Town Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. I would like to call tonight's town council meeting, Monday, June the 1st, in order. Please note, there will be opportunity during the meeting for citizens to address the town council when the mayor, I, declare public comment open. When requested up to the podium, please state your first and last name and your mailing address, and we'll go from there. Kim, if you'll please call roll.

Mr. Webb is absent. Ms. Quetch? Here. Ms. Pilliam? Here. Vice Mayor Austin? Present.

And Mayor Anderson? Here. Now I'm going to lead, or if I'll have Vice Mayor Wayne Austin lead us in. 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. If everyone please will remain standing. We have Tyler Vincell here from Holland's Fellowship. He's going to lead us in prayer tonight. Thank you for being here, Tyler.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, honorable council members.

Let's bow our heads. Heavenly Father, we are so thankful to come to you in this moment and give you thanks, God, for the day, for the season that we're in, for the beauty that you've placed in the place that we live. And, God, we're so thankful for this town and its residents and all the things that you've blessed us with, God. And we pray that as we continue through the meeting and into the rest of the year, God, that you'd have great things for our town and for its people and that you would help the council govern and make decisions that are wise and that are in the best interest of everybody. And, God, I'm so thankful for the opportunity to live in the country that we live in and to have afforded the freedoms that we have. And so, God, we're very blessed and very thankful. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you, Tyler.

Thank you, Tyler.

Now, if we could have approval of the agenda for tonight, if I could get a motion on that.

So moved. I'll second.

Any further discussion? Kim, if you'll please call roll.

Ms. Fletch. Ms. Pillian. Aye. Vice Mayor Austin.

Aye.

And Mayor Anderson. Aye.

Now, we'll have the approval of the minutes from our May the 4th, 2026 agenda. Meeting. If I could get a motion to approve that, those minutes. So moved. Second.

Second.

Any further discussion? Kim, if you'll please call roll.

Ms. Quetch.

Aye.

Ms. Pillian.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Austin.

Aye.

And Mayor Anderson.

Aye. And we do have a couple people signed up for public comment. The first on public comment tonight will be Eddie Copenhaver. Eddie, if you'll please come forward, state your first and last name and your mail address, please.

Ah, Eddie Copenhaver, 205 Creston Street, Abingdon, Virginia. I'm here to just let you all know that I paid my taxes once again this year. Libertarians have been known to say that taxes are theft, but I kind of believe if the government's providing a service, it's not really theft. But when I was going through the minutes, I saw that there was $5.2 million for recreation. Well, for another year, I really don't feel safe using Abingdon's Recreation Facilities. Prior to COVID, I've attended Tacoma Center for about 20 years. Never had a problem. Everything was fine. After COVID, there was a management change. And I started getting accused of things that I really just didn't do. And I'll give you an example. Once I was walking in the gym. Because the upstairs was full, I was walking in the gym. And one of the members of management came up, and she just jumped on me because I didn't have a mask on. And nobody else in the gym had a mask on. I was keeping my six-foot distance. I wasn't close to anybody, but she just went off on me because I didn't have a mask on. So when I got done walking, I said, why did you go off on me specifically? I said, nobody else in the gym had a mask on. Why did you go off on me? She said, well, they're all in the same family. And I thought, well, you know, I would have read in the paper if some mama had six kids. So I really didn't believe that argument that they were all in the same family. And I didn't do anything wrong. I was following the rules of what it said as far as keeping my distance, not wearing a mask while I was exercising. I was doing what I was supposed to do. About a month or so later, I was in the hot tub. I really enjoyed the pool in the hot tub. And I had been in the hot tub for a little while. And I got jumped on because I'd been in the hot tub too long. That's what I was told. I'm not a rock at science. But I can count 15 minutes when there's a big red clock on the wall. I said, I wasn't even in here. But anyway, the next time I came, same deal. You've been in here too long. And I hadn't been. And I knew that they were out to get me. And the same people that were out to get me was the same people that later on appointed a, let's just say a child predator, to management and employee of the month. So the people that you had judging me are the same people that was judging this person and giving them a promotion. And I'd really like some consideration for my tax money that I'm a member of this community. Thank you all.

Thank you, Eddie. We have one other person signed up for public comment, and that will be Greg Lilly. Greg Lilly, if you'll come forward, please. Please state your first and last name and your mail address, please, sir.

I'm Greg Lilly, and I live at 244 East Valley Street. Abington, Virginia, 24210. I have a question about the budget that's coming up for approval. When the town council met on January 5th for the retreat, I guess you all remember this document from Davenport, and they were talking about the wastewater. They had two scenarios. One was no user rate increase, and the second one was rate increase to cover debt service coverage ratio, which I understand, and I know we need to do that. I think my surprise was Davenport in their scenario said this year, this coming year, that they suggested a rate increase of 2.7%. And I remember sitting there thinking, well, that's not bad. I mean, because in July of 2024, we had a 10% increase. Last year, we had a 7% increase. So, like, 2.7 is not bad. Well, then I saw the minutes from last meeting, and it's 4%. So I mean, I understand that we have to do it. I would just, when we get to that point in the agenda, I would like to hear some kind of explanation, just a short explanation, of why the increase is not what Davenport suggested. Thank you.

And we have no one else signed up for public comment, so we'll close the public comment part and we'll move on to proclamations. We have one proclamation tonight, recognizing June the 7th through the 13th, 2026, as National Garden Week. And I have Amanda Fillion reading that proclamation. Ladies, if you all like to come forward right now, just stand at the podium here. We'll read this to you and we'll try to get a quick picture before it's all over with. And ladies, we're glad to have you all. Thank you all for everything y'all do. Town of Avon. Good evening to you.

Whereas gardeners have a passion for nurturing the beauty and resources of earth through the planting of seeds, the care of all plants, and the riches of their efforts. And whereas seek to add beauty, splendor, fragrance, and nutrition to our lives through the growing of herbs, vegetables, foliage, and flowers. And whereas gardeners work to preserve our country's tradition, spirit of independence, and initiative through innovation and hard work. And whereas gardeners advocate the importance of creatures, large and small, that share our world and their roles in a balanced and productive ecology. And whereas gardening furnishes a challenging and productive activity for our citizens, for those just learning as well as those having years of experience. And whereas gardening promotes a healthy lifestyle that lasts a lifetime, helps reduce stress from other areas of life, teaches that rewards can come from diligent efforts. And whereas gardening enables members of garden clubs across the nation and around the world to make a world of difference in the communities where they reside and work. Now, therefore, be it resolved that in an effort to acknowledge the importance of gardening and the numerous contributions of gardeners, National Garden Clubs Incorporated designate the week of June the 7th through the 13th, 2026 as National Garden Week in the Town of Abingdon and urge all citizens to recognize and celebrate the profound contributions of gardeners to our community our environment, and our daily lives.

Ladies, would any of you all like to come to the podium and say anything? Like I said, thank you all for spreading the love that you all spread throughout the town of Abingdon. I really appreciate that. It's good to see the familiar faces that were here last year at this point in time and those new faces that coming out and thank you all for everything that you all do for the town of Atkins.

Hi.

Now moving right down the list, public hearing. I don't think we have anyone signed up for public hearing today. So we'll move on to resolutions. There's no resolutions. No first reading of ordinance. We do have a second reading of ordinance, and that will be the ordinance to amend the financial year 2025-2026 annual budget. And we'll have Amanda Henegren, director of finance, and Mike Cochran, town manager, to the podium. Good evening, Amanda. How are you? Good. How are you all? Wonderful.

If you want, I can address Mr. Lilly's question first. Yes.

So essentially, why there was a difference in the rate is because we have used Davenport for several years. And Davenport is a financial advising firm. And their primary focus is financial planning, debt service, bond ratings and things of that nature. We just recently concluded a rate study where a consultant group came in. They took numerous amounts of detail and reports and really did a deep dive into all of our services, all of the costs, all of the capital improvement that's been done and that is on the schedule to be done. And their study, which is where the 4% came from, is really based on a cost of service, as that's what it takes to pay for the cost of service. So that's why there's a difference in those rates. And I'm sure once all of that gets racked up, we'll probably publish something about the rate study.

Does that kind of help? There was also a thing, let me point out too, Seems like that bid that came in, and maybe from this study, wasn't it like $42 million for the sewer, for all the I&I?

Yeah, so we're now up to over 50, but it's like a 15- or 20-year lifespan or time span.

It's quite a long time. I mean, it's going to be in phases, I realize.

Oh, absolutely, yeah.

But that's sort of why we have to go with these studies.

Yeah. Because, like, when we do the studies, they look at the amount of debt load that we have and then the ability to get the work done. And when the debt load comes off, then you layer in more debt so you don't tax the system too greatly or your ability to pay and all that.

And one of the things that I think that the study showed or kind of reaffirmed was that the town went for a really long time with no rain. And so, yes, there have been some. some high increases in the past, and we're going to continue to probably be fairly steady. It's all making up for the past in which there were none.

Well, there wasn't any rape, but there was also deferred maintenance that wasn't getting done. So now it's caught up with us.

I mean, fortunately, it was caught at the time that the system is still operable. There's a lot of places in southwest Virginia that have failing systems, and then they're Their ability to grow is substantially cut back if they don't have the ability to pay for what it takes. So ours is, you know, it's not going to be cheap, but it's a good system and it's salvageable.

And a lot of the projects that we're doing, some of them are not fully funded, but we do get some grant funding from VRA. And in order to be eligible for that, we have to maintain certain debt coverage ratios and cash on hand. And so that rate takes into account all of those things. Whereas Davenport, they're really good at what they do, but they were just looking at a small picture versus Golden, who did our rate study, was looking at a much bigger picture. And this is exactly why we wanted to have the rate study. And actually, VRA, one of their requirements was for us to have a rate study because we had not had one done in quite a while. And so they suggested that, hey, Your current rates are not in line with what we say they need to be in order for us to continue providing you great funding.

I've learned since being on council that everything practically gets a study. But it's for our benefit.

What I was going to say, you know, I've learned, I didn't think about the sewer system a lot before I was on council because we don't tend to think about the sewer system. We all use it every single day, multiple times a day. And, you know, you think about Richmond when they had no water for over a week. And you think about other places that have had problems. And, you know, we've just found that we had a lot of problems that we weren't aware of. And now we have to fix them. And I'm glad to have learned about it. I'm amazed at the intricacies of a sewer system. But we're really lucky to have one in our town that's so well managed. So while no one wants to increase rates or taxes on anyone, sometimes you have to in order, I mean, I would rather increase the rates a little bit and have a fully functional sewer system than be in financial trouble when we have a bigger problem.

Yeah, no, absolutely, and given the rating capacity for our plant versus what we actually use, there is substantial capacity left. And that really puts us in a good position because there are other facilities in the area that, even though they have theoretical capacity, there's too many structural issues of how they're set up that they're never going to be able to grow. So we're poised to be in a really good position. But taking this kind of investment now protects us from the long run.

And I mentioned it earlier. in the main meeting, but just for those who maybe didn't hear or missed, the increase for residential in town is $1.31, and residential out of town is $2.38.

Amanda, thank you for covering that for us and bringing that up and bringing that to everyone's attention. Thank you, Amanda.

So the first thing on the list is the amendment for 2526, which is getting ready to wrap up. Do you want another call? Yeah, perhaps. I just thought I'd give this to you so you can kind of follow along.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

And it's the same thing that I went over last time, but just to kind of... So for the Superfund, we have some expenditures that were not budgeted for originally. One being the Wolf Creek Water Reclamation Facility. We had an electrical crank first switch. It was an emergency situation that came up and had to be dealt with. So we have that. Then the rate study that we've all been talking about. That's line two for 46. $46,320. Then we had a regional, we participated in a regional wastewater study, which is completely different. It's for all of, I think it's Washington County, the town.

It's basically all the areas of the county to include the two other smaller plants in the county and then going out towards Bristol. And what they're really doing is they're doing a deep dive to see where growth can come and where it's most probable, and then what's there to service it. So it's a bigger picture item.

With that one, down on the revenue side, everybody else that was participating, we sent them an invoice and they paid their share. So there is a revenue line that offsets that. And then we did have a reduction of our debt service. We had budgeted for... two payments, and we actually, by the time the project completed and the payment was due, we only had one payment. So overall, between the expenditures and the revenue, we had a change in fund balance of $132,563. The original budget was approved for adding to the reserves $423,902. This change just takes that down to $291,339. moving right along to general these the expenditures and the revenue offset and it's just grants that came in that were not budgeted for and so there's actually no change at all and grants those are my favorite

I'd like to make a motion that we approve this ordinance and amend the fiscal 2025-2026 annual budget as just discussed by our Director of Finance.

I'll second that.

Any further discussion? Kim, if you'll please call roll.

Ms. Quedge? Aye. Ms. Pillian? Aye. Vice Mayor Anderson, or Austin, I'm sorry. Aye.

And Mayor Anderson. Aye. Now the second reading of Warden's tonight is for the Council to tell about imposing the budget to make the appropriate appropriations for the current expenses to fix a tax rate upon the real and personal property for the financial year beginning July the 1st, 2026, and ending June the 30th, 2027. And we have Amanda Hinegar and Mike Cochran here to speak on that as well, too.

Thank you.

Thank you, Amanda.

So there really is no change from our May 4th meeting.

But if you want, I can just do a brief summary.

If you would, please.

So for the general fund, we are budgeting for a use of general funds of $692,748. sort of also on the fact that you with the revenues that you've left on flat for that reason you don't foresee this 692 yeah so we under revenue um for rates the real estate lodging and all other tax rates are remained unchanged so there's no increases there um for revenue the budgeted revenue for sales and use meals and lodging We're budgeting flat, so we're not budgeting for any increase. And just like you mentioned, Donna, with us budgeting flat, I mean, we're giving ourselves a really good vision because if the trail opens when they say that it's going to, obviously there's going to be some tourism, but that's first. And so anything at all is going to tick down from this number.

And historically in the past, since I've been here,

We budget a use every year, but we're very, very conservative. And so we usually add to the reserves. And we do a complete 360 from what we actually play for because we budget in the event, but we know throughout the year that we want to try to break even.

Well, since I've been on council, this is the first year ever that we budgeted flat.

Yeah, no, correct. My first year was 15%.

Except COVID, that's an exception.

Yeah, my first year budget year was past my very first meeting, and that was 15%. I mean, that was a laudable increase. I mean, and we made it, but it was tight. And we typically budget roughly a 5% increase, and then we'll exceed that. In this case, just given the dynamics of what's been happening on the trail and all, We wanted to be conservative in that.

But I do believe that 15%. I do believe we made it. Yeah, we did. We did.

Yeah, we absolutely did. But, yeah, you always want to budget your revenues conservatively, so you're surprised rather than let down.

I was saying 10, and he was going, no, let's go 15. Yeah. So we did.

Yeah. In this case, it will leave us in a pretty good position because I'm certain that we'll do better than budget. And based on the report I just got this morning on the economically sensitive revenues, we're in pretty good shape as far as that goes. So I think we're trending nicely. And so with the trail rebuild, my understanding is that they're still on target for sometime in November and in November, early December. So that'll be a good thing. We'll have a busy winter and a definitely busy spring.

I think the creeper trail is taking off right now with the weather nice. The past couple of days, the parking lots have been packed, so I think people are still coming to the Creeper Trail, even though it's being worked on, so that's a good thing for the town of Abner.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it's been busy out there as far as I can tell.

I think it would be interesting to see the price of gas as to how that affects people coming to the Creeper Trail.

Yes, yes. But a lot of times we get regional travel rather than Like if you're not going to fly somewhere, you'll drive to Abingdon. The smart ones will anyway.

Moving on to the expenditure assumptions and their personnel, we budget for a 3% COLA. We budget for an 11.6% increase in health premium. This was the first year since I've been here that we've had an increase in our health premium. Three new full-time positions. And then $188,904.64 in grant match expenditures. And $404,395.25 in capital outlay project requests, which were the list that you guys reviewed.

That's a part of that 690. Yep. Every bit of that is taken into account.

Any questions on that?

Council? Okay.

I'll move on. The second page is going to be the enterprise fund. And we are budgeting for an addition to Superfund Reserve of $64,635. It's just a modest addition. One big emergency, and that can get wiped out pretty easily. Revenue assumptions. Their rate is a service rate increase of 4%. Then under revenue, this is the list of the capital improvement plan funding from debt and grants. We are, we have finished the phase one, and we've made one payment on that, but we draw down the funding as they turn in the expenditures for that. Phase two is in the process right now of the bids that we received on that being reviewed by DEQ, and then once they approve that, then we will get in touch with bond council, and then we'll start the process for bringing that in front of you. We went ahead and budgeted for the Southview and the pump station, but it'll just be timing on whether that happens or not. But it's budgeted on both sides, expense and revenue. So if it happens, it's budgeted for. If it don't, then it's a wash. And then the Wolf Creek Water Reclamation facility is on there. For expenditure, it's going to be about the same as general, 3% COLA, 11.6% in health premium. And then we do have the phase one debt service payment that we have half of the payment for this year. We'll have a full payment next year. I did put a note down here at the bottom. If the other projects were to get started based on the timeline provided by the land group, You would not have debt payment on those in the fiscal year 2020.

Any questions on that? I'm just to give an idea on that sewer fund reserve. $64,000 sounds like a lot, but like if we had a piece of equipment fail, which we had last month, the piece of equipment we rented in order to get by was $10,000 a week, which was it's on the expensive side. So that looks like a lot, and it is, unless there's a big repair. Those repairs can get costly. So in order to meet a lot of different metrics, you have to have the fund balance reserves there.

Council, any questions? Thank you so much. Any questions?

To accept these two amendments? Yes. I'll move to accept the two amendments as presented.

Well, no, this is the second one. Oh. Just to adopt the budget.

I'll make a motion to adopt the budget for the fiscal year 26-27. I'll second that.

Any further discussion? Kim, if you'll please call roll.

Ms. Quedge? Aye. Ms. Pillian?

Aye.

Vice Mayor Austin?

Aye.

And Mayor Anderson?

Aye. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Amanda. Thank you. Thank you, Mike Cochran. We have no consideration of bids tonight. New business. First on the new business is the scheduling of the accounting meetings for August through December 2026. Kim? Yes, sir.

If we follow in tradition, our first meeting is the first Monday of the month. August would be August the 3rd. The mid-month meeting suggested is August the 20th. First meeting in September would be the 8th because Labor Day is the 7th. The 17th for the mid-month?

17. Yes, sir. And I'll put it on your calendars. That's good.

Okay. October the 5th? October the 15th for the mid-month?

I will just go ahead and say that I will be out of town.

Would you like to change it?

It doesn't matter. I'll be out of town, but those both of those weeks, so it doesn't matter.

The 5th and the 15th, Amanda?

Yeah, I'll be out the 15th and the 22nd.

I'm going to be in my Institute and Academy clerks. The first one was the 5th.

The first one was October 5th. So it's your fault.

Yes, it's my fault too.

It's fine. Go ahead and meet the 15th. I'm just letting you know in advance that I will be absent.

November would be the 2nd. And I know we're getting close to Thanksgiving, that second week, so would you think about the 17th? I know it will be a Tuesday, but the following week is Thanksgiving.

Is that all right with you, Wayne? 17th.

November 17th.

We don't care. Don't we normally just skip that one? Well, you know, we do mark that count, but then if there's not a whole lot, then we pass it on.

I said don't we normally skip that one.

And then December would be the 7th.

Did we put one on the?

November the 2nd and November the 17th.

And then December the 7th. And would you like to wait and see if we need one for mid-month in December?

Yes.

Okay.

So those dates are, Kim, August the 3rd. Yes, and I'll add it to your calendars. Okay, August the 3rd. August the 20th, September the 8th, September the 17th, October the 5th, October the 15th, November the 2nd, November the 17th, and December the 7th.

All right.

Next, we have consideration of a banner display permit for the Appalachian Memory and Aging for June the 8th, 2026 through June the 13th, 2026. And it will be the first annual memory mile walk on June the 12th, 2026. If someone would like to make a motion consideration for the banner display for the permit for the Appalachian memory of Haiti.

I'll make that motion.

I'll second.

Any further discussion? Kim, if you'll please call the roll.

Ms. Quetch? Aye. Ms. Pillion? Aye. Vice Mayor Austin? Aye. And Mayor Anderson?

Aye. We have no whole business tonight. We'll do miscellaneous business and communications from our town manager, and then we'll do the council members after that.

Sure. Thank you, Mayor. The next week is the high school bid for and was able to get the state jubilee sports playoff. So you'll see a whole lot of people here for 11th, 12th, and some of the 13th. We'll have folks coming from all over the state to play their playoffs here. And we expect a couple hundred or so families to come into town to watch their kids. So it should be a good, and they'll be at several different fields depending on the sport. So it should be pretty busy. And it's exciting to watch. And the girls, I mean, our team's really had a great year. So it's really nice to see, especially when you consider how the size we are relative to everybody else. We really have been able to crank out some great athletes. Plum Alley Day went off well, despite the best of the weather trying to scare people from coming out. It still went off pretty good, so we were pleased to have everybody out for that. And that's about the fun and exciting that I have, other than the air conditioning could be better, but we'll work on that for next meeting. That's all I've got. Thank you.

Well, I attended the Memorial Day service.

It went over good.

It was raining.

Thank you for attending.

But David Matlock, he was the MC, did an excellent job. And there was quite a few people there on Rain Day. And one of the things I enjoy most about serving on council is going to all these things and river clays and just being in the community. I'm going to miss that one.

You're still invited. You're still invited. I know, and I probably still go to some of those. I've always loved representing the town and those events.

There's still time.

Yep. I want to give a big shout out to the young lady, AJ, at Abingdon High School. She won the Pappy Award. I think this may be the fourth time that an individual from Abingdon High School has won that award. Her success is our success. She carried the volleyball team, basketball team. I mean, it is a team effort, but she played quality roles on that. She's involved in track. All-around young lady, and I just want to give her a big shout-out. And she's headed to North Carolina State. The turnout for Plum Alley, I was very pleased with that, even though it did sprinkle there after 3 o'clock. But I thought we had a nice crowd there.

We were expecting rain all day, but it didn't rain until Memorial Day turned out to be a success with the veterans.

So they were pleased with that. So thank everyone for coming out for that. We just got some things looking forward summertime. Just everyone know that summertime is up on us. We have kids in this community. Kids will be out. Please watched your crosswalks. Watch yourself by the creeper trail. By the Coombs Center, we will have people in and out all throughout summer, and that's a good thing for the town of Adams.

Well, if I can mention, for the Coombs attendees or the people that happen to go at Alvarado, they now have tap to pay. So whenever you bring the kids to the pool, just know that there's no excuses not to get them all kinds of good stuff. All right. All right.

Vice Mayor Alston?

Yes. There are several things I would like to mention quickly. First of all, Mr. Cochran, what's the status of the grant for the generator at the Coombs Center?

We're still waiting on – we're in – we got the – we're still waiting – we got the big ones that we asked for, but that one we're still waiting on. So it's – You know, we didn't get a no. We got to see how much money is left to answer. So I still haven't heard more from that on that. But we've had pretty good success from them so far, so we're just crossing our fingers.

Do you have a time frame that we may hear something?

No, I'll inquire and send you all, I'll update you all. But, yeah, it's just their timeline sometimes are, and they'll, and like it's one small update on Trestle 12. You know, we had previously had everything updated. approved going through Tesla 12, and then in part of their review they do in Winchester that the feds do, they came back and said, oh, well, if you do that, it's going to ruin, it's historically, they consider it to be historically significant, so we're going back in to preserve the look, but then we have to re-engineer a few things. And the challenge in all that is we want to get it done while we still have competitive bidders in the region. So, anyway, our engineers work on that right now. It'll get work done. They're just trying to find a way to help preserve the aesthetic.

I'm just hopeful we can get it done by winter for our warming station or warming

Yeah, so on the upside of that is part of the budget was having the other facility that we were... Right, right. And that has that capacity right now, which is helpful. Yeah, and that has a generator on it already. Yeah, so one way or another. The Coons would be ideal, though, because it has shower facilities and all that. It's much bigger. Yeah.

While I'm talking about that, let me say a shout-out to Mr. Cochran on Plum Alley Day. There was a lady came up and had an emergency and came up and spoke with me about it. I made contact with Mike there at Plum Alley. Despite him in the middle of all his graduation excitement and trying to enjoy Plum Alley, he took care of the lady very nicely, and I wanted to thank you for that.

No problem at all.

I actually walked up on that when that was going on. Like Vice Mayor Austin said, kudos.

Well, the benefit of this job is having a good Rolodex. It helps a lot. And then secondly was having staff that's available to come in on that, and they did. And I've been talking to a lady, her child had just graduated the night before too, so nothing worse than having a house guest and a toilet don't function. So we were able to get them helped out pretty quickly.

That was good. Thank you. And the last thing I'd like to mention is in some sort of a of a setting, whether it's a proposal of an ordinance or whether it's just a general conversation in the meeting, I would like for us to give further consideration to the expansion of the social district. I've had a couple of people ask me about that. I know we've mentioned it casually, but I'd just like to hear other opinions on it and a good discussion about it in some setting.

We have been both. I just would like to say that I had the opportunity Saturday to go watch our, I know we've had lots of high school sports going on right now.

It's been a really busy time, but Ms. Combo

reminded me that the high school girls were playing on the tennis courts on Saturday and so I went by there and I ended up staying for a while because it was a really long exciting match but I wanted to say that I found it very it just made me very happy that we were able to contribute to those courts they had six singles matches going on all at one time I can't imagine how long it would have lasted with those really long drawn out matches had we not been able to help with that situation and apparently Our tennis teams have done so well that they have hosted over and over and over on these new courts, which in turn have enabled us to have nine courts at, nine pickleball courts at the Coombs Center. So we've had a little spill over there into even more fun. But it just really makes the people, the tennis parents and the administration of the high school have told me that people are asking to come and play on our new courts. And they also said that when it rains, they drive very quickly because they were well done well engineered and brand new. So I just think that we should brag on the council and brag on the town staff that made that happen because it has really made a difference this spring for our high school kids.

That's awesome. And Claiborne Woodall is the guy who really helped plant the seed for that. First time I met him, I didn't get, I think I got my title out of my name. Sorry to explain what we needed that to make happen. So we're just glad to help, you know, facilitate making it happen. Took y'all's support to do it.

I think we do have a baseball game, boys baseball game going on right now and a girls softball game going on. And if Abingdon does win tonight, I think it would be Wednesday in Abingdon as well

Yeah, so the state games, the state high school league is scheduling those. I'm not sure where the actual games will be played because they don't want people having home field advantage and stuff. Some games will be at Emory & Henry and some will be here. I don't know which one is which, though. I know which one is which, but I don't know what teams are playing where.

I do not have a tennis player, but I have been, like I said, I've been sucked into this saga. And they play tomorrow night. our courts again and I understand that if they win tomorrow night then they get to go on to state play as a team and then I don't know about the individual I know we have a couple of boys who are playing at Liberty in the state and then I know this the outdoor track goes to their state competition this coming weekend at Liberty so I don't know but there's there's still a lot of kids playing in a lot of end of season sporting events including the kids who graduated almost two weeks ago it's pretty crazy

But it is great to see.

Big shout out to all the coaching staff and all the teaching staff at Abingdon High School for a very, very pleasurable 2026 year. All right. We'll move right on down to appointments to boards and committees. Looks like we have one, and it's sustained Abingdon. It's an appointment to fill a vacant position.

We only have one advocate.

What is everybody okay with the one after we had? I'm okay with Amanda. Vice Mayor Austin. Yes, that person is Kelly Kinder. Um, so do I have a motion to appoint Kelly Kinder to the Sustained Abundance?

Actually, the one I have is... Who do you have on yours?

Hi, Kathleen. Kit McCulloch.

Who do you have on yours? He's looking at... What's your name?

Kit McCulloch. Is he looking at this?

You know, that was the banner. That was the banner, yeah. That's me. Oh, okay. That's me borrowing somebody else's glasses. I apologize for that. They look great, though. Sure, they match my shirt. Thank you, Ken Kingsley, for the glasses. Somebody would like to make that motion? I'll make that motion.

I'll make the point, Kathleen, Kit, and Cole.

I'll second that. Any further discussion? Kim, if you'll please call roll.

Ms. Quedge? Aye. Ms. Pillion? Aye. Vice Mayor Austin? Aye. And Mayor Anderson?

Aye. And with that being said, we'll call tonight's meeting adjourned.