The last Highlands Town Board of Commissioners meeting of the year on Friday, Dec. 12 was a busy one. The board heard objections to a proposed music festival in town, talked issues with the Chamber of Commerce lease, and heard a myriad updates on local town issues with traffic and speeding.
Originally on the agenda there was a proposal from the Bear Shadow music festival to bring the event to Kelsey-Hutchinson Founders Park next year. The festival claims that it will “harmonize music, nature and mindfulness” with several days’ worth of concerts and related activities.
Several speakers at the public comment section of the meeting voiced enough opposition to bringing Bear Shadow to town, and the board agreed to table the matter until they could better assess what to do about it.
The speakers objected to the size of the festival, the noise and congestion it would cause in town and the fact that the festival would block off a public park unless people paid to enter.
“The park should be open to the public at all times,” resident Matthew Eberz said. “You can’t have a ticketed event there. You can’t be prevented from going there and using the bathrooms.”
Resident Lila Howland was against the idea of closing off the park. “The intent was to provide a central park where all could gather, simply to be outside, or to participate in an event for all.”
Resident Alice Nelson worried about the disruptions such an event could bring to the small-town atmosphere. “Who’s ever heard of a quiet concert? Who would go to a quiet concert? Maybe they can move it to a nearby town where it’s more appropriate. Why are we continuing to try and jam as many people in town as possible?”
After public comment finished, Town Manager Josh Ward said they would be removing the item from the agenda until they could better assess what to do.
Mayor Patrick Taylor said they would likely have a workshop meeting next year before making a decision on Bear Shadow.
Government news
In his Mayor’s Report, Taylor said he’d received updates on the progress with fixing State Road 106, saying that it would likely be done in a timely manner.
“There is progress being made. I’m not going to predict an opening date, but things are looking good,” he said.
He also said he wanted to bring back joint meetings with the county board as well as that of the Town of Franklin, which used to be done periodically, but stopped around the time of the pandemic. He said the meetings would especially be prudent now that the housing study is done. The three boards could coordinate on strategies to make more affordable housing, he said. Taylor said he would try to make a joint meeting happen in Highlands in February.
Finally, he said there would be stricter enforcement of speeding laws in town, which he said was a response to numerous recent cases of people driving too fast in town.
“The chief has been able to send officers to radar school,” Taylor said. “Every shift now, there is one officer that can operate radar. This is not about people going five miles over the limit. For example, between 1st, 2nd and 3rd Streets when people come flying out at a 20 mile an hour zone hitting 45 or 50. We are not trying to give people tickets. We are trying to make people aware ‘you need to slow down in this community.’ We’ve got too many people just flying around as if they’re on 285 in Atlanta.”
Taylor then listed all the places where the officers would be running radar to catch speeders: near 3rd Street, Lake Sequoia, State Road 106, “possibly” on Chestnut Street, Highway 64 North and Bowery Road.
In addition, Commissioner Brian Stiehler announced that the town had raised over a million dollars for the new playground construction as of mid-December.
In his town manager’s report, Ward announced that the new ABC store, which will be located where the old fire station was, is “very close” to done with its remodeling of the building and is likely to open in January.
Ward also said the new, heftier fines for oversized trucks on Cullasaja Gorge Drive went into effect as of Dec. 1, so the local police and Highway Patrol would be coordinating to make sure the rule was enforced. Ward said they were looking into putting more signs at the other side of the road coming up the mountain to make sure it was known.
Chamber lease debate
The commissioners disagreed over a proposed 10-year lease with the Chamber of Commerce, which would involve another contract with John Lupoli of Lupoli Construction, who owns the public bathrooms in town, to help with maintenance and upkeep of the bathrooms. The town would not charge the Chamber rent, as had been considered at a previous meeting this year.
Some of the commissioners thought the 10-year lease was too long – and didn’t want to agree to it without seeing the other contract the Chamber had with Lupoli. Commissioner John Dotson said there was no way to tell what might happen in 10 years.
“I just can’t go 10 years based on what it is, the potential for change in the next 10 years,” Dotson said.
Commissioner Jeff Weller said he couldn’t see what might change so drastically in 10 years. “If the Chamber ceases to exist, the building comes back to us. They can’t all of a sudden turn it into a dress shop.”
Commissioner Amy Patterson said 10 years for a lease “may be way long” if there are any changes in that time to how occupancy tax is allocated by the county, or if any other similar thing happens.
“If that changes, they need to be able to change and we need to be able to change to go with the times,” she said.
Weller said it wouldn’t matter in that case if the Chamber was also locked into a deal to help clean the bathrooms.
“Let’s say in three years it changes to where they could pay us rent, but they’re already doing the deal with Lupoli,” he said. “Which means they’re already contributing. What would change in three to five years, what would change about that building and the function of the Visitor Center and the Chamber?”
However, Dotson maintained that there were too many unknowns, especially as the board had not seen the Chamber’s deal with Lupoli at the time of the meeting.
“If this thing falls apart, yes we’ve washed our hands, we’re done,” Dotson said. “But all of a sudden we’re drug back in. If Lupoli bails, if the Chamber bails, if whatever happens happens – they’re public bathrooms for the most part. We have an agreement – we’ll be drug back in. You’re thinking the agreement between the Chamber and John Lupoli is going to be kumbaya, and what could happen is, who knows?”
The board agreed to have Town Attorney Bob Hagemann modify the agreement to make sure the town would be protected if the deal between the other parties fell apart.
Other business
The board unanimously voted to adopt a resolution to accept sludge from the Cullasaja HOA at the public wastewater treatment plant, as there is currently excess capacity at the plant. Cullasaja HOA will pay the town 25 cents on the gallon, and the town will be able to reject sludge at any time if there are imbalances at the plant that make it necessary.
Finally, there was the annual audit of the town which was presented by Travis Keever of Gould Killian CPA Group. He reported that the firm had found “no instance of non-compliance or internal weakness” in the town’s overall finances.
However, he said the town was seeing shortages in its water funds, and if not for borrowing from its electric fund, they’d have no reserves left after several big infrastructure projects in recent years. He said that may make it necessary to raise the rates.
Taylor said they already did raise the rates this year and asked if that made a difference. Keever said the town would have to generate more money beyond the operational costs, though he noted the struggle to balance not raising rates too high and also keeping the water system up to date.
The next town board meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025.