Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

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e for I entertain a motion to come out a close session Mo do I have a second second start to vote Mr ear yes Mr Collins yes Mr Bry yes Mr Horton yes Mr Moore yes and I vote Yes I'm going ask each board member to certify a certification resolution whereas the Carol County Board of Supervisors convene a close session this state pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and on a motion to close the meeting in accordance with Virginia Freedom of Information Act whereas section 2.2 371d and we went under A1 and A6 of the code of Virginia requirs a ification by the Board of Supervisors that such close session was conducted in Conformity with Virginia law now therefore be it resolved that the car County Board of Supervisors hereby certifies that to each that to the best of each member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully Exempted from open meeting requirements under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act were heard discussed or considered in the close session to which the certification applies and only such business matters as were identified in the motion by which this close

session was convened were heard discussed or considered in the meeting to which his certification applies I ask each member to certify start with you Mr Earley IO certify Mr Collins IO certifi Mr Bry I so certifi Mr Horton IO certify Mr Mo IO certify and I so certify at this time I'll ask Mr Brock you believe us in invocation and pledge please let us pray Heavenly Father we thank you for another opportunity to be together uh to help make decisions for this County we just ask that you bless every citizen this County and uh just help us to uh do your will in Jesus name amen amen to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible when liberty and justice are all okay I want to welcome you all to the Carol County Board of supervisor meeting our local Governor body convenes monthly to address Community matters that are under the purview of the board we uphold civility as a Cornerstone of our proceedings and expects all attendees to conduct themselves accordingly the board is committed to provide multiple opportunities for public engagement including scheduled public comment and additional public hearings on specific agendas we encourage active participation from our residents with the exception of work sessions and certain special call meetings public comment is scheduled for all our regular meetings in addition to the meetings Board of supervisor Representatives we are already available for communication by email or phone outside of formal session please be advised that Outburst or disruptive behavioral Behavior will not be tolerated we aim to maintain a respectful and productive environment for all attendees so the Public's business may be conducted in an orderly and reasonable manner thank you for your cooperation and involvement in shaping the future of our community and

with that I want to start with the retirement recognition from Mr cook is Mr cook here okay Mr cook did not come all right so next we have a presentation the commissioner Rue is going to come say some thanks to us and it'll be want for needs so Mr Maran thank you Mr chairman I appreciate it thank you all for the invitation to uh speak tonight I'm just going to give a quick overview of why we have to do a reassessment I'm going to read straight from the code of Virginia uh code section 58.1-3970.1 in addition Augusta County and Bedford County may elect by majority vote of their respective Board of Supervisors to conduct their conduct their General reassessments at either five or six-year intervals section 58.1-3970.1 in such County by omitting such General reassessment in the year required or by failing to comply with the provisions of 58.1-3970.1

as the provisions have been complied with in such County results of the Tax Department officials assessment sales ratio study showing that each county or city to have a sales assessment ratio between 70% and 130% for the year a general reassessment or annual assessment is effective so that kind of just tells us why we have to have our general reassessment if not we lose funds that will affect our schools em Police Department fire department thank you gentl and you're next thank you good evening I'm Gary en I'm with wther e appraisal group I have Mike Kio with me he was our lead appraiser on on this project and uh just wanted to thank uh the board for allowing us to come and uh talk to you a little bit more about the reassessment thanks to uh Wade for doing the uh legal reading of it first of all we are a Virginia owned Mass appraisal company um uh right here in Virginia we um by the end of this year Wampler will have completed 167 reassessments for 56 different localities throughout Virginia and North Carolina totaling uh over two million properties there we're knocking on the door right at 3 million um as Wade said state law requires that counties do a reassessment every four years unless your population is uh less than 50,000 while four years is required you can uh do an annual assessment or or by anual assessment the state department taxation

always we we're under scrutiny by the by the state um they watch these ratios to uh make sure that they do not fall lower than 70% and this is where I like to say this is the first time I think I've laid eyes on you folks and uh thank you for uh let me again letting me come and speak to this this a reassessment is not because the board wants to have a reassessment and it's definitely not because uh the Commissioner Revenue wants to have a reassessment the it's it's state law uh the state requires that that you folks do this and you're not the only one it's uh uh reassessments are going on all over the state of Virginia and North Carolina right now so we have to be the our goal is if if Market if the property values are here and Market values here the state says you can't stop somewhere in between you have to be at 100% market value so that that's our goal and and again how they uh the state looks at that they they look at what the ratio is so for an example if if you have a home assessed at $80,000 and it sells for 100,000 then your ratio is at 80% just it's just simple math it's justess value divided by the sale price Carol Kenny right now you're at 59% this just came out from the state so your ratio before not counting this reassessment but as we as we are right today we're at you're at 59% so that means your public utilities are going to be paying you 59% of uh of the market value of their properties um Telephone companies power companies water companies um um cell towers uh any any

public utility um it's based on that ratio right there so the tax burden if if the big operations aren't paying their fair share then the burden goes right back to the homeowners and property owners here within Carrol County so that's where you are right now the first step when we do a reassessment process is we come in and look at sales within your county we didn't bring any sales from any other County in Virginia or North Carolina we we looked at sales right here within your county we looked at residential sales land sales uh um um farm land sales vacant land so um they're based on properties that have uh transferred right here within the county each property if if we can inspect it there there a field inspector would verify the information uh at the door with the property owner and go over basically the property information that's on the property record card and and things are updated we add decks out buildings take away we've had to take away some uh structures lately because of uh the uh Helen so and so we've taken away structures also part of the reassessment process the County's divided up into smaller areas called neighborhoods just for your Market comparison so if you're in a name subdivision we start comparing sales right within your area if you're in freeze We compare sales within freeze and then we sort of move out uh from there throughout this process again we're looking at land values yearly appreciation Trends and U the data

collect is collected and then entered into the uh uh appraisal Software System we also use GIS uh while we're out in the field a lot of our field technicians have U the gis right on their phone with this we can look at topography uh Woodland versus openland versus Woodland we can look at Waterfront areas uh we can locate other structures on the property so we try to utilize all the tools that we can that we can have to uh to do these assessments of course our goal is to do accurate appraisals and and and be Equitable on these appraisals if we have two houses that are in the same neighborhood they're identical then they they need to be assessed identical um we also again it all boils back to that goes back to the uh ratio study that the state um looks at after we're finished with the reassessment just pulled some examples out uh these are sales right here within the county this is one that um this home own 68 Acres sold for 450,000 its current assessment is on the books at 268,000 this is a home that sold for 229,000 on 2.3 acre track it's on the books at at 108,000 right now so you can see that one doubled in value since the last assessment there's a condo that uh sold for 209,000 its current assessment is 116 here's a new home uh that we didn't have a current assessment on because it was just built but it's a 800 sqt house

on 200 2.33 acres of land and it sold for $300 a square foot and it was just yesterday I promised that we were talking $100 a square foot for for homes but now we're up to to 300 there's another home here in Carol County that sold for 257,000 on a 6 acre lot and it's on the books right now at 108,000 so that's what we were up against here's another one 185 current assessments 100,000 I did a little digging uh other companies are are working um here in the state and uh these are some recent reassessments Floyd County notices just went out they had a 52% increase um we did Franklin County um they were effective 2024 they had a 46% increase and these are averages residential was up um a lot higher than that um Warren County is up 65% over four years Washington County 65% over four years City of Bristol was 55% alany County 55% Clark County 47 and den witty County 47 Augusta County that was effective last year it was 55 and then Carol you're sitting here at 49% I'd like to point out too that we we're the um same company we've we've done your county four times now in 2012 the values we actually they dropped the assessments actually went down in value in 2017 they were up about 2% uh in 2021 we were up 7.5% so we we don't create these numbers

we're we're following the market right here within York County and so you can see from from a value drop to up 49% over since uh 2012 you know we're following the market the sales right here within the county now that the the assessments are complete we're we are in the middle of the hearings right now so we're we're receiving appeals through email mail and through um um right end so some folks are dropping them off at um um the commissioner's office and they're getting those to us we're calling folks going over their property record cards with them we're we're out visiting properties again if we need to I was out looking at a property today um so so we're you know let we're we're letting the process happen we're listening to the the appeals uh we're looking at these properties again if we if we need to we'll go out and do a second visit on them um if once we finish with these uh hearings it'll probably take us another four weeks to get through them um if property owners are still not happy they can appeal again to the local Board of Equalization which those folks will be citizens from your county and um so there is a second appeal after that if if they're still not happy after the Board of Equalization then they can um basically petition the court to do uh to look at it pretty much um also again 58.1 again code Virginia 3321 this is the second part of a reassessment just because property values are up 49% some folks are up over 100% the county as a whole

cannot capture more than 1% more revenues because of the reassessment so basically that puts it back on you folks to look at your tax rate um just because values are up doesn't mean taxes are going up um uh you folks will have to look at the tax rate you'll have to look at your budget to see what how much funds you need to run the county uh next year um you can have a public hearing if if if it's if it goes up over 1% because of the reassessment then you're required to have a public hearing when you set the tax rate so I just like to point that that out it's not just a increase in property values that the tax rate will stay the same um that won't happen are there any questions from the board do you have contact information that we can reach out to y'all's group yes sir we did you see that we get that we I'll be happy to get that to you yes sir just by email for yeah we get that I'll get it to W get that I think he has thank thank you appreciate it all right thank thank thank you thank you apprciate it okay next on the agenda is citizens time um of course um public comment offer citizens the opportunity to address the board either in person or in writing on matters relevant to the responsibilities of the board to maintain a respectful and constructive environment uh we do have some guidelines we need you to adhere to um addressing the board please direct all comments to the board as a whole refraining from addressing individual board members or employees of the board or County orderly conduct personal attacks as well as the use of vulgar or

profane insults to lead to disorder and prevents the board from conducting The public's business and therefore will not be tolerated scope of topics comment should pertain to issues within the purview of the board and local government topics beyond the board's control or unrelated to local government are not appropriate for public comment question and answer public comment is not a question and answer session board members will not respond to questions during public comment without permission from the chair the supervisors do have time at the end of the meeting you know want to say if they want to say anything forcan the chair May rule a speaker out of order for violate these rules upon a second violation speaker may be removed from the podium each speaker you be alloca three minutes for their comments once the three minutes is up um especially due to the people that we have that'll be your your time for tonight okay all right and we will start um with Mr Roy Hancock how you doing doing good you sir I'm all right I just I'm not happy with the assessment I'm not happy with wasting tax dollars on building a big swimming pool I'm not happy with wasting our tax dollars build a new EMS building and uh I know that this assessment is going to drive our tax dollars up and we can't afford no more taxes as it is cuz I'm on a fixed income Social Security I'm sure a lot of people are and and I I can't handle no more bills as such as the tax increase that you want to put on this assessment so that's my complaints is and worries about that you know there's too much economical worries now without us having

to pay extra taxes for garbage for wasteful spending so why not cut taxes somewhere cut it instead of raising it on the people here us you know because we got too much burden on us now I mean we're we're on the fixed income we can't turn around and say tell the social Social Security Administration say hey we're having to pay out more taxes we want you to pay us more money we got nobody to turn to to get more money you understand what I'm saying so so we can't stand no more taxes and that that's it in a barrel cuz you going to cost a lot of us to have to turn around and sell our homes because we can't afford them because we pay too much on automobile insurance home insurance and then you got taxes coming in again on the real estate and we can't we can't afford to do that that's just the way it is that's that's my worries about this thing now if if I could turn around to the Social Security Administration hey y'all need to pay me more money because I'm going to have to pay more taxes I can't do that you know you know I can't and I ain't got nobody else turn to to get more money and that's all I've got to say I appreciate it thank you m you okay next uh I think is Berkeley Davis I just want to say that you work all your life to pay

for a place and all youve paid taxes on it all your life when you get to a certain age you shouldn't have to pay it all this young generation needs to work that they getting handouts instead of the old people having to pay everything and you get to a certain age you shouldn't have to pay no more when you paid all your life working trying to pay for what you have and we don't need a big swimming pool to waste money on taxpayers pay for it and all this other stuff so that's the way it is we just barely make it to have a place to sleep and food on their table to eat when you get to a certain point that's all I got to say Thank you Mr David thank you okay next uh James Tey no okay go to my next [Music] sheet Adrian [Music] childr hello I'm Adrien childis and my husband and I moved here almost 20 years ago to be near family and care for aging relatives and his family's from this area and I do understand the requirement for reassessing properties and that the tax rate per 1,000 can be adjusted um but I did have some thoughts to share

with you lived a lot of places in the Southeast one place I lived for many years uh they had they still do uh a way in which when you get your tax bill if you pay it by date number one you get a nice discount you pay it by date number two you get a little bit less discount you pay it by date number three it is exactly as it is and if you pay it by date number four you're assessed a penalty or fine there are people in this County obviously who have a lot more means than some other people and that would be to me a simple way for the county to increase its Revenue collection and um because you would have that money early you would have it before the due date and again it's an incentive and it makes people uh feel like their County cares about the second thing is um another place we live one town we didn't live in Sullivan's Island South Carolina we lived in the adjacent Town Mount Pleasant and the town of Sullivan's Island experienced in the 1990s a a large part of what's going on in a small way here in K County and that is people with a lot of money from a lot of other places who were able to sell their homes for huge amounts of money moved to Sullivan Island which had a lot of small two-bedroom houses little frame houses that had been built there in the 40s and the 50s it had a real sense of community a real sense of neighborhood and those people living in most of those older houses were elderly they um the the I wrote down what I was going to say so I didn't want wand but the majority of those homes there were small old on small Lots owned by people who lived there for years who had made few or no improvements to those houses and they were elderly and on fixed incomes

which is what we find a lot of in Carol County Carol County has I don't know what our proportion of elderly people is and what your threshold is for when you're elderly and when you're not elderly but it seems to me uh as I go about in Carol County that I see a lot of people my age and older um the town there Salis Island really valued its neighborhood its friendliness its community and they were not real excited to see people come in bulldoze those small houses and build mega mansions and while they would get a lot more tax value perhaps for them it was going to vastly alter the flavor of that place and they cared about that place it meant a lot to them and so they took a sort of unusual route I don't know how every every place has different laws and rules but they decided to grandfather in older people I'll talk faster older [Music] people um I would encourage all you to to consider some creative ways to look at uh taxation in Carol County Carol County is a beautiful place um it's rolling hillsides pasture Creeks streams clean air clean water it's a really really lovely place and so I ask that you you not uh bankrupt older residents who don't have anywhere else to go and one other final thing to say thank you on improving the County's website I was looking at in the last few days and it really is is easy to use now it's easy to see the agendas for the meetings and minutes of the meetings and it's a vast improvement over the other website thank you ma'am thank

you okay next on I have Kevin carrier good evening I'm not going to be repetitive because some of the things I was going to say was said uh we bought property here 20 years ago um some of the things that the woman in front of me just said um municipality where I live for several years they did have that percentage if you paid early you got 3% 2% uh what I wanted to say was this is the first time that my property's been reassessed where the card wasn't left there where I knew that they actually did a physical visit I wish they were still here because my questions were more or less to the people who did the reassessment you can look on a satellite and look and see square footage my house went up 80% there's been no additions to my house since 2018 so either they missed it where I added a garage maybe they think it's additional living area but I have a square footage area of just under 12200 Square fet they're telling me my property is worth $485,000 previously was $269,000 values it's really it's it's relative to who your buyer is some people may think that your views worth $73,000 which we had a lot that sold for 73,000 the lot right next to it so for for $27,000 it's just if somebody wants that lot it's relative what went so you I understand the reassessment that it does need to be done but it's not really done equally when it's all relative to whoever the buyer is because it's always in the eye of the buyer whether that property is worth it or not I have another property uh next door to us we're all on 5 acre

tracks his went up 86% there's no way that house is worth 536,000 you're not going to get it so it's it's not equal they did not go door Todo I have a ring camera so when I'm not there I would have noticed somebody was there so that was a false statement that he did not go door Todo and also the development that we live in it's a private road and it's it's a dirt road that we have to maintain ourselves there is no infrastructure within our development other than electricity if I wanted to put a telephone line in the telephone companies already said there are no new lines that are coming in here so the only infrastructure we have is electric so you know I think it was very overinflated and again not to repeat what everybody else said but I do understand was there I think um the the only issue that I have is your appeal date was Friday but yet this meeting was today and some of most of these people here may have had additional questions that didn't appeal that it would have been nice to have the appeal date extended Beyond after this meeting because there's more ideas and and questions I'm sure at this meeting other than Friday being your deadline be able to appeal that's all I have to say thank you all thanks thank you okay next Glenn McMillan I appreciate time I've lived here in Carol my whole life I do asphalt work so I can pay the farm I'm like a fifth generation farmer I don't want to see my grandp parents place where I can't afford to keep it no more I done ask fault work and drove a truck around here for years and years I've watched people from other Places come in and buy the Fancy Gap Mountain views that can afford to pay a

fortune I can't afford to pay a fortune I work every day so I can Farm now my place went up probably 100% it went up $80,000 and I have a small house to start with not we're not talking about the land that I have I'm just talking about the house itself like I can't afford it fellas I mean y'all supposed to work for the people I'd appreciate something being done I don't got the answers but like I can't afford that much taxes Either Leave it to where the farmers can Farm I ain't got nothing else to say either I do have one question for you do you have your land your farm land and land use no I don't have it I don't know sir I don't know don't even really know how to do any of that since my grandpa passed away a couple years ago that's something I you need to wait about that commissioner there's a program that we do for the farmers okay to keep to keep you forming yeah so if you'll if you'll uh speak with him and I did I did follow the appeal long time like good my well there's still I mean you can comment I mean they're still taking appeals and they're going to do the appeals board so it's not turned it this gentleman right here yeah so it's not that it's the deadline was complete I mean they're going to have in six months we have the board the local citizens too so just on just on my house that went up $80,000 and I mean I got a small place to start with you know I mean I y'all can adjust the rate do whatever I ain't got the answers but we need some help okay app we thank you sir thank you okay next Richard Bailey how you doing gentlemen all right you uh my name's Richard Bailey I live over in dugbor um I moved here about

three years ago and retired from the military uh I bought a house in 40 acres over in dugbor and I paid $320,000 for it um here we are few years later three years later uh and I just got my evaluation and it's at $500,000 now there's been some improvements on my place I'll tell you right now there was two deer Ste deer stands built and a chicken Co so I'm not seeing where this evaluation is coming from I can tell you right now in our government we have seen Insanity the last four years we have seen everything go crazy we have seen people move from California we have seen people move from New Jersey we have seen people move from New York to our area and they brought their money with them and they overinflated at our market right here in this County I don't think there's a person in here that will deny that not one single person so I do not believe this evaluation is fair not at all and the comment was made about them going door to door that's a lie on my property I have a gate on my driveway and not one person contacted me for entrance into my property um you know I understand the issues that a lot of these people in this County have uh this isn't a rich County people just get by and it's really unfair to the people of this County uh if we sit back and we take an artificially inflated market and we apply the taxes to the people of this County based upon that I mean

I I I'm just at a loss for for where We Go From Here I really am um you know and I understand that that uh I'm new to this County but you know what I am a member of this County and I've not seen much else improve in this County since I've lived here so where's the money going right now roads are pretty bad in a lot of places you know I asked the Board of Supervisors what are we doing what's the plan with this money what's the justification we deserve an answer on that but I do appreciate you guys being here and uh and letting me speak to you today um hope you guys have a good evening thank you okay next will be Tony Hall are we're doing good um I sent you all an email week before last I'm not going to review all those bullet points on that but I do want to make a couple of things known um in addition to that email uh I hate they left anyway the uh buildings through two of the three storage buildings were put on wrong Deeds I have two Deeds on the property my reassessment is not correct that alone tells you it was done incorrectly the second thing is he did ask to enter my

home you can't ask as an assessor to come into my house you can't stay code can't do it he did it um those buildings have been assessed as permanent structures on a solid foundation they are not they are storage buildings sitting on cinder blocks that can easily have a tractor hooked to them and then be moved at any given point in time they cannot be assessed as permanent structures uh another point I want to make to you all really a question question but I don't expect an answer um I sent the email to you all on Thursday on Friday morning I received a phone call from the commissioner uh Clerk of Circuit Court asking me to explain my appeal to you all and the commissioner of Revenue how did the clerk of circuit court get involved why was the circuit cler circuit court involved in my reassessment think about this gentlemen all of you this reassessment has been wrong from the word go the processes the procedures the outcomes have been wrong from the word go and the people who are paying for it is me you and the rest of these folks behind me along with the citizens of Carol County and you need to fix it because you work for us and that's all I got for you thank thank you ma'am thank

you okay next Mr Jim Dixon I want to thank you all for our hearing heing everybody out um I'm here to say that the assessments is can be real in Era a lot of times somebody might have a house and they spend $2 or $300,000 in remodeling fix it up real nice when the houses around them it's not fixed up but they got the same value to them I think our government has inflated a lot of stuff we got taxes coming up now they supposed to go up unless yall leave the the go down on the tax rate and yall have that decision right you can we've not decided the tax R yet sir okay so but y'all can't influence it I think yeah we adjust the tax yes so if you you drop your tax rate then you know it'd be easier to live with but for some of the peoples I've heard some of them going up 300% we got piece of property the tax value went on up on H $200,000 and the value is not there I've been trying to get $400,000 out of a 85 more year lease on it and have not had an offer yet so but now it's worth $980,000 and the same property was appraised 7 eight years ago it was praised tax value was 700 $50,000 the appraise will come in at something like between 400 400,000 to 500,000 appraisal is off of something like $200,000 it's went up another

$200,000 and it's double part the value of it would be so I I think if depending on what tax bracket you're in the government can be getting something like 50% of your taxes or your income so if you fortunate enough make 100,000 a year you only some people are only going to get 50,000 because of the tax brackets and the cost it's going to be and a lot of people cannot afford anything extra on the taxes or black bills you know we had the light bill the a come out with uh a high rate on dir black Bill everybody opposed to it and they got hit reduced down so here we have the local area going up on the assessment to where a lot of people cannot afford it and then we got insurance companies I got a bill for $1,000 for liability insurance only and I don't even do nothing much so considering all these other things that's going on trying to get other people to come in this area and you know we might be a Hightech straight County anyway thank you thank you thank you okay next I and forgive me if I pronounce it's Andrew and Robin I believe Andrew okay what's the last name thank you sir yeah I'm Andrew for I moved here from Colorado four years ago when I bought the house I bought it was on the market for over 26 weeks before we purchased it the value that it was reassessed at is over $230,000 more than what I paid for it in

four years it doesn't go up that much I think those gentlemen left because they didn't want to get caught in the LIE the uh the word fair market value is a misnomer here I want to know where I want them to clarify to me where do they come up with a fair market value on these properties uh I'm very fortunate I work from home uh so I I'm I'm at home every every day during the week nobody came to my house um and and there's a lot of people here that are on fixed incomes that have far less income than I get they they can't afford these increases in the taxes now it's just a tax assessment right you guys can only raise it like 1% I think is what the law says but it does it sets it up for you guys to raise the taxes year after year after year these people can't afford it and Carol County can't afford it there's no industry here what happened to uh parklan or whatever it was it was right next door they're out they went to Sparta because they're getting a better deal on their power and other things in Sparta Starbucks silver and gay LAX because you guys wouldn't let it come into Carol County which is another way to bring income I don't understand what your what what what your um what your plan is here for Carol County because town of Hillsville and the county itself it's not it's not progressing it's not growing it's deteriorating and you guys are putting the tax burden on the people that live here thank you thank you thank you Laura Sinclair Laura Sinclair okay what at one time the state facility over Southwestern Virginia Training Center which I worked for about 27 years

and the state chose to close that down so what jobs do we have left and and I want to just reiterate um a lot of the things that I wanted to say have already been said but you know at one time and I think this was a different board but Remington firearms wanted to come in here and build a plant over there on what's the name that Park Parkland area Wildwood you saying Wildwood Wildwood Park yeah I couldn't remember the name of it but the supervisors at that time didn't want a Firearms U industry in the county and I'm thinking why when every person in Carol County owns at least 15 guns you know I own more than that myself but I don't understand the reasoning behind some of these things and this is not just Carl County I've seen this happen other places that people that are in power do not want a certain industry here for whatever reason and um I totally agree that U the tax assessments are unreasonable uh and that that is a lot because of what the gentleman said about people coming in here we don't have that many millionaires in Carol County we have some we might have a few billionaires I don't know I'm not one of them but to assess all of their property based on what those people can come in with big money and I'm going to say this drug money is all over the place they have money to buy what they want they have money to burn I've seen it in other counties this is what's causing air tax rates to go up and I just don't think that the citizens of Carl County can absorb any more cost like the especially the elderly people on fixed incomes I personally would like to see the county

get in budget shape that nobody over 75 years old would ever have to pay property tax again we paid it all of our life but the time we if I live to be 85 I will have paid for my house twice and that's not fair because and and there again I don't think that we as citizens of Kaa get the benefit from their tax money that maybe they get in some of the other areas like the town of Hillsville and Ka is one of your largest districts population wise okay can I have an extra minute I'll give you just a little bit more yes okay as for the swimming pool now I found out this week that we have lost at least two teaching positions at St Paul school I don't know about the rest of the county but it hurts me to see her budget that you cut the Schoolboard budget and we lose valuable teaching positions when a lot of these little kids have nowhere to go they get their only hot meal they get their only loving environment from the teachers at school we have a lot of kids like that I work in the school I hate to see that so instead I suggest that instead of spending that money on that swimming pool put that aside until we have more money than we can can know what to do with and then build a swimming pool if you want it use that $3.5 million to lower air taxes put some money back in the school board and hire air teachers back thank you very much thank ma'am Miss cross I will comment on one thing we have not cut the school board we gave them additional money last year we took it out of savings so we didn't

raise the taxes we took out $1.6 million out of our savings account to give to the schools last year so we have not cut the schools we've not seen this year's budget we've not seen this year's budget so I just want to clarify that okay we we have not cut them any money UPS okay next will be Mara Thompson good evening hello good evening thank you um I'm speaking on behalf of myself and my parents who are 8 586 and have 12 acres in Fancy Gap and of course they're on a fixed income um they got their assessment and it is 24633 per increase now there was a new addition um it's a tiny home it's 445 Square ft it doesn't even have a bedroom it has one interior wall and they assess that at 26200 ,300 and if anyone wants to buy my tiny home for $262,000 I'll talk to you right away um my dad took an appeal uh down to uh the office on President's Day he didn't realize it was President's Day so when he walked in the office was closed but he met the assessors they were there having a meeting some some of them I guess and they took his uh appeal and he he showed them this and explained it and said um this is way over assessed not even close they seem shocked at it and and of course this is here say I'm ref I'm telling you what my dad told me um they said it shouldn't be that high what we recommended was between 40 and 50% across the board is what he was told

they took his appeal they called him and basically said we're not going to change it um my dad got quite upset he was going to be here tonight but he didn't think he could handle it um they told him on the phone that they did not include his house the main house at all that the entire 262 300 is on the tiny house uh I live there and I work from home they never came I never saw anyone and their house is three well probably twice as big as mine in 24 they assessed at 55 in 23 they assessed it at 55 yet they're assessing this tiny home at $262,300 there's just no logic to that whatsoever and so that definitely needs to be re-evaluated again they told him on the phone that they were not going to change their mind so I do want that looked into and we will take it all the way thank you thank you thank you m okay next I have a Steve card and if I do pronounce someone's name wrong you can correct me okay thanks for listening to us guys um I'm also questioning the validity of the assessment uh amounts I mean understand that we have Assessments in this kind of thing but I I did an interet search that's makes me a real estate expert now but um Zillow reports a decrease of 0.6% in the last year for our area red fin reports a 9% over the last five years realy track reports 8.7% over the last five years realtor.com gives a range of3 to 9% over the last five years but

they're saying an average of 6.5% in Hillsville so where does 50% come out on an average when these So-Cal called I don't whether they're experts or not I don't know but they're talking at most eight or 9% increase maybe some of us would be willing to accept that given the you know the inflationary environment that we're in based on you know not only covid but what's been going on in the general economy in the last four years and so on and so forth uh we see this in the automobile Market you know we're seeing a a a real high prices and now all of a sudden you couldn't sell one if you're life dependent on it so is that going to happen with all of our homes when we're assessed at these high values I don't know the answer to that but um but it does feel like we're being taxed on unrealized gains uh you know this is money that we didn't spend this is a value that's just out in thin air uh you know is this a real number or not I don't know but I do question that uh you know just the assessment that everything in the whole State's going to be up 50% or more that seems crazy now these other people have stories just like mine you know so I won't uh I won't be labor the point uh I think this swimming pool seems to be an out though thank you guys thank you thank you sir okay next I have Hillary boskin boskin boing chin all right boing thanks again for letting me speak today my name is Hillary boin and my family have been property owners in Fancy Gap since before Carol was a county I have a deep love for the community and its people I currently work at the high school and I volunteer for two nonprofits in the county why am I telling you this I feel

it's relevant because I've been here long enough to see the lack of growth over time and I refer back to a cartoon map from 1996 some of you who may have been here at this time may remember this lovely cartoon look at all those businesses we have if I hold it correctly see all those businesses that we had at one time in this [Music] County Carol County has made a business of local government and it's failing our community at a time we can least afford the answer is not to punish the citizens to make property ownership unattainable but to open its doors to progress and help new businesses become a part of the community there's a little growth and I've collected information from the Census B Bureau to prove that um the gentleman that was here and left talked about Floyd Floyd County their poverty rate is 11.1 Carol County is 16 children in poverty for Floyd 2% Carol County 19 household income uh 61,000 Carol County 52,000 per Kappa 36,000 for Carolyn or I'm sorry 36 for Floyd and 29 for Carol 26.7% of Carol County's population is over the age of 65 all right let's see I would love to see progress but we have a few things to address like one grocery store in town Hickory Hills shopping center the economic development which we invest so heavily according to the the budget that you guys have school rankings and ratings people with families don't necessarily want to come flocking here with their kids they want to you know it's people that have money to buy our cheap rates then they get here and they're shell shocked at how little we have the restaurants the shopping uh and all this information is

from census.gov um and also homes.com there's 285 available places in Carrol County right now versus let's see pilki 161 with 177 Floyd 21 um let's see well honestly the other things have been addressed so I just want to say that I think it's very we can do something a little better here all together I think and I also don't think the Board of Supervisors as a whole should be commenting as much on Facebook I have looked some people up on Facebook just based on people's responses to a post my post posting Community Information and I was attacked some people people have given me phone numbers to call them this is a public issue not a personal issue where I should be contacted personally I posted publicly and I posted the truth publicly and it should have been addressed like that thank you so much for your time I appreciate it okay next I have Norma Stone Norma Stone C I mean you know I'm like the other people I think that two minut poverty down here I lived in Northern Virginia for 30 years I come down down here I mean people are struggling to eat I mean it's serious it's it's sad I me I work in Social Service up north down here kids go to bed hungry and you're going

to tax their property and stress their parents out how they going to keep the house how they going to keep the land it's really really sad I mean do y'all think about the people I mean I'm like other people you need to bring some jobs here before we raise tax and all that like yeah it's easy to come here from Northern Virginia because I sold my house there so I can come down here you know it's good but the people who live here like my mom she's 84 she can't afford to keep staying here so anyway that's what I have to say but thank youall for what you do thank you thank you ma'am okay next I have a Dennis Stone good evening guys hello I wouldn't want your job but she said I lived here and had to leave for work I'm a general contractor the gentleman that was year earlier that left um I built houses for 45 years um I don't think his assessments is is right on with you know program uh now I retired from building and and a farm and as this one gentleman here says it it's making it hard for the farmers I mean I can sell the farm and quit but you know are we going to

eat you know uh I think maybe if you'd take time and and look it over and I'm sure y'all's taxes went up too uh but if we could adjust this down to a to a point where people could afford it and stay I think it would be to everyone's in you know interest and I guess that's about all I have thank you [Music] sir okay the last one I have signed up is Dan Williams and how are you doing pretty well sir hope you are too doing good thank you it's good to be here today happy to be able to address yall in the community what I'd like to say is my family's been here since pretty well like the woman said before for Carol was a county I guess it's probably about 1830 something anyway back to the other side of it pretty well we get taxed on every part of our life all right we're getting hammered with tax taxes left and right and a bad economy if y'all could I would implore you to do us a solid on the tax rate when it comes up because these people need a break right now your poor are getting poor they're having a hard time and it would be the best thing as a human being to look after these people these are our neighbors we need to look after them thank you'all that's thank sir thank you that's that's all I had signed up um we're running very good on time as body else that want to speak that didn't sign up who wants

to I'm G um if you if you'll come up and sign your name first for me sir and then I won't start your time do you do okay I just that you do it tell me eug J you just you just start it for me okay go ahead sir my name is Jean bergetta I live over off a he sry I live over off a Hein Road and uh I just wanted to know if um appalachin Power or I guess is developing a solar farm a huge solar farm over there I know a lot of people are not aware of it because it's in my backyard I look get it from every window of my house and everywhere on my property so I don't know how that made my property go up 57% I'm pretty sure anybody who would have looked at it before right after the last assessment look at it today would not be willing to pay the same price for it that's just my personal thing but I'm wondering if they looked into uh you know this is obviously a multi-million dollar development and it's not even close to done and they've been putting that much money in there on the I'm guessing the assumption that they're going to make a ton of money to do this because nobody invests that kind of money without getting money back so this is uh anix it's appalachin power it's Venoy Farms who owns the property everybody's going to make money on that is there any way that this County can tap into that and say hey you guys are using our natural resources you're taking up a big piece of land that was formally Farmland you know can we benefit from that somehow and maybe lower the you know

citizens tax rates I know that's a rhetorical question I'm not expecting an answer now it's just a suggestion like is that something that we can look into as a county you know appach empow is doing work all over the county they're putting up polls over by us they put up a big uh transmission lines things like that where they they're doing it you know their business they're making money they're as everybody here knows they're making money so is there any way we can tap into that the county and say hey you're in our you're in our backyard you're making money we need to get some of that money from you guys we need we need more from you then you know you guys just using up our resources and charging our citizens you know pretty high rates and that's all I got to say thank you for letting me speak thank you sir thank you okay did I have anybody else hold up Sir you'll sign this paper for me just just print your name or certain address please thank you good da yes sir go ahead I'm Dave Wickham I live in woodlon I'm not a longtime resident I've lived here five or six years I bought our house for $169,000 we've done some improvements and I understand that but this latest assessment was 445 and the assessor did show up at our

place my wife talked to him they said had misassigned or mis assessed an out building in the previous assessment and that our assessment should go down went up 65% without any changes to the property in the last four years so the assessor that was here before said that he had done the previous assessment going back some years was he that far off four years ago that he has to jump at 65% to make it right this time and he showed all those counties going up it looked to me like an average of at least 50% but if the value of all this property goes up 50% that's a major increase in revenue and I would rather see a fair assessment and a raise in the property tax if the county needs the money because everybody can understand that in somebody's accountable but just to to throw a nebulous assessment we can't we don't know what it's really based on we don't know how to argue that assessment and it just puts the property owners at a complete disadvantage I mean if you raise the the taxes and we think you're wrong they'll vote you out at some point but the assessment is something that's completely out of our control and we we ask for an appeal and they say no and that's the end of it you know what what did he base that 65% increase on in a in a housing economy it's only gone up 10% in the last four years so I I really think that there is something wrong with the assessment process that in four years everybody's

is going up I've heard 120% 285 lowest I've heard is 35 % but that's all just anecdotal but thank you guys for your time thank you sir is there anyone else all right got one right here oh I'm sorry I didn't see you thank you yes ma'am please you don't have to sign it just write your name if you don't care someone over okay you sp that's good did Terry correct Terry okay go ahead M Terry all right all this upsets me about going up so high on everything but I wonder if all of y'all think about the old people that's in this community they get these papers and they look at them and they're extremely high they like I said they stand and they just flop their arms like a dying chicken what am I going to do what am I going to do then they're also even you all your parents you're trying to take care of the town but are you taking care of your people they uh these older people have families live their grandchildren all them are all in the

house this um you think anyone else okay we're going to move on to um next on agenda is minutes I will entertain a motion to approve the minutes A B and C together or separate make that motion have a second you're making the motion trace for all of them I'll second okay start Buton M ear [Music] yes but there are some errors in the U 224 meeting okay last page uh concerning the discussion about uh refurbishing the current EMS building what's what's your well it sounds like I said that he wanted to Chrome the building I was using a euphan ISM saying if it don't run Chrome it and that didn't come out in the meeting or in the minutes it sounded like Mr Collins was was trying to say to Chrome the building which is not what I said okay say if you want to modify those okay so you want to approve A and B and just do c next or with the modification okay all right and you motion who was my second I'll second it and that's going to be on the modificated minutes okay we'll start

to vote with you Mr ear yes Mr Collins yes Mr Bry yes Mr Horton yes Mr Moore yes and I vote Yes okay next on the agenda is the consent calendar to receive I'll entertain the motion to we approve it I make it MO Mo we approve it have a motion I have a second second start to voting Mr Moore yes Mr Bryant yes Mr Horton yes Mr early yes Mr Collins yes and I vote Yes next on the agenda is invoices I'll entertain a motion to approve uh invoices A and B together or separate I'll make the motion to approve A and B together okay to have a second I second that okay start the vot Mr Collins yes Mr early yes Mr Moore yes Mr Horton yes Mr Bry yes and I vote Yes okay next is a new business fourth quarter Appropriations that you received um make entertain a motion to approve it I make a motion okay do I have a second I second okay start the voting Mr Collins yes Mr Horton yes Mr Bry yes Mr yes Mr Moore yes and I vote Yes okay next you reing your packet B which is non-discrimination policy does anyone have any questions on it I do okay uh where did that come from Mr derin or Mr Watson

well not just any reason there's a list of reasons has anybody checked the state non-discriminatory policy I think this tracks the the Virginia values act um it was passed think 2020 so I think this does track Virginia law well yeah it does pretty close Orient sexual orientation or gender identity I don't think you need both of those in there they are interchangeable I would take one or the other out I think there I I think they they do make a distinction no they don't well you're the lawyer I just asked that you look at it to make sure it conforms with the current non-discrimination language of the state yeah uh if you look at um 2.2 3900 I looked at it um it does list sexual orientation separately from gender identity well then why does this say or because they're different no they're not well that the way the code of Virginia describes it sexual orientation gender identity military status or disability in places of public accommodation so they're they're separate categories upon which discrimination is prohibited is it urgent we approve this today no would can tell you I'll make a motion table till the next meeting okay the next regular meeting have a motion table to the next uh meeting which would be

April a second time okay started vote Mr Moore yes Mr Horton yes Mr Bry yes Mr Collins yes Mr Erin yes and I vote Yes okay next item C personal policy change do you want to table this as well or we person Federal over and then St and GAP hours between the federal and state when you have to pay compensation and what this so yeah I I'll just I'll just that's pretty good description there's um actually Virginia sort of closed there's a loophole in federal law when you when you exceed um the threshold of of of irregular over irregular hours versus when for firefighters um time and a half has to kick in Virginia has uh um closed that loophole under Virginia law and so this is the the intention is to just comply with with the Virginia Gap pay statute so what we were doing is as

we've changed uh the way that we're uh doing our scheduling for our fire and EMS we went through and reviewed these to double check how we have to pay this um based on whether you are firefighter EMT or or if you are just a firefighter we went through all that process and as we were going through this process um our current personel policy does not I think we were doing it right but our policy doesn't say that the same way that we were doing it so this cleans up it as it goes along yeah I believe you were calculating the and paying correct over time it was just the policy had a gap okay I'll entertain a motion to approve the Personnel policy changes I'll make a motion okay I have a second I'll second it okay vote Mr early Mr Collins yes Mr Bry yes Mr Horton yes Mr Moore yes can I vote Yes okay next uh in your packet you received the Red Cross Proclamation does anyone have any questions on it if not I'll entertain a motion to approve it I'll make a motion have a motion Mr Mor have a second a second okay start voting Mr Collins yes Mr Bryant yes Mr early yes Mr Horton yes Mr Moore yes can I vote Yes okay next on the agenda is item e um advertise Republic hearing for recreational vehicle I'm G to have Mr Newman you'll come up and uh this is came from the Planning Commission we have a proposed uh recreational vehicle vcle park that's been presented to the Planning Commission and as we were looking at uh the requirements

um the definition of recreational vehicle just jumped out at us that it was very very very limited to uh self-propelled motorized uh self-contained uh vehicle being a motor coach uh where this particular recreational vehicle park is being planned I don't think that it would succeed with that definition so we looked in state code 46.2 d1500 and that is what is uh listed in the uh handout I laid on your desk earlier uh that we would change the definition of uh recreational vehicle in the subdivision ordinance to what's in the state code the Planning Commission did hold a public hearing uh we didn't have anyone to uh speak at the public hearing one of the developers was here you know to show his support uh they unanimously passed the recommendation to the Board of Supervisors asking for you to hold a public hearing and consider this change also and I have two of my Planning Commission members Mr ery and Mr UT here I think Mr mr's still here uh if you all have any questions of either of us and we talked about their joint meeting some I don't have any questions either so um entertain a motion to you want to advertise the public hearing for next April what is that date seven seventh I'll make that motion okay hold public hearing on April 7th to change the recreation vehicle motion by Mr early to have a second second okay start to vote uh Mr Moore yes Mr Horton yes Mr Bryant

yes Mr Collins yes Mr ear yes and I vote Yes okay think we have any available Miss Clark oh ass service okay I'll make a motion to reappoint her I'll second that okay I have a motion to Susan clar back on the Social Services Board and a second by Mr early will start the voting with Mr Collins yes Mr early yes okay next on the agenda is the revised budget calendar that you received I think uh Mr Martin had emailed us to us does anyone to have any questions on this I would like to make a change to that um adding a fullard session okay let's do for tax what plan says 6 o' TR yes uh yeah 24th of March 24 it 6 o' huh do it instead no have it same night yes have it same night following the public care iner text R okay so I have a want to modify the new budget calendar uh the 24th of March to have a full board work session is that correct following the public heing for the tax following the public hearing for the tax rate okay do I have a second I'll second it okay start to voting Mr Moore yes Mr Horton yes Mr brunt yes Mr C

yes Mr early yes and I vote Yes okay next on the agenda um is board member comments I will start with you Mr Horton just want to thank all the citizens of the county coming out and giving us y'all's comments uh we all are on in the same boat and just want to tell you thank you I wrote down a lot of notes tonight and we'll take all y'all's comments to heart and appreciate all the effort everybody's put into this new budget and we we need to look at this assessment a little bit more but I appreciate everything okay I'll go to you now Mr Collins okay first of all I'd like to say I appreciate everybody who's come out and spoke uh as a member of the Board of Supervisors I had sticker shock just like everybody else did when when the tax tickets reassessments came in when you look at it and and see what's happening I do understand where it's at uh I also understand that we can't have that kind of an increase if it's my understanding is correct based on the budget that we have set we're at a $4.1 million shortfall am I correct correct so Mr chairman I have a u motion that I would like to make okay go ahead Mr Collins whereas the county has allocated $3.5 million for the construction of a new pool $3 million for the construction of a new EMS building whereas $300,000 has already been spent to purchase 1. 8 acres of land intended to put the new EMS facility whereas it is best in the best interest of the county to prioritize fiscal responsibility allocate funds in a manner that best serves the immediate and long-term needs of the community be it resolved that the Board of Supervisors formerly abandons the plans to construct both the pool and the EMS building be it further resolved that the 1.82 acres of land purchased for the EMS building be sold with proceeds returning

to the County's general fund it further resolved that $1 million be re reallocated to resurface renovate bring the existing EMS facility up to proper operational standards ensuring its long-term functionality and efficiency be it further resolved that the remaining $5.5 million be returned to the County's general fund for future needs and responsible financial management hereby direct staff to transfer those funds necessarily necessary to B balance the FY 26 budget that's my motion okay I have a motion by Mr Collins I have a second second we have any discussion I I have you want to go ahead yeah I I do I do on the um it there's a lot to take in ter for food I I get the Motions to take away the pool and and and reallocate the money to the general fund but in that motion was it to use them funds to balance the budget or to he directed I think it's didn't you say he directed staff to use yeah directed staff yeah for um responsible financial management back to the general but not and the necessary balance for the 26 budget that would put us over what we need for that budget without raising any taxes and put us well on our way to the next year not having that big gap as well plus not only since we're having discussion not only have we set aside $3 million to build that EMS facility we're now looking at over $6 million to build it so we're not only looking at $3 million that we have set aside for it we're looking at borrowing another 3 million plus to make it happen and I believe in conversations that I've had with folks that we could take what we have and renovate it spend

some money on it and we can continue to operate and serve our people well and and I do have may I ask the attorney of the county minist sure in that motion is that allocating the funds right then to the to the budget or is that just putting them in the general fund I'm gonna go with this okay and if I'm anyway a lot the way that I understood the motion was that two projects of U one is already allocated and one has not been allocated that the uh funds that you're talking about now would be put into the general fund I'm G call it savings account and that I think the PO now correct me if I'm wrong if uh the money would be used to balance the budget with going Revenue neutral is that correct so you would take out of the money that you transfer from there approximately 6 million you would uh balance the budget with 4.1 now leaving approximately um that would put you about $2 million and I'm using rough numbers $2 million in the general fund and it would do away those projects can we re some of that sure can I can I go ahead say something first because I think maybe I think everybody here is in favor of not raising taxes I certainly am and you know he stole a little bit of my thunder on what I was going to say but it's an interesting motion coming from the man on August the 5th who made the

motion to put $3.5 million doll into a swim pool seconded by Mr Horton so that's interesting now that he's got second thoughts on the swimming pool I never wanted a swimming pool and I still don't want a swimming pool I could perhaps go along with your motion if you took out the portion where you sell the land that we've already paid for for a future EMS building it's paid for uh the reason I think we need an EMS building is not to give them five-star hotel accommodations but to improve the safety of the people in Hillsville every time I'm at the gas station at Cavalier Express we got ambulances hauling you know you know what through the middle of town and I I'm telling you one of these days somebody's going to get killed somebody's going to get broadsided by an ambulance the new location out there at 52 South and the bypass is an excellent location so I could perhaps go along with your motion but without selling that piece of property I too would like for the three and a half million to go back into the balance I asked a question that at our budget meeting from Justin about the unassigned fund balance and we had a disagreement as to what is recommended 15 to 20% you said 20 to 25% did you get an answer so I did email Gordon uh I went back and looked at the meeting um and also emailed Gordon he did say that we were he recommended 15 to 20% um he did say it at the rate we're at right now he called it The Sweet Spot so that was where I picked up that mistake um he did also go on to say that he would not change our policy because our policy right now has 21.7% as the unassigned fund balance he said he would not recommend changing that um because

it that policy bases off of the gfoa recommendation uh of two months worth of expenditures and reserves uh having those is the same recommendation they make to New York City or Carol County any government local government in the United States so it's kind of a broad brush and and does need to be focused on each individual area um you know we're Limited in the types of Revenue we have we we're not as diverse as some of those large areas okay well just a recommendation not to change the 21.7 unan policy we could still take some money out of the unassigned fund balance and if you took it down to 20% it's $2 million so there's $2 million that could go to this year's budget three Mill three and half from uh the swimming pool three from EMS if that's what we do um so we've got plenty of money without raising taxes I think I agree with think the motion was would have been two for that would leave a million to think did you not reallocate a million for the million million it' be 5.5 5.5 whatever I don't think you ought to redo the building it's a piece of crap and it's been that way for a long time um I wouldn't spend any money on it and it's in a bad location and uh you know we need to do something different for our EMS eventually whether it happens now or 10 years from now we should not sell that piece of property because it's a perfect location for an EMS building it's already paid for and it only cost $300,000 sounds like a lot but not after this reassessment so I could perhaps go along with your motion if you took that stipulation out to sell that land okay Mr Moore you want to Yes um and me and

Mr Bryant's worked a long time on this budget you know and if you do the things that y saying you want to do you take the money out of the savings and you balance the budget or whatever the finance director the County Administrator and the two men on the board will tell you that next year you'll raise taxes 13 Am I Wrong Am I Wrong Am I Wrong Mr Bryant I don't think so uh we we've put the numbers to it every what you way you know taking these money's out and you know if you don't set something now to uh accommodate for this it's just going to get us next year just going yeah and we worked over a fiveyear plan well and just to clear it up too I didn't say we didn't have to raise taxes I mean that's not it yeah yeah no no we we're going to drop the tax levy you know but you're still going to raise taxes is that what you told based on based on no we've not voted on the taxes I know but you're talking like you're going to raise taxes the levy will go down but taxes out the money out of these people's pocket is going to go up I mean we've not got that far we've not had a public hearing on a levy or nothing I know that I've heard let's just stick to this motion where we're at now well can I say one more thing I was on the budget committee for the first three years I've been on this board so believe me I know what's going on in the budget mhm you're assuming Revenue neutral right exactly for taxes and all that like I said at our last budget meeting there's going to be some improvement to that and I don't think you've taken that into account you can't ever tell for sure what's going to happen next year but I know this year these people do not need a tax increase I agree it increases me too my house went up 63% the guy I have a ring camera he spent two minutes at my house maybe right I'm just seven I mean I'm just saying I want to work through this motion to make sure that we're making a

good decision before we have our next budget Works say okay you tell Mr Collins is you two discussed the I I agree with with Jody I mean we we don't need to sell the land till we figure out all this I don't guess you know see what we're going to do but do you want to remodify or do you want to keep second I'm willing to take our the selling of the land yeah I think it's I think we paid too much for it 300 $300,000 for 1.8 Acres okay so let's let's vote I got a motion a second let's vote this this one and you can redo your motion you you're okay you don't want to take out this the land sure okay M could you restate the motion as amended yeah well do we you I just want to vote on this motion and then do a new motion it has been amended you want to do an amend motion you got to do an amended motion right you could either vote this one down and then replace it or um you could you could move to amend um Mr Collins's motion to remove the reference to selling the um EMS property and if that is if that is um the motion that you want to make and it's seconded then you would vote on that which would amend the motion okay then you would vote on you'd vote a second time to actually adopt the motion I'll amid my motion to take that part out okay so amend the motion taking out the sell of the the imense property so reallocate money back to the general f money back to the general fund that's left okay and we and I just want clarify so we vote on this right now sir is that balancing the budget with savings no he's he's reallocating the money just putting it back to the general fund in the general fund to direct staff to because the budget's still not yall still working on that but you have some

extra funds there right if we decide to use it if they need it to help balance okay whatever putting the money back okay that was my question he's not he's not saying we're putting all 5.5 million putting the money back right okay okay thank you but it's there to be used or I mean the budget's a little ways out so I I have one thing Mr chairman if in his motion he also has a million dollars you know to to work on the other building would it be maybe better to hold off on that at this moment or well that that's that's just I think it's pertinent that we fix that building yeah that's just we can leave that in the CIP and we would have to appropriate that through the CIP that' be fine I'd like to look at that i' say you know if we could check out the building and make just make 100% certain worth the investment yeah yeah we we haven't even bid on it or anything I mean that's that's a long ways out we can leave that CIP million doll in CIP CIP in the CIP yeah so we're going we're going to amend that too to put that million in the CIP yeah okay so we're going to um keep the EMS property keeping me and in the CIP to possibly resurface the EMS building and the remaining 5.5 will go to for the pull and what we have for EMS will go through general fund and then staff and the budget committee I'll be using it as needed to help balance the budget but not a lot but not a lot of right everybody good now yeah okay have a motion to have a motion for the amended sure sure yeah yeah let me get

the one big enough I can read uh whereas the county has allocated 3.5 million for the construction of a new pool 3 million for the construction of a new Ms building um we're taking out the hold on whereas it's in the best interest the county prioritize fiscal responsibility allocate funds in a manner that best serves the immediate and long-term needs of the community therefore be it resolved Board of Supervisors formerly abandons the plans to construct both the new pool and the new EMS building um be it for the resolve that the $1 million be placed in CIP for the future I don't know how that needs to read of renovating the existing EMS facility uh bring it up to proper standards ensuring its long-term functionality and efficiency uh be it further resolved the remaining money I have 5.5 million if I'm off on that be returned to the County's general fund for future needs responsible financial management hereby direct staff to trans for the funds necessary uh for the use in the budget 20 FY 2026 okay permanently never going to build an EMS building or uh a swimming pool is it just in the near term or what what is the plan well I'm going to make another statement with the rest of my remarks no I think we ought to have a pool eventually well yeah when we can afford luxuries instead of Necessities I agree with you so is it a permanent what I it's not saying it's permanent it's saying we're abandoning plans and the money we have right now in those places we just need to vote on I don't have anything to do with have a motion I have a second I'll second it okay start voting Mr Moore yeah Mr Horton yes Mr BR yes Mr Collins yes Mr early yes and I

vote Yes all right Mr chairman I just have a few more statements we've action for the budget shortfall I still believe our County would benefit from the community swimming pool right now I've raised two kids they're they're now 15 and 17 years old we've spent our time going to North Carolina pools and Randolph park pools and when we go there we spend our money buying food shopping in Walmart buying other things when we're going out of town I think it would be beneficial for us to eventually have a pool for our community for the folks that can't travel those distances like like I have um we must keep planning for the future uh to grow our budget and fund essential Services we need to expand our income Base by attracting new businesses by applying for grants for improving infrastructure for increasing housing we're already facing a serious shortage when it comes to housing we've got a new business that's coming to exit 19 that's going to produce a 100 jobs hopefully all our citizens will will be able to get jobs there but likely some of those jobs are going to come from out of town they're going to need housing one of the most effective ways to Spur that growth is hiring a dedicated economic development director uh somebody that can go after business look for business look for opportunity spend their time doing that with the millions of dollars that we've been talking about tonight that would be a drop in the bucket to put that person on staff that would be devoted to doing nothing but growing the economy in Carol County so that we can increase our tax base and quit expecting our citizens to keep bringing more money to pay taxes because the expenses are always going to rise and that would give our County Administrator time to do more the things that he has to do and he's got his plate full um I apologize to the citizens as as the board and I wasn't on the board the last time there was a reassessment done but we should have got ahead of this thing and and done a better job of

explaining uh how things would work and how the tax rate would be lowered I've tried to do that with everybody who who I've spoken to personally and people have made com comments and it's been very effective at people understanding exactly what has happen um i' just like to see us focus on getting new money for tax base rather than just expecting the the costes the costs to keep rising and our citizens to continue coming up with more money that's all I have Mr chairman okay thank you Mr Collins um Mr Horton I did yeah Mr Brown I didn't yes sir I'd just like to say thank you to everyone that came out tonight and uh like I said we are working on this so we'll we'll do the best we can and I just thank staff and really appreciate all the work that Justin's put into this thing he's he's put numbers every which way you can to try to make it work out so we know what we're dealing with and we just got to uh to make it work out the best we can that's all we got okay Mr earlyy thank you Mr chairman just a couple more comments U you back to the discussion with just and I mentioned trying to have the town of Hillsville shareing the cost of the reassessment no towns in Virginia do that so that's not possible so I retract that idea from ever happening because it's not going to happen um I would like uh and Mr Collins already mentioned it but uh the governor made an announcement on Friday about OST house Ventures at Wildwood uh they're going to start out with $104.8 million Building green houses out there uh it will initially

employ 118 people and perhaps as many as 300 once they build all the green houses they're going to have people have been frustrated like I with Wildwood not doing anything for 20 plus years but we're finally doing something out there so my hats off to BR and the folks that made that happen uh I'm looking forward to to having something going on there also we received $1.2 million from vty uh Virginia technology initiative grant program which we've been denied the past three years for various reasons but we got 10.2 million that's going to zitel to bring Broadband to the county uh citizens is already coming in from Floyd on the eastern and Northern sides of the county as zel will be targeting this money towards the center part of the county I think and then we've got other grants coming up later in the year I hope that we'll finish out our Broadband project so that's one of the things I've spent a lot of time on trying to get Broadband for everybody because it's just as important as electricity these days the other thing is uh you know we did buy a piece of property out at the bypass of 52 South it was a little over one Acres $300,000 sounds like a lot of money for that the reason it had to be bought was because we're buy we're swapping land with V Dot next door that's going to give us over four acres of land plus that there's no commercial entrance on the VT property so in order to access that property for an EMS building you had to buy it okay so fair market value worked in that regard it's what a will enabled buyer will pay for it and the only only person that that land is valuable to as the people that own the V Dot property next door so that's why it was $300,000 and it'd be absolutely ridiculous to sell it and I appreciate you taking that out of your motion I too want to thank everybody

that came out tonight I heard some really good ideas uh discounts for paying early I think that's not a bad thing to look into if we can I like the idea of maybe folks over 75 never having to Rey their property again with property taxes because that's all we do is continue to re our property we worked hard for it we don't need to have to buy it every year and then u i I'd like to make a motion to extend the appeal date you know last the 28th I think was the end of the appeal process is that possible to do way well these people deserve to be heard when is that Wade wait would you mind so everybody can hear you on the on the video that's okay of appeals till 30 days after the last reassessment hearing so what we're doing if we extend that we extend everything on till we won't get the books done in time to do the first half billing and I mean if you all want to extend that of course that's but if they miss it they can come to the Board of Equalization yes they don't have go through this first appeal they can go through the board Equalization then if they're not happy there then they go to the Circuit Court to appeal well the process of emailing or hand carrying in to the assessor or mailing it to them can they if they brought it in this week would they still look at it the reassessment team actually asked Friday evening if they could extend it through midnight tonight and I granted that how about midnight the end of the week I can ask them if they're agreeable to that because a lot of these people here have heard things they didn't know right that puts more on their staff too so I'll have to ask them if they can have staff

well if you can extend it I would I think that's appropriate okay to the end of this week like till Friday yeah okay and maybe put it on the website so the folks know okay um that's about all I have again always uh thankful for the sh us an email if you do extend it so if we have constituents contact if we GL just uh want to thank everybody for their hard work it's a very high stress time for everybody in the county and I can understand people on fixed income I'm on a fixed income and you seeing my property go up 63% I've really did not appreciate that much but I will say they did reach out to me and we talked about my properties and they were somewhat understanding so I think that I don't think they're just going to stick a hand up to you and not listen to you I think it's worthwhile to cont attack the assessor explain your case they're knowledgeable and reasonable people I think and and hopefully uh you'll make some Headway with them again thanks to everybody that makes our job easier I appreciate it that's all I have thank you Mr early Mr Moore yeah I did know what the rest of the board had said Thank The Citizen for coming out you know uh you always uh love to see the citizens come to the board meet and express their concerns and and um bring ideas to the table because you know we represent not only our districts but the whole County and uh you know I heard a lot of different things you know good ideas and and things that we could possibly look at you know and and um you know sitting on a budget committee or on the board you know I see a lot of things too that that I think a lot of the citizens you know possibly don't see as far as what their tax dollars is and a lot of our the tax dollars that is paid is goes to the school systems goes to you know the County employees and and we got great employees and you know

insurance goes up a power bill goes up there's a lot of things that make this uh thing run and I appreciate Justin and Mike for all their work you know I mean Justin sending emails yesterday to to me and bill on the budget you know just trying to trying to come up with anything that we can to to uh make it as as good as we can as far the city citizens because like Jody said you know all of us are being affected by it I do want to appreciate thank Jody and Mike and and the Broadband board for their work on on getting the the zil grant you know to to the Carol it's always good to see more internet coming in and I think Mike said what we 40% of the citizens now have opportunity with the with hitting the citizens grant that we got so you know we're about maybe half way there now so that's exciting it just seems like it took a long time and uh I know with the the way the U budget committee's talked and the way the budget calendar is we'll have a public hearing on the um tax levy on March the 24th March 24th yes yeah and uh so at this time I'll make a motion to advertise the Levy at 49 cent on 100 and um then correct me if I'm wrong Mr deran we can go down from that but we cannot go over that without another public hearing correct that's correct okay so we'll set that or I'll make a motion whatever the board chooses to set it at at 49 cent for the public hearing for okay have a motion Mr Mo to have a second I'll second it okay

start Mr how about discussion I'm sorry discussion that's a 20% tax increase everybody now we are 20% so add 20% to what you're paying today and that's what you're going to be paying at 49 now it could go down 40 Cent we've got 5.5 million in there to balance a $4.1 million deficit y I don't think that that's an appropriate motion okay you're welcome to make one that's the motion I put on the table can I have a motion have a seconds any more discussion just a question is there a limit to how much it can go down it can go all the way to 10 cent right yeah you just have to start there to have a you have to have something set in order to have a public hearing public hearing and then the levy would be set based on the calendar right April 7th it's the highest it can go but not the lowest it can go yes thank you why don't we make it more in line with what we need have a motion in a second we'll vote on if it fails Mr Collins vote Yes Mr Bry yes Mr Horton yes Mr earin no Mr Moore yes and I vote Yes and um with that being said that's all I have thank you Mr Moore I do want to thank everyone that came tonight I do appreciate uh everyone was very respectful um and appreciate you comeing and be respectful to the board um you know we we're in the same shoes I I've lived here on life my parents my parents are retired they're on a fixed income their assess went up 60 something per we we my house I just bought in 2023 it went up 60 I think it's 67% and I've got an appraise I did appeal it you know and they they appealed theirs but I mean houses are selling we we

can't control inflation I wish we could I don't know what the answer is I mean other than people need to quit moving here I I mean you know it is what it is I mean they're driving the prices up there's a house that on Honeycut Dam the reassessment the new reassessment was $188,000 Mr Maring can tell you about this because the real estate agent called and asked about the reassessment won't know why it was so low well he put it under contract the same day for $359,000 I mean it I I don't have the answers my my kids live here I have um four children two adopted children they're all you know trying to make a living have grandkids um couple of them are lucky enough to have houses but they're about price out of this area I mean I I don't know how they want to buy a house I don't I don't have the I don't know how they're going to buy a house they can't afford interest rate so you know my parents my dad's a retired school teacher he has a fixed income it's like everybody else I mean he can't go out I work this job doesn't pay anything I mean if you want to know what we make it's it's Pennies on the dollar it's $500 a month basically so you know work a full-time job try to do this work another job just to try to make in Meet to pay for the the higher power bills the higher homeowners insurance the higher car insurance I mean my car insurance is is almost what my mortgage is now not counting my PRI bill so I don't I don't have the answers um you know I wish we did I wish houses weren't selling but you know I've seen re assessment happened every four years and the state requires us to do it and if we don't do it we've got 40 probably 40 some million dollars of Revenue that we've got to come up with or either shut down all the schools or shut down the sheriff office or EMS I mean it it's not a good situation and I do appreciate the the supervisor and the budget committee that's working hard on it and we're trying to get the tax rate down the lowest we can and and I have no problem

with using some of their money from savings and um to a point I mean you don't want to use it all and get to the point they were a few years ago they only have $7 million and you have something happen in the county or half people don't pay taxes and you have to shut the county down because you don't have enough money to operate but I have no problem with using some but you know it's just like anything else you got to have a revenue Source you can take some money and put in the budget but how long can you do that we took 1.6 that's one reason they want to talk about it's it's not a a deficit we have we have money we have 2 million for Broadband we had we had the best audit that we've had in four years um you know people talk about need to bring Doge or whatever and that that's fine if you want to get an outside audit you're more than welcome to we have an outside audit every year um that comes in and audits our books the money we took out $1.6 million out of our savings last year so we didn't raise taxes on the citizens to give it to schools the governor's required us to give one points it 1.9 million I think Mr Millions to the schools and I'm not complaining about the schools I'm not but that's what we're that we're you know have to give them more now um EMS coverages went up because their volunteers are we don't have the volunteers that we used to have so we've had to add EMS coverage I mean it wasn't a few months ago we had one amance maybe two am in the county I mean they can all tested this we had we we had calls and Canan it's 45 minute hour response time well we've got to four UL now but those are the things that we that we have in the budget I mean it's um that we have to to work it takes time I mean the we don't have the budget back from the state yet so we don't even know what what that's going to be so I do appreciate the the people that the budget committee and Justin and Mike we have a great staff that that works on this um works on this Force um I can say that we we also you

know one thing people don't realize we do in our County we have land use for the farmers that cost about $1.7 million a year it just does but we could do away with that lower the tax rate but then you're going to you're going to run your Farmers out of the out of the you out of the community out the agriculture I I don't I want to protect agriculture because that's what to me car county is about so we don't tax farm machinery that's another thing I mean you go to Grayson County these other ones they they do that they don't have land use they tax Farmers Center we do have a it adopted in 2011 um exemption for tax for elderly disabled if you meet certain requirements so you know if you if you are elderly on a fixed income disabled there we do have we do have options requirements you can go talk to the the commission Revenue um but you know it's not like we we wanted this reassessment it's not like we asked for