Town Council - Regular Meeting

Today is Thursday, November 6, 2025. It is 6 PM and I would like to open the town council meeting for the town of Bowling Green. Would everyone please stand for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge algiance 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.

We'll now take a roll call. Miss Davis, here. Mr. Voit, I am here. Mr. Web here. Dr. Chenalt is not here. Vice Mayor Coyle is sick. She is not here. Mr. Stork here. Mr. Hagaman here. I have five council members present. Two not present. We have a quorum. Um the consent agenda items one and two on the um agenda. Are there any questions for them? I I can move that we approve the consent agenda. I have a motion from Councilman Voit. I'll second it

and a second from Councilman Hagman. Any discussion?

All in favor? Raise your right hand. Motion passes. We'll now open public comment. Anyone wishing to speak can come to the podium. Please state your name and your address. at which time you have three minutes to speak. You will address me, the mayor. As much as we would like to respond to you, our rules do not allow for our council to respond to your questions. Um, and anybody who is watching on online, you are welcome at any time to send the mayor a public comment. Please put that in the memo box and put your name and address in the letter to me and I will read them at this council meeting. Thank you. We will now open public comment. Go ahead.

Good evening, members of the town council manager and such. My name is Lisa Pig. I reside at 134 Mory Avenue. Today I speak not just for myself but on behalf of my son and the future residents of Bowling Green who are neurodeivered or have other limiting disabilities. As many of you may know, persons receiving housing benefits through HUD as part of their Virginia Medicaid waiver. Um waivers, there's a few now have more choices than ever. They can opt for various living arrangements such as group homes, sponsored placements, financial hut apartments like the courthouse apartments right here in town, or they can choose to live independently with support. The Americans with Disability Act recognizes the rights of people with disabilities, ensuring they have access to fair housing. However, many individuals living with profound disabilities that impact their daily living skills rely heavily on SSDI to make ends meet. This is a crucial lifeline for them. Yet, as we all know, these benefits can be quite limited. My son is one of those individuals. He has chosen to live independently in the small house here in Bowling Green. While he enjoys his independence and the ability to walk to his doctor, dentist, pharmacy, and grocery stores, he faces a pressing issue, the rising cost of living. When he first moved in here, he um had a minimum water bill of 160 by monthly. It is since increased to 180 by monthly and now stands at 220 by monthly. This is a significant burden

for someone relying on SSDI to cover the monthly expenses. The cost of essential services like water should be manageable for everyone, especially for those in our community who are already facing financial challenges. That's why we have approached the town manager requesting a reasonable accommodation to establish a fairer water bill for residents like my son, particularly maybe in comparison to those living at courthouse apartments. I urge each of you to consider the importance of equitable treatment for all residents, especially those who are most vulnerable. Um, by adjusting the water minimum for individuals with disabilities, we can help ensure they maintain their independence without the added stress of un uns unsustainable, you know what I mean, utility costs. Thank you for your time and consideration. I hope you will support this initiative not just for my son but for all the residents in our community who deserve the chance to thrive in a supportive environment. Thank you.

Thank you very much Miss Pig. Is there anyone else? Mr. Hulie.

Good evening uh Mayor Gamble, members of town council. Uh, I do have a speech here for you and this is uh from our local fire department to VOTE. Um, so I'm going to go ahead and read that. As members of the Bowling Green Volunteer Fire Department, your friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens who respond when that 911 call comes in, we appreciate the chance to document our concerns about the Route 301 and Chase Street intersection improvement project. Our concern isn't about resistant change or convenience. It's about safety. The proposed continuous green tea design may look efficient on paper, but for us it creates serious challenges when seconds matter most. By cutting off direct access from Chase Street to northbound 301, our fire trucks, ambulances, and police units will be forced to take longer routes to travel north. Those extra moments could be the difference between saving a life and arriving too late. Every second counts, and this design takes those seconds away, not just during emergencies, but also during non-emergency operations. Under this plan, even our non-emergency return trips back to the station would be prohibited from making that same turn. That means that clearing a call, large fire trucks, and other emergency vehicles would need to make U-turns on Route 301 or take longer routes just to get back to quarters. Encouraging large pieces of apparatus to perform a U-turn on a busy highway creates an unnecessary safety risk both for volunteers and the public we serve. We understand that the goal of this project is to reduce crashes and we fully support efforts to make our roads safer. But when we look at the numbers between July 2020 and July 2023, there were 15 crashes with about 450 ft of that intersection. Most were angle type crashes, eight involved vehicles turning from Chase Street. A few resulted in injuries, but most occurred during the day and in clear weather, which suggests visibility and driver behavior may be the bigger issue, not the intersection design itself. We believe there are other ways to improve

safety without restricting emergency access options like better signage, dedicated turn lanes, or an adaptive traffic signal. These could reduce crashes without delaying emergency responses or forcing large apparatus into risky maneuvers. We're also concerned about the courthouse lane intersection. The proposal to limit left turns there doesn't appear to be supported by strong crash data. Yet, it would still reduce flexibility for both first responders and the public. At the end of the day, our mission's simple to protect lives and property. We're not against progress. We're against We're asking for a plan that balances roadway safety with the ability for emergency crews to respond and return safely. We respectfully urge VOTE in the town of Bowling Green to reconsider the design or at very least provide emergency service exemptions or alternate access routes that preserve rapid and safe travel in all directions. I will say I was disappointed when I came here for the meeting and it was advertised as a public hearing and there was no public hearing format. It was aformational session from BOT. So very discouraging to announce that, publicize it, and then show up and you just get handed a pamphlet. So right at 3 minutes. Thank you guys.

Thank you, Mr. Hulie. Are there any other citizens wishing to speak? Good evening, Miss Craropper.

Oh, mayor, members of town council. Thank you. I read your agenda. I read all your paperwork. I read the personnel file. I read every piece of paper that's been written since I became active coming here. Thank you. Y'all do a super job. That is a lot of work. A lot of time that I see and effort put in. I have a few comments though. Still your calendar is not up to date. When is the Christmas parade? I People keep asking me when are we going to have I don't know. What do you mean you don't know? You live in Bowling Green. They always have it. And yeah, they always have it, but I don't know when it is this year. It's not on the calendar. Um the waterline project. Man, y'all are killing us. This water sucks. And you know it does. You cannot drink it. You cannot brush your teeth with it. You bend your head over the sink and it just about knocks you out. And to read that, oh, web and associates have to do more paperwork, have to do more work to go to to get the all of that. It's just buy and more time. We were told in August that it was going to be out for bid by now. not happening. I don't see it happening next spring. It's very disappointing. And my last point is I would like to volunteer to set out in my front yard and pass out tickets to all the people that speed on Main Street because that sign goes off constantly. Slow down. Slow down. Slow down. Slow down. Slow

down. And they're gone. It is a nightmare. If you sit there and watch the number of people that speed on Maine, something bad's going to happen. It's just a matter of time. It's trucks. Every time that there's an accident, they're rerouted through Maine. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Miss Craropper.

Any other citizens wishing to speak at this time? Going once, going twice. I'll now close public comment. We will move on to member comment. Miss Davis, I would like to thank our town manager for everything she's doing to get records and everything up to snuff. Thank you, Mr. White.

Yes, good job on getting all that stuff. Um, I've got a few. I've got a few. I'll try to be quick, though. Um, in no particular order, I'll do the planning commission part first. We We're continuing to talk about the food trucks. Uh, got public hearing coming up at the next meeting there. So, that'll be getting up to the or two weeks from now. Two. Okay.

Um, and then that'll that'll get to up here, I guess, next year. So, you know, January, February. Um, all right. Let's see. Okay. Did that did that. All right. Um, let me go ahead and talk about the B3 real quick. Um, yeah, that thing was a little bit bit odd. I uh I've come to, you know, be aware that is how they do a lot of those those uh initial VOTE hearings and then they do some more formal stuff later. But yeah, I did expect something different walking in. Uh they did have a lot of material. They had um a lot of folks standing around. They had probably about as many staff present as as as people that came in. So, there was a lot of like ability to have like one-on-one, but there was no focal point. All the feedback was um like, you know, fill out the thing and and put it in the box aspect. Uh and there there was no um like like uh lecture TED talk given about the project. So, that was that was throwing things a little off. I know that the the vice mayor was there too and and yeah, she said similar. Um but uh I don't know when the next mark of that is supposed to be. Um I still have my my own issues with with the whole project. There's obviously most of it that I like, but I'm still very concerned. I don't have the same data and investment that uh you know the the fire chief has. But I I I would back up because um I do live across from the fire department there. you know, when they say they use it a lot, I mean, they middle of the night those lights come up and like, you know, I see them all the time. It's at least every hour that they're making some sort of trip. So, they get use out of that intersection. Um, so I I do feel for if if they have issues with everything, but I I'll leave that at that. Um, moving on. Um, had a lot of fun at the Harvest Fest. Was out the entire day, whether it was helping out with things or just walking around getting part of it. I I had 15 vehicles in in in my lot. Like it was it was it was happening

pretty good. I'm waiting to get what what our actual numbers were cuz it it felt like a lot of folks at least as many as last year, but maybe I'm wrong. Um all right, so let's see. Okay, so upcoming things. Uh we got the uh the Veterans Day ceremony on Monday. That's at 11:00. Supposed to be on the lawn. Um that's always a a good thing. In the case of real emergency, they they tend to move it in here, but in any case, it should be on the lawn. the weather looking fine. So, it should be at 11:00. Um, and then later on, um, there is the, uh, the town tree lighting thing. That's on, uh, Saturday the 29th. That's at 5:00. That's going to be into the street down at at Pitts and Mans. Um, apparently the tree has already been picked out. Um, and these are these are not directly town sponsored events, but these are good good community things for for the town here. Um, and then, uh, two more quick things. Um there uh so this weekend there is a oh I didn't write down what time it was. Um and I forget I always get my pronunciation wrong. Is it is it Saint ASAPS or Asafs?

ASUS.

ASF. Okay. Right. They're doing a a flag retirement. I believe it was at noon. Um but uh yeah they're doing you know when they take American flags are no longer suitable and they they properly dispose of them. A lot of people don't know um you know that you're supposed to do that in a certain way. Um hold on one second here. Um it's um and yeah, again the uh the Veterans Day thing is on the 11th. That's what my my invite thing I I got on Facebook said. So that is Tuesday. Okay. So sorry I said the wrong date then or wrong day right date. Um, all right. And let's see. Lastly, I uh I I I don't want to get too into it, but um as as as far as the water, I I would want to say that in the last year, I actually kind of thought that it tasted better since we had the you the new people taking care of things. Um so I would I would just say that if brushing your teeth is like giving you like a a foul issue, I' i'd be concerned about maybe something else. So, probably should maybe take a look at that. You know, just just just putting that out there because like you I'm not going to tell you to use it one way or the other, but you know, um you know, when I'm using it, I'm not getting like any kind of like a smell or anything that I can tell like that. So, you know, be careful with that. And I think that should be it. Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Vo, Mr. Web, Mr. Stewart, Mr. Aimman. Um, harvest festival was uh, a lot of fun. Uh, Valerie and I sat at the, um, town tent most of the day and well, we tag teamed. I was up and down the street and meeting vendors and meeting people and was a lot of fun. I'll tell you, I want to express a great deal of gratitude and thanks to the um staff at Channel 6 News, India and I went and spoke on Virginia this morning. They were tremendous to us and we had a lot of fun doing the interview. We got a lot of positive feedback from it and the day of the harvest festival. There were people because I was asking people where they were coming from. A lot of people saw India and I on television and we had people coming from Brander Mill, Verina, West Broad, areas that may not have known about us in the past. So, the TV coverage was was absolutely fun and wonderful and we hope to be able to do it again. Um, I will tell you I got excited after the TV interview when I came home. I got online to see, you know, if they posted it yet, and there was all of this harvest festival information for Bowling Green and I thought, "Wow, we're really popular." And I looked at the pictures and I didn't recognize a lot of the faces. So, I clicked on the picture. Well, it was Bowling Green, Kentucky, and they were having a harvest festival the exact same day as us. Well, you know, I never

met a challenge or person that I didn't talk to. So, I called Bowling Green Kentucky and they patched me through to um the assistant to their mayor and uh I had a wonderful talk with Miss Deb and we are talking about possibly doing a partnership and a promotion for Bowling Green Kentucky and Bowling Green Virginia. So, um it we're at the beginning stages of a relationship, but uh the answer's no if you don't ask. Okay? So, reach for the stars, get out there, network, and we're going to put our town on the map. So, that being said, we're going to move on. Um, we need to uh take action following our um closed meeting, our closed session meeting from our last month's meeting. The town of Bowling Green has a proposed CA cable franchise agreement request for bids and notice of public hearing.

So, madam madame mayor, if I may. Yeah. So, I think this was just a inadvertent um sort of typo on on yeah misprint on the agenda. There is no closed session that I'm aware of.

Um as far as the cable franchise agreement, we do need to hold a public hearing tonight on the proposed agreement that was submitted about a month and a half ago by Comcast. Um, and so we didn't do that last year for the breeze line agreement because that was a renewal and under federal and state law renewals don't require public hearings. Issuance of a new franchise agreement, however, requires a public hearing. So staff got the appropriate notice um, advertised. It was in the paper. It's in your packet around page 70 is where the agreement starts. Um, and I'm I'm happy to give a a brief overview uh if you would like um of the agreement uh prior to the public hearing or during or after it, however you'd like.

Let me officially open the public hearing. Um at this time, I would like to open the public hearing to um have the discussion about the proposed cable franchise agreement request for bids and notice of public hearing. Go ahead.

Yes, ma'am. Um, so, uh, it's kind of a quirk of of the law in this area when when you when you when a locality, um, is considering issuing a new franchise for for a cable franchise, you have to frame it as a solicitation, as a procurement, um, and open it up to anyone who wants to bid on the franchise. It it really doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but that's what the state law provides. So, the notice um and the state law required the town to request or to accept any proposals from any, you know, cable companies that are also interested in a franchise. Um, and part of that process and under state law is that we have to announce any bids we have received through that process. So, as far as I know, manager can correct me if I'm wrong. The only one that has been received uh pursuant to this process is Comcast. So, we checked that box. We've made the announcement. The only one we've got is Comcast. Um it's in your packet. It's been uh it's been available in the town hall for public review pursuant to the advertisement. I think it's been been posted. So, um these are pretty boilerplate agreements. Uh I've gone through and done a comparison between the Breezeline agreement you all um agreed to the renewal last year and the Comcast one that's being proposed. They're very similar. Um I can tell you the the Comcast agreement like the breeze line one before it complies with state and federal law. um all FCC federal rules, all state rules and uh laws, they both um and the reason I'm comparing them is because one requirement under federal law is we count town can't approve an agreement that confers some sorts of you know some benefit or basically a better deal to one franchisee than another. So they essentially have to be equivalent arrangements. And so long story short,

they are in my opinion. They both comply with the law. They both um um they both do the essential act of any franchise agreement and that is to grant a non-exclusive right to construct and operate and maintain a cable system in the town and to access and use and operate in any any public rights of way um under town control. That's that's the main legal thing that the that it accomplishes. Um it also um it requires um they they agree just like Breezeline did to provide free service to public buildings. Again, we're talking about cable. This question came up last month about internet services. So, and I maybe misspoke at that meeting, but just for everyone's understanding, under the cable franchise laws, state and federal, this this agreement only deals with cable service, cable TV service. Whether or not any provider chooses to also provide internet, that's not something we regulate. Okay? And so, um, just wanted to make that that clear. Um they both like the breezeline agreement it has minimum insurance requirements uh identification requirements. One thing that is different uh is that the franch the the Comcast agreement is for 10 years uh whereas the breeze line agreement was for 15. Uh I'm not sure uh why that difference was proposed. Um there are a few other small distinctions really in procedural matters such as if there's a default under the agreement under the breeze line agreement they have 60 days to fix it and Comcast has 45. So there there's little marginal differences. There's some excess insurance coverage in the breeze line

agreement that's not in the Comcast agreement. Um, so, uh, I'll stop boring you to death. I'll just just let you know that I have reviewed it. It complies with state and federal law. It's very similar to the breeze line agreement. And, um, my only recommendation when you get to action, which is later, either later on the agenda or after this public hearing 13.

Yeah. I my my I'll just tell you what my recommendation now would be. If you're inclined to approve it, it would be to approve it subject to final legal uh review and approval by the town attorney and consultation with the manager because we may want to have a conversation with Comcast on a few items that we haven't had a chance to do yet. So, um I would prefer my notes have um that the recommendation should be to defer until our December meeting. That's fine, too. So, that you can that's fine. Go over everything. These were some of the considerations that the town manager and I had already gone over. That's fine. Tonight's meeting.

That's all I have to present on it. Happy to answer any questions. And of course, you open it up to the public. I am. At this time I would like to open up um for public comment if there are any going once. Mr. Williams from the Comcast is on the line. He's going to make a comment. Go ahead. Hello. Can you all hear me? Um a little bit. Oh, can I turn my Is this better?

Yes. Just yell, please. Well, good evening everyone. Uh, madame mayor and members of the town council. Uh, my name is Dexter Williams and I'm here on behalf of Comcast. I want to thank you for allowing me uh to provide a few uh minutes to provide testimony this evening and considering the proposed franchise agreement between Comcast and the town of Roland Green. With this agreement, we view this as the start of a partnership, one focused on delivering reliable service, maintaining clear communication, and being responsive to the town's needs as they arise. I also want to acknowledge town manager India Adams Jacobs for her uh professionalism and collaboration throughout this process. Her engagement uh and guidance have helped ensure that the proposal before you reflects uh the town's interests and expectations. Uh we look forward to being a reliable and responsive partner to the town, one that communicates openly, meets his commitments, and works to earn the confidence of both uh local leadership and residents. So, thank you again for your time and the opportunity to speak this evening.

Thank you, sir. Um at this time, are there any questions from council? Mr. Haggamman, are they going to require any land to put a building on for a head-in system or anything like that for the cable? Can you hear? Did you catch that, Mr. Dexter? I'm sorry. I didn't hear the question. I'm It's hard for me to hear. Can Jeffrey, can you repeat it to him?

Will you require any land for uh like any building for the infrastructure you're going to install? You mean like uh easements where we need to get permission from property owners? Like a shelter? An equipment shelter? Like an equipment shelter? A physical address? That'd be a no. No. Okay. And that's not reflected in the draft agreement either.

Okay. Mr. Stor, Mr. Web, Mr. White. Okay, we have no more questions, no more testimony at this time. Um, Miss Jacobs, do you have any questions?

Yeah. Um, nothing other than a comment. Um, I did confer um with Mr. Williams um later this afternoon and based on their timeline um if the ability to to take Mr. um Gore's approach to allow him to finalize it between now and then in order for them to meet their their deadlines um for early January. Um I'd like to if we could work with them to get that um approved and not defer to the December meetings based on their timeline. So I apologize for miscommunicating that if you're able to to take Mr. Gore's guidance. I'm sorry. What you're saying is you would like us to take action tonight.

Yes. If you're okay with Mr. Gore's um suggestion to just allow approval based on his final um legal changes um working with Comcast. I I wouldn't want to defer um or delay their process because they have permits and things that they are trying to work towards um to start the process in early 26 and trying to be pro business friendly.

Okay. If there's no more questions at this time, no more testimony, um I'd like to close this public hearing and then we can take action on this. Any questions? Going once, going twice. Public hearing is closed. Um we'll take action on it when we get down to item 13 because it's on the agenda. Next, we're going to move on to uh the Bowling Green Police Department report. You have uh the report in front of you. Are there any questions from this council for staff on this report?

Go ahead, Miss Jacobs.

Chief is on a well- earned um vacation. Um so, I definitely just like to thank him and his department, Mr. Irvings um for their support and through harvest festival and in preparation for Christmas parade. A lot goes on behind the scenes um for everything from planning for the special event permitting with VOTE that's often unseen as well as the additional support on the day of. And I'd also like to thank Sheriff Moer for donating once again um the sheriff's office in u in kind donation in terms of their time and support to make sure that the event was um a success from a public safety perspective and help with the traffic management both on the music on the green the night before as well as the day of the event. Um so I'd like to thank him as well as Caroline Fire and EMS um and our local volunteer department as well for keeping the event safe for all of our attendees. And I would like to thank all of the volunteers that we had from our community. We had residents step up and they were tremendous, truly tremendous and they had a good time and um we're going to work towards having a volunteer core in this town so that we can do more events and it keeps our cost at a minimum. So we'll we'll discuss that and work on that later. Next, we'll move on.

I had a thing. Go ahead. Um, I I just wanted to give some real props to to both of them. Uh, we were we went to the courthouse law to pass out candy because we don't get a whole lot of people down here. And I just want to say they they were really on point. You really good good job to Quan dur during Halloween. Uh, they were really on they they just back forth back forth. They they kept everything really safe for that day. I just wanted to acknowledge that. Very good. Okay. Next, we're going to move on to item number four, the public works department monthly report. You have everything in front of you. Are there any questions for staff?

Mr. Fortune, I got to use the new stove in the kitchen over the weekend because we rented town hall for an event and Yes, ma'am. It was so nice having a new stove. Okay, that's good. Oh, it worked. And y'all did a good job of cleaning the building up. That was the best I've had the building clean since anybody has rented it. I was in a ball gown mopping the floor. Yeah, you didn't lose your keys this time. No. And I didn't lose my keys this time. So, um, are there any questions of Mr. Fortune, Miss Jacobs?

I'd also like like to just thank Mr. Fortune and his team, Mr. Jordan, as well as Mr. Giani for all their work on Harvest Festival as well. Um I think they probably end up working about I don't know 30 hours in a in a span of two or three days um looking at time sheets as well as I know the time that I was here for those three days. We were all here working um very diligently as well as the rest of our team but ensuring that the trash was picked up both pre-event and then supporting the musical degree the night before. So I appreciate all of your efforts as well to make that event a success.

Thank you so much. And also I would like let uh thank Gary Watts and Bo Seal. They uh they donated the straw to us just that well where they let us use it. We didn't have to buy it. All I had to do is go pick it up and take it back and uh he said next year we could probably do the same thing. So there'll be a cause we don't have to use for straw next year. Very good. Thank you, Mr. Watts. All right. No questions. Y'all have a good night.

Thank you, Mr. Fortune. Next, we will listen here from Miss Toiver, our finance director for the treasurer's report. You all had a chance to look this over. Were there any questions from councel for Miss Toiver? Uh just some highlights uh from the report. Um we are still in phase three, which is the real estate and personal property billing. The real estate bills went out um and we're finalizing the personal property bills to go out. Um later on we'll ask for an extension on that. Um so the mapping just to be more specific for the personal property um that was done and we finally received everything um from the Caroline County Commissioner Revenue Office on October 22nd. So we were able to review all of that information um and get that put into the system. Um census training occurred and I believe we're going to have more census training coming up uh for our online meter system. So that is good. And then the utility bills for the September and October usage period um are scheduled to go out the beginning of next week, maybe tomorrow if I finish them tonight. Okay. So on time. Um and as a courtesy uh we did provide um some extra time to some of the town residents to make delinquent payments. Um as mentioned earlier we did proceed with cuto offs in accordance with our ordinance in Virginia code. Um and we also in accordance with the town's code we also assessed a 5% penalty for anything that was unpaid and delinquent. So that has been done. Um, are there any

more questions? Any questions from this council, from Miss Tolliver? Thank you so much for your hard work. I know you've been working hard, especially with the audits. Yeah.

So, appreciate you so much. Thank you. We're going to move on to item number six, the utilities report. Jamie, are you ready to wow us? Cool. So for the month of September, it was relatively quiet on terms of treatment, but mechanical failures. The rotor broke, which power and flow was employed. They repaired it. And water systems uh were still testing for the radiological. We haven't gotten those results back yet. Um we also put in an effluent sampler to sample uh not manually anymore. we were hourly going down and collecting the sample. Now a sampler automatically brings it up. So that's a little bit better. Uh also came to my attention that there were some odor complaints near the state police building.

Um this time of year it's pretty common to have that happen. And the reason for that is you get humidity and cool air and you actually get an inversion of the temperature. So, normally the air closer to the earth is warmer and it allows the smell to escape up quicker. But when you get a layer of cool air down at the bottom and a layer of hot air at the top, it will actually carry the smell further. Especially when you add humidity to it, it will carry the smell further and people will smell it in areas where you normally did not smell it. So, that's that's pretty common this time of year. Actually, every utility I've ever worked for with this is a common thing. And I know that with recent sewer collapses and stuff, paranoia is probably a little bit up, but

this is common. Um, I did suggest some, um, remedies. Uh, I as a whole suggested a couple of little things. Um, these little covers that you can put under the manhole. It's the cereal bowl. It looks like Yeah. Yeah. I I researched that and was telling India about it. Yeah. So, you can put that in. It'll actually twofold. It will actually also help with uh inflow and infiltration, right? Which will keep water out of the system, which is always a good thing, but it'll also help seal the smell in, right? Um so, that's that's good.

What kind of cost does that have attached to it? So, what I looked up uh just yesterday, because I I don't look them up all the time, um there was an option for $160, but that's not firm. I didn't get any quotes.

Um you have to measure the manhole and go through a process, but it's it's relatively cheap in the grand scheme of things. Um I mean, I would do it to any manhole that's not sealed is what I would do. Uh the the only complaint that I've gotten in phone calls and I you know it could be other manholes but mostly was the one down by the state police department and we have restaurants down there and and other things. So that's why I was researching what we could do to mitigate the smell and that's when I saw that bladder and I know that in the industry they called it the cereal bowl. So,

yeah. No, it's I think it's actually uh something worth looking at, at least if it's just for the one manhole. I completely agree. Well, that the odor there at that intersection um the light which is close to the state police office, but by your business, too.

Yeah. And like I' I've walked down the street from lunch coming back to the funeral home and I've smelled it. That manhole right there is where the um grinder pump from Mari Heights comes up and dumps down into the system. So there's and I've heard it, you know, when you walk by. So the odor is probably coming from that. It very well could be, you know, that stirring action could be throwing some bacteria in the air, so to speak, at that manhole and stirring some smells up that, you know, again, this time of year is going to be much more profound than than any other time of year when the temperature is changing.

Is that something we have to take action on or is that something that he can go ahead and take care of? No, they're going to continue to investigate it and if they determine based on them being our utilities operator that that's the best approach, they're going to take care of that. Thank you. Yeah.

Are there any other questions from Jamie? Go ahead, Mr. Stor. Um, you know, we occasionally get complaints and I and I, you know, I I filter my water at my house, my drinking water, but the levels of chlorine, you know, when people say they smell chlorine, is it stronger sometimes than other times? Are we are we tight on the amount we've got in there? It's not too much or too little safety wise. So the legal limits in the state of Virginia and across the country for what I know is 0.2 on the low end to 4.0. And I know that we maintain right around 1.5. And you know that's to be safe because if you have a leak and you dissipate chlorine in the system, you want to have enough of a buffer so it doesn't just dis disappear overnight. Um, so if you run it about a 1.5, it takes, you know, generally a a good long flushing to get rid of that chlorine if if you lose chlorine for some reason. So to answer your question, I mean, we're always concerned about that type of thing. Um, but this time of year when temperatures are cooler, the odors are going to change. I know that this is in homes where temperature is usually regulated. Um, but you know, we haven't changed a whole lot. We we always run within the our limits. We usually stay we like to stay closer to 1.0 to 1.5. And that that goes along with taste, odor, you know, that kind of thing. That's very important to us. So, I I can't imagine that it's anything that operations has changed.

Let me go ahead, Mr. White. Okay. Um, I'm curious about a couple things. So, you know, you treat the water like you're just saying. So, let's uh maybe you can't see, maybe you can't. So, where does the drinking water start at after you've treated it? Locationally, geographically here in the town. So, it it after it's been treated, after it's been chlorinated. Yeah. Like I like I turn on the faucet like where is that coming from directly after being treated? Um, it can be coming straight from the well or the tower. Um because this is a combined system where whereas if if when the well is pumping out if the if the tower needs water it's going to fill that up.

But if it's actively draining it down because of usage then it's coming from both. Yeah. Okay. No, I I get that. You wasn't couldn't quite remember if it was you know drawing from all of them or not. Um, would you happen to know what like the longest uh run of that there is in the system? Like farthest in town? I'm obviously out of town's quite a bit, but the longest run of Well, just like a person farthest away, you know, into the spoke. I am not aware of that. Okay. No, no biggie. I'll ask the other question. Um, so on the on your wastewater treatment thing, the daily flow, this uh this big drop over here, um, was anything happening that day? Off the top of my head, I do not know. September 28th. It was a Sunday that means anything. But

um um that was like 001 judging by what this is MGD from an average of uh 0.09. So pretty significant drop. I was just curious if there was anything restricting that day. I can't imagine that it was. I can dig further into notes and get back to you on that. All right. That's all I had. Just curious about that. Thanks, Miss Mr. We did you hear the complaint about the smell of the water earlier in the meeting? Yes. Any idea what could be causing that? I would.

It's a you know that's a residence right on Main Street that I think would get a you know on a line that gets a lot of usage. I didn't know if you could comment on that or have any thoughts.

I would need more information. Um you know was it hot water? Was it cold water? Um, you know, if it's hot water issues, then really what that's going to come down to is the hot water heater actually gets rid of the chlorine and if there's any underlying sulfur or anything like that in the water, that's going to be a very profound taste and smell. Um, I'm I've never noticed a sulfur smell in any of the water. Um, but the the water heater can definitely change the composition of the water. Now, if it's cold water, if people are leaving their houses for vacation and not turning their water off or when they get home, they're not flushing it for 5 or 10 minutes. Um, then there can be water that's in the line that has dissipated completely of chlorine and that can give a weird smell or taste. Um, so then when it actually I do this I do this all the time in my house. When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is go to my kitchen sink because I fill up a gallon jug of water and I let my kitchen sink run for five minutes. I just because I know a lot about water. So, I do that and I can smell the chlorine change as it's running. I can smell that. So, that could be something that they're sensitive to. Some people are very susceptible to that smell change. Some people are very susceptible to it. I'm very sensitive. I used to sneeze every time I smelt chlorine. I don't do that anymore.

Any other questions from this council? Thank you, Jamie. Thank you very much. We'll move on to item number seven and that is the town manager report. Miss Adams Jacobs.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um and definitely like to thank um council for their support and those who were active in the harvest festival as well as our events coordinator Miss Stevens as well as um uh her assistance for um that event as well as the volunteers to echo the mayor sentiments. Um also just in terms of um items for the last month uh we have completed um the personnel policy review after over a year um and in revisions uh working with u Miss Powell. So I like to thank Jeff Gore um for his support and and lending her expertise to that. Um there were some delays as things change in the general assembly and we put a pause on it to to catch the next session. Um, but that has been over a year's worth of work as we brought that back last June. Uh, we've also been doing uh heavy policy work as it pertains to drafting financial policies, which the the town council probably hasn't had uh in a very long time, if ever. Uh, so I'd like to thank Mr. Cole of Davenport. Um, as well as Miss Toiver for her help and support in drafting those along with myself over the last month and and a half. um also oversight of the phase three of so southern software implementation. This is the last module that we've successfully implemented. Um so thanks for folks patience as we've have gone through um that system transition and there are still things that will be um tweaked and modified along the way but for the most part um our small team has undertaken a huge endeavor to implement the system um in less than almost a year and a little under a year and a half. Um some other localities take somewhere between two, three, four years to even get a system in place. Um and we've done that in that span of time in addition to continuing our audit work. Um which uh after you all adopted the uh FY23, that marks the third audit we've completed in

within 20 months, which is also very much unheard of. Most localities do one audit in 12 months. So we have been working at a break neck pace. So, thanks to everyone um for their patience um as well as their understanding as we've prioritized that because without the audits, the town will not be in a position to either borrow money, obtain grants um or really be in compliance with what the town should have been compliance with uh with over the last several years. So, um thank council for your support um in that effort as well. In the report, there's some highlights on the VOTE um smart scale project public hearing that that occurred as well as the USDA waterline project. Um that project has faced some additional delays based on some changes um at VOTE and in their requirements which does require some additional revisions and so Mr. Ball um of web and Associates is working on that. I will also say um due to the federal government being shut down, we are not able to work in tandem as we were hoping for um review on that um over the last 30 plus days. So, as soon as the federal government opens back up, um that project will hopefully move forward at the speed at which we were moving forward um before. Um as well as we've been continuing to work with Stantech to work on our water quality improvement project which will include the new wells and the piping and the facility which is separate and apart from the USD waterline project. So, I just want to make sure we don't conflate the two. The USD USDA waterline project was in place back in 2018 and it has taken some time um and we are um working on track and as much as and as fast as we can uh with changes at the state state level as well as federal um challenges that were unforeseen. Uh we continue to work with Stantech as well as our regulatory um partners on the water quality project which we have to have completed by the end of 2029. Uh we met the other day uh with Stantech as well as Embodden to talk through some of our next steps um with that and some mile markers that we have to and

milestones that we have to meet in 2026 which we are um on track for. Um and I believe uh looking ahead uh we will have our first economic development authority meeting next week on November 12th and then there will be a public hearing on the food trucks which um will run in the paper this Saturday and the following Saturday for the public hearing for the food trucks. Um and so we've gotten a lot of public interest in that. So I encourage folks to either submit your public comments to the town clerk at town ofgreenva.gov of if you are in favor or if you're in opposition um so that we can have those part of the record um if you're not able to attend in person or attend in person at the planning commission meeting um on November 20th at 6 p.m. And that concludes my report.

Oops. Thank you, Miss Jacobs. Are there any questions from council for town manager? Okay, moving on. Um, item number eight, unfinished business personnel po policy adoption. Um, you have all of that. Miss Jacobs just touched on it. I'm going to turn this over at this time to you or Mr. Gore. Go ahead.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, as I mentioned, Mr. Gores. Uh the staff person, Miss Powell, has worked closely with with myself as well as uh the Versa uh team as well as um HR consultant for Berkeley over the last uh year or so working on highlights to this. Um the policy had not been updated since 2018 and there have been significant changes both at the state and federal levels. Just in highlighting some of the the touch points um that we have uh reviewed. Overall, it modernizes and simplifies language, removes repetitive content, resolves contradictory policies, and ensures compliance with current federal and state employment law and regulation. Um, some highlights in section one under authority and application, it clarifies at will employment. Um in class uh section three under classification we had to change um changes on on call policy to standby pay in compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act law which is federal law clarifies how employees are compensated if they're required to work on designated holidays which was um unclear under section 4 equal opportunity employer. We updated conditions under which the town commits to non-discrimination to align with federal law. Uh we specified policy and responsibilities regarding unlawful harassment to kind of touch on some of the vers of conversation from earlier today. Section five uh updated uh accommodating persons with disabilities which modernizes commitment to accommodate qualified individuals to align with current federal interpretation under section 7 new employees eliminates probationary period upon substantial change in job responsibilities. Uh general rules clarified that each full holiday is valued at eight hours to the employee, which wasn't clarified before. Clarifies that town equipment shall only be used for town purposes. Uh under benefits, uh adds financial contribution for members of the VRS hybrid retirement plan. Um that this distinguishes uh VRS plan one and two disability retirements and VRS hybrid plans, both short and

long-term disability benefits. Adds descriptions for employee assistance program. uh clarifies some leave language, distinguishes programs for employees hired on or before December 31st, 2013 from leave programs for employees hired on or after January 1st, 2014. Um as well as incorporating the content of the addendum for paid time off leave for employees hired on or after January 14th as revised and approved by council in April 5th, 2018. revisions. It also adds PTO as time of leave that may be used when employee needs more than 3 days of bereavement time off. Adds organ donation, bone marrow donation, leave entitlement in compliance with state code. And then um in section 17, separation from town employment. It moves sections for grievance procedures, but clarifies that as well as Miss Powell brought to our attention that our grievance procedure has to go to the courts for um formal approval as well, which I don't believe has been done in the past. So overall, just a clean up to get um into compliance and up to date with state and federal laws. So thank you for your patience that we've been working on this um for over a year. So I appreciate it.

Are there any questions from this council at this time to staff or to our town attorney? I just want to thank you. I've read over this quite a bit and it's very well put together and thanks Jeff and thanks India for your hard work in doing it and anybody else that was involved in staff with it. It's very good. Any other questions or comments from council? Okay. At this time I would um like to ask for a motion to adopt the personnel policy. So moved. Okay. I have a

and I'll second that. A motion from Councilman Voit, a second from Councilman Hagamman. Is there any further discussion? All in favor, raise your right hand. Motion carries. Okay. Next, we will move on to uh new business, the personal property bill due time, the date extension. Miss Toiver touched on this when she was here, I guess. Are do you need Miss Toiver? Can you come back up in case there are any other questions? I'm ready to make a motion on this one right away. I don't

Well, that I I don't know. I just want to in case there's questions. So, what we'd like to do is um ask for a motion to go ahead and approve the um extension. So, moved again. Okay. Okay, I have a motion from Councilman Voit. Is there a second from Councilman Hagamman? Are there any questions at this time? I guess maybe we should clarify for the people watching what this is exactly doing. It's uh so it's moving the uh the due date from what to what

it is. Um the tax taxes are originally due December 5th. They will now be due on January 9th of the following year, 2026 of the assessment. Um, this uh in accordance with town code, the following provisions are in effect with the adjusted dates. If any taxpayer fails to pay the tax imposed on or before January 9th, the taxpayer shall pay a penalty equal to 10% of the assess assessed tax or $10, whichever is greater. If the tax is less than $10, the penalty will equal the amount of the tax. In addition to the penalty imposed, interest will acrue at the rate of 10% peranom on the delinquent tax and penalty beginning January the 12th and continuing until paid in full. Um,

thank you, mayor. No problem. Just wanted to clarify that this is just for personal property, right? Just for personal property tax. So, are there any further questions and then I would uh when we had the motion? Yeah. So, um all in favor raise your right hand. Motion passes. I got way late. Sorry. Thank you, Miss Toiver. Financial Advisors Engagement, Miss uh Adams Jacobs. So, I'm going to turn this over to you.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, yeah, in close, you have um the engagement, the annual engagement. We engage with Davenport um back in 2024. Um and that uh agreement lasted in in I believe May or June. Um and so they have provided a new engagement so that we can continue the work um with them. And so this is more of a just um an update to the previous um agreement and reaffirming um that work based on um their request. So that's um included in your packet for consideration. Are there um I I would like to ask for a motion at this time to uh authorize the town manager to execute a professional services agreement with Davenport and Company for financial advisory services.

So moved. I have a motion um from Councilman Stor, a second from Councilman Hagman. Are there any questions from council at this time? Quick, Mr. Roy. Yeah, the the amounts on here is this in line with what we were paying before? Probably, as with most most things, there's probably a slight increase, but um I don't believe it's significant um uh from what was before. Um from my recollection, it seems similar.

Yeah, pretty similar. Um this is a piggyback on uh Montgomery Countyy's cooperative procurement um from um their most recent the most recent procurement uh contract based on kind of similar scope and needs. Um there are some instances where if you were going to do you know a large financing that those costs would just be included in that but on an as needed basis this is pretty typical and standard.

So um I guess we have a motion. Any other questions? All in favor, raise your right hand. Motion passes. We'll move on to number 11, the financial policies. Mr. Cole, you're up. Welcome back. Apparently, we just rehired you.

For your consideration on that much appreciated um financial policies, they were included in your um Thank you. Pass. Is that good? Yep. There we go. All right. Um Ted Cole with Davenport. I appreciate the opportunity to be here. the policy document that uh we had worked on with staff was included in your agenda packet financial policies. Um what's being passed around and what's on the screen are some supporting information that go through some calculations for a few of the policies that are formulaic or that actually have ratios or calculations. Some of the uh policies in that document are just verbiage, right? It talks about what you'll do with your budget, what you'll do with your CIP, why policies are important, but there are some specific policies included in here related to fund balance and related to some utility financials that we thought the supporting information would be helpful with. Uh, and I will go through that um here in a moment. Um, couple things on the front end. These would be your policies. um they can be reopened, amended, changed, rescended at, you know, your discretion or future council's discretion. Um no outside um you know, approvals or anything else required. So you really do control these. We would expect over time that you would reassess these and maybe make changes, additions. So you know, this is a starting point um as you work your way through. And I'm happy to answer specific questions, but they're

relatively straightforward. The intent was that you could consider approving these and be able to do so comfortably that you're in compliance. Right? We're not looking to add something or include something in the policies that are going to create a new task or a new burden um on you all that you can do so and be comfortable that you can be in compliance with these policies. Um they cover um goals and objectives. They cover um enterprise fund reserves both water sewer. They they cover general fund reserves. They cover certain debt um concepts, the be the ability to refinance debt in the future for savings. Uh gets into some highlevel concepts about your budgeting. Um the process, the capital improvement plan, quarterly financial reporting and investments. So they're fairly broad. They're not meant to be a manual. They're more of a highlevel policy. Um, and again, um, these are things that can be amended and changed over time. If you have the Well, before I get into the specifics and the supporting, are there any questions about the policy document itself? I believe in the agenda, you're looking for consideration of approval this evening. Um, before I get into the supporting document, any question about the policies generally? Okay. Um, if you go to the supporting info that was just passed around the first page, and there's a page number in the bottom right corner, page two, but at the header, it says general fund unassigned fund balance policy. Um, the proposed policy is written in the upper right hand corner. Um, it mirrors what's

in the policy document. Um on the left we have graphed the calculation for the policy and where you stand relative to the policy with the note that this is through and including FY23 right the audit we have most recent audit. So we've got 2018 through 2023 audit. Um when the 24 and 25 audits are available we'll be able to update this to see where we stand. The red line is the percentage that is in the policy now which is a unassigned fund balance which is a particular category of your general fund fund balance that the accountants work with you all to calculate each year. It's a number that shows up in the audit very clearly. Um and the policy is that you'll look to maintain at least 25% of your general fund budget in that unassigned fund balance. That's the red line. anything above it, you're in compliance and then some. Um, if you were to be below the red line, you would be out of compliance. Um, it talks about and acknowledges that there may be a need in the future to spend fund balance for an emergency or some other situation. That is completely within your discretion even if it means that your policy your your fund balance will fall below the policy. that is, you know, that's part of the reason why you have fund balance is to deal with situations. Uh, but the policy does say if you find that you're in a position of spending reserves down below your policy that that be acknowledged and that there be a commitment to get back into compliance uh within a reasonable period of time, 3 years. Um and any monies over your fund balance policy at your discretion, you can move to um spend on capital projects or ideally other one-time expenditures, not operating

expenditures. So we've tried to cover a number of concepts. Um and then the the table at the bottom and let's look at fiscal 23 the most recent year just shows you the calculation, right? So the general fund operating expenditures are shown there at a million149. The fund balance categories that tie out to your audit are shown on lines 3 through 9. The policy is tied to unassigned on line 8. That is the component of fund balance over which you all have the most control. There's no outside restrictions. That in 2023 was a million17. So the simple math there, the unassigned fund balance as a percent of the operating expenditures was 88%. So well above the 25%. But again, we've got fiscal 24, fiscal 25 that we'd like to look at before you decide to do anything with um any dollars above your policy. Any questions on that?

All right.

I guess that would be reflective of all the ARPA money we got in that year, right? that could be contributing to the the the higher reserve level or that level of reserves. Um okay, so that's the general fund. Page three talks about the utility funds and we look at water and sewer um independent of one another and um the policy is written in the bottom right. minimum ending unrestricted cash and equivalents shall be not less than 50% of the operating expenses or set another way they would be able to cover at least 180 days worth of expenses. That's coming up with the same number just two different ways to measure it. Half of your budget or half of a year's worth of expenditures could be covered. Uh pretty typical policy level for utilities. Um remember and this is probably very um um meaningful to you all right the the reserves in the water and sewer need to be there to just cash flow generally. They need to be there so that you can manage um unexpected events with capital needs and fronting money um engineering costs for capital projects before you're ready to borrow um unexpected increases in expenditures or declines in revenue. So the red line in both of those charts is showing what the policy level would be as written and the green bars or the green line um show where you've been through fiscal 23. Water is is well above the policy level as of FY23. Um you know the the policy says we want 50% of our budget. Water was sitting a little bit closer to 200%. Now remember that also might have been attributable somewhat to ARPA and stimulus. Um I think it will be interesting to see how FY24 and 25 um change or evolve on that

number. The right hand side with sewer um cash position is not quite as high relative to the sewer budget but it is as of FY23 right at the policy level or slightly above. Um this policy also says if you fail to meet that minimum in any given year, you will strive to be back in compliance um with the policy within 3 years. So acknowledging that reserves may fall for one reason or another. Not necessarily saying you've got to get in compliance the very next year. Uh giving you the ability to take a few different budget cycles to get into compliance if that's helpful. monies above your policy at y'all's discretion can be used for capital projects. So it it doesn't mean you will keep the reserve at that level. Many places choose to operate at reserves above their policy, but you certainly have the ability to consider spending excess reserves as needed, as appropriate. And then the last item on page four, this is also about water and sewer. This is the concept of debt service coverage. And you may remember some of this when we presented, right? And um with water sewer, um the the appropriate and primary source of repayment for any debt you have is is user fees, system revenue. Um, we would ideally be in a position where the general fund doesn't need to provide any financial support to the water and sewer funds, that they're not providing financial support to each other. Um, and with debt service coverage in the policy in the bottom right, what we're what we're writing here is that we will strive and we purposely use strive. Now over time maybe you get to a place where you could

say we will budget at a level equal to X but you're going to see we're not quite at least as of FY23 we're not quite to the level of the policy. So we purposely use the word strive to meet a minimum debt service coverage ratio of 1.15 times. This is what that means. The first thing that has to be paid from your water or sewer revenues are your operating expenses, right? Personnel, utilities, chemicals, etc. have to pay those. What's left after that is what we call net revenue available for debt service. Right? Debt service is the next thing that gets paid after operating costs. And what we want to be able to demonstrate after paying our operating expenses, for every dollar of debt service we have to pay, we want to be able to demonstrate that we have at least a $1.15 available to pay it. And that's that debt service coverage. And we say that's the minimum we'd like to be a goal of 1.25 times or higher. meaning for every dollar of debt service, we would like to be able to demonstrate we have a $1.25 available. Now, you only pay a dollar for a dollar, right, on your debt service. So, that that coverage provides cushion if revenues were to um come in lower than budget or expenses come in higher than budget, it gives you a little bit of cushion that helps insulate each fund from the other having to support it. It helps insulate the general fund from having to support it. Um, and it helps ensure that each fund will be able to cover its own debt service. And it is also a a covenant that many lenders will look for in water and sewer borrowing. So, it's it's a

very common concept. Um, 1.15 times coverage is about as low as we would recommend. So, for example, if you were to go to the Virginia Resources Authority, which is a state program that lends money for water and sewer purposes, that is typically their minimum acceptable level of coverage. So, we purposely mirrored that. Um, you're going to see in both graphs, you've been at that level before or above. Anytime the green bar is above the red line, you have been at that policy level or or above. But you can also see there's some years most recently in 23 where both of them are falling short. So for that reason we purposely worded this policy that it's not you shall or you shall budget to this level. We want to get a few more years of audits under our belt. Maybe even get a into the 27 budget and see what's happening. And maybe in the future you could word that policy a little differently. But we felt like this was the right place to start to give you a little bit of latitude and a little bit of time to manage to that level if you need it. Those were the ones I wanted to cover specifically because they were discreet calculations and I wanted to make sure people had an appreciation for that. Again, the rest of the policies in the document pretty self-explanatory by reading them. Again, many of them are just memorializing things you're already doing. Um, and I believe, you know, when when we talked with staff, I don't think anything in here is going to require you all or staff to do anything different than what you're already doing in terms of the reporting, the budgeting, the capital planning.

Happy to ask questions. Any other question? Are there any questions for Mr. Cole at this time? None. None from you, Dan. Ted, thank you so much. You're always a wealth of information. Thank you. Appreciate it. We appreciate you. Thank you. Okay. Well, then at this time, um, I would like to ask this council to make a motion to adopt the financial policies. So moved.

I have a motion from Councilman Voit. Is second. Second from Councilman Hagman. Any discussion? All in favor, raise your right hand. Motion carries. Okay. Number 12, the legislative agenda amendment. Miss Adams Jacobs, I'm going to turn this over to you right now. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um in in your packet you have a revised um legislative agenda to include now item five which is to request the authority to establish utilities discount program for the low-income elderly or disabled customers. Um I think anecdotally we've had some um requests for u consideration for um both low-income elderly and disabled c customers. Um I think you heard in the public comment earlier today about one specific case. Um and we uh did work with that u that resident over I guess a period of a month and a half to take a look and then we ended up working u with the town attorney to see what we are allowed to do by state code and what we're authorized to do. Um in a being in a Dylan rule state like Virginia, we have to ask the general assembly for um permission in some instances to establish things that we don't have the express authority to do. Um and so based on some of the feedback um and some requests over the last several months um and we understand that the there are there are challenges um as it relates to folks ability to pay. Um we are recommending that this be added to the legislative agenda and request a sponsor. uh preliminary had a conversation with one of uh the members of our delegation who is interested um and willing to request um or to to sponsor this legislation on our behalf if council um desires. Um so with that

um I'll leave it to council for discussion and if so again uh we need they request um unanimous approval on the legislative agenda uh so that uh I can then send this um to our representatives and um move forward with the process ahead of the the upcoming session. Miss Jacobs, um, if we go this route, is this something that we have some leeway with? As far as I know you and I discussed, we really don't have an accurate um, picture of how many senior citizens we have in the community. We don't know what this number is at this time. So is that um does that give us if we go to the legislature and they approve all of this, do we have the flexibility to change the rates or um to adjust or depending upon how many people I mean if it's 70% of the population obviously we can't lower it as much as if it were 5% of the population. So

that's a great question. Um so first uh this is the first step in the process and given where we are in terms of timing um we have to get our uh request if if council so chooses um in and I think the deadline is pretty much the end of this month. So if we don't take action then this will not be able to be discussed again till next next um next year and the next legislative session. So to answer the first part of that question from a timing perspective um this is a it's something we have to do or we have to wait a year. To your second point about um establishing such a program there would need to be some um analysis and thought but step one is getting permission. Without permission we can't do anything um and so we will go through the process. Obviously the general assembly starts in January based on I think I don't remember if it's a long session might be a long session. Best case scenario, we'll know by the spring whether or not it was approved. Worst case scenario, the summer. Um so it may be that some of this dovetales with our budget process naturally and we're able to make some changes in the upcoming session. Um if if it's approved by the general assembly um if not, it would potentially be delayed thereafter if we were to get um the the authority to do so. Um, there are also some localities, I guess, that have the authority and then still either administer a program or do or choose not to, but asking for the authority to do it is the first step. Um, if we did receive the authority and then council decided that they did want to formally establish a program um for the for this purpose, uh, we would have to do um some analysis, some of which uh there will be there is a utility rate study underway. who are working with um University of Maryland. Um that is a a free service that is provided to us um in collaboration with um some of our state reps. Um and so we will have um a rate study and hopefully we will have some

various scenarios that looks at affordability anyway. Um and so it could be that in that process we work with them to then establish what would need to be created to ensure for the overall operations of our system and viability of our system. So long with an answer saying yes. Okay. Thank you. Are there other questions, Mr. Voy?

Yeah, I got a few things. Um All right. First off, yeah, I'm I'm glad that you outlined what you just did basically. Um you know, the time being, you know, pressure means, you know, got got to get it done soon. Uh the Dylan rule, you know, that always kind of gets to me. So, anything we can do to kind of, you know, get get something at the local level where the things actually happen, I'm always going to be for, you know, at least in that sense. So, I I I want to get that ball rolling whether we, you know, end up going that route or not because it it takes time. And, you know, even getting this in now, this is still going to take a little while. There may be something we can do in the meantime in a different way. But, um, you know, that leads me to another aspect of how like I personally feel about this. um you know this is a kind of another layer of of you know regulation everything to kind of establish something which you know if that's the way we have to do it then and maybe that's what we do but uh you know when we do things like the rate study she just said maybe there's another way we can tackle coming down the road but since we have to get this in now I I would say let's get started on it just give us options I'm for that

if there's no other discussion I would like to ask um for a motion to move to amend the 2026 legislative agenda to include the request for a sponsor to provide discounted fees for specific lowincome, elderly, and disabled customers. So moved. Second.

You're tag teaming each other. I have a motion from Councilman Hagerman, a second from Councilman Voit. Is there any further discussion on this? All in favor, raise your right hand. Motion carries. Okay, now we're going to move on to 13, the cable franchise agreement. And um I guess we are not going to defer this. Can you get that that verbiage that you were saying earlier again?

Yes, sir. So So my recommendation would be if you're inclined to to approve it to approve the Comcast cable franchise agreement subject to final review by legal counsel.

So moved. So, I have a motion from White, a second from Councilman Hegelman. Is there any further discussion on this? All in favor, raise your right hand. Motion passes. Items. Is there anything, Miss Jacobs, that you have anything else that we need to do?

Okay, I am going to at this time um open up our podium for public comment for those who couldn't come earlier. And uh if you have something to say, please state your name and your address. You have three minutes to speak and um know that we cannot answer or have conversation with you but what you have to say is important to us. We are listening. Miss Canon.

Welcome Miss Canon. I apologize. I cannot get here early because I have other responsibilities. You're fine. That's why we have a second. Thank you for having us, too. I have three items and I hope I can get it in in three minutes. Go ahead. I'm concerned that name and address real quick, please. South Main Street, Bonnie Cannon. Thank you. You just vote. I had one of my questions about this Comcast cable. May I just ask a question about it? I know y'all had public hearing. I wasn't here. Can you tell me what services they planning on providing? Are they going to do cable and internet? And what is the rate infrastructure? And you haven't got that far. We haven't gotten that far.

So you don't know whether it's going to be cable and internet. Do you know the answer to that? We um right now we know cable internet we will be discussing later. Didn't that come up already? Yeah. This tonight's agreement is only about cable. Yeah. Okay. Is this just going to be in the bowling green area or you going on outskirts of the town? Yeah, they're obligated once they start to to build out. So, well, I sure hope they do. Okay. Thank you for that. I'm sorry I wasn't here. No, you're fine.

Secondly, in relation to something I heard Mrs. Toiver say a few minutes ago, y'all extended the due date for the personal property, and I know may have been something about your software situation or whatever. It's in working with the um county. I'm going to use my southern words here now. It would be mighty kind

if y'all would extend all of them to January, especially since the status of our economy, all these rate increases y'all have already done this year. Again, it would be mighty kind if y'all would extend all of them past the December 5th due date. We have holidays. Or another suggestion, change your due date to maybe September or March. Move it away from December. I've mentioned that before lots of times. I think it's a wonderful idea. It's not all due in December, but again, be mighty kind if you would extend that to the rest of them. Also, I have one other thing about this is a history related type of question. This council has to have an answer for me. Do y'all know anything because this property is located in the Tanabon Green. What is going on with 218 North Main Street? that building that is one of the last few oldest buildings left in this town. It's sitting it's in the town. I'm just curious. Does anybody know what's going on with it?

I'm trying. I'm sorry. It's the little building formerly foil designs by Joyce 218 North Main. The county owns the building. I understand. But I'm just curious. It's in the town. I got you on.

Don't y'all know something about what's going on with the build? What's I don't want to see that building raised or torn down. It's the last building, if I'm not mistaken, that's left in the town, older building. I knew the lady that lived there when I was a child growing up, Mrs. Leia Brooks, some of y'all might remember her. She was I went to church with her, grew up in grew up with her. She lived in it in the 50s. And then of course that gentleman Dave Johnson who was a realtor, he owned it after that. And maybe who else? Anyway, I don't want to see that house go down. I want something done. I don't see why it's not being utilized anyway. I've sat in there many times and I don't have issue sitting in there. Anyway, I would like to have an answer to that question. What's Does anybody know what's going on with the building? Would be nice to know.

We can look into it. And also, I want the council to do something to stop preventive from being torn down if that's in the works. I don't want to see that building torn down. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Miss Cannon. And y'all know the history why the sidewalks like it is, right? No, y'all don't know that. Now you have one of the first funeral directors in the county. David, you probably know this. Lived there. Yes. And also when VOTE extended the street, they took the sidewalk in front of the building. Okay. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Miss Canon. Is there any other public comment at this time? Going once, going twice. I will now close public comment. Are there any comments from this council at this time? Mr. Hagman. Madame Mayor, no, there's not. And I'd like to make a motion to adjourn the meeting. Okay, I have a motion, a second. All in favor, raise your hand. This meeting is now adjourned.