willis Foreman Road, the one that’s south of
the Gordon Highway. This bill that I’m presenting, has
nothing to do with mandatory garbage pickup, it has nothing t
do with putting people out of business, it has nothing to do
with making people get large trucks or anything of that
nature. I just want to get that clear first. It is not
connection whatsoever. He’s talking oranges. I’m talking
apples. All right. Now I am the chairman of the Mayor’s Task
Force on Clean Up Augusta-Richmond County Litter. And if I
can indulge just for a few minutes. The first thing we got
challenged to clean up Augusta with all the litter, and a lot
of people had a lot of things to say about that. When we
first had our meeting right here in this room. One of the
things we realized that before you can clean up anything,
you’ve got to know what’s causing the problem. The first
problem we realized there were no signs in Augusta-Richmond
County that says litter is prohibited. So if you look around
Augusta-Richmond County, and other parts of Georgia that were
adopted by the DOT and others, signs are up all over Georgia.
The second thing we realized was that trash receptacles were
not downtown and other areas. I believe you will find that
there are some now there and I guess more may be on their way
in the near future. The other causation factor we realized
that what is causing all this litter on our highways and
byways and things of this nature. Was it mandatory pickup was
lacking or what? We took a survey and looked at those areas
that had mandatory garbage pickup, looked at those areas that
did not have mandatory garbage pickup, and we found no
difference. Litter was everywhere. All over the place. So
it didn’t even make a difference whether you have it. I
transported from Baltimore, Maryland after 40 years, and we
Page 36
have had mandatory garbage pickup for 40 years, and they are
in a worse situation than you are right here today. Mandatory
garbage pickup. What this feel, that we have from the Task
Force coming out of the Enforcement Committee, is very simple,
it’s for everybody, that one of the things that we noticed
that the vehicles that are utilized to pick up garbage,
whether large, small or indifferent, they need to have some
type of regulation and inspection to see whether they are
worthy to be used as garbage pickup. If you’ve got a pickup
truck, a 1500 Chevy, you can put a box on it, put some doors
on it, but when you pick up your load and you’re ready to go
to the garbage dump, you can fasten those doors, pull down the
windows, whatever, and the load you leave the community with
is the same load you have with you get to the dump. Not all
up and down Deans Bridge Road and other roads that you travel.
So what we are proposing that these individuals that are in
the business of picking up garbage, one, that they be
inspected on a yearly basis; two, that they receive some type
of sticker they would place in their window that would help
the marshals who are helping us enforce this, that they are,
yes, I’m in business, yes, I have passed inspection, and yes,
I can pick up garbage. No matter what size your truck is.
But there’s an ordinance somewhere where you put a blanket
over it or sheet over it, whatever. By the time they travel a
mile down the road going 60 miles and hour, and they should be
doing 45, it’s halfway off, trash is all over down the road,
and that’s making our job very difficult. If the Mayor gave
us the challenge to clean up Augusta-Richmond County
[inaudible]. So we’re not trying to put people out of work.
To give you an idea. I checked with License and Inspection on
October 26 of last month. They told me there was 25 people
that has been licensed to pick up garbage in Augusta-Richmond
County. And that went through the Mayor’s office. Checked
with the Mayor’s office this morning, and they told me 9. I
don’t think anybody knows who picks up. But the problem is if
it’s 9, 25, or a hundred, we as citizens of Augusta-Richmond
County have a right to live in a litter-free society, without
I have to get up in the morning and go out my door, I happen
to live on Willis Foreman Road, and pick up somebody’s garbage
that lives somewhere in Hephzibah and what have you before I
can go and kiss my wife to go to work, cause I’m retired. I
just feel that this bill, address everyone, it’s not raising
no taxes, it’s not a district, you can pick up what you want,
but you’ve got to have a vehicle that will be inspected. The
place I’m from, we had mandatory garbage pickup, and they
wondered what was wrong. The whole thing that was wrong
there, there was never any inspection done on the vehicles
that were utilized to carry out this task. It was just that
simple. I have just been elected [inaudible] board of
Page 37
directors, and I found out we got called up on Deans Bridge
Road. Some truck had knocked down a utility pole. What had
happened, some truck, garbage pickup, was going to the garbage
dump, the bed of the truck fell off, the cab of the truck
luckily went to the right, and knocked down a utility poll.
Just as simple could have went to the left and killed
someone’s loved one right here today. So that truck really
shouldn’t have been on the road. Most of your garbage pickup
trucks, not all of them, some of them are very nice and well
done. Most of them get some plywood, build some sides, and
about two or three months later it’s leaning this way or
leaning that way and there’s no inspection. We need control
on that, and that is what the bill that the Mayor’s Task Force
to Clean Up Augusta-Richmond County is about. It don’t have
nothing to do with mandatory, don’t have nothing to do with
part of Gordon Highway, it’s for everybody, it is [inaudible]
solution to a problem. I just came out of Tampa at a
community, a Mayor’s meeting, Clean Up America. They’ve been
in business 46 years. From Michigan, Ohio, Washington. They
all have mandatory garbage pickup. They are in the same
problem we’re in now. Because I keep asking the question, who
inspects your trucks. Those that pick up the business? They
say nobody, across the board. From Tennessee to Ohio, what
have you. So why can’t we be the first? I believe as a
citizen we have a right to live in a litter-free society. I
think that it can be done right here [end of tape one]
Mr. Bridges: [beginning of tape two] Trucks will go
down a 100 yard, 200 yard driveway and pick up the trash and
turn around and come back out. Those big trucks, big
compactor trucks are not going to do that. What’s going to
happen is that the people have to bring their trash out to the
road for a compactor truck to pick up. They’ll probably do it
the night before. Early that morning, somebody is going to
come along and knock that trash can over and it’s going to
spill out up and down the ditch and you’re going to have a
worse problem than you had before. So I think these smaller
carrier serve a real need in those areas. Your standards,
what I’m asking is your standards, would you still allow these
pickup trucks or somebody that’s adapted a pickup truck for
trash haulage, and what would be the standards to allow it if
you do that?
Mr. Tanzemore: I agree with you very much, because I
live south of Gordon Highway, out in the sticks. And we have
a driveway as such and I wouldn’t want one of those big trucks
on my driveway, to be honest with you. And I have a small
hauler to pick up my trash. He does a very good job and he’s
very neat with it. I was just saying that those people that
Page 38
went out and got plywood and that it’s leaning to one side or
what have you, I’m just saying they have to construct some
type of box on the back of that vehicle, that when they finish
serving the community, that they can pull down the door, close
the door, pull the top, and when they get to the landfill,
they still got what they left the community with on the truck
to be dumped at the landfill. That it’s not dumped up and
down Deans Bridge Road, and it’s not dumped up and down Willis
Foreman Road or Highway 88 and all the other places. That’s
all I’m saying. A 1500 Chevy, it can be adapted, if it’s a
ton-and-a-half, it can be adapted, if it’s one of those big
$200,000 vehicles, then fine, they need inspection, too, cause
I’ve driven behind them. The drivers don’t lock the door.
Some of them, the trash compactor is so old, hasn’t been
maintained, and it’s only half closed, so they also have the
same problem. All I’m saying is some inspection and if we’re
saying this is going into effect July 1, 2000, that it be a
given time to adapt to it and you notice the bill, there’s no
standard [inaudible], none of that. What your particular
vehicle can handle, that’s what you do, but it’s got to show
that when you get ready to leave the community, that it be
secure and that the garbage you leave the community with will
arrive at the dump where the people are paying for it to go,
and not in front of somebody’s yard or up and down the road.
Mayor Young: I think the attorney can give us a more
technical definition.
Mr. Wall: Well, if you look at subparagraph 2, B-2, and
maybe there was some misunderstanding, but we originally
drafted the ordinance such that it had to be an enclosed
truck, which is what you’ve just described. But we were told
that was not the intent of the Committee, that they wanted a
specifically-designed, by the manufacturer, for the
collection, which would basically be a compactor truck. So
the way this ordinance is written, it would prohibit the
pickup trucks and the three-quarter ton trucks or whatever,
that may be enclosed but are not specifically designed for
trash collection. And it was our understanding that that’s
the way this ordinance was to be drafted, and that’s the
reason that language is in there.
Mr. Bridges: If that’s what this ordinance is doing,
making them go to a compactor, then I can’t support the
ordinance.
Mr. Oliver: And this can be change if this is what you
all want. Remember those trucks don’t just come in one size.
I mean there are obviously many different ways to do it. But
Page 39
this language can be changed if that’s the rule of the
Commission. The main thing we’d have to do to change that is
to just be specific so that everybody’s expectations on an
inspection are consistent.
Mr. Bridges: I understand that those trucks might not all
come in one size, but what that implies is that the guy is
going to have to get a new truck, and you’re talking about a
major capital investment for some of these people, and you’re
taking away a service, a very much needed service in some
areas, so I think if we’re going to change it, we certainly
need to change it--I don’t have any trouble with what Mr.
Tanzemore has got here, just making sure the trash don’t get
on the highway, but let him adapt his existing vehicle to
accommodate that.
Mr. Oliver: My suggestion would be if that’s the will of
the Commission we’ll redesign that section of the ordinance
and bring it back to you.
Mayor Young: The ordinance makes reference to both
vehicle and container, and I think that’s what he’s talking
about. A container you can put on the back of the vehicle.
Mr. Handy wanted to say something.
Mr. Handy:
Yes, sir, I would like to say we have a lot
of other work we need to do, and we need to send this back to
the drawing board until we get the ordinance right, cause I
had talked with Mr. Tanzemore outside of this building and he
explained to me what he just explained today, and the way I
heard it at first, he wasn’t talking about anyone going in
business, buying that large dump truck. That’s what he told
me personally. Because I was against that originally. So
since we have to go back and change the ordinance and we have
I’d like to make a motion just
a lot of other things to do,
send this back to Committee to do whatever it need to with it
and then come back with us, put together like we want it and
make sure that we know what we want before we put an ordinance
out there to try to change something.
Mr. Shepard: Second.
Mayor Young: We have a motion and a second. Mr. Kuhlke,
did you want to say something?
Mr. Kuhlke: Call the question.
Mayor Young: The question has been called. All in favor
Page 40
of the motion of sending this back to the Engineering Services
Committee, please vote aye.
Clerk: Mr. Mays, are you voting?
Mr. Mays: I don’t have a problem with it going back. I
just wanted to ask a question. The group didn’t make the
ordinance, did it?
Mayor Young: They didn’t write the ordinance, not.
Mr. Mays: Who wrote it?
Mr. Oliver: It was written by the attorney’s office but
it was reviewed by the subcommittee of the Mayor’s Task Force
for Clean Up Augusta.
Mr. Mays: I just wanted to say fine, if y’all want to
change something in it, but I didn’t want them to leave with
the impression that we were punishing them for bringing it to
us and doing a good job of putting something together and then
it isn’t right.
MR. POWELL OUT.
MOTION CARRIES 9-0.
Mayor Young: Item 19.
Clerk: Item 19: Motion to approve a request from the
CSRA Humane Society for a ten-year lease of the former City
Stockade located at Lake Olmstead. (Approved by Public Safety
Committee October 25, 1999).
Mr. Oliver: I’d like to put one thing on the record.
Mayor Young: All right.
Mr. Oliver: Mr. Mays, during the committee meeting asked
me to contact the Task Force for the Homeless regarding their
potential use of it. I got a letter from them yesterday
indicating that the Task Force does not have interest in that
facility.
Mayor Young: We have some people here to speak on behalf
of the item as stated in here, and I believe we have some
other interested parties who would like to speak, so why don’t
we start with the Humane Society. Is there a spokesman for
the group that would like to address the Commission? Give us
Page 41
your name and address, please.
Ms. Mayer: My name is Raynette Mayer and my address is
2007 Bridgewater Water Drive. That is in Augusta. I am the
current president of the CSRA Humane Society. We are a non-
profit, privately-funded group. We have been in existence for
approximately 12-14 years and are chartered to take care of
homeless, abandoned pets. We are not in the business of
rounding up stray animals, which is the domain of the animal
control people. We have noticed that the Lake Olmstead
facility there, the former Sheriff’s Stockade, has been vacant
for a number of years, and we have proposed to the Public
Safety Committee that we convert that to an animal facility,
namely a pet adoption facility and humane education facility,
which would involve the entire community. We see this as an
opportunity to fulfill a need in the community, namely of the
excess pets that are euthanized out at Animal Control, or
those pets that are just left to run loose and become feral
and become public safety hazards in our community. We also,
for the Commissioners’ benefit, we do not want any money from
the city, we do not want any money from the state. This is a
privately-funded operation and we would be completely
responsible for all maintenance and upkeep of the facility. We
understand that there might be some concerns from the
community. We’d like to point out, however, that this is a
very substantial brick building. The pets would be housed
indoors, so there should not be a significant concern with
things like odor, which would be policed on a regular basis,
or with noise, since the pets are going to be inside. And if
anyone has any specific questions, I would be glad to address
those.
Mayor Young: I’d like you to address one thing. There
was a representation made in the committee meeting that y’all
had contacted the Augusta Canal Authority and they had no
objection to this, and if you could go through that again,
please, because I think they’re here with some concerns.
Ms. Mayer: We had looked at the master plan that was
designated as far as what the Canal Authority was looking at
as far as future things, and the only thing in the Lake
Olmstead area was the pedestrian, bicycle walkway that is now
just been recently opened for use, which is very close to
where that Lake Olmstead property is. There was no other
indication of a usage for that facility itself or for any
other property in the area that we were made aware of in
speaking with the lady who was at the office at the time we
visited.
Page 42
Mayor Young: And you don’t have her name for the record?
Mr. ?: I can get it.
Mayor Young: All right. Thank you very much. Let’s
hear, I know y’all want to say something, Dayton, so if you’ll
come up and give us your name and address for the record. Are
there any other parties that wanted to speak to this issue
that are here today?
Mr. Sherrouse: Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Commissioners.
We appreciate you taking this off the consent agenda to allow
us the opportunity to speak our concerns about it. We just
found out about it, otherwise we would have attended the
committee meeting when you discussed it last week. We’re not
here, of course, objecting to what the Humane Society does. We
think they do a great job and we support their efforts. As
she said, we have prepared a master plan for the entire canal.
We just last Monday dedicated the bridge near this facility
behind Lake Olmstead. We have over $6 million in projects
funded and under design and hopefully will go in construction
shortly and I think what we would like to do is since we have
not had the opportunity to look at the plans by the Humane
Society for the building, we would like you to delay this item
to allow us the opportunity to sit down with them, look at
their plans for the building to see if what they’re proposing
is consistent with what the projects that we have under design
at the present time and to make sure that the proposed use of
the facility is in the best long-term interest of the city,
and it’s just not an easy fix in terms of providing a use for
the building because it’s sitting there vacant. That’s not to
say that we might come back and say it’s okay, we just need
some time to sit down with them and look at the proposal and
the projects we have under design and make sure that they’re
consistent and would support one another.
Mayor Young: Thank you, Dayton. Mr. Shepard?
Mr. Shepard:
Mr. Mayor, I think we need to commend both
groups, the Humane Society for working in their area of
interest, and also the Canal Authority for working in their
area of interest. Seems like they’re both two good things. It
seems like to me it’s a reasonable request that these parties
have time to confer and see if we can’t have a consensus about
I would make the motion that we
happens in this area, and
delay the consideration of this item until the first meeting
in December and let these parties have 30 days to talk.
Page 43
Mr. H. Brigham: Second.
Mayor Young: We have a motion and second. Mr. Beard?
Mr. Beard: I was just going to ask him to put a time
limit on that. At the next meeting?
Mr. Shepard: First meeting in December.
Mr. Beard: Okay, first meeting in December. I can buy
into that, because I do think it’s a good thing. I think you
do need to talk. I think both have quite reasonable requests
here, so I have no objections to it.
Mr. Sherrouse: My only concern, Mr. Mayor, is on the
time. Out new Authority member, Turner Simkins, has
volunteered to chair a committee to look into this, and he
told me right before the meeting he’s an expectant father
within about the next two weeks or so and he’s going to have
other interests for a couple of weeks, so if we could get a
little more time.
Mayor Young: Mr. Sherrouse, I think a month is plenty of
time. If you need somebody else to chair that committee, you
should appoint somebody else or go ahead. You’ve got two
weeks to meet before the due date, so go ahead and meet in the
next two weeks. These people want to do something. Let’s try
to move it along if we can. If you need an extension of time,
come back and ask for it. Let’s do that. Did somebody else
want to speak? Yes, sir, come up and give us your name and
your address for the record, please.
Mr. Blanos: My name is Nick Blanos. I live at 19 Lake
Shore Loop. I’ve lived there long enough, I’ve seen the
Humane Society when they were there many years ago. And
people would bring dogs and the Humane place would be closed,
but they’d leave their dogs outside the gates. It got to be a
pretty bad situation out there. There is also a bad odor that
comes from that building. I want to know what’s wrong with
where they’re at now? Why do they want to move up there?
Mayor Young: Don’t ask the audience questions. Please
address your questions to the chair. I would suggest that
perhaps they include you in the meeting they have and you can
discuss that. Any further discussion on the motion? All in
favor of the motion, please vote aye.
MR. POWELL OUT.
Page 44
MOTION CARRIES 9-0.
Clerk: Item 27: Motion to authorize the Mayor to
execute contract between Augusta, Georgia and Alpine
Apparatus, Inc., on behalf of the Augusta Fire Department for
the sale of surplus fire pumper until February 17, 2000.
Mr. Kuhlke: I so move.
Mr. Beard: Second.
Mayor Young: Motion and second. Any discussion on this
item? All in favor, please vote aye.
MOTION CARRIES 10-0.
Clerk: Item 28: Motion to authorize Administrator and
Attorney to negotiate a one-year lease, with renewal options,
with Riverwalk Antique Depot, Inc. for property owned by the
1949 Pension Plan at an annual rental of $15,120. (Approved
by the Pension Committee October 20, 1999)
Mr. Beard: I so move.
Mr. Shepard: Second.
Item 29: Motion to authorize an appraisal of Real Estate
owned by the 1949 Pension Plan to be paid for by the 1949
Pension Plan at an estimated cost of approximately $2,000.
(Approved by the Pension Committee)
Mr. Beard: I so move.
Mr. Shepard: Second.
Mayor Young: We have a motion and a second. Mr. Powell?
Mr. Powell: Just one question. Mr. Oliver, what is the
value of that property?
Mr. Oliver: That’s why we’re getting the appraisal done.
We had somebody that, and I can go to the backup that was
provided to the committee, but we had an appraiser provide a
price for the lease of that, and I think they came up with $2
per square foot as being the fair market value for the lease.
They didn’t actually do a value per se on the building and
that’s the intent of the appraisal. The ’49 pensioners were in
Page 45
attendance at the meeting and they were supportive of getting
the property appraised.
Mr. Powell: Okay, I didn’t know. I was just curious of
what the property value was and how much was owed back to the
Pension Fund, just for information purposes.
Mr. Oliver: They paid 900 and some-odd thousand, I
believe, for that property. What it’s worth today, I don’t
know, but it probably is going to take 30 or 60 days to get an
appraisal back.
Mayor Young: We have our ’49 pension advisory team
working with us on this. Mr. Mays?
Mr. Mays: Mr. Mayor, I think probably Mr. Powell asked
the question I was going to ask in terms of their presence of
being there, in reference to the expenditure part. They’re
fully aware?
Mr. Oliver: In fact, they encouraged it.
Mr. Mays: Well, I know sometimes they encourage, but I
wanted to make sure they knew it was coming out of, the source
it was coming out of.
Mr. Oliver: That was made very clear.
Mr. Mays: Okay, no problem.
Mayor Young: Any other questions? We’ll go ahead and
vote on these together but record votes separate on these
items in the record. Please vote aye of you’re in favor of
Items 28 and 29.
MOTION CARRIES 10-0. (Item 28)
MOTION CARRIES 10-0. (Item 29)
Clerk: Addendum items:
1: Approve purchase and installation of self contained
hydraulic power unit to replace antiquated hydraulic system at
New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam by the lower bidder, C.W. Hays
Mechanical, Inc., at a cost of $18,150.00 was read.
Mr. Handy: I so move.
Mr. Shepard: Second.
Page 46
Mayor Young: Any discussion? Please vote aye.
MOTION CARRIES 10-0.
Clerk: Item 2: Consider appointment of Mr. William
Roger Giles to the Augusta Aviation Commission.
Mr. Handy: I so move.
Mr. Shepard: Second.
Mr. Wall: On the legal meeting, I had anticipated having
some information for the land transaction, but I do not, so it
would consist of--
Mayor Young: Leave that on because I have a land
transaction for your today.
Mr. Wall: Land transaction, litigation matters and
personnel matters.
Mr. Handy: I so move.
Mr. Shepard: Second.
Mayor Young: All in favor of going into executive session
for those items as enumerated by the attorney, please vote
aye.
MOTION CARRIES 10-0.
(LEGAL MEETING.)
Mayor Young: We will come back to order. We need a
motion to approve the Mayor signing the affidavit.
Item 59: Motion to approve authorization for Mayor to
execute affidavit of compliance with Georgia’s Open Meetings
Act.
Mr. Kuhlke: So move.
Mr. Shepard: Second.
MOTION CARRIES 10-0.
Mayor Young: We are adjourned with no opposition.
Page 47
(MEETING ADJOURNED)
Lena J. Bonner
Clerk of Commission
CERTIFICATION:
I, Lena J. Bonner, Clerk of Commission, hereby certify that
the above is a true and correct copy of the minutes of the
Regular Meeting of Augusta Richmond County Commission held
on November 3, 1999.
Clerk of Commission