Town Council - Regular Meeting

Town Council meeting of Bowling Green. Would everyone please stand for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Now take a roll call. Miss Davis here. Mr. Voit here. Mr. Webb here. Dr. Chanel here. Vice Mayor Coyle here. Mr. Stor here. Mr. Hagman not present. He did call in. Uh, it might take a second for him to go through the unmuting process and connection though. Sure. I'm here. Okay. I can hear Can you hear us? I got to turn you up a bit. Yes, I can I can hear you, Jeff. Okay. Hold on just a second. Let's get you Can you say something else? Yeah. Hi. How you doing tonight? Uh, doing good. How are you? I'm good. Okay. Thanks. I just got in my room. I mean, I just I've been in traffic. I just got in my room. That's why I'm a little bit late. All right. I have six council persons present. One who needs an invitation to join the meeting. Um we have a quorum. I would like at this time to ask council if it is okay for how do we go about this? So, madam madame mayor, so the town has to adopt a policy to allow participation uh remotely and the policy has been

provided to you. Um I drafted it and I believe the manager provided it to you. So, state law requires council to have adopted this in order to allow remote participation. So, all this policy does is track almost word for word state foyer law. Uh it's very prescriptive in the law how this has to happen. So this what we're dealing with today um is simply remote participation but the policy also allows for an all electronic meeting with no physical quorum if there's a declared emergency by the governor or by the locality. Um so those are the otherwise it deals with remote participation for the various reasons set out in the policy. So this would be a personal matter um away on business. So, um, first you need to do is adopt the policy, um, if you want this ability. And then after that, assuming you adopt the policy, it would be to vote vote to allow Councilman um, Hegelman to to participate remotely. So, would council like to make a motion to adopt this policy? I'll move to adopt the policy as presented. I have a motion from Councilman Voit. Is there a second? Second. Second it. There's a second from Councilman Stor. Is there any discussion? Um, I'm going to take a roll call on this. Miss Davis, yes. Mr. Voit, yes. Mr. Webb, yes. Mr. Schnel, yes. Dr. Schnel. Vice Mayor Coyle. Yes. Mr. Stor, yes. Okay. Motion passes. Next, I would like to ask council if um for personal reasons if they are willing to make a motion to allow Councilman Hagman. Is that a right Randy to join? All good.

Yes, absolutely. I make a motion to allow uh Mr. Hegman to participate virtually. So, I have a motion by Councilman Voit. Is there a second? Second. Second by Councilman Stor. Any discussion? All in favor, raise your right hand. Motion passes. Welcome to the meeting, Councilman Hagamman. Thank you. Okay. Next, we will move on to the consent agenda. Um item one, the minutes out of town utility connection. Madam Mayor, do we have some amendments to the agenda to to put in? Not at not at this spot. At what spot? What are you referring to? I can't remember all of them, but there were some things to add later. Resolution goes in 10b. The meetings for the remainder of the year go amen member comments and the contract update is for close session. So what else is there? Did we adopt an amended agenda? I think I think the question is are they going to be a are you going to make a motion to amend the agenda to add those items and then adopt the amended agenda? I think is what he's clarifying. If there's changes from the published agenda, yeah, you would council should adopt the amendments. Okay. So, then I guess I need a motion to adopt that. Um, could you go over the items? Yes, you just um added the electronic meeting policy and adopted that. The second is the reimbursement resolution. Um, the third um would be the personnel item that needs to be added to close session. Um, and the other would be a discussion uh that could happen under member comments as it relates to the meeting times for the rest of the year.

I mean, I I can make the motion to add them and then then we can figure out where to place them. I already have where to place them. I just need then then so move to to add them. So, I have a motion from Councilman second. Second from Councilman Stor. Any more discussion? All in favor raise your right hand. Motion passes. So, the consent agenda items one through three. Do any of these need to be brought out by council? Um, I'd like to briefly pull the uh utility connection requests. Um, and so therefore, I'll I'll make a motion to pass the consent agenda items one and three as presented. So, I have a motion on the table. Is there a second? I'll second it. Second by um Councilman Hagerman. Any discussion? All in favor? Ra. Right. Why do you want to pull it? Well, we'll get to that in just a second. Okay. We're going to It's going to go through. I'm going to make a motion on it after. Any more discussion? All in favor, raise your right hand. Motion passes. Okay. Real real briefly on the out of 10 years requests. Um this is more of a acknowledgement and update thing. Um, so these two are only just outside of town, so they're well within everywhere that we meant to provide water. Um, but I I just wanted to bring attention to we had a good about a year and a half ago now um, you know, referred to the planning commission to come up with a water service area to dedicate where we would and would not, you know, provide to to kind of actually remove the need to even do this more or less. But um that hadn't happened yet at the PC level. Um and part of the reason for that is because of the uh still working with the county on the GIS updates and also uh the PC and and staff

is still working on the zoning map. So that's still been kind of hanging a little bit. So I just wanted to put that out there. Um it's I think all of us were on council when that when that got put in. Um but I don't have any reason to like hold these up. I think they are well within where our intended service area is. But with it being on consent agenda, I just wanted to uh pull it and kind of acknowledge what it is. Um I I will say that the as a reminder any in town um connections just go through staff and the town manager and out outside of town connections or go to council. Um I I I would say that with with these from looking at what was in our packet like all the fees seem to have already been paid, the connection fees and everything. So like a full application already done. Um just as a matter of course um prior times years ago, it's been a quite a while since this has happened. Um those those fees I don't think were even paid. I think the the just the idea request got brought to a meeting and then we were asked before any fees were even paid. Um so that's different. I'm not saying it's wrong, but um so them being on the consent agenda was just uh not odd to me, but I I just took notice and because normally we would sit and talk and deliberate and I'm not saying that we need to do that. So I was just kind of updating every angle of that from based off the back history and I think I covered it all. So with that said, I'll I'll make a motion to pass um consent agenda item number two as presented. So I have a motion to pass consent agenda item number two. Is there a second? Second from Vice Mayor Coyle. Is there any further discussion? Yeah, I just um so I think in in areas that are well defined and we're servicing now such as that little the old tender subdivision Mory Heights Mory Heights Mory Heights North. I mean I personally I don't feel

the need to look at every one of them. Um, now if this is some, you know, new development in the county up Route 2 and it means infrastructure certainly. Um, I don't So, I was looking at those two. So, it it must be two new houses being built because they're not asking for sewer because there's no sewer up there. They're just asking for water. Is that right? So, I mean, I I want to call those people and thank them for $12,000 actually and hope that they build more because that'll help us on on Main Street. So, you know, I I appreciate the concern, but in in well-defined areas where we're already providing water andor sewer, man, I I don't I don't need to talk about it. I mean, I I think we trust our staff enough, but that's only my only discussion. I'm voting for it. Any further discussion? All in favor, raise your hand. Right hand. Motion carries unanimously. Randy, I didn't get your vote. I'm sorry. Yes, I'm raising my right hand. Oh, thank you. I just I'm, you know, I can't see it. I know. Yes. All right. Motion passes unanimously. Um, next we will go to public comment. When you come up, please state your name, your address. You have three minutes to speak. You will address me, the um moderator, as much as council would like to respond to you. Our rules do not allow for that. Um but we are listening. We are taking notes and what you have to say is very important to us. So now I'd like to open public comment. Would anyone like to come

forward? Going once, going twice. I will now close public comment. We will now move on to member comments. Mr. Hagerman, do you have any comments? I have no I have no comments, Mayor. Mr. Stor, no. Thank you. Vice Mayor Coyle? Yeah, I just have one little one. Um, at our last public hearing, there was just some confusion. Um, I noticed some comments were made in reference to our sewer, the plant, etc. Um, I don't know how to put this more blunt bluntly, but the county dumped us. We didn't dump them. They gave us 30 days to find someone. We did what we needed to do. I think that might have surprised them, but it has been done and we have been successful since that point. I just wanted to clarify that because the comments really concerned me. Um, along with the one that this council created a meeting at 4:00 so nobody could come. The room looked nice and full to me. We had a lot of questions. I love when people are here. Um, but as a council person, I don't just represent the people who are in the room. I represent those who are not in the room and those who are online and cannot speak for themselves. Having said that, thank you all for coming. Thank you, Vice Mayor Coyle. Dr. Chenalt. Yes, one comment. Um, just a referral of a concern brought to me by one of our citizens. This involves an apparently derelictked and abandoned building on Milford Street. I think the number is 106.

uh apparently has been abandoned for some time with no maintenance done. Uh and I think some neighbor out of the graciousness of their heart ms the weeds around it from time to time. But the issue is that it's becoming a haven for wild animals uh including groundhogs and such ilk and and the concern is is can the town have any redress for this situation? That would be something for the town manager to address. I'll look I'll look into it and follow up. Thank you. Anything else? Dr. Chanel, Mr. Web, Mr. Webb, no comment, Mr. Voit. Okay. Um, briefly, I I'll point out that it does seem in this room that the internet connection is not as good. So, the viewers online might be having a little bit of choppiness. I will look at that later and upload the recording if I need to if it's stuttering a whole bunch. Um, so apologies for that if that's the case. Um and then secondly, um going into planning commission, uh liaison comments and referrals, not a whole lot of anything new other than still just continue to work on uh discussion of tiny homes and and comp plan everything. PC is moving right along. Um but uh as far as referrals to the planning commission, would now be the time to talk about the food trucks. Okay. Um in in talking with the town manager, uh we had a discussion on on food trucks and um allowing disallowing how to allow um and so there there's been the question of um referring that to the planning commission to actually look into to get that enshrined correctly in our our code via

ordinance. Anything you want to elaborate on on that? Other than I'm formally uh assigning it to the planning commission, it'll be added to the work plan. Um and we'll follow up with them to make sure that that fits into the work plan in the coming months. Okay, cool. Thank you. Thank you. That that's all that I have for Thank you, Miss Davis. Madame Mayor. Yes, sir. Madam Mayor, Randy here. I just want to um remphize something that um Dr. Chenalt said that 109 that's been brought up before to the council. The house has actually got a big hole in the roof and it's almost ready to collapse and implode on the inside and come down because it's so rotten. I think we've reached out to the homeowner before. Um, but maybe we need to do it again so he gets into compliance because it it is an eyesore and it could be hazardous too because it is ready to fall in. Thank you, Miss Davis. I have none. Thank you. Um, I would like to bring up at this time, it has been respectfully asked of us from staff that we cancel our July meeting so that they can do their end of the year fiscal work and get started on the new work year. Um, and also it would have to be two different motions, but I would very much, as I know some members of this council have already voiced the same opinion, I would like to change our meeting time from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. So, those are two items that I respectfully come to council for and ask for their input or a motion.

Madame Mayor, I'll make the motion to change the meeting time from 5 to 6 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month. Thank you. I'll second it. Thank you, Councilman Hagamman. You made the motion. Councilman Voy, you second it. Is there any discussion on this? Madame Mayor, for clarification, council would be adopting the resolution that staff prepared. We don't we don't we don't we don't have a resolution for that yet. I didn't want to be that presumptive, but assuming that they do that, we can have it retroactively. We'll prepare that. Yeah. You don't have Thank you. Is there any other discussion? Um, I would like to take a roll call for this. Miss Davis, yes. Mr. Voit, yes. Mr. Webb, yes. Dr. Schnel, yes. Vice Mayor Coyle, Miss Stor, yes. Mr. Stor, I'm sorry. Mr. Hagamman, yes. Motion passes unanimously. Um, and what about the cancellation of the July meeting? Is that something you're interested in or not? Madame Mayor, I know we've done that in the past. And so, if that's um in the height of the summer and vacation and staff needs it, I make a motion that we not have a July meeting. So, I have a motion from Councilman Stor. Is there a second? Second. Second from Councilman Hagman. Any discussion? So, um Mo um all in favor raise your right hand. Randy, is your hand raised? Yep, it's raised. All right. Motion passes unanimously. So, our next meeting will be in

August. Okay. Now we will go back to item number four which is the public hearing. The proposed increases in water and sewer rates and fees. At this time I'll turn this over to the town manager. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um the resolution is included in the packet. will allow anyone who's interested in speaking to that item go forward at this point and I'll hand it back over to you for public comment. Is there any um public comment? Anyone in the Oh, I'm sorry. We want to help open the public hearing for uh the proposed increase in water and sewer rates and fees. Is there anyone from the public who would care to come forward and speak at this time? Okay. Hearing none, we will move forward. This is something I just Okay, at this time we will close the public hearing. I need to ask council for a motion to adopt the water and sewer rates and [Music] fees. I make a motion to adopt the fees as stated by staff for the water and sewer rates. I have a motion from Dr. Chenalt, a second from Vice Mayor Coyle. Um, is there any

discussion? All right. Hearing none, um, I'm going to take a roll call. Councilwoman Davis, yes. Councilman Voit, that'll be a no. Councilman Webb, yes. Councilman Chenalt, yes. Councilwoman Coyle, yes. Councilman Stor, yes. Councilman Hagerman, yes. Motion carries 6 to one and passes. Item number five on the agenda is the town managers report. Is everybody familiarize themselves with that? And um I would like to ask the town manager at this time if she has any comment on this. Um no, not at this time other than a quick addition. Um been working with our new Main Street group. Um I think that's adopted their new name as BGVA Main Street. Um they've been awarded um a grant for technical assistance. Um, and I've uh executed thatou um with DHC um and we'll get those grant funds for them in the amount of 3400 $3,425 for technical assistance um that has to be completed by next year um to get them back um in good standing with DHC um and help with some of those administrative tasks as it relates to their nonprofit um status. Um, so that's very good news. And we also have another grant um that's out there with that group um that we hopefully will hear from DHED in the

coming months. So just just a quick addition. Very good. Thank you. Any other questions from And just to add, I know uh you all um did um choose to um cancel that July meeting, but things that we are doing between now and July, our financial system conversion uh to Southern Software, which we're working on daily with staff. Our FY23 audit is still um underway, working with auditors on that. They're supposed to get us some answers by the end of the week. If there's any other outstanding items, our infrastructure projects, oversight of Main Street, uh project that is moving along. Our XA project, our first one actually is underway this week. Both Sean and I were on site with uh Fort Walker, um this morning. Um and they'll hopefully have their first project wrapped up by the end of July. We also had an opportunity from our local planning district for a grant for the state economic infrastructure de development grant program that we've worked with to submit a preapp uh for CCTV footage as well as lining for um several pipes in town uh that we'll be working with and meeting with um them on Monday. Um Mr. Smith is working with me as well as uh Mr. Mr. Boils at our local planning district um to help us get that application together by July 18th as well as our town code revision um process uh working with Civic Plus and Mr. Gore. Uh that's also going to be underway in the last month. So we many of us are not going on vacation. We're here working harder. I just wanted to make sure we have that for the record. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Yes. So can so the IXA so just so everybody knows so that's the partnership with Fort AP Fort Walker where we're facilitating people to do work and we're getting a percentage of it. So this is the first and it's it's a plumbing or he what is it? Yes, it'll be it's a plumbing project um two on two of their barracks. Um Sean uh was out there with uh the plumber um the the contractor um the plumbing company that was awarded the project this morning. Um, yes, this is the first one. Uh, we would have hoped to move a little bit faster, but f federal bureaucracy is still a little

slow. Um, but we've worked through that with Fort Walker. They also have had about six positions eliminated. So, they are definitely grateful that we are helping as their procurement agent, but it is an additional task over and above what we are core government functions. Awesome. So, it's it's a nice little revenue stream. Hopefully, it'll it'll grow. So, this plumbing contractor, is it a local person? Um, I believe they're out of Williamsburg. Oh, really? Yeah. Okay, that's awesome. Thank you. Any other questions from council to um town manager? The next item on the agenda, item six, is the police department. We have um Chief Cecil's report in front of us. Are there any questions for him at this time? All right, Chief Cecil, do you have anything to add at this time? Madame Mayor, members of council, I don't have anything to say, but hope everybody's having a good evening. Thanks for being Yes. Thank you. Thank you. And if I may, mayor, I'd like to just thank him for and and Mr. Officer Irving's work on helping with our street um as it relates to Main Street um the closures and they worked with VOTE um to get additional signage and ensure that the trucks aren't going in Mr. Web's parking lot as well through um uh this the other side street. So they've done a great job in working collaborating. I appreciate them. Thank you very much. The next item on the agenda is the public works report. Has everyone been through that? Are there any questions for Mr. Sha Fortune at this

time? Mr. Fortune, do you have anything to add at this time? Thank you, sir. Madame Mayor, I also just point out that um it was brought up at a previous council meeting um about the hydrants. I believe they staff has done an initial look at that and I think there about seven that either need to be repaired or replaced. Um and Sean has been in coordination with that vendor. They should be out either this week or next week and we'll provide an update in August. Thank you very much. Next we have our community development report. Um has everyone gone through that? The town manager has uh touched on a couple of these. Are there any questions? Miss and Adams Jacobs, do you have anything to add at this time? No, ma'am. All right. Item number nine is the utilities report. And at this time I would like to turn this over to Embo. Good evening. Big big red button. All right. Jamie will provide the utility report uh while I kind of finish setting up. Uh we have a presentation to provide you about the sledge drying bed. All right. Go ahead and take a look. Good evening, council, madame mayor. Welcome. So, for the month of April, um the NOAV that exceeded the um I'm sorry, the alpha emitters for the

well systems. The the public notice has been distributed. Uh the presence absence Bacterological samples have all been collected and all was absent. So that's that's good disinfection. Uh for the wastewater treatment system, everything was as normal and all numbers were well within the permitted range for that for this wastewater plant in Bowling Green. Um there was a couple of issues that got done. The raz line stopped up. That was taken care of by maintenance. That went well. The we're still alternating the clarifiers on and out of service. Uh we evaluated the drying beds which Mark is going to give a presentation on that. Uh and all preventive maintenance was performed at the wastewater plant as necessary. And that's that was pretty short and sweet, but that's really the blunt of it. Any questions? When I was looking at this on page three, it says RSA RA line stopped up twice. What is an RA line? So, it's it's a return activated sludge plant or return activated sludge line. And what it does is it brings the solids after it settles in the clarifier back to the uh process. So the bugs stay alive, the microorganisms, right? Thank you. Are there any questions from council at this time? Thank you, Jamie. All right. And uh your your question was

uh rightly timed. I'll get into a a short I promise I'll be as short as I can. a very short introduction into wastewater treatment plants and how it specifically pertains to the town of Bowling Greens wastewater treatment plant. Um so India had asked me to develop kind of a presentation for you uh to give you a situational update of what's happening at the sledge drying beds and then kind of go into some background data to paint a better picture for you guys to understand what what's going on a little bit better um and also give you guys uh some some action plans that we've uh presented to the town. So without further ado, uh if you guys can read that back there, I I don't mind to read it for you. Uh but there's five different talking points I want to kind of go over in today's discussion. Uh but like I said, I'll give you an overview of the wastewater treatment process. Uh the need uh for solids or sludge management. And when I talk about solids and sludge, it's kind of inter interchangeable. Um solids and sludge in the wastewater treatment plant typically roughly mean the same thing. and specifically for today's presentation, they're going to mean the same thing. Item three is the key infrastructure used in the solids management. We'll go over all the various aspects that are included in the Bowling Green wastewater plant and what actually manages your sludge. We'll we'll look at the current status of the drying beds and we'll also give you some recommended repairs uh to the same. All right. So, overview. Uh, the town owns and it's contractly operated by our our firm in Bowden Environmental uh at your own wastewater treatment plant. The plant is permitted to discharge uh 250,000 gallons per day or.250 million gallons per day. And our permit is issued by the Department of Environmental Quality DEQ from the state of Virginia. And this is under the

VPDEES or the Virginia Pollution Discharge Elimination System. I know it's a mouthful uh but that's just what it is. Uh the util the wastewater treatment plan utilizes the following process. It has influence screening for the the wastewater has oxidation ditch which is biological component has clarification, filtration and disinfection. Uh a key thing to understand about wastewater treatment, uh wastewater is treated by one or all of three different methods. There's biological, there's chemical, and there's physical. And at this treatment plant, we kind of do a little bit of all three. And so without further ado, uh I took an aerial uh photograph of the wastewater treatment plant. We're just going to go through your wastewater treatment plant stepwise. Um so the first thing, your heavy hitter is your oxidation ditch. That's your biological treatment. Uh that is the main heartbeat of the wastewater treatment plant. That is what oxidizes all of the carbon which is relatively known as BOD. Uh it reduces solid content and it also uh provides the nitrification process which if you remember back to your high school uh chemistry and biology days uh that is the conversion of ammonia to nitrates and nitrites. All that happens right there in that oxidation ditch. After that oxidation ditch, we go into a clarifier. And this is where the physical component uh comes into play. Uh the physical component is the solids to liquid separation. And that's what happens in those clarifiers. The solids will settle out. That's quscent uh tank. Quascent chamber has a a cone-shaped bottom. And all the solids will fall to the bottom. And the raz line uh carries solids from the bottom. those clarifiers, the solids that settles out and takes it back to the oxidation ditch uh for further treatment. The clarified water uh flows over to those sand filters. Again, this is another physical

form of treatment. And those sand filters uh we also inject uh some some carbon I believe at this facility and that is a chemical component and that's for denitrification. And those sand filters kind of polish uh the clarifier effluent. After the sand filters, you have UV lights and the UV lights are uh there specifically for pathogen uh guarding against pathogens, namely E.coli. So, we reduce our E.coli numbers uh by using the the UV light. So, none of this right now is screaming to you solids and solids management. Uh the the two items that are key components is the sledge drying beds uh the the main metal structure uh or metal roofed structure on the left and the sludge digtor. They're kind of um yeah top left. Uh the the sledge digtor, that's what we send all of the uh the solids to once the population in the oxidation ditch gets too large. Uh so the it's a biological treatment plant and the the microbes are the solids essentially and we can have too much of a good thing and so on once the solid content gets too high we have to call some of those uh solids some of those uh biological microorganisms we have to send them to a digtor for further processing. Well what do we do from them uh a after the digtor? We send them to the drying bed and the drying bed uh we pour those drying beds and the sludge goes over those sand beds. It allows the capillary water uh between the sludge uh to be filtered through the sand and then returned back into the treatment process, leaving you with this very dry, crusty, you know, desert looking solid content on top of the sand drying beds that has to be physically removed and that's then hauled off to the King George County um sanitary or the the u the landfill. I was looking

for the word there. So, that is a very high view of your wastewater treatment plant. Before I move on, is there any questions about that high level view of your of your wastewater treatment plant? Yes, sir. The when the liquid leaves the sand filters and goes for UV treatment, where does the final liquid go after that? So, I don't know if you can see my mouse. So, here's your drying bed there. You can't It's Let's see. It is actually right here. There is a pump pit that all of the filtered water that comes from those drying beds, it goes into this pump pit and that is then returned to the head of the treatment plant for processing. It'll it'll be recycled back through the process. Did I answer your question, sir? Yeah. So, basically a closed system. It's a closed system as it pertains to the the clarified water that's filtered through. Yes, sir. Okay. But eventually at the end of the UV it goes into a body of water. That's correct. At the end of the UV it does go into a receiving stream we call it. Um not sure the name of the receiving stream right now. Uh but is a nearby stream that we discharge into and goes to the Rapahhanic. Correct. Yes sir. To the Rapahanic or the Matapana? I would imagine it goes to the Matapana. That's what I was thinking. Yeah. You're asking me questions that I do not know on that one. Okay. Um, you said you haul the sludge, the dried sludge off. Is that a product that could be composted and sold and used as a source of income for the town? I know some jurisdictions do that. Some jurisdictions do. Um, no jurisdictions that we work with do. Um, that there has been discussions of that. But the problem that we run into is there there is a relative cost to create the dried sludge, the cake we call it, into a

marketable form. Uh so you have to pelletize it, you have to I really hate hearing myself. I'm sorry. You got to you got to deal with that. Uh but you have to pelletize it, you have to market it, you have to sell it. Um and the problem that we run into here is just simply an economy to scale. We do not produce enough that it would be marketable, favorable from a financial aspect for the town. Okay. Thanks. No, great, great question. Any other questions before we move on? Any questions for council? Yes. Um, INI, um, you know, while you have like the map up, can you kind of go over just how much of an impact that has? I don't know how much INI we really have. I just know we have a lot but you know at each stage of that thing what what's what's the damage? Uh that that's going to be a question that our operations people are going to better answer. Do you guys have any uh discussion that you want to say about INI or uh the impact so Jamie can come and answer that. Um the biggest effect that the INI is going to have on the system is it's going to reduce the retention time in your oxidation ditch which would then you know it would it would decrease the amount of treatment that you would have. It would it can only process so fast. So if you speed that up, it's not going to process the the toxins quite as fast. So the things that we're removing won't be removed as efficiently. Does that that's the biggest impact. That's that yeah that that pretty much answers it. If if there was an EQ basin that could be slowed down and you could feed it in slowly. You could be like a drip feed. You could just keep a constant flow and your EQ basin would rise and and lower and that would you know that would

greatly help. Okay. Where along that chain does that excess water generally not become a factor? It affects the whole chain except the digtor and the sand beds, but then there's an indirect impact because you're going to have to waste more at some point. Um, but usually doesn't last forever. Okay, cool. Thank you. And also your question, this treatment plant averages around 80,000 gallons per day. And at as the previous slide had, we we have a permit for 250,000 gallons per day. The plant's designed to handle that. And so the impacts from INI, the negative impacts of INI are are noticed, but they're not necessarily felt if that if that makes sense. That does and that's good to hear. Sure. All right. No other questions. We'll continue on. Go for it. All right. You guys are going to be wastewater professionals at the end of this. All right. Solids maintenance or management. Uh so what is the purpose of solids management? Why do we need to do this? Well, it maintains the proper biological balance. Uh so the proper solid retention supports a healthy uh biological population essential for treating wastewater. If we do not have the appropriate amount of biological activity of activated sludge, we're not going to have the appropriate amount of biological treatment. So managing and maintaining a biological balance is paramount. It also optimizes the treatment plant efficiency. So controlling sludge age which Jamie just mentioned and also the concentration enhance the nitrification process and that is the control of ammonia. In 2028 a few short years from now uh there's going to be imposed on the town an ammonia limit. We do not have an ammonia limit right now. It's an interim limit. Uh we are not held to that. But in 2028 that ammonia limit is going to u going to become effective. uh and so optimizing the treatment plant's efficiency of and solids management is

going to guard against uh you know maintaining reliable nitrification process. It also prevents operational issues which uh poor solids handling can lead to bulking in the clarifiers in your physical uh portion of your wastewater treatment plant. It can bulk. It can also provide foaming if you have too much solids uh you know and you have really old sludge. Uh it can also proliferate uh bad bacteria. Not all good bacteria. Not all bacteria are good. Uh there are some bad bacteria when it comes to wastewater treatment. And also uh can provide equipment clogging. You know we just mentioned that we had a RAZ line uh that was was clogged. We we had to you know run a jeter down the line uh to unclog that line. Uh so it prevents operational issues. Uh also ensures regulatory compliance. So effective solids management. It ensures that we have a proper solids liquid separation providing compliant effluent. If we did not manage the solids appropriately in your wastewater treatment plant when a heavy precipitation event comes and we have an inundated uh treatment plant from INI, uh we're going to have an overrun of the clarifier. You know, we're the solids will will not be able to be maintained in the treatment plant. it'll flow downstream into your sand uh filters and then subsequently out through the UV lights. Uh so it it is a real thing. It happens. Um if if an operator is not paying attention to that. Uh I'm here to say that you know since we have been on uh operating this this facility, we have provided appropriate sledge management and and it is at a cost uh right now. I'll get into the current situation. Uh but we the town is spending uh quite a sum of money in regards to solids management and pumping of the sludge. All right. So the sludge sludge manage solids management process. Uh let's get into the key components as it

relates to solids management. Um so if you uh remember back to what Jamie was mentioning uh waste activated sludge um that is the operational ability to direct the concentrated sludge from the bottom of the clarifier uh to the sludge holding tanks. And I have a graph there. Uh it's very blurry up there. It's a little clear down here. Uh if anyone wants these slides after I'm done be happy to send those to you. Uh but the concentrated solids once we get to a level where we have to maintain or or uh minimize the amount of solids in our aation tank we can send the concentrated solids in the bottom of the clarifier to the sludge digesttors and that is called wasting. Uh the process is typically referred to as wasting and allows the operator to control the amount of solids in the treatment process. That's how we control it. And what do we do with it? Well, we we first we stick it into a tank called a digtor. And this is the a picture of your digtor at your wastewater treatment plant. It's a concrete holding tank. It uh has aation uh it that provides mixing and it stores the sludge for further processing. This tank also allows the operator uh to thicken the sludge. And so at at a certain times the operator can turn off the air, allow the solids to settle out just like in the clarifiers and pump the supernent the clear water that that's after the solids settle out they can pump that back to the head of the process. uh buying them more time and thickening that sludge. And we're not processing just water. We're processing concentrated sludge. So what happens after it leaves this tank? Well, then we go to the sludge drying beds. And that's kind of another view of your drying beds there. Uh the drying beds consist of five different beds under one roof. And the sludge drying beds is the method in which the sludge is dewatered. It consists of sand and a gravel bed that allows water to drain from the sludge. Uh leaving behind a dry and manageable

solid. And there are concrete tracks that a skid loader or a backhoe or some other uh piece of equipment with a loader can get in there and uh they can scoop up all the the dried sludge and haul that off to the landfill. So let's look at the current status of the drying beds. And those letters and words appear very small. Uh so sorry about that. Uh but I I did find it important to provide some of these photos. Two of these three photos are provided in the tech memo that our company wrote. Uh and it it just gives a highlighted overview of what's going on. Uh but uh we provided this technical memo uh to detail the status of the sledge drying beds and give you guys some recommendations. The sludge is not drying due to inadequate draining of the capillary water of the sludge. And this is primarily due to the under drains that are clogged. The under drains are clogged from many different reasons. One, this is uh you know, these drying beds have probably been uh installed and in service since the wastewater treatment plant was built. And so there there has been years of use, years of benefit that the town has seen. And this is really just a a relatively a maintenance item that the town will then need to address. But the ultimate failure was was the uh the under drains are clogged. And you say this was since the drying beds were put in when the plant was pretty much constructed which was when do not know. Uh but if I had to guess it's probably 80s or 90s 80s or 90s. Um the tail manager told us at the last meeting that best practices is that the beds be replaced after 10 years. Yes. Yeah, I would agree with that. And so the the supporting gravel base and sand filter media are uh stilted and they need to be replaced. So if you look at uh the the left the larger of the the

three pictures, uh that is a picture of just a mound of sand and gravel that that we've removed. And you'll notice that a lot of the pearavevel and the sand are intermixed and that's not what you want to have. You want to have a clear distinct uh two-level uh situation there. They're completely mixed and that will lead to silting of those under drains. um another picture the top right um that is showing uh in certain areas of the drying bed where we still have kind of a two-layered system but you'll notice there's kind of three layers that are being pres presented there that you have at the very bottom the pearavevel that supports the filter sand on top then you have kind of like a white grayish uh line that's old sand uh and then the top some new sand was placed on top of that old sand often times when uh operators remove the sand the the the um the dried sludge from the top of the sand filters. Some sand's going to carry be carried out with it. That's just normal. That's that's typical. And looks like there was sand that was just added to it because not enough sand was present. Well, so so how how is the sludge placed on top of that? Pumped pumped over there. It is uh by gravity. Uh there there are a series of valves um that the operator can control, manual valves, and when the digtor gets to a certain level and there's a drying bed available, they they can choose which bed they pour and when. And and then so when you go in there with some piece of equipment to get the cake dried, sludge off, take to the landfill, how in the world do you get it without tearing up all the sand, gravel? I wish I had a picture of it. Uh there are concrete tracks that extend through the length um you know laterally of the drying bed. The drying bed it's probably about a a 30 by 90 uh bed and

there's two concrete tracks that a piece of equipment is it's designed tires drive on the track. The tires will drive on the track not on the skims off the So there's been some talk recently about the wrong type of sand was put in there. Is that right? I I'm not going to speak to the the type of sand that was put in there. I can tell you the type of sand that we're going to recommend to put in there. Um I I have not done any testing on the sand that that's there. Um but I I can give you a recommendation of what needs to go on there. Well, what you're recommending to put in there is it different what's there now? Uh I do not know what's there now. Like I said, without testing, uh I I don't really want to say. uh but we are recommending uh an ASMC 33 uh with a 0.5 to 7 mm uh coefficient 33 with a after 33 with a what uh with a 0.5 to 7 mm design size and it's going to be a silica a washed silica sand silica could you send me an email with this I can provide In my next slide, I'm going to go into detail of what the recommend repairs are. And point number two has uh the the specifics of the type of sand that we're recommending to put in. So, we recommend re rehabilitating two out of the five beds. So, there's five total beds. We recommend repairing two. Not just from cost uh but you know we are looking in the future of installing some sort of sludge press whether that's a centrifuge fan press or a belt press but some some other way of physical mechanical means of pressing these solids and creating a cake outside of uh the the drying beds. uh the if if the uh the the facility was at full design load at 250,000 gallons per day, those drying beds would not be able to keep up with the sledge

production. Um looks like he just went to sleep with the sledge production uh of that facility. I saved it. All right. So, uh that is why we're only recommending two out of the five beds and uh you know that re reserve those two. to two this year. Uh we're recommending re uh rehabilitating the other three in subsequent years. So the replacement sand um all the existing sha sand should be removed and replaced with a type of sand that meets the specifications of sledge drying beds. And we're recommending a.5 to 7 mm ASMC 33 uh washed silica sand. That is that is our recommendation. Okay. So when you go in, are you planning to totally rebuild the drying bed, the the under structure, the drain pipes, the the two different rock layers that are supposed to go in, and then the sand layer on top. Yes. Uh and we've provided to the town um and we can share this with you as well. Uh but a proposal to do that work. Um and we're not going to be going in to replace uh just two layers. We we are recommending to not only replace the sand layer but create two other supporting layers of rock beneath. And so the the bottom layer after we replace the drain tiles will be a number 57 style rock and then we'll have pravel on top of that and the sand on top of the pearl. And so you you'll have a good base supporting the filter sand that's on top. Where are you getting your sand recommendations from? The state from an organization. I know the county had given us documentation where they got their referrals. I have spent over 40 hours the past month learning about sludge beds. Certainly, I never thought I'd know this much about Not a problem. Number two, our recommendation is coming from uh the design standards of

metafetti uh which is the the wastewater treatment bible. Uh this what all engineers use um when designing wastewater treatment plants. So, we'll we'll replace not only the sand uh but then also the stone uh media that's supporting that and then we'll be replacing the under drain piping. Uh the cost for the refurbishment of two of the five beds is coming at about 85,000 uh for that refurbishment. Um and th those are recommendations and we've we've clarified the scope of work and our recommended practices um in our our proposal and happy to share those with you and India has a copy of those as well. All right, any questions? Any questions from council didn't uh bore you too much. Mr. Hagerman, do you have any questions? No. I thought we lost you. Okay, sounds good. Yeah, thank you all. Appreciate your time. At this time we we had made a change to the agenda. So I would like to at this time have 10B which is the town of Bowling Green resolution the So that's resolution something. That's not the budget resolution. Budget

resolution is No, she told me to put it in at 10B. Is this an inappropriate place? Um, Mr. Cole, yes. Could you come forward, please? Sure. This is the town of Bowling Green. The the bud the resolution um official intent. Yes, sir. Could you address this? Sure. Yes, happy to do it. Good evening, Ted Cole with Davenport. Um, I did talk with the town manager today. This is a resolution um we often call it a reimbursement resolution or a notice of re a reimbursement of intent. Essentially what this does if you all were to consider approving it, it would allow you in the future to consider paying yourselves back for cash that you've spent on capital projects through a future debt issuance. So you fronted money to do certain things. Later down the road you decide you want to borrow for those things and you affect a borrowing some or all of which might be to pay yourselves back for the monies you've previously spent. It just allows you to consider doing that. It does not require that you do it and it doesn't even require that you ever issue debt. It just clears the path. And the reason we do these is because um and it's only applicable to tax exempt borrowing. And normally when you borrow, you would borrow on a tax exempt basis, lower interest rate because it's for public purpose. And the IRS wants to be sure that when you borrow tax exempt and you pay yourselves back for prior expenses, that there was an intent to do that along the way. And so that's why the reimbursement resolution is there. Again, it doesn't mean that you have to

pay yourselves back. You could decide in the future to issue debt and exclude the reimbursement. You'll have that choice at the time of the debt issuance. And it and it doesn't mean you'll ever issue the debt. So, it just clears the path and um gives you maximum flexibility going forward. The debt, if you issue it, still has to be approved as it normally would. This doesn't supersede any approvals like that. It just clears the clears the path and and and puts out there publicly the the intent that you might pay yourselves back. Any questions from councel to Mr. Cole? If it's never used, it just goes away. Okay. So, Madame Mayor, do you need a motion? So, I I make a motion adopt resolution 2025-604, official intent to reimburse expenditures with the proceeds of a of a borrowing. I'll second it. So, motion from Councilman Stor. Is there a second? Yeah, I'll second it. Second from Mr. Hagamman. Any discussion from this council? Mr. Voit, did you have a question? I I had tried to second a minute ago. I I'll just say options are good. Okay. Any other questions from this council? I will um take a roll call for this. Councilwoman Davis, yes. Councilman Voit, yes. Councilman Webb, yes. Councilman Chanel, yes. Vice Mayor Coyle, yes. Councilman Stor. Yes. Councilman Hagerman. Yes. Motion passes

unanimously. The next item on our agenda is the appointment of a town treasurer. Yeah. Madam Mayor, we still need to adopt the budget. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. Yeah. All right. We um need a motion to adopt our budget and appropriations resolution. Do I have a motion from council at this time? This was motion 10. I apologize. We jumped the gun. I'll make that motion. I have a motion from Vice Mayor Coyle. Is there a second? Second. Second from Councilwoman Davis. Is there any discussion about this? Yes, Mr. Boy. I'll be brief again. I I spoke uh enough about the budget and the taxes at the last meeting, so I didn't want to take a lot of time tonight. You know, I voted no for the rates earlier and I'm just trying to be consistent with how I felt there. But I I don't want to devalue all the work done on this budget and I'm still going to think that we're going to need to like increase rates further in the future. But for now, I'm going to stick to how it was. So, appreciate you all. Thank you, sir. Any other comments? Um, I will once again take a roll call on this. Go ahead, Miss Coyle. Did you want to speak? Okay. Councilwoman Davis, yes. Councilman Voy, no.

Councilman Webb, yes. Councilman Chanel, yes. Vice Mayor Coyle, yes. Councilman Stor, yes. Councilman Hagerman. Yes. Motion passes 6 to one. Okay. Now we can move on to item number 11, the appointment of a town treasurer. Um we have our paperwork in front of us. It's in the council packet and it's been available to the public. Would someone like to make a motion to uh appoint our new town treasurer? So moved, Madame Mayor. I didn't hear you, Mr. So moved. Oh, so we have a motion from Councilman Voit. Is there a second? I'll second that. I have a second from Vice Mayor Coyle. Is there any discussion at this time? Okay. All in favor, raise your right hand. Mr. Hagman, is your hand? I'm raising it. Okay. Motion passes unanimously. Next is item number 12, the audit engagement letter. and uh staff seeking approval for the upcoming audit engagement. Um as part of our commitment to transparency and accountability, regular audits are essential to ensure the proper management of public funds

and resources. The recommendation from staff is approving the audit engagement for RFCA and authorizing them to proceed with the audit process. And she is asking for your support if that is something that you are willing to support. There is a draft motion here. Well, we obviously have no choice. I just want to before I make the motion, I want to reiterate I I would love to know why we didn't do these when they were due. But I move to authorize the town manager to execute an agreement with RFCA for an estimated cost of 33,000 for the FY24 audit and to begin work immediately upon completion of the FY23 audit. Second. So I have a motion from Councilman Stor, a second from Councilman Voit. Is there any discussion on this? Okay. Um, once again, I'm going to take a roll call. Councilman Hagerman, yes. Councilman Stor, yes. Vice Mayor Coyle, Councilman Chanel, yes. Councilman Webb, yes. Councilman Voit, yes. Councilwoman Davis, yes. Motion passes unanimously. Madame Mayor. Yes. I just like to add here just as kind of a point of clarity. I know sometimes there's questions about things that increase. Just for comparison sake, a couple years back our audits used to be about 20. Um I think the 22 was 22,000 and it's jumped to about 33. And that's just an estimate for additional work that may need to be done. It may exceed that based on the conditions. Uh we've looked at some other options, but they were in excess of $40,000. So, this is the lowest um

responsive uh responsive audit firm that will continue to work with us. Just wanted to note that. Thank you, Miss um Adams Jacobs, and I appreciate your diligence and trying to find the most uh coste effective avenue for our community. We're going on toformational items the town staff are seeking. Whoops. See all the engagement there. Got the wrong thing. This is the fire program fund dispersement agreement. Is there something that we need to approve on this or is this just I think it's just every year we apply on behalf of the fire department. It's just a pass through of money if I'm not mistaken. Very good. Any discussion on this from council or now we have the town manager on the line if there are any questions. Okay. At this time, I will open public comment back up. Um, if you have something to say, you have three minutes. And I don't see anyone new here. Would you like to come up? Anyone out there? Okay, then I will close the public comment section. We'll move on to member comments. Are there any final comments before we go to close session from council? Yes, madame mayor. I got one thing. Yes, sir. I don't know if I missed it. I don't know if I miss missed it, but on the consent agenda on number three, the

event coordinator for approval for the 35th annual harvest festival. Yes. Did we did we discuss that? Are we who we picking or what we doing? Because I I did not catch that. We we did not discuss it. It was in our packets, but the they did approve it. The events coordinator is going to be Miss Lisa Stevens. Um, hold on. Is she doing both the harvest festival and the and the parade? Yes. Okay. And uh the cost that was included for that is $5,000 to be paid from the events fund. Okay, that's fine. Thank you. Yes, sir. Also, I have one other comment. Go ahead. I want to I want to thank all my colleagues that sat up there at the table with me for allowing me to join this meeting. Sorry I couldn't be there tonight, but um thanks for letting me come in. Thank you for attending and making the extra effort. Any other comments from council? All right, I will close. Public comments, madam. Yes, sorry. I I I do think I I don't want us to miss it, but there was one resolution that's supposed to be part of the budget um for the hazard hazard benefits pay for the police department for their additional um benefits for their retirement um that was included um that we just got back from um VRS uh that have to be adopted by resolution ahead of July one and I have to send that to them, but that's in your that's in your folder. Yes, I it's in front of me now. Thank you. So this is the enhanced hazardous duty benefits and um we had discussed this at the past meetings and staff town manager

explained to us the need for this. Is there need to be a motion? Yeah, I think that's a form resolution that VRS provides to localities to um formally um adopt the enhanced benefits for law enforcement. So, I do think that's a VRS requirement to adopt that resolution. Is that that's correct, India? Correct. So, at this time, I would like to ask for a motion to adopt. Right. Mayor, I'd like I'd like to make the motion for the police department to get the hazardous duty pay. Thank you, Councilman Higgman. And I have a second by Vice Mayor Coyle. Is there any discussion on this? All in favor, raise your right hands. I'm raising it. Very good. Motion passes unanimously. Okay. At this time, we are going to take a 10-minute recess to go to close session, but I need a motion to do that. Close session motion. Yes. So, the motion would be um after a 10-minute recess, we're going to convene in close session pursuant to Virginia Code section 2.23711A1 to discuss the town manager's contract. I make that motion. I have a motion from Councilman Stor. Is there a second? Second from Councilman Voit. All in favor, raise your right hands. Mr. Hayman. Yes. Okay. Motion passes.

Okay, we are now going to reconvene in open session. I would like to um certify through the councilmen and women that uh we only discussed what we went to close session for. Councilwoman Davis, I certify. Councilman Voit, I certify. Councilman Webb, I certify. Councilman Chenalt, I certify. Councilwoman Coyle, I certify. Councilman Stor, I certify. Councilman Haggamman, I certify. All members have certified. Thank you. At this time, I would like to um ask council to make a motion and act on the employment agreement for our town manager. What? Need to get the phrasing on that motion correct. If you could, I'll let Well, the motion would be to approve the first amended employment agreement for the town manager. Yeah, I make a motion to approve the first amended agreement for the town manager. I'll second that. So, I have a motion from Coun Vice Mayor Coyle, a second from Councilman Hagamman. Is there any discussion? Uh, this is a financial matter, so we'll take a roll call. Councilwoman Davis, yes. Councilman Voit, yes. Councilman Webb, yes. Councilman Chenalt, yes. Vice Mayor Coyle, yes. Councilman Stor, yes. Councilman Hagerman,

yes. So, motion passes unanimously. The next thing I need is um if you are interested a motion on the pay increase being retroactive back to January. I'll make that motion to to do the pay increase retroactive back to January for India. Indie Adams for 4% to January 2nd to January 2nd. January 2nd. Yes. For 4% if ma'am. Okay. So, I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a second from uh Vice Mayor Coyle. Is there any further discussion? Once again, it is a financial decision, so we'll take a roll call. Councilwoman Davis, yes. Councilman Voit, yes. Councilman Webb, yes. Councilman Chenalt, yes. Vice Mayor Coyle, yes. Councilman Stark, yes. Councilman Hagerman, yes. Motion passes unanimously. If there is no other business before this council at this time, I would like to ask for a motion to adjourn. I can do that one. I move to adjourn. We have a motion to adjourn from Councilman Boyd. Is there a second? I'll second it. And and do do we give you all back this sensitive information? Um there's a second from Councilman Hagerman. Is there any other Is there any discussion about our German? All in favor raise your right hands. I Okay. Thank you. And thank you Randy.

We are thanks guys for letting me come in. Our meeting is now adjourned. Have a good trip.