Town Council - Regular Meeting

council meeting Tuesday, June the 16th, 2026. Please note there will be opportunity during this meeting for citizens to address the town council when the mayor, I, declares public comment open. We request that anyone addressing the council sign in, sign up, approach the podium when called, state your first and last name. Kim, if you'll please call roll.

Ms. Quedge? Here. Ms. Billion? Here. Vice Mayor Austin?

Present.

And Mayor Anderson?

Here.

Let the record reflect, Mr. Webb is absent.

Now, Council Member Amanda Payne will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. I'm sure everyone's had a moment to look over the agenda. If I could get a motion to approve the agenda.

I'll say move.

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. Now we would open up the public comment, but as today we have no one signed up for public comment today. We have no proclamations today. We have no public hearings today. Today's going to be a really good one. I think everything today is going to be Kevin Whirling. And that's going to move us to resolutions. The first resolution that we have today is going to be a resolution affirming the support of the Smart Scale Application for Cummings Street Access Management and Turn Lane Project. Kevin, thank you for coming up. Absolutely.

Thank you, Mayor Anderson and council and staff. Yes, it is. It seems like it is the Kevin show for a few minutes anyway. Yes, sir. And actually what we have, actually the two items together are kind of the same project. We'll handle them independently, but the first one we're doing is the access management on Cummins Street. So what it is is resolution for the council. This is a VDOT project. This is an access management of the Cummins Street corridor. We've met several times as part of the pipeline project with VDOT. We've revised this a couple of different times. It's under another revision right now. The final application will go in in August. But this is just a support resolution. This is a transportation alternative program through smart scale to 100 percent funded through VDOT through the state. So we have no financial obligations tied to this. We have several projects that will be going along the Cummins Street corridor. And these are all funded through VDOT. The first one will be the Rimsburg section in Cummins Street from the Airborne Bridge down to Main Street. This project will actually go from Airborne Bridge back to Exit 17 all the way back down through the corridor. A lot of access management. A few opportunities to control better intersections, a little more improvement of the road the turns and signalization of the intersection because we know what a An interesting intersection that is in a lot of shape form and fashion So there's a lot of work that will be looked at in the corridor This goes into 28 it'll go in now to be a 28 so it technically won't it's a six-year program so it won't actually fund a Unless it fast-tracks, and we've had a recent one that did, but unless it fast-tracks altogether, it'll probably be 2032 to 2034 range. This project in itself is a little over a $28 million project that we'll receive the funding for to do this project. So just ask that. And then I'll add one more comment to this one. This project goes in the high priority pot in the pot where the largest funding is available. And this actually is a project that's being submitted by the MPO on behalf of the town. And so this, again, is a $28.3 million project. When the final cost estimations are done and revisions are made, It'll be a little less than that, but still all that's being funded 100%.

Through VDOT, right?

Through VDOT. Yes, sir.

Thank you for letting us know that. Does anybody have any questions for Mr. Kevin Whirl? Would anyone like to make a motion on this resolution affirming the support of the smart scale application for the community street access?

I'll make that motion.

Do I have a second?

I'll second.

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

Ms. Quetch. Aye. Ms. Billion. Aye. Vice Mayor Austin. Aye. And Mary Anderson.

Aye. And the second resolution is the affirming of the support of the Smart Sale Application for Interstate 81-817 Southbound Off-Ramp Improvement Project. That's a tongue twister.

This project in itself is part of the whole corridor improvements. This is actually improvements that will be done at the exit 17, adding more Q lanes coming back, better turn access left and right, putting in a slip lane that will come off the interstate and you have a continual feed in. This project also has had, went through some revisions and discussions of property and not taking property and all that. So right now I think they've got a good Revision, we'll have a meeting here in about another week about this project as well. This one was actually submitted on behalf of the town through the town, and it's in the low-priority pot. So the both project will probably end up funding together. They'll fund both because they're both tied together with the same improvements. They were separated because once we get to a certain number, it gets a little bit It's gray area how much you're gonna willing to put funding into one project But they'll put it to get they'll combine it and make that same amount of money in two projects Figure the logic then then you're doing better than the rest of us So again, this is a project for improvements of the actual the exit 17 exit off ramp itself and improvements to the turn lanes and Like I said all ties to the first project is the whole hop the whole corridor access improvement. So I

So if you can get them to put that right turn lane in coming out of Country Club Drive while you're doing all of this.

Well, if we come on there a little bit further. And this project itself is about a $7 million, $7.1 million estimate right now. So that, you know, when it's all said and done, we'll probably still end up, you know, again, it's 2028 cycle for 34, 30 to 234 funding. probably still in about 30, with all said and done, probably about a $30 million improvements that they'll make through VDOT for us.

I'm excited about the improvements, and I'm also excited about the VDOT having to take the load off of us.

And they administer the project. So that, I mean, it's not, you know, it's one of those things I just kind of have to help herd the cats, but I don't have to actually oversee the day and operation of herding up the contractors and and tying us to all the procurement side of everything that we have to go through. It will all be done through the state. All right.

Great job, Kevin. Does anybody have any other questions for Kevin about this resolution affirming the support of the smart scale application? If not, would anyone like to make a motion on the resolution affirming the support of the smart scale application for Interstate 81, Exit 17, Southbound Off-Ramp Improvement Project?

So moved. Second.

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

Ms. Quetch. Aye. Ms. Pillian. Aye. Vice Mayor Austin. Aye.

And Mary Anderson. Aye. All right. Kevin, if you'll just have a seat right there on the front row. We'll be right back up here in just a second. We have no first reading of ordinance today, no second reading of ordinance today. We do have consideration of bids, and this is a consideration of bid for Phase 2 Sewer System Improvement Project, Step 2, and we'll have Mr. Worley come back up, please, and talk to us about that.

I need the rest.

I'll tell you what, it took me too long the first time. All right, so here we go. We're going down that path again. As I joked and said many years ago when I kind of took on the role as project manager, I was going to have half an avenue tore up at any one given time, and then we'll put it back together, and then I'm going to tear it up again. So here we go. Phase two is a construction project that we've actually working with the land group and Woodard and Curran and several other agencies around to kind of put together this next phase of our sewer project. This target area this time will be Court Street, Northeast, Oak Hill, Hill Drive, Hillside, and through that corridor is this next phase. We have two more sections on Valley Street to make connections on at Court Street, and then we have the Whites Mill intersection, which was originally dug up to be part of the first phase. There were so many utility issues with other agencies that we really pretty much had to abandon that section. Unfortunately, it was through discovery after they'd already made the cuts in the road on Valley Street, so that's why the cuts are in the road. So those will go away. We'll get all of that corridor, all that new sewer work tied in. We redesigned this one a little bit differently this time. Last time we actually had three separate projects. One project was to engage in the sewer repair work. Second project was to engage in the lining, which is called CIPP, the cure-in-place lining of good pipe that needed You know, that was salvageable. So that was in the phase two section. And the phase three part of that was we kept the Valley Street and all of that dig and replace that had to be done there as three separate projects. It was interesting. We learned a whole lot through that process. And one of the things that we learned is we wanted it in one hand. and we want it in control. So we have this as one project. There will be some cure and place lining. It's a lot of dig and replace. But we have one contractor. It is their responsibility to provide the subs to do the CIPP work, and we will have one construction engineer inspector on the job overseeing the entirety of the project. We had three last time, and it really was herding cats. all different, going different directions. It took a little bit of time to kind of get everybody to understand how we wanted it, what we wanted done, and when we wanted it done. So this time we will have more control, direct control, right from the get-go. So this project went out to bid. We had money secured originally from DEQ and VRA for $9.5 million. That was in an application that was submitted in 22, and then we had, or in 24, we had the That was all based on the estimates for engineering and for estimation for construction. So that money comes in as up to the amount of $9.5 million. It doesn't say we get $9.5 million automatically. It's up to the amount. And the reason that states that way is the fact that once we have real numbers, which we do and we establish the task order with the land group for the engineering portion, and when we actually get the bids in and receive bids, then that number adjusts to equal the amount of those two added together. So we had up to $9.5 million. We have had the engineering agreement, like I said, was executed. So they've been doing that work. We put the bids out. We have the bids come back. And in your council packet, you have the bid award letter that we had submitted to DEQ. We actually asked DEQ, the bids came in from $6,035,000, which was the low bid. The second low bid was $7.4, the next was $7.8, and then the high bid was $8.5. So that was the range of bids on this project. We have went through the analysis with MC3. That is the company that was awarded, or will be awarded, if you award the bid. We've done business with them before, good business. Their subcontractor is T9, so I'm getting tired of all the initials. It all runs together because the lane group now has merged, and now they went to RDA, and now they have merged again with a sister company, and they're going to be called DRMP. and I'm getting L-O-O-P-Y from having to figure out where all these letters are. So we are recommending that we go with MC3 for a contract value of $6,035,610. We went to DEQ. DEQ likes to have a 2% or 3% contingency built on a project. Because of the availability of funds and for just the ability to make sure we have enough contingency built in it, we actually asked them for a 10% contingency on the project. And Mike sent a letter to them last week, and they approved that 10 percent contingency. So, we'll actually end up with about $6.6 million in the construction portion of the project. With everything all said together, our VRA loan will reduce a little bit, which will help, you know, finance with the budget. But we still, what we're basically getting is our engineers' estimates were around $7.5 million for the project when we originally put it together. went up a little bit, you know, kind of, you know, based on current numbers and everything. So we were still at about $7.5 million. So we're going to get about $7.5 million worth of work for about $6 million. Everybody's like, ooh, you know, they were low bid. How were they that far off? Well, their numbers were good. We've met with them, followed up with them, and they wanted the work. So if they want the work, they'll lowball the number. So that's fine.

You said we have dealt with MC3. We have dealt with them. What projects?

They've done other sewer projects in the area. Okay. You know, in relation. And the lane group has worked with them as well. Our previous contractor that had worked with us on our sewer project has used them as well. And after the opening, they called and said, listen, they'll do a good job for you. And they, you know, again, that was nice of them just to reach out to us and say, you know, They went after the project, and we have that periodically. We'll get the project that someone really wants, and they'll sharpen their pencils down, and they'll get in the door. So they were just looking. They've done a lot of work in the region, so it's not just out of the blue that they've come in here. They were prepared, knew what they wanted, and went for it. So my request is that you authorize the town manager to execute any and all documents in relation to approving the award for MC3. We'll then take that information, submit it back to DEQ with all the contract documents. We'll put all that together, and then we'll execute any of those and have Mr. Bell review before we have final ink on the page before we... you know, we execute the last piece of the document, submit it back to DEQ, and we will work with Ms. Henniger to process all of the VRA loan documents, which will be forthcoming. We're waiting. Once we award and acknowledge, then they'll get the final paperwork back to us on what the VRA loan documents will look like from council and be back before you guys to present that as part of the contract.

Kevin, thank you for all the hard work that you're putting in the efforts with all these projects that we've got going on now and the ones that are coming up in the future.

It's all good. Thank you. Appreciate that. Appreciate you giving me the opportunity to do it. As someone joked, we have to be here 265 days a year of what we do during the time when we're here on those days. Got to work somewhere. Got to do it. Eight, ten hours, whatever it takes, get the job done and go on. But that's what we're presenting to award.

I feel like if you all have got faith in the MC3 solution, that I'm going to follow your judgment on that. But I don't know if Council, does anyone have any questions for Kevin?

I have no questions. I would make a motion that we approve the bid for Phase 2 sewer system improvement project to MC3 Solutions and authorize the town manager and town attorney to execute Any documents necessary for that?

Do I have a second? Second. Any further discussion? Kim, if you'll please call the roll.

Ms. Quedge? Aye. Ms. Billion? Aye. Vice Mayor Austin? Aye.

Mayor Anderson? Aye. Thank you, Kevin. All right, we have no new business today, no old business today, which brings us to miscellaneous business and communication from our town manager, Mike Cox.

Thank you. Yeah, so this being a work session, so the first one, yeah, Amanda, is she back there?

Yes.

We had our finance committee meeting earlier, and we'll get into the details. There's just a minor change now that we've made some evolutions.

the uh so we discussed it in the final committee and it was recommended to bring in front of the entire council to get your opinion on making an update to our financial policy does everybody have a copy in their packet

So the change that we're discussing is on page 4 of the policy. And essentially what this change would do is

At the end of the audit, whenever we get the final numbers and information back from the auditors, we will know what our balances are. And whatever the amount is that we have that exceeds the minimum as required by the financial policy, that balance would then be transferred into our capital project fund so that in the event that we capital projects we want to go back to doing a capital project budget it would just kind of help start setting money aside for for that um i have another we kind of briefly went over this um i have updated this this is as a may statement thank you and so the Two sections at the bottom are our current reserve policies, one which talks about the general fund reserve balance, and then the other one talks about the budget stabilization. So for the general fund reserve balance, the town has to maintain a minimum in that account of equal or greater to 5 million or 35% of general governmental revenue. At the current moment, as of May's statement, we are $204,625.38 over our required minimum. And then for the budget stabilization, we're required to have 1.25 in there. We're at 1.442. So we have about $192,377 that we're over that minimum in that account. If we make a change to the policy, then at the end of the fiscal year, after audited financials are presented, then we would take amounts such as this, and that's what would be transferred into the capital project. Now, in this case, it's essentially just the interest that's earned on that money. The money would stay in those accounts. There's a couple of different ways we can do it. My preference at the current moment until we figure out how we're going to establish or if we're going to establish a capital project fund budget. Last one we had was in 2024. Kind of set all that aside when ARPA money got revved up and all the projects kind of went to being paid by ARPA money. But we could have it. We could have it transferred into a separate account. Or we can just leave it in the VIP where it's currently at. So it's gaining a higher interest. And it's just segregated as far as... the balance sheet and Edmonds is concerned for capital projects.

What's the current policy for this? It's not amended?

Yeah, so right now, as we earn this interest, it just sits in the general fund.

Sits in the general fund.

Yeah, so if you amend it, we would just essentially, it's more or less just on paper of moving it of the general fund into the capital project fund so that it sits out there and we can start putting money aside for capital projects but you say once it's in the capital improvements it never will ever go back to the general no not unless we made a transfer for for whatever reason you know like if for some reason there was something that was paid out of the uh out of the general fund And that ended up being a capital project. And we said, okay, that really needs to be covered under that. We could always move it. But it should remain segregated and separate. Because like I said before, in 2024, during the budget, you would have three separate budgets. You would have your general fund budget, your enterprise budget, and then your capital budget. And so your capital budget would have been things like, for example, the playground rebuild. You know, something like that. All of the expenses would have come through there. If there was any kind of grant funding, that would have came through there as revenue. It's just a way of kind of segregating these things. It just makes it a little bit easier for the auditors and just kind of helps in these multi-year projects and how they roll over. But this is not the end all. This is just kind of step one of, hey, if we do this, this kind of gets the ball rolling on starting to set some money aside for capital projects. If we decided before next budget year that we wanted to make a transfer to the capital projects fund as part of the budget and have that capital project budget, we could do that, or we could just simply say, no, we're not in a place where we want to do that right now. Let's just focus on the interest that this is earning over our minimums and start with that and kind of see where we get. Now, I did have a conference call with Jimmy, who was with Davenport, Because him and his group are the ones that actually helped us create these policies in the first place. And so I wanted to run this change by them and see what they thought, what their opinions were. And once I explained it to him and explained what our end goal was, he's like, that makes perfect sense. As long as we're maintaining our minimums as required by our policies, this stuff that's sitting in here is just extra as to how we want to handle it.

And then as she mentioned, as we move forward in future budgets, our goal with the capital budget, because it has been there, would be that as we get grants, if we need a grant match or whatever, that's kind of our focus right now has been looking for grants in order to find ways to achieve the objectives and do it as inexpensively as possible. So we can push the money over there. It's just easier to see where the money's at, similar to like the fleet fund and things like that set up.

So like right now when you're going through your budgets, And, you know, you've got all these capital projects and you're saying, okay, we've got a use of general fund balance of $300,000 to balance the budget. And we say, oh, well, of that, $300,000 is for capital projects. Well, that kind of makes it look like it's costing that to operate the town when it's not. That's capital improvement, which really kind of should be its own separate budget.

Well, does that limit us in any way? Currently, as you will point out, we've had excess funds, and we've been able to use those toward balancing the budget. In the coming years, if we did not have sufficient money, would this hinder us in using these monies to balance?

No, I mean, we can make the determination on what we wanted to do. This essentially puts it in policy that we have the ability to do this if we want to. But it's not something that we have to do. But we're also not talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars either. It's essentially just the interest that's earned on these accounts that's over the minimum. Because what I would do is, for example, once we got our audited financials back, for the general fund reserve balance, that's always going to be based on 35% of the government revenue. So I would have to look at that. each time and that number itself could change so I mean it's not going to be a set figure each year it's really the easiest way to think about it is just the interest that's earned on this money that takes us above the above the 35 percent or as far as the budget stabilization above the 1.25 I think it sort of cleans it up a little bit too because

when it's capital improvements and you're showing the capital improvements, whereas at the end of the year when you're using general fund reserves for capital improvements, now it'll just be automatically capital improvements.

Exactly. Yeah, because like right now when you're putting it in your budget, oh, we have to have this to balance the budget, people look at it like that's what you need. You have to have that to run the town. And that's not the case at all. We don't have to have that to run the town. we are using that to get these projects done. So prior to ARPA, back in 2024, this wasn't in the policy. We weren't using interest. There was just a line item in the expenses for the general fund that was transfer to capital projects, whether it be 200,000, 300,000, 400,000, whatever. So we're essentially doing the same thing, but instead of just making it a part of the budget, we're using interest that we're earning. So that's essentially kind of the difference.

I like the idea.

I do, too. We talked about that this morning. I kind of like that idea.

Thank you, Amanda. And this amendment to the policy says it shall be done immediately.

is that correct yes not discretionary exactly now we can change the wording um you know if if that's the council's pleasure to read something that more that doesn't limit us to saying that we have to um in our opinion the the reason why we established this was to give us the option to do that you know if we if we are over our minimums which we should always be because we're never getting money out of the Yeah.

How would it affect you if it was amended to say may, in the discretion of the council, be transmitted?

It doesn't. I mean, it doesn't. I mean, it's completely, I mean, we have to wait until after the audit anyway to get our financials. And the audit is presented to you guys after that. So, I mean, it could always be part of the process to submit submit the audit, go over the audit and the results of the audit, and then at that time say, here's what these figures are going to be, these are the pleasure of the council, to make the move to move it at that time. So I can easily change that wording.

So would you be doing that to the current fiscal year budget then, since you're doing the audit for the last year's budget, or you'd go back and amend the last year's?

No, no.

Right.

No, no. If this is effective July, we could always do it in July. Or we could make it effective June 30th, whatever the pleasure is of the council. These are what the balances are right now. So it's just up to y'all whether you want to start it in the fiscal year 26 after we get 25s on it.

I like the concept. I just like the idea of it being discretionary rather than passing a policy that's going to bind us for the years to come. And I also like it to be within the discretion of the council.

Do you have a preference on when you would want to start it? Would you want to do it after the 26th audit? After the 26th audit?

I think it already says that at the close of each fiscal year, so it pretty much already says that.

I'm fine with May or whatever, Ms. Raulston. It says at the end that it shall not reduce the reserves below the policy minimums. I get your point about May anyway.

Where it says shall be committed, to say may be committed in the discretion of the council.

I'll make those changes. I'll submit it to Mike.

That's just my suggestion. I don't know how the others feel.

Is that okay? That's okay, Vice Mayor. That's okay.

So I'll make those changes. I'll submit it to Mike, and we maybe can get it on for the next one.

Can we just approve it as amended?

Sure.

And how about that transfer shall occur? Do you want to change that one to May also?

Yes, please.

I guess technically may occur in the discretion of counsel.

Yes. Thanks.

I'll move that we accept this as amended.

I'll second.

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

Ms. Quetch. Aye. Ms. Pillian. Aye. Vice Mayor Austin. Aye. And Mary Anderson.

Aye. And we're still with the town mayor.

Yes, so we have a couple things to discuss here. Would it be all right if I have Cook take that one up? Okay, yeah, so I've got a Tourism here on a couple different items But the the one was the discussion just of the door that designated outdoor freshman area and Isaiah Thomas's is here and he's also put a lot of time into this but We've got a few different folks, but we have agent cook here from from ABC yeah from the ABC also in case there's any regulatory questions, but we've had a The DORA in place right now, which is for the last year, and it actually renews the end of this month, and we get 17, up to 17. Isaiah can fill you in on the nitty-gritty details, but he spent about a year trying to get it in place, and we get it in place, and then this is more or less of a kind of a kick the tires year to see how it worked, and then to see what we were going to do going forward.

So I guess January of 25, the EDA decided that they wanted to looking to get in a door in town. And the way that it works now that the state allows you to do it, if you have under 16 events, you can do that. The EDA is allowed to be the license holder of it or a main street organization, other localities. If it's over 16, then it has to be an ordinance passed and it has to be a council approved and the town would hold it. So the EDA moved forward. They hired a consultant. and they were able to get the under-16 license approved. It was somewhat cumbersome to get through the ABC, but we finally got it there. Yeah, their regulations are pretty minimal, yeah. But in June of 25, it was approved. So the past year, the towns operated through the EDA's license, ADORA. We've done 13 events so far. I spoke with Chief Holbrook earlier, and I believe there has not been Any incidents so far since you operated it?

I think that that's wonderful. I think that we're lucky that we haven't had any incidents and I think that that door's been going very well.

So with that and the way that it's operated, there really isn't any difference from the operation standpoint between an over 16 ordinance to pass the door versus under 16. We still have to have a security plan with the police department. We still have to notify the ABC every time an event would happen. We still have to put the signage up for all the districts we have. The main thing is the fact that when you have, and Adam can come and speak to it if he wants, when we have 16 or under events, we have to plan through an entire year of events. And as you guys know, when we plan things out the entire year, nothing ever changes and stays exactly the same. So as things come up through the year and individuals or organizations come up and they would like to use the DORA, then we're at the discretion of trying to figure out a lot while also maintaining all these other obligations we already have. I don't think we even thought we'd get close to 16 in the first year, and we've already done 13. With the first Fridays, they got six, and then Thursday night jams, our DORA events, they got... I think we did three of them this year, and then they'll go into the next fiscal year. So really the discussion just came just because we keep hitting against that 16 events threshold and trying to figure out who's going to get the events, who's prioritized. The Highlands Festival obviously came to us about talking about it, and then there's going to be other festivals, and then we're going to have to start putting policies in place of how we're going to prioritize all these different individuals, and it can get difficult that way.

Yeah, because the one that Adam mentioned is the vintage vinyl or something. And you get a good little crowd out there. I don't know exactly how big the crowd is, but they had a desire for one. It's at the farmer's market, so it's already in an area that we can contain, but we can't. With the numbers of licenses that we have, even at the popular event, we weren't able to accommodate on that request.

We had to tell them no because we just didn't have enough.

So is there any way that we can increase that number from 16 to, like, what's it going to take to do that?

That's where you all would come in. The only way that the town can operate, it's an over 16, but essentially it's an unlimited amount of events. You just, the council would have to pass it as an ordinance and then adopt it, and then the town would be the license holder at that point.

A year like that is basically just always, it's like historic district. It just is the door up always.

Well, two questions. And I'm sorry, I don't mean to interrupt you, but two questions. Is it always or do we still have to have defined events is my first question. And then my second question is, as far as the insurance goes, if the EDA or the EDA, I mean, if they're the agent that's insured, that's essentially the town anyway, correct? Yeah. So it's just since they fall under the umbrella of the town, that doesn't really change.

No, that doesn't change. The main thing that changed is really just the amount of events, and Agent Cook can speak to this, but essentially we still have to notify every time we want to have an event, the ABC, and they still have to be on record. It has to be a certain time period. Right now we're doing 4 to 10.

So it's not just like every Friday and Saturday night. Right. Okay.

mean the way that with first Fridays what we have been doing is we're telling them the first Friday every month we're gonna have a door event and then we have allotted six of those to it so that's this year but I have to notify them I can do it And Agent Cook's been great to work with. He's let me just send the application as one, and I'll have to do it for each one. But it's still during a designated time period. The police department still signs up. Chief Holbrook and Chief Estes and Mike all sign up on them to make sure that everybody's aware that it's going to be happening. And then another thing, and this is really a small thing, but just a logistical thing. Every time we have a door event, we have to put these signs up that tells people, you know, no alcohol on this point, no outside alcohol coming in. But in total, there's 30 of those signs. So we have to go out and put 30 signs out, and then go back and pick 30 signs back up immediately when the event ends. The event usually ends at 10, so it's usually Adam and I that come back in. If we were able to do a full-time one, then we could look at doing a little more permanent signage that we could just fold over or close, and you wouldn't notice it when it's not happening, but it would be there full-time.

When the EDA is doing them now, do you designate it per district?

It is. And that's something we might also look at as well. When we originally applied, the theory was that there was kind of a landmass size that you could have. I now know that we could probably have done the entire district at one time. But we busted it in three zones. More than likely, we would just do... The entire district is one. It just gets cumbersome having them separated. So that would be another thing we'd probably change if the town were to move forward with it, is just have one designated district that's all one zone.

Okay, so I have a couple more questions. And I'm sorry to ask a lot of questions, but I feel like these are things people should know about. So I know we've had no problems with people. I guess there haven't been any people abusing the situation. But what are we doing to enhance pedestrian safety during these events? Because as everybody has heard me say multiple times, I have almost been hit walking in town recently on a weekly basis. And it is because people are not aware of their surroundings. People are driving around literally like this and they don't stop in crosswalks. They turn right on red. They do all these things. So my concern is we have people in here from out of town and They don't know which crosswalks are dangerous. And then you throw alcohol into the mix. So that's my first question. What are we doing about that to make sure people are safe? Because the very last thing any of us wants is for someone to get hit. I mean, because that would be terrible for the person who was hurt. It would be terrible for the person who hit them. And it would be terrible publicity for the town of Abingdon. So we don't want any of those things to happen. So that's my first question that concerns me. My other question that concerns me is have you talked to the businesses that that don't serve alcohol. I know that we have some restaurant owners in town who, for religious reasons, don't serve alcohol in their establishments. How do they feel about this? Because I would hate for it to appear as if we were showing favor to, you know, one group of restaurants versus another group of restaurants.

Yeah. For the pedestrian safety, so you as a council, when you pass that ordinance, If you wanted to move forward with the ordinance, it would be up to your discretion as to what the rules and policies would be as we implement them. We obviously have the state statute as far as air enforcement, but you could be more restrictive in the fact that if we were going to have an event, there would be currently a security plan with the police department. You could implement stricter requirements for how many officers we would staff. And essentially, that if we were going to have an event, then it would be a thing that the town's agreeing to staff more officers to those events. But that would be something at your discretion. It can be more restrictive than the state's policy. It just can't be less. So we can set parameters around that as a town policy. And that's the thing with the EDA is, like, if the EDA holds a license, it's really just an agreement they made with the police department because they're a political subdivision. They can actually influence the PD. And obviously that comes with some fiscal responsibilities with that because you're paying more staff. So there's all those alternatives, but there are things you can do to do so and set your own restrictive requirements. As far as the business owners, I've met with as many as will listen to me because I wanted to get a full spectrum of how people feel about it. And other towns have done a thing where they put like little green logos that says Dora Friendly on it. Because the way that the legislation works is you can take your cup onto the street and you can go to other places. retailers. You just can't go to other licensed ABC retailers. So you can leave the tavern and then you can walk in and shop at Signer's. But it's Signer's discretion whether or not she wants to allow you in. She has very expensive items in there. She might not want you to have a drink or food in there. And I had met with a lot of them about do you want us to make stickers that say door friendly? And most of them said no because they don't want to make a stance either way.

Yeah.

That just puts them, and that is a question I had with them. I was like, that's fine, but it does put you in a position of you have to tell a potential customer, please don't bring your drinks inside.

I would not want it to appear as if we were not being respectful of people's beliefs. Right? And I know that you can never make everybody happy. I'm painfully aware of that. I just think that we need to, these are all things that were brought up. We talked about this several years ago when we talked about doing a permanent door opening this when this, right after COVID, when this was first a thing, and we talked about having a huge area that was just a door all the time. These are the concerns that were brought to council then.

Yes, and it is a concern. I will say the overwhelming majority of retail welcomes it.

I was going to say the same thing to you. I have a restaurant. I also work at a restaurant as well, too. I'm frequently on Main Street. Whenever that door is going on, I've asked several business owners on this end of Main Street and they're all for it because it causes people to come into their establishment. People are out mingling. That beefs up maybe a day where they're selling

a thousand dollars worth of goods they're selling two thousand because they got more foot traffic coming through so i haven't heard anything on the negative side come my way about that it's all been positive with the door and just to be transparent i mean there are some there's been a few retailers not so much that they're negative of what the door is just they didn't want to be in a position of i got you having to make you choose a side yeah right yeah a lot of them was mostly they just have expensive merchandise. And I understand that. They want no food or drink.

And I've been in stores that do that during the holidays when you're walking around with cider and you're like, please don't bring that. And basically, you know, we brought the point of Signers, okay? They're partners to the tavern. Signers has that sign on their door that says no food or drinks. People are kind enough to set their drinks down, but they've got a trash can out there. And like you said, if you just left the waning companies with the door cup, and you want to go into the tavern, you can get another cup at the tavern once you left on the scene.

Can they leave their drinks sitting outside? They're throwing them in the trash can.

They're not leaving them, you know, with the drinks that I've seen, they've been thrown in the trash or the drinks have been finished and then they go into the establishment and they come out and if they want to go to rain or the tavern, They were getting the cups that were marked, and like you said, everything is marked. It says the tavern on it. It says Duane & Company.

I don't think it would be a concern if they left a drink sitting there.

They're not just sitting there. There's a trash can.

And that is something that we, even with the first year since we've tried it out, my first concern of any of it when we first got it was that people would just leave drink cups everywhere. Yeah. It's been relatively clean. We've had to pick up a few. But that's a thing we work with Public Works. If it was a repeated thing, it might be an issue where there's not enough trash receptacles. And then the nice part about the cups are in order to serve it, they have to put their logos on.

That's right.

So if it was a thing where one section of town had one logo on it and it was a common theme, it might be a thing we just have with that retailer like, Why is there so many of your cups on the sidewalk?

How did we publicize that we're having a door event and what the regulations are? And I asked that with a smile on my face because, quite frankly, I've had people come up and say, you know, we've got a door event. And I thought. I don't know anything about it or what you can do or what you can't do.

So we do have on the town's website, we do have a page for the door, and it has the rules and regulations, and it's just a one-page FAQ. And then the QR code on the signs currently takes you to that and has the maps of where you can do it. I will say it has been a little, and we've been figuring that out, a little difficult on how to do it. When we have events, the point of the event is not for people to come and drink. The point of the event is for people to come and enjoy themselves, and this can just maybe be an added benefit or help them interact with the restaurants a little bit better. We're not marketing the Dora because we don't believe it's… You're doing a good job not to. Because it's not what the point of the event is. I understand that, yeah. But we have found it. What we were hoping, and I think this is a thing we've been talking with the restaurants as well, is that the restaurants would market Dora. to their customers, and when they have events, it allows them to interact with events that we're having, and they can say and promote it. And that's somewhat the stance that Mike's had, is that the town's not going to promote the door itself. We'll provide the regulations. If people have questions, we can. And what we've been trying to do is champion the restaurateurs to promote it and give them the rules, because really that's where the interaction is at. Yeah.

And so an example, like when we do an event at the farmer's market, we did one a couple years ago before we had a door and the person got a one-day permit or something. And what you wound up having, you had an event at the farmer's market under the pavilion area, and then about 200 yards away or 150 yards away was this crime scene tape, and that's where people were hanging out. There's a beer tent. Yeah, yeah. Beer cart. Yeah, and it just separates everybody versus if you had a door, you've got the bollards in place, it would all be self-contained, and then Instead of people hanging out at the theater tent, they can kind of interact.

But, you know, it's meant to be an add-on to an event, not the reason for the event. And to answer, like, what Vice Mayor Austin had said, like, you know, there's days, like, I go to work at 8 o'clock in the morning. If the door is up, those signs are up on Tanner Street. Like, and I mean, like you said, we're not promoting it, but... I know to let my employees know that if that sign is up, the door is in effect. If the sign is not up, the door is not in effect. That's the way that we take it at the tavern and at Duane & Company.

Is there a time on the sign?

No. But it's stated on the rules of what time. Like you said, the little...

Yeah, and that's a thing where the signs are evergreen, so we use them every time. We can't put times on them because some events are from 4 to 8 and some events are from 6 to 10, depending on who pulled the license for it or who pulled the application to run an event. Because not all the events are, a good portion of them have not been town events. We call them sponsored or we help out with them, but like First Fridays is an event that the town is managing. It's an event that we're just supporting, and they're the ones that kind of dictate what times they want to operate.

And then from the public works side, I don't think litter's been an issue. I mean, we're pretty hardened with the litter and sweet sweeping and all to begin with, but I mean, I travel on quite a bit. I've not seen an issue with that.

No, public work is great. They pick it up. They just have told me that they've had to pick it up. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think the door is a wonderful idea for the historic town of Advent, and I don't know what the other council feels like, but it just gives people the opportunity to... mingle a little bit more in the town of Avenue. Agent Cook, would you come up, please, and maybe give us your side of the story on that?

So there's not a whole lot of difference between 16 events and 17 events, of course. 17 events or more, you've got to do the ordinance. The license fees increases. The 16 and under is $300 a year. And the 17 and over is $3,000 a year. That's just a major difference. Yeah. And the ordinance, you've got to pass the ordinance, and once we get that ordinance, we can do a classification change, and it should be good to go. Right. Because we already got the safety plan and all that. And the size and scope of the area, that's the only thing we need to know of, and the public safety plan. So the price would go from $300,000 to $3,000, right? Yes, sir. $300 for up to $16,000, $3,000 for $17,000 plus.

That's an awful big jump.

It is. Welcome to the Commonwealth. I hear you. Wow.

Let me ask you a question about that. Yeah. And this is not really for you, but it's more for tourism. Do you feel that in the town that it will increase business to our venues enough that our tax dollars... that we'll bring in enough meals and lodging taxes to make up the difference between $300,000 and $3,000. Will we bring in $2,700 more in meals and lodging taxes? This is where we use that word. I know that's hard to quantify.

Yeah, this is where we use that word, and we love to say it all the time, that private-public partnership. It's really on the businesses at that point to champion it. Some of them have been very successful at it, and some of them just haven't grabbed onto it yet. I will say... Originally, we bought 500 cups, because they have to have the cups with their logos on it. And the EDA bought 500 cups, and we gave them out. And they've all been used at this point, I believe. And some of them, like when we had the Thursday night jams, Delta Blues crushed it. I mean, they were covered up. They had a line out the door. I would say as it continues, then that's when it comes to a burden on the town to ensure that all these events help the entire footprint.

And I just ask that because, you know, that $3,000 is not, I mean, sometimes it's my money because I pay taxes, right? But it's...

everyone's money and I feel like that that's something that we have to think about as a council do the businesses purchase the cups or does the town purchase the cup the businesses purchase the cups the main thing about the cups are is that they have to have their decal their name or their logo on it and that comes from an enforcement standpoint for them you know because other than the fact that they're allowed to open container on the street in those areas all the other regulations around alcohol are still in place. So public intoxication, underage drinking, over-serving, all the regulations that a current licensee has to follow now are completely in place. So there is still quite a bit of liability on the restaurant's portion to ensure that they're serving correctly.

Do most places have to add more police officers when we enforce this ordinance?

So the way that... The way that it is set up now is that we have a security plan, and that's the way we submitted it before with Chief Holbrook. Chief Holbrook wrote the security plan. Currently the way ours exists is mostly that all their officers that are on that duty cycle know that the door is in place just to be aware that they have to have those cuts, and they have copies of all the cuts, and they know what the logo looks like. Because, I mean, at the end of the day, and that is something that can happen, anybody can't just walk into the event and any tanner or alcohol you brought in has to be purchased from an authorized retailer.

Agent, do you have feedback from other towns that have this door in place that you could share with us?

So the area I covered, this is the only door. I know Blacksburg's, they've got a limited door, like the 16 and under, and they're Trying to get the unlimited as well. It's the 17 plus. I think they're going through that.

So we would be the only one?

In this area. Williamsburg's got it. They just came out with the ordinance. And Blacksburg's in the process. And as far as Abingdon, I haven't received any complaints from any citizens.

Does Roanoke have one in the center in the square? They were talking about that.

Not that I'm aware of. I think they went with the Market Commons one. Maybe. Yeah, which is a little bit different.

It's based upon... With Old House 1. 16 and under.

Yeah.

And to answer your question about the $3,000, I mean, historically, our meals and lodging increases far in excess. You'd have to have roughly $42,000 in additional meal sales in order to offset $3,000. And historically, we increase that far in excess of that each year. So I think it's... It's one of the ones where, again, it's not a revenue generator. It's not intended to be that. It's meant to just be an accessory to other events. But we have decent events. And if it became problematic or it just became a litter issue or became an issue that was not good, then we just wouldn't issue any more permits for it.

Like you mentioned earlier, you've got 16, so you've sort of got to pick and choose what 16 he wants to use.

And I just hate the picket and choose because somebody gets left out. It makes them feel as if, well, you've done this before.

So if you get to 17 and over?

Yeah, it's equal opportunity for everyone, and I kind of like that. Like I told you before, I'm in the restaurant game, so I hate for somebody to be able to do it and then somebody else not be able to do it just because we're at that limit. So I am pretty much myself. I don't know how the other council feels about this, But it is something that I kind of like. And I think that the door, the way that we've been doing it now, has been working successfully. We haven't had any problems, you know, from our town police or from the town manager about that. But that's just my opinion on that. I don't know how everyone else in the council feels about that. Yeah, I think that it's a good discussion today that we're having.

And I would just say, because I'm just giving you the clinical overview of how it works, none of the police departments are ever going to say, or agent cooks are ever going to say, that we won't ever have issues with it.

Oh, yeah. Because, I mean, even at the farmer's market...

the other day. It wasn't even a door event. It was just an early Saturday morning. We had a run-in with a gentleman that was under the influence. The general public is still the general public. The review of when we do have events is actually a little bit more than what it would be generally. We are aware that an event is happening and the police department is a little bit more on their toes of what's going on.

One of the first ones we did was the Soapbox Derby. And, you know, that was a lightly, I mean, it was a well-attended event, but, I mean, it was there. It wasn't the purpose.

We didn't tell anybody other than the restaurant. Yeah, yeah. We didn't promote it. We were just like, it worked well. It goes back to my original question. Yeah. And that is one thing with the door, and that's the thing we keep leaning on, is it is ultimately to allow when we have town events that we don't create islands of the impact it allows us. all the restaurateurs throughout town to be influenced by those events and try to spread as much of the impact around. The only way they can do that is to allow them to promote their own events. We do the event portion and they do the beverages and food portion. That's their business.

Thank you, I see. Yeah, thank you.

Thank you for answering all the questions. I really wasn't trying to. No, I know. I just feel like these are questions that people are going to ask us. They are.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. No, and we've had several meetings with the businesses, and it usually is the same questions, the same ones we have. I don't understand how it works. Do I have to let them in? Do you force me to let people in my business? Completely discretionary. It's up to you.

You did a great job of explaining everything. I understand it a lot better now.

I think it's a good discussion, and I hope it prompts the public to contact council and let us know how you feel, and the businesses also, certainly, how they feel, so that we can make an educated decision.

And I've got something for Officer Cook that's kind of like off the radar with this one, but I wanted to ask you since I've got you here in front of council, or just something that, you know, citizens in the avenue, those that do frequent the ABC store, like if we could just some upkeep on the front of that building. Yeah. I hate to. I've been on to that. And I've reached out to the town manager about that. It's just like, you know, It's more weeds than ABC products sometimes down there, and it's just kind of like it's hidden. If we could just do something to kind of make that ABC store in the town of Abnett just look a little bit more better since I've got you here in front of everybody, just to let people know that I have reached out about that problem.

I passed the word again.

Thank you. Thank you, Officer.

Yeah, the natural appearance right now is pretty natural. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. And I got tourism is out here, too. Diana, if you don't mind, and Adam. Yeah, so, and then Isaiah was actually, even though he was just up. Yeah, he was part of this whole thing. So, one of the things I wanted to discuss, too, was the, we just finished the Best of Abingdon, and that's a, it's a big undertaking, because we do it as the town, and then Diana can explain the, it's a lot of logistics of All the online votings, they have to vet stuff so you don't have, like, you know, quick forms and voting for stuff and all. They get all that done, and then you've got to figure out how to get the awards to people. Because as soon as the stuff closes, people are interested, well, who won? And that takes a little bit of time. And so both Adam and Ashley Linkus were at a marketing college. Was it last week? Yeah. And this same topic came up when they were there. And, anyway, if you want to just fill us in on how they.

Well, yeah, I'll just back up just a little bit. The best to Abingdon, from what I can find, it's been going on since 2018, part of the Business Appreciation Month, which is the month of May. The People's Choice type of voting is online through a SurveyMonkey platform. In 2026, we did have the most votes ever. which was over 2,600 votes, I believe, maybe 2,900 votes, but it was a lot of votes this year. So in the past, the presentations have been, you know, live and in person. We did the Facebook Live, presented the awards with council members that were able to attend. Most of the businesses didn't really like that Facebook Live kind of thing. It was kind of, you know. awkward at times this year we did a picture and a presentation then we did create a Facebook post on the town of Abingdon Facebook page and the visit Abingdon Facebook page and then added a blog post to the visit Abingdon website so the challenge as Mike talked about is scheduling all of that out so you know we've got to schedule the businesses and council members and getting it enough notice so that you all can attend and how many businesses 33 33 businesses so uh we got it down pretty good you know to um three days or two three three days yeah uh two half days in the full day so you know it's a big commitment from you all and ms which uh this year we really appreciated you um helping us out with that. And truth be told, you know, the businesses want council there. You know, it's one thing for us to be there, but they really want you all to be there. So, we were thinking about how, what is a better way to present the awards. So, kind of conversations about what Bristol does. So, Bristol doesn't do it through their town, but their, Bristol Health Courier does theirs. But they have a casual celebration to award the to make the awards, and it's at a brewery. And others do more of a formal gala-type gathering, and having a more of a Best of Abingdon celebration. Everybody can be there at one time. We can spend a little bit of time talking about the accomplishments of what's going on with tourism, economic development initiatives that are going on, and it's very special to them. That's a potential way of, you know, making it easier for you all, making it a heck of a lot easier for us. We're looking at another platform to do the survey. The one that we've been using was free, so, you know, get what you pay for. And it is a lot. I've been doing that for the past, since I've been here. And, you know, we have to eliminate all the duplicates, and it's just very time-consuming. But this other platform streamlines that. There's a little bit of a cost involved with that. It's like $33 a month, you know, for however many months you need to do it. We can do the best of competitions. I mean, we could do, like, the best holiday decorations in the window, you know. So, that's a platform that we're looking at. You know, if you all would be interested in us kind of doing a little bit more research on how we present, you know, if we want to do a gathering, bringing everybody together in one place, you know, we can take a look at some options, even something at the farmer's market all the way up to something at the Martha Washington Inn.

I would like to maybe do a little bit more research on that and something that's not so informal, you know, just to where not only invite the people who won, but just invite everyone that has a business in the town of Abbotton. Just something that's informal. I don't know whether it be a little cook, like you said, at the farmer's market or a gathering at the train station.

Maybe make it a business appreciation event.

I don't know, but I think that we could look into it. I know that I really like to go. I didn't get a chance to go. Our dates kind of got mixed up there. And I know Vice Mayor Austin, you know, he's an attorney here in the town of Abedin. Sometimes it's just hard for him to step away from what he's doing to go out. And I know he would like to be part of that, too. Amanda as well, too. And then I commend Donna. Well, Donna kind of picked up the slack for us this year. And I really appreciate that, Donna. thank you for doing that but I think that everyone on council and like you said I think everyone in the community likes for everyone that's on the town council to show face and like I said I know that several of us would have liked to have done that but just our schedules as well too just conflicted to where we couldn't show up for that but I would like for everyone you know winners Council, everyone that has a business to be involved with it. Maybe it can grow to be something. It's special now, but just a little bit more special than what it is right now.

I agree. I would have liked to have gone. I didn't know about it until late in the game. I work in health care. If you're seeing patients, you can't two days before say, oh, sorry, I won't be there because then people's appointments and their lives get messed up. Right. You know, yeah. I think, and three days is a lot of time. It's a lot of time out of the business you guys do, and it's hard for any of us to take three days away from our jobs. So I do think, I think something like a business appreciation event would be fun even for the people who didn't win.

Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, everyone. It's for everyone.

And I think it also, too, and you were talking about being in health care, when we go to these places, like, I can't call them too early because then they'll start telling everybody they won and then everybody will be gone. So I've got to kind of knock them all out in like a day and a half. Yeah. A day and a half of calling them all. Yeah. So I don't give them a lot of notice that I'm coming. So when we do show up, I feel like I'm imposing on their business.

I understand.

We have to knock it out and we get there. They want us there and they're very appreciative. They're very happy to see the council members. But then we're like sitting there. It's like going into your friend's house whenever their parents are fighting. I'm sorry. It would be just nice. I just thought that it would be a good thing for the town, a good thing for the council members to be able to attend it. Everybody can get together and celebrate the accomplishments that all of us have had. It would also take some of the logistics back in out of the

Yeah, and then, as I mentioned, we could go through and do, like, throughout the year, we do little profiles of businesses. You could profile the winners at some point, and they would still get some social media interaction and all that. But I think it would be a way to get all the council involved. It's just the timing of it all. Three days is a lot of time, and 30-some businesses is a fair amount of coordination on a lot of fronts. Yeah. But just wanted to discuss it to see what we thought, and then if, you know, we'll figure it out. I mean, we can look at it because we have a year to toss it around. I just wanted to put the idea out there. We've got about nine months. Okay, we've got eight months and 31 days.

Thank you all for your all's hard work and everything with getting that situated for everyone who won with the best of admins. I think you all have done a wonderful job down the tour. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. You've done some good work.

And then the last one is the audit letter?

Yeah, it's the, yeah.

Yeah, and Amanda's, is she still here? She's over here. Oh, there she is. Sorry. Yeah, this is just the audit letter.

Yeah, so each year our external auditors provide a planning communication to the town council as part of the annual audit process. This letter outlines the scope of the audit, the auditor's responsibilities, the expected timeline, and standard broad risk considerations required by professional standards. One item that is noted is the risk of management override, which is a universal audit risk included in all audits and is not specific to the town. It's boilerplate language. It's the same letter every year. It's just the auditor's way of making sure that you're aware of this is their responsibilities versus the manager's responsibilities. The auditors provide counsel and opportunity to communicate any concerns they may have regarding fraud, compliance, or unusual transactions before the audit begins. And just overall, it's a routine communication. It does not report any audit findings or deficiencies. Our auditors, ground editors, they require this to come before council. They require copies back showing that you acknowledge the receipt and you've seen it. And it's just kind of like the first kickoff to the audit process.

Same as last year. So we just have to acknowledge the receipt?

Yes. Ms. Quest, do you acknowledge the receipt of the letter?

Yes.

Ms. Pillian?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Austin? I acknowledge. And Mary Anderson?

I acknowledge. I have one last bit on communication, if I could. Yes, sir. So last week we had the Virginia High School League tournament, and I know everybody happened to notice the tour buses and stuff in town. It was the school's bid for that, and our school won it this year. It was an action-packed few days in town, and then it was even more action-packed in that the Abingdon girls softball won. So that was the first time in history that VHSL has had three winners out of one town in one year, three for the same sport or the same gender sports and all. It's just a huge event. But we got thrown a – one of the things that tourism does is coordinate some of those things. And we coordinate hotels and all that for the high schools. They needed a ton of hotels. And we had a hotel block out with a fairly sizable chunk of rooms because of just the timing of how these – On a Monday, you don't know that you're going to a state tournament, but you know on Friday. Well, there was a major issue, and Isaiah got woke up, I don't know what time, but late at night. And he worked on it for pretty much, I don't know, 12, 14 hours. And when they were handing out awards, he's running into hotels. He was able to just really went all out to help make it happen and help salvage the event. And, you know, he did an awesome job with that. I just wanted to recognize him for that. And then Martha really stepped up, too, to help us out, as did the Holiday Inn Express. So, you know, we're fortunate to have such good lodging partners. But, yeah, it was... A wild curve probably got thrown, and he really stepped up to help make that happen.

Thank you, Isaiah. Thanks. I think I've seen you this morning, and thank you again. Thank you for that. That's all I have to say. Okay. Well, I'm going to start with the council communications, and I'm going to follow what Mike Cochran said. I think it's the first time in history that we've had girls basketball, girls volleyball, and girls softball from the same high school win the state. And I'm really proud of all the girls at Abingdon High School that participated in all those sports. I am pleased with the coaching there. I'm pleased with the teachers there. And I just want to say this is a great community that we have here. Chief Holbrook's here as well, too. Thank you for everything, the police force, the fire and the rescue for, you know, being there as a part of what we have going on here in the town of Abingdon. So kudos to Abingdon High School Girls Sports this year, 2026. Donna, do you have anything?

Yes, I just want to announce that the Fiddler's Convention is this weekend at Worcester County Fairgrounds. It kicks off at the Martha Washington Inn on Thursday with a pre-event with a barbecue dinner and jam sessions on the lawn. Friday, June the 19th, there was an opening at 5.50, the gospel band competition. at 6 p.m. And Shelby Means is at 8 p.m. And Saturday youth competition starts at 11 o'clock and goes throughout the day and band competition later on that evening. Admission to it is $10. So you can come. I think you'll enjoy it.

Thank you, Donna. Vice Mayor Austin, do you have anything that you would like?

Well, I'd just echo your comments about the state championships in town and how exciting that was. The reception was over at the Meadows with the live band, that sort of thing, to sort of kick it off. That was well attended. I think everyone enjoyed it. It seemed like that it was welcome to having them there, so I got to attend that. Amanda?

Just thank you to all the town staff and employees for everything you do. Everything looks great. Everybody feels safe. We appreciate you all.

And also July 4th, we're having fireworks again. We'll do them at launch again from Veterans Park, Memorial Park up towards the top. And so the best spots in town last year was we discounted the foliage when we did the dry run in the winter. We learned last year that foliage impacts view. It's hard we didn't realize that in the winter. But from last year, we were going with three-inch shells this year, so we don't have any of the low stuff. So you should have a much better vantage point. But between EO and the meadows, there's going to be plenty of places for people to view. And you have the other parking lots. But the meadows will have different activities going on throughout the day. The splash pad will be open. And it'll be a pretty action-packed event. And just on the man that mentioned how nice the town looks, I was out on like 6.15 on Saturday morning, can't sleep some days, taking a bunch of pictures. And, man, I mean, it looked amazing. It just really looked amazing. Everything was so clean and neat. And, yeah, it just really looks something else. It's just a testament to what everybody does all the day, all the time long. And Public Works really gets the answer on stuff like that. They really went out of their way to make it happen. And then the Wolves, just twice today I was out front, and there was one family there with little kids. taking pictures on the walls and doing their checking in, and then before they even left, another set of mom and kid come up there. So it really is neat to see people doing that around town, and they're enjoying it as well.

I think we were on the phone at that time, Mike. Yeah, exactly. I could hear you communicating with those people. I think that's all from the council members' reports. We have no appointments to boards or committees. We shouldn't have to go into closed session today, so I'm going to call this meeting adjourned.

Thank you.