Regular Meeting

Heat. Heat. Heat.

[music] [music]

Heat. Heat.

Call to order the December 11th meeting of the Kerry Town Council. And at this time, I'll recognize Council Member Craig for our ceremonial opening.

Good evening, everyone. Tonight, as we open our meeting, I wanted to take a moment um a time to recognize a very special moment for our community. Every year, the town of Kerry proudly presents the Hometown Spirit Award. This is an honor that celebrates residents who go above and beyond to enrich the quality of life in our town by preserving tradition, promoting community values, and demonstrating unwavering commitment to their neighbors and our shared way of life. So, we did this um this honor last month. There was a ceremony and this year's finalists, they really embody the best of what it means to be carried. Their leaders leading with their heart, generosity, and purpose. And so, the n there were three nominees. Matthew Gronkey. I'll say just a few words about each. Um, his passion for community connection was visible in his work with the Cary-Free Bicycle Project, giving

bikes to local residents, supporting trail stewardship, and spreading joy throughout the community. The second nominee was Nancy Haywood who shines as an inspiring example of service above self through her leadership with throughout Kerry in the Kerry Rotary Club, the Kildair Rotary Club, mentorship of youth and countless hours supporting local nonprofits and families in need. And the third nominee was Carla Michaels, a lifelong Kerry resident whose dedication to historic preservation has brought our town's past to life through walking tours, research, advocacy, and countless volunteer hours sharing the stories that stitch together Car's rich heritage. So tonight, just one additional time um for the public to congratulate all three finalists for their remarkable contributions. and we honored this year's hometown spirit award um recipient was Carla Michaels. And so we just um her work reminds us that by celebrating where we come from and caring deeply for one another, we strengthen the bonds that make Carrie more than just a place to live, but a place to belong. And um so again, we um please join me in thanking Matthew, Nancy, and Carla for their service and in celebrating the spirit they bring to the community. And congratulations to Carla. And at this time, would you please join me in standing for the pledge to

the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Miss Craig. We now move to the portion of [snorts] adopting the agenda. Staff has requested to add the approval of the November 18th and November 20th minutes to the consent agenda. I would entertain a motion to adop adopt the amended agenda.

So move.

There's a motion,

a second

and a second. Discussion. All in favor, please say I.

I.

Any oppose? Motion carries unanimously. That takes us to recognitions, reports, and presentations. And at this time, I'll recognize council member Bonsel for a quick res recognition.

Tonight, we are honored to recognize our very own Virginia Johnson, our town clerk, who has served the town of Kerry since 2013 and has been our town clerk since 2016 for the Central Pines Regional Council Board Evergreen Excellence Award. This award is given to one individual every year in recognition of outstanding accomplishments and for demonstrating dedication, innovation, and a positive impact in the community. Virginia embodies all of these qualities. She has strengthened K's presence across the region, building partnerships and relationships that help us move to forward together. Virginia, thank you for your service. It's weird to say Virginia. Jenny. Jenny, thank you for your service, your steady guidance, and your unwavering commitment to this organization and our residents. We are truly grateful. Thank you. [applause]

We have the best clerk saying.

All right. Uh now we'll turn it over to for the manager's update. I'll recognize deputy town manager Russ over.

Uh thank you, mayor. Good to see you all again, the second time today already. third time this week, but who's counting? Um, in addition to our meetings and work sessions that all of us have had, especially council, it's we've all been very busy attending holiday events, and there are a lot of them. From the Christmas tree lighting to the manora lighting to Quanza, there's so many good things happening in Carrie. And [snorts] then sometimes we get to sprinkle in an even unexpected show this week, a snow this week. [laughter]

You're going to perform. Um, and that's

all against the backdrop of the beautiful holiday direction that took uh decorations that took weeks to deploy while the garbage and recycling and yard waste and all the normal services that we run continue to get collected and operate on. I bring all this up because our staff and contractors are all doing amazing work and jobs to make sure everything runs very smoothly each day. I know mayor you and council have joined me in thanking the staff and the people who do these things and their and the time that they spend away from their families. Um and that creates a wonderful place in Kerry and wonderful memories for all the people that visit Kerry. So that's all I have for tonight. Thank you.

Thank you, Russ. And we do have the best public works staff. Gosh, we got the best of everything. All right. Uh we now move to public speaks out. Uh we've included instructions for speaking at this forum online and on the printed agenda. There were three opportunities to participate in public speaks out through written comments by calling in or by attending here in persons tonight. And if you are here in person and would like to speak, I would ask that you please take a seat in the rows to my right that are highlighted. Public speaks out speakers have three minutes each for their comments and you may speak on any town related topic as long as it's not a public hearing. The three minute time limit will be enforced not to be rude but to be fair to all of our speakers. There's a timer on the podium. It'll start off with a green light. When it turns to yellow, that means you have 30 seconds remaining. And when it starts flashing red, that means your time has expired. And that's the point I'll interrupt you. Not trying to be rude, but to be fair to all of our speakers. I would ask that speakers be respectful in their comments, direct those comments to the entire council, not to an individual. I thank everyone in the audience for understanding and respecting that this is a business meeting. Do not applaud, make remarks from your seats, use props,

or do anything else that may distract from this business meeting. So, now is the time for public speaks out. And I'll first call on our clerk to read any written comments and call on any registered speakers.

We have two written comments and two registered speakers. our written comments. Um Jordan Odel, a former employee, expresses support for town manager Shawnsteagle, also noting that he does not know Shawn and never had a conversation with Shawn. They also thank local public safety personnel and the mayor for um their service and emphasized the pride in the town of Kerry. Greg Nclero expresses concerns about the circumstances surrounding tuition reimbursement and calls for greater transparency and accountability, including an independent audit. Um, they urged the council to address what they see as a promatic environment and to consider adopting term limits to restore public confidence.

Thank you. Do you have any registered speakers?

Yes. Um, we our first register speaker is Jeff Pierce and the second register speaker is Renee Miller.

Move to your left, please.

Move to the

Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you.

Thanks. Uh, I am Jeff Pierce. Uh my brothers and I have a third generation farm uh on Pierce Olive Road in Apex. Um we are trying to develop a portion of the farm for a 55 and over uh residential community. Uh we have had extreme trouble getting the sewer easement um to go back a few years. Carrie put in their main sewer line behind our property. Um 15 years ago, Carrie and Holly Springs

annexed our property and used our Pierce Olive Road to divide our farm in half. So we are trying to develop 25 acres on the Kerry side. Um we had a developer that was in the works and backed out in 2021 because he could not make this utility connection. We have another developer now that's trying to put in the 55 and over community. They're limited by the number of lots they can put in, which is 55 lots. And the sewer easement is 300 ft from our back property line and downhill. The current property owners have been very hard to deal with. Uh they've had little to no communication with the developer or us um since we've started this process. Um the developer has had um 22 extensions to our deal. Two and a half years of trying to communicate with these folks and uh we've come to no resolution. Uh is still just the same as it was in the beginning. Um the developer explored putting in a pumping station which would have pumped the waste one mile up the road and then back down into the same sewer line for $2.1 million. because of 55 lots, they can't afford to do that. Um, and we're asking you guys to encourage the town to enact quick action, imminent domain, so we can move forward with this. If we don't have an answer by February 1st on the sewer easement, the current developers are going to back out. We'd like to develop much more of our property on that side, but right now the uh the land value is just a fraction of what it would be worth if we can make that connection because now we can use it really for nothing and we would appreciate your help. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Pierce. Make sure you leave your name and connection uh

information so that staff can get in touch. Our next registered speaker is Renee Miller. Good evening, Mayor and Council. I did not actually attend to attend this meeting this evening, but recent events have compelled me to do so. The citizens of Kerry cannot trust their council. The mayor spoke on Tuesday night at the work session about trust. He said, "You have to trust each other on the council so that the staff and citizens will trust you. With all that has happened in the last few weeks, it should be impossible for you to trust each other. Clearly, we citizens cannot trust you, nor should we. How could you allow the things that are coming out in the press? Why did it take outside information requests to uncover malfeasants, pol policy violations, and lies? First, the town manager was placed on leave. Then, a council woman received reimbursements for which she was not eligible in an amount that that is nearly four times her annual stipend. and then expected a free pass when she paid it back. Today, more egregious spending by the town manager. What will come out tomorrow? Who else might be implicated? It's time for the council to exercise its oversight responsibility. Because the council cannot be trusted, an outside organization needs to conduct a full forensic audit of our town's books and records. Citizens should not

settle for less. We need to be sure that every bit of these issues is cleaned out. Both those who committed these acts and those who approved or failed to report it need to go. In October, I said that spending and management issues were about the public trust and they are. You council have lost that. take the first step to regain it. Be serious and clean the whole house as soon as possible. I hope that car's citizens will get to see that you have better in you than what we've seen lately. Our town deserves to know that it is not being cheated and that our tax dollars are being spent properly. There are those in the audience who I believe agree with me and I ask that they stand quietly with me at this time. Thank you. We elected our council to do the whole job, not just the fun part. I urge you to clean out this mess for the health of our town and the integrity of our council. Thank you. No additional registered speakers.

If you're here in the audience would like to speak on any topic that's not a public hearing, now is your opportunity.

Good evening, council. Earlier this year, we

Can you state your name, please?

Sure. Sally Spencer,

thank you.

Earlier this year, we had about 50 people here speaking out against the Waverly resoning. After the vote was approved, I found out through a concerned citizen that the individual who represented District C

said that the council had already made up their minds about how they were going to vote even before any of the meetings took place. Now we find out about this payment for Lori Bush's MBA and it's fun.

Direct your comments to the entire council, not to an individual. Thank you.

I am. Now we find out about the payments for the council members MBA funded by the town. How can we trust town council going forward? Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening. I'm Marjgerie Eastman. Thank you for three minutes. I just wanted to say that I'm standing here today as a citizen, as your neighbor, [snorts] and as someone who cares deeply about our town. And I respect each and every one of you for having the courage to run for public office and to serve because that's hard. And I'm up here today because of all the things we're hearing in the news right now. And many people are concerned. I am getting non-stop messages and emails from my friends, my neighbors, my colleagues who are Republicans, Democrats, and unaffiliated. And it's not going to stop until there is full transparency and accountability. And I wanted to share with you that one of the books I read when I was a little girl that really stuck with me is this wonderful book. You might have heard of the author John F. Kennedy. It's called Profiles and Courage. And so I would like to read this line. True democracy living and growing and inspiring puts its faith in people. Faith that people will not simply elect

other people who will represent their views abley and faithfully, but also elect people who will exercise their conscientious judgment. We need courage. And Malcolm Gladwell said in several of his books that courage isn't something that just shows up when you need to be brave. Courage is something we all have earned when we've all been through tough times. And I learned that when I was in Afghanistan as a commander. I learned that when my baby was handed to me at six months old and they said he had cancer. We've all been through tough times and we all have to make tough decisions. I'm praying for each and every one of you to have courage to be the leader that I need you to be, that the town of Kerry needs you to be, to have integrity as your north star. And I too find it absolutely egregious that thousands and thousands of dollars was given to a council member when so many people are struggling with affordability. And then in the article today, it was clearly a blame shift. Oh, you know, blameshifting to the the town manager. Representatives and leaders have responsibility and they need to take accountability and show some sense of remorse. I would just like for each of you to know I'm praying for your courage. I'm praying for your integrity to do the right thing. And I believe that so many of you can do that.

Miss Eastman, your time is expired.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. Anyone else to speak if public speaks out?

There's someone.

I don't think the mic is Hold on.

Hold on just a second. Make sure we get you

on audio.

No,

no,

it should be on.

Hello.

Yes, it is.

That makes it better for me. Um, my name is Rebecca Lancer. I've been a Kerry resident since October of 1996. And I I also am just shocked at at the behavior and it's not right. Um I I implore you to do the right thing. Um it shouldn't you you [clears throat] should be doing the right thing anyway, not when the sunlight hits and um there's a lot of people struggling and um it's just not right to do. So, uh, I I'm just imploring you as a citizen to, um, to look. I'm I'm really concerned that maybe, um, there's stuff going on that hasn't had the light of day shined on it yet. How much of this is going on that we don't know about? Uh, my tax bill keeps going up and, um, it's making it very difficult to stay here. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else for public speaks out? Seeing no one will close public speaks out and move to the consent agenda which is item four. [clears throat] Excuse me. For the benefit of people watching our meeting streaming or on TV, I'll take a moment to review the consent agenda items. Please keep in mind that one vote approves all of these items. On the consent agenda, we have minutes. advisory board meeting schedule 25 AO41412 White Oak Church Road annexation

1412 White Oak Church Road that's a resoning 2509 Fairbanks Road reszoning would council members like any of these items pull for discussion if not I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda

motion to approve.

Second.

There's a motion and a second. Discussion. All in favor, please say I.

I.

Any oppose? Motion carries unanimously.

We now move to public hearings. Our first and only public hearing is for 25A, which is at 2220 Jones Franklin Road. Principal planner Aaron Pucket will introduce the hearing. Council may take action on this item. Miss Pucket.

Thank you and good evening, council. The owners of 67 acres of property located at 2220 Jones Franklin Road have petitioned Carrie for annexation. This property is contiguous to car's corporate limits and is currently located within K's extr territorial jurisdiction or ETJ. It is zoned residential multifamily RMF and is developed with one non-conforming detached residential dwelling. The property owners are requesting annexation in order to connect car's utilities, specifically to access Carry water due to issues with their existing well. Following tonight's public hearing, council may take action. This concludes my presentation and following the public hearing, I'm available for questions.

Thank you, Miss Pucket. Now's time for the public. First, I'll call on the clerk for any written comments or any registered speakers.

No written comments and no registered speakers.

All right. So now it's time for the public hearing for 258. And I would enter in I would open the mic to anybody who would like to speak at this public hearing. Anyone to speak at this resoning I mean this annexation. All right. Seeing no one open it I'll close public hearing. Open it up to council members for questions, comments

or motion.

I'll make a motion to approve 25A um for annexation.

Second.

There's a motion and a second. Discussion. All in favor, please say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you, Miss Pucket. We now move to discussion items.

We have funding evaluation of Citizens Convenience Center location and I'll call on assistant town manager Shelley Kern for the presentation and council may take action.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I am going to talk to you tonight about the Kerry Citizens Convenience Center. The Kerry Citizens Convenience Center opened in Kerry in the early 1990s. It is located at 313 North Dixon Street in downtown Kerry. Citizens can bring residential solid waste, recycling, and yard waste here for proper disposal. Um, some of the specific items that we take are mattresses, televisions, and furniture. At this location, we have about 250 visitors that visit the Citizens Convenience Center each day, and we have 90,000 per year. The Kerry Convenience Center is located adjacent to the North Carolina Railroad. [snorts] The railroad rightway extends to the red dotted line that you see on the map here. [laughter] So the railroad line is the purple and then the dotted line or is in between there. The red dotted line is the ride ofway. The highlighted portion there is our actual public facility and that that's the portion that the public uses. The portion that's dark there is our public portion that's actually in the railroad rightway.

This fall, North Carolina Railroad actually came to us and notified us that they had received a federal grant to improve the rail corridor and would need full use of their property, including that rideway. The railroad has given us until the end of 2026 as a goal to remove everything that we have that's currently operating in the ride ofway. At our quarterly retreat, we discussed that we would issue a request to find a firm to help evaluate options for moving operations within the ride ofway. We received two responses and have selected a firm that specializes in designing convenience centers. Staff's approach is to break this out into break the process out into multiple stages. So the first stage would be to have the consultant develop options so that we can better understand the logistics and cost associated with moving our operations. Once this phase is complete, we would then come back to you with these potential options and costs associated with the next steps. So, council, we are recommending that you utilize up to $40,000 of funding budgeted within the general fund for mid-year appropriation to evaluate options for the future of the Citizens Convenience Center. If you authorize this, we would plan to come back to you in early 2026 with options for the next steps. I'm happy to answer any questions that I can or entertain questions. So, we're going to evaluate and then assume we get a an approval of something, design and implement all in 12 months. That seems like an impossibility. Um, we will do our best to get our operations out of the ride ofway by the time frame they need us to and we if the council decides to move it somewhere else or once we have our options of what we can do, we will work to make it happen as fast as possible so that we can have as little downtime as we possibly can.

And so a followup on that, if we show good faith, and I know I'm asking you to

guess, we have everything lined up, we just run out of time. Do you think the railroad will let us extend? I am not going to speak for the railroad, but in my experience, um, they typically have a if they have a federal grant, they typically have a timeline that they're working on. I'm not sure that they would have a lot of flexibility. I would have

a deadline. Got it. We'll keep trying.

We would certainly keep trying. Yes.

Okay.

That was that was my primary question. Like maybe they'll give us a little So, just to manage uh citizen expectations, I've been asked about this a couple of times. I was surprised how much the citizen convenience center uh was of interest to a lot of people. But we are going to endeavor to find a solution. But to manage expectations there may be a gap between when the current facility is no longer open and whatever uh we end up doing later is open. That's all what we all expect. Yes. That it's

I think that's a reasonable expect.

A reasonable expectation. I just wanted to make sure because that's what I've been guessing at. Um but I didn't want it to be my sole singular guess and yeah.

Yeah. And until we come back to you with options as this first phase like once we have the options and we have a plan I think we'll have a better idea of what the timeline would be for moving forward and we'll have a better estimate. But um the chances of everything being done in that but I think it's reasonable to think that it might be closed for a little while.

A little bit. I'll stop guessing and I'll stop asking you to guess too.

Shi, I'll reconfirm my understanding.

Sure.

Just want to be sure.

So, what we're doing right now is we don't have an option to stay there. We have to move out.

So, what we're going to ask the consultant to do is look at So, you can see on Well, if I not going to try to go backwards. [laughter] Um, there's not a lot of space like we utilize the entire site right now. Thank you. um we utilize the entire site for

some of our operations. So we would have the consultant look at it to see if there's any possibility of staying on like moving the services onto that site and just moving it out of the rideway. Um and that's one of the options we would look at and bring back to you. And it might be that there's certain services we can keep doing or there might be different options. We'll have them look and see if there's another site that we can have that's somewhat close. So there's a possibility that we don't vacate this location 100%. We might just semi utilize it, right?

The only thing I can tell you for sure is that we have to be out of that ride of way. Okay.

Um and the rest of it I'm not sure yet.

Okay. So that is um so the money that we are allocating is to understand what are we going going to do with the site. Sorry that part is not clear.

Sure. So what the money would do is we would have the consultant look at our operations and figure out could we stay at this site like I mean one of the options might be that it closes or that we stay at this site or is there another site that we could move it to. That's what we that's what the $40,000 would authorize them to look at that. It is not for them to do a design. It is just for them to look at the feasibility of what we could possibly do. And then we will come back to you and say, "Okay, these are the options that we think are feasible." And from that point, if you all decide that we're going to move forward with one of those options, we would do the next step for that option. It might be designing something. And then obviously, if there was construction or um it'll just be up to you all and what you want

and so you know the cost of each option at that point.

Yes. Because there will be a cost for each phase. Thank you, Russ. So, I don't want to get in the weeds, but I kind of I got to ask the question. So, I have been there, and this is how you get out, right?

So, you've lost the exit, and I'm looking to the northwest. What is that? To the northwest. I'm hoping there's hope.

You could

like to the left

to the corner of the screen.

Can we enter and exit out of there?

Top left corner of the screen.

You cannot exit from there. There's only one way in and out. If you have specific questions, Jimmy Simpson from public works may

Yeah, Jimmy can

because that's downhill, right? That's

Yeah, that's a big great separation when you come out.

And I think Shel, this was the same project where Jennifer recommended that if in future we like there's a railroad, we do something nice so that you know this will be a point where people will be able to see. Is that the same one, right? I think that's what

Yeah, I think I think that that was a comment for the whole rail line anywhere we do something. I don't know really what the view is right now because of the convenience center.

Right. Right. No, that makes sense.

Mr. Simpson, got anything that

Mr. Mayor, I believe the question that you're asking in the northwest corner there is the yardways pile is what is surrounded by the yellow, right?

And then to the northwest farther of that is more of our storage. We own that and it goes, I believe, to Madison on the back side. that we own. But there's no outlet that way.

Okay.

There's not currently an outlet. There cannot be an outlet.

That I can't speak to. If there could be, there's a culde-sac residential through there.

If it was that simple, somebody would have already said we just need to move this the egress, right?

Yeah.

Thank you, Russ. [laughter]

And we certainly ask our consultant to look at that.

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you.

Thank you.

When do we anticipate having options?

I hope in January.

Okay. That's the plan.

Other questions?

So, when you said uh Q1 F um 2026, you meant

calendar

calendar year 2026.

Yes.

Okay. Just making sure. And

um if we know that no matter what we have to move out of there, is there actually equipment there now or is that just the access road? So, can we start that work? So we can we start that work so that we're not

you would have to allocate funding to start that work that we haven't discussed with you yet.

Okay.

And I um the consultant is really I they do this a lot. So they're very qualified for this and I feel confident that they'll be able to look at it very quickly and tell us um what we can do in the most cost-effective shortest amount of time. But it will come with cost options for all of you on what you decide to do.

Thank you.

And Shelley, does the scope of the evaluation would it propose specific sites as an alternative to move to? No, just the notion of moving in.

No. And and one thing we would what we would like to do is try to keep it near downtown. So there's not a ton of options, but um we would ask them to just look at options. And

any other questions? Are we ready for a motion?

Don't be shy.

Do we have verbiage?

I make a motion that council authorized staff to utilize up to $40,000 of funding um from the general fund as a mid-year appropriation to evaluate options for the future of the citizens convenience center.

I second that.

There's a motion and a second. Discussion. All in favor, please say I. I.

Any oppos? Motion carries unanimously. I would now entertain a motion to go into close session.

I can I can put the motion.

Okay.

Pursuant to GS143 318.11a 1 comma 3 and six, I move that we hold a close session to consult with attorneys employed by and or retained by the town in order to preserve the attorney client privilege between the attorneys and the town. prevent the disclosure of information that is made privileged or confidential pursuant to the laws of the state including GS143-318.10E

are not considered a public record within the meaning of chapter 132 of the G general statutes. Um consider the qualification, competence, performance, character, fitness, conditions of appointment or conditions of initial employment of one or more individual public officers or employees. Second.

There's a motion and a second discussion. All in favor, please say I.

I. Any oppose? Motion carries unanimously and council will go into close session. [music] Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat.

hey, hey.

[music]

Baby,

Hello. Heat. Heat. Are you

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Deep. Yeah.

Bless. Wow, wow. Wow. Heat. Heat.

over. Nigel.

That's a

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Hallelujah. Hey, hey, hey.

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This is Heat. Heat.

Heat. Wow. Wow. Down everybody. Oh my. Wow. down down down.

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help.

I'm Heat. Heat.

Baby, you

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hey, hey.

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beauty.

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hey, hey. Baby, hey. Heat. Heat.

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Do it. Are you okay?

[music]

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Doo. beauty.