Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

motion to come out of close session. Make that motion. Motion by Mr. Collins. I have a second. Second. Okay. Start the vote with Mr. Horton. Yes. Mr. Bryant. Yes. Mr. Collins? Yes. Mr. Early? Yes. Mr. Moore? Yes.

And I vote yes. I'm going ask each board member to certify whereas the Carol County Board of Supervisors convene a close session this date pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and on the motion to close the meeting in accordance with the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. Whereas section 2.2-3711D of the code of Virginia requires a certification by the board of supervisors that such close session was conducted in conformity with Virginia law and we went under close session under section 2.2-3711 2-3711 A1, A6, and A3. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the C County Board of Supervisors hereby certifies 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 his certification applies. and only such business matters as were identified in the motion by which this quote session was convened or heard, discussed or considered in the meeting to which a certification applies. I ask each member certify starting with Mr. Early.

I so certify. Mr. Bryant, I so certify. Mr. Horton, I so certify. Mr. Collins, I so certify. Mr. Moore, I so certify. And I so certify. Okay, next on the agenda is invitation and pledge. I'm going to ask Mr. Pastor Mike Hall from Woodlon Pentecostal Church. If you want to say a couple quick things about your church and service and lead us in prayer. Face here. You can face us. It'll be fine. Yeah. Just use the microphone. Y'all need it worse than they do. [laughter]

Yes. I'm uh Pastor Mike from the Woodlon PH Church in downtown Woodlon. I've been there I don't know 10 or 11 years give or take. And uh it's a really good bunch of people. Really good bunch of people. And uh I know things seem awful crazy in the world, but we all got to remember that God's got this.

As crazy as things is, the news and the media wants to just flip us out all the time and keep us nervous. But God's got this. And if we could, let's just bow our heads, please. Dear God, heavenly father, we pray Lord that you help us as a country and God that you help us Lord to do what you would have us to do. God give this board, give this committee the mind of Christ to make the right decisions. We ask for your love, God, and your guidance. And we thank you, Lord, for what you're going to do. Save that soul, God, that's nearest eternity. we pray won't be long before your coming. Help us to all be ready in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Thank you, sir. Thank you. We appreciate you. And Mr. Charlie, if you lead us in the pledge, please. 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. Okay. Next on the agenda is uh have a vo presentation here. Mr. Moore, if you want to I got the honor, Miss Lisa.

Make us all sad.

For all y'all that don't know, this is Lisa Hughes. She's the over the Hillsville residents. Well, all Carol County. She's from Salem. And uh we've worked with her for a long time. And and I was talking to Mike today. We've pretty much got three smart projects in Carol County through your leadership. And you know, the board knows and Mike and everybody knows what you mean to us and have done for us as a county. You know, all the six-year plans that we put in, you make it happen. The employees you have, which I deal with a lot of hills, were second to none. And it shows your leadership. So, it's it's bittersweet, but I'm glad you are finally retiring. I know when I come on the board, Mr. Martin was in my seat before and I know y'all had a good relationship and we were able to continue that on with that. So I want to thank you for that and all you've done for u my district and the county. So

So this is presented to Lisa Hughes retirement award in recognition of 40 years of service with the Virginia Department of Transportation. Thank you for the your citizens your service to the citizens of Carol County and uh Yes, ma'am. Is there anything you want to say? Okay. Thank you so much, Governor. I appreciate you. Thank you. Just just to take a couple minutes of your time. Um, please do. Yes.

I I just wanted you to know that um I I just appreciate this board has always been supportive of me, of VOTE, of of my co-workers, and you just don't know how much that has meant to me. And uh it's been a pleasure to work with all of you, Crystal, Mike, all of you, and I I'll miss you a lot. So, thank you so much. Thank you. We appreciate everything.

Okay. Next on agenda is citizens time. Public comment. We do have a few things to go over. Public comment offer citizens the opportunity to address the board um either in person or in writing. Please be advised that out outbursts or disruptive behavior will not be tolerated. Please direct all comments to the board as a whole refraining from addressing an individual board member or employees of the board or county. Personal attacks will not be tolerated as well as vulgar or profane language. Uh scope of topics comments should pertain to issues within the perview of the board of local government and question and answer. Public comment is not a question and answer session. Board members will not respond to questions during public commenting without permission from the chair. And as always, each speaker will be allocated three minutes for their comments. Okay. And we will start with Brian Bowman.

I got a couple questions I'd like to answer to. as a citizen and a land owner and taxpayer in this county. Uh the jobs that was created at Pluck that everybody was on board with the 120 jobs. I was told they was filled last week [clears throat] 107 of them with H2A workers. Was that not a slap to the county citizens? Anybody?

Anybody? You remind him of that. It's not an answer. It was a question. It's just a speak, sir. No, I asked a question. How how what did we benefit from this? That was a question. Mr. Early, you represent me. Answer my question, please. It's not a question and answers session. You have three minutes to speak and we listen. So I I don't get no answers. Nothing. Okay. Thank y'all.

Hey Joshua Milway. How are you guys doing? Good. Good.

I'm going to uh real quick those out right there. The Dixie board or not not Dixie Board, the Dixie Youth. Um so, first I want to start off by saying good evening. My name is Joshua Milloway. I'm here tonight as a parent, a community member, and a volunteer youth baseball coach. I'm here to raise serious concerns about the leadership of the Carol County Dixie Youth Board, specifically Ronnie Menkins and Travis Austin, and to ask that the board take action. Over the past few years, I have personally witnessed multiple situations where decisions were not made in the best interest of the kids or the families involved. One example involved a child living in Austinville. Due to a protective order situation, my safety for safety reasons, both the parent and I asked the child be placed on a team closer to where he was staying. The parent was also nine months pregnant and unable to make long drives several nights a week. The response from Ronnie Menkins was the child could either drive from Austinville to Kaa multiple nights a week for practicing games or he would not be allowed to play at all or there would be no and there would be no refund. Another situation happened last year when a child missed registration by a few days. No teams or rosters had been finalized. The child simply wanted to play recreational baseball to improve for middle school. I was told a board vote had already taken place and the answer was no. Later I learned that several board members had never even been asked to vote. When I requested a meeting with the

Dixie board, multiple members represented or was present and expressed that the child the child should be allowed to play. But the decision still remained no. During that meeting, I was also told that if I didn't like the decisions that was being made by Ronnie Menkins, I should move out of Kanan and go somewhere else in the county to get different players. That is not something that should be said to a volunteer coach who is trying to help kids. Because of issues like this, two girls softball teams and one boys baseball team that I know of have already left Carol County to play elsewhere. I also want to address financial transparency. Parents are now paying $40 per child to play. However, the actual franchise fee that Dixie charges is about $14 for an entire baseball team and $20 for an entire softball team. Those players fees do not pay for recreation department workers who prepare the fields or the materials used to maintain them which are already covered by county resources and taxpayer dollars. So the question many parents are asking is simple. Where is that $40 per player going? These pub these programs use public facilities and serve families across the county. So transparency is accounted to matter. For the sake of our kids and the future of youth sports in Carol County, I am respectfully asking this board to dissolve the current Dixie Youth Board being the leaders uh be bring the leadership of the program under the Carol County Recreation Department and remove Ronnie Mkins and Travis Austin from positions where they are making decisions affecting the children of this county. When parents lose trust in the people running those youth programs, the kids are the ones who lose opportunities. Thank you.

Thank you. Thanks, Josh. Okay, next I have Brandy Miloway. [clears throat]

Wasn't that a tough act to follow? Great job. Um, [clears throat] and I'm just going to go a little further. I'm here for the same reason. I co- coach with my husband. Um it's a matter of even this year um it was brought to us. A lot of people are scared to show up. Therefore, we only have three of us, four of us here to speak for the community. That speaks volumes. We should be supporting our community. That's what we're here for. Our children, they are our future. That's what we're building. [snorts]

Um, so there was a boy that was allowed to sign up late this year. Um, but then a little girl called and asked to sign up. She was not allowed to sign up. Signups had closed. So, she has now went to another state as well to play. Um, there is another team which makes the fourth team that has left Carol County. Um when my son I'm a mother of seven. I've had several come through Carol County. Um when my 27year-old first started in the recck department I was brand new to Carol. Didn't know anything about baseball. Didn't know anything about recck department here. We had so many teams that we had an Americans and a national when we played Dixie. We ended up playing each other. The winner of that team was the team that went to Dixie. And of course, we did the tryyous. Kids were pulled from different teams. We played four to five games last year with the $30 that was paid, not to mention the hats, the shirts because you have to have your uniform. Um, or the parents that actually had to volunteer to umpire our games because we didn't have one to show up. Um, so I am as well asking that you please please take under consideration to make Kurt over the Dixie under the wreck just like most of the rec departments do. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay. I have uh Miss Payne, I'm sorry. weird. I had it right, but I was afraid to say it. So,

so my name is Chenoa Payne. I've never been to one of these things. It's kind of cool. Makes me kind of feel professional, although I look like kind of bad. I just come from softball practice in Kaa with a bunch of 13 and under girls. And I too am here for what Josh and Brandy are here for. Um, my daughter is 10 years old and we've lived in Kaa since she was born, since my 15-year-old son was born. And um Shaye has never played in Dixie um due to the horror stories coming from Dixie. Um I can't say that I have had a personal issue there, but when everyone looks at you and I think of people like Allison Dalton that has a starter as a freshman on the varsity team at Carol County, um I think about people like her and I'm like and she looked at me dead in the face and she said, "Don't let her play in Carol. Get her out of here." So I took the team. I took a bunch of Kana girls, a bunch of Hillsville girls, I got some Laurel girls and I got them together and I take them to Surrey County and I play and we're playing in 13U this year because I had five age out of 10U last year. I know that um Chris Smith is a standing board member of the rec board and he too is taking a 10U team to Surrey County and not signing them up in in Carroll County. And this is somebody that stands on that board that is not taking his daughter to Carroll County. So, I met him Sunday for the first time at the coaches meeting in Surrey County yesterday and that's how I found that out because one guy was like, "Hey, I guess y'all are from the same entity." And I said, "I don't know that guy." And he said, "Well, he's out of Carol." And so, he shared his story with me and I wish he was here to share his story, but I I won't share his story because it's not my story to tell. But I will say this, I don't know the bylaws of the Dixie board. I wish I did. I wish it was a little bit more transparent. But I will tell you this, there's a standing member on that board that has pending felony charges for embezzlement of the Kana Booster Club. And I need you

to understand something. My husband and I own Pain Construction and Concrete and we donated over $25,000 to that booster club. Then to have someone that is our neighbor, and I'm going to tell you this, a family member to steal from you, that is deep. And to know that that is what's representing our youth. And I'm going to take it one step further, guys. He is a coach this year for a Dixie team. Triple AU. He will be a coach because Ronnie Min said he does not have to answer to the Carol Wick department because Carol W fired him and told him he will never coach there. Now he's going to be in charge of getting a sponsorship to get uniforms for this 8U team. He's going to it's going to happen again. I know it's pending charges and I understand that you're proven you're innocent till you're proven guilty and I understand that and I respect the justice system but I'm asking the board to please consider Kurt is an honest man. I think he's a trustworthy man and I think he has the youth in mind. Please dissolve this board and let the recreation department take it from there. I think it's in the best interest. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. Next I have Miss Katie Horton. Hello. My husband was going to be here to talk. He's much more likable than me, but the Dixie board tonight decided that they do the softball coaches meeting during this meeting's time. So, he couldn't make it if he wanted to stay a coach for Dixie this year. So, he got me instead. And I'll read off my statement and just let you know he's still volunteering for Dixie, but he feels the same way and that's why I'm hearing him saying it. I respectfully urge the Carol County Board of Supervisors to get to to seriously consider taking over sight of the Dixie youth softball and baseball programs and placing them under the Carol County Recck Department. At present, many parents and community members feel that the current Dixie leadership structure is not serving the best interests of our children and families. Specifically, I believe the board should review the roles of Travis Austin and Ronnie Makens on the Carol County Rec Committee and consider their removal. Over the past seasons, their leadership has contributed to decisions and outcomes that have left many families frustrated and disappointed. The recent fee increases imposed on parents through Dixie are unreasonable and difficult to justify. These higher costs do not appear to provide additional benefits, improved resources, or a better experience for our children. Parents are being asked to pay more while receiving less in return, which places unnecessary strain on families who want their children to participate in youth sports. As a mother and a woman, I have a major concern that softball is created secondary to baseball. Our girls deserve the same respect, resources, and opportunities as their male counterparts. They should never be made to feel inferior. You sport should promote confidence, teamwork, and inclusion. Last season highlights several serious issues that cannot be ignored. Numerous games were

cancelled, especially for the girls. And even when my husband and I went and cleaned the field, we took leaf blowers out there. We took mops. We went and wiped up all the mud and rain on the girls softball field for them to play. Ronnie Makins and Travis came and said, "We're taking that for the boys and we're making up the boys games and the girls can go without." And that really bothered me. I taken the full day off. My husband left. He took a day off. Um Nicholls, she took a day off. Uh Blake from over at Primaly, he took a day off of work so that we all could get that field ready for the girls. And we were told our girls were not as important as the boys. That's my daughter there. She was on that team that got told, "Hey, you're not as good." And her brother, her twin brother plays for the boys team. It just it really hurt my heart as a mom because right now, no one's paying to get in. We're all paying the same amount. The girls should get the same amount of time as the boys play. Our children deserve better leadership and better organization. And the program that pri prioritizes fairness and communication. Unfortunately, the decisions and actions of Travis and Ronnie have demonstrated a pattern that suggests they are unwilling or unable to meet these expectations. For the sake of the children and families of Perroll County, I asked the board of supervisors to step in, reassess the program's current structure, and take the necessary steps to ensure that in our committee, sports are managed in a way that truly serve the best interests of all participants. I feel that would be under the leadership of Kurt and his team at the rec department.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Okay, that's all I have signed up. I want to thank you all for speaking and um everyone went over just a little bit, but it was good. Appreciate it. It was It was good. Appreciate you um coming and being respectful and hearing about it. So, okay. Next, um I do have a letter from uh for citizens time from Mr. Wade Marian. Um he wanted to have read uh on behalf of the commissioner's office and local attorneys and surveyors would like to express our deepest gratitude to Joe Ardo and Brian Suten for the donation of the Donald Simone's surveys to the county. Mr. Simone started his surveying career with William Largin in 1965 and then with Woodro Woodro Bet excuse me Betsaw. Mr. Simone obtained his surveying license in May of 1973. He lived in Hills and ran his office from home until sickness forced his retirement in 2006. He surveyed thousands of parcels in Carol County and surrounding localities. This donation will be used for many years to come, not only for the help of identifying parcels but preserving history of our great county. Again, please join me in thanking these two gentlemen for their generosity and commitment to preserving our county's history. All right. And next on the agenda, we have uh the minutes. Can we entertain a motion to approve the minutes as presented?

I make the motion. Okay. Have a motion. I have a second. Second. Okay. I'll start the vote to Mr. Moore. Yes. Mr. Collins? Yes. Mr. Early? Yes. Mr. Bryant? Yes. Mr. Horton? Yes. And I vote yes. Okay. Next on the agenda uh is the consent calendar that you received. I'll entertain a motion to present to approve the consent calendar as presented. I'll make that motion. Okay. Motion by Mr. Early. Second by Mr. Moore. Yes. Okay. I'll start the vote to Mr. Collins. Yes. Mr. Early. Yes. Mr. Moore. Yes. Mr. Bryant? Yes. Mr. Horton? Yes. And I vote yes.

Okay. Next on the agenda is invoices. We have A, which is February 3rd, 2026. B, February 17th, 2026 and C, March 2nd, 2026. I'll entertain a motion to approve these all together or separate. Make the motion to approve A, B, and C together. Okay. Have a motion Mr. Horton approve A, B, and C together. Do I have a second? Second. Okay. Second by Mr. Collins. We'll start the vote with Mr. Early. Yes. Mr. Moore? Yes. Mr. Collins? Yes. Mr. Bryant? Yes. Mr. Horton? Yes.

And I vote yes. Okay. Okay, next on the agenda is under new business. We have a uh short presentation from Raft. You'll come up front, please, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Here. Uh, good evening everyone. My name is Ian Baxter. I'm here from the UVA Weldon Cooper Center. Um, I am just going to give you all a brief update on our raft work that's been going on in the county um for the last few months. Um I'm really excited to share some of the progress uh that some of our projects are making. Um so just a brief refresher on what we're trying to accomplish here. The raft is a threeun university partnership with UVA, Virginia Tech and Old Dominion University. Um we're actually also partnering with UVA Wise during our work here in Carol and in Dickinson counties. Um really the entire thrust of the thing is that we are looking to develop and build resilience in localities across Virginia. Um it's been running for about just over 10 years. Um it's offered at no cost to the locality. Um and uh basically we're looking at community resilience through economic, social, and environmental resilience. Um we've been working in Carol really [snorts] since last spring. Um we conducted both a series of qualitative assessments, what we call community conversations here in Hillsville and in Kaa. Um, we also had another meeting in in Hillsville uh in September as well as a a scorecard that we completed in partnership um with the locality staff. Um, we also ended up developing what we call this opportunity list which is basically a catalog of different items that we felt would be feasible to increase Carol's resilience. Um, we had a workshop with community members that basically selected five of or three of those with the locality selecting the remaining two. Um, and now we've been working on implementing those action items uh since September of last year. Um, and so here's just a quick really a quick overview [clears throat]

of how we basically come up with this list. Um, the opportunity list itself, we don't address every issue on it, but um, we leave it with locality to to use um, potentially in the future. And so these are the five action items that we've been working on uh, as an implementation team over the last six months or so. Um, so we meet monthly uh, here in this room. um with the implementation team and I'll go into a little bit of detail about what each of these um are doing and what they hope to accomplish and who's supporting them. Um I think the key thing about the raft is that really serve as a conduit and a connector of resources from different universities, state agencies um and other partners to different initiatives that are communitydriven and community led. Um and so we're really excited to to sort of give you all an update on the progress of some of these. So, actually before I get into all of them, the five items that we've been working on are the establishment of a resilience committee. Um the uh a recreation survey with the parks and recck department and a subsequent analysis of the results. Um thinking about aggra tourism and how it fits into Carol County's broader tourism strategy. Um developing and launching a Carol County community calendar that's um going to be hosted on the Love Carol new Love Carol website. Um then also designing and hosting a grant writing workshop series. So uh the resilience committee really what it is is a framework for local leaders, community members, nonprofits, and emergency management personnel to form a committee that's going to be focused on preparing for and recovering from disasters. So what this committee really is looking to address is to coordinate supplies and support before and after disasters. really uh add to the county's sort of arsenal and toolkit for planning for emergencies and also engaging with other localities to learn best practices. Uh the recreation survey, I think there was a poster for it actually in the elevator on my way up this evening, but um this is a countywide survey that's helping uh parks and recck department learn about what residents like now and want to see in the future for indoor and

outdoor recreation. So, we worked with the Parks and Rec staff and some of our implementation team to help design that survey and we actually got um a commitment from Old Dominion University Center for Social Science Research to produce a report um sort of analyzing what they found and then they're going to uh report on that uh to you all to kind of give you some of the big takeaways from that hopefully um that get sort of implemented as a part of the parks and recck department's um future future uh actions. We're also looking at agurism. So thinking about developing strategies to position the county as a hub for agurism and also exploring opportunities for an aggraus economic development strategy. So the key action item with this point with this piece is that we're working with uh the Virginia tourism corporation's um destination I forget what DMO stands for exactly um but it's a strategic planning process that's starting to uh happen here in the county. Um we're going to be sort of uh uh working in conjunction with that effort specifically on agurism best practices and case studies. Um and we'll be hosting some listening sessions in May at each of the community centers um here in Carol. Um and then we're also potentially looking to apply for a go Virginia planning grant specifically focusing on aggraus uh strategic planning um sometime later this spring and that would be potentially a multi-jurisdiction effort but we're still figuring out some of the details. Um, I also wanted to highlight a partnership that we've created or sort of um solidified with the Virginia Tech Center for Economic and Community Engagement. Um, we're working with someone there who is uh working with a series of students on a toolkit called the Planning for Agriculture in Virginia toolkit. And so this is a basically an opportunity to share some of the best practices um and and different things that are happening across the state with farmers um and producers here in Carol County. So really excited about that partnership and that will get going probably later um in March um that we'll be meeting with some of the folks on our implementation team. Um the community calendar is really an awesome initiative that fits already into the current

update that's happening on the new Love Carol website. Um so the idea with this is it's developing a standardized calendar for community events to be hosted on this website. Um the pro basically the team decided to sort of develop a standard process for event submission so that if you were looking to host an event in Carol County and wanted it to be publicized in a place where all the rest of the events are going to be, you'd be able to log into this this portal, submit something, staff would review and then it would be publicized in on the same place. And then we're also working to figure out how to better integrate this into other websites um and community spaces across this the the county. Um, we actually have some awesome UVA computer science students that are going to be working on this initiative um, in partnership with Brooke and her team. And then our last action item that we're also really excited about um, is developing a grant writing workshop or a sort of a curriculum designed about designed to help participants identify funding sources, develop competitive applications, and design sustainable projects aligned with their community goals. Um, so what we've done already is circulated a community survey through different channels like the Twin County Community Foundation and Chamber of Commerce here in Carol. Um, and trying to get feedback from small businesses, community organizations, and other community uh, partners to basically learn what they want out of a potential sort of grant writing 101 course. We're working in partnership with a faculty member from the VCU School of Education and uh, Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs who's a grant writing uh, expert. And so we're taking that survey data and basically putting it together into a curriculum that um will hopefully be able to be replicated in the future but would happen over the course of late spring and summer here in Carol. And so yeah, these are some of our next steps. So like I mentioned, um we're going to have some community meetings for this agurism uh initiative. The grand writing workshop is still live um and so folks are encouraged to take that as well as the recreation survey which I think is a few more weeks. Um, we're also going to be having some listening sessions for the resilience committee. So, thinking about meeting with

different uh emergency management personnel, uh, faith leaders that are really involved in disaster management um, and cleanup in the in the county. Um, and we will be partnering here with Carol until September 2026. So, a few more months of uh, working here with you all. So, thank you for the opportunity to speak and I'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Any board members have any questions, comments? Thank you for your hard work. Thank you all. Thank you for the opportunity to serve. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Next [clears throat] on the agenda is the Mount Rogers Regional Partnership. Come forward, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and fellow board members for having me here to do a short presentation on our organization. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Ashlin Shrewsbury and I am the executive director for Mount Rogers Regional Partnership. We're the regional economic development organization that supports the counties of Wit, Smith, Bland, Carol Grayson, and the city of Gayaxs. So, my presentation will go over a quick overview of our organization, my role with the Blue Ridge Crossroards Economic Development Authority, which Carol is a member of, a look back at our fiscal year and review from 2025, and a look forward at our current activities and upcoming projects in the current fiscal year. So for our organization, Mount Rogers Regional Partnership supports the creation of job opportunities, broadening the tax base, and improving the standard of living for our residents in this region. We do that through attracting and encouraging new businesses to locate and invest here and assisting our existing companies with creation or retention of jobs. So we are a small staff. We all wear a lot of hats. We have three and a half of us. So as the executive director, I work on regional economic development planning project and prospect and special project management for all of our localities. I also serve as the director for our two regional industrial facilities authorities. One of those is Brita. The other one is Pathway Regional Industrial Facilities Authority. I also do the lead generation for the localities. Then our deputy director oversees our talent solutions programs, leads our business retention and expansion and also does our investor relations. We have a director of marketing and communications and a part-time office administrator. So, some of our areas of focus are to grow, retain, and attract new jobs in capital investment, promote our and communicate our regional assets, align our workforce development efforts with our business needs. We work really closely with our K through2 system and our community colleges to make sure that what our existing industries and our new industries what they need, we are making those connections and making sure that we are training the next generation of talent there. We're providing leadership and economic development strategy and identifying and initiating efforts to improve our business climate. So just a

little bit of background on how a lot of our prospect leads come to be. We do work with lead generation firms. I also do lead generation where I go out and try to be proactive at trade shows and conferences and call trips to get these leads for us. But a lot of our leads do come from the Virginia Economic Development Partnership. They are at the state organization. From there they filter down through the regional group which we are. And then we reach out to our RIFFAS, our IDAs, our EDAs, any of our localities with economic development staff. And then we also work really closely with our local government staff. As I mentioned, I also serve as the executive director for the Blue Ridge Crossroads Economic Development Authority. We're the regional industrial facilities authority that represents Carroll County, Grayson County, and the city of Galax. We're the owners of Wildwood Commerce Park right off of exit 19 here in Carol County. I work on the project management and all of RFIs and prospect opportunities for Wildwood. and then do the grant and project management, site development for Wildwood Commerce Park, the administration and continued function. We are the host organization for the Blue Ridge Crossroads Small Business Development Center. And then I also serve as your local zone administrator for the joint enterprise zone of the Twin County region. So look back at last fiscal year, I assisted in the announcement of Plucked, which is the lowcarbon greenhouse off of exit 19 at Walber Commerce Park. That was 105 million in capital investment, around 118 new jobs. We also supported the expansions of Duchess and Wick County and Hitachi Energy in both Bland and Smith counties. So a look at the numbers for our business engagement. We supported 238 new jobs, $128 million in capital investment, generated 40 leads and contacts, visited 75 individual businesses. So some of those may have required multiple visits, but we just tracked based on the individual businesses we served. And then we responded to 20 requests for our information. So, our talent solutions programs, we have the connect program, which works in five of our six localities currently to connect our um high school students with

local industry. We also oversee the Twin County Excellence programs, which is our manufacturing excellence program and our healthcare excellence. And so, in the last fiscal year, 293 high school students were served through the connect and excellence programs throughout the region. 35 businesses were visited through the connect program and 506 adults and students were served by the crossroads and with land career fair. And one of our success stories that we like to highlight actually a 2025 graduate from Carol County Public Schools completed the Twin County manufacturing excellence program in the fall of 2024. This allowed him to get certain certifications through WCC as well as visit some of the industries and get hands-on experience in the manufacturing sector. That program specifically is targeted towards seniors. And so after he went through that program, he actually went to one of the businesses that they toured, applied for a job, let them know that he had went through the program there, and he really liked what he saw. And so we're really excited to say that he got a job there. And we hope that that will continue um as we continue to do these programs. Our marketing and communications, we did two new videos. One was in talent retention, one was in talent attraction, and we host those on our YouTube channel. We also had seven press releases, 24 new stories, and our ad campaign and area development generated more than 30,000 views. So, some special projects that we've worked on. Currently, we market certain industrial parks and existing industrial sites throughout the region. Once these are gone, we don't have the next phase of industrial sites to market. And as you all know, economic development is a long-term game, especially in rural communities. It can often time take 15, [snorts] 20 years to purchase a property, get the due diligence done on it, get it graded, get it pad ready for these businesses. So, it can take a long time to get those in the pipeline. And so we actually were able to get a grant from the tobacco commission and go Virginia in order to do a regional site study for all six of our localities in the region. We worked with a stakeholder group and Timman's group out of Richmond to conduct a study on this and we were able to down select um to 10 sites that were identified for our next phase of industrial development and we will

continue to work with our local administrators on seeing whether any of those sites are of interest to purchase in the future either on a locality basis or on a more regional approach. We also worked on the Wildwood site one due diligence and design service project, Pathway Park site access improvements and Pathway Park target industry study. So some examples of our lead generation as I mentioned um we like to be proactive go out there and try to cultivate these leads ourself. And so some examples of this during the last fiscal year were an ag call trip with our state organization. We had a TPM25 which was a logistics lead generation event. Select USA which focuses on attracting foreign direct investment. We also participate in legislative day. So our organization recently led a delegation of local leadership here to meet with our local representatives in Richmond and connect and share our local and regional priorities. So some activities to date and looking ahead at their current fiscal year. So we did a new sites video to market our industrial parks and additional sites throughout the region and we did that with the help of a grant from the tobacco commission. We also were awarded a new tobacco grant in order to do lead generation and marketing. And so one of the tasks we did through this was to actually have our whole entire region and all the locality certified as an FDI qualified community. So, we worked with an organization that works closely with European companies looking to relocate or expand here in the US and they um came here for a site visit, did a desktop analysis and they were able to match that the assets that we have here in the region are what European companies are looking for when they're looking to relocate or expand here in the US. And so, um we also had two of our industrial parks satisfied as FDI qualified industrial parks and that was Pathway in Progress Park. Some examples of community events we've participated in so far this year, the Celebrate Tourism Summit, Southwest Virginia Alliance for Manufacturing Expo. We also just did the SPAM Women's and Manufacturing Awards last week and the business success symposium in

Witville. We also hosted a preession legislative dinner for some of our local leadership and our local representatives before the general assembly session. And as I mentioned, we also organized um some meetings with our local representatives for our local leadership a few weeks ago. Some other projects and activities that we'll continue working on um project management and prospect management of site one at Wildwood Commerce Park. We'll continue to do lead generation and marketing for the region as a whole under our new tobacco grant. We'll continue to support existing industries and retention and expansions and cultivate our investor relations. As I mentioned, we are um funded mostly privately or publicly. We are trying to increase our private investment in our organization. So, we've switched to a tier model to try to attract more private investment. We have been very successful so far of attracting six new private investors. We had six before, so we've been able to double so far. So, we're going to continue that momentum. We are funded through support and funding from a mix of public and private entities. And we just want to continue to thank you all for your support of our organization. Anytime we can be of service, please let us know. We're here to help. And if you have any questions, my contact information is at the back of the presentation. Mr. Watson here also has my contact information. If you have any questions right now, I'm happy to answer those. And I just want to thank you all for allowing me to come here and speak.

Thank you. I do have one question. Okay. Can you stay after the meeting? We have a discussion. Okay. We'll be all right. Won't take long. Yeah. That's all I have. Anyone else? Okay.

All right. Thank you. That brings us to uh the second amendment resolution. Uh the board did pass in 2019 a resolution for its commitment to the protection of second amendment. This one has just been modified a little bit for the 2026. [clears throat] So I'll go ahead and read it. Resolution of K County Board of Supervisors. Whereas the second amendment of the United States Constitution reads, "A well regul regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms should not be infringed." And whereas article 1, section 13 of the Constitution of Virginia provides that a well- reggulated militia composed of the body of the people trained to arms in the proper natural and safe defense of a free state. Therefore, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. that standing armies in time of peace should be avoided as dangerous to liberty that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to and governed by the civil power. Whereas certain legislation in introduced in the 2026 session of the Virginia General Assembly could have the effect of infringing on the rights of law violent citizens to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by the second amendment of the United States Constitution. And whereas the K County Board of Supervisors is concerned about the passage of any bill which would have the effect of infringing the rights of the citizens of Carol County to keep and bear arms or could begin a slippery slope of restrictions on the Second Amendment rights of the citizens of Carol County. And whereas the Carol County Board of Supervisors wishes to express his deep commitment to the rights of all citizens of Carol County to keep and bear arms. And whereas the Carol County Board of Supervisors wishes to express opposition to any law that would unconstitutionally restrict the Second Amendment rights of the citizens of Carol County to bear arms. And whereas on May 13, 2019, the Carol County Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution voicing its commitment to the protection of the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution and stand as a Second Amendment sanctuary.

Whereas the Carol County Board of Supervisors wishes to reaffirm its intent to stand as a sanctuary county for Second Amendment rights and to oppose within the limits of the constitutions of the United States and the Commonwealth of Virginia any efforts to unconstitutionally restrict such rights and to use such legal means at its disposal protect the right of the citizens to keep and bear arms, including through legal action, the power of appropriation of public funds, and the right to petition for redress of grievances. Now therefore be it resolved by the board of supervisor of Carol County, Virginia, that the board of supervisors hereby reaffirms its intent to uphold the second amendment rights of the citizens of Carl County and its intent that public funds of the county not be used to restrict second amendment rights or to aid in the unnecessary and unconstitutional restriction of the rights under the Second Amendment of the citizens of Carol County to bear arms. And the board of supervisors hereby reaffirms its intent to impose to oppose unconstitutional restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms through such legal means as may be expedient, including without limitation the possibility of court action. And that the board of supervisors hereby declares and reaffirms the [clears throat] statute the status of Carol County, Virginia as a second amendment sanctuary.

Mr. Chairman, yes. I move to adopt the second amendment resolution. Okay. I have a motion to adopt this resolution. I have a second. Second. Okay. I'll start the vote to Mr. Collins. Yes. Mr. Moore? Yes. Mr. Erlin? Yes. Mr. Bryant? Yes. Mr. Horton? Yes. And I vote yes. Okay. Next on the agenda is changes to the uh FOYA charge. Mr. Watson, you want to discuss this any or

I can. Just a second. uh freedom information charge. Uh what we're trying to do is align more with what the state uh freedom of information act goes through. U the state um in the past we've had charges we charge per uh page and and it doesn't recuperate any cost. So what this allows you to do is charge the actual cost to prepare the document. So it wouldn't be making money. it would be at a certain rate for the um uh most um u qualified person at the lower rate. So it wouldn't be my salary to find something. It would be someone else in order to do it. And what this does, like I said, morally aligns to uh uh what the state allows.

Okay. I entertain a motion to approve the new charges. I'll make the motion. A motion from Mr. Horton. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion on the matter? If not, start the vote. Mr. Orton, yes. Mr. Bryant, yes. Mr. Collins, yes. Mr. Early, yes. Mr. Moore, yes. And I vote yes. And next on the agenda is the quarterly appropriations that you received in your packet. I'll entertain a motion to approve these. I'll make that motion. We approve it. Okay. A motion, Mr. Brunt. I have a second. Second. Any discussion? If not, I'll start with the vote of Mr. Collins. Yes. Mr. Hurley? Yes, Mr. Moore. Yes, Mr. Bryant. Yes, Mr. Horton. Yes. And I vote yes.

Okay. Next on the agenda is the American Red Cross Month um that you received this March to celebrate American Red Cross Month. Whereas by recognizing the compassionate acts of people in Crow County, therefore by renewing our commitment to lend to lend a helping hand our neighbors in need. Since Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross more than 140 years ago, generation after generation has stepped up to deliver relief and care across our country and around the world, bringing out the best of humanity in times of crisis, advances this noble mission of volunteers and supporters who now give back to the Red Cross of Coastal Virginia remain unwavering in their commitment to prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of today's emergencies. So, I'll entertain a motion that this uh proclamation for American Red Cross month.

So, moved. I'll second. Okay. Motion by Mr. Moore, second by Mr. Collins. And I'll start the voting with Mr. Early. Yes. Mr. Bryant? Yes. Mr. Horton? Yes. Mr. Collins? Yes. Mr. Moore? Yes. And I vote yes. Okay. Next on the agenda is the resolution um opposing redistricting. A resolution of the Carol County Board of Supervisors to oppose congressional redistricting that discards established processes and dilutes rural resation that you received. I'll entertain a motion that we accept this resolution. So moved. They have a motion. I have a second. Second. Start a vote. Mr. Collins. Yes. Mr. Early. Yes.

Mr. Moore. Yes. Mr. Bryant? Yes. Mr. Horton? Yes. I vote yes. Next on agenda is um old business. Does anyone have any old business? Uh Mr. Chairman, as as this [clears throat] board is aware, a couple months back I was appointed as the uh representative from the county on the Carol Wellness Center board. I've resigned from that uh appointment immediately and would like to nominate Felicia Bowman to take my place. Okay. I have a mo a motion to nominate Felicia Bowman to the Carol Wellness Center board. I have a second. Second.

Okay. I'll start the vote with Mr. Mr. Moore. Yes. Mr. Early. Yes. Mr. Collins? Yes. Mr. Bryant? Yes. Mr. Horton? Yes. And I vote yes. Is there any other old business? Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a motion for Mr. Jet for the planning commission. Okay. Have a motion to put Franklin nominate Franklin Jet back on the planning commission. Have a second. Second. Okay. We'll start the vote to Mr. Early. Yes. Mr. Bryant? Yes. Mr. Collins? Yes. Mr. Horton? Yes. Mr. Moore? Yes. And I vote yes. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to nominate Mr. Neon Strickland uh to continue on the planning commission board.

Okay. Have a nomination for Name Strickland. point to the planning commission. Do I have a second? Second. Okay. I'll start the vote to Mr. Moore. Yes. Mr. Collins? Yes. Mr. Early? Yes. Mr. Bryant? Yes. Mr. Horton? Yes. And I vote yes. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a motion for Beverly Typton on the planning commission board. Okay. Have a motion to reappoint Miss Tipton to the planning commission. I have a second. Second. Okay. I'll start the vote with Mr. Early. Yes. Mr. Bryant. Yes. Mr. Horton. Yes. Mr. Collins. Yes. Mr. Moore. Yes. Then I vote. Yes.

Any more old business? Do we need to put uh someone on the ASAP board? Miss Kico that's applied. She Let me make that nomination interview. Yeah, we need Oh, yeah. I guess we need to Okay, we'll bring her in next month. All right. Okay, we'll move on to board member comments. I will start with Mr. Early.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, I am in my fifth year concurrent year on this board and uh it has been quite a pleasure. I look forward to the the next four years. Uh, as we are all aware, most of the complaints we receive as board members center around real estate appraisals and taxes, but a very close second is the Dixie League. And what I heard tonight goes right along with other stories I've heard from other parents and people that participate in the Dixie League. And therefore, I would like to make a motion that the Dixie League board be dissolved and the Dixie League be placed underneath the curt at the rec department.

Okay. I have a motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Any discussion? Yeah, I have a Okay. And I and if if it's okay, Mr. Chairman, could I speak with some of the ones that brought it up? Sure. Right. Yes.

So, I do have a couple things. You know, as you all will know, I've been on the Dixie committee since 2020, since COVID come. That's why the board was put in place was to do that. For the last four years, I was the district director for the girls to um for the state. [clears throat] This is my first year that I'm no longer on the Dixie board. But a couple of the questions were very concerning, you know, of of the coaching staff and stuff they have. Like I said, I've been been out of it. I've been in a lot of conversation with with Kurt to make sure that if it if this did come to this fruition that his head of staff that could handle it. But but one thing that I do want to discuss because it was discussed in open session I'd like and I'm not rebutting it but I will say due to this the the money you know I will make mention to that as as a member on that we had uh one of the commonwealth attorney secretary [clears throat] was the secretary of the Dixie league and most of that money is either in the bank or it was used to send the teams to the day, you know, at the end, you know, the teams that go to the state, they give them $14 or so a day, $7, $10, whatever, whatever it was, you know, and um but I I do know that and I can only speak in my tenure there as as the money was there there was a lot of transparency of the money. I never handled none. I worked in a concession stand a lot. Being a board member, I don't touch money. But but I will say that because I I feel that that organization whether there's a lot of issues. I was on the issue that you spoke of of the kid not getting to play and the

potential vote amongst board members. But um but that that's all I have to say about it. You know, I I do want to protect that board and the interest of that board and the financial status of it. I feel like it's run as as good as can be. The one concern is that I have to the board is we're late in the game. You know, they're having coaches meeting tonight. Have we got staff to to make this transition smoothly? But that's all I have to say. Thank you, Mr. Moore. Anyone else? Had a motion and a second. I'll start the vote with Mr. Collins. Yes. Mr. Moore? No.

Mr. Bryant? Yes. Mr. Horton. Yes. Mr. Early. Yes. And I vote no. All right. Anything else, Mr. Early? No. Appreciate all those who came out tonight and speaking directly to us from your heart. And I wish we could take questions and answer them here, but that's for a later time. So, thank you for coming. Absolutely. Okay. Mr. Collins.

First of all, just like to thank all the folks who came out and spoke. Thank you for being involved in the community. Thank you for investing in our youth. Um, and to Miss Hughes, she's gone, but you know, the work that they do for us in Carol County, I'm appreciative of that. Uh, got a couple questions. Mike, do we now have an executed contract for the Can Convenience Center? No, we still do not have an executed contract. We have sent the final draft over. I actually sent it over [clears throat] today. Um, uh, there's a few little tweaks because of the change in ownership, but it should be executed. And, and who's the contract going to be with? It would be, uh, uh, with Meridian, and I can share that contract.

Meridian. And it'll still be the same. No cost to the county. Same thing. Okay. Uh, appreciate that. So, you expect to have it executed soon? Yes. Um, I think that and thanking everybody the the board in the last meeting suggested with social media policy that I reach out to somebody and have it reviewed and I've done that and I'll give that to Mr. Durban and then take it back to Mr. Durban and I'll submit uh one for the minutes as well. It's four pages long. I don't want to read it, but that's all I have.

Thank you, Mr. Collins. Mr. Moore. Yeah. Um, I'll echo the comments of the other board members. Thank everybody for coming. Thank y'all for y'all's dedication to our youth. And, uh, I played in the Foothills Fast Pitch a lot with my daughter and it's good to see kids doing that. So, um, I want to thank the Mike and his staff for all they do. Uh, thank Reed for stepping in for Mr. Durban while he's on vacation. And I know this meeting was scheduled for last week. It's good to see the Joey back feeling better. And uh thank everybody for coming out and um thank our EMS, you know, and our fire and um sheriff's office for all they do, you know, to make sure our citizens are taken care of. Um I'll echo what Ronnie said about Missu. She's been great. You know, for Carol County to get three of the smart scale projects in the last four or five years is is amazing when it comes to that. And look forward to seeing the one at Harmon's and the one out here at 100 come to fruition. And I think the other one where they finished up was a sidewalk program at the high school that helps our kids with the stoplight getting from the softball and the tennis courts over to the school. So, that being said, I just u hope everybody has a good evening. be safe and thanks thanks again for coming out and voicing your concerns and u that's all I have Mr. Chair

thank you Mr. Moore Mr. board. Uh, basically I just want to re-echo everything that you guys have already said, but uh, thank you again to all the citizens that came out tonight to speak. I just want to remind everybody, you know, we invite you citizens to come out. We want to hear feedback from you guys and plays a lot of impact on the way we vote. So, I just want to say thank you. Again, thank the staff for everything you guys are doing and again, thank our EMS and our fire department and our sheriff's department for everything they do for our county. a lot of moving pieces in the county that kind of behind the scenes and just want to say thank you and that's all I got. Mr. Bryant.

Yeah, I just like to thank my pastor for coming out this evening do the invocation and I'd like to thank the staff and uh all those that came out this evening to to voice their concerns and uh that's all I got.

Thank you, Mr. Bryant. Yeah, I just want to thank everyone for coming out and you being so respectful and everything. We appreciate your concerns and there's a lot to, you know, um, listen to and bring up and I I understand. I just hope that they're ready. It's kind of why, you know, we're so far in. But, um, do appreciate you coming. Um, and Mr. Hall, appreciate you coming. It was a great prayer and we we thank you.

Thank you, sir. Um, one thing I I do have, um, we do have tires left from the Canyon Convenience Center, Mr. Watson. I have pictures of the Z's that, uh, me pass it on the board. The previous um, operator has been paid for these tires. They're $6 per tire. Eight um, $6 per tire, $8 per tire with a rim, I think it is, and $8 for large tires. But there's several tires there. Um, if we can send him a notice, give him 30 days to have him cleaned up and sent to the Hills of Landfield, which was the agreement to begin with, since he's been paid for him, I would appreciate it. And other than that, that's all I have. I'll um entertain a motion for adjournment.

County. Oh, sorry. Mr. Watson, do you have anything? No, I don't have anything. Thank you. Attorney comments. Thank you for filling in, sir. Hey, I entertain a motion for adjournment. So move. Have a second. Second. Okay. Start the vote. Mr. Collins? Yes. Mr. Bryant? Yes. Mr. Horton? Yes. Mr. Early? Yes. Mr. Moore? Yes.