The Jamestown Town Council meeting on July 21 lasted just over four hours, full of important business to discuss or adopt.
The Council was expected to adopt the Town’s updated Strategic plan at its July 21 meeting. However, staff learned the Council would like to revisit portions of the plan prior to adoption. It had been tabled at the June 23 meeting. The Council will meet Aug. 26 from 2 to 4 p.m. to have a dialogue with key staff members regarding suggested changes.
Town Manager Matthew Johnson explained why the Oakdale Road sidewalk project has been delayed.
“It’s been on the books a long time, Johnson said. “It’s been delayed a bit and a good portion of that time was at the request of NCDOT who wanted to complete the [Jamestown] bypass project first. Since then, staffing, engineering and funding challenges have continued to plague the project.
“The most significant issue is the large increase in costs for the project over the amount of funding from the Congestion, Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) grant, which was initially $700,000. Some of those funds have been used for engineering.
“The Town is at a crossroads. If the project is scrapped, NCDOT has indicated that they would not require reimbursement for funds spent to date. If we decide to move forward, the costs will far outweigh the available grant funding,” Johnson added. “The revised cost estimates below for the Oakdale Road sidewalk are based on recent project costs. Funds needed are $1,140,000.
“In discussions with Council members, Councilmember Jim Westmoreland indicated that he would be willing to have this discussion with the High Point Metropolitan Planning Organization (HPMPO) and NC DOT to see if additional funding would be available. We wanted to bring this to the attention of the Council and the public.
“CMAQ is typically funded with 20 percent local match and 80 percent from NCDOT that’s federal funding,” Westmoreland said. “Right now we have a gap that will, hopefully, need to be filled by the DOT with additional CMAQ funding. “I’m being cautiously optimistic. I feel good about our abilities to make the case with the DOT and have it funded in fairly short order. CMAC seems to have some flexibility in it.”
The Capital Improvement Plan includes $300,000 taken out of fund balance. Johnson will check how much of the original $700,000 has already been spent.
The Council approved an amendment to the Town’s Personnel Policy to to accept prior service with a previous employer who participates in the state retirement system when calculating vacation leave accruals.
“[Councilmember Sarah Glanville] identified one of the challenges sometimes for employees coming from other jurisdictions that participate in the state or local retirement system is that they would have to start back at zero,” Johnson said. “Their tenure is not recognized.”
Currently, if the Town hired a 10-year employee from other town, the vacation they would be earning at a rate with their tenure would not transfer over. The amendment allows the inclusion of the previous 10 years.
Councilmember Pam Burgess read a proclamation declaring July as Parks and Recreation month in Jamestown.
Burgess also presented a resolution honoring Charles Clapp, Jr., on the Parks and Recreation Committee. Clapp has served on the committee since being an alternate in 2018.
The entire Town Council gathered around Councilmember Jim Westmoreland as he read a resolution extending sincere appreciation to Gov. Josh Stein, Sen. Phil Berger and Rep. Alan Branson for supporting the Town’s Fire Station Project by including $350,000 in the State budget to assist with facility improvements.
The proclamation and resolutions may be found in the July 21 Town Council packet at https://jamestown-nc.gov.
Johnson said the America’s250 Celebration on July 3 “was a hit,” even with the high temperatures. He thanked Councilmember Burgess for organizing the event.
Insurance covered the damage from the recent fire at Jamestown Park that damaged the new playground. The Town is proceeding to make the repairs.
“The Main Street waterline project has been under review with NCDOT,” Johnson said. “Just after 5 p.m. today we received information they had finished their review of the traffic control protocols. Now we’ll schedule a meeting with business and property owners along the route to share info and answer questions. [DOT] had some minor comments they wanted us to address. Paul [Blanchard, Public Services Director] is working on getting those back to them this week. Hopefully we will get the notice to proceed on that project very soon.
“Chief Carson [of Pinecroft Sedgefield Fire Department] asked me to give an update [about the fire station]. Architects have completed their site review and their recommendation is that the most expeditious and most cost-effective path forward is to demolish the current station and rebuild on the existing site. The existing station no longer meets the department’s operational needs and there could be some exposure for personnel to contaminants, just due to the way it’s designed. The new facility will incorporate updated technology to reduce firefighter and EMS exposure risks. PSFD and the Town are currently working with the architects to refine the needs and design directions.”
Johnson also reported on the cost recovery for inspections and plan review for D.R.Horton’s current projects.
“We generally are recovering a substantial share of the direct review and inspection cost with plan review fees slightly above cost and inspection fees recovering most, but not all, of the associated cost,” Johnson said. “Under N.C. law, development review permit and inspection are meant to be cost-recovery mechanisms and not revenue generators. This is not something for us to ‘make money on.’”
As expected, the Town Council unanimously approved a special event permit for the annual Christmas Parade on Dec. 6 presented by the Jamestown Rotary Club.
The Club requested the Town waive Town fees associated with the event and the associated sign permit for a Town Hall banner promoting the parade; reimburse the Club for Guilford County Sheriffs Office traffic control deputies; provide non-profit funding for four portable toilets (including one ADA-accessible unit) to supplement Civic Center restrooms; cover postage for parade entry mailings, provide trash removal following the event, and have Public Services install cones and barricades along the route map. These requests are typical of the parade requests each year.
Items that generally do not need discussion are grouped together in the consent agenda.
The Council appproved the first amendment to the Statement of Agreement regarding the Consolidated Municipal Alcohol and Beverage Control System in Jamestown and High Point. This revises the method of calculating Jamestown’s annual profit distribution. The current distribution, in place since 2002, is $50,000 annually. The amendment raises that to $78,000 annually for the Jamestown ABC store in Grandover Village. This store is run by the High Point ABC Board but is located in Jamestown. This is the highest revenue-producing store in the local ABC system.
Contracts for services, formerly grants, were awarded to the Ragsdale YMCA for $10,000 for recreation services, Jamestown Public Library for $16,000 for library services, NC Fusion soccer for $10,000 for recreation services and Historic Jamestown Society for $10,500 for cultural and historical programming and conservation.
Brant Gomez was reappointed alternate to the Planning Board, Jeff Vale as a full time member to the Board and reappointed Hope Inge to the Board. Donald Dale, Jr., was reappointed as ETJ Planning Board member.
To end the evening, the Council went into closed session per General Statute 143.318 to discuss a matter related to attorney/client privilege and a personnel matter. No further business was conducted when the Council resumed the regular session.
The meeting may be viewed at www.youtube.com/c/TownofJamestownNC. Click on “Live.”