The Winston-Salem City Council met on Monday, August 17, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. in Council Chambers. The meeting included recognitions, a city manager update, approval of a consent agenda (with one item pulled for discussion), nine public hearings on zoning and special use permit petitions, a public comment period, and a closed session for the city manager's performance evaluation. All nine council members were present.
Okay, thank you. And uh joining present council member. Council member Andy Bellin. Mayor Pretem Adams here. Councilmember Taylor. Councilmember Hall. And Councilmember. Thank you very much. Would you please join the city council and me in a moment of silence? Thank you so much. Would you please join the city council with me and the pledge of the legend? Thank you very much. Our uh Sergeant at Arms tonight is Lieutenant Langman. Thank you for doing it tonight, and our fire marshal with Pete to be with us. Before we get into the city manager's report tonight, obviously we have a very special group of individuals with us tonight. Um actually bring them or ask them to come down to City Hall tonight so we could recognize them in person. Part of us celebrating our two hundred and fifty anniversary at the country. I can think of a better way to do that than to recognize those individuals who've made been a special part of our of our city. So we do have a number of uh folks here tonight. I'm gonna call your names, and if you would just raise your hand and wave at us there, uh, and we're gonna give you a little uh gift there, I think. Um our first uh one is Ben Meeks Briggs. Elizabeth Lindsay. There she is right there. Alpha McIntyre. And Lena Orlow. We are just delighted to have you with us. We do want to unfortunately knowledge that you are for the men. We have lost two of our sisters. So Yardways Cartar continuing to be serviced until the replacement stickers are received. So uh if you're having a problem with your red sticker staying on, there is another one coming in that we're I've asked them to be a little bit more intentional with the adhesive that they put on those this time. Just before our next meeting also wanna remind council public that are whistle with uh transit authority maybe the largest service rate size in uh in a number of years for August transition from high sixty minute midway service to primarily thirty-minute services provide more frequently transit or uh public education communication or side now. Uh let council knowing that we're also starting our annual city of Wisconsin versus program as far as the office planning, which will run through November 6. Council members are welcome to attend the sessions. We're uh excited to have a group of community residents that really want to learn more about city city government and what is offered in our community so we're decided to talk about starting this first. The construction of the Helen Nickels walking church, located on Carl School Road again in April is now about ninety-nine five percent. Uh recognize the publication school. So regarding that over so we recently wanted to take this later management, vegetation management, same house and we just tried to get out. Um, we can do all the A couple of other things we've announced like this complex. So information players set up the command system. And every social department was first 114 A 635. A lot of housing schools council to make the law of projects which we should. From 9 30 to 11 30 at Old Townwood Center at 4550 Chablon Drive. Residents are invited to meet with city staff and community partners, learn about city services, ask questions, share ideas, and discuss issues affecting their neighborhoods. Complimentary coffee and refreshments will be provided. I'd be remiss if I did take a moment at this public form to acknowledge the extraordinary round-the-clock effort of our employees, many of which were also feeling the impact at their homes on this water out water main break. So I did have some of them, some of them are doing much of the break right now from the work that they had been on. And then just finally I wanted to acknowledge the International Light Theater Festival that was in full swing, actually full swing when this waterman break occurred. But the city worked with the festival organizers, hotels and host sites to minimize the impact on the tens of thousands of guests that were in town for one of our community seats to remember. The festival was a true celebration of the arts, black culture, power of community to bring people together.