January 2015

                                                                        COUNCIL MINUTES

                                                                 VILLAGE OF FOREST HILLS

                                                                         January 06, 2015

 

 

The regular meeting of the Village of Forest Hills was held in the meeting room at the Jackson County Recreation Center at 6:00pm on January 06, 2015.

 

The following members of the Council were present:

Mayor Kolleen Begley

Councilmember Clark Corwin

Councilmember Ron Mau

Councilmember Carl Hooper

Councilmember Dan Perlmutter

 

The following Non-Council members were present:

Terry Michelsen, Co-Clerk

Niall Michelsen, Village Homeowner

Tanner Hall, the Sylva Herald

 

1)      Call to order:  The meeting was called to order at 6:00pm by Mayor Kolleen Begley.

 

2)      Announcements:  1) The 2015 meetings for the Council and Planning Board meetings have been scheduled with the Recreation Center, the meetings are on the regular schedule of the first Tuesday of each month for the Council Meeting except in November when it will be held the second Tuesday due to the election, and the third Monday of each month for the Planning Board.  2)  The next Cullowhee Community Planning meeting will be held on January 13th at the WCU Hospitality Room at the Ramsey Center.  3)  The County and Municipal joint meeting will be held on Monday February 2nd at the Department on Aging at 6:00pm.  4)  The joint meeting for the Council and the Planning Board will be held at the Jackson County Recreation Center on Monday February 16th at 7:00pm.  5)  Sealy said that she will have the information and data compiled from the Charrette and Village surveys will submit a completed summary to the Council by the end of January.

 

3)      Approval of Agenda:  Councilman Corwin made a motion to approve the agenda, seconded by Councilman Hooper, and unanimously approved.

 

4)      Approval of Meeting Minutes from December 02, 2014 Council meeting: a motion to approve the  minutes from the December 2nd Council meeting was made by Councilman Hooper, seconded by Councilman Perlmutter, unanimously approved.                                             

 

5)      Acceptance of Financial Report & Checklist for the month of December, 2014   Stephanie provided copies of the Financial Report for December for Co-Clerk Terri Michelsen to distribute in her absence.  In December, there were expenses of $540 for Police protection, $125 for workshop reimbursement to Councilman Mau, $1,075 for Administrative fees and Council compensation, $383.40 for Attorney fees, $975 Audit fee, $174.37 for Go Daddy website maintenance, $6,000 payment to Green’s Excavating for gravel and grading, and $362.80 for entrance operating fees.  Revenues for December were $19,231.11 from Ad Valorem Taxes, Sales Tax, Franchise and utility tax, Powell funds, and Interest earned.  The ending balances in the Money Market, Checking, and Powell accounts totaled $178,248.06.  Mayor Begley noted that all Budget items are on track and that we will exceed the proposed revenue from Sales tax for the year.

 

Councilman Hooper made a motion to approve the financial report; Councilman Corwin seconded the motion, unanimously approved.

 

6)      Public Comment:  None

 

7)      Audit report for the Village for 2013-2014:  Bronwyn Burleson of Burleson & Early: 

Bronwyn provided bound copies of the financial report approved by the LGC for all Council members and the Finance Officer  She noted that there are three letters enclosed to address, she said the first is a two page communication to council prepared at the end of the audit, she noted it covers segregation of duties  and summary of the report, she noted that she observed the budget discussions held at meetings and that there are internal controls in place, the second letter is a reference regarding journal entries, the only notable issue was a pre-paid expense where a date was changed on the transaction that had cleared the bank account and that going forward,  the Finance Officer should just do a  journal entry noting it is pre-paid, the third letter is about Powell Bill expenditures, she noted the need for Powell Bill expenses to continue to be isolated expenses.

Bronwyn said that the Independent auditors report is unmodified. 

 

Mayor Begley asked about past due taxes from Village homeowners, Bronwyn replied that they are noted in the financial reports by the fiscal year they are delinquent.

 

Mayor Begley asked Bronwyn how many years the streets are depreciated, Bronwyn replied 20 years.  Councilman Perlmutter asked about road work capitalization, Bronwyn said they only capitalize for items over $5,000 and if the transaction extends the life of the asset.

Mayor Begley asked if Bronwyn had a copy of the unreserved fund balance policy and Bronwyn asked that it be sent to her.

 

Bronwyn noted that if any members had questions after reviewing the report, they could email her.  Bronwyn further noted that she would send the journal entries to Stephanie.

 

8)      Reports:  

 

Planning Board: 1) Councilman Corwin said that Todd did some research on single family dwellings and the Planning Board decided to go with article 800 that reads single family dwelling of one or more individuals non-transient occupying a dwelling and not any more than that, the board unanimously approved to use this definition.  Also, they agreed to leave the definition of family as it is in the ordinances.

 

Councilman Corwin noted that the Planning Board tabled Rules of Procedure until the January meeting so members could review further.

 

Councilman Corwin said the Planning Board also started to look at Land Use Modules.  He noted that they will try to look at a module at each meeting.

 

No Parking on roads discussion was moved to the February meeting.

 

Safety:  Councilman Hooper said that the Village was patrolled and that there were no incidents reported.

 

Village Roads & RPO Board:  Councilman Perlmutter said he had no new information to report.

 

Jackson County:  Councilman Mau said that he forwarded some information to Mayor Begley via email including a draft of the Vision statement that Gerald Green came up with and asked that any feedback or ideas be sent to him.  He noted that with the holidays, the Steering Committee for the Jackson County Comprehensive Plan is not meeting until February.

 

Councilman Mau noted that he will have to review the email correspondence on the water drainage issue update and report back.

 

Mayor’s Report: 

 

Mayor Begley provided everyone a copy of the latest Cullowhee Planning Map that Gerald Green sent for review.  She noted that she forgot to mention she attended a meeting last month that Jackson Co., WCU, and SCC hosted on Nov. 13th for the N.C. Secretary of Commerce, she said that the Mayor of Sylva, WCU representatives, and county representatives were in attendance.  She said that Rich Price invited the Mayors; she said the meeting helped put Jackson County on the map at the state level; they took the Secretary of Commerce around to some of the larger businesses like Balsam West, and Jackson Paper.  She said that WCU gave a nice presentation during the meeting saying they are going to be focusing on increasing their Engineering Dept.; she recently read that Duke Energy gave WCU a $75,000 grant towards helping to recruit Engineering students. 

 

Mayor Begley noted that there are no new Ordinance violations, Ken Dickert said there was one incident with four wheelers and that he will contact the property owners about the situation.

 

Mayor Begley noted that she attends the Mayor’s meetings that are held on the first Friday of each month.

 

9)      Unfinished Business:

 

Proposed Village Speed Limits:

 

Carl drove around the Village with an officer to determine potential speed limits; the officer suggested 20mph on non-state maintained roads. 

Councilman Corwin noted that he knows an individual who is a traffic engineer and the person suggested having someone measure what the traffic is going at and the rule of thumb is 85% of that rate. They also suggested measuring at different times of the day.

 

Councilman Mau suggested having several people drive the roads and give estimates of the speeds that they feel are comfortable rates.  He suggested asking the Planning Board members and maybe a couple residents to drive the roads and provide feedback on comfortable speeds.

 

10)   New Business

 

  • Organize a Village sponsored “Clean Up Day”:   Mayor Begley noted that LeAnne said that we could have the cleanup day on the same day as the 5k run since students are volunteering to help and it could be a Village wide effort. 

 

11)   Adjourn:  At7:25pm Councilman Hooper made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Councilman Corwin, unanimously approved.