December 2024

Village of Forest Hills Council Meeting
Tuesday, December 03, 2024 – 7:00 pm
Forest Hills Assembly Hall, Cullowhee NC

 

The following members of the Council were present:

Mayor Marcia Almond

Councilmember Robert Kehrberg

Councilmember Nilofer Couture

Councilmember Larry Ingersoll

Stephanie Gibson, Clerk

The following members of the Council were absent:

Councilmember Daniel Shields

The following non-Council members were Present:

Judith Lambert, Resident, Planning Board

  1. Call to order: at 7:00pm Mayor Almond called the meeting to order. 

     2.  Announcements:

Reminder – Please silence cell phones for meeting. 

     3.  Approval of Agenda: Councilmember Ingersoll made a motion to approve the agenda, Councilmember Couture seconded the motion, unanimously approved. 

     4.  Approval of Meeting Minutes for November 05, 2024, Regular Council Meeting:(All meeting minutes are posted on the Forest Hills website once approved.) Councilmember Ingersoll made a motion to approve the meeting minutes for November 05, 2024, Councilmember Kehrberg seconded the motion, unanimously approved. 

     5.  Acceptance of Financial Report & Checklist for the month of November 2024: (All financial reports are posted on the Forest Hills website once approved.) Councilmember Kehrberg made a motion to approve the financial reports, Councilmember Kehrberg seconded the motion, unanimously approved.

     6.  Public Comment:  None

     7.  Reports: 

Mayor’s Report: Marcia Almond – Mayor Almond shared that she and Daniel spoke with an Engineering Company, Withers Ravenel, based in Charlotte, about an Engineering study and is waiting on their quote, the engineer is located in Clyde who services this area.  The Engineer should have the information next week.  Mayor Almond noted that the Engineer can work with the Southwestern Commission on grants.

Mayor Almond attended a meeting in Morganton on 11/8.  The regular RPO meeting was centered around brainstorming for responses to Helene and how to be proactive.  She said that the Governor and Tom Tillis spoke at the meeting.  Grants for small businesses for recovery efforts were discussed.  Members discussed how communications/responses for emergency personnel could be improved.  

Mayor Almond noted that there is a webinar available on ETJ on 12/4/24 at 2:00pm for Councilmembers who might be interested.

TAC:  Mayor Almond said that the TAC meeting centered on the funding for Helene recovery and how it has made funding even more difficult and money is tighter, projects have been put on hold due to the disaster recovery expenses.  Mayor Almond said that Daniel Fielding from the NC Institute of Technology discussed the possibility of drones and electrical aviation in the future to assist in emergency responses.

Roads: Larry Ingersoll – Councilmember Ingersoll said that he spoke with Robbie and he said that he would try to get the mirrors put up in the next week.  Planning Board member, Judith Lambert, asked that they not put a sign or mirror near her home not be put up where her daylilies are.

Ordinance Violation update: Councilmember Ingersoll asked if he should contact Attorney Fox about adopting an animal ordinance for “vicious dogs”, Councilmembers agreed that there needed to be an Ordinance for the Village in addition to the County Ordinances to protect walkers on Village roads and hopefully prevent any other residents from being harmed. Mayor Almond said that she will look at the language in state and county ordinances and see what they say and she and Councilmember Ingersoll will contact the attorney to discuss the ordinance further and report back to the Council at the next meeting.

Village Safety:  Councilmember Couture said that there were 22 – 911 calls and noted that 60% of them were from Prospect and Summit.  She noted that one call was for breaking and entering and one for burglary.  There were 38 hours of patrol for the month.

  •          TWSA:  None 
  •          Planning Board:  None    
  1.     New Business: 

Village Social:  Council discussed the Holiday social to be held Dec. 15th and Mayor Almond noted that she had spoken with the Catering company and they would provide the meal and asked if residents attending would bring a dessert.  Council discussed games and musical entertainment to be provided by Skip Almond and his friend.  Council agreed that gift cards should be purchased for drawings and agreed they should, $10/$20 cards were recommended, Mayor Almond will get the cards.  Stephanie has ordered Post Cards from the Print Haus and will order outdoor signage for the social. 

Forest Hills HOA:  Mayor Almond noted that Niall Michelsen had sent an invoice that the HOA had received and paid for ditch/road clearing in Caves Springs to be reimbursed by the Village.  Council discussed and agreed that they needed to meet with the HOA so that the road clearing could be discussed for the entire Village and get a schedule and price for all roads. 

Snow Contract:  Stephanie will contact BH Graning to ask that the Village have a snow contract. 

  1.     Unfinished Business: 
  •          Ordinance Violation Updates:  TBC

  •          Update on Grants:  TBC

    10.  Additional Comments:  None 

    11.  Adjourn: At 8:50pm, Councilmember Kehrberg made a motion to adjourn.