Town Council - Regular Meeting

like to call the regulars meeting of the town of Abington and town council meeting for November the 3rd, 2025 to order. Uh [snorts] first of all, I would say it's uh very nice to see a large contingency of residents and those in the outlying areas here tonight. We certainly appreciate your input to the issues that will come before the council tonight and uh we certainly welcome that input to be given to us. Uh if someone has not signed up for the public comment time, I do have the sheet up here at the desk and we will u be able to let you sign up uh uh to do that. Please remember that the comments are limited to three minutes during public comment time. I don't want anyone to think for a moment that we don't care to listen to you. Uh but with the large number of people and the large number of issues that we have, it was adopted many years ago by the town council that it would be limited to three minutes. Other matters such as public hearing comments are limited to five minutes. And so if ordinances or other matters are uh scheduled to be heard then then there is additional time that is provided for that [snorts] at that time. Anyone who comes to make comments to the council, if you would kindly come up to the podium, state your full name and your residential address for us so that we will have that for our records. Again, I welcome you tonight and we'd ask the clerk at this time to call the role.

Mr. Webb here. Miss Quetch here. Miss Pion here. Vice Mayor Austin present. Let the record reflect Mayor Anderson is absent. All right. Thank you. Uh, Councilman Derek Webb will now lead us in the pledge of allegiance.

I aliance to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. If you please remain standing, we're going to ask Pastor Steve Bomb of the Trig Street Church of God to come forward and lead us in prayer tonight, please. Thank you. Dear heavenly father, we thank you for the opportunity to come together tonight as a community. Lord, we pray for your wisdom and your direction as we make wise decisions to help your fellow man to bless the people in our community. Father, we pray for grace. Lord, we pray for your direction in everything we do. And we pray most of all that we would honor you in Christ's name we pray. And everyone said,

"Amen." Amen. Amen. Thank you, sir. Next, we have approval of the agenda. I understand that uh there may be a need to move item N1, which is the swearing in of the Abington Police Department Lieutenant uh up right after public comment time. Is there a motion by council to approve the agenda with that amendment? So moved. Second. Second. Any additional discussion? If not, Kim, would you call the role, please? Mr. Wet, I. Miss Quetch, I. Miss Pion,

I. And Vice Mayor Austin, I. All right. Next, we have approval of minutes. There are two sets of minutes that were attached to your draft agenda that was passed out last week to the council. The first one is October the 1st of 2025. Council had the opportunity to review those minutes. Is there a motion regarding the approval of those minutes? I'll make the motions the motion to approve the two sets of minutes from October 1st and October 16th. All right. Thank you. Is there a second? Before we second that, I just would like to bring to your all's attention. I was absent for the second meeting, the 16th. All right. So, should we do that?

Let's let's do it separate then. Let's do October 1st, 2025 1st. Uh, and that's your motion to approve those minutes. A second to that. Second. All right. Any additional discussion? Miss Kingsley, we call the role, please. Mr. Web, I. Miss Qu. I. Miss Pion. I. And Vice Mayor Austin. I. All right. Now, October 16th of 2025. Had an opportunity to review those. Is there a motion in regards to those? I'll make that motion. A second to that motion. I'll second. Additional discussion. Miss Kingsley, please call the role. Mr. Web, abstain. Miss Quetch, I. Miss Pion, I.

Vice Mayor Austin, I. All right. Next, we'll be moving to the uh public comment time. As I stated in the introduction a few moments ago, um it is limited to 3 minutes per person. And I've been provided the uh list here for that. You'll be able to see the lights come on up at the front for those of you that'll be addressing council. You'll see a green light and you'll see a yellow light. Then you'll see a red light. So, first of all, I have Mr. Saw. Michael Lee Saul.

How are you? Hi. Good to see you. Lee,

would you give us your name and your residence address so we'll have that, please? Michael Lee Saul, 334 Valley Street, Northeast Abdon. All right. Go right ahead, sir.

Uh there's a there's an alley that runs from Valley to Maine and uh on the map is just called Alley Alley. And I like to see about renaming that in honor of my uh great uncle, Chief Robert T. Eden, Bob Eden, and see if it couldn't be called Chief Bob Eden Lane. It's a throw goes all the way through from Valley to Maine. Uh there's no stop signs at the when you come up the hill to valley. There's no stop sign there. So it needs to have signage added. And when you come down the by the surface banana company used to be it's Highlands heating and there now. It needs to have a stop sign because there's no signage there either. And then for the last probably 30 years, it's never been paved or anything. And the road shoulder has done fell in. I put a cone right next to the bush that I own to warn people that there is a that dip there and everything. And I took a picture and it's like this deep. You can't get through there. And then Highlands, they had a gooseeneck trailer one night parked there was sticking out right in the middle of Plum Alley and back on my great granddaddy's map it says Chickapan Alley but now it's Plum but from where everything was tore up and done all the manholes and everything and there was fixed back right and then there was a bunch of gravel and stuff put there so they have access to the creek to fix that project. They left the gravel down. Now Highlands is parking all over my bottom property and basically it just turned it up everywhere. But people unfortunately that has no common

curse anymore to where they can say, "Hey, could we park here?" No, they just take it upon themselves and do it unfortunately. But, uh, it's got all that gravel and stuff down there. And my mowing man, he's always throwing rocks. So, it' be nice to have it put back like it was before all the construction and stuff. But, you know, to pave that alley and to name it. Then, I've got pictures of my uncle and stuff. I shared it with Tim back there. Me and Tim went to school together and graduated 84. But, I appreciate y'all's consideration of that. God bless y'all. And thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Saul.

Next, I have Julianne Miles.

Hi, good evening. I'm Julianne Miles. I live at 384 Oakmont Drive in Abington, Virginia. Um, I know you have a lot of people on the agenda tonight, so I'll try to be very brief. I am here to talk about the ordinance about canvasing solicitors and uh peddlers. Um, and my I realize there's probably been some work done on this since the last time we had the first reading of this. On the second reading, there's still some problematic language with this. [clears throat] Um, and it's deep in your packet. So, I don't know if you want to flip through that now or not, but I'll just say, um, your definition of canvasers, uh, which is on page 56, I think. Um, you talk about canvasers, it means people who go upon premises of any private residence in the town not having been requested or invited by the occupant for the purpose of distributing or presenting verbal or written messages, ideas or information regarding any cause, issue, or religion. And this term may include, and you give some examples. So all of those canvasers are people who are pursuing things that are not commercial. Okay? There's nothing commercial in that definition. When you go over to a couple of pages over on page 58, you have a place where you have um exemptions, people who are exempt from needing a permit for this. And there's been added some language in here. Subp paragraph 4 specifically, which is on page 58. You have canvasers, solicitors, or vendors. So those are all lumped together. I still find that problematic because canvasers are not commercial whereas solicitors and vendors are commercial and I feel like that needs to be split out separately in describing the exemption there. Um most of the requirements there are not really problematic except for sub paragraph D which says they have means of

identification provided by the organization on whose behalf they are canvasing. So, I know all of you have done some canvasing in your day. You have knocked on doors and you have probably knocked on doors for other people. And while it may not be problematic to provide some type of identification, if you're just canvasing the town of Abington for an Abington office, imagine if you're canvasing for Winome Sears, who has canvasers spread out all across the Commonwealth, providing all of them with some type of identification. I was canvasing myself last weekend. was canvasing for four different candidates. Would I need identification from each of them? And what counts as identification? Is it just a button or is it a picture ID or is it a letter that has their name on it? How are you going to define that? So, to my mind, and I'll stop there, I just feel like there needs to be a breakout that canvasers, you've said before, would be exempt, and that's non-commercial. If you're going to require something for commercial, that's fine, but there needs to be a split in that language. Thank you.

Thank you, Miles. All right. Next is Margie Muny. [snorts] Good evening. Good evening. I'm Mudsy. Um I live on 3 or4 East Main Street. We've been there for 25 years. I've loved every moment of it. Historical home, Daniel Lynch House. Um, so, okay. So, um, I brought some videos, um, tonight for you to view. So, um, not sure how this works. I just

If you just say play, he'll play. Just I just I'm sorry, Miss Muny. Let Let me remind you, we've got three minutes. Okay. And I All right. So, what we may have seen some of these. But how do I need to um what do I just hit play? I hit the click or I tell someone to hit it.

Okay. All right. So, I have some videos. Um we're discussing the noise ordinance law. Um um it's hard to come in and tell you that the volume is too loud, that it's out of control. Um um I understand you dropped the time from 11 or 12 to 11. Um but the issue is more than that. It's volume. It's in our homes. Um so I want to just play some videos. These are inside of our house. Um, go ahead.

Okay, we can go on. We can move on from that one. Okay, that's just a Thursday night 10:15. That's the same one. How do I play the next one? It's Friday night again. That's our guest bedroom. 10 to 12 weekend. Okay. Go on. All right. It's 11:51 p.m. That's in my guest bedroom. That's my daughter at home. My son finally get released from the doctor to come home and visit us working from home trying to do 6 a.m. Zoom meetings. This is what they listen to. I know the next one. Okay. And then so this one is on a Sunday. This is from Sunday afternoon to like 9:30. Um and so this is after we've listened to Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Uh Saturday night karaoke. We don't know what's going on here. We don't know if it's a a business party. We don't know if it's a private party. We really just don't know. You know, just And again, this one's from You go ahead and get the Seven.

This is our carriage house. It's our guest carriage house or vacation rental. We do have guests there that afternoon. So, this goes on the sum. So, I just wanted to show this to you. You can see what we're going [clears throat] through and why we're asking the to drop down from 12 a.m. 10 p.m. So we can sleep at night 8 hours of undisturbed sleep and we need some control on your quiet amplification speakers microphones any time of the day seven days a week. We're just asking for you to revisit this noise or saw please. We thank you. We thank you for your service. We really appreciate you.

Thank you. Thank you very much. And I appreciate your understanding regarding it's it's just it's it's difficult. Yes, ma'am. Thank you so much. We appreciate you guys. We really do. It's a hard job to have. We wouldn't want it. Next on my list is Mr. Muny. Mike Muny.

Good evening. Mike Muny, 304 East Main Street. And I guess I'm the second half of a tag team here. Uh but I'll try to be to the point and not take us too far. Of course, the reason we're here, article 2, noise section 3030 through 3036. Um, we're particularly concerned about section 3033A9, which provides a a blanket exemption to um commercial establishments zoned for mixed use. Uh, a complete exemption from the ordinance from hours. It was 7:00 a.m. to to uh 12:00 a.m., but now uh it's 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. is my understanding. I guess our our concern is we don't understand why this particular type of commercial establishment needs to have a complete exemption from the statute during the day, the hours of 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. just does not seem to be equitable to treat them differently than other commercial establishments and differently from the residents in the area also in our town. The second thing that I'm concerned about is the quiet hours and I've been I've been reading lots of noise ordinances uh on the internet since this all came up. I guess I hadn't really keyed in on no noise ordinances, but one thing that runs through all of noise ordinances that I've seen is that there's a certain quiet time that is set out in most all of them. And the standard really nationwide is from 1000 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. what you see predominantly. And that allows people to have

a good 9 hours of downtime, not bombarded with unnecessary noise or unrealistic noise. Uh, for some reason there was a decision. We used to be 10 to 7 as I understood. It was changed to 11 to 7. And I I'm just respectfully requesting that we look at that again and see if it would not be appropriate to turn it back to the 10 rather than the 11. And finally, I'm concerned about the ordinance as to what restrictions there are on noise during the day, the non-quiet hours from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Currently, as I understand the ordinance, the only thing that I see in there really that's being looked at is noise coming from motor vehicles and noise coming from animals that are res that town members have in their homes. But there really is nothing specifically concrete setting out any restrictions on on amplified sound.

No, go ahead and finish. No, sir. Amazing.

So, amplified sound is what we're concerned about. There's a whole section in there about uh getting permits to do amplified sound, but when I read the statute, I don't understand who it applies to. Does it apply to commercial establishments? Does it apply to residents? Does it apply to nobody? Or or or do we just get permits from 11 at night to 7, but during the day we're just wide open? Um, that's not what most of the other ordinances nationwide have. And I would like to look at it whether it be permitting, a more structured permitting, or whether it be a decibel determination. Uh, many of the statutes do. I don't know that may be cumbersome, but um, I think it's worth looking at. I appreciate your time.

Thank you very much, sir. Uh, next on the list is Dave Collins. I made a mistake. I just thought I was just [laughter] Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Collins. Appreciate those fine remarks. [laughter] [clears throat] All right. Next on their agenda is proclamations. We have a proclamation tonight recognizing November of 2025 as Veteran and Military Families Month and a presentation to members of Veterans Advisory Board for their service. Want to do the swearing in first?

We did amend our agenda, didn't we? Thank you for reminding me. I'll come back to that. We're going to do the swearing in. We moved it on our agenda and I didn't move it on mine. Uh so yes, at this time uh if we'll have the members of the police department that come forward. Miss Kingsley, I understand is uh the chief's got some remarks to make first and then we'll have the swearing in of the lieutenant. Yes, Kayla, you have to stand up here now. [laughter]

Good evening. Thank you, Vice Mayor and members of council for moving us up in the in the agenda. Um, and everyone else tonight, it's my honor to recognize one of our own at the Abington Police Department. Uh, newly promoted Lieutenant Kayla Riley. I want to say congratulations on your well-earned promotion, and I want to celebrate this important milestone in her career and her life. Cayla began her journey with the A& Police Department in May of 2014, bringing with her a bachelor of science degree in criminal justice from Bluefield College and a passion for serving her community. Originally from Ren, Ohio, which we don't hold against her, she quickly made Abington her home and over the past 11 years, she's become a cornerstone of our department. Throughout her career, Kayla served in patrol and our SeaTac unit and community relations and is a member of our bike patrol unit. She's always approaching each assignment with professionalism, compassion, [clears throat] and especially dedication. She's also a general instructor at Academy, a defensive tactics instructor, a speed measurement instructor, a taser instructor, an aspeton instructor, and a RAD instructor, in which many members of the community love her RAD class. Um, her leadership extends beyond instruction. She's completed a couple FBI LITA, public information officer programs, including their master program. Um, she's implemented our AY's new policy manual. She's written a a number of grants. I don't she keeps up with the monetary value. Uh and that those grants have directly improved our agency, our training safety, and one of those grants was even for the additional position, the additional SRO at Abanon High School, which now that I have a daughter at AON High School, I truly appreciate as well. Outside of work, Kayla is known for her competitive spirit and enthusiasm for pickle ball. For those people that have played her in pickle ball, [laughter] whether it's a friendly match or

community game, the same determination and teamwork she demonstrates that works shows through on the court. Just another example of her energy and her connection with everything she does. So, Lieutenant Riley officially began serving in a new role in July, but in true form, she hit the ground running. just a few short months, she's stepped in confidently um into her leadership position where she is guiding her teams, organizing key initiatives, and setting high standards for professionalism. And this evening ceremony gives us the opportunity to pause and reflect and celebrate what she um has already accomplished and what she's going to accomplish in this new chapter. So, right now, I'll ask Miss Kingsley if she will come down and officially swear her end as lieutenant. [laughter]

All right, Kayla. Right hand, please. Ready for this?

Okay. To you, Kayla Richardson Riley swears for the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Virginia, and the laws and ordinances of Avenue, that you will abide by code of ethics for law enforcement officers in the rules and regulations of that you will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all duties and it upon you as a Mr. Cheek over it. And you will get your signature. [applause]

[applause]

In addition to being sworn in, I would invite her husband, Matthew Riley, to come up and pin on her new badge. Um, the badge is more than a just medal and an animal. It represents honor, sacrifice, and responsibility. When a family member pins it on, it becomes something even more profound. It's a reminder that behind every officer is a family who serves alongside them, who shares in the long nights, the miss holidays, and the quiet worries that come with this calling. So, as Matthew pins on this badge on Kayla's uniform tonight, it signifies not just her promotion, but the continued partnership, love, and support that make her service possible. Now, you can take [applause] Congratulations.

Congratulations speech. So on behalf of the Abington Police Department, congratulations, Kayla. I can't wait to work many more years with you. Thank you. And congratulations from the from the council here, too. [clears throat] Yes. Congratulations. All right. [clears throat]

I think I'm back on track now. Let's go back to our proclamation that we started with just a moment ago. Uh this is a proclamation, as I said a moment ago, uh which recognizes November of 2025 as Veteran Military Families Month. We'll have a presentation to the uh Veterans Advisory Board uh for their service. Councilman Webb is going to read this proclamation for us.

My pleasure. This is a proclamation recognizing November 2025 as Veteran and Military Families Month. Whereas the United States of America is a beacon of liberty, opportunity, and democracy. And our freedoms are secured through the dedication and sacrifice of those who have worn the uniform of our armed forces. And whereas since 1996, November has been officially recognized as military family month by presidential proclamation to honor the tremendous sacrifices and unwavering support provided by the spouses, children, parents, and loved ones of our nation's service members. And whereas our service members do not serve alone. For behind each soldier, sailor, airman, marine, coast guardsman, and guardian of the United States Space Force stands a family whose strength, resilience, and courage sustains the mission and contributes directly to the readiness of the United States military. And whereas more than 16 million veterans currently live in the United States, including thousands in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and their honorable service in times of peace and war continues to strengthen the security, prosperity, and well-being of our nation. And whereas the Commonwealth of Virginia is home to one of the largest concentrations of active duty military personnel, veterans, and Department of Defense civilians in the nation with more than 680,000 veterans in numerous military installations contributing to the economic vitality, cultural richness, and civic leadership of our communities. And whereas the observance of Veterans Day on November 11th remind us of the solemn debt we owe to all who have served and the gold star families who have borne the greatest sacrifice for our country's freedom. And whereas the red poppy has become an enduring symbol of remembrance for those who have given their lives in defense of liberty, first inspired by World War I battlefields and

later embraced by the American Legion and veteran of foreign wars as a tribute to the fallen. And whereas the town of Abington honors the dedication of its veterans, service members, and military families, and affirms its commitment to ensuring they are supported, valued, and provided the resources they need to thrive. And therefore, the town's veteran advisory board encourages all citizens to wear a red poppy from November 1st through Veterans Day, November 11th, 2025 as a visible sign of remembrance and respect for the sacrifices made. Now therefore, um, and it says, "Go Anderson, Mayor of the Town of Abington, do hereby proclaim November 2025 as veteran and military families month in the town of Abington and call upon citizens to join in honoring the service, strength, and sacrifice of our veterans, service members, and their families.

Thank you, Mr. Web. Could I ask that the members of the Veterans Advisory Board come forward? Come right back this way. We get everyone in picture.

[laughter] Thank you.

Thank you all very much. Thank you. [applause] All right. Thank you.

You guys will stand right here. We're just going to say a few words to our panel up here. So, today we would like to begin by expressing our sincere gratitude to the town council and our sponsor, Amanda Pion. Your willingness to collaborate with a group of veterans demonstrates exceptional courage and generosity. Believe us, we're a difficult group to work with, right? Not true.

Whenever our board has sought assistance, you have responded with kindness and unwavering support. This generosity has had a significant impact, enabling us to be more visible within our community. Your backing has strengthened our efforts to raise awareness and promote veteran recognition throughout our community. We are deeply appreciative of your commitment to these important objectives. Tonight, we gather to honor and acknowledge the individuals whose dedication and hard work have played a c a crucial role in shaping the direction and success of our board. These committed individuals are willingly participated in extended meetings, contributed a multitude of ideas, and invested significant time in planning events with us. Their perseverance and thoughtful input have helped guide our board's efforts and refined our pursuits each year. As we reflect on our progress, it is clear that their contributions have made a meaningful impact. We extend our heartfelt thanks to each person involved, recognizing the difference they have made in advancing our shared goals. And we have some folks on our team that are pretty good woodwork people. And we have a couple of things that we'd like to give you guys. These are our plankh holders, you know, original members of our board, and we're grateful for all the input that they gave us. So, to Tim Estus, our only civilian on the board, and we would love to have another civilian if there's anybody out there that would like to join our board. The input's been great and valuable to us. Okay? We love you still. Miss you. Says, "With deep gratitude, the town of Abington Veterans Advisory Board presents this token of appreciation for your dedicated commitments and contributions to our veterans." Thank you very much. [applause]

Same thing. Thank you very much for 2022 to 2025. [applause]

The hardworking board. [applause]

I did something that She's hitting all buttons. All right. Thank you everybody. Thank you everyone. Thank you board council. Thank you Lyn.

Thank you everybody. [applause] Uh-huh. All right. Again, thank you. We'll move on on our agenda tonight to public hearings. We actually have two public hearings uh that are on the agenda tonight. uh as I said in the opening remarks and the welcome uh you are welcome uh to make comments regarding the public hearing uh portion of either of these two matters. Uh your remarks will be limited to five minutes in a public hearing. Uh and as before, we'll have you approach the podium, give your name and your address. Prior to opening the public hearing, I'll ask uh town staff uh to give us an overview of the public hearing regarding a 15-year lease of property between the town and the depot artists association incorporated, a nonprofit Virginia Corporation located at 314 Depot Square, also known as the Arts Depot.

Uh yes, sir. Thank you. Um the uh Arch Depot has been uh in uh well we own it obviously and we maintain the outside of it and the inside of it is by the Arts Depot and they've been an organization for 35ish years. Uh and [clears throat] they really they do a it's a more of a have a say an incubator of sorts. They've got a couple different uh residents uh resident artists that occupy the place. And about six eight months ago they contacted me. they were wanting to put in for a grant in order to get some design work to uh to help repurpose the inside of it as they approach uh another couple years of of existence. And uh one of the things in order to get the grants, what they have found was that um they were on a two or much shorter term lease and they were asking for an extended period on the lease in order to help to get the grants. Sometimes [snorts] your grant um um grant the granting agencies want to see that they're going to get some uh return on the investment. So they wanted a longer term. And uh we have other properties in town will be at least for in extended periods of time as well. And even though the um the group now is uh is is great. I fully anticipate that in the future they'll continue to have great folks in there. And uh there's a lot of neat things that come out of the Arts Depot over the years. And so this is just a request uh to grant them in a 15-year lease. It'll still be a dollar a year. So I don't see it being a big money maker, but I do see the uh the the grants that they're putting in for I'm familiar with and I think it'll really uh help stepping up to the next level. It'll be a good thing for the town and a good thing for the artist community in town as well.

Thank you, Mr. Cochran. Council will have any questions, Mr. Cochran. All right. If not, I'd like to open the public hearing on this issue. I'd like to invite anyone who would like to speak in favor or opposing this issue that Mr. Cochran just delivered to us to come forward to the podium and give us your comments, please.

No. [laughter] All right. Hearing no public comments, I'll declare that the public hearing is now closed. Next tonight on the agenda is our second public hearing. This a public hearing regarding a proposed special use permit for a recreational substance retail business in the general business district of B2 taxa ID 105-6-23B. It's located at 763 Street in Avenue. I'd like to have staff give us an overview of this, please. Gabri, senior planner for the town of Aan. So, yes, David Richards is the applicant and Jimmy Stewart is the owner. They've requested approval for a special use permit to allow a recreational substance retail business in the B2 district. [clears throat] some background on it. Uh, Smoker's Choice, that's the recreational substance business that's wanting to move, um, has operated over six years within the Kroger Shopping Center. Uh, Smoker's Choice was informed their lease would not be renewed at their current location. Uh, so they're looking to relocate further southbound on Coming Street to 763 Street. Uh there are specific use standards that are that go with allowing a recreational substance business in the B2 district. One of them is they must be located at least 2,000 linear feet uh from any uh public or private school. So that's preK through 12. There were no schools located within within that 2,00 buffer. Uh, also there can be no existing recreational substance businesses within the 2000 foot buffer. [clears throat]

None were found. Um, if it is granted approval, the hours would be set from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and it's not in the O or EC. Uh, in terms of signage, there's already an existing freestanding sign there. They would be allowed to utilize that. In terms of parking, the building is uh used by two businesses. They do have enough parking for both for this business if approved and the existing one that's a hair salon there. Uh it's not located in the flood zone. So there's no problem with that. Uh the SUP findings are uh the proposed recurrative substance retail business must adhere to the hours of 8 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Uh currently there is an existing dense tree line along the west property line screening this location from undeveloped land outside of town corporate limits. the existing tree line should remain to in intact to preserve that natural screening. Uh demonstrate that there will be no undue adverse impact on the surrounding neighborhood uh in terms of public health, safety or general welfare. Uh directly across from Coming Street to the east is another parcel zone B2. Uh adjacent to the south of this are significant number of properties zone lowdensity residential R1. uh and follow along the east side of Street south to the town corporate limit. Uh and third, show that the proposal meets the applicable specific and general standards required by this article. Again, no schools and no existing recreational substance business were found within that 2000 uh buffer. And then there were uh conditions that were set in uh that the commission discussed with the applicant. Those these are the following wall signs be limited to a maximum of 50 square ft. Wall signage faces must be a singular color as approved by planning commission or white. Freestanding or other types of signage proposed at a later date. Color scheme is to match that of the wall sign. One freestanding sign shall be

allowed using the existing freestanding sign structure. Uh window signage is limited to 10% of all windows for that building. Window sign shall not be illuminated. No signage can advertise a marijuana leaf or other references to the genus cannabis. and that's by state code. Uh, no architectural lighting may be around the windows, door, or building facade. No music shall be played after 5:00 pm Monday through Sunday. And that was and the request was approved unanimously with the all those conditions I just listed. We did have one absentee uh that was Mr. Wilson, but other than that, everybody else approved the motion with those conditions as I just stated.

Thank you, sir. Council have any questions? Thank you again. All right. At this time, I'd like to open the public hearing regarding the proposed special use permit that has been described here and invite anyone who would like to comment on that to come to the podium and give us your your comments regarding that, please. All right. Seeing no rush to the podium, I'm going to declare the special the uh public hearing uh at this time closed and we will move on on our agenda to resolutions tonight. A number of uh two resolutions in particular that we'll be discussing tonight. First is a re uh is a resolution for public street names to be added to the street inventory and the urban maintenance inventory for two public rights of way uh Tail Race Drive and Mil Pond Lane. Can we have staff review this for us please? Uh so this is for a new residential development that we have going and it's off of Whitesill Road and so this the streets do meet the VOTE standard to be in our urban maintenance inventory and everything. Staff has meticulously reviewed the design of the development. The roads streets and the names do match up with like how we use drive and lane in this case do match up with how we use those with our existing streets. So there will be no deviation in that. Um, other than that, we're just they just need approval from the town council to bring these into our street maintenance and urban maintenance. Then they get a plat sign and then they go uh record at the courthouse.

Included in our packet, there were some there was some discussion that Mr. Cochran put in there or perhaps you about the advantages of our doing that. Could you just review that quickly with us, please? So before we had this, there was no need for and this one came outside of it, but they were willing to compromise with us because we've been working on an ordinance change and it's in effect where we don't allow any private streets before that was allowed and we didn't really have too much control of how we could uh have developers do the streets. So we had a lot of islands happening which is not great for EMS and all that and also cuts off other uh connectivity aspects. Now we have that in place. This is kind of the first one coming online. Uh that would reflects us having another say in that so we can make sure that we have that connectivity. All the streets meet VOT standards so we can have maintenance of them properly. Some of the ones that we have before are private ones and we don't they're not VOTE approved. So we look to retrof

we'll have the responsibility for the maintenance, the upkeep, the snow plowing, things along those lines. Yep. And we would also this would go into our urban maintenance fund. So we would get money for maintaining these streets as well. Very good. Any questions regarding that? If you're ignorant like me of what tail race and mil pond were about, that's because of white smell. Tail race is part of the thing that Yeah. Explain to me why tail race is the name.

Yeah. So I can I can go into that if you want, but pretty much they're paying an homage. These street name these names of the streets are paying homage to Whites Mill. uh Tail Race and Mil Pond have a connection to powering a water mill and all that kind of stuff. So, they're paying homage to the main street they're coming off of with those names. Thank you.

Y just for the uh the mention the on the urban maintenance, the key is is when developers they put roads in and if they don't meet uh spec, then it's all fine for the first 10 years, but then in 10 in 10 or 15 years, everybody wants to know why we're not fixing their roads. And so we try to encourage people to have them in the in the inventory so that way they're built to spec and then we'll get the maintenance and then in 15 or 20 years people won't be saying why did they ever allow this which is almost always what happens. So it's just a it's good that they're doing that and it'll it'll help maintain the property values as well. All right. Thank you. Well it's the pleasure of the council in regards to this resolution.

I' I'd make a motion to adopt that resolution. All right. Second to that motion. I'll second that. Any additional discussion regarding it? If not, Miss Kingsley, will you call roll, please? Mr. Web, I. Miss Quetch, I. Miss Pion, I. And Vice Mayor Austin, I.

All right. Thank you. Next uh on the agenda is a discussion regarding the proposed special use permit that was discussed just a moment ago regarding a recreational substance and retail business in the uh general business district of B2 on 763 uh Street and the tax back number is in your information. You've already heard that uh discussed here tonight in the public hearing held in regards to it. Is there uh a motion in regards to this proposed special use permit? And please recall that the planning commission approved it with a number of exceptions that are set forth in your in your packet. I I would make a motion to adopt that resolution with all the restrictions that the planning commission had uh put into their motion as well. Thank you, sir. A second.

I'll second. All right. Second to that motion. Any additional discussion at this time? If not, Miss Kingsley, call the role, please. Mr. Web, I. Miss Quetch. I, Miss Pion, I. And Vice Mayor Austin. I. All right. Uh, let's move to the first reading of ordinances. First reading of an ordinance to enact an emergency management program for the town. Uh Mr. Cochran and Chief Estus, I believe, will give us an overview of this proposed ordinance. Yes, sir. Hi.

How y'all doing? Um, yeah. So, uh, basically, uh, we learned last year during the when the hurricane came through, uh, the town we operate pretty much as a as an island of ourselves, um, when it comes to responding and taking care of the community and the surrounding areas. And one of the things we've been doing as a staff is getting everybody trained up. there's um post 911 the bunch of uh different regulations came in at the federal level in order to allow for emergency management and just to have a more structured process in place and so we have the staff has already been getting all that training up to speed and um and thankfully when I came here I already had it all so I don't sit through the training twice u but the the nice part is is it it puts in a structured way of how we operate and how we respond to certain emergencies and it also allows us to um uh just I I believe respond more efficiently and effectively for the people that we are helping and then it also puts in uh structured roles so that when an incident happens you just don't have people saying what am I what am I supposed to be doing this way we have finance has their role police has their role obviously law enforcement uh in the fire everybody has different roles and then we have a a structured documentation way of of doing things so that we get reimbured for the things that we are doing and it's And uh even though we didn't have this ordinance in place, we had the the workflow in place uh from the last storm. It's really been super effective for us. And so this is just a way of uh codifying what we've been operating as that essentially.

Yeah. Um good evening. So the code of Virginia allows towns that's over 5,000 in population to do in in our world become an EM town, emergency management town. So this this ordinance adoption if it is adopted is step one of six that would allow the town to become an independent organization to run emergency management for the town of Abigant. Right now we fall under the powers of Washington County and and what they do. And so there is a state code that's why I'm the emergency coordinator because I make sure that their emergency operations plan works for us. We saw that with Helen and all the damage that happened to our neighbors in Damascus and Taylor's Valley, they were really focused over there and right rightly so they should have been because of the damage that they had here in that area. And we had to request assistance, but it was really hard to get a hold of them because of communications were down and lots of things like that. So this allows us to take care of oursel, still be a partner with them, and still work with them. But in the long run, it makes things more efficient and effective for us. That day, I I know Miss Pion when she was the mayor and vice mayor, they came over uh to the fire station when we set up our emergency operations center, myself and the chief of police, public works director, and others, and we were able to take care of all the citizens in town and take care of the things we needed. So this is just the first step of six, and uh it will just make things a lot better for us here in the town. makes a lot easier. It makes grants. We would become eligible for grants. Right now, we would have to apply with the county if this is adopted and we are approved to be an emergency management town and we can apply for those grants on our own and we can, you know, upgrade our emergency operations center, upgrade uh shelters and all sorts of things we can get. So, this is just the first step

and that doesn't eliminate our working with the county. enter into mutual aid agreements like we do with other right and and that's even in the ordinance that we have to have those type of plans to work together and and they can't do it by themselves and neither can we but it just allows us to work a little well well a whole lot more efficient and and just be able to do that don't have to another level of government we wouldn't have to go through we just take care of it ourselves questions from council discussion

I'll just say that um I have full faith in all of you um as far as your ability to keep us safe and to handle these situations. The way things were handled during Helen, although we didn't have nearly the issues that a lot of other places had, you guys had it under control from the very beginning and um like I said, I have full faith and if this is what you think is best, then I am completely in favor.

Any other questions or discussion? All right. Shall this proposal be rejected or shall it move on to a second reading on November 20th? All right. Hearing no objection to it, it shall be moved to a second reading on November the 20th. Thank you, gentlemen. Next tonight, we have the second reading of an ordinance granting a franchise agreement to IGO Technology Incorporated to operate maintain a telecommunication system in the town of Abby. Mr. Cochran, would you give us an overview of this, please?

Sure. Um, yeah, this is um IGO is U is he okay? Yeah, I'm sorry. He's hiding in the back there. Um the uh IGO is a broadband company that is um um they're running cable out to Grundy area. Is that that right? Yes. Yes.

Oh yeah. So, they're they're uh currently running ga cable through town and uh and in their process of working through their uh running the cable. They've [clears throat] had people that have approached them interested in doing cable business in town or being able to sell the business sell cable in town or fiber in town. And in order for them to be able to do that, they needed a franchise agreement. And so, this is a uh just a way to uh offer them a franchise agreement so they can uh be able to sell in town. And the benefit is if um competition is often good when it comes to services like that. And so this I think that'll give our residents a a broader opportunity to have good service and hopefully at a better price.

And so council had some questions on the second reading about requiring a bond and and abandoned lines. Mr. Cochran did a lot of background checking with our surrounding utilities. Um, and I believe the answer was that although there are a lot in the middle of town, that's because there's a central office from Century Link, there's a substation from Appalachian Power, and there are just a lot of lines in use. None of them are dormant or or abandoned. Um, in the history of the franchises that have been granted for utilities that are on lines, nobody's aware of any ones that have ever stopped serving the town or abandoning their lines in place. Uh, as a result of that, we talked to the treasurer. She says that uh the town has never required a bond uh for that purpose. Um, and so if we did that in this instance, it could be discriminatory. So I think staff's uh recommendation would be to adopt the ordinance.

Yeah, that was the discussion the last time. The concern with with the lines and the number of lines that we have on some of the utility poles.

Yeah. And I can tell you the even though we have a lot of lines, they're actually really neat compared to if when you travel around. Ours are u considerably neater than a lot of places that I've seen. Um but uh [clears throat] yeah, it's it's just a factor of u burying lines is inordinately expensive. So it's a um the way you have to do it is just have what we have just keep them neat. or what is the pleasure of the council regarding this matter? I'll make a motion to um approve this ordinance.

I'll second it. Any additional discussion? If not, Miss Kingsley, will you call the role? Mr. Webb, I. Miss Quetch, I. Miss Pilia, I. Vice Mayor Ali.

All right. Thank you. Next, we uh had the set forth in the agendas the second reading of an ordinance to amend chapter 18 business articles six peddlers, vendors, solicitor, and canvasers. Uh it has changed since the last time that we were were here. Um, so it's at least I guess we could call it a modified ordinance from the first reading. Mr. Cochran, are you going to give us an overview of this? Yeah.

Beyond what we've already heard, let me step in. So, we had um reviewed and revised and and tweaked some of the language. I think there's some underlying misunderstanding of of how this particular ordinance works. So, at the beginning, and I think council understands this, Mr. Dson, I'm happy to expound on it. Sure.

For for the public, um, is definitions that include things, and we have numerous ordinances that that are work this way that you define things in clear categories and then so you're clear on what those entities are. Canvasers for for instance, in in this case, has been the subject of of uh discussion. and then you accept it uh from those ones. There are uh people who could be canvasing for things that are other than political or religious reasons that would require a permit but people who are canvasing doortodoor for political parties wouldn't. Uh how we got in uh this ordinance uh in particular as we pointed out the last time has been in place since 2006. My understanding is how it came to light in the current circumstances that people were coming doortodoor unannounced with no documentation of who they were or what they were doing. I think the chief got a visit at his own home uh for that purpose. So u it is a constitutional and reasonable restriction to make people identify who they are and and and what group they are are with uh to essentially otherwise trespass on private property. you don't have a a right to go on somebody's walk up to their door uh for any reason. Uh so this is a a proper limitation of as we've discussed before um time, place or manner. There's another four-part test uh for limiting free speech uh in that way. So uh we tailored the ordinance to have all those things uh in place. Um I'll point out that if my grammar is wrong, Mrs. Jennings was my English teacher. Uh so we can uh take that up with her. But I I think that we have uh addressed all the questions that uh

the people who commented had. Um I do think that it it's uh proper and and needed and and addressed uh the questions and and the issues that that staff had uh for the council to consider. Uh there are several things when I reviewed the agenda that I had some concerns about. First of all, uh on the first reading, it has changed from that first reading to some extent to to this uh uh reading. uh uh we've had it a relatively short period of time to be able to review it and to consider uh if those changes are appropriate or if those modifications are appropriate. And we've heard at least one comment tonight that that questions some of those issues that you know we could certainly give more consideration to. It's difficult. Uh we've talked about it before, I know about having a ran a red line uh revision so that we can see what the changes are uh rather than having to have one on one side and the other on the other side and try to compare them as we went through it. When we left council meeting last time, we talked about we were going to have a work session on this. I even gave availability I know for myself but I've never been contacted by

Yeah. No, I was going to get a hold of you and then I and after that meeting I got a hold of Cam and we he and I have been going back and forth on the language on it and that's so just because of the roles I was going directly back and forth with Cam on it and I think he sent communication out to everybody to indicate the legal analysis of the ordinance. Well, and I appreciate that and with certainly due respect and courtesy, I would have thought that some of the council would have been involved in what those modifications would have been when we talked about a work session. I expected that that when we left, that's what was going to happen. Yeah. So, I hadn't heard a word since last time.

Well, we sent a letter out, I believe, can. Yeah. So, because because him being the town attorney, that's why I went back and forth with him on on this matter. Um, but no, I didn't do a work session on it just because of him being the attorney. We didn't have an attorney at the last meeting, so it kind of left us a little bit short, but um, yeah, that's why that's how we got to the current iteration. All right. Any other discussions or thoughts in regards to it? number of options. It uh it could be tabled and set over to the next meeting. It can be considered tonight to either approve or not approve it as it is.

I mean it with with the comments that were made and and your concerns, I think tableabling at this point in time would be my personal. Is that an informal motion? And I would make that motion to table it, sir. Future date. Second. Second. All right. Any additional discussion? All right. Mrs. Kingsley, call roll, please. Mr. Webb, I. Miss Quetch, I. Miss Pion, I. And Vice Mayor Austin. I. All right. Between now and next time we come together, let's let's try to discuss it. Uh, so we can be We can do that. Yeah, for sure. For sure. I just Yeah. Thank Thank you very much, sir.

Thanks, sir. All right. Uh, moving on. Uh, tonight under new business, uh, item two is the discussion of the 15-year lease between the town and the depot artists association, the Virginia nonprofit corporation for the property at 314 Depot Square, the arts depot. Uh, we, I believe, have heard an overview of that. Would anyone like uh have Mr. Cochran answer any questions or go over that again? Hearing none. What is the pleasure of the council?

I'll make a motion to um accept this. I would second it. All right. Any additional discussion? Miss Kingsley, please call the role. Mr. Webb, I. Miss Quetch, I. Miss Pion, I. In Vice Mayor Austin, I All right. Thank you very much. Next is uh miscellaneous uh communications from our town manager, Mr. Cocker.

Sure. Thank you. Um um one thing uh a couple months ago we had uh requested uh approval of a thing for the DOT for um pedestrian flashing crossing signs up and down the uh uh main street here, the little yellow ones. you push the button and it's a little over $200,000. Uh that got approved and that's 100% funded. So, um that'll be sometime in the next fiscal year that we'll actually get those those installed up down Main Street. And even though they don't they're not historic, they they do make pedestrian crossing a good bit safer. So, uh those have been approved. I just got the notification today. And um one thing uh I continue to monitor uh is and I send the information out, but like Valley Street last month, even after their paving, there was uh 35 down right past um the creek near Deadmore, the radar sign down there at 35,332 vehicles go by with an average of 29 and 85th percentile of 25. When your 85th percentile is the speed limit, that's phenomenal. We really have a pretty good compliance rate there. Um, one thing that was mentioned at the other council meeting and I get the request and the police uh they report them uh lights from A and uh there was a person that spoke at a couple meetings ago and it took us two months but we did get the [clears throat] the u the lights on Plum Alley replaced. We had a couple of the street lights out and it just es and flows on when we can get those done. But when you when you see them in town, if you see like a little police tie like a little ribbon around the around the uh pole, that means it's been reported. And we we also flag them there so a can can I find them and identify them. But my understanding now is that they've all been fixed. Um and one thing that I know we've been going back and forth or I've gone back and forth with the power company on is the color of the lights because they're just not the same. and

what we're getting is as good as it's going to get unless we wanted as a town wanted to completely pay for all new ones which I don't know would be very uh affordable. U but that said it we're do they're doing the best they can when it comes to the the color of the fixture. It's just that they're it's very difficult to match that I guess that sodium vapor high compression bulb that's uh dying out. But in my rides around town there's good couple dozen of them been changed out in the last year. So they are changing but it's going to take a couple years. It's just not doesn't give me the aesthetic that I would really preferred, but it's what we have. So, we're doing the best we can with it. And then um one thing we did put out and uh is leaves in the road. Um when the uh Valley Street uh well main street in particular, we did all this work on the the main street flood mitigation and it works perfect until you pile a bunch of leaves on top of it. And so we did try and uh put some communic community education out there via social media, let people understand uh just because and our folks go out there and they street sweep and they vacuum, but I forget the term public works uses, but it's like a tornado and and leaves all mixed into one. But this time of year, it's about a month there we have to deal with this. And other than that, it should be pretty good. But you'll notice they're out there. Uh we just asked that if people are uh doing their leaves, they leave them not where they're in the roadway because what'll happen is when it rains, it washes right over the vein, right over the drains and then uh the road floods and then the millions of dollars we spent fixing the problem is no longer fixed. Um so other than that, that's about all I had. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Anybody have any questions for the town manager? All right. Next are council member reports. Mr. way. Just really quickly, I'd like to thank all of the business owners and the citizens that were participating in the Halloween um festivities. It was a great success. I've never seen so many happy kids in all my life. Um and everything seemed to be very um calm and, you know, successful. So, thank you to everybody that was involved. All right. Thank you, Miss Qu.

Yes. I have some prepared notes on me because I have a tendency to repeat myself [laughter] and I don't want to go wayward here. I'm just babbling on. So, I've got some prepared notes. And I really just want to share my thoughts and concerns about today's discussion on the noise ordinance. You know, uh I want to start off by saying though, this really isn't about the business or the person. It's about an ordinance that we have. Uh, so I just want to apologize though to the residents and the business owners affected by this issue. It's important to remember that this is about an ordinance that allows us as council to work together for our community. Our goal is to solve this ongoing problem in a way that benefits our residents, local business owners, and visitors who love our wonderful community. I also want to express that what we heard here today, the excessive noise presented to us today for me is unacceptable. I don't believe anyone here including myself or any resident would feel comfortable with such disruption happening in their own home. To me, the timing is secondary. Now see when we made this 1211 we didn't have these videos okay we didn't know about these videos but now that that's come to [clears throat] light then now I think we can all say that none of us would want that in our home especially our bedroom when we lay down try to go to sleep uh isn't the actually the which was changed from 12 to 11 isn't as important as the noise itself, the amplified sound and some there was some profanity,

loud hollering that disturb our residents quality of life inside their homes shouldn't be allowed at any time. We need to restore a reasonable solution and we've talked about the decibel uh level. So, I don't know how we move forward on this, but just know that we are aware and we want to serve our community well. And I'll just say that our community is filled with wonderful, dedicated residents and small business owners who are passionate about maintaining a welcoming environment. We all share, I think I speak for all of us, the responsibility to develop and enforce rules that balance the need for noise regulation with the well-being or for the well-being of our residents and businesses. Finally, I just like to remind everyone that life is [snorts] too short. So, let's pri prioritize kindness and understanding and working together. We should love each other more and if possible do everything we can to live at peace with everyone.

Thank you. Anything else? I just I just feel like we are here to serve you and that's why you bring these things to us and so I heard a good saying the other day. We need to learn to disagree better. Yeah. Mhm. Miss Py report. I don't have anything to add except for thank you for all of our town employees who work so hard to make Halloween, both the trunk or treat and Halloween night safe for everyone. We appreciate you.

Like to remind everyone of uh November 11th, Veterans Day at 11:00 at Veterans Park, the ceremony that will be held there at that time and everyone certainly is invited. Have a good speaker that will be presenting the program that day. So if you have the opportunity, uh come out and join us at that time. All right. Uh moving on. Uh we have one appointment to a board tonight to consider and that's to the board of zoning appeals. Uh the planning commission has one member from the planning commission who serves on the board of zoning appeals at the same time. That person is Kenny Schuman. Mr. Schuman's term on the planning commission is about to end and he is not eligible for reappointment to the board of zoning appeals. The planning commission considered this at their last meeting and the recommendation that the planning commission made to the council was to appoint Jeff Johnson who is a member of the planning commission to that position. I would make a motion to appoint Jeff Johnson to uh fill Kenny Schuman's expired term for bon board of zoning appeals.

I'll second that. All right. Any discussion? Miss Kingsley, would you call roll, please? Mr. Web, I. Miss Quetch, I. Miss Pion, I. And Vice Mayor Austin,

I. While we're on that subject, let me mention one other thing. Both Mr. Schuman uh and Scott Wilson. Both of their terms on the planning commission are going to be ending very shortly and neither of them are technically eligible for reappointment. However, as you know, we're updating their comprehensive plan and a planning commission has divided the task of going through uh the comprehensive plan. Both those gentlemen have shouldered a great deal of responsibility for reviewing sections of that and uh they both Mr. Schuman and Mr. Wilson would be an agreement to continue to serve in either an advisory capacity or perhaps a a short time additional on the planning commission if that would be proper under the the uh ordinance. And we need to check with uh our town attorney and find out if that's a possibility. But their their help in in working on the comprehensive plan, I can tell you would be invaluable for us. So if there's any way we can do it, we need to consider it. But that'll come at a later time. Is there anything else come before council tonight? I have a motion to adjurnn. So move.

Second. Second. All right. All in favor say I. I. Thank you. We're adjourned.