The Richmond Hill City Council met in regular session on Tuesday via the video sharing application, Zoom. The council discussed platting for Medline, a medical supplies manufacturing company, and a bid award for the First Street Extension Project.
Scott Allison told the council the preliminary plat for Medline, a 1.2 million square foot medical supplies manufacturing facility, has been requested at Belfast Commerce Park. The facility will include one main entrance and an emergency only entrance to the south, according to Medline representative Austin Watts.
Watts said the emergency entrance will be a gravel road with a gate on Medline property opened by a Medline representative when necessary. According to Allison, Medline will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week to ensure medical supplies can be delivered.
The council approved the preliminary plat. The council then approved a preliminary right-of-way or access to Medline at Belfast Commerce Park.
Allison said the street would be dedicated to and become a city street upon its completion.
Allison also told the council the Architectural Review Board met Tuesday and reviewed a building elevation and site plan for a Geovista banking branch on Ford Avenue where the current Geovista ATM is located. Allison said the plan meets overlay district requirements and is approx. a 1750-2000 sq. foot building with the existing trees on the property worked into the plan. City Manager Chris Lovell recommended the council award a bid to Platinum Paving and Concrete
of Richmond Hill in the amount of approx. $193,000 for the First Street Extension for better access to fire hydrants and to Camelia Street. He also recommended the council award a change order to the same company in the amount of approx. $24,000 to include drainage improvements to the Camelia Street intersection. The council approved both the bid award and the change order separately. In total, the project is approximately $217,000, according to Lovell.
The council also approved a $15,026 expenditure from the Conference Center Escrow account to purchase new computers, serve, and hardware for the Richmond Hill City Center. Lovell projected a $0 revenue for the City Center in June, but said the computers would take time to get to Richmond Hill and he thought it a good idea to have them ready when the center opens up again.
Bob Whitmarsh told the council the 2019 budget has overages, and by state law, the council is required to go over them. Those departments include finance, fire, streets, police, and special projects according to Whitmarsh, with streets, fire, and police seeing the largest overage.
Whitmarsh said the City had $10.9 mil in revenue with $10.196 mil in expenditures. Though an audit is usual this time of year, he said the annual audit may not be ready by the end of the fiscal year on June 30, 2020, and state requirements may have changed in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mayor Russ Carpenter expressed his gratitude to the residents and visitors of Richmond Hill for taking the threat of COVID-19 seriously to help mitigate the effect of the disease on the community.
He read a statement by Dr. Lawton Davis of the Georgia Dept. of Health admonishing the residents of Georgia not to let down their guard and to continue social distancing practices including wearing a “safe mask or cloth covering especially indoors.” Carpenter explained residents who are 65 years or older and those with chronic health disorders are still under executive order to shelter in place through mid-June.
Residents who wish to make a public comment can email City Clerk Dawnne Greene at dgreene@richmondhill-ga.gov by Tuesday, June 2 at 5 p.m.