The following members of the Council were present:

Councilmember Daniel Shields

Councilmember Nilofer Couture

Councilmember Larry Ingersoll

Stephanie Gibson, Clerk

The following members of the Council were absent:

Mayor Marcia Almond

Councilmember Robert Kehrberg

The following non-Council members were Present: 

Bronwyn Burleson, Auditor 

Andrew Mramor, Resident 

Sarah Garcia, Resident

 

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 December 03, 2024, Regular Council Meeting and Joint Meeting with FH HOA December 09, 2024 :(All meeting minutes are posted on the Forest Hills website once approved.) Councilmember Couture made a motion to approve the meeting minutes as amended for December 03, 2024, and December 09, 2024, Councilmember Ingersoll seconded the motion, unanimously approved. 

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

     6.  Public Comment: Mr. Mramor asked the Council if there had been updates about the Valley property, he had noticed that the property was being surveyed.  Councilmembers said they were not aware of a potential sale or development of the property.

     7.  Audit Review:  Bronwyn Burleson:  Audit Burleson shared and reviewed the Financial Audit results with the Council and told the Council that her firm would not be doing audits in the future.  She made recommendations of a couple local auditors that she had spoken with that might be interested in performing audits for small towns and municipalities, one being an auditor in Clyde and another in Asheville, she will provide contact information to Stephanie for those auditors.  Bronwyn noted that she would be available to work as a consultant for the Village since she will not be performing the audit if needed.  She will provide bound copies of the audit results to the Council as soon as they are available.  Bronwyn recommended that the Council submit an RFP for an auditor to 3-5 agencies as some may not respond.

     8.  Reports: 

Mayor’s Report: Marcia Almond – Mayor Almond was absent.

Roads: Larry Ingersoll – Councilmember Ingersoll said that he contacted Western Caolina Power about two trees that were touching power lines and they removed them.  He also looked at Meigs Way and the ditches on Cave Springs with Robbie Hess to determine what was needed for road maintenance.

Ordinance Violation update: Councilmember Ingersoll and Mayor Almond have spoken to Attorney Fox about adopting an animal ordinance for “vicious dogs”, and he is working on the language for the ordinance.

Village Safety:  Councilmember Couture said that there were 26 – 911 calls and noted that 18 of them were from Prospect and Summit and 4 were from the University Inn.  She said that there were 43 hours of patrol for the month

TWSA:  None

Planning Board:  None

9.    New Business:

 Voting Delegate for NCLM:  Councilmember Ingersoll volunteered to be the Voting Delegate for the Village with the NCLM.

 Village Social:  Council discussed the Holiday social and agreed that it went well an there was a good turnout.  Councilmembers said that resident feedback was good and that it was recommended that there be more than two annual social events.

     10. Unfinished Business: 

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

•          Updates on Engineering Study:  The Engineering Study contract has been signed and funds were obligated from the remaining ARPA funds and Village checking to complete the study as agreed upon by the Council. 

•          Update on Ordinance Violation:  Councilmember Ingersoll said that he drafted a letter and sent it to Stephanie to put on letterhead and send certified mail to the homeowners who were advertising two properties as Airbnb’s, the property names are advertised as Bear’s Den and Hibernation Station.  He will update when he receives a response.
  
•          Update on Grants:  TBC
• 11.  Additional Comments:  None
• 12.  Adjourn: At 8:55pm, Councilmember Shields made a motion to adjourn.