Have a holly jolly Christmas.

It's the best time of the year.

I don't know if there'll be snow.

But have a cup of cheer.

Have a holly jolly Christmas.

And when you walk down the street, say hello to friend you know, and everyone you meet.

Oh, ho, the mistletoe hung where you can see some body waits for you.

Have a holy jolly Christmas and in case you don't hear.

And when you walk down the street, say hello to friends and knowing you meet the mistletoe hung where you can see waits for you.

Have a holy jolly Christmas.

And in case you don't hear my golly, have a holly jolly Christmas year, don't dump, don't think, don't dump, don't think, don't dump the wealth outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful.

And since we've no place to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

And I'll fro the lungs corn for flopping.

The lights are burned way down, low.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

When we finally make kiss good night, how I hate going out in stone.

But if you really hold it, say all the way home, I'll be warm.

The fire is slowly dying.

And my dear, we're still goodbye.

But as long as you love me so let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

I want to see a lot of snow.

When we finally kiss good night, how I'll hate going out in the stone.

What if you really hold me tight?

All the way home, I'll be one.

The fire is slowly dying.

And my dear, we're still goodbye.

But as long as you love me so let it smell, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow, let it smell.

We may be rushing things, but get the halls again now.

Candles in the window, carried at the spin, and yes, we need a little Christmas, right this very minute.

It hasn't snowed a single bird here in our supply down the chimney, and not the brightest spring, like I've never seen spy.

So the fruit cake.

It's time we had some tens of that ever green down, or I've grown a little leaner, roll a little colder, roll a little sadder, roll a little over, and I need a little angel sitting on my shoulder.

We need a little Christmas.

Yes, we need a little Christmas very minute.

We need a little Christmas.

Good afternoon, and welcome to the December Public Works Meeting.

City Clerk, would you please call the role?

Chairwoman Councilmember Burke here.

Vice Chair, Councilmember Andrew Bowen.

Here.

Councilmember Clark.

And Councilmember Taylor.

Present.

Thank you.

Committee members, today we have two consent items.

Are there any that you all would like to have pulled?

I move for approval of the consent agenda.

Okay.

That has been approved and uh are uh unanimously.

So we'll move on to the general agenda.

City clerk, would you please read G1?

Item G1 update on North Carolina Department of Transportation projects in Forsyth County.

Okay.

Thanks, Chair Burke.

I'd like to introduce John Ryan.

John Ryan is the Division I NC DOT engineer, and we invited him in just to number one, spend some time with council, and number two, talk about some of the projects that NCDOT has got going on in the community that you might want to be aware of.

So with that, I'll turn it over to John.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mr.

Ryan.

We're ready to hear the updates.

Very good.

Thank you all for inviting me.

Glad to be here.

As Aaron said, uh, I am the uh division engineer for the North Carolina Department of Transportation here in Division Nine.

Uh been in this role for a year.

Uh uh took uh took over after Pat retired.

Uh, I think all y'all are familiar with Mr.

Ivey.

Um saw him yesterday.

He said to say hello.

Um not uh not unfamiliar with Fersythe County, born and raised in Forsyth County, so I have a good background in the area.

Um worked for the department for uh 29 years now, including some temporary time there.

Uh but today uh I'll give you kind of an overview uh quick and dirty on the department and ongoing projects that we have in the area.

Tried to focus on uh Winston Salem for Scythe County, and uh then some upcoming projects as well.

Happy to answer any questions.

If I don't have the answers, I'll get back to you with them, okay?

Okay.

We'll walk through this.

Uh agenda.

Uh talk a little bit about uh department, current projects, and then upcoming projects.

Uh big picture overview, a hundred counties in the state, uh department of transportation is divided into divisions, 14 divisions, big ones, little ones, they all have around 5,000 miles.

Um Division Nine, kind of there in the middle.

We cover Stokes for Site Davy and Davison County.

Again, uh 843,000 people, roughly.

Um, five thousand miles, four thousand nine hundred and fifty-seven.

We're short a couple.

Um bridges eight hundred and thirty-six, and we manage all that with around 380 people.

Uh, currently about a 15% vacancy rate.

If you know any good employees, send them my way.

I'll leave a business card.

Okay.

Uh, the division, the division is divided into three main groups.

We've obviously got an administrative group, but uh three groups that kind of get the work done.

Our project development group takes project ideas from beginning, um, scopes those, kind of defines them begin and end, what they're gonna look like, takes that through the environmental process, uh, determines if we have any environmental hang ups or how we're gonna work around those things.

They develop a design, they may do that in-house, they may engage a private firm to design the project, and ultimately they develop the contractual documents and let that to contract.

We typically award that to the lowest bidder.

Our project development group then hands that over to our construction department.

Our construction department's made up of engineers and inspectors.

They'll take the contractor and the contract documents and make sure that that project's built to our standards.

And ultimately, all the documentation is there so that we can get federal reimbursement if it was a federally funded project.

Once that construction's done, they'll hand it over to maintenance operations and they take care of it from there.

You know, uh to perpetuity.

Umtenance and operations is broken into several groups there, uh, and you can you can kind of see those there.

Roadway maintenance traffic and bridge generally.

Current projects.

We've got a lot going on uh in this area.

We will start with the big one.

Uh the northern beltway, more specifically the eastern section of the northern beltway.

Uh we started in 2020, uh opening the first section there that touched 421 and it made it up to 158.

Progressively over the last five years, we've opened up sections up to 52.

This summer we opened that last section there at Rule Hall.

Uh we call that the EB section, and uh it took them several years to finish it, but they got it done this summer.

Uh so you have a nice ride from 421 up to 52.

People tell me it saves them 10 to 15 minutes.

Uh, and I hope that it has relieved a little bit of traffic in downtown Winston.

We are currently still working on that southeast corner.

Uh, our section AA picks up at 77 coming out of high point, uh, and then takes you up towards 40.

That um next piece there is known as AB.

This is the piece that ties into I 40, and you have all the bridges hanging out over in the air.

That's the one when you're driving 40, everybody kind of slows down and looks.

Um, unfortunately, that's caused some traffic issues with people tapping their brakes through there.

Um Christmas movement.

Yeah, there we go.

It's just the season.

Um all good.

Um, both of those pieces are around 80 some percent complete right now, 84, 86, depending on which one you're talking about.

Uh the lower section is 126 million dollar project.

The upper section tying into 40 is 260 million dollars.

Uh, our anticipation, contractors keep working as they have.

Both of those should be done in late 2026.

So another year, maybe, uh, maybe a little short of a year.

So hopefully this time next year, we'll be celebrating that that eastern section of the beltway is open all the way from 74 311 all the way up to 52.

I think that will really change the traffic dynamics on the western side or the eastern side of the county.

Uh a couple quick pictures here.

Everybody likes the aerial picture.

This is uh up in Rule Hall over NC65, looking south.

Uh, you can barely see the skyline of Winston there, but you can see a 74 comes in from the left of pitcher, and 52 carries on south there.

Uh that picture's a little dated, it's obviously all complete now.

Uh, a nice graphic overview of 74311 and the new I-74 beltway tying up to 40.

You can see that nice big bow tie Christmas bow looking intersection there, lots of high speed ramps.

Uh, you won't slow down much as you go through that, and then obviously carrying north on up to 421.

Uh, this is another aerial view, I-74 coming out of high point.

Um dated a little bit, but the dirt path there, that red clay dirt path, that will be I-74 as you exit uh 311 there and head north up around up around the beltway.

This is the uh this is the section of I-40 coming out of Greensboro as you traverse through what will be that new interchange with I-74.

You can see all those bridges overhead there.

Um, lots of long high-speed ramps.

There won't be much slowing down as you travel through here.

Uh they are currently out there finishing up some concrete paving.

Uh they're pouring decks on the bridges.

All the bridges are in all the steel is in place for the bridges, but they still have some concrete decks to pour.

And then obviously the uh concrete parapet walls.

The next one on the list to talk about, US 158.

This one again is one that's been on the books for a long time.

Starts there at Old Greensburn and goes north toward Walkertown.

Long project.

It was let in 2024.

Uh, it's around 27% done.

On the bottom end of it, they're doing some utility installations, wet and wet utility work on the north end, they're moving some dirt.

If you drive through the you'll see if you drive through there, you're gonna be stopped.

Uh there's various lane closures through there as the contractors moving equipment and materials around, so just be patient with us.

Uh progress 27, completion March of 29.

So we've got several more years of this.

It was an 87 million, 88 million dollar project.

It was awarded to a joint venture between APAC Atlantic and Smith Row, both large contractors in the area.

It's progressing nicely, uh, and that they are making good progress.

They are on schedule.

Kind of gives you a better sense of the length of the project there, starting in Old Greensboro, crosses the Beltway, and then ties in up there just north of Walkertown at uh Blues Creek and uh Vance Road.

There'll be a signal where those two uh tie in together at the very end of that project.

Uh a little street view there shows you what it used to look like, uh just a rule two-lane primary road, lots of vertical curves, created some problems for us with uh tractor trailers and high volumes of traffic going through there, and then a picture there under construction as they're widening to that westerly side in in this location here.

It will be uh two lanes in each direction with a grass median, four lanes with a grass median in the middle, uh appropriate left turn lanes uh in locations.

Uh some of the places where you could turn left, you won't be able to turn left anymore.

You'll have to go a little further, make a controlled U-turn, and then come back down in attempt to manage those high traffic volumes.

Yes.

Yeah.

I drive it almost daily.

Well, hopefully in a couple years, it will be a much more pleasant drive for you.

March 29th.

Yeah, there you go.

There you go.

Um the next one here, it's a little bit outside the city limits, but I think it'll have an impact on traffic.

Uh this is a new interchange on 421 over in Kernsville, uh, Big Mill Farm, Hopkins Road.

Uh it will tie into go to the next one here.

It will tie into 421 just west of Main Street.

It will upgrade Big Mill Farm Road, which is a residential road, and then Hopkins, and tie into 66.

It will be a two-lane divided facility.

Uh should alleviate some of that traffic there on Main Street.

Uh that's a very congested area.

Uh, provide another access into Carnageville, Waughttown, let folks come into Winston from the east side there.

Um that project was just lit in November, so they haven't even broke ground yet.

I would imagine they will start clearing this winter and then start in earnest construction next spring when the weather when the weather gets better.

Uh a bridge, an interchange upgrade uh several miles of secondary road.

Uh so they got a little while to do that.

January of 31.

It was a 60 million dollar project.

Again, another joint venture uh between Apex Atlantic and Smith Road.

Uh lastly, for for current projects, um, this is one that often gets overlooked but affects a lot of people, is the department lets uh two pavement contracts every year.

We let a resurfacing contract.

This is the hot mix, smooth, nice pavement that everybody likes, and we let a pavement preservation contract for our low lower volume roads.

But we do around $8 million a year in for Scythe County for hot mix resurfacing, and then we do around $500,000, $600,000 for pavement preservation.

The pavement preservation is targeted for roads under $1,000 ADT.

They're typically your low volume secondary rural roads.

Um resurfacing, our latest bid averages have been between $250 to $350,000 a mile.

Two-lane road.

One mile.

Wow.

Quarter million dollars.

Um so you can imagine, even with eight million dollars, we're not getting very far.

Uh those prices have increased, obviously.

Uh inflation over the last four years has hit the construction industry very hard.

Um, our payment preservation techniques that tar and gravel seals, things of that nature generally run us about $35,000 a mile.

So vast difference.

But we're talking very different roads too.

Thousand cars a day or less, $20,000, 30,000 cars a day.

Upcoming projects.

I've got way ahead of myself here.

Um there are currently in the next eight years, 1.3 billion dollars in design ongoing in the area.

So I'm just gonna hit upon a couple of them.

Uh this is our 36-month let list.

Uh, we publish this out to the public mainly so the industry can see what's upcoming and they can kind of plan their work and determine what they want to bid on.

There is another 12-month let list that comes out that is more finalized.

This one you're gonna see some changes as time evolves as we work on these designs.

Some of these designs in the later years here are not finalized yet.

There may be some hiccups.

There, you know, things may change.

But we'll we publish a 12-month let list as well, and that's the projects that will be led in the next 12 months, and that one's pretty solid.

If we put it on the 12-month let list, we intend to advertise it on that date that's published.

Um I'm a visual person, so I had our GIS folks put this on a map for me.

We'll start at the north end up there.

Uh, that first little star uh BR stands for bridge.

Uh 168, that's the University Parkway Bridge.

Uh, in no in no order of time, May of 26.

Current estimate is around 20 million dollars.

Coming down 52, uh, the next bridge there that we have up is Germanton Road, NC8, North Cherry Street, right there.

That bridge is up for replacement as well.

Uh that is July of 27, so a year, a year further out.

17 million dollars is the current estimate.

Moving on down into central Winston there.

Uh that BR0036, that's the 16th Street Bridge over 52.

Uh there is additionally a bridge right beside of it that goes across the railroad track.

We have combined those two bridges and are going to replace both of them at one time.

Uh that is September of 27, 10 million dollars for the pair of those bridges.

Um down into Winston a little further there.

That's the third, fourth, and fifth street bridge, HB 31.

Uh we had a public hearing uh seems like a month ago, maybe two months ago on that one.

Um, took in public comment.

That one is scheduled for October of 28.

Uh 10 million dollars.

That's the current estimate.

That's gonna go up.

Um October of 28.

Uh going to the east there, U 6059A.

That is a bridge over the railroad tracks there at Old Greensboro Road near the Pepsi plant.

Uh that bridge is up for replacement.

Uh that is August of 28 there, and that is a uh $13 million bridge.

Anytime you tie the railroad into something, it gets a little more expensive.

Um the bottom kind of center of the map there, B 5950.

That is the uh twin bridges on Silas Creek over Salem Creek between Link Road and Peters Creek Parkway.

Yes.

Those two bridges.

Uh we are scheduled to have a public hearing February, I think February 17th.

We have uh just published that.

Uh, invite the community to come in and give us their thoughts on that bridge replacement.

Uh at this point, I think we've talked to the city.

We are planning to close that section on Silas Creek.

Um we met with for Site Tech um earlier this year, talked to them, kind of got their input on it.

Uh, an accelerated construction uh plan.

Uh we've talked to several contractors about how best to stage that, how to build it.

Uh we are currently engaged with Duke Power, high transmission lines overhead.

Uh anytime you're lifting big bridge pieces over near uh high transmission lines, Duke Power gets a little excited, so we want to get them on board uh before we get started uh so that there are no delays.

Um the far east side there's a line uh U5760.

That is the Big Mill Farm Hopkins Road project that we just talked about.

When the list was published, it hadn't been let yet.

Um, and I didn't have a new list, so I'm a GIS guy put that on there.

But we've already talked about that when it's currently under contract.

On the far west side there, uh, I think that's kind of between the Clemens and Winston there, maybe in that no man's land, is the Kinneman Road Bridge over 40.

Uh that bridge is coming up for replacement as well.

It is in April of 28 with a price tag of 12 million dollars.

All right, I tried to make that real quick to respect y'all's time.

I am happy to answer any questions that you got.

Thank you so much.

Okay, Councilmember Clark.

The infamous rest of the valve of the western side.

Yes.

Yep, absolutely.

Let me run back here real quick so we can all kind of put that in our head.

I probably should have covered this.

Everybody likes to hear about the western section.

We started the western section 30 years ago.

Ran into some environmental difficulties, scanned it, refocused with with with uh with a renewed look at growth in the county.

They went to the east.

Uh, we're coming back to the west.

Uh the first section that will be let is the top piece that ties in there to 52 at what we just completed and goes down to Ronaldo Road.

We uh plan to let that in 2030, five, four years from now.

It will go to Ronaldo Road.

The next piece starts at Ronalda and goes down to Robin Hood.

Uh, it is on there for 2032.

Those are funded for construction, they shouldn't slide.

Um beyond that, those lower sections, Robin Hood, Metal Arc, 42140, they are funded for PE only, which means we can work on design.

We can't do anything else.

But they are so far out, we don't have plans to start design yet.

We'll we'll we'll work through those in the coming years.

Um, but 2030, I hope to break ground on that next piece and start marching south.

Okay.

Good question.

Councilmember Andrew Bowen.

Thank you, madam chair.

Um, thank you for the presentation of the Sides Creek Parkway Bridge on the February 17th.

Do you know where that the open form would be?

Um not offhand, but I will um I'll email it to you.

Beautiful.

We'll love for y'all to attend here with the public award.

So yes, sir.

Hear what the public's talking about.

Yeah.

All right, thank you.

It's it's somewhere there in the in the community.

I think it's a church, but I don't remember which church.

Okay.

Well, Mr.

Ryan, thank you so much for coming today and providing this uh wealth of information.

Uh this update has been helpful to me, and I know that it will be helpful to our uh citizens.

A lot of questions have been asked.

And uh I know I had a question about that uh 158 on Reedsville Road.

When will that project be completed?

So you answer one of my questions very good.

And uh just thank you and your team for all the work that you're doing.

We appreciate it.

Thank you, sir.

If we can answer any questions, please please let us know.

Aaron Aaron and I talk, Jeff and I talk pretty regularly.

Okay, thank you again.

Thank you.

City Clerk, would you please read agenda item G2?

And by the way, this was just information, so we didn't vote.

Now we have Mr.

Fancler as you read that.

Hi item G2 resolution adopting the memorandum of understanding for continuing cooperative and comprehensive transportation planning for Winston Salem Area Transportation Planning Organization.

Yeah, for new Madam Chair, members of the committee.

This item will be far less entertaining than our your update from Division 9, but bear with me.

Uh the item before you really is just a resolution to approve uh a memorandum of understanding with the Winston area TPO.

So a lot of fancy language there that obviously you guys are aware.

Some of you even sit on the on the committee for our TAC.

Uh you recognize the fact that Winston Salem DOT in the city of Winston Salem is just one of 18 agencies associated with the Winslatem Area Transportation Planning Organization, and the governing document that really guides the structure of that committee is our memorandum of understanding.

So the federal government requires us to organize as a planning area, and we administer transportation planning services to all those 18 member agencies and that those are administered through the bylaws and the memorandum of understanding that we update uh pretty infrequently.

We haven't done one in my time here.

This is the first one that we're going to bring before this committee.

And we've asked the same thing of all of the member agencies.

So we're going around to their different elected bodies to make sure they are updating this MOU.

Bottom line is there's no structural changes to our memorandum of understanding.

We're still going to provide planning transportation planning services the way we've been providing transportation planning services.

But the the changes are really because we restructured a little bit.

We used to be the Winston Salem Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, but we have been rebranded as the Winston Salem Area Transportation Planning Organization.

So largely there are some nomenclature changes in this document.

The latest census updated our waiting voting, you know, Winston Salem being the largest agency has the most votes, and then it's according to the census how all the other votes are weighted to get to 100 total weight scale.

And that language has been updated to make sure that we're all reflective of the current uh census data and supporting information there.

That's really the substantive changes in this document.

There's no other changes we're still going to be providing, and we're still gonna be looking to the federal government and NCDOT to provide guidance to our staff as we provide the transportation planning services.

But with that, we are asking for a resolution to support and to approve of this current revised MOU so that our staff can march on providing transportation planning services.

I'm happy to take any questions.

Any questions for Mr.

Fancler?

What percent is the cities?

40 45.

45 out of 100.

Out of 100, yes, sir.

I'm gonna check because it's either 45 or 46.

So let me 45.

Thank you.

Okay.

Any other questions?

Okay.

We will be voting on this resolution electronically.

Uh is there a motion for to approve.

I motion for approval.

Second.

Thank you.

Okay.

We're ready for the vote.

Okay, there it is.

Okay.

The motion passes.

Thank you.

City Clerk, would you read uh agenda item three?

Item G3 ordinance amending section 42-175 of the city code regarding civil penalties for violations of the parking ordinances, and to establish a civil penalty for oversized vehicle parking.

Mr.

Hutchins, I'm glad you're presenting.

You know I've called you a lot about this issue.

Thank you so much.

We're seeing today.

Of course.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, members of the committee.

Uh Reed Hutchins Transportation Operations Manager.

Uh the item in front of you today is uh an amendment to the parking ordinances.

Um, some feedback we've gotten from the council uh regarding the oversized vehicles that we're seeing mainly in these residential areas.

Um this adds a $50 violation fee that our staff, city staff, either the parking enforcement that you see downtown or mainly WSPD outside of the central business district will be able to enforce those penalties if they see them parked on the streets.

We've got a lot of feedback saying, okay, well, we're seeing this as an issue, but we don't have any teeth in the game.

That that $50 fine, it carries a little bit more weight than just the standard uh violation.

And then it also allows us to really kind of get the attention of some of these operators, either the large-scale ones or these um the ones that you know are more residential and park in these areas.

Um that's kind of what we're trying to accomplish here.

Um I'll be happy to answer any questions regarding this issue.

Thank you so much.

Ms.

uh councilmember Clark.

I have a few instances where the person owns their rig.

Can they park it in front of their house?

I have a couple of instances where the the person owns their the truck portion.

Can they park that in front of their house?

So the answer to that is no.

So we already have existing ordinance language that calls out those uh those vehicles that are 80 inches in width or 30 feet in length.

We just don't have that civil penalty attached to it.

So if we see those vehicles, we can say, hey, you can't park there, but we have no enforceable action behind it.

They could park in their driveway then.

They could park in their driveway.

Okay.

Councilmember Andrew Bowen.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Do we have a defined uh defined like timeline of how long?

So, like if if a work truck is there doing work or a delivery truck is there, is there a certain set of guidelines of how long they're permittable to be there?

So it we we say load actively loading or unloading.

Um and it's kind of up to the discretion of the the PD or our uh parking enforcement.

If they see that they're actively loading, unloading, we would like to think that that truck won't be there very long.

But if it's uh overnight or multiple nights in a time, that's when we will step in and issue this violation.

Thank you.

Um let me ask a few questions.

How will this ordinance or who will enforce this ordinance?

Will it be code enforcement or the police department or both?

Uh police department mainly, yes.

And then parking enforcement staff, like we have issues downtown on 4th Street.

This will help address that issue as well.

But outside of the parking enforcement, um, it will be Winston Sand Police Department.

Once a violators are identified, how long do they have to move the vehicle?

So it's that's another one with we don't have a lot of uh towing capacity.

So we're hoping that we issue the penalty.

If they're there the next day, we issue another penalty if they're there another day, and then these start to they start to add up.

And once they're in the system, it falls under our enforcement platform, so then we can assess late penalties and it can we we're hoping to get the attention that way.

So hopefully they move after just a day.

Hopefully, and you answered a question I was gonna ask about towing, but you just said we don't have the capacity right now.

Um I noticed uh when I read the CARF that um you all were you did your research to see what other municipalities charge.

I know Charlotte was a hundred dollars, Greens of Greensboro 75, Raleigh 50.

How did we land on 50 in Winston?

Yeah, so that goes back to the the general statute.

There's a lot of language in the North Carolina General Statute about parking fees, what we can assess as penalties and what we can't, and limits that we can go up to.

There's certain sections in the general statute that say we can cap things at $50.

Handicapped parking falls outside of that.

So that's why we landed at the $50.

I think Charlotte and a couple other municipalities have some more, I would say stringent language in their ordinance that allows them to go above that.

We would have to completely modify our parking ordinances to fall inside that.

The thought behind the $50 was to have that kind of tool in our tool belt so that we can start enforcing these.

Okay.

Well, I just want to thank you, Reed uh and uh Jeff, anybody connected with this ordinance?

Uh this has been a complaint that I've heard about for a long, long time.

Um it it really uh causes unsafe situations in the communities when you can't see because of these oversized vehicle vehicles, so thank you so much.

Councilmember Andrew Bowen.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I had one more question.

Um how will we distribute the information that there's this ordinance passed?

Are we gonna have signage out on the streets or the neighborhoods, or is there just gonna be a blanket news release marketing campaign around that?

We can we can certainly work on a marketing push.

Um I think for I'm more familiar with how uh the parking enforcement staff works downtown.

We would issue warnings to start out with to kind of get the attention, and I would think that we can probably work with the PD to do the same thing before we start just handing out violations.

Yeah, I think that's a great idea.

I was gonna ask the same question.

How will we let our public know about this new ordinance?

Um and um we're in the city.

Um, and I guess whenever we inform the public, we can say we're in the city.

People are allowed to park these oversized vehicles because there are some lots just for that.

Am I right?

Uh Madam Chair, there there are a few kind of paper space lots, but I I'll caution there because I think our our roll stops where there's a violation in the public right-of-way where we advise them to park their their rig.

It's really outside of what I would recommend that we engage with.

Just as more of a matter of engaging the uh the the folks that have these oversized vehicles to inform them that this is an ordinance change.

And and and I want to also say that while the ordinance is the only change here is a penalty.

Today they cannot legally park per current ordinance.

And so our language when we issue citations will indicate current ordinance that has a new simple penalty associated with it.

Without just caution us to do prov to provide any other say park here, park there.

Yes.

I think it opens up some liability that maybe outside of our purview.

Okay, understood.

Thank you so much.

Okay, any other questions?

Thank you, Mr.

Hutchins.

Thank you.

Thank you for all you do.

And uh we will be voting electronically, and we're ready.

Is there a motion to approve agenda item G three?

I move to uh move to pass this, please.

Is there a second?

Okay, we're ready to vote.

The motion passes.

Well, we are done with our agenda items, and we do need to hear from assistant city manager Aaron King.

Thank you, uh Chair Burke.

I appreciate the opportunity to share a few comments.

This is the this is the update that nobody asked for, but but that I think it's as you kind of get to the end of the year, it's good to reflect back on a lot of the work that has been done here at council staff, um, and just to kind of highlight a few of those things.

Um, as Pat told you last year at budget time, one of our main areas of focus is gonna be completing capital projects.

So there's been a lot of good work done there.

Completion of Metal Art Drive took place this year, three sidewalk projects got completed along with pedest Polo Road pedestrian improvements, all of those are big.

Liberty Main two-way conversion is essentially complete, barring some uh remaining work we're waiting with Duke Energy on.

We cut the ribbon on the Twin City Trail Eastern section this summer.

That was another major accomplishment.

And then you may remember we got a six million dollar raise grant for the long branch trail extension, and so we completed the design on that, and we're actively moving to continue pushing that project along.

Um innovation quarter stormwater pond was another project we have spent a lot of time on.

Um, and that we broke ground on that this year, move that along, and that should be completed in the spring of next year.

Not so much at this committee level, but two major emergency repairs, one on Old Salisbury Road, one in Buffaver Road that have major impacts on our community.

We finally got both of those projects completed.

And the important thing that you heard Keith talk about a couple months ago is our effort to try to get more um in front of these these breaks before they happen to get more proactive so that we're not dealing with them after we broke and so Alpha and Omega has been helping us to identify some of those.

So hopefully you're gonna start to see that shape the form of your future CIP plans as they come through as we're catching these before they break, which is good for our community.

You've heard Pat talk about street resurfacing, that's a big priority.

It comes up in the resident survey each year.

So we've done a lot of good work there.

Your your PCI, your pavement condition index study that was completed last year that will help guide all of your future resurfacing efforts, 30 miles of streets resurfaced with our last contract with APAC.

Then I appreciate council support for the six million dollar change order that you just approved with APAC that will help us get started with our next batch of streets in the spring of 2026.

So again, we're continuing to hammer away the things our residents have told us are very important to them.

No surprise WISTA made this list.

We spent a lot of time in here talking about that, and a lot of work, a lot of good work has been done, especially on the vehicle and equipment replacement side.

So in 2024, you remember we got a low-no grant from the federal government there that allowed us to replace five of our fixed route buses this fall.

We took 7.6 million dollars of TPO dollars and use that to replace nine more fixed route buses.

And then most recently, you've heard we got another low-no grant award for another uh five fixed route buses that we're looking to replace.

On top of that, we had awarded another contract that we brought through here for 1.2 million dollars for 11 paratransit buses.

So to put that in context for the council, out of the 85 combined buses that the city owns, 30 have been funded for replacement in the last 18 months.

I don't know if we've ever taken quite a swing like that at equipment replacement on the Woods side, but that's a heck of an accomplishment.

Um and that will go a long way to helping us provide better transit service for our community.

On the policy side, Jeff and Kelly have brought you um policy changes for a regional fair, a fair cap, and really utilizing the UMO platform that helps us support those initiatives and to get us modernized and caught up with best practices there, and we're looking forward to going live with that in February this year.

So a lot of good work has been done on the WISTA side to continue that progress.

I will foreshadow a little bit of 2026 just to kind of uh get you thinking about that a little bit.

Uh not much change.

Again, continuing to work on the backlog of capital projects.

A lot of the momentum starting to pick up there, which is good.

Um, still a lot of projects to work through there.

Um, you may remember some conversations earlier this year about the landfill expansion.

We we kind of had to go back and cover some ground on that.

I would look for that to come back this year as we continue to make progress on discussions there.

Street resurfacing continued making that a priority and uh emphasizing those.

And last, WISTA, WISTA, WISTA.

Um, I fully expect we're gonna have another year.

We're really trying to kind of think boldly about where we go with WISTA.

There are probably some big decisions to come on WISTA that will really help shape the future of that service we provide to our residents.

So I would look forward to probably some conversations at the retreat in January to really start that conversation in earnest.

Last, I'll just say thank you to the council, appreciate the support for all this.

There's been a lot of things that we've had to address as staff or proposed ideas to get us in line with our our peers and best practices.

And there's a lot of change that's been involved with that.

And I appreciate the support from council to help to let staff go out and do what they do best and to look at these ideas with an open mind and the support that's been given there.

So with that, thank you.

Thank you for providing those highlights.

There uh we have a lot of work going on, a lot of work here being proactive.

And uh I've heard from the residents about the street resurfacing, and uh that has really meant a lot.

Thank you all for all that you do.

Any any other comments?

Well, with that, we are adjourned.