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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - CC - 01/04/2023Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council January 4, 2023 Page 1 of 13 CALL TO ORDER Mayor Jamison : ROLL CALL City Clerk: Mayor Jamison: City Clerk : CM Verhoff: Good evening. I would like to call the regular meeting of the Milton City Council for Wednesday, January 41\ 2023 to order. The city strongly recommends that y ou review tonight's agenda carefully , and if you wish to speak on any item on the agenda , then please bring your comment cards to the clerk as soon as possible . While the Milton rules allow a speaker to turn in their comment card up until the clerk calls the agenda item , once the agenda item is called , no more comment cards can be accepted . Will the City Clerk please call the roll and make general announcements ? Good evening and happy New Year, Mayor and Council. I'll be happy to call roll for the Wednesday , January 4th , 2023 regular city council meeting. I would like to remind those in attendance to please silence all cell phones at this time. Those attending the meeting who would like to make a comment, you are required to complete a public comment card. Your comment card must be presented to the City Clerk prior to the agenda item being called . Any comment cards received after the item has been called will not be accepted. If you are representing an organization , an affidavit is required stating you have the authority to speak on that organization . Please review tonight's agenda , and if you would like to make a comment, please bring your comment card to me now . Demonstration of any sort within the chamber is prohibited. Please refrain from any applause , cheering, booing, outburst, or dialogue with any person speaking. Anyone in violation will be asked to leave. As I call roll this evening, please confirm your attendance . Mayor Peyton Jamison ? Here. Councilmember Andrea Verhoff? Here. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council January 4, 2023 Page 2 of 13 City Clerk: CM Moore: City Clerk: CM Johnson: City Clerk: CM Cookerly: City Clerk : CM Jacobus: Councilmember Paul Moore ? Here. Councilmember Juliette Johnson ? Here. Councilmember Carol Cookerly? Here. Councilmem ber Jan Jacobus? Here. Mayor: Mayor Peyton Jamison present. Councilmembers Present: Councilmember Andrea Verhoff, Councilmember Paul Moore, Councilmember Juliette John son, Councilmember Carol Cookerly, and Cou ncilmember Jan Jacobus. Councilmembers Absent: Councilmember Rick Mohrig. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE City C lerk : A ll : And for the record , Counci lm embers Rick Mohrig 1s absent. Wou ld everyone please rise for the pledge of a ll egiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands , one nation under God , indivisible , with lib erty and justice for all. APPROVAL OF MEETING AGENDA Mayor Jamison: CM Moore: CM Verhoff: Okay , next is the approval of the meeting agenda. I would like to open that for a motion. Mr. Mayor, I make a motion that we approve the meeting agenda as presented this evening. Second. Regular Meeting of the Milton C ity Council January 4 , 2023 Page 3 of 13 Mayor Jamison: Councilmembers: Okay. I have a motion from Councilmember Moore, and a second from Councilmember Verhoff to approve the agenda as read. All in favor , please say , "aye." Aye. Motion and Vote : Councilme mber Moo re moved t o approve t he Meeting A genda as presented . Co u ncilmember Verhoff sec o nded the m otio n . The m o tion passe d (6 -0). Councilmember Mohrig was absent from t he meeting. CONSENT AGENDA Mayor Jamison : City Clerk: Mayor Jamison: City Clerk: Mayor Jamison: CM Jaco bus : CM Moore: Any opposed? Okay. T hat 's unanimous. Next is general public comment. Do you have pu blic comment? I'm assuming no . We do not , Mayor. Okay. So , I 'll waive the pu blic comment and move onto the Consent Agenda. Will the City Clerk please sound the items? Mayor, that first item is approval of the December 191\ 2022 regula r city counci l meeting minutes. Age nda Item No. 23-002. Item B , approval change order #1 to the services agreement between the City of Milton and All Termite & Pest Control LLC , doing business as All Exterminating , to include termite prevention services at City Hall and the Public Safety Comp lex . Agenda Item No . 23-003. Item C is approval of a services agreement between the City of Milton and Premier E levator Company, Inc , for the maintenance of the elevator at City Hall. Agenda Item No. 23-004 . Mayor. Thank you. Do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Mayor, I make a motion that we approve the consent agenda as read. Second. Regular Meeti ng of the Milton Ci ty Council Jan uary 4 , 2023 Page 4 of 13 Mayor Jamison: Councilmembers: Okay. I have a motion from Councilmember Jacobus and a second from Counci lmember Moore to approve the consent agenda as read. All in favor, please say, "Aye." Aye. Motion and Vote : Counci lmember Jacobus moved t o approve the Consent Age nda as re ad . Cou nci lm e m ber M oore seconded the motion. The motion passed (6-0). Cou ncilmember Mohrig was absent from the meeting. NEW BUSINESS Mayor Jamison: City Clerk: Mayor Jamison: CM Cookerly : CM Jacobus: CM Verhoff: [L augh te r/C ro ss ta lk] CM Moore : CM Cookerly: Mayor Jamison : CM Cookerly: Mayor Jamison: Any opposed? Okay. That 's unanimous. Okay , there are no reports and presentations, first presentations , pub lic hearing , zoning agenda , or unfinished business items. So , we will move onto to new business. Will the City Clerk p lease sound the first item? Mayor, that first item is the selection of the Mayor Pro Tempore. It 's Agenda Item No. 23-005. Mayor. T hank you. I'll turn this over to Council and open it up for nominations for Mayor Pro Tern. Mr. Mayor, I would like to make a motion based on his intelligence, charm , devastating goo d looks , Mr. Paul Moore . Second . Aww, Steve thought you were ta lking about him . I'm not sure that I meet those standards . Oh you do , trust me. Don 't argue , Paul. Ro ll with it , Paul. So I have a motion from Counci lmember Cookerly , a secon d from Councilmember Jacobus to approve Paul Regular Meeti ng of the Milton City Coun ci l January 4 , 2023 Page 5 of 13 Co uncilmembers: Mayor Jamison : Moore as Mayor Pro Tern. I will say, yo u know , Paul has served as Mayor Pro Tern over the past year and every time I ca ll ed him to step in , he 's done a great job and I think he 'll do another great job this year. So support that. All rig ht , all in favor , p lease say ay e. Aye . Any opposed? That 's unanimous. Come on down , I'll swear you in , Paul. Motion and Vote : Councilmember Cookerly moved to approve Councilmember Paul Moore as Mayor Pro Tempore , Agenda Item No . 23-005. C o uncilmem b er Jaco bus seco nd ed the m o tion . The mot ion passe d (6-0). Cou ncilmember Mohrig was absent from the meeting . Mayor Jamison: City Clerk : Mayor Jamison: Mr. Moore: Mayor Jamison : Mr. Moore : Mayor Jamison: Mr. Moore: Mayor Jamison : Mr. Moore: Mayor Jamison: Mr. Moore: Sign or sw ear in first ? Do the swearing in first p lease and then you can sign . Please raise your right hand. Repeat after me . I do solemn ly sw ear and affirm I do solemnly swear and affirm that I will faithfu ll y perform the duties of t hat I will faithfully perform the duties of Mayor Pro Tern of this City Mayor Pro Tern of this City and that I will support and defend the charter thereof and that I w ill support and defend the charter thereof as well as the constitution and laws of the State of Georgia as we ll as the constitution and laws of the State of Georgia Regular Meeting of the Milton City Coun cil January 4, 2023 Page 6 of 13 Mayor Jamison: Mr. Moore : [Crosstalk/Photos Taken] Mayor Jamison: City Clerk: Mr . Dell-Ross: and the United States of America. and the United States of America . Okay. Will the City Clerk please sound the next item. Mayor, that next item is consideration of a professional services agreement with Keck and Wood for a traffic study at two intersections of State Route 372 at Heritage Walk. It's Agenda Item No. 23-006 . Mr. Rob Dell-Ross . T here we go. Good evening, Mayor and Council. This item tonig ht is a contract for a traffic eng ineering study with Keck and Wood for two roundabouts and 372 at Heritage Wa lk. The basic objective , we have been coordinating with Georgia DOT and they have offered to pay for the materials to install ra p id rectangular flashing beacons at the two ro undabouts closest to City Hall on both ends of Heritage Trail. The City wil l need to pay a sma ll amount for a traffic study that they will approve and then the City will be responsible for t he installation costs and the maintenance. The insta ll ation costs would come to you at a future council meeting as a construction contract. So the basic concept, as you see on the screen, we 've got two roundabouts that are approximate ly five years o ld on both ends of Heritage Wa lk at 372. The next diagram , the little red arrows are where the rapid rectangular flashing beacons will be. Just to refresh your memory, you've probably seen them around town in North Fu lton. They 're getting more popular. These are pedestrian actuated buttons which means that when a pedestrian 's on the ramp , you're hitting a button just like if you're crossing at a crosswalk at a traffic signal. When that happens , these lights underneath the diamond pedestrian sign start going back and fort h to alert the drivers that there is a pedestrian wanting to use the facility. Qui ck discussion points if any of you want to discuss this furt her. This is federa l fund ing. This is not guaranteed Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council January 4, 2023 Page 7 of 13 forever . So Georgia DOT is encouraging the cities and counties that want to use this to send in the requests as quick as possible . When the money runs out, the money runs out. This is needed , in Sara and I's opinion. We do have crash history at both roundabouts that we think these devices will help. There was recently, in the past month that Greg alerted me to , there was an accident at the northern roundabout near the elementary school involving a bicycle that really got our attention. The traffic engineering study is $20 ,000. Again , state pays for materials , the city is responsible for labor and maintenance. The installation , I should update that. The installation is probably not going to be an on-call contract. The installation is something that we 're going to be bidding out to the community. The other good news here is that these probably aren 't going to be the only two roundabouts we look at establishing and installing these beacons . These are the only two , let me rephrase that, these are the first two that we 're pursuing and we 're bringing the study to you because these two being on state routes will need traffic and engineering studies. For example, the third roundabout following Heritage Trail over to Mayfield, that's not on a state route so that won 't need a traffic study. We 'll just send in a request to the state DOT. They'll approve it and we 'll be off to construction so that should go quicker on the local routes. We 're also looking at some of the other roundabouts around the city. Probably not immediately, we 'll wait and see how these are received and then move forward and prioritize. We're also looking to ask them to pay for any RFBs or pedestrian hybrid beacons that we have embedded in other projects . For example, we have an RRFB on the Mayfield sidewalk project that is moving forward very , will be coming to yo u hopefully in the next couple of months for construction . We also have the pedestrian hybrid beacon next to City Hall to get to the other side of Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council January 4, 2023 Page 8 of 13 Mayor Jamison: CM Moore: Mr. Dell-Ross: CM Moore: CM Verhoff: CM Moore: Mr. Dell-Ross: CM Moore: Mr. Dell-Ross: Crabapple that we anticipate asking them to pay for the materials . That concludes my presentation . All right. Questions? Paul. Rob, is this study roundabout dependent. It is not. This is federa l funding identified for approved countermeasures for safety that are recommended by Federal Highway. So if we have another good application for either the RRFBs or the pedestrian hybrid beacon , no they don 't have to be tied to a roundabout. The reason I ask that is , I know over the course of the last couple of years as we 've looked at all the traffic calming measures on Mayfield in particular . Where some of the higher density of the commercial development currently exists, some of the charts or pictures that were shown over the course of that time were depicting a possibility of a traffic calming or crossing measure where Campania meets , is it Itaska? That roundabout there. It 's not a roundabout , it's simply mid-road, mid-street , where there seems to be , in my mind , it would be a shorter distance for a pedestrian community moving from one part of our commercial area to another part of the commercial area. Is it possible to include that crosswalk or that crossway in this study or is it at this point further down the road? That 's going to be handled by a different project with a different request. Okay. So I anticipate that at some point we will have obviously the crosswalks at the roundabout and then we will have at least one crossing of 372 near Campania, Orange Theory , that kind of, the wine store , that cluster of businesses there . We 'll have a least one additional between the roundabout and the signa l. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council January 4, 2023 Page 9 of 13 CM Moore: Mr. Dell-Ross: CM Moore: CM Cookerly: Mr. Dell-Ross: CM Cookerly: [Crosstalk] Mr. Dell-Ross: CM Cookerly: Okay. Yeah I 'm not by any means dismissing the importance of this consideration at the roundabouts , but I think we 've also set a certain expectation from the community , based on past presentations about a mid-road. We 're seeing this as phase one. We 're seeing this as the traffic study being required for the ones on the state routes. Great. Thank you. Rob , just reframe what exactly does the technology do? Just state that one more time. It's very similar to a crosswalk. You have a traffic signal where you 're used to seeing the red hand or the white man when you push the button and wait. Except you're not waiting for these, you 're pushing the button, they immediately go flat into flash alerting the driver who 's approaching that there 's someone on one side or the other wanting to use the crosswalk. Ideally they slow down and stop before the crosswalk and the pedestrian goes across. So how 's that different than downtown Alpharetta? Doesn 't downtown Alpharetta have something like that? There are a couple of these in Alpharetta, but you 're probably referring to along , near their city hall corridor on 9. They have a pedestrian hybrid beacon which are the signals above the road. Those are a little bit different device , much more expensive because you 're installing them with big steel structures over the road instead of having them mounted on the side. Those are a little bit different in an engineering world because anytime you have a red light that 's a little bit, there's a more , how can I say this , it's held to a different standard having a red light because it's stop and it's regulatory versus just having this as a advisory sign on the side of the road . So there are additional, there are additional steps that we need to go forward , it's much more expensive. My question is , if it's a driver aid and it's a pedestrian aid , does it need to be studied? Regu lar Meeting of the Milton City Council January 4, 2023 Page 10 of 13 Mr. Dell-Ross: CM Cookerly: CM Jacobus : Mr. Dell-Ross: CM Jacobus: Mr. Dell-Ross: CM Jacobus: CM Verhoff: Mr. Dell-Ross: CM Verhoff: Mr. Dell-Ross: I've been told by GDOT that this is a this is a rubber stamp approval , but it is something that yes because we're installing these on a state route they're going to require a study that they review and approve. You made that point. All right. Thank you. ls the flashing signify that the drivers are supposed to stop or just recommend they slow down? I mean the ones in Alpharetta, they're like the big red lights so you stop , everybody stops for those, but these are different. They're much smaller, they catch your attention because they blink but they're not. So you're correct, these are a little bit different and I wish I had Chief Austin with me because he's my he's my go-to on anything related to the law. But my understanding is , any time any pedestrian takes one step into the road , into the crosswalk, a vehicle if it can stop should stop . This device doesn't change that. All it does is if the pedestrian decides to push the button it will activate the wig wag and hopefully get the driver's attention that there is a pedestrian here versus not seeing them and going through at normal speed. I guess my real question is , is the expectation by the pedestrian that when they push this button and the lights flash they can walk? Yes it does provide a little bit more comfort and a little bit more security that that car who's approaching me will stop . Okay They have these right by Crabapple Crossing. Like the same ones . So many times I've pressed the button and you still look for cars to stop , it's not a guarantee. You should never just push the button and immediately take a step out into the road. Right. But it will be the same or similar style as to the ones that are right at Crabapple Crossing? Absolutely. Regular Meeting of the Milton Ci ty Council January 4 , 2023 Page 11 of 13 CM Verhoff: Mr. Krokoff: CM Jacobus: Mr. Krokoff: CM Jacobus: Mayor Jamison: CM Moore : Mr. Dell-Ross : CM Moore: Mr. Dell-Ross: Okay . It's not a traffic control device. It's merely to draw the attention that there is a pedestrian in the crosswalk and like Rob said , they do have the right of way. Even if they're not in the crosswalk, they have the right of way . But in the crosswalk, t hey certainly have t he rig ht way , but it's really j ust to draw the attentio n of the driver that someone's in there. So there does need to be some education that this is does not require cars to stop like they're used to in Alpharetta. Because I know in Alpharetta, you walk up you push the button , the re d lig hts up top go and everybody's expected to stop , all cars. Perhaps some edu cation co uld be included in t h is , but generally by the t ime the person's out of the crosswalk, unlike the hawk over the re, the yellow lights stop. Right. Yeah. I appreciate it , Rob. I know this is , we've had a lot of, we've had a couple incidences where people have been hit so it's a good thing. Paul? One more q uestion. Rob , I know that we're in the process of looking at the new st reetscape for th is area as we ll. These are at the crosswalk. Does the new cityscape streetscape come into p lay at a ll for t hese or are these just on the verge, on the edge of those? They're separate initiatives from our perspective. I know they 're separate initiatives, but does it actually encroach in the study area of the streetscape? I believe that the graphic we showed you for the streetscape pro bably on the weste rn side went all the way to the roun dabout, but there is n't any , there isn't any conflicts , there isn't any design information that would change the concept and the scope of the streetscape with these added first. These will abso lu tely be first in line before that happens . Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council January 4, 2023 Page 12 of 13 CM Moore: Mayor Jamison: CM Moore: CM Jacobus : Mayor Jamison: Councilmembers: Mayor Jamison: Mr. Dell-Ross : Great , thank you. An y other questions? I'll open it for a motion . Mr. Mayor, I make a motion that we approve Agenda Item No. 23-006. Second . Okay I have a motion from Councilmember Moore and a second from Councilmember Jacobus to approve Agenda Item 23-006. All in favor , please say aye. Aye . Any opposed? Okay, that's unanimous. Thank you . Thank y ou. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Moore moved to approve Agenda Item No . 23-006. Councilmember Jacobus seconded the motion . The motion passed (6-0). Councilmember Mohrig was absent from the meeting. Mayor and Council Reports Mayor Jamison: CM Verhoff: CM Moore : Mayor Jamison: CM Moore: So we will move on to Mayor and Council reports. Probabl y very quiet week. I do want to give a shout out to Sara and Rob and the team for the Hamby Road stuff. I know that was a freak accident and y'all seemed to be , all took that , working pretty good getting that open soon , so thank you. Thank you. Yup. Anything else from Council? No , you beat me to it. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council January 4, 2023 Page 13 of 13 ADJOURNMENT Mayor Jamison: CM Moore: CM Johnson: Mayor Jamison: Councilmembers: Mayor Jamison: That's good. All right, with that I will conclude our regular meeting. So do I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. Okay , I've got a motion from Councilmember Moore and a second from Councilmember Johnson to adjourn . All in favor please say aye . Aye. Any opposed? That's it , good night. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Moore moved to adjourn the Regular Meeting at 6:22pm . Councilmember Johnson seconded the motion. The motion passed (6-0). Councilmember Mohrig was absent from the meeting. Date Approved: January 18, 2023