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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - CC - 09/18/2023Regular Meeting of the Milton City`:Council S.epternber 18, 20.23 Page I of 33 CALL TO ORDER Mayor Jamison: Good: evening, everyone. l would like to call the regular meeting of the Milton City Council for;Monday, September 180, 20.23 to order. The city strongly recommends that you review tonight's agenda carefully, and if you wish to. speakk 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? ROCS CALL City Clerk: Good evening mayor and. council. I'll be happy to tail roll for the. September 1 Wh, 2023 regular council meeting. I would like to remind those. in attendance to please .silence all cell phones .at this time. Those attendifig the meeting who would like.to make a public comment, you are required to complete a public comment card prior to speaking. on the item. All speakers will identify yourselves by naive, address„ and organization Before beginning your comment: Any public. 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 onbehalf of that organization. Please review tonight's agenda,. and if you would. like to make a comment, please bring your comment cards 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. Mayor Jamison: Here. City Clerk: Councilmember Andrea Verhoff. CM Verhoff'.. Here. City Clerk: CounciltheMber Paul Moore. CM Moore: Here. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council September 18, 2023 Page 3 of 33 Mayor Jamison: Okay. I have a motion from Councilmemher Moore and a second from Councilmemher Verhoff to approve the meeting agenda as amended. All in favor, please say, aye. Councilmembers: Aye. Motion and Vote: Counciimember Moore moved to approve the Meeting Agenda with the following amendment: ■ Add an Executive Session to discuss land acquisition, potential litigation, ❑nd personnel. Councilmember Verhoff Seconded the motion. The motion passed (7-0). PUBLIC HEARING Mayor Jamison: Aye. Any oppose? That's unanimous. Okay. Next, is public comment. Do we have any general public comment? City Clerk: We do, Mayor, we have one. Mayor Jamison: Okay. We'll read off the public comment. Public comment is a time for citizens to share information with the mayor and the city council, and to provide input and opinions on any matter that is not scheduled for its own public hearing during today's meeting. Each citizen chooses to participate in public comment must complete a comment card and submit it to the city prior to the agenda item being called. Please remember this is not a time to engage the mayor or members of the city council in conversation. When your name is called, please come forward and speak into the microphone stating your name and address for the record. You will have five minutes for remarks. The city encourages you to review the agenda, and if you wish to speak, bring your comment cards to the city clerk right now. Will you please call the first public comment. City Clerk: I would like to invite Mr. Adam Hollingsworth to the podium, please. Mr. Hollingsworth: Good evening. My name is Adam Hollingsworth. I live at 1475 Rolling Links Drive, here in Milton. Mayor, city councilmembers, the integrity of Milton's elections are at risk. Despite the incredible work of Steve Krokoff, acting as election superintendent, our elections have become the fruit of a poisonous tree. Even if our Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council September 18, 20.23 Rage 5 of 33 be.., quote, "Misconstrued as an attempt. to use governmental authority to suppress a political opponent." As you know; such communication with city staff by a member of the. city council is a. violation of the city's charter. Most recently, we've learned of a private meeting between a member of the 'city council running for reelection and certain local election poll workers and tabulators. We learned this because that councilmember sent an email meeting request to. each of you.. The councilmember subsequently claimed that his email system had beenhacked, a notion that was debunked by your city manager,.after work was completed. by your city IT department. On September 131h, Mr. Krokoff said, quote, "There is no evidence of a breach of our system. That same councilmember was asked repeatedly by a 'fellow member of this body if such a meeting had occurred. Because if it did, a hack. is1ighly unlikely. As it's a strange credibility to assert that a hacker would break into the city's email system only to send. an accurate email invitation. I share all of this at some personal risk, but the risk. I'm taking pales in comparison to the.risk some of you have taken. At your July 20 meeting; one of you . said there have been encumbrances on a way to a fair election. And. that .councilmember instantly becamea political target and drew an election opponent. The mayor called. the actions of this: same councilmember, quote, "Highly. inappropriate." His target was much. more personal, his life and that of his family was threatened. Thank you to those of you who have taken courageous stands. But there is only one:immediate solution. It's. time for this city couricilmember responsible for inappropriate actions to step aside and resign thus ensuring the integrity of Milton, the city councilmember, and the upcoming election. And should he not, the voters of.Milton and this %city council should take a hard look if we should perpetuate the tenure of an elected official who prioritizes his own interests while ignoring the very principles of ethical government, someone who has put himself above the citizens.. City Clerk: Time expired. Mr. Hollingsworth: Thank you. for your time. Regular Meeting of the. Milton City .Council September 18, 2023 Page 7 of 33 H,. is approval. of subdivision plats in revisions. The first development is Ewing, at 13970 and.13974 Freemanville Road,. it's.. Land Lot 8:13, District 2, Section 2. It is a minor plat to. combine Lot 2 and Lot 3 into. one lot, now known as Lot 2, for a total of 3.243 acres. The full development is 4357 acre, with a density of OA6 lots per acre. Development 2 is Milton. Meadows at 13040 Arnold Mill Road, Land Lot 1070, Dlstn.ct: 2, Section 2: A minor plat to. subdivide the parcel into three lots ranging. ih. size from 2.25.9 acres to 5.295 acres; a total of 9.814 acres and a density of 0.31 lots per acre; Agenda Item No. 23�252. Our final consent agenda Item I is approval of the financial. statements and investment report for Period 11,. August 2023, Agenda Item No. 23-252. Mayor Jamison, Mayor Jamison: Thank you. Do we have a motion to. approve the consent agenda? CM Cookerly: Mr. Mayor, I make a motion that we approve the consent agenda Item. No. n-.25.3. CM Moore: Second. Mayor Jamison: Okay. I have.a motion from. Councilmember Cookerly, and a second from Councilmember Moore to approve the consent. agenda. as read. All in favor, please say, aye. [Crosstalk] CM Moore: Mayor,. the way Councilmember Cookerly read the -motion,. she referenced the last — CM Cookerly: Oh, I didn't. meanto.:Okay. Mr.. Mayor Mayor Jamison: What did you reference? CM Cookerly: I, just used the. last number on there.. Approve the consent agendas read. Thank you. .CM Mohrig Second. Mayor Jamison: Okay. I have a motion from Councilmember Cookerly and a second from Councilmember Mohrig.to approve the consent agenda as. read. All. in. favor; please say aye. Regular Meeting. of the Milton City Council September 18, 2023 Page 9 of 33 Now therefore, we, the mayor and the city council of the City of Milton. proclaims September 19" to be National Voter Registration Day in Milton, and we encourage eligible residents to both register to vote as well as cast ballots during advance voting or on Election Day, in Milton's upcoming municipal election. This is given under my hand. and seal of the City of Milton,. Georgia on this 18' day of September 2d23. I would like to ask, if you don't mind, Tammy, take a picture with us. City Clerk: Yeah; Mayor Jamison: And Steve, and`I don't know if there's anybody. Stacey is. gone. Mr. l rokoff.. Stacey is.;on vacation. Mayor Jamison: Okay. Mr. Krokoff: .Mayor, just. so .you all know, I just got the final proof from our communications committee for a leaflet that's. going to go out with all of the tax bills providing all the information regarding voting dates, locations, advanced. voting, Election Day voting again, put together by our communications committee. So,.very exciting to. get .that out there. Mayor Jamison: Cool. Thank you. CM Cookerly: And it's with the tax bill. How uplifting. Mayor.Jamison: What.I also want to say, when Madame Tarmny Clerk signed up to be our city clerk., municipal elections wasn't on the agenda; so she's doing a.fantastieJob. [CrosstalklPhotos Taken] Mayor Jamison: Okay. Will the city clerk please sound the next item? City Clerk: Mayor, that. next. item is a presentation of the. Windward Parkway/Highway .9 Strategic Master Plan. Our economic engagement manager, Ms. Anita Jupin.. Ms. Jupin: Good evening; Mayor and council. Tonight, I am pleased to introduce Darren Meyer, with MKSK.. MKSK is a`highly reputable firm in the field of urbanplanning and development. And tonight, Darren will be presenting an overview of the. Highway.9 Windward Parkway Strategic Master Plan. This plan is currently underway Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council September 18, 2023 Rage I I of 33 with the natural areas that you see on the east side of 40.0, on. the west side of 400, the convenience and the shopping that can he taken care of in that district. You see some of those same areas in terms of where we heard comments about some shortcomings and things that the community, would like to improve..And largely, that has to do with mobility, and being able to get through the district comfortably and safely, We also issued a survey to employees in the district through their employers: And we had over 800 responses. We had a very strong response. And we wanted to share with you. a. little bit. of the highlights from that; as well. Nearly 90% o of the respondents to that survey work within the study area. You can see the zip codes that were predominantly represented, although 41 different, zip codes. of employees that replied to the survey were represented. in this; showing the great breadth of people that commute to. and take part of this district. We did want to get.an understanding of the working arrangements. Since COVID-19, one. of the downstream effects that we've seen is sort of a mixed hag in terms of how employers are working with their employees in terms of being on -site, being remote, or having a hybrid working scenario. And you can see that that hybrid right now is. the predominant arrangement that we saw in our responses. Secondarily, on -site, there is. a fairly small percentage of respondents that surveyed that were. fully remote. And we did talk in that. survey about what , are `some of those things that we can do within the district that. would help appeal to employees and bring them back into the -office. And you can see that a substantial percentage of those respondents were interested in things .like.how we. address the built environment with trails, connectivity, the ability to move through the district, places to have lunch, places to go after work. So,. those were some of the key things that emerged. And you can see.. a little bit more. detail on that in this. slide, where nearly three quarters of the respondents do use the area for lunch. Over the workday, you can.see that when it comes to after work, the evening, getting dinner, or having drinks starts to get split between places like Avalon, some within the study area, Downtown Alpharetta and other places. The last.piece that. I wanted to share with you from the .survey had to do with where these respondents. would like for us to focus our effort. You can see that the top one had to do with mobility. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council September 18, 2023 Page 13 of 33 been quite a bit of shut over the. past couple of years in that sector of the real estate market. So, how we understand that. And then, lastly, how do we connect these destinations within the district. So; I want to share with you three slides, one related to each of those.. So, with respect to office, one of the things that we have seen a trend nationally,. and as we started to gather some data locally is if there is quite a bitofoptimism about return -toy -work for many employees.. But there are some trends with smaller leases in terms of the amount. of square footage, also the length of those leases tends to vary. So.; how do we get creative with working with our employers and helping create an environment not just of the building and the immediate surrounds, but the district around it, and how they can connect amenities which would help attract, those employees hack to the office. From a. retail standpoint, one of the things that we wanted to think about within this. district is how we. create that quality retail that creates that experience that is really:a draw for the district. So, on. the one. Band, you have great. convenience for your daily needs and daily services in the district. But how do we look at things like the restaurants, the food and .beverage, the types of stores, particularly local businesses and small businesses, and really create something that's authentic; and unique, and a. draw for the .local: community. And then, lastly, with housing. Housing is an. important component of thinking about the future of the Milton community for no other reason than it is a tremendously popular and wonderful place to live. There is:going to be continued demand for: folks that want to move and live. in this community. It is one ofthe. chief struggles, I would. say; of elected officials; and staff, and others and working with that balance, how we preserve our heritage,. the character of place that we Have while accommodating that future growth. So, that's going to be one of the key areas that we study as part: of this as well is. how do we look at housing? How is it integrated .into this study area in the Deerfield District, and. what form does that take,. and how does that relate to the broader dynamics within the community and division. for the community set forth in your comprehensive plan.and other planning documents. So, to wrap up, there are five key takeaways. Based on our: initial work that we've done to date. One has: to do with the importance of mobility in the area. And when we talk about mobility, we're really thinking about alternatives to the.car..So; how can we avoid hopping Regular Meeting.of the Wlton City .Council September 18, 2023 Page 15 of 33 department portion. of that. So, the police: portion of our city's strategic plan, our 2021 to 2025 strategic plan falls under Strategic Priority No. 1, which is to ensure Milton's sustainability and resiliency. Under this strategic priority, Milton Police Department has significant roles and two goals, Goals 4 and 5. Goal 4,is to maintain a secure community in which to live; work, :and play. And Goat 5, implement a transportation infrastructure that .meets current needs,. accounts for future growth, and allows residents to traverse Milton in a calm, safe, and efficient manner. So, Within.this we have several of these outcome. measures. So, the first one is to improve response times to emergency `calls in all zones by 10%Q by the end of the plan. And of course, that's relative to 2021. Ongoing initiative here, it's been affected significantly by road. construction and. our staffing. But fortunately; recently,. the department worked through a plan to enhance our staffing levels, our robust recruiting effort which has worked quite well. We are actually up to .staff right now, with all positions filled. So, we're very happy to. get. some of those folks out of their training phase, and. looking forward to getting thern out on the road. Some of our major construction has also concluded that was. impeding sortie crosstown travel. We do realize this is going to be an ongoing challenge as the city continues to grow. However, even with these challenges, last year, response times were reduced by four percent. in comparison to the previous year. Our next outcome measure, develop and deploy annual scenario - based de-escalation and. crisis intervention training for all Milton police officers by December a 1st; 2022. This outcome measure. has.. been completed and was fueled by a grant from the Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. We were able to purchase. a. firearm simulator and also train our officers in some police -specific Brazilian j iu j itsu. And this form of martial art helps our officers to be able to use, grappling techniques.. rather than strikes, so if they do get ,into a situation where verbal de-escalation does not work then they can transition to some of these. Brazilian jiu jitsu techniques that they've learned to reduce both injuries to. suspects and to the officers.. And. this training . is ongoing. As we hire new staff, they'll be going `through this training as well. Our next outcome measure is establish a functional safety crisis intervention team with.100%o C1T-trained staff by December 31`12021 Regular Meetin.g.of the Milton City Council September 18, 2Q23 Page 17 of 33 of our younger citizens, our .1.6 to 247year-old age group,. we see them consistently over -represented in crashes. So, we have training targeted specifically for that age group. And of course, we have our enforcement activity which is. ongoing. This continues to be a challenge as construction has increased, we see crashes go up in those construction zones, as well as certainly, traffic volume throughout the city. And currently, I've been working with public. works and our engineering.. folks to perhaps even look for abetter metric in year - over -year increases because we know traffic is increasing and so many other factors are corning in. So, look for something in the future that.might focus a bit more on our thoroughfares and our high- crash corridors. Comparison of 2.021 to 2022, crash data :shows increases in both personal 'injury and property damage crashes, and we're currently up 37 crashes, or about 10% year-to-date from this time last year, And the :next one is to .complete a local road safety plan with executable strategies by December 31", 2021. This, as .you know, has been completed and strategy implementation is underway, and progress reports will be presented throughout. the life of the plan. And with that, are there any questions? Mayor Jamison: Any questions for Chief? Thanks, great job, Chief. Thank you. Chief Austin: Thank you. CM Cookerly: Yeah. Good update,. thank you. PUBLIC HEARING Mayor Jamison: Okay. There are no first presentation items, so we'll move on to the public hearing. Will the city clerk please sound the items: City Clerk: Mayor, the.item is: consideration of; an ordinance of the mayor and. council of the City of Milton,. Georgia to adopt the Fiscal 2024 Budget for each fund of the City of Milton, Georgia: appropriating the. several items of revenue appropriation, prohibiting expenditures to exceed appropriations and prohibiting expenditures to exceed actual funding available. It is Agenda Item No. 23-240. Ourdeputy city manager, Ms. Bernadette Hary ill. Regular Meeting of the Milton CityCouncil September 18, .2i123 Page 19 of 33 Before you is the .proposed General Fund .Budget Summary. You can see actual earnings. and spending activity for Fiscal Year 21 and 22,: as well as the updated. amended budget for Fiscal Year 2023. The 2023 figures include all of the. amendments proposed .of the September 6"' Public Hearing: WC11 go over those one more time this evening. And the overall revenue` forecast for Fiscal. Year'2024 equals $421,843,765.00 with ongoing revenues increasing by $L5 million or 3.5% from Fiscal Year 2023s amended.budget. And total revenue. is increasing by$392,565.00 or 0.9%.when taking one-time transfers into consideration. Continuing operations excluding the one percent required contingency and new initiatives have increased by 39%n compared to Fiscal Year 2023Vs. amended budget. A key component of this increase is the requested 4.7% market adjustment to salaries that was based on the state. and local government. figures reported in the March 2023 employment cost index put out by the U.S.. Bureau of Labor Statistics: This approach was discussed at length by deputy City Manager Inglis during the. presentations on the new employee performance management. system. The overall impact of those adjustments, including the impacted salary -dependent benefit calculations is $732.,180.00 across all staff, of which $628,1.57:00,, or 85% .. is attributable to salaries and wages. When taking contingency and new maintenance and operating initiatives into consideration, the. year=over=year variance is $2,454,293.00,.or 8%. Now,. at the bottom of the summary, you will see the final projected fund balance; at $11,12ODS63.00, which is in. line with a required reserve policy of 25% of the subsequent years. revenues. Before you is the summary of the maintenance and operating initiatives prepared by staff. The first two are those multi - departmental requests that we have for the retiree health benefit and performance.. management system incentives that we spoke about. We have a request for a part-time position shared with the. City of Alpharetta for a .court administrative assistant. And police staff is requesting a community outreach school liaison officer, which would be one full-time employee, two sergeants as well as a tethered unmanned aircraft system, In public works, there's a. request. for $35,000.00 for the. recycling. and solid waste management plan. And finally,. we have in community development, the. software for a commercial real estate availability. If there are any questions, I'll be happy to answer them.. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council September 18,.2023 Page 21 of 33 And finally, anew piece of information staff has put together is this new TSPLOST II funding chart. We have gone to a program of budgeting based on the category that was approved in the referendum. And so, we also wanted to show you how that category broke down over each project. So, this. just gives you an idea of where the FY23 funding went, and where the. proposed funding for `24 through 2030 is going. As , you. know, the comprehensive transportation plan is undeiway, so we have a placeholder for the majority of the funds over the next few years in that account. And as those projects are approved by council, we'll come back before you and well allocate thosefunds over eligible projects, Ill. be happy to answer any questions, and we'll be doting later this evening on the proposed budget. Mayor Jamison: Any questions?. CM Cookerly: No. Mayor Jamison: No. Ms. Harvill: Thank you.. CM Verhoff Thanks, Bernadette. Mayor Jamison: Thank you.. Is there any public comment?.Are we still going? No,. we're good. Any public comment? City Clerk: There: are none, sir. UNFINISHED BUSINESS Mayor Jamison: Okay. So, close. the public hearing, Any council. discuss ion? None? Okay. We will move. onto -- well, there's no zoning agenda, so we'll move onto unfinished business. Will the city clerk please say on the item? City Clerk; The unfinished business is consideration. of an ordinance of the Mayor and council of the City of Milton, Georgia to adopt amendments to the Fiscal 2023 budget for each fund ofthe City of Milton, Georgia. amending the amounts shown in each budget as .expenditures, amending the several items of revenue. appropriations, prohibiting expenditures to exceed. appropriations, and prohibiting Regular Meeting of the. Milton -City Council . Septernber'1.8, 2023 Page .23 of 33 $65,000.00 and will be. supported. by contingency funding in the Capital. Proj ects . Fund for those additional funds. And finally, .$951.3330.00 for the purchase and equipping of a stock engine we iust discussed earlier this.. evening, At. the. hearing,. we also discussed staffing updates to remove any unfunded positions from the. head count, as. well as the conversion of the crossing guard position of the police department to that ofa public safety ambassador, which. includes the request of additional vehicle in. the Capital Projects Fund amendments. If the amendments are approved as presented, the. projected General Fund fund balance will be $10;930,376.00, which puts the city in line With the fund balance requirements of 25°/o of the subsequent year's revenues. Any revenues which exceed this forecast and expenditures which canoe in under this projection. will. be taken into consideration for one-time projects in the budget amendment process for Fiscal Year 2024. Those are the General Fund highlights. And they include any pay - go transfer: details. Updates to the. other funds represent independent funding sources, and I'll be nappy to go over any of those amendments to the special revenue. or capital projects funds. if you have any questions about those. Mayor Jamison, 'Oh, we're done? CM Moore: Yeah. Mayor Jamison: Nice. Bernadette, I loved hearing you, but I think after the fifth time, it's kind of goes. you did a great job. All right. CM Cookerly: I think we should say; Bernadette, for those who maybe tonight is. the first night they're here', that this isn't our first movie with this. 'We have been through this ad nauseam. Ms. H.arvill: Absolutely. I tried to list. out a few of the things we talked about in the last one. CM Cookerly: I do appreciate it. Mayor Jamison; Great job,.as always. Any public comment?. City Clerk: There are none,..sir. Regular Meeting. of:the Milton City ,Co.u.ncif September 18, 2023 Page 2.5 of 33. to 90 days for everyone to see and support all of'the additional information to help support where we've been this year. Mayor Jamison: Okay. Do we have any public comment on this? City Clerk: We do not,. sir. Mayor Jamison: Okay. Any council discussion? Okay. With that,. I open it for a motion. CM Cookerly: Mr. Mayor. CM Mohrig: Mr. Mayor. CM Cookerly: Oh, please, go ahead. Mayor Jamison: Go for it.. CM Mohrig: Mr. Mayor, I'll make a motion that we :approve Agenda Item No. 23-240: CM Jacobus: Second. Mayor Jamison: Okay. I have a. motion fxom Councilmember Mohrig and a second from Councilmember Jacobus to approve Agenda ltem.No. 23-240. All in favor, please say:aye. Councilmembers Aye. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Mohrig moved to approve Agenda Item No. 23-240. Councilmember Jacobus seconded the motion. The motion passed (6-0). (Councilmember Johnson was absent for the vote.) NEW BUSINESS Mayor Jamison: Aye. Any oppose? That's unanimous. Okay. Next is new business. Will City Clerk .please say on the next item? City Clerk: That new business — CM Cookerly:. Thank you, Bernadette. Mayor Jamison: Enjoy your vacation. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council September 18, 2023 Page 27 of 33 and side elevations of the building. Here are photos of the fagade. Some architectural elements include stone and wood foundation, metal roof, brick chimney, and footed Doric columns. Also, double -hung sash windows, clapboard siding, and a weatherboard wellhouse. Mr. Chadwick and the Milton Historical Society have made every effort to slow deterioration through various measures such as brushing clearing, multiple roof repairs, and periodic or occasional structural reinforcement. Mayor and council, with your approval of the donor's Letter of Intent tonight, the city will proceed with the due diligence faced ensure that the property title survey environmental assessment are clean. Here are the steps we will take during the due diligence process. Beginning with survey of the property prepared by a registered land surveyor in the state of Georgia. The purpose of this is to identify the exact size of the land to be donated. The survey also includes property lines, setbacks, easement, existing structures of the property, and others. Second, is perform a title search to identify the legal owner of the property, and identify if there are any restrictive covenants, easements, or boundary line agreements, among others. And lastly, we'll conduct a full environmental assessment to ensure that the property is not contaminated with any toxic substances like asbestos, lead, and other toxic chemicals. Please note that the city will bear the cost of the survey, title search, and environmental site assessment. So, after the due diligence stage has been completed, the city council will have to formally approve the acceptance of the donation at a public meeting. At this time, the city will also explore funding sources and preservation programs. One option is the revolving fund through Georgia Trust. Staff will explore this program and determine if this is a good fit for what we are planning to do with this structure or property. We will also conduct a community engagement session, or sessions to allow the public for input gathering on the proposed use of the historic building. Many historic buildings can be adapted for new use without seriously impacting their historic character. Lastly, the city will explore appropriate preservation or restoration treatments to stabilize the building and restore its exterior and interior parts of the historic site. There is flexibility as far as the type of use, and the restoration treatment to be applied. The only restriction is that we maintain it, keep the house standing, and give the place the Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council September 18, 2023 Page 29 of 33 for two or three years. Pat Miller, president of the Alpharetta. and Old. Nlilton.County Historical Society; Brill Lusk, and myself. If approved,: this would be a first for a structure in Milton. On the. Places in Peril application, we cited possible uses for the house. And looking at the pictures, this is kind of a reach, but we can get there. It could be a Milton Welcome Center, or a. community center, it could be office for a potential park on the property. People aren't using the. term, "Museum" much anymore; it's turned.. into an interpretive center. This could be used for teaching early pioneer life in the area, Cherokee Heritage, it could be used as a. Trail of Tears. witness structure. .It could tell the story of the Georgia. Land Lotteries and the Removal. Process. It also would make a nice cornerstone of a heritage village. At the point that we.applied for the. Places in Peril, we thought that it,would be appropriate for commercial leasing as well. The whole effort to save the house has been aspirational on our part and an education for our committee. Thank you for your attention. Are there any questions? Mayor Jamison: Thank you. we'll ask some questions if we have some later. Thank. you. NIs. Borzilleri: Very good, thank you. .Mayor Jamison: Do we have another public comment? City Clerk: Yes, sir. I invite Mr. Jeff Dufresne to the podium, please. Mr. Dufresne: Thank you, Mayor. Thank you; members of the city council. I'm Jeff Dufresne, living ;at 1380 Summit Road. I'm a private. citizen, but also, President of the Milton Historical Society. So, at issue tonight is to save a 1837year-old Greek revival house with good bones, as they say in the business from destruction. Joan. said the McConnell -Chadwick House is located at a gateway to the city with Historical significance. The places we choose to save or not save define our city's identity. All places give us an understanding of our history that no books or documents can. possibly do. Destruction of all places: is tantamount to the .destruction of a city 's historic identity. Milton is a blend of nature and history. Milton is a unique, small city surrounded by an increasingly urban world. Destroying our unique historic assets makes Milton. increasingly any town U.S.A. It. is 'imperative that we. protect. -bur dwindling supply Regular Meeting of the.Milton City Council September 18, 2023 Page 31 of 33 Motion and Vote: Councilmember M.ohrig moved to approve Agenda Item No,. 23-254. Councilmember Moore seconded the motion.. The motion passed (7-0). Mayor Jamison: Aye. Any opposed? That's unanimous. Thank you. Attorney Jarrard: I just want to border on that one very quickly. I will say this will commence the due diligence and if that is deemed acceptable by the council, we will be.bringing an actual formal acceptance of the donation in addition to that. I just don't want you to think this did the final act; we still need to accept it formally Once we'veprotected everyone.. Thank you. MAYOR AND COUNCI1. REPORTS Mayor Jamison: Perfect. Thank you. Okay. Any councilmember reports? CM Jacobus: Yes. Mayor Jamison: Councilmember Jacobus. CM Jacobus: Yeah. I just wanted to say there's been a lot of discussion about the elections and so forth. But a majority of the citizens I've talked to are still very proud of the fact that.we're running our own elections. They think it's groat and they're very proud of it, and they're. also very confident they're going: to be fair: I. think that's important. that there is — the people. I've been talking. to, they're very confident that. their vote will count and that we'll have a good and. true election: And. I think that. goes to Steve and the majority of those folks working on it from city staff: So, thank you. Mayor Jamison: Councilmember Cookerly. CM Cookerly: I had the pleasure yesterday of going to the Milton Historical — I almost said hysterical. I said, "Dori't say hysterical." Milton Historical :Society event yesterday --- it seems like it was longer. And it was a great event. And I was thrilled because I've had a couple of times when F ve tried to go and haven't been abie.to get there; -and certainly, during COVID, we got shutdown. But it was a learning experience. I did not. expect to go and meet with a young lady who .had fossils from the Appalachian plateau.. And the things. I saw, and the things I learned were really exceptional. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council September 18, 2023 Page 33 of 33 Date Approved: October 2 2023 - my L. owit C1t CIerf P ton Jamison, Mayor