Town Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'll now take a roll call of attendance. Ms. Davis? Here. Mr. Roy? Here. Mr. Webb? Here. Dr. Chennault? Here. Vice Mayor Coyle? Here. Mr. Storrs? Here. Mr. Hageman? Here. Chair. We have a full council tonight. The following items are hereby requested to be added to the agenda for the U.S. Council meeting.

Appointment of members to EDA, Economic Development Authority. Council should consider the appointment of members to Economic Development Authority for one year term. Appointees, Mr. Councilman Randy Hageman and Councilman David Stork, term would be for one year, effective immediately to expire on August 27th. The next item would be a reimbursement resolution. Council to consider adoption of a reimbursement resolution authorizing the Town to reimburse itself from proceeds of future tax-exempt financing for certain capital expenditures made in advance of such financing in accordance with U.S. Treasury Regulation Section 1.150-2. Last addition is a closed session item. I move that Council convene in closed session pursuant to Virginia Code Section 2.2.271181 to discuss the resignation and final compensation of the Town Manager and possible candidates for interim Town Manager.

So was that a motion? Okay. Okay. So we have three items. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Number one. Agenda are the minutes from this meeting. Are there any corrections? Okay, hearing none. Make a motion. I have a motion.

I'll second. Second from Hayden.

All in favor? Motion passes. Okay. We will next move on to the next item. If you are here to speak, please come to the podium and state your name and address. We are not allowed to answer your questions.

We are now open to public comment on the stream.

Seeing none, we will now close public comment.

The next item is item number two. It is not a public hearing. It is item for council's consideration and ordinance to repeal and replace 5.1.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.

Madam Mayor, Madam Mayor, just a point of clarification. It was noticed as a public hearing by our deputy clerk, so it should be open for comment at lunch.

It was posted online. Yes. It was.

It doesn't require an apartment if it was posted as was. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Is there anyone from the public wishing to come up and speak on this?

I know number two. I did have a couple.

Okay, okay. On page 15. You have a list of road names. Lakewood Avenue is incorrect.

It needs to be changed to Lakewood Road. So that's...

So, all of these streets were just current ordinance will make any corrections.

Noted then on stage 16. okay. Okay. It says a golf cart utility operated only on designated public highways or roadways, where the posted speed limit is 25 miles per hour or less. No golf, golf, golf, golf, golf, golf, golf, golf, golf, golf, golf, golf, golf, golf, golf. If you go down the CV, it says the speed limit across the highway speed limit is no more than 39 miles per hour.

And that's actually a golf course.

Well, the thing is, Lakewood Road is on the other side of the water, which is 35 miles. So you cannot pass to get over to Lakewood Road. Lakewood Road is how much more than five miles an hour? I think it's almost an inch drive. One down the hill is 35 miles. I don't see I don't see anybody coming down and making a huge run for my boy and heading back and heading back out. I don't see the four of us. The way this is the way this is. So I want so I don't care for you. If that is the case, then we could .

Yes. Yes, sir. You know, when this thing was enacted years and years ago, we followed, like, I don't know if it was in other state localities. It could only be operated on 25 mile per hour street, but you could cross a third fire. Right. But that's not how this is fairly wrestling.

I know that is true, so I don't want to...

Because we had people that wanted to go Anderson Avenue, go up to the line. Brought us there. Brought us there. And so we looked into the state of being lowered to 35. And it was like an act of like that. So are we sure? Are we sure? Only I'm afraid. Only I'm afraid. Only I'm afraid.

Only I'm afraid. Only I'm afraid. Only I'm afraid. Then, then I don't know. But I just remember that. Yeah.

We don't have a gun.

No, no, no, no, no.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

to really get a conclusion section. This section's about all the courses, this is clearly not.

Section C. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Section B. Right.

The very top part of C is saying how the limitations of B shall not apply to these following criteria. One, golf course. Two, government use. Right.

But we don't have those.

Yeah, it's just kind of a deal with the government.

Yeah, it does. Yeah, it does.

But I want that to be one. It says no.

And intersection. And intersection.

I could be wrong, and I think this was before I was even on council, and it came up one time. I almost want to say, if you could look into, that it was the state reason that the 40 miles an hour was announced.

Well, that's what I want to know. We need to check with the state to see because I got people going down with electric golf carts down Anderson Avenue on the sidewalk and then they'll run right down Broaddus Avenue and turn in the food line. I would say, I'm sorry, electric wheelchair goes a heck of a lot slower than a golf cart and that's more dangerous for that person and the people driving down Broaddus Avenue than a golf cart.

So Virginia Code does say for 25 miles an hour, when we met with VDOT several months ago, we went through all these forms, and they're pretty explicit they're not going to change 35 miles an hour. They were pretty explicit they cannot take about 1.7 miles an hour. So as you understand, this is

This is correct. Yes, ma'am.

Just as a point of clarification, this item was for public hearing, the actual unfinished business number 12, and just maybe as a matter of process, where the item was intended to be discussed at this level, you might have some answers to that based on their ability to take a peek here in a second. That's up to you all. Okay. Then there was one other change.

um is that more is that more than that was my question

I'm telling you, you know, I'm not aware of it. I don't know if we can go measure that, but if that's the case, then we have to adjust our team.

It was just something under the amendment. So page number 18. And it's at the bottom. Under part of prohibited all times. That's page number 8. Within 15 feet of the driveway entrance to the fire rescue squad station, such buildings are definitely designated. I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know. Okay, okay, are there any other questions that would apply to the.

Basically.

Okay. So.

We'll decide this later on the gender. I think we'll say. Yeah, yes. Okay. All right. All right. And move on to the member of the audience.

Mr. Royce. Not tonight. Not tonight. Dr. Schnoll. Dr. Schnoll. Vice Mayor Coyle. Coyle. No. Torrance. Torrance.

Just quickly, I want to thank you all in there. Thank you to the Flyers Council, the Delivery Lady, and I appreciate everybody's thoughts and reasons.

I'm doing good. We're glad to have you. No, no. Okay, okay. You were next. Oh, there was so many. Don't blame me. I'm telling you to. Um, um, yesterday, I went to Fort APO. We went out to Fort Royal. We had the Fort APO Executive Steering Committee meeting, a biannual meeting. They hosted 7-Hour JROTC for that summer. And the 24th and 25th of September, they are going to be having an active shiver exercise. So don't anybody freak out. Here's something crazy. And then they're having a squad competition in October. So other than that, October, there's a shirt fest. Okay. Next item on the agenda, item number three, presentation by Ms. Auden Bates.

Can you guys hear me okay?

Let me try this again.

Okay, are you guys able to hear me okay?

You might need to unmute yours. Okay.

Are you guys able to hear me okay?

I can hear your audio.

You can hear me okay?

I can, and I'm about to pass you through to counsel.

Okay, thank you.

All right, give us a little bit of audio.

Let me know when I'm ready.

Is your sound happening all the way up here? It's all the way up here. All right, good. Give us a try.

Okay, can you hear me okay? Oh, maybe you try muting.

Is there some feedback? Definitely. Okay.

Are we good? Can you hear me?

Not quite. We're trying to figure it out.

I did hear that feedback as well.

Can you hear me okay? Okay.

It's not coming.

Let me know when it's good to go. I will keep talking until you all tell me that I can stop and you hear me okay.

Are you all able to hear me okay now?

No, not yet.

No, I'm sorry. Could I give you a call? I think I could get the audio to come through to counsel a lot better that way.

Okay. Do you want me to give you my number?

Yeah, sure. That'd be fine.

Okay. Alrighty. There we go. Alright.

Okay, perfect.

Are we good?

Yes. Okay, perfect.

Thank you. Well, good evening, Madam Mayor, members of the council, town manager, and others in attendance. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to present the results of your FY 2025 audit for the town of Bowling Green, Virginia. So audit guidance requires that we provide those charged with governance, a summary of the results of the audit engagement, present the audit findings, and discuss any relevant issues. If you guys have any questions as I go through, please feel free to stop me and ask me. That will be fine. So let's go through the overall scope of the engagement. So the engagement was to perform an audit to determine whether the town's financial statements and related footnotes presented fairly in all material respects with accounting principles generally accepted in the U.S. or U.S. GAAP, and also to review the town's system of internal controls and compliance with laws and regulations related to the financial statements and to present the results of those findings. So the first thing I wanted to do is go through the audit findings, talk a little bit, I'm sorry, the audit results, talk a little bit about some key numbers, and then to wrap up with just talking about the findings that we had this year. So the first is the financial statements. The financial statements are the responsibility of town's management. Our responsibility as auditors is to conduct an audit to express an opinion on these financial statements. So the financial statements and related footnotes taken as a whole are presented fairly in all material respects and in conformity with GAAP. So you receive the clean audit opinion on the financial statements themselves. And I'll go into a little bit more about that. However, there were two material weaknesses as we did the audit. So, again, it is still possible to get a clean opinion and to have your financial statements present fairly in all material respects with GAAP, but also to have findings related to internal controls. In this case, the first material weakness, and this is a repeat one from the FY 2024, and I believe FY 2023 as well. And the town continues to operate without written financial policies or formal accounting procedures manual. so while the town has maintained adequate segregation of duties and engages an external consultant to assist with month in closing the specific steps review levels and authorization protocols for these processes have not been documented and again this condition was previously reported in the 2024 audit engagement The next issue material weakness is the financial information. And it really, the town's initial budget to actual report provided to the audit firm did not properly reconcile to the trial balance. The town subsequently provided an updated report that reflected the correct accruals for certain expense items. The town's financial statements also appear to have been missing some required accruals. um the town rectified that and provided that information um subsequently to the audit firm so i think the issue here relates to just the into the first um material weakness over internal controls, which is having written policies and procedures. Because I think those would highlight certain steps, procedures, reviews, analysis that needs to happen before financial statements are released. But again, even though there was some accruals that were later done, they still did not materially impact the financial statements. It's just good policy and procedures to have just a tighter level of internal controls over reporting. So those were the two material weaknesses that we noted in the audit. The next thing I want to do is just kind of go through a little dive of the numbers and the financial statements. So the assets for the governmental activities or net position exceeded liabilities by $2 million. um 1.6 million is unrestricted 10 000 is restricted donations and 397 000 is invested in capital assets which is your capital assets to prevent a depreciation and every and other associated um liabilities for the governmental activities The net position under the business type activities was $3.2 million. The business type activities has $3.7 million reported as invested in capital assets, and the remaining negative $431,000 is unrestricted. A breakdown of revenues, and what's particularly interesting for the revenues for FY 2025, revenues totaled $2.1 million for governmental activities. General property taxes was roughly $228,000. Other local taxes was $1 million. point seven million and the largest component of the revenue was roughly one million for bank franchise tax that was a pretty key component of the revenue for fy 2025 for the governmental activities expenses for governmental activities totaled roughly 2 million and the largest component is general governmental administrative administration expenses which are 1.1 million remaining components were five hundred and twenty four thousand and three hundred and twenty seven thousand for public works and public safety respectively The next look at the breakdown of revenues and expenses is in the water and sewer fund. So for the water and sewer fund, revenues were roughly 1 million, expenses were roughly 2 million for the revenues. And these include non-operating revenues and expenses as well. So that basically is a breakdown of the expenses and revenues for governmental and the business type activities. The other thing to note is the long-term debt for water and sewer, roughly $6.9 million. So that's a snapshot of the financial performance. Again, we issued a clean opinion on the financial statements, which means that everything was done according with GAAP. in all material respects. The next thing I wanted to just kind of go over is just our recommendations. And we really do want to stress that the town should prioritize developing a formal accounting manual. this document should detail the specific procedures for significant cycles including disbursements procurement payroll processing um mostly financial statement reconciliations and review as well as year-end financial reporting the manual should clearly distinguish between the duties performed by town staff and those performed by any external consultant or support that the town engages to ensure there is proper oversight and a clear trail of accountability the second recommendation um that we have is when you're developing that um accounting manual that you want to ensure that there are procedures in place for monthly reconciliation of the financial statements assure that all accruals and journal entries are properly posted on a monthly basis not just annually but monthly Management should analyze the financial statements and note any significant transactions. Management should sign off on the financial statements to demonstrate that the proper management review was performed. And it will be... A good consideration, and this is just a best practice. It's not something a town has to implement. To hire a full-time general ledger accountant with a strong background in state and local government experience, who can prepare the required financial statements, reconcile them to the general ledger on a monthly basis, and then hand them off to management for management's review and approval. Those are our recommendations for the FY 2025 as a result of the FY 2025 audit. And again, some of these recommendations carry forward from prior audit engagements as well. that is all that i have and i really want to thank you all for giving us the opportunity to do the audit for the town of bowling green and for just the um high level of operation that we received from the town manager and her team when we as we went through the audit engagement um thank you all very much for that do you have any questions for me please let me know Otherwise, I wish you all a great evening, and thank you for allowing me to present the results.

Are there any questions at this time for Ms. Davis? Thank you, Ms. Davis. We appreciate your time.

Thank you all so very much. Have a great rest of the evening. Take care.

You also. Bye-bye. Next item on the agenda, item number four, the VDOT resident engineer, Mr. Walter Burke.

Welcome, Mr. Burke. Thank you, Mayor.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Walter Burke. I'm the new Regency Engineer for the Fredericksburg Regency. I'm going on, I believe, four or five months now, so still getting acclimated to the role. Very happy to be here tonight to be able to introduce myself and be able to meet all you all. Kind of give you a little background on myself. Been with VDOT for about five years now. I started off in the Culpeper District, worked in the Warrington Regency where we oversaw Culpeper, Falk here in Rappahannock County. Worked there for two years in the project engineer role, got accustomed to some second and sixth year plan projects, rural rustic projects, and then went up to Northern Virginia, did a stint there for two years in the Fairfax Red and Sea. So I think my experience between a more rural environment and an urbanized environment brings me some unique skills that I'm hoping to be able to work with you all and maybe address some of the concerns that you have within the town here. So very happy to be here tonight, and I look forward to any questions that you all may have for myself.

I do have one question. I guess we were discussing the speed limit on Broadus Avenue. Is that a VDOT thing? Is it state law?

They said to ask you. I'd have to see if it's a state maintained road, which I assume it is. Yes. Yep, so we do post a speed limit for the roadways. 25, I believe, is the lowest we can do for our standards. But typically if it was above that, we would go through traffic engineering and they would do a speed analysis if it wanted to be lowered from that. Right. Yeah.

So we've been through several times and they refused to lower the speed limit. So I go back again to set.

We just need to take that one road off.

Yeah.

Yeah. Go ahead, Dan. I thought the issue was are we allowed to cross a 35-mile-an-hour? Isn't that really the question? Yeah. We're not disputing that it's a 35. No. If we have a golf cart that wants to cross over a roadway that's posted speed is 35, can we do that?

I can't comment on that one right now. That's what we're looking for. I'll have to check with traffic engineering on that. Jeff, you're saying that it's 40. 40 down here as opposed to the 40? Yeah. And which locations were you guys concerned about the crossings?

Yeah, Travis Street coming off Travis.

any of the roads coming because the speed limits lower on East Broaddus than West Broaddus but it's still 35.

Okay yep I will do some research on that I'll get back to you all. And you're going to check to see if it's a state allows it or not.

Okay are there any other questions at this time for Mr. Burke?

Mr. Burke, if the golf cars can, how can the electric wheelchairs cross a 40-mile-an-hour roadway? I'm not sure on that as well, sir. You can find that out, too, because they are much slower than a golf cart. I know there's a crosswalk, but they don't use it. You said there are crosswalks?

There is one crosswalk down there that's got a button that they can push, but none of them use it. Okay. Where are they crossing it now? Are they crossing at the same points that were mentioned, Anderson?

Yeah, down by Anderson and going into Food Lion Park. The one problem with that crosswalk is when you get to the end of the crosswalk into Food Lion, I don't think you can get a wheelchair down there across that curb because it's not an EDA curb or an ADA curb, and it just goes down real steep and drops off into the parking lot.

So that's probably why they don't use it.

Okay.

I'm not familiar with the area here. Are there a lot of electric motorized wheelchairs in the community here?

Yeah, there's quite a few. I'd be willing to guess, and of course it's just a guess from me, but I'd say that has something to do with some of the state oversight of slow-moving vehicle with the triangle and the caution thing of what constitutes that type of vehicle versus ADA law and mobility rules as far as that goes.

And it could be under ADA law if somebody is disabled, the vehicle that they're in, their wheelchair, whatever, that's considered part of them. So under that viewpoint... It's a person walking across the street.

It's not a motorized vehicle. Where we have the blinking light for them to cross and the painted crosswalk, when they go down the other end in the Foodland parking lot, they can't go down that. It's too steep and there's a curb. So they come down Anderson and they cross right away or they go down along on the curb. in the shoulder there and then cross right where the driveway is at because there's been many times you turn that corner into Food Lion and you got a wheelchair doing five mile an hour right in front of you coming off of Broadus at 40 or 35, 20, whatever you're doing when you're doing. But I mean, it's a dangerous thing. I agree.

So Mr. Gore, does any of this fall under unlawful riding? Page 14.

So the ordinance was handed out today as the one I'm working on, so I don't have the one.

My suggestion would be, and we're not on that item now, but when we get to it, my suggestion would be to table this, and I will recirculate my recommendation between to recirculate the updated draft and for council to submit all questions back to me and the manager. And we can review state law, we can talk to VDOT, and we can do it outside of council time if you want.

It would speed up our meeting tonight too. Thank you.

I got one more question. The next phase and the public input of the smart scale project, what do you got for that?

So talking to the project, I guess, manager of it right now, it's getting ready to approach right away for the fall. That's what I gather from them. They're still on track with the schedule and then construction is still scheduled for 28 as far as I'm aware. So it's progressing through the design phases of it.

Yep. Any other questions?

Thank you, Mr. Burke. And I will leave some cards here for you all. Feel free to give me a call with any concerns that you all have.

Try to be as responsive. Thank you. I'm appreciative.

You're going to be with us a while, I hope. Okay. It's rough when we get to know somebody and next thing we know they're gone. So, okay. Have a good one. Next we have Mr. Jamie Savias with the Utilities Report from Imboden Environmental Services. We haven't seen you in a while. Welcome.

I've been hiding. no um i'm glad to be back it's been a little while uh been busy um but uh this is for the month of july um utility report um that month we did an average water treatment yield of 4.24 million gallons and the average production per day was 0.136 million gallons 136 000 gallons For wastewater treatment, there was an average daily flow of 0.128 or 128,000 gallons, and the monthly discharge was 3.968 million gallons. All of the permit-required tests were within parameter, and we continue to dose the chlorine at the wells and all as well. Does anybody have any questions for me today? You changed the bag out at the plant? It's being disposed of. Okay. Yes.

And they're getting a new bag to replace, or did we have one on hand already?

There's one on hand, but the preparations are being made to lay it out.

Okay.

Are there any questions from council at this time, Mr. Savias? Thank you, Jamie.

You're welcome. Thank you.

We'll move on to item number six and that's the Public Works Monthly Report. Mr. Shawn Fortune will be coming up.

Any questions? Come on, y'all.

Are there any questions of Mr. Fortune?

Somebody asked me anything.

Is it hot enough for you?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay. Go ahead, Mr. Webb. How's the humidity been?

Bad. Yeah. How about that bag with the humidity?

Bad. Yeah. Okay. Mr. Webb. How bad was the break on Main Street this week?

It was one of the worst ones I've seen in town.

It looked like a lot of sand when I rode by and waved at you.

It was 30 minutes. We rode through. We saw nothing. Came back, and within 30 minutes, all of that had happened. I'm just glad it happened during the daytime. If it happened at nighttime, it would have been a lot worse. What was the break just? No, it wasn't a clean break. It was actually, I got a piece of pipe. It blew out a section of pipe on top of the pipe like this big. It just blew it out. I don't know what happened, but I know what happened years ago when I first started doing water. When you put pipe in and like somebody would dent it or something, and that's what happens. And over years, it just wears out. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Leave it to a surgeon to come up with that analogy.

Okay. And also the ball notice was lifted. We took two samples on that day on Monday, and I took two more samples on Tuesday, and everything came back past. So we was off the ball notice as of yesterday. So all that passed back. And we had to replace a lot of road because of the water tunnel under the road. So I think we had to replace like 80 to 100 feet of the asphalt. So be it our quads to do it.

Any other questions for Mr. Fortune?

Thank you. And while I'm here, I just want to thank Ms. Adams Jacobs for all the hard work she's done here at the town. And I'm going to cry when I leave here. Don't do that. No, I'm going to miss her. I'm going to miss her. She's a sweetheart. And I just hope that she got us going on the right path, and I hope we don't steer left and we don't steer right. We stay on the path we're going. And, I mean, because when she first came here, we were in a bad spot. I ain't going to lie. We were going straight to hell. Let's keep it real. I'm going to keep it real with it. My feet were burning. I was about to run. I ain't going to lie. She got us going to the upper room. That's where we're going. I appreciate her so much. Like I said, I'm certainly going to miss her. Y'all have a good night. Thank you.

I don't see Ms. Tamika unless she's hiding. Is Ms. Vian coming up in her place?

Item number seven is the finance director treasurer's report.

Hello, Vian. Hello. Good evening, everyone. Do you all have any questions for me?

I had none this month. Madam Mayor, if I may, I'd just like to thank our finance team for continuing the great work. I know kind of off the heels of the last audit that we've completed, we are now up to date and on time, so the FY26 work should continue. Ms. Baylor's done great work as she's come on. I know Ms. Davis spoke about a general ledger accountant. That is what Ms. Baylor was hired to do as staff accountant slash deputy town. So she is in place to do that as well as the financial policies that we put in place from Davenport last year as well, put the town in a good position and move forward to continue the financial work that's been put in place, which has allowed us to get compliant again. So I'd like to thank the team as well as our utility billing team. The bills went to the printer today and that is always a team effort. So thanks to everyone involved in that, Ms. Brown, Sean, Mr. Smith, as well as Ms. Morgan and Ms. Colleen, as well as getting our newsletters in there and the shutoff process. And I think in my tenure here, we only had 10 people on the shutoff list, which I think is a record out of almost 1,000 people. So thanks to the community for paying on time. And I saw someone on Facebook actually berate someone for not coming in to pay. They were complaining about not being able to come in to pay. And they said, just pay online. And when I started, there was actually a lot of fodder about how you couldn't trust the online system, how you couldn't trust any of our financial systems. So now everybody can do that. They can pay online. And so I'm happy that the team continues to move in a positive direction and our collections continue growing. to increase as a result. So just like to thank the team.

Absolutely. Thank you. Are there any questions?

Thank you, Ms. Baylor. Thank you.

Item number eight, Ms. Darla Odom is going to be speaking to us about the comprehensive plan. Welcome, ma'am.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of Council, Ms. Adams-Jacobs, Mr. Gore, and others. It's my pleasure to be here to give you a brief update this evening just to let you know where we are and to talk about what's upcoming as it relates to the comprehensive plan and the compliance process. for Chesapeake Bay that we've been working on for the town. You all are familiar with that review. And there were some action items that the town has been working on, so I wanted to give you that update. I don't think, in my opinion, that India is allowed to go anywhere, especially until we get this comprehensive plan and the CBPA compliance done. So that's my input on that. This slide shows you the schedule for the comprehensive plan and the progress updates that we have to date. It just walks through, you know, each of the steps that we're going through. If you see we have really completed up to this point, you know, kicking off the project, doing the SWOT analysis with the planning commission for the town, We have been reviewing documents at the meetings. I have to give a shout-out to Mr. Jeffrey Smith in helping to work with the demographics and existing conditions of the town. He's been very helpful in pulling information and double-checking, and the Planning Commission has been giving those a thorough review. which has been great and they've had some great input on that. And we also have been working on some of the draft sections of the plan for the amendments. We still have some mapping that we need to do and we are going to be working on that and determining the best option for updating the mapping. There is a joint work session coming up that you all agreed to I think last month but at the October 22nd Planning Commission meeting there will be a joint work session to talk about the comprehensive plan and then just last week we have something else to talk about but that's relative to the CBPA compliance so I'll bring that up in just a few minutes. The way the project is looking now, we would have another work session and open house with the Planning Commission at their regular meeting. I have on here the Planning Commission's December meeting because I think that's what we're going to need. to wait till December to get these last sections complete and then incorporate final revisions. The Planning Commission would have its public hearing on the comprehensive plan in January. Town Council at your February meeting, which would include the changes to the environmental chapters relative to the state law changes regarding resiliency and shoreline management and that kind of thing. So that's the project update. The Planning Commission has worked on the outline for the plan, which I'm going to show you. It's what we see as the table of contents. They went through a visioning exercise and have worked on an overall vision for the plan revision. And we've got some major priorities or themes We have worked on the plan goals and implementation strategies. Of course, they are not complete because we will have more updates to those as we go through each of the various chapters, but that is part of the discussion that we have had. The community profile and existing conditions, again, shout out to Mr. Smith for his work on that. That chapter is coming together very well. There is a new demographics of course in the plan as well as projections for the plan life and the plan is really from now until 2045 We are the community facilities chapter of the plan, which, you know, updates public works and, you know, all of those departments is the draft is really to be finaled. And the economic development chapter, Ms. Adams Jacobs worked on that and. The Planning Commission was very happy with that chapter and then we are also working on now and will continue in September to work on the Environment and Resiliency chapters. This is a slide that shows you the Town of Bowling Green comprehensive plan. The title at this point that we have is Full Stride to 2045. and the chapters that you see here. The chapters include all of the information that you have in the current comprehensive plan. We've updated the language a little bit, modified it as well, you know, just to add, like instead of it saying environment, it says environmental sustainability and resiliency, some of that kind of thing. And so this is where we are, and I just thought I'd share that with you all because that is our outline that we're using. Next slide. So in the final stretch for the draft plan and the revision, we still have to work through the planning commission, the environmental section, housing, mobility, land use, and, of course, the mapping updates. We are going to be looking at the environmental chapter continued for September, as well as housing, I anticipate. Mobility... shot my phone number to the VDOT gentlemen so that we can get their input on our each chapter we've been going through and doing a diagnostic of the chapter again concentrating on as we with your direction concentrating on compliance with state code And so that's where we are. And so we hope, I want to get their input and see if we can't get them on board to get us across the finish line where we need to be. And then the next slide is relative to the Chesapeake Bay preservation compliance. there are seven areas that we're concentrating on. For the ordinance consistency review, that's been being worked on. And that's the part that I wanted to bring to your attention. We intend to, at your October meeting, bring to you the draft ordinance amendments to come into compliance with the recommendations from DEQ, and then have a joint public hearing at the meeting on October the 22nd for the ordinance changes with the Planning Commission. That way, That evening, the Planning Commission, you both have the joint public hearing. You would then adjourn. The Planning Commission could take action that evening. If you felt comfortable taking action, you could, or you could wait for your first meeting in November to take action. But that's what we would like to get your permission to proceed that way. That's where we're headed because we definitely don't want any delay in getting the ordinances approved. because we do have a deadline for this compliance of February 28th, 27. The comprehensive plan suggested revisions that they have are being incorporated into the plan as we're going through that revision. That's why we're anticipating you all having your public hearing on the whole plan, which would include that chapter, at your February meeting in 27. The mapping is also being rolled into and part of the plan. I will say that most of the, the mapping is one of the big things that they mentioned as far as what maps need to include. And relative to the ordinance itself and the comprehensive plan, the majority, and I'm not saying all, but the majority of what they noted was ensuring that the town ordinance proper documentation of the review processes. And they felt like those were the areas that needed to concentrate on the most. So if you look back over that document that we got from them, it says make sure that you're documenting your plan of review process and that your plan of review process is clear. I talked to DEQ, not the gentleman that did the review for Bowling Green, but one of his colleagues, and she said to me that really that's their main concern. Did a person follow the appropriate process to get to whatever answer that answer is? And so that's, we have that. The Bay Act website, which is basically taking your current town website and having a dedicated area that you go to to pull up the plan, the map, excuse me, pull up the map and pull up any, and the ordinance itself. And that's in works now. The town, we're using the examples that DEQ has provided to do. And I think that would probably be maybe up and running by the end of October, I'm thinking. For the plan of development review, this is where they want to make sure that the town's review process is clear if the property is impacted by an RPA, RMA, and that that's documented. Right now, the town had been relying on the county for that review, but I think in some discussions that I've had, India and I have talked about different processes, and that's really something that can be handled in-house. with the same process that would be done for current site plan reviews. If there's any engineering expertise that would have to be involved in that, if they aren't going to DEQ for review, then an outside person needed to be called in, that that would be something that the town could do, and that cost would be transferred over to the applicant. that's going through that site plan process. But anyway, so we're documenting that. And then by the end of September, the on-site septic pump out notifications will be going out. The town has set up an online portal for a person to go in, complete the form that they're gonna get the letter that explains what to do, complete the form and then upload their documentation that either they had an inspection and the septic system was fine and does not need pumping out now or they had it pumped out and so here's the receipt for that pump out from the contractor.

And then... Ms. Odom, real quick, what are the parameters for that? Is it every five years? It's every five years, yes, ma'am. Okay, thank you.

And then the last item is the annual report information. And this was an interesting one to me, but not a bad one, is to say that DQ is going to send the town each annually a form that they want completed that talks about how much development happened within your locality that impacted or was impacted by the resource protection area buffers and that kind of thing. And so it was suggesting that the town create a process to use or tracking methodology to use to be able to answer those questions, which is great. And so we're working on putting into place, I would say probably by the end of October as well, a spreadsheet that we'll be able to use. I will say to you that the number of developments in the town that currently are impacted by a resource protection area are so small. The town, the whole town is part of a resource management area. So we will need to make sure that that's implemented and start looking at it. But I think the number of properties that you're dealing with is very few. Is the resource protected area by Maracosac Creek? Yes. Okay. Mm-hmm. Yes, ma'am. And so that's where we are. That's all I had just to sort of give you an update. I think we're on board this fall of getting most of the items done and then just following through with the rest of the revision of the comprehensive plan.

Are there any questions for Ms. Odom at this time? Thank you so much. All right. Thank you. Have a good evening. You also.

Next we'll hear from Mr. Perry Hickman for the Capital Improvement Projects presentation.

Welcome Mr. Hickman.

Yeah, good evening Madam Mayor, Madam Vice Mayor, Council Members, Mr. Gore and Ms. Adams-Jacob. Yeah, my slides. So, next slide. Well, today I wanted to talk about, well, we have several capital improvement projects that are underway, but today I wanted to focus mainly on the well replacement and the growth alpha project. And based on... Our ground, based on the need for this project, is because our groundwater exceeds the federal radionuclide limits, which required treatment of our waters. And based on the preliminary engineering report that was performed, an ion exchange technology has been proven to be the most reliable and cost-effective method to actually provide long-term compliance with this. Next slide. This project to replace our wells and to address the growth alpha, the preliminary engineering report is estimating its cost to be about $8.2 million. And that's on a preliminary engineering report dated April 17th of 2026 by Stantec. The town has been quite fortunate to receive 100% grant funding for this project. 75% of that award is coming through a Virginia General Assembly House Bill 1600, which equates to about $6.2 million. We do have the memorandum of understanding, a memorandum of agreement in the signature process right now. So we're working through that. The other 25%, which is a little bit over $2 million, is through a U.S. EPA grant. And I'm working with the folks at VDA to actually to get some finalization on that. As for the project, I had mentioned 8.2 million. The direct construction cost based on the PER is gonna be about 5.1 million. The contractor markups and contingency is gonna be about 1.6 million. engineering, environmental review, and piloting is going to be about 1.5, which equates to 8.2 million. We also have the estimated annual operating and maintenance expense for this project to be about 58,000. Next slide. I went through those numbers, I got a little bit off on my slides, but I went through those numbers. It talked about the 8.2 million for the total project costs, $58,000 per year as annual operating and maintenance fees. Also mentioned about the 6.2 million coming from the Virginia General Assembly House Bill 1600 and the remaining 25% coming through the US EPA. um so next slide this is good next one okay um well don't worry about it um so in in summary of the project the per is basically recommending that this project will address the gross alpha issues. It's gonna create a centralized facility for wells number one, 1A, 4A and seven. 4A and well seven will be new wells for producing water. And all of those wells mentioned will be on town owned property. Also under consideration right now is we're going back and forth with VDA, VDH, as far as utilizing well number five. Well five, there are some issues with well five, but if we were to change well five, the depth of the pump in well five to their recommended level, it's not gonna produce enough water just to be a viable solution. So that's why we're actually considering Well 7, which is being investigated right now. Also with this project, it's going to include 3,000, around 3,400 linear feet of new six inch ductile iron transmission main. And with the use of regenerable ion exchange media, this will dissolve the ions like the radionuclide. So this will address our problems as pertains to gross alpha water issues. So that in summary talks about, gives an overview of addressing our gross alpha issues with the water systems.

Are there any questions from council? Did you need to speak, Ms. Jacobs?

The three slides you'd given, those are the different ones. There's more. No, actually, I'm good. Okay. All right, sure. Any questions? I can think of one. Go ahead.

You're talking about getting two new wells there. So I think one question would be, since we don't know the level of nucleides in those potential wells, with the ion exchange, What's the efficacy of like, oh, these ones have significantly higher, like how high could the levels be and it still work?

Well, that's more of an engineering question. Right. I didn't know that's going to be a question. Yeah, but the fact of the matter is those sites are going to be tested prior to actually being, so pilot wells are going to be drilled, which is part of this build process, to actually test them before we actually get into production. Right. So the well sites that are actually mentioned are going to be tested. So 4A, there will be a test at 4A and there will be a test at 7 if they decide that well 5 is going to have to go offline. So, but yeah.

Yeah, like I know what they're going to get tested to see if they meet the criteria. I was just kind of curious what the criteria would be, which like you say, it's an engineering question. So, you know, it's fine. We'll find out. Right.

I think Stantec would be able to clarify that, but that's definitely something that's in their scope to work on later down the road.

Anything else? All right. Thanks a lot. Thank you, Mr. Hickman. Item number 10, Chief Cecil's police report. We're going to start. Are there any questions for him at this time?

I'd like to thank you for your staff helping at Music on the Green. Taquan does a wonderful job of rounding those children up and keeping them from running into the street. Yes, ma'am. So it is truly, I've seen a lot of parents that have come to me and thanked me for his service.

Good. Thank you. It's here.

Yeah, you're awesome too. You just were on vacation.

Hope you all have a good night.

Thank you. Next, we'll move on to item number 11, the town manager's report.

Thank you, Madam Mayor include encloses the report obviously note the completion of the audit as noted in Mr Hickman presentation. We received the from the state, which is long awaited 10 months, but who's counting Jeff and I will review that. and then sign that so we can move forward with the next parts of the process. Obviously, we will proceed, the town will proceed with the FY26 audit and those CBPA items as highlighted earlier, if there's any specific questions about anything in the report. But I'd just like to thank you all and staff, all of their updates thus far. Jeffrey also passed his VCA, Virginia Contracting Associates. uh kudos to jeffrey for locking in on the professional development um there's not a lot of staff folks who always seek out extra extra work or extra credentials and certificates but jeffrey has stepped up to the plate in that area as well as some of the folks in our finance staff as well as our capital projects and public works division as well all of our public works team also followed up on a voluntary versa parks maintenance webinar. So in anticipation of the new park, they learned as a team how to properly maintain the park moving forward that we will be receiving from Kaboom and in partnership with Amazon. So thank them as well. And as well as the police department, I think who are working towards CEPTED, which is community policing through environmental design in the future as well. So kudos to the team all the way around. Also, obviously, as it's been mentioned, this will be my last council meeting, so I definitely like to express my sincere appreciation for your support, trust, and guidance during my time, particularly with the council who hired me, Vice Mayor Coyle, Councilman Stewart, Councilman Webb, Councilman Hageman, Councilwoman Davis, Councilman Voigt. It's also been meaningful to work with Councilman Chennault and Mayor Gamble, who joined the team a bit later. i'm eternally grateful for the opportunity to lead this town towards professional government management and build a professional team that has made a positive impact on the town i'm pleased to have led a team in accomplishing each of the town council strategic priorities to name a few particularly grateful for and proud of obtaining 11 million dollars in direct allocations through legislative advocacy completing five annual audits in roughly two years leading coordinated economic development efforts attaining mobilizing main street and re-establishing the eda creating an integrated capital improvement program, completing an oversight of several infrastructure projects, including Main Street and its courthouse and town hall renovations, leading efforts in redevelopment resulting in successful rezoning opportunities for Fairmont development, one of the largest in the last three decades, establishing the town's first strategic plan and strategic planning process, establishing the town's first legislative agenda, which resulted in millions of dollars in funding awards to the town, leading efforts towards reissuing both water and wastewater permits, implementing a financial system to create one accurate system of record for town finances, implementing a new town website, creating the first GIS system through grant funding from the state, and then finally, a new town playground through grant funding from Amazon in partnership with Kaboom. While there are many tangible accomplishments, I will finally remember the memories made in my hometown and the relationships forged that will last a lifetime. Over time, I've learned that there's power in knowing when to walk away, and while the decision is tough, it's the right one for me at this point in my career. I recognize that there'll always be more to accomplish, but my work here in the town is complete, and I can walk away confidently knowing that the organization I'm leaving behind is far better than the one I inherited. So thank you all.

Thank you, Ms. Jacobs. Would anyone like to say anything at this time?

I just have one quick little question on the Dominion payroll, the onboarding. Is that integrated into Southern or are they individuals?

They will receive the reports from our financial system, but they are not fully integrated systems. This is a payroll system that's separate and apart from that, but they do have functionality that complement one another.

Got it. Thank you.

On here, we have the Community and Economic Development, the Kaboom and Amazon Design Day. I'm going to tell you, that was fabulous. Mr. Hageman was there and the kids were having a blast and it was really interesting to see what the children themselves liked as opposed to their parents. Their parents would look at one thing and the kids were like, no, we like this one, you know, but I think so. Thank you.

I had one on here. Go ahead. I mean, I do want to thank you for all those highlights that you're just talking about, but maybe a slightly smaller one that I know was still a bit of work on here. I wanted to call out the lead line inventory thing because that kind of went on a little while. And, you know, speak to that one real quick, just because I know that one comes up in conversation sometimes about people thinking that there's lead in the community and getting the feedback on that all done is good.

Absolutely. That's item number 16, but I'm happy to jump to it now. In partnership with True Panning, we did complete that work and we did receive a letter from the state. That's attachment number 16, a lead line survey. That item from the Office of Drinking Water says on behalf of the EPA, as required by the lead and copper revisions, The Virginia Department of Health Office of Drinking Water has reviewed the updated lead service line inventory submitted on August 7th for the subject waterworks. The inventory appears to meet the requirements and has been accepted. The submitted inventory contains no lead galvanized requiring replacement or unknown material service lines. Therefore, you do not need to notify customers of the material found in their individual lines. It's also publicly accessible based on what was submitted to the state. as well as True Panty sending a very thank you, a wonderful thank you note, acknowledging our town staff's effort in avoiding additional costs for that by doing that in-house, and particularly to Mr. Fortune and his team for doing a lot of the digging to get that complied with. And we're probably one of the first towns that have it done in this time frame ahead of the compliance schedule. And luckily with no lead, again, to clarify. That was a rumor. No, no, that's not an issue with our water. We have others, but that's not it.

Any other questions at this time? India, it's been a pleasure. It's been a privilege to work with you, to watch you in action. You have been amazing how you juggle things and how responsive you are. I sent a script to you for a porch talk last week, and within an hour, it was back. She had laid it out and how it was to be done and with the photographs, and... I'm like, okay, this is amazing. That was before Music on the Green. And then she was at Music on the Green a couple hours later. So thank you for your service. You will be missed by many. Item number 12, we're just going to table that at the time.

That's the will of council. I think we can... I'd like to recirculate the updated draft so we're all working from the same sheet of music. Do I need a motion? No, I think if there's just no action, it's fine. If that's the understanding, if everyone agrees, that's what we'll do. I'll probably get it out early next week.

Are we all in agreement for that, to let them research it a little further? Okay. Then we'll move on to item... Number 13 new business, a resolution in support of Main Street designation for Bowling Green. And at this time, I'll turn this over to Ms. Indy Adams Jacobs.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. As part of the BGVA Main Streets group, the pursuit of the advancing Main Street, one of the requirements is a resolution in support of the designation. You all did this a couple of years ago when they were going from exploring to mobilizing and now to go from mobilizing to advancing. They need that as part of the packet for the grant application. So that's what's before you for consideration.

Madam Mayor, I'd like to make a motion. I move that the Bowling Green Town Council adopt the resolution in support of the Main Street designation for Bowling Green as presented.

I have a motion from Councilman Voigt, a second from Vice Mayor Coyle. Is there any discussion at this time?

I just want to say this has been a long process because it was started several years ago, kind of dead on arrival at that point. But since Ms. Jacobs-Adams has been here, I think people need to realize this is a very, very rigorous qualification to get this designation. It provides economic credibility to the town. It gives us specialized access to resources. So the amount of work in two and a half years that you have done to get us to this point with the merchants, et cetera, is really phenomenal. And I'm thrilled that this has finally happened, having seen it start almost five years ago. So thank you.

Yes, economic development in our town was very important. So we have a motion. Any further discussion? Would the deputy clerk please take a roll call?

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Motion passes unanimously. Move on to item number 14, the General Assembly Session Briefing. Ms. India Adams Jacobs and Attorney Jeff Gore.

Council, so every year there's an endless amount of new laws that are passed. So in reviewing those, we have some reports from VML that I think might be in your packet. There's nothing— urgent that you take action on next month or anything, but there are some laws that do relate to zoning and land use and some other issues that we're going to need to look at and and most likely do some updates to ordinances. Yeah, yeah. So I just want to hit just a few of those, just an overview, and we'll be coming back to you again in more detail with further review and recommendations. But one of them is a law that you all have talked about it's come up in the past and that is the legalization of retail cannabis, retail marijuana. So, um, that is set to happen January or July of next year, um, 27. So there is a new statute that, um, expressly allows for certain local regulation, um, as far as, um, as far as hours of operation of these retail stores, and as far as penalties for violations, this requires a local ordinance. There's also the opportunity to address it as a land use matter. like every other business use. Um, so there's also, and that's, that's current law, the ability to be a special use. So it depends that we're not into those weeds yet, but that'd probably be something we'll have some recommendations for. Some of it will be zoning. Some of it will not be. So some will go up through the planning commission, uh, for consideration and recommendation to council. If, if it's zoning measures, some, some will just be, um, outside of the zoning ordinance possibly. So that'll be coming back to you. We have time on that. So that's not, again, that's not urgent, but that's something we're going to be working on. I believe the town manager already has an ordinance she's put together. And our firm has been working on a model ordinance as well that addresses some of these issues. So do you want anything on that?

Sure. What you're looking at is to prohibit it in our town or just regular?

It's regulated because there is tax revenues. Anyway.

I think that would be obviously a discussion for the council and the planning commission, but from a taxing authority perspective, much like the cigarette tax board, there is an opportunity for a revenue stream because local bodies may adopt an ordinance with either a tax of either I think it's up to one to three and a half percent, I think. So that's something that you all could consider in the future as you consider an ordinance as well as the hours of operations and the zoning and land use matters as it relates to it.

So another one, and again, this isn't sort of in the land use and zoning space, but it deals with the community and comp plan and economic development and all that. And it has to do with two issues. One's accessible dwelling units and one is affordable housing. So legislation passed this year that grants some additional rights to accessory dwelling units being a by-right permitted use. In other words, a smaller dwelling unit on the same parcel as a single-family home.

So that would be allowed to be built, like if somebody in town wanted to put an extra building on their property, the town could not stop them from doing that?

Correct. Now, it would have to be done within the framework of the law. And so there is some ability to regulate it. And there's some standards that would be in place and some requirements. But in general, yes. In general, it would create a by-right use. Okay. What about a tiny house? Yeah, so there's square footage. I think the law, so it could be, this again, this would have to be by ordinance, right? But it could be as small as 350 square feet and no bigger than 2,500 square feet. It depends on the lot size. But so there are some parameters in the law as far as regulating the size of these structures. this is actually going on right now already in the city of Richmond where I live. This has been part of a zoning code update that's been in the works in the city for a while. Um, so now the state laws, this general assembly has essentially said, look at all localities have to, um, accommodate these uses. Again, this one is not until July of 27. So at least the general assembly gave us some time, um, to get our arms around it and, and, and, and work on that. Um,

yeah yes on that if they do something like that are we allowed to collect the sewer and the water feed connection because they can't connect into their existing one i would think it'd have to be a new connection for the dwelling right yes my understanding they would have to have to connect and comply with all the the waters who um unless they're already existing there are some I would say we can't let them tie into their sewer line that's in their house, in their own yard. I think they have to have a new connection.

Well, we already have auxiliary dwellings in town. I didn't know if they were already on a separate line or if they were connected in.

They may have the grandfather, but I think it's going forward with the new law. I think it's something we need to state and put in there that they have to do.

And we'll look at that next. I mean, these have been allowed under state law and in localities have allowed them and that state law that pre-existed this one authorized or it may have required, but I know an authorized locality to require public water and sewer hookup and all utilities to be hooked up and connected and built the code and all those requirements. So, I think those safeguards are still there. Again, July of 27 is when we need to have something in place. Another one, similar, has to do with affordable housing units, mixed use, or this statute would allow, and again, not until, this one is January of 27, so it's a little earlier, so we gotta look at this one sooner, but it creates a by-right permitted use of certain defined mixed use or residential projects that are developed by certain tax-exempt religious organizations or 501 tax-exempt nonprofit organizations. There are certain parameters in this statute. It's a pretty detailed new law, but it does grant pretty expansive property rights for construction of affordable housing units by these types of entities. so like a church made it their mission to take homeless people off of the street they can build these homes and put them in there correct correct um again there are some requirements in in the statute and and i'll come back to you with sort of more detailed presentation um because that's one we're going to have to move on a little little quicker um Another one, again, sticking with land use, grants some additional rights to manufactured housing units and is essentially treating them as site-built units in state law so that's one I just sort of saw today so I'm gonna dig into that but it's again it's another one we're probably gonna be looking at probably making some updates to our to our zoning so would that require municipalities to allow mobile homes to be brought into lots in town is that what you're saying i i i do think um it does grant additional rights to me manufactured housing already has some rights under state law um currently and i think it expands those rights on how those those developments are treated um so you know yeah i just i just printed this one off before i came up i I'm not an expert on it yet, but I'll come back to you with some recommendations.

Given all of these upcoming changes, especially to housing, etc., will this affect Planning Commission at all?

Certainly anything zoning. We do everything that

to just make or just whatever.

Yeah, these aren't in the comp plan statutes, these bills, but they do implicate zoning in some cases.

There is only one item in this packet that potentially could impact the comp plan, but it is optional, and that is including the social determinants of health in your comp plan, but that is optional.

if if that's something council wants to do in future compliance no no there's that's in here in this report um

foreshadowing um of some of the some of the main ones that probably are going to require some action so again we'll come back to you staff with uh some recommendations and some of those are going to require you know going through the planning commission

Jeff, the first one, the cannabis thing, will the state tell us which zoning classification, like B1, what buy right that has to fall in? There's no buy right. So the cannabis one doesn't create a buy right. So like if I look up all the permitted uses in B1, are they going to tell us where to put that?

I don't think the state regulates that. Now, the state is going to regulate the licensure. right so um will they expect us to tell where that's going to go in our zoning order yeah i think well they don't care if we do it or not but we have the right the town has the right under local zoning um to to put some regulations around the location and the districts and things like that

I would add back to the licensure piece, there will be 350 retail licenses that are only allowed in the state. There are also different classifications for other options, whether it's micro business for pop-up shops at events. So I think if you start to think about your ordinance, I don't know if you want to explicitly allow for back to the kind of vendor thing, we're going back to the vendor permit, but based on those licenses, those are the types of things that you could consider in your ordinance, the time and then the license or the ordinance as it relates to buffering around certain uses. I know when I worked in Washington in economic development on this, They specifically had buffers from any child facilities, so daycares or something like Serena Source Tots or the daycares or the churches. Even if you wanted to get as explicit as certain government buildings. There are pretty limited areas in town where I think you would ideally allow them to be permitted, but that's something you all could decide.

So there's only going to be 350 brick-and-mortar outlets in the state?

Retail licenses. I'm not going to get ahead of the Cannabis Authority, but I've done some extensive research, and I have a mentee who's working on this policy.

So they'll be the ones to issue those licenses initially. Yes. If somebody wanted to do that, say the vape shop in town wanted to become a cannabis shop.

Yes.

they would first have to obtain one of those 350 permits before they could even come to us and use that permit. Okay.

Correct.

Yes, Mr. Roy.

I just want to more, I think, directly answer your question because I think he was getting at the land use and zoning part of it. And fill in where I get this wrong, please. But when state introduces a new usage, whether it be that, whether it be taxidermy or selling used cars, the law generally, if they don't tell you exactly how to do it, then it's a bit more open. But you do have to allow it in some way. And back when I was learning things, one of the examples that I was given that you can't do, there was a locality that didn't really want, I believe it was tattoo shop. And so what they did was they said that, okay, you can do tattoo shop in an industrial zone. But it just so happened that there was no industrial zoning in that locality. And so then the courts came back and said, well, that's just not going to work. You got to do it differently. Mm-hmm. So if they don't otherwise tell us what to do, when we put in that regulation, yeah, we can say, yeah, B1, we think B1 will work. You know, B1's that district. You know, B2's out there on AP. If we think that's better, then we could do that. And those two distinctions, I think those would be allowed. I'm not a lawyer on that, but if we were to do something like, you know, 2,000 feet away from given thing while the town's not even big enough. So that would by default make it not allowed. So that would become a problem. Is that fairly accurate?

I think that's right. In a prior iteration of this law, there was the opportunity for localities to hold referendum on whether or not it would be permitted in that locality. I don't think that's in the law as it passed. So I think that's further evidence that the intent of the General Assembly is that this will be a lawful state licensed use, right? But I don't think it strips all zoning authority away. But yeah, if you were to basically zone it out, and and make it not practical for for this lawful licensed use to happen anywhere in the town limits that now could be subject to a challenge but i do think there are reasonable restrictions and regulations that can be put in place as a manager spoke to distance from certain certain districts but also distances from certain types of facilities

And that's pretty standard and the other limitation in addition to the consideration around hours is the state has mandated the maximum square footage of a retail space. So we cannot exceed 2500 square feet. So it's not like you're going to have a massive shop sitting anywhere. So that's just what's out there already.

It could just end up by Food Lion. So when people got stoned and got the munchies, they just go next door, go to Pizza Domino's or something, right?

Okay.

Whatever. Okay. That's all I had. Yes. Thank you. Item number 15. Bowling Green, Kentucky. We have... They put our... our union occupation of Bowling Green Print in their city hall so that they're just publicizing us all over. And we are honorary sisters. There is a formal sister agreement, and that would be entered into if that were the choosing of council. That could be something that could be entered into in the future. It is a mayor's job to promote, their jurisdiction, their town or city on the local level, the county level, the district level, the state level, the national level. That is my job. And when I ran for mayor, that was one of the things that I made very clear to my citizens is that I had bigger visions for this town. I wanted people to know we were here. That's why it was important for a harvest festival to be advertised on television. And with the help of the town manager and her wonderful mother, Ms. Adams, we were able to promote this on TV. That opportunity opened up doors that led to other opportunities. We have spoken with the chairperson of the EDA and one of the officers in BGVA Main Street. they were encouraged about these opportunities the county when I presented our supervisor for our district with his key to the city that was sent for him The Board of Supervisors was also very interested. They were asking questions. They felt that this would be a good thing, wear their county seat, and it would give us an opportunity to be promoted on a larger scale. These people are coming from... these areas to go sightseeing. They're coming to Washington, D.C. They're coming to Williamsburg. What we need to do is get them off Interstate 95 and let them know there's a beautiful scenic route down Route 2, and you can stop in our beautiful Bowling Green. Again, we... in promoting this town you i'm trying to think outside of the box we have partnered with local localities but it's been in a limited capacity and you know as i told my husband If some of these local places were going to partner with us, they've had two and a half centuries with which to do it in. I don't see them rushing to want to help put us on the map. So this is an unusual opportunity that we fell into with the Bowling Green Connection. But it's unique and it is an opportunity. So I... The Weekend of Harvest Festival, they also are having their Weekend of Harvest Festival. They are opening their Riverfront Project that Friday night and they will be recognizing Bowling Green, Virginia as their honorary sister. I would like to be able to do that in kind at our music on the green but I would need your blessing to do that I would never presume to act without councils consideration and an action again this we aren't in a any formal agreement with them this is purely ceremonial I will be doing a porch talk um about harvest festival which will we will be acknowledging them they're also going to be doing one and we will be exchanging them on each of our websites so we will be promoting each other's um harvest festival uh so guess that's miss India wanted me to kind of give you an update and let you know I'm not doing anything nefarious or or without council's permission everything that I have done is perfectly within the scope of my job I'm blessed In the over quarter century I've lived here, I'm the first mayor that hasn't had a full-time job outside of this. I have more time to dedicate to this kind of thing. And I enjoy it. And I want us to be seen. I want us on the map. I want people to say, hey, I've heard of that place. We're gonna stop. It's good for our economic development. It's good for our businesses. And if we're known, it's good for many facets of our community. So I guess that's, Ms. Jacobs just wanted me to give you sort of an update and kind of get, pick your brains and see what you were thinking.

If you're not thinking anything,

I would like to know if you would consider giving me your blessing to acknowledge them as our honorary sister for the night of Music on the Green for Harvest Festival.

Is there something formal that has to be done for that? I mean, this isn't like international branding of cities. No.

But I just, I would not want to do that without the blessing of council.

So if you do it for one, are we doing it for the other 30? There are 30 of them. Yeah, there's 11. But I just don't know what the opportunity... I don't know what the opportunity... I guess for me, at the end of the day, we have so many other things happening.

We could just...

That's okay. I was just going to say we have so much other stuff going on. I commend you for going there, for doing all of that. But I would personally table any new project or whatever until next year. We can review it at our strategic, God willing, we have a strategic plan meeting. But just for me, I'm not there yet.

I guess given the present situation and all the other changes we're going to have to realize.

Any other? I guess I'll put my two cents in.

I'm with you as far as what you do on your time. You're beholden to the voters that voted you in, so I'm not going to stop you from anything that you do on that line. I think you're representing. If you start trying to spend money or something, then that's another deal, although you have a few discretionary dollars, so you have those. Which I did not spend a dime on. Yes, you made that clear. When it comes to representing the town in any kind of official capacity, I honestly obviously appreciate you asking like you're doing there. Do I care about you calling out as a sister city? I don't think so if it's not a formal proclamation. Yeah, that I don't particularly... That's fine with me. I wouldn't have necessarily... gone the route that the vice mayor just did, but I guess I do, you know, with the new news regarding the town manager, I think that we are going to have some administrative, you know, shortfall and bandwidth on anything growing from it. You know, so like as you were to continue doing things, you might have... trouble with that. So I'd say anything that you continue doing, just know that it may be maintaining a relationship for a while instead of really building anything. And that would be fine.

I just hate to see us squander this opportunity.

Yeah, but I'm just saying there's probably not going to be a lot of time to

I mean, that's the whole point of having rack cards that we're putting in the rest stops and up and down the interstate and to get our name out there. Go ahead, Ms. Adams.

Madam Mayor, just a point of clarification for the record. We did have a meeting myself, our events coordinator for the Harvest Festival, because some of this had some coordination with the Harvest Festival, if council agreed. gave that direction. Just for me as manager and a council manager, former government, because there are eight of you all, because this was a multi-state, interstate initiative that I would feel most comfortable if I'm directed by all of council, because there were four specific items, And the vice mayor was at the meeting as well and had some concerns and reservations about whether or not all of the council was in agreement on these items. I'm all for economic development and I will do anything that the council asks as a body. I do not take individual direction from one council member. But if you all want to do any of these four, I will try my best in the last 20 some days that I have in the position. But there are four items specifically that the people from Kentucky gave items to for social media coordination, and the mayor's happy, more than willing to read those. And if council wants to vote for me to do that, I will do that. Otherwise, I won't be pursuing those in the time that I have left.

Potential, please remember that word, potential collaboration opportunities. We can do the first four things this year on the Bowling Green Kentucky end. Message on our end is Bowling Green Kentucky celebrates the 10th anniversary of Downtown Harvest Fest. We have an opportunity to celebrate alongside another Bowling Green nearly 500 miles away that hosts its own harvest festival on the same weekend. While separated by difference, our communities share remarkable historical ties, railroad heritage, agricultural traditions, and a commitment to bringing people together through vibrant downtown celebrations. This partnership creates a unique story that can strengthen tourism, community pride, and regional recognition for both cities. And we could ask our, their chamber, this is written to me, and we could ask our Chamber and Tourism Commission to promote it to regional and national media. two Bowling Greens, one Harvest Weekend social media campaign. Develop a joint social media campaign with messaging celebrating both communities and their festivals, including fun facts about both cities and strategically cross posting content. This is best served by a few fun facts or did you know graphics that incorporate both city seals and Harvest Fest branding. We would want to post this sometime between September 30th and October 16th. The post tags both cities' pages and is treated like a collaboration that shows on both pages. Item 11. Number two, BGVA gets 10th anniversary friendship recognition at the Bowling Green Kentucky Friday, October 16th ribbon cutting for the BG Kentucky event. Recognize BGVA as the honorary community partner for downtown BGKY 10th anniversary Harvest Fest. and exchange commemorative proclamations our staff would like to be at the ribbon-cutting event instead of on festival day as it's too crazy for their staff item number three BG activities and promotions exchange booths at on-site city tents at both events They asked if we had any tourism brochures or city brochures that they could pass out. Again, that goes back to our RAC card, and the whole purpose of that is to get our name out. And then mayor videos, which is what India and I have been working on, the porch talk video. Film a short positive selfie for Mayor Alcott and myself from a cell phone to be shared on social media, our Facebook pages. Each mayor says kind things about their community's Harvest Fest while also extending a congratulations mutual to other cities' Harvest Fest. the post tags both cities pages and are treated like a collaboration that show on both pages or later if the first four are deemed successful by our communities then we can go on into other things and she has other things listed and they said that they would work on it more in depth but This was just a beginning ceremonial way with which we could start building a relationship and work towards the goal. Go ahead, Mr. Voigt.

Okay, I'll just chime in quick on that. Okay, so the first and the last one, so social media and videos. I'll Throw this out. Those are going to be done anyway. The other stuff, that's kind of time committal. But if I were to look at this from a social media presentation standpoint, if it's just adding another tag to it and sharing a post or two from them and they do the same thing for us, I don't see that as a problem. But other things that would, you know, use... you know significant or really any staff time distracting from things I'm not not so much about but sharing a post or two I mean that's that's that little start that you're talking about and I don't think that building a relationship be too crazy Ms. Davis as far as I'm concerned Enda has enough to do she doesn't need any of this extra she's doing a great job and I don't think we need to put this on her

Well, we're doing the video anyhow because it's a porch talk video, but okay.

Mr. Webb, do you have anything to add?

I mean, I kind of agree with things that have been said here. I don't think we need to take a lot of staff time with what we're doing. You know, the videos, you know, I mean, I don't have an issue with it. Personally, I don't have an issue if you want to get up and we're at Harvest Festival and you want to, you know, talk about what's going on. And I mean, I don't have an issue with that. But but I, you know, I don't know that I want to beat up India's time and staff time, you know. just with everything going on with a lot of that. But I certainly don't mind taking those first steps because I certainly do appreciate the energy and the effort that you put into going and doing that. So those are my two cents.

And I agree with that. Seems pretty innocuous, some of these things. But anything requiring exorbitant effort, I think, should be prohibited. I, for one, just personally don't see a huge connection between Bowling Green, Kentucky and Bowling Green, Virginia, other than the name. And I understand the name of Bowling Green, Kentucky was actually named after a town in New York State.

A park, yes.

Yeah. It's a town or city of 80,000 people. It has a Corvette assembly plant in it and Western Kentucky University in it. The greater Bowling Green area in Kentucky is close to 180,000 people. That's five times the population of Caroline County. So honestly, other than a name, I see no connection. Bowling Green, Ohio is significantly smaller, and Missouri is even smaller. So you might be, as far as establishing connection, have something with someone who has some connection. something in common with us. And I wonder, just personally, how many people in Caroline County have ever been to Bowling Green, Kentucky?

One of the things they want to do is to have a Bowling Green network and bring all the Bowling Greens in. Yes, there is. I saw that, but no. They're talking about the ones, most of them are on the East Coast.

So, anyhow. Okay.

I'm doing the porch talk video is that going to be problematic and then to share it with them I mean it's just a social media tag

That's what I was getting at with what I was saying.

Most of what they're saying is not going to take staff time. It's stuff we're already doing. I already wrote the porch talk. Porch talk is something we've been doing All year, different videos. India already, I wrote the script, sent it to India. She already laid out last week what she wanted Jeffrey to do with it and the pictures and all of that to put on our own social media.

Let's take you out of that for a second. I don't want to conflate. It's regular event posting that she's talking about. So don't get too confused. Like we generally would post about Harvest Festival.

Yeah, it's not extra. You're saying it's a Harvest Festival posting that you're doing? Yes.

Yes. This would be an extra special one for this purpose because we've already done our Harvest Festival promo as far as videos go. But she is correct. We have done the script. And so Jeffrey can do the recording and get it posted later. I think the other piece about the joint social media cross-promotion, one of the things has been brought to my attention that sometimes people do get them confused, and so I just I have a little heartburn about if we are trying to build the partnership and our messaging needs to be really clear on, I think what the purpose is from a comms perspective. And I think even as you brought up kind of the impetus from this is when you were searching it from the channel six video, you found Bowling Green, Kentucky. So I just hope that in our cross promotion, we don't, promote and algorithms don't promote the bigger Bowling Green, Kentucky than our Bowling Green, Virginia, as we promote our own event and highlight it. So that's all I have. And then when you did give the direction for the contact with their downtown director, she did follow back up, but she did not send any graphics as that's what we were looking with our events coordinator. And so we are waiting on that. We can share that and post that. And so those two things would be kind of low effort, low energy to get done and get started. But we would need those in a timely fashion. And then what is the message that we are trying to convey? Because I don't have any of that from them. So those are the only two things I would share.

Mr. Stork used to be the mayor. What are your thoughts?

I don't have a problem at all. I think it's a cool little hook to go out there. I think it just needs to be low-key at this point. If I were you, I'd go to Bowling Green, Ohio and get a photo op with them. That's our next goal. Post it on your social media. I'm a gene. If I've got 23 days left with our CEO – I got a list of stuff I want her crunching out that's going to help us. And then I will just say this. Don't get beat up about this, because when I was the mayor, I had so many good ideas. They were just the best ideas in the world. And then I found out... It could be the best idea in the world, but if they're not presented or brought correctly, I got my feelings hurt. I got my feelings hurt a lot that first year. They were great ideas, but I found out that I had to be subtle about them. I had to get buy-in ahead of time so that it didn't look like I was unilaterally doing something. And I'm not saying you unilaterally did anything wrong. No, I told all of you all year long. I mentioned where I was going. It didn't cost us a dime. Right. But if you want my advice for 10 years as the mayor, you got to throttle back sometimes when you know it's a good idea. You know it's a good thing. And on any other given day, it may be a home run. Everybody would agree. But you got to... You got to do it the right way. And so I'm all for you reaching out these other ones and do a little photo ops and doing posting on your social media. My biggest thing right now is like Jane, a little bit of time.

We don't, I don't want to take up. Yeah. And maybe it's something you staff time.

Anyhow, after the first year, maybe it's something you come talk to the EDA about and see what, see if you can get some horsepower there.

Just remember it took over two years to get the IGSA going. That's an example.

And it's very successful.

It could be the best idea in the world, but if it's...

Okay we're going to I guess item 16 we already discussed. Item 17 is the EDA appointments.

Vice Mayor Coyle.

Do you want me to make a motion?

Yeah you have all the you asked for these other three items to be put in here so.

well i didn't i don't have a motion on here but i can make a motion for the appointment of councilman hagerman and councilman stork to be reappointed to the economic development for a one-year term effective immediately to expire on august 2027. so we have a motion is there a second second i have a second is there any discussion quick one um

I remember when we first put you on there for the year, I thought the idea was to, after that, try to transcend to only having one council rep on there. Was there any interest from anyone else to join?

Was that even... Well, I'm glad you are.

I was just asking if there was any interest, if that was like even put out feelers for anything. I'm cool to keep you on there.

Keep you on there.

She's not going to have to worry about it much longer.

You all are good?

Yeah.

It's always been two.

And it's just for one year? Okay, we'll revisit it next time. No problem. So I have a motion. Is there a second? Is there a second? I'm sorry. Thank you, Ms. Davis. Any more discussion?

Deputy Clerk, would you take a roll call, please? Council Member Nathan? Council Member Stewart?

Should I vote or not? No. I abstain. Vice Mayor Coyle?

Yes. Council Member Chennault?

Yes.

Council Member Webb? Yes. Council Member Boyd?

Yes.

Yes. Motion passes five positive and two abstentions.

Item number 18. The reimbursing resolution item That doesn't have anything on here for motion. So the motion is to close session.

No, we need to approve the reimbursement. I don't know if the manager wants to speak to it. Yeah, we had a call with our bond counsel this week and our financial advisors and given the emergency on Main Street and then the last repair, they just suggested that And then some of the items, because we've paid for some engineering for the gross alpha project, and we hadn't had the MOA yet because it's taken several months, that we go ahead and put the reimbursement resolution in place and that council passed that just in case you all wanted to reimburse yourself from that from any future either borrowings or grant funds. And so that's there in the amount of $750.

I'll make a motion. We approve it. Second.

750,000. I have a motion from Councilman Webb, a second from Councilman Voigt. Is there any discussion?

One thing is, how much was this last week on Main Street?

I asked Sean. I just estimated a high of 100K.

Any other questions? Would the Deputy Clerk take a roll call, please?

Yes. Yes. Yes. Motion passes. Item 19.

Oh, is that what it is?

Okay.

Better turn your mic on for that one.

I got a big mouth. I move that council convene in closed session pursuant to Virginia Code section 2.2-3711A1 to discuss the resignation and final compensation of the town manager and possible candidates for interim town manager.

I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a second. Any discussion? All in favor, raise your hand. We will take a five-minute recess and go into closed session. Thank you.

I'll make the motion to come out of closed session.

I'm going to ask you to certify that we only spoke about what we went to closed session for. Councilwoman Davis?

Yes.

Councilman Wood? Aye. Certify. Councilman Webb. I certify. Councilman Chennault. I certify. Councilwoman Coyle.

I certify.

Councilman Stork. I certify. Councilman Eggerman. I certify. Okay. We are now at a closed session. And...

Okay, Madam Mayor, I'd like to make a motion that we engage the services of the Berkeley group to secure interim town manager as of September the 28th, and that we endow that interim town managers with all the duties that the current town manager has such as town clerk, add that person to all relevant accounts, banking and things such. And I'll second that.

So I have a motion from- Wait a minute.

So we engaged the Berkeley group to secure John Anzovino to serve as our interim town manager with all the other things I said.

Okay, so I have a motion from Councilman Stork, a second from Councilman Hageman. Any discussion? I'd like to ask the Deputy Clerk to please take a roll call.

Councilmember Hageman?

Yes.

Councilmember Stork?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Coyle? Yes. Councilmember Chennault?

Yes.

Councilmember Whitt?

Yes.

Councilmember Voigt?

Yes.

Councilmember Davis? Yes.

Motion passes unanimously. Do I have a motion to adjourn?

I'll make the motion to adjourn.

All in favor?

Okay, we are adjourned.