Town Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon everyone. I'd like to welcome everybody to our town council meeting Thursday, March 19th, 2026. Kim, if you will please call roll. Mr. Webb here. Miss Quetch here. Mr. Pillian here and Mayor Anderson here. Let the record reflect Vice Mayor Austin is absent. If everyone will please rise for the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Now what I would like someone to make a motion to approve the uh today's agenda. So moved. I'll second. Any further discussion. Kim, if you'll please call roll. Mr. Web. Hi. Miss Quetch. I. Miss Pion. I. And vice may or vice excuse me. Mayor Anderson. I'm out of order.

All right. Hi. So, now we're going to move on down to public comment. Please note that we we have one person signed up for public comment. Um, if you will come forward and state your first and last name and your mailing address, um, Miss Janie Jarvis. Yes, ma'am. Both of you all please just state your name for the record. Jarvis. I am the acquisition director for Goodwill Industries. If you're not familiar, that stands for Tennessee. Our corporate office is

um good afternoon. My name is Miller. I'm the director of transportation and logistics for Goodwill. and we're here on the behalf today just really to kind of share our message and that we are growing. We have two locations in the Abington area and we are rehabbing our current building um over the next few months. So, lot construction going on over there. Um but we're also looking to grow our donations in the area. So, looking for an additional site and that's where comes in for an intended donation center. And those are the trailers that you see with attendance that are seven days a week now. Um we're looking at one probably exit 17 correct that number. Um got a couple of of places in mind, but I guess putting a bug in your ear. Uh if you know of anyone that would like to have a little more income coming in on a property that's sitting with a good traffic flow, that's probably what I would look at with them and have a discussion. So, and we do a lot more than just donation in. Um we have really ramped up our recycling efforts. Um would love to talk to you guys more about that. Um we do qu cardboard. We're partnering with Eastman and Dantar and Kingsport. So we're doing cardboard. We do um electronics. We have a partnership with Dell. Uh that money comes back into the community

100%. Yeah. And we also um do glass and plastic um recycling. So that's just a lot of people don't know. They think we're a retail store and that's basically it. But we definitely are growing and have a whole lot to offer.

Currently recycling over 100,000 pounds of textiles per month. So and those all are jobs for people in the area. So we definitely help support veterans um efforts in the area. transitional from military into uh career training. Um seniors, we offer training uh free of charge for seniors and we help place them whether it's at Goodwill or other jobs as well. So we help people with their resume writing, you know, they're transitioning from one career or were displaced from another. Um Goodwill helps provide that gap. So our number one thing is providing jobs for the community.

Right. We also have a home pickup program that we do come up into this market. Um we pick up anything from estate sales to yard sales to individual homes uh businesses that are going out of business. So um again recommendations are greatly appreciated and that again is uh Tuesday through Saturday that we have that service and that's of no charge. What hour is that? Just by appointment on the pickup or something that yes you would uh call in to our corporate office. it rolls over to me and then I schedule that. So, two quick questions. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. No, I was just going to have a car with there. Um, two quick questions. Um, so if you donate clothing and you're not able to use the clothing, you recycle the textiles. Yes, we do.

So, that's great because I really hate to throw things away. And when you have a bunch of kids, you end up with a bunch of clothes. And I um I'm glad to know that you can't use them. So, even if it's something that's stained or worn, we use it.

Okay, great. We basically sort it good, better, best and we recycle not only so the really good product maybe that something that you just bought you didn't wear or slightly worn. Um it goes into our uh we go into our stores we try to sell it. If it doesn't sell then we also bundle those and sell those to an aftermarket and that money provides support for our missions. But then also we have different textile companies, rag rag companies, um plastic recyclers that buy from us and they use it for insulation for cars. So they recycle the fibers and it's um keeps it all out of the landfill, right? So and we do the same thing whether it's the plastic bin that you bring to us with the clothing, we also recycle those. We recycle books. Um, so there's lots of different avenues and I was on a call this morning with somebody from New York, a buyer looking for more textiles.

Does the merchandise stay local or does it go? It goes first to the stores locally to try to sell and we have 17 of those. Okay. Yeah. In the northeast Tennessee, Southwest Virginia. Sorry if I interrupted you. That's okay. That's great. And so with when you do pickup, so furniture. Absolutely. So, if you have furniture that you want to get rid of, you will come pick it up. Yes. Um, our guidelines are that you have to send me a text me a picture. Okay.

That way, we kind of get an eye on we again trying to keep everything out of the landfield. If we see that it's something that we could not resell in stores, then it depending on the situation. I picked up a pickup this morning and the gentleman that booked it had expressed to me they had a child going through chemo and that he was trying to and he was overwhelmed. And the items weren't necessarily re something we could resell, but we did it. Did it and um yeah, took good care of him. So, there's an exception to every situation.

That's wonderful to know. That's great. Okay. And then one more question and I'm so sorry, but I'm I'm learning a lot and I'm and so I want to know. Um so, with the recycling, is it just like you have recycling bins? Um we don't have the bins, but what in our centers? So like when you go to donate, we have different bins Gaylords in there. So one may be for your used Dell computer. Okay? And then Dell once a month or once a quarter will pick up a truckload and then they recycle and sort. So they may pull out chips. They recycle the plastics, all of the components of that to keep it out of the landfill. So

I I was at Bristen Motor Speedway a couple weeks ago and I approached them about their electronics and they just went, "What? We've been looking for years to find someone to come get all this stuff. They had closets full of just stuff that they needed the room but didn't know we could take it. So, we ended up picking it up yesterday was this week's one by Yeah. So, but when you said like the glass and the cardboard recycling, do you all have bins for people to drop that off at your drop off? Is that was your We have at our intended donation centers. We have a bin specifically for cardboard. Okay. Um, we have bailers at our current location and then we we bail it and then resell it to Domark. Okay.

And there's all of those trailers that separates that when it's brought in. So, you know, like I said, when you pull up to those, you'll have someone help you get everything out of the car. They'll put it where it needs to go and then we have a truck pull in and get it and take it back to the warehouse. That's awesome. These are all great things, too. I think that is great things. You ladies are doing great things, but thank you. Thank you so much. Have a great day. Thank you. Thank you all. I always have a lot of stuff.

Now, we're going to move down to proclamations. Um, we have one proclamation today, and that's going to be the proclamation in memory of Glenn Foster for his 52.3 years of dedicated service to the town of Abinan. And I'm going to have Council Member Derek Web read that, please.

Thank you, Mayor Anderson. It is truly my honor to read this. Um, I will read a proclamation in memory of Glenn Foster for 52.53 years of dedicated service to the town of Abington. Whereas Glenn Foster began his career with the town of Abington on April 23rd, 1965, humbly riding on the back of a trash collection truck, demonstrating from his very first day a willingness to perform the essential work that keeps a community clean, safe, and thriving. And whereas through dedication, hard work, leadership, and commitment to public service, he rose to the ranks to serve as superintendent of collections where he faithfully guided operations and personnel. And whereas over the remarkable span of 52.53 years of service, I'm going to say that one more time.

Yes,

52.53 years of service. Unbelievable. Um he became not only a leader within the department but also a steady and dependable presence. And whereas his commitment to service extended beyond municipal work and he also performed maintenance for the Belulk building and could occasionally be found assisting on the sales floor where he was known for his professionalism and personable nature. And whereas his entrepreneurship he owned and operated his own cleaning business further contributing to the well-being and upkeep of the community he loved. And whereas his life's work reflects the values of perseverance, humility, and service, leaving a lasting imprint on the town of Abington and all who had the privilege to work alongside him. Now therefore, Mayor Dwayne Anderson of the town of Abington, Virginia, on behalf of the town council, does hereby possibly honor and recogni recognize Glenn Foster for his extraordinary 52.53 years of dedicated public service and his meaningful contributions to our community. We extend our deepest gratitude for his lifelong commitment and express our sincere appreciation to his family for sharing him with our town for more than five decades. His legacy of service will not be forgotten in witness there whereof um I have here to set my hand and caused the seal of the town of Abington, Mayor Dwayne Anderson, to be affixed this 19th day of March, 2026. And I just want to extend to the family and everyone here. You all probably know that Glenn Foster was a very good friend of my family. Him and and my father were right-hand mans. And today is is an honor for me to have the proclamation

read and for my name to be on the proclamation. And I just want to thank you all for coming out and to let you all know this town of Avenue really appreciate everything that Glenn Foster done for the town. And if y'all will come forward, for those who can come forward, I would like to present you all with a proclamation if that's okay. Awesome. Thank you so much. We like Thank you. Sorry. Sorry.

Dwayne Petition for Vot is kept early. Now we'll move on to public hearing. Um, we don't have anyone signed up for public hearing today. So, we'll open the public hearing and we will close the public hearing. And now we'll move on to resolutions. We have one resolution today and that will be the resolution petition uh the Virginia Department of Transportation and Maintenance payment payments for certain streets in the urban maintenance inventory system. And we'd ask Kevin Worley to come up and talk about that. Good afternoon, Kevin. How are Good afternoon, Mayor Anderson. I appreciate you and I appreciate all the council uh bearing with me for just a minute. I won't talk more than 45 minutes like usual. Um just kidding. Uh the uh I do appreciate you recognizing Glenn. Uh 36 and a half years I've worked with the with the town and worked with Glenn a lot of those and nobody really knew that Glenn was really about 6'2 because the only thing they ever saw when he rode in that car was just a little head over here. But that was Glenn and uh in that little hat. Glenn, I don't I don't know how we bought that many hats as long as I ever knew that hat. So I think he washed it once maybe. Anyway, um this is a real quick one and this is a a benefit in in behalf of the

town when exit 17 was being re constructed by VOTE. um to put in the off-ramps, they had to actually the the take was for the the businesses on Commerce Road, which was the Domino's and I think the Hampton Inn and some others there. And as a result of that, that road then closed and became vacated. That was actually part of our urban maintenance inventory that we actually get paid by the state for. And so in the uh closure of that road and the recognition of that by VOTE, the U proclam the uh resolution that's in front of you at this point is simply that uh we will be taking on the gravel lake road uh in the map that's in your uh packets includes this and what it is basically doing is we're adding only changes about a a tenth of a mile in total which is a little additional income that we get but we already maintain Gravel Lake Road. Gravel Lake Road actually runs off of Cummings, stays in the town limits, then hits the Washington County limits and actually has a section that actually runs up and finishes the circle and comes back into the town limits and then has a very short segment on the tail end of it. So, usually we only get paid for for roads inside, but VOTE actually pushed that we get maintained. Uh, since we're maintaining the entirety of the road, we're now getting paid for the entirety of that road. And that's all of this will be is just the the resolution that you agree to accept Graal Lake Road and all the little segments as presented. Uh I believe there were three additions in there, two deletions because those were just the short segments that were taken out to uh construct the exit. So at this point, I'll just I'll leave it to you guys. All we need to do is uh execute the resolution. And

Kevin, I think this is a wonderful idea. I know that there's a couple businesses on that road there. The Arringtons have reached out to me a couple times and I' I've made some calls to Mike Cochran and we got him a new sign out there. I don't know if you remember that, Mike. Yeah, it took about about an hour to get the sign. Yeah. Yeah. Um so I I think that this is a wonderful

We're doing maintenance on the roads anyway and we're we're snow removal and those things. So, uh, they're just BOT actually recognized that we should be getting compensated additionally for those roads and we will have some additional roads that will come up in the near future. Uh, that we're looking at some additions in some subdivisions that are actually being put into VO spec and those roads will be included as well and those will become the part of the town's urban inventory and we'll get that before you as soon as we get those approved and we actually complete the subdivision. They don't like us to I think you've actually actually read a couple of those roads uh and named those roads previous, but they won't let us put them in the uh inventory until they actually the subdivision becomes officially open and then they become uh then they actually become our maintenance. At that point, we'll get them in there and get paid for them.

Thank you, Kevin. All right. Thank you guys. Thanks, Kevin. N would like to ask if anybody would like to make a motion for the resolution pending the the Virginia Department of Transformation of maintenance payments for certain streets in the urban maintenance. Second. Any further discussion? Kim, if you'll please call roll. Mr. Web. I. Miss Quetch. I. Miss Fian. I. And Mary Anderson.

I. We have no first reading of ordinance today. We do have a second reading of ordinance and that's going to be for chapter 44 article 5 section 5-3-1 boundaries and proposed zoning map amendments to extend the entrance corridor overlay district following the parcels and the parcels are on the screen. I think last time we can we can just play off the partials that's on the screen so I don't have to read all those. And we have my main man Gabe to talk about that. Good afternoon Gabe. How are you? Afternoon mayors. How are you doing? Doing great, sir.

Um, nothing has changed with this from the first reading. Uh, the only thing I can report is we had one other person just reach out via email to me just asking what were we looking to do, provided them the same information that we did at the first uh, at uh, planning commission and town council here. They just said thank you for the information. That was it. Other than that, stay the same and no opposition to the ordinance change. Anybody have any questions for Mr. Gabe? Thank you, sir. After the second reading of that, would anybody like to make a propose that we proceed with this?

I'll make that motion to adopt the ordinance. Do I have a second to adopt this ordinance? Second. Any further discussion? Kim, if you'll please call roll. Mr. Web. I. Miss Quetch. I.

Miss Pion. I. And Mary Anderson. I we have no consideration of bids today. No new business, no old business. Now we're going to have a miscellaneous um business communications from our town manager, Mike Cochran. Yes. Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate that. Um, I honestly don't have a ton of stuff to go over uh just based on the based on the topics we have in front of us. I think we had a uh busy couple weeks. So, uh I think we're all just glad that we're here and uh we can have a good meeting. Uh I just want to say, you know, our our staff continues to get after it and I appreciate that. If you happen to notice, it's spring is trying to make it here and spring flowers are coming. And I think what you'll see is that Laney and Jennifer, who handle most of our plantings, have been extremely busy. They planted somewhere around like a thousand bulbs of stuff that the deer like uh and some things the deer don't like as well. So, I think the town look amazing here short. So,

you said spring was here like a month ago and then it snowed.

Yeah, that's true. Yeah, cuz the cuz I got flowers that the deer don't like and the uh snow look great on the flowers. So, uh yeah, that said, it it is kind of unusual, but uh we're we're crossing our fingers that it's here to stay. Thank you. One thing that I would like to say, I just want to bring to everyone's attention that's here and the ones that are are keyed in, listening at at their houses, um to the public works, the uh Virginia Creeper Trail parking lot, that whole new look over there. That's a wonderful look. Um, thanks to public works for that, the hard work on that and when I was coming to the meeting today, actually they're still out there fine-tuning that. But I think that's going to be a nice addition for the town of Abdin and for everyone that partakes at the Virginia Creeper Trail. Another thing would be uh we gave a big shout out to the uh Aban High School girls basketball team for their state championship. Um, we did have a little ride through the town. the the weather was kind of a little slushy. Me and the chief would call that slushy. Um but we had a nice turnout for that. And um I just want uh everyone on the council. I don't know how everyone feels about it, but I would love to get the girls volleyball team here, the girls basketball team here, and we had some indoor track athletes that that scored really high and they're and they're participating with the track team this year. I would like to get those young people in here and just bring to their attention that we appreciate everything that they are doing for the town of Abid and putting Aban on the town map. And I know me and Mike Cochran has talked of we've got the signage coming soon.

Uh but uh I think Mike has had to go back to the lab and uh bigger sign,

make a bigger sign because things are getting bigger here in the town of Abdin. I'm I'm just I'm very proud to say that I am the mayor here in the town of Abington and that Abington High School, everyone up there from the teachers to the coaches and the students, they represent this town very well and I'm very proud to say that I'm from Abington and to be where I'm at. Mayor, if you don't mind, if I could just add, I did happen to uh make the punishing ride to Richmond, but I took the back road, so I actually made it an hour and a half quicker than Chief Brook and his family cuz they got stuck on the interstate. Uh but going to the going to Richmond and watching the the uh the games, uh it it was really it was amazing to see. I watched a couple of the playoffs and then going to the game and and our girls, they really really they took care of business. They handled it and uh it was great to see. Um and the event was actually they ticketed it out. They had sold it out. It's in a decent size arena. Um and if going to that area makes you appreciate Abington even more.

Yes, sir. So uh Yes, sir. Yeah, it was a it was it was Yeah, it was a great game and uh my car was still there when we game was over. I was even better. So, yeah. Yes, sir. Did you have made contact? Yes, we haven't made contact with the school. We're working on getting them to the April council meeting. Thank you. There's an all state swimmer, too. Somebody told me that. Oh, yeah. So, we need to reach out about swim. Sure. Sure. Thank you. We'll we'll try to get that. We'll talk try to talk to Miss Kumbo up there, the principal at the high school, and see if we can't maybe get everyone together for that. Nice.

I did see something that was on social media today that was they're having the uh meet the Falcons. I think it's this Saturday for the tennis team and the baseball team. And I think there's a baseball game too going on at 2:00 at Falcon Park, if I'm Yeah, correct. Yeah, we were originally trying to get it done at the uh at at u the farmers market, but then Miss Kumbo had said they're going to pivot back and actually do it at the baseball cuz they had a game at 2. So, yes, sir. Yeah. So, if anyone has time to get out, please come out and support the spring sports for the Abington High School and that will be this Saturday at the game starts at 2, but yeah, I'm not for sure on that.

I'm sure they'll put it out there. And the good news is it'll be close to 70, so it will be officially almost spring. Yes, sir. I'm going to ask manion, do you have anything that you would like to to share with with the people? No, I just appreciate our town staff and all the hard work that you all do. I know there have been a lot of phone calls and a lot of phone conversations and a lot of stuff this past week and um I personally went out and and had a meeting with u Chief Hullbrook and Chief Estus and another council member and just the knowledge and the dedication and um the way that our staff in this town cares about our citizens is unmatched and we should all be very thankful. I'll second that. Amanda,

I echo I echo the same thing. I'll say the same thing. a parallel what you all have said got a lot to be thankful for. Okay, with that being said, we have uh next we'll be moving on to appointments to boards and committee. Um we have one of those and it's going to be for the veterans administration board. It's appointment to fill the unexpired term of Christian Balber who has resigned. I think we had one person for that and I think that is was Isaiah Ellison was the name on that.

Um I don't know if we should have to go to close session for this. I think that that we just have the one. Um I'm in favor of I'd make that motion to Yeah. to appoint Isaiah Ellison to fill the unexpired term of Kristen Farber who resigned from the Veterans Advisory Board. I'll second. Very good. Any further discussion? Kim, if you'll please call roll. Mr. Webb, I. Miss Quetch, I. Miss Pion, I. And Mayor Anderson, I. And with that being said, that might be a wrap for the day.

Will you please read that, please, Amanda? Oh, as permitted by Virginia Code section I I'd like to make a motion to go into close session as permitted by Virginia Code section 2.2-3711A88 um to consult with legal counsel um regarding specific legal matters requiring provision of legal advice by such counsel. I'll second that. Any further discussion? Kim, if you'll please call RO. Mr. Web. I. Miss Qu. I. Miss Pia I and Mayor Anderson. All right.

to make a motion to reconvene. I move that the town council certify that Oh, I just Okay. So, sorry. I need to reconvene into open session. Make that motion. I got a head. Any further discussion? Kim, if you'll please call roll. Mr. Web. Hi. Miss Qu. I. Miss Pian. I and Mary Anderson. I Okay. Now, I move that the town council certify that in the closed session just concluded, nothing was discussed except the matter or matters specifically identified in the motion to convene in close session and lawfully permitted to be discussed under the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act cited in that motion. Mr. Webb, do you so certify? I so certify. Miss Qu,

I so certify. Miss Billian, I so certify. and Mary Anderson ISO certified. And with that being said, we'll call this meeting a journ. Drive the