Town Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to today's Abingdon Town Council meeting, Thursday, September 17, 2026. Please note, there will be opportunity during the meeting for citizens to address the Town Council when the Mayor, I, declares public comment open. When requested that anyone addressing the Council sign in, approach the podium when called, state your first and last name. Kim, will you please call roll?

Mr. Webb. Here. Ms. Quetch. Here. Vice Mayor Austin, I'm sorry.

That's okay. Present.

And Mayor Anderson. Here. Please let the record reflect that Ms. Tillian is absent.

And now if everyone would stand up, please, and all leaders and members of the leadership. 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 will please remain standing, I'm going to have Vice Mayor Alston lead us in a little prayer before we get started today.

Please join me in prayer. Heavenly Father, we bow our heads and we thank you for this glorious day. We thank you, Lord, that you could bring us together to discuss the business of the town of Abingdon. And we would ask your leadership and your guidance in all things that we do. Help us, Lord, that we will lead in the proper direction and that you will abide with us. Forgive us where we fail you. Bless us. In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.

Okay, now we're going to do the approval of the agenda. And before we start that, I have a motion to amend the agenda to hear item L1 after public comment. If I can get a motion for that.

I'll make that motion.

Do I have a second? Second. Any further discussion? Kim and Phil, please call roll. Mr. Webb. Aye.

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

And Mayor Anderson. Aye. Now we're going to open up the public comment. I have three people signed up for public comment. First signed up for public comment will be Mr. Tom Wise. Mr. Tom Wise, if you will come forward, please. Mr. Tom Wise, if you'll state your full name and your address before you get started, please, sir. All right.

Thomas Wise, 335 Bogey Drive Avenue, Virginia. I don't have any particular comments. I was, you know, at this time to wait only to hear what the board decides to do. But I want to thank you for taking swift action to solve the problem. And that's very thoughtful that we have people who in the county, I'm sure, that are concerned about wild animals. And some of us are more apt to be concerned about wild animals. than others. But some of us grew up on the farm. And they were staples to us. And we learned. We killed animals and ate animals. And we don't have that same feeling about animals. I'm sure people who never grew up or never lived on a farm They don't know what it's like. They don't have an idea. And it would be really difficult. I remember my dad used to say, it'd be hard for young people today to have to live like people did years ago. It would be difficult for them. They'd have to get adjusted. And I just want to thank you guys. Appreciate it very much.

Thank you, sir. The next person signed up for public comment is going to be Mr. Teddy McCoy. If you'll come forward, please, and state your first and last name and your mailing address. McClure. Excuse me, I said McCoy McClure. That handwriting is kind of like my handwriting. We both seem like we're in the pharmacy department, like Derrick Webb.

Teddy McClure, 437 Fairway Drive. I just want to make a comment about the problem we have with the deer. There's too many. They eat up for shrubbery. They're endangered to people. And they are wild animals. And we need to control them some way. So I'm for bow hunting, shooting, whatever we need to do, but we've got to do something. And I'm Mr. Wise's neighbor, and I see him come through there all the time, going to Wayne's place. They're just everywhere. And now we're starting to get a few bear in the neighborhood. We don't have a problem with that. But anything y'all can do as a landowner here and a taxpayer, we'd appreciate it. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Next up will be Ms. Linda Brewer. I don't have anything to say. I just thought I needed to sign in for this. Yes, ma'am. Well, thank you for being here today. With that said, we will close the public comments, and now we'll move on to, like we said, new business, and that's a continued discussion from the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources regarding conflicts between deer and residents, including damage to landscape, property, increase of deer vehicle collision, and other public safety and wildlife management concerns. And here today we have from the District Wildlife Biologist, Brandon Bernhardt. Mr. Bernhardt, if you'll come forward, please.

Hi, everyone. Brandon Bernhardt. I'm a district biologist with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. Thank you for wanting to come here and speak. My colleague, Kat Black, came last month, and I apologize. I wasn't able to come, but I'm glad she was able to give you all a bunch of information regarding deer management and options for deer management in Abingdon. Um, so I'm kind of just gonna go over, uh, real quick, um, other aspects of deer management in terms of, uh, actual, uh, how we go about, um, uh, determining population management and things like that. Um, so, uh, first, uh, I'd like to point out our, every single year we come up with, uh, objectives for every single county in the state on where we would like their population of deer to be. And so this is a map of that. It's a working map at the moment because 2026 is not completely over. But right now we can see every single county in Virginia and I've circled Washington County in blue. And the different colors that each county's filled in is what we determine to be what the status of the deer population within that county to be. And so right now, Washington is kind of an orange. That is the second highest that could be. That's the moderate to high level of population. The arrows, depending on whether they're up or down, designate whether we would like that population to come up or down respectively, and the color of that arrow is to what level we would like that status of that population to be at. So, like I said, right now Washington's in orange, moderate to high, and it has a yellow arrow pointing down, so we would like that population to come down to a moderate level, so come down one level to a lower population status.

Sir, could I interrupt you? Sure. And I apologize for that, but I'm curious. We're looking at Washington County. Is there a population kept for the town itself or just

Not just for Abington, no. Abington gets thrown into all of Washington County. Now, something like Bristol, they have their own because they consider themselves the city of Bristol, but Abington County gets thrown in with all of Washington County. And so a lot of stuff that I will actually talk about later on, it's actually going to point towards private lands because that is what the majority of Abington County is. So it'll be under the idea of it being on private land. Thank you. So real quick, I'm going to touch on kind of, you hear me talk a lot about the importance of doe management. And I just want to give a quick background on why that would be. So obviously there are does, which are the female deer, and bucks that are the male deer. And hunters can often take either or, especially right now in Washington County, we have a full four-week season of either sex days for full season. So any day during the hunting season, a hunter can take a buck or a doe. That is a very important choice in terms of population management. And we usually stress people to try to take does in order to help manage a population. And the reason being that does have a much higher potential to increase the population due to their reproductive ability. So a doe, when they're young, they'll often give birth to only one fawn. But they can do that year after year. And as they get older, they will sometimes be able to produce twins. And as they continue to get older, they may actually be able to produce triplets even. And so you can see very quickly over time, if the slide keeps going a little bit more, we can see how the population can grow and grow just from one single doe. You can go from, you know, actually there was a case of this in the reserve where they put deer in. They went from, one more slide actually.

How about that? There we go.

One more, sorry. There we go. So, yeah, the George Reserve deer herd, that was 1928, so a long time ago, but they started with six deer, and they went to over 200 deer in a matter of seven years. So the population can grow really, really quick, and a lot of that has to do with does. So now, if we turn over to looking at bucks, right, so for bucks, you have a single buck, and they can produce with a bunch of different does, but that buck will remain one buck the next year. So that will... stay the same year after year after year. And I know when I was talking to Mike the other day, I was telling to him, you could have five does and one buck in a population on a property, for example. That buck can reproduce with all five of those does, and all five of those does can reproduce. And so next year, you could have between five to 15 fawns the next year. If you flip that, and you have five bucks and one doe, you only get between one in three fallings the next year. So you can see just by flipping that ratio, you have a much lower reproduction. So that's why we really stress going after does in a population in order to reduce the level of the herd. So looking at Washington County over the years, and this is where I kind of going to stress a lot of doe management. This is the private land deer kill starting from 1944 up until now. You can see it's been increasing pretty steadily. You will see at the very end, 2025, there is a big significant jump. It's a little bit of some noise in that because this last year was the first year where we increased the season to a full four weeks. And because when we, well, we'll look at population index later, but that led to an increase in overall deer harvest. So that's why there was such a big jump there. But you can also see a small spike in the percentage of doe harvest, which is that black line that you see. That's the percent female harvest of the total harvest that we had. And it's been higher in the past. It's been lower in the past. But we would like to see that continue, that percent dough continue to increase to be able to reduce the herd in Washington County and subsequently Abingdon. And so this is a population index of Washington County deer. And I will say when we calculate these indexes, we look at bucks. So we look at bucks per square mile harvested. So that's why, again, that blue line, the black line with the blue dots on it, That is the buck harvested per square mile, so that's our population index. Again, you'll see that slight uptick in 2025. Again, that's probably because of our increased hunting seasons, and so more bucks were taken. So that's why we see that slight increase in that. But there is a slight trend of it increasing over the years regardless. And that is including, you know, if you saw on the last slide, there was an increase in overall harvest still. even with that increase in harvest, the population is still increasing. Um, and you can see that that pink line again is the percent of female harvest. So you can kind of see that comparison. Um, and you can see, you know, the, even the female harvest is kind of stayed roughly the same and the population has continued to increase. So we still want to see an increase in female harvest. And so just to drive that home, this is from the hunting season this past year. We look at every county and we set a goal of how many females we would like to see taken through harvest for each county. I have filtered these ones. These are the filtered by the lowest percentage of the female harvest that has met that goal. So for example, Rockingham County, We had a female goal of 3,112 individual females being harvested in that county. Only 1,833 were taken, so Rockingham only hit 58.9% of that population. goal that we had. Washington County is the eighth lowest in the state. So Washington County only met 68.7% of the goal of female harvest that we were hoping for Washington County to get. So again, we set these goals because we want to try to achieve those objectives that we set, that big map that I showed the entire state. That's how we set these female goals so we can try to achieve those objectives. So right now, Washington County as a whole is not hitting those objectives. And so it's up to people like me to try to figure out how we can get it up to that level. But ideally, we just need hunters to take more does so we can reduce the population. So yeah, that is the end of a very short presentation I had. So if there's any questions, I'd be happy to take them.

Are there less people hunting?

That is, yeah, that is a part of it. There is less people hunting than there used to be. So we've tried to compensate by adding, you know, longer seasons, higher bag limits, but people only have so much time to hunt still. So trying to get more youth involved with hunting is something that... That's what I was going to say.

I just feel like, you know, I graduated in 89 from Abingdon High School. You know, years leading up to 89, like, It was a thing for everyone to get that hunter safety license permit to get a couple of days out of school to go hunting. I just feel like that maybe it could start with the younger generation. Right now, it's all about cell phone now or video games. It's not about hunting. I hate to say that, but I feel like it starts there. You know what I'm saying? We just don't have people that are willing to... Participate in like the hunter safety course right to actually get those 3 extra days. I think it was when I was young you get 3 extra days of school excused absence to go hunting on private land. I just feel like that times have changed, but I just don't know what we can do now to get the youth more involved into honey. I don't know if you have any suggestions on that or. What is there to do about it?

Right, yeah, and to me it's kind of about exposure to me. It's making sure we can get people outside and interested in wildlife and kind of seeing what hunting is about and just talking to more and more young people and families, whether it's at public events or anything like that. And that's something that, you know, we as DWR are happy to partner with, you know, anyone with so if you know town of Abington you guys would like to have you know we have hunter ed coordinators we have volunteer staff we have biologists like me who'd be happy to join and hold whether it's talks come to events and have booths at certain events and everything so to try to talk to people about hunting and everything so

um you know we would be more than help happy to to participate in those sort of things if um that's something you all would like i think that's something that we would like you know because like like you can see right now we do have a problem and you know we don't have a solution right now so we're looking for that solution whatever you suggest and the council and the council decide on i think there's going to be an improvement and step forward to the direction we want to go absolutely i've also heard that

people are less likely to let you hunt on their land. Yes. Whereas years ago, I mean, it was, you know, everybody let you hunt, but now it's let you hunt on their land.

Yeah, and that is an issue, and that's something that we are also trying to figure out how we can correct as well because we, you know, can't force people to allow hunting on their lands and nor do we want to, but it's it is. It is a significant hurdle and so. I know in in some states they have programs that allow basically walk in hunter access, especially for people that are kind of absentee landowners and not there all the time that you know they maybe someone to to reach out to and Hey, even though they're not using their property often, would they be okay with allowing people to walk in and hunt on their property while they're not there? They can sometimes be harder to reach just because they're not local, they're not residents full-time. So it could be an avenue that we could try to go down, but it is, like you said, it is a significant hurdle, though.

If council passes this ordinance, and I understand that there's some other localities who have this now, and we request from the director, who I know is not you, but do you have an idea as to what the process is afterwards? I mean, if council passes this, we sort of declare that there is a problem, and we ask for DWR's help in issuing permits or authorizations, I guess, for us to proceed with it. sort of what happens after we pass this ordinance for council's perspective.

Right, right. And if you don't mind, could you repeat the exact language of the ordinance, just so I know the best way to answer it?

Well, it's 12 pages long. Oh, sorry. At least the gist of it is, if there are a number of findings that we say there's a problem with, vehicular problems, population, and danger to humans and animals, food and etc and then basically council asks the director to allow us to take further action. I read that to sort of be we get some sort of permit town-wide and then in addition to what individuals can get permits for. You may not know the answer to that question, but that's just sort of what happens after we say these citizens are here and saying help us and we pass something, council passes something to say help us. What do we get from

Right. So there are a couple of different avenues to go about it. One of the ones that I've been pushing is an urban archery program. So essentially allowing urban archery within town limits. And that is essentially the town applying to it through the agency via a certified letter. And that would have... And that could be... There's some things that have to be included in it, but then there are also additional guidelines that the town could set, such as height restrictions from where shooters can shoot from, property sizes, distance to neighbors, things like that. That would only further restrict it, but it would you know if it fits best for your town to do it that way then that's what you can do then once we receive that certified letter which would have to come by April 1st to be allowed for the that following hunting season then it would we would then approve it and allow you ought to have an urban archery season within town limits. That would need to make sure that you would be able to allow the discharge of archery weapons within town limits still, because otherwise it's a moot point whether to have an urban archery program or not. So that's one option, and that's more for private citizens to be able to hunt on properties within the town. Another one is something that we call DPOP, which is a... an option for public lands, public properties, I should say, owned by towns or cities or counties that they can basically remove deer at their discretion. There are some guidelines within that, but that's a lot of times. I know Blacksburg has a very successful one that they do. Radford does one. Roanoke does one. That typically would include, usually sharpshooters are included in those. They come in and they remove deer on a certain public property.

So are you saying, like, are they baiting them on the public property? No, no, not baiting.

They're not baiting, okay. It's just the population is that bad that it's very easy to find them. I got you. I got you. Yeah, yeah. But that can only be done on public properties, not, you know, private properties. So town-owned properties, it should suffice to bet.

We had read about what Marion did a couple years ago. And that seemed to be reasonably successful. It's what, two, three years back now? I believe so. Yeah. I mean, has that helped their situation?

Well, they still have a little bit of a problem from what I understand. And it takes a bit to do. It's, you know... If you do it for one year, the problem's not necessarily going to be solved. It takes, you know, two, three years to really start to see the... That was going to be my next question.

How long does that usually take before you see any progress in what you're doing? Right.

Yeah, so it can take a couple years to really start to see the difference. Now, deer, it's a little quicker to see because they do reproduce a little quicker than something like a bear, for example, which reproduces once every other year. But if you're consistent with it, you will see results if you're hitting the targets that you would like to see.

I had one other question. Like I'd heard about the chronic waste disease and all. What I was wondering is what happens, like let's say we just decide we love deer and we just want to let them keep reproducing. What's the harm to the ecosystem and to the deer population in general?

So for CWD, which has not been detected in Washington County yet, the closest is Tazewell County. That was a single detection from a taxidermist two years ago and hasn't been detected there since, at least through our own testing. But A larger population of deer is more likely to spread something like CWD or other diseases as well. We've seen some outbreaks of hemorrhagic disease throughout the states, and that's just another disease that a lot of deer can get. Blue tongue virus is another one. And I would say in all these cases, it's the higher the population, the more chances you see of that. CWD is of a particular interest because we test the meats before human consumption due to worry of that meat being contaminated and any disease being passed on to humans. Something like hemorrhagic disease, we don't worry about as much because that's typically a disease that hits outside of the hunting season. CWD is all year round. So that's why it's of particular interest to us, and because it can wipe out more of a population quickly, although HD can also do that as well. So controlling the population can help with that, certainly.

In some areas of the country, Lyme's disease is big. Is it a problem with you here?

Specifically Lyme disease, I mean, I don't think any greater than some of the surrounding areas around here. Ticks are kind of all over. And I think this past summer we have seen an increase, from what I understand, kind of countrywide. There has been an increase in Lyme's disease detection in people. There's a lot of factors that go into that other than just deer. Lyme's disease also goes through other hosts as well. So it comes from a deer tick, but it's typically picked up by small mammals like mice, other rodents, before that tick ends up getting to the deer. So that's, in terms of public safety and human health, the deer aren't necessarily the biggest, might not be the biggest or only factor in that. So for example, sorry, I'm rambling a little bit, but I find this very interesting. There is a recent study that showed there could be some correlation between the production of acorns and the detection of limes that following year, where an increase in acorns, which is a very useful resource for a lot of species, including small rodents, their populations will increase because they have such a good food source over the winter, which would allow them to sustain through the winter better than other years. And because their population increases, it means that there's more chances of Lyme disease to be spread through ticks and then on to people. Like I said, there's a lot of environmental factors that go into it.

Your chart kind of showed it. Year over year, if we don't hunt... and we don't hit our targets, like we were, what, 400 and some, just 450 short last year. What does that compounding effect do year over year? Is it, based on your chart, it's not a good sign.

Yeah, I mean, the population will, populations will only grow up until, what the carrying capacity will allow. And now there's two different kinds of carrying capacity. There's biological carrying capacity, which is based off of habitat, amount, and quality. And then there's cultural carrying capacity, which is the amount that we as humans will allow within the population. And typically, the cultural carrying capacity is lower than biological. So the population will just continue to increase until almost gets to a point where we feel like we have to do something about it just in terms of public safety or damage, vehicle collisions, anything like that. Now it could keep going and biological care and capacity will eventually hit that. And then it'll either level off or just crash because the population will get so high that resources will start to dwindle. And those individuals within that population will find it harder to get food and sustain themselves through the winter. And they will die off. They won't be able to reproduce as much. And so it would then come back down eventually. But at what cost of the culture of care and capacity, essentially. Thanks.

Anyone else have any questions? Brandon, thank you for coming today and presenting this to us. Like I said, we do know that we have a problem. We are looking for a solution. Thank you for giving us the advice. Bob? Yes, sir. I have a question, if you don't mind.

Sure.

Does the technical have to write, and I work with them, I'm a public works director, that right now the current is six, which is three either sex, three amperless. So does the town in conjunction with Washington County have the right to increase that limit on amperless deer to three to six or something? And so that way there will be legally, because we know people are taking it illegally, but legally have the right to take additional That is out of the population.

Right. Now, as far as the right to petition, I'm not entirely sure of the answer to that. Maybe a little above my head. Yeah.

Does the state have any intentions of increasing that bag limit?

So we do have a regulation year coming up. So we are going to go over the regulations for every single county and state. And there is an open public comment period that starts October 5th that we invite anybody in the public to give comments on, which we will then take and use as feedback in trying to come up with our regulations that would be in place for the next two years. Now, me as the biologist for this area, I also personally will take comments from any constituents that have suggestions or things that they would like And I will take that and try to use that for regulation changes and everything. Now, I can't say for certain whether we will try to increase the value on it or not. I can try to push for anything. You may not come to it. But I can try to. And I will say that there are plenty of hunters that do not hit their value on it. So like I showed you, the percentage of those harvested not being hit It's not always necessarily a value limit issue. It's getting hunters to just want to take those more. So for example, I read an article recently that was about where they, the National Gear Association, I believe, talked to the project, your project leaders across multiple states throughout the country to look at exactly how many hunters are taking the dose versus not. Luckily, Virginia was among the most that 68% of hunters take at least one dose. But that means 32% of hunters that take no dose at all. So it's not necessarily just a bag limit issue.

It's also hunters passing up on dose, too.

And part of that is education and trying to help them understand

have a healthy population, sometimes you do need to take out more birds as well.

I eat what we take, and I definitely do that as well. I've never seen a doe taste any different than a buck. Just because the animals aren't used to being part of the dragon. Personally, I'll take all those I can get, because the whole idea is to drag those things out of the woods. Absolutely. And not have to actually take them out with a vehicle, because we've had, unfortunately,

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we have other programs out there that will focus specifically on taking those for example our program which is for private landowners that have an interest in kind of managing their population on their property and we give them a basically free doe tags to take those off their property so they can manage it how they like. If they feel like their population is too high. And so that's something that we like to push on people as well is, hey, these are free tags. And at the same time, we do ask for data to be taken in response to, for example, getting antler measurements on any bucks taken, weights on any deer. pulling the jawbone so that we can get the jawbone and age them because that helps us understand the age structure and quality of that herd. It helps us overall within the county as well. So a lot of these numbers that I showed you, they come from DMAP properties within Washington County because they give us more data than kind of a normal hunter out there. So we encourage people to participate in that sort of program so they can take out more does and

They also, in turn, get to learn more about their herd.

That is true. I think you can note Mr. Worley has strong opinions on this issue.

I welcome that. I've been involved with several golf courses over the years.

But those were very selective in our places.

Very limited in all of that. Cool. Thanks, Brandon. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Please reach out if you have any questions or need any help. I think you'll hear from us. Thank you. Thank you much.

Thank you. Now we'll move on to our next thing on our agenda, which is proclamation. We have one proclamation today. And that's a proclamation recognizing October the 4th through the 10th, 2026, as Fire Prevention Week, charged to the fire safety. Safety charging is a superpower. And I'm going to ask the Vice Mayor Alston to please read that proclamation.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Whereas the Abingdon Town Council is committed to ensuring the safety and security of all of those living in and visiting the town of Abingdon, And whereas fire remains a serious public safety concern both locally and nationally, and the presence of lithium ion batteries in any household devices introduces fire risk, and whereas most of the rechargeable electronics used in homes daily, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, power tools, e-bikes, e-scooters, and toys are powered by lithium ion batteries, which have misused, damaged, or improperly charged, can overheat, start a fire, or explode. And whereas the National Fire Protection Association reports an increase in battery-related fires underscoring the need for public education on the safe use of lithium-ion batteries and devices. And whereas the way lithium-ion battery devices are charged can make a difference in helping prevent home fires, and whereas safe charging includes using the cord and charger that came with your device or one approved by the manufacturer, charging on a hard, flat surface, watching for warning signs like devices that are very hot or start to swell, unplugging them when fully charged, and charging larger devices like e-bikes outside and away from exits, and whereas residents are encouraged to understand that safe charging means making smart choices every time they plug in, and whereas the Abingdon Fire Department remains dedicated to reducing the occurrence of fires through prevention, safety, education, and community outreach, And whereas the 2026 Fire Prevention Week theme, Charge into Fire Safety, Safe Charging is a Superpower, serves to remind all residents that safe charging can reduce the risk of fires in homes and communities. Now, therefore, the Mayor of the Town of Abingdon has hereby proclaimed October the 4th through the 10th, 2026 as Fire Prevention Week throughout the Town of Abingdon, and urges all residents to learn about and practice safe charging habits.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Austin. Now, if I could have Chief Estes. Gino, if you'd like to come forward, too. I'd like to have you up here, too. You're part of the party.

I would like to thank you all for recognizing the first week of October is Fire Prevention Week. This is the first time in a long time of Fire Prevention Week themes that they have done two back-to-back for the same issue. As you know, tourism and bicycle riding here in Town of Abingdon is huge, and we have a lot of e-bikes. Lithium fires have increased over the last four years probably more than 200 percent in North America. Just this year in New York City, four deaths since June caused by lithium battery fires. Of course, they have as many people in New York as we do in the Commonwealth, but that's a good litmus test to know how bad it is. It is a terrible thing. So we just encourage anyone that has devices and they're plugging in, and that includes these devices. to make sure that if you damage it, you replace it. If you need to know how to get rid of lithium batteries, call the fire station. We have a business here locally that will take lithium batteries very inexpensively. It's only $5 a pound, but they will take your batteries and dispose of them for you. And October the 10th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. is our open house. We invite you to come by the fire station. Have a free hot dog sponsored by the Abingdon Firefighter Foundation and look at all of our trucks and talk to our people, and we'll talk to you about fire safety, and if you want a plastic helmet, we'll give you one. They got them in extra large? I have one that fits all heads and all manner of devices that you may put on your head before your hat goes on, so you can make that happen. And I will say that we do have one business this year that actually reached out, and you'll see the banners start going up, but they purchased... $3,000 worth of stuff for the fire department. We're going to share that with some of the other fire departments because that's really too much for us. But Larry Bale's State Farm, of course my wife works there so it kind of worked out easy, but she said, hey, can I do this? And so she, the banners and 600 pamphlets to give out about fire safety and charging. So we're thankful for that partnership with them and If I didn't say something, I would get in trouble when I got home, so I figured I'd better mention it before I go home. But again, thank you all for what you do for us. We really appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we'll move on to public hearing. I don't think we have anything for public hearing today. We can close the public hearing. We'll go ahead and close the public hearing. We have no resolutions today. We do have a couple of first reading of ordinance. The first on that agenda will be the ordinance to amend Chapter 10, Animals, Article 1, in general, to prohibit the feeding and attraction of deer. And we have the town manager, Mike Cochran, to present. Thank you, Mayor. Yes, sir.

It's in your packet. This came up last month during the discussion when it came to deer because one of the discussion items was if people feed wild animals, then the wild animals no longer fear the people. And I think that's partly what happened in the area of town. It came up one of our speakers because I think there may have been some feeding in that area as well and just given the density of the amount of deer that we have the least last thing we want to do is encourage more people to feed them and so this is pretty pretty straightforward I mean I'm sure the biologist couldn't say that feeding that's not a good idea either

I know generally with the first reading of ordinance, we do like to get a second reading, but as I can tell with myself, we do have a problem and we do need this ordinance in effect. I personally don't think that we need a second reading to put this into motion, but if anyone would like a second reading on this, I'm fine with that, but I do see that we have a problem and I think that everyone else can see that we do have a problem with that. you know if anyone would like to make a motion that we amend the ordinance of chapter 10 um animal article ones for a general to prohibit feeding and attracting deers if someone would like to make that motion i can go for it but if if the council does choose to do a second reading on this i have no problem but i see that we have a problem and we need to start right now to maybe try to start solving this problem and this is one of the ways to start solving the problem

Mr. Mayor, I'm usually the one that insists. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And I always do so with the proviso that if I think that there's an emergency or something that needs to be addressed more quickly, that I'm not opposed to waiving that second reading of it. So in that vein, I'd like to make a motion. that we adopt this ordinance as presented and leave the second reading of the ordinance.

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

Mr. Webb.

Aye.

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

Aye. Thank you, Vice Mayor, for that. Next on the ordinance reading will be the first reading of an ordinance to provide... THE DEER MANAGEMENT AND POPULATION CONTROL IN COOPERATION WITH THE VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF WILDLIFE RESOURCES AND WE HAVE MIKE COCHRAN AGAIN TO SPEAK ON THAT SITUATION.

YES, THANKS. THIS IS AN ORDINANCE THAT WOULD ALLOW THE taking a deer in in conjunction with the uh permission from the wildlife resources from the state um and most notably that like what they did in marion a couple years ago is they used their police department to do uh the removal of quite a number of deer based on input from the state and what this this would allow our police to do that as well allow the urban archery and my one recommendation would be is that we limit it to five-acre tracts or larger in town, and basically that would limit it to the exterior perimeter of town, and with the idea that if they get reduced there, then they're not coming into town. But I sent you a map of what the five-acre tracts would look like, and it's largely just the outer rim of town.

Did everyone have a chance to look at those maps that Mike Cochran sent out?

And then that way, we can always adjust it, but five acres, whether it needs to be in the ordinance or whether it's just something that we select on an annual basis. But that way, you know, because my concern from just a lot of population areas, like if it's too small of a lot, then they're in your neighborhoods. The deer do come to the neighborhoods, but if you get them from the outer perimeter, is that essentially what you would take? Instead of having hunting in the downtown part, it would be your larger lots in town are on the outer perimeter. And so if you get them from the perimeter, then they're not coming in.

Yeah, I think in some cases, yes. I mean, there are certainly deer that probably live in town and that their home is in town.

But it would be...

We talked about this before, this risk of shooting a deer and having it run onto a neighbor's property, which then you now have to try to get permission to get that deer.

So you do run into things like that as well, and just being close quarters with other buildings and houses.

And you may not like that, so there are some challenges when it comes to the size of the property as well. But yeah. I think in general, yes. But I mean, I get all of them.

Like I was saying before, this is pursuant to statute. This is a model ordinance. Basically, this is the first step for you guys making findings, and then that gives Mike and the chief permission to communicate with DWR to say what this precise permit would be and how we would address it at that point. This ordinance doesn't say you can go out tomorrow and urban archer things. It'll have to be This ordinance in place, and then... And they'll still be using their guidelines.

Right. Yeah, but having this, and like you had mentioned... So we have to do this first, right? Yeah, do this, and then it has to be in by April, so it's not an overnight fix. But it sets forth the framework so that we can fix it. Is that right? Yeah.

Like we said there earlier, we all know we have a problem. We did, like we said earlier, second readings. I just think that this is something right now, since we've got it in front of us, to actually maybe go ahead and make a motion to put this forward so we can actually get the ball rolling to maybe solve this problem for people in our community.

Well, I'll make that motion to adopt this ordinance as is.

As is? Do I have a second on that?

I'll second. And waive the second reading.

And waive the second reading.

You know, the... Of course, this ordinance basically just makes the findings, as Mr. Bale has indicated, Mr. Cocker has indicated. And it authorizes the chief and the town manager to be able to communicate with how we're going forward from here. And it's clear it does not mean that tomorrow we can start going out in town and hunting. Yes. All right.

So I had a motion by Ms. Donna Quetsch, and it was seconded by Derek Webb. Any further discussion? Kim, if you'll please call the roll.

Mr. Webb.

Aye.

Ms. Quetsch. Aye. Vice Mayor Austin. Aye. And Mayor Anderson.

Aye. And that's going to move us to our second reading of ordinance, and that is an ordinance to interact Chapter 18, Business, Article 8, Exemption 17.

food booths certain affairs from restaurant regulations and we have again my conference to explain that to us yes and this is just a reenactment of something that was removed from a previous ordinance update it's something we had in place for years and just during an ordinance update it got removed but it basically just allows like the community groups or

They call them civic clubs.

What's that? Yeah, schools, to be exempt from some of our food regulations. School groups are like the cheerleaders or whatever it is. You know, when the parents get roped into having to cook the hot dogs on Friday evening before the game, then they're, yeah, it just exempts them from certain regulations.

This is the second reading of that ordinance. Yes, sir. Would anyone like to make a motion on the ordinance to interact with Chapter 18, Business Article 8, exemption of food booths and certain fairs from restaurant regulation?

I'll make that motion that we approve the ordinance as presented.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Second by Donna. Do I have any further discussion? Kim, if you'll please call roll.

Mr. Webb.

Aye.

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

And Mayor Anderson. Aye. We have no consideration of bids today. And we have one thing under new business today, and that is going to be the discussion regarding the donation of the used fire truck to be submitted to Sandy Ridge Fire Department, 8013 Dr. Ralph Stanley Highway, Coburn, Dickerson County, Virginia. And we have the town manager again, Mike Cochran, to discuss that.

Thanks. And I had Fire Chief Tim Estes step up if we could. We've had this truck for a while, and actually we've had it, what, since 1995? Is that right? And the guy who's maintained it since 1995 is sitting back there, and he's very familiar with this truck.

Gino, would you like to come forward as well, too, in case anyone has any questions for you? Thank you all.

Sure. So this was the first custom fire truck that we bought. Chief Bo McCormick bought this truck in 1995. The previous custom fire truck, and a custom fire truck is a truck that's built on a custom truck chassis, not like a Ford or Chevrolet, was 1928. So we went from 1928 to 1995 before we bought a custom truck. We bought some other trucks in between. We bought this truck in 1995. It served the town really well. It gone through about three different evolutions of what it looked like from originally to what it looks like today. It's got 50,000 miles on it, 4,000 hours. 4,000 hours, that's the equivalent of 160,000 road miles. It's still a good truck. But in 2016, when we bought the 2016 pumper that we bought then, that truck was supposed to replace this truck. We had a deal with a local fire department here, and they were going to purchase that truck for $50,000, and because of outside influences, they decided not to purchase that, but we kept the truck. So we've had it now for 31 years. The National Fire Protection Association then recommended a 20-year life cycle. They have now gone to a 25-year life cycle for fire trucks. That's 15 years front service and 10 years reserve. Quite honestly, we just don't need the truck. We have enough trucks in there now. We have trucks that need to be replaced. The vice mayor mentioned a few meetings ago capital outlay. We have some trucks that will need to be looked at. We have some large purchases that will need to be just get on the books to get started because it takes four years to get a truck. But this truck, it sits in the station. We're not using it. We did use it to go to the Coombe Center. They had the issue before they opened the pool and they needed to empty the pool. So instead of taking one of the frontline trucks that we would use every day, we took that truck up there, we put the truck in there. The truck is rated for 1,250 gallons per minute. That truck pumped over 2,000 gallons a minute, and it pumped 250,000 gallons of water out of the pool. It saves a lot of time. Oh, it saves a lot of time for the Coombs Center. They were able to get everything done they needed to. The truck for the town of Abingdon has outlived its usefulness, but it still has a few years left. And Cody Rittenberry is the chief for Sandy Ridge. And we've had several fire departments say, hey, if you ever get rid of that truck, let us know. Because they know the town takes really good care of our equipment. And that's because of you guys. And Public Works.

Is this truck certified, Chief, right now? Is it OSHA certified?

Well, every truck we have is a front-line truck. If I needed to put it back in service today because something happened, all I've got to do is put a hose on it and put a radio back in service. But it's a good truck. It's just we don't need it. And it just sits in the bay. We run it once a week. We go outside. We start it. We pull it out. We go drive it around the block. We drive it down the interstate. just to make sure everything's still working. Up until last year, it was pump tested every year by a third party, and if it had a leaky valve, the valve was replaced. We have every record, maintenance record, since 1995 for that truck. I almost called him, well, Kona. I know him as Kona. Ray has done well. He is our fleet manager, and he manages our fleet, and he works really hard with Public Works, and Not a day goes by that something happened. This truck came, and we've been there for the whole life of the truck. It's been on many fires in town. It's been on many car crashes. It's been on everything. But quite frankly, now it's time for let somebody else have it and get some good use out of it before it starts deteriorating and starts costing a lot of money. Right now it's not costing anybody anything. The maintenance is good. It might need new batteries. It's a little hard to start. It may need a couple of batteries, but other than that, it doesn't need anything. And if you vote to donate this truck to Sandy Ridge, it'll be a great truck for them for the next five to ten years.

Sandy Ridge is in the need of a truck. They are. Do they actually have a fire truck now? They do.

Their newest truck is a 2005 pumper, which really should be taken out of service, but They're in Dickinson County. They're economically depressed. It's tough when you live over in the mountains. And they're here, and they can attest to that. But this truck would really do well for them. We have a program through the Virginia Fire Chiefs Association where people ask for fire trucks. And in other agencies, hey, I have a truck, and they donate it. It's just helping our neighbor. Yeah.

This is kind of the question that I had, Chief, that you've started to answer here. With all due respect to our good friends and neighbors from Dickinson County, and understanding what you've just told us, that we no longer need this particular truck, I guess I have two questions. First of all, how was it determined that Sandy Ridge would be the beneficiary of the receipt of this truck? And second of all, have we explored whether or not Washington County or one of the towns in Washington County would be in need of this truck.

Great question. I'll answer the second one first. Thank you. Everybody in Washington County, to the best of my knowledge, has newer apparatus and is not in the need of a truck. Okay. And that's all nine of the incorporated fire departments. They all have relatively newer apparatus, and this would either be an older truck for them and would not be a need for them. So there's no need there that we've identified. And how do we come to Sandy Ridge? It was just a conversation. We just were sitting there and just had a conversation. They came over and were just talking to the chief. And he's like, just had a conversation. We're in need of a fire truck. And there's lots of people across Southwest Virginia and the Commonwealth, for that matter, that need trucks. And it's just a conversation we had with them. And in my previous life working for Department of Fire Programs, There's 187 fire departments from the city of Radford to Lee County. And there are still fire departments in this region that have dirt floors and gravel where they park their trucks. And just having that firsthand knowledge and knowing what they need, they're the ones that really just ask and they have expressed a need. Their chief did write a letter, Mr. Cochran has the letter, just requesting that if we were able to do that, they would like to have it and they just have a need for it. They really only have the one truck. and they need a second truck so they can provide the service to their people and their community.

Well, I'm not opposed to making a donation of a truck. Don't misunderstand me. I just want to be sure that where it goes is the entity or the community that is most in need of it. Yes, sir. And it can be helpful to wherever it goes. Yes, sir. Well, I agree. Has there been a review of, I heard what's said about Other fire departments in Washington County, but has there been a review of any other fire departments that might be in even more need than Sandy Bridge?

There is a list of requests that go through the Virginia Fire Chiefs Association. I heard you say that. And in all of those requests, the departments request a specific gallon per minute pump and a specific gallon tank. This truck held 750 gallon water and all of the requests that have gone to the Virginia fire chiefs are asking for a 1,000 gallon water tank or greater. And so just based on that need, we just don't have that, we don't have it to meet their need. I mean, I'm sure if someone needed it, they could take it. And then just like right now, we get calls and we have to go somewhere. But as far as an exhaustive search of other people in southwest Virginia, no, sir, I have not done that. This is We've talked to a couple of different fire departments, and just in my estimation, this was the greatest need.

If I'm not mistaken, there was an article where fire departments were doing this, donating trucks that they were not using to departments that needed it. So it's not only here, but it's in other areas that they're starting to do that.

I've also looked at, could we sell the truck?

Before I came over, I pulled, this is from one of the websites that they do use fire truck sales. And for 21 fire trucks that are similar to ours, the average sale price is $22,000. That's what they're selling for. A year ago, it was $50,000. We purchased a truck in 1995 for about $185,000. And so 31 years, that's cost us about $6,000 a year in 1995 money to operate that truck, not counting maintenance and fuel. Like I said, if you want me to do some more research, I'll do whatever the council wants me to do. That's easy for me to do and see if there's anybody else. But they do have the need for it, and I think if you so choose to do this, I think it would be a good decision.

Well, I'm okay with going with your opinion, so I would be willing to make a motion to to approve the donation of the truck. And we thank you for all your hard work. We're locating a facility that actually needs it and can use it.

I'll second.

Can you amend your motion to authorize me to put language in there to go with the donation?

I guess if I have to, I'll amend the motion to allow CAM to orchestrate any and all paperwork that goes along with it.

Yes, sir. Thank you. And can I add one thing before you? 27-15.2-B is the code section that allows the town to donate a vehicle, and it is the state-mandated hold harmless. As long as we do nothing that is negligent or nothing willful, then if we donate the truck and they drive off and the motor blows up, it's on there.

I was fixing to ask you, should we not put a battery, you said.

Well, I mean, it still starts. I mean, I got it. It started. It came right over here. It's just a little slush.

Genome boosted off.

Yeah, but it still runs. But, I mean, that's simple enough. I mean, batteries are pretty cheap. It doesn't take long. We can replace the batteries. I can ask Jason at Public Works to look at that before we do that. But I just wanted to point that out because there's always, you know, about civil liability, what happens if we donate it.

Sometimes cheaply wears belts and suspenders.

Yes, sir.

I'm all about helping our neighbors. Indeed.

Thank you, Julie.

Thank you. Yes, sir. No, thank you all. And like I said, this is just, you know, a kind gesture. And, you know, we're thankful to have you all. We're thankful to have that extra truck. And we have no problems with donating that to someone, our fellow neighbors who need the truck. So we think that that's a great idea.

And when we had the truck crash and Cameron passed away, this truck went right back into frontline service. Now, I pray to the good Lord it never happens to us again. But, you know, it stepped back out of reserve status, as we call it, off the back floor and put it on the front floor, and it filled that need for a few months until the new truck came in. But whatever you all decide, I'm happy. Whatever you all decide, and if you need me to do something else, I'm happy to do that too. But I appreciate you all. I know it's hard to set it to dice and hard to make good decisions and hard decisions.

So thank you so much. Thank you. So the motion was made by Derek Webb to submit the Sandy Ridge Fire Department 8013, Dr. Ralph Stanley Highway, Coburn, Dickerson County. the fire truck with some exceptions of what Kim would have to do with some fine-tuning on that, and it was second by Donna Quech. Any further discussion? Kim, if you'll please call roll.

Mr. Webb. Aye. Ms. Quech. Aye. Vice Mayor Austin. Aye. And Mayor Anderson.

Aye. So we have no old business today. We'll move right along to miscellaneous business and communications from our town manager. Again, Mr. Mike Cartman. Me again. Yes.

No, we've had a tremendously busy week. We are working diligently with... VDEM and FEMA in order to execute the repairs needed for Tesla 12, and our whole goal is to get it done before March 31st. And we've had significant progress this week.

So what are we looking like, do you think, in your eyes? Do you think we're going to meet that date?

March 30th? No, I'm doing everything I can. But we've had tremendous progress this week with FEMA, and I believe we're on the right direction. So it's been a very productive week. And other than that, Public Works has finally almost caught up with everything from the big old mess we had a month ago. Just a ton of trees. They've been working very, very hard. But no, I don't have a tremendous amount today, but I say I appreciate that. And I know Sandy Ridge, they're so small they even got a Wikipedia page. So that's pretty small. But yeah, I've checked out their information. They're definitely... you know, appreciative recipients, and I think they'll do well for it. And I do thank Brandon for his expertise for coming out here, because you come all the way from Marion via Christiansburg. So, thank you.

I kind of want to echo that. Brandon, thank you for being here today to help us out with the problems that we're having here in the town of Adams. And also, congratulations to you all and the recipients of the new fire truck. Just a couple of things that we have going on in the town of Abingdon this week. Well, it's not really so much Abingdon. We have the Washington County Fair that's going on. I know it's been successful since Monday, and I think that will go on through to Saturday. And we've also got the Bristol Motor Speedway. We've got the race in town this week. So we're going to have a lot of people in our town that are visiting that don't know the roads and don't know the lingo in the town of Abingdon. Just everyone in the town of Abingdon, be patient with all the visitors that we have in town coming to the Washington County Fair and the Bristol Race that's going to be taking place tonight, Friday, and Saturday as well. I'll pass on to Vice Mayor Alston if you have anything that you want to say.

I do, Mr. Mayor. I've talked with several people in the last... two weeks or three weeks, whatever, about our sign that recognizes Abington High School in the state championships. And we talked about that for quite some time. And I had seen the picture of it, but I had not actually seen the sign until just last week. And first of all, the people I've talked with are very appreciative of our desire to recognize and to honor those student athletes who achieved state championships. However, having said that, and I heard, in fact, one person told me, said, well, we don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, so to speak. But it's difficult, and I realized it. I don't know if everyone else has been by it. But unless you pull over, the slats are so small on that, It's very difficult to read.

Yeah, we're hoping for a traffic backup so people can read it.

Yeah, it is.

It's very difficult. I know one thing that we talked about, not to interrupt you, Vice Mayor Austin, but there was just so much to put on there that we wanted to include everybody, from my understanding, with the town manager. And I do apologize that that is small, but because of our accomplishments, order to get every everyone on that board we had to come to the decision of the size to make that and I'm not covering up for anyone but like you know I just feel like you know this was a progress that we started this was our first phase of that I'm glad that we have that now is there some tweaking that we can maybe do Yes, I'm in favor of that.

I'll check and see if they can come up with some way to stack the letters to get a bigger font. It's just a lot of information to put on a small sign.

Let me finish. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for interrupting. I think it's a very attractive sign. When we first started, I thought we were going to put one up at each major entrance corridor to the town. We haven't done that, and that may still be in the plans in the future. But I would like for us to give consideration of relocating that sign. And keep it as it is. It's very attractive once you get up to it and can see it. But relocate it perhaps down near the visitor center or where the information is with the phone booth there, that sort of thing, where you can... You know, you're going to get walking traffic. People can stop and look at it and see it. It's a good central location. It's a good sign, and it's for a very noble purpose that it's there.

Sure, sure.

And so I think we ought to give consideration to relocating it there. Now, I've talked to some people with the school system, and then I've talked with just others who are... a part of the state championships that are recognized on there. And I think that's, at least from the people I've talked with, that's a consensus of what they might want to see. So I think we ought to explore repositioning that.

Yeah, we should be able to find something. I didn't go with four different locations just because of the size of the sign or right-of-way concerns. Right. And that was the path into school. But on the other end, I do get the point that it's a lot to look at unless you've got really good peepers. It's really hard to read as you go by. So when I took a picture, I literally had to park at Biola or Dollar General and walk up to take a picture. So, yeah, I'm sure we can find a way to relocate it to somewhere where it's more visible.

I think that'd be good. I'm glad that we finally got the sign on number one. And, you know, the discussion with everyone in town, that is great. location. Like I have maybe it should be here at the town hall or maybe it should be on having a high school property or maybe about the school board office, you know, to where, you know, those that that go to falcon games or or whatever. Or, you know, maybe downtown. I'm not opposed to as what Vice Mayor Austin said to, but maybe maybe that location does need to be changed. But I am thankful for the new sign that we have. And I'm thankful that we have that up to where, you know, it is visible by. It is known. I know it's out there. It's known now that everyone in the town of Advent knows we have that sign up. I know people are very appreciative of it. Maybe the location might not be the spot that we need. We will work on that. I want to work on that too, but just finding a happy medium to where everyone is satisfied where it's at. As Vice Mayor Alston kind of said, maybe we could have multiple signs up, but just for the start of it. Just for the start of it.

To your point, what if we took that sign, since it's a little smaller writing, and put it downtown and put the same sign back up there but bigger so where you can see the placards better? Or maybe fewer placards, because I know we've got a lot of placeholders. Maybe fewer placards with bigger wording.

I'll talk to Jerry's. They're the ones that put it together and see what's possible. I'll find the money to make it happen.

I mean, it's a beautiful sign. I'm just saying having two would be even better. For sure.

That may be the option. It was about eight grand, so yeah. I didn't want to buy a whole bunch of them. Don't say that out loud. Yeah, yeah, no. Anyway, yeah, it was nominally, yeah, it was very affordable. So, yeah, I'll look at both and figure out how to make it happen. All right. Thanks. Great question there.

Very awesome. Thank you.

That's all I have. Well, I like that because that way you get the use of the smaller ones. Oh, yeah.

It's too small and put it somewhere else. Yeah.

Great job, though. It looks fantastic. Absolutely fantastic.

And everyone that I talked with was appreciative of it. No one was being critical of it. They were just talking about what we could do perhaps to improve that situation.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

Donna, do you have anything that you would like to add?

I don't have anything.

Derek Webb?

I don't have much to say today, which is surprising, I'm sure. But since I'm coming to the end of my tenure on council, I want to recognize, every time I'm here, I want to recognize the staff and all their hard work. And over the past eight years, I just want to say I've truly enjoyed getting to know each and every one of you, and we have a top-notch staff. And I'm going to say it again next time.

Thanks.

All right, well, we will move right on down to the line. We have appointments to boards and committees. I know we have several seats that need to be refilled. Do you all feel like that we maybe need to go into closed session for this?

Since there's so many, I do.

Yes, and I shall just go ahead and have somebody read it. I'm going to have Vice Mayor Austin read it.

It's on his draft.

Oh, it's on his draft.

Right here, Vice Mayor. You'll read this right here. You got it, sir.

It's provided that the council may convene in a closed session pursuant to Code of Virginia 1950 as amended. Section 2.2-3711A1 for the purpose of considering the applications for the appointment for positions on the Virginia Highlands Small Business Incubator Board the Abingdon Redevelopment and Housing Authority, the Economic Development Authority, the Veterans Advisory Board, and the Sinking Spring Cemetery Committee. And I would make a motion that we go into closed session for those purposes.

Any further discussion? He read that like a lawyer, didn't he? He read that such, such like a lawyer. I'd love to have you. Love to have you. We'll go into closed session for that. I made the motion. Second by Donna. Any further discussion, Kim, if you'll please call roll.

Mr. Wett. Aye. Ms. Quetch. Aye. Vice Mayor Austin. Aye.

And Mayor Anderson.

Aye. I got caught up in that lawyer lingo.

Make a motion that we reconvene in open session and certify that. Two separate motions. Okay. Make a motion we reconvene in open session.

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

Mr. Webb. Aye. Ms. Quedge. Aye. Vice Mayor Austin. Aye. And Mayor Anderson.

Aye. I'd like to make a motion that we certify that only those matters for which we went into closed session for were discussed in that closed session and no others.

Mr. Webb, do you so certify? I so certify. Ms. Quetch? I so certify. Vice Mayor Austin? I so certify.

And Mayor Anderson? I so certify. Let me turn it over to Derek Webb. We've made some adjustments on the appointments to boards and committees.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I would make a motion to fill the two vacancies on the Virginia Highland Small Business Incubator with Mr. William Denton and Mr. Larry Foster. I would also include in that motion for the Abingdon Redevelopment and Housing Authority to fill the expired and ineligible terms for... Dorothea Frazier and Caitlin Casme to Mr. Jeff Hurst and Kelly Robinson. On the Economic Development Authority, we'd like to appoint Mr. Brian Rasnick, the Veterans Advisory Board, Trevor Harrison, and the Sinking Spring Cemetery, Norline White.

I'll second that.

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

Mr. Webb. Aye. Ms. Quetch. Aye. Vice Mayor Austin. Aye.

And Mary Anderson. Aye. And with that being said, we'll call this meeting adjourned.