Town Council - Regular Meeting

all right everybody i got six o'clock we're gonna get going here welcome everybody who's here in person thank you for coming and those that are watching online as always i ask everyone to please silence your cell phone and that does mean all the way silent not vibrate so go ahead and double check it and make sure that it is indeed all the way on silent it does help us to respect one another's time and each speaker speaking We appreciate your patience and understanding as council deliberates on various agenda items. We do have open public comment at the meeting and every meeting and times and signups are encouraged and there is a sheet up front that you can sign up on. I do not believe we have any specific public hearings as all the public hearings for items on the agenda have already happened. And I want to acknowledge the staff work in preparation for this meeting. Their insights are invaluable to each topic of town business. We appreciate our town manager, Natasha Tucker, as we operate under the council manager form of government. Natasha handles daily operations and department administration, all the day-to-day tasks, while our town council provides direction and authorizes policy in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia and our town charter. While each council member has the ultimate responsibility to contribute and vote distinctly, the council does work as a body, duly elected to serve responsibly and ethically the citizens of Colonial Beach. Participation of each member contributes to effective leadership. Collaboration is key to productivity in local government. Let's engage in constructive discussion, remain open to different perspectives, and work together for effective resolutions. Finally, I remind us all that the meetings of the town council are formal proceedings and are thus recorded. And with that, I'll call the meeting to order the regular town council meeting for the month of May on Wednesday, May 20th, 2026 at 6 0 4 PM. All right. Um, please join me standing for a moment of silence, which will be followed by the pledge of allegiance. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the

All right, our roll call of members. All members are present. Are there any additions to the agenda? I don't have any. Is there approval for the agenda? Is there a second?

Second.

All in favor and opposed. Uh, there's no consent agenda items. We'll have a bunch of minutes on the next meeting, um, on the next consent agenda as it catches up. Um, if you don't know, our clerk had hers oldest son graduate from high school this last week. So we would give her a little reprieve to catch up with the minutes for the following. Moving right along is council member announcements and I will start with Mr. Wood if that's okay on your side.

Good evening, everyone. Let's see. So, for Parks and Recs, May 23rd, there won't be a Dog Day event on Town Hill due to potential weather. The event will be rescheduled. May 30th, we've got our big town-wide garage sale and yard sale, 8 to 4. You can download your treasure map to follow the sails throughout Colonial Beach. If you want to join, send an email with your sail address to sadams at colonialbeachva.gov to get your sail on the map. June 6th, we're gonna have dinosaurs here in Colonial Beach. with the free outdoor movie Jurassic World Rebirth, 7.30 p.m. at the Colonial Beach Community Center. So for those of you who are old enough to remember drive-ins, it's gonna be a very similar experience. There will be concessions available for purchase. The pre-activities are ongoing volleyball, open gym 15 and up, Sundays from 2.30 to 4.30 at the school, functional fitness class Tuesday and Wednesdays from 10 to 11 a.m. at the community center, and the Hatha yoga class Fridays from 10 to 11, also at the community center. Planning and Community Development and Planning Commission notes. We've received 103 short-term rental applications. 10 have stated that they won't be renewing. I'm excited to announce we have a new Planning and Community Enhancement Officer, Beth McDowell. She began work Monday, and her duties include code enforcement as well as other planning functions. Beth brings 20 years of planning, zoning, and community development experience to the town. One of the first duties will be reaching out to businesses regarding feather banners, banners, and temporary signs. Staff has made some good progress with a few businesses in town and look forward to getting all businesses in compliance soon. And the upcoming planning commission will be on Thursday, May 14th. There could be discussion of comprehensive plan and work plan. That's it for me.

Mr. Larson?

good evening everybody so this past week was sort of the wrap-up of the of the school year and with a lot of really poignant events I would say the high school graduation was was quite impressive This was a packed event. I hadn't been to one before I went to this one on Saturday and it was Jam-packed. I mean cars parked all over the ball field, you know filled to the rafters So many things that I could talk about but there was one part that sort of caught my attention that I thought I'd share here the val Victorian speech was interesting in that she told the story about this class and all they've been through, right? And as kindergarteners, their school burned down, right? They were in the school that burned. I mean, they weren't in it when it happened, obviously, but then spent the rest of their school year at a church, I believe in Oak Grove. And then they had no kindergarten graduation as a result. And then as middle schoolers, they were hit with COVID and were at home. And again, they got no middle school graduation either. So this past Saturday's graduation was their first graduation as middle schoolers. Colonial Beach students, and they're quite an impressive class. So many achievements, sports, academics, and by the way, our town clerk's son is a member of that impressive graduating class, TJ Oliver. uh... school board meeting was uh... similar very uh... sort of joyful event a lot of recognition of all the people that that have contributed to the schools uh... way too many things to probably list out here tonight but uh... was uh... kind of a a different sort of school board meeting i would say This isn't really part of my liaison report, but I did something this past Saturday that I really appreciated that was done by Westmoreland County. They do twice a year a hazardous materials collection thing. I have had this three or four cans of old, used gasoline that I didn't know what to do with for years. You can drop off used oil at various different places, but getting rid of old gas, I didn't know what to do. I finally heard about this thing. It's a drive-through event. You go down there, you hand them the gas can, they dump it out, they bring it back to you. Just a fantastic public service. It's free. The next one's gonna be in September. I'll try to remember and announce that in advance, because I don't know if you're like me, you probably have things in your garage If you don't want breach and don't know how to get rid of, that's the place to do it without harming the environment. So that's all I've got for tonight.

Great, thank you. Mr. Williams?

Okay, good evening, everybody. Just a couple of announcements for the police department. I did have my one-on-one meeting with the town manager and the police chief yesterday, and it sounds like things are fairly calm in town, so that's good news there. Just announced that the worship watch meeting will be held this Thursday, May 21st at 6 p.m. The Little Los Angeles Baptist Church, located at 177, or 7748 Leestown Road. A guest speaker from the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office will be there discussing ways to enhance safety and preparedness with the faith-based community. congregations and also just a reminder that the countywide burden ban is still in effect until further notice. Hopefully some of this rain will take care of that for us. And that's all I got. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Granta.

Good evening, everyone. I will be reporting for economic vitality and tourism. Just updates for economic vitality. Charlotte and Cynthia Neumer have met with the two local financial institutions I mentioned at last meeting to build partnerships as they work towards the 2026 future business initiatives with local small business owners. This partnership will allow the Economic Vitality to partner with Tourist Bank and Atlantic Union Bank, providing financial literacy to our small businesses, lending services, and personal banking benefits to strengthen the employee incentives for the small business owners. On the tourism side of things, at the Small Spring Business Breakfast on May 14th, There were nearly 70 business owners, officials from Westmoreland County and Colonial Beach and Colonial Beach Town staff that came together on Thursday at the Ice House for the breakfast celebrating both National Small Business Month and Travel and Tourism Month. Nathan, I hope I'm not messing his name up, Nathan Oll, okay director of the international economic development council provided virtual remarks touting rural businesses and how they can work with local economic development officials to strengthen and grow their economy through creativity collaboration patience and courage Other presenters included Lisa Hull, Northern Egg Planet District Commission, Dale Herndon, Westmoreland County, Steve Smurf-Keene with the Colonial Beach Chamber of Commerce, Eric Nelson, Downtown Colonial Beach, and our very own Charlotte Cole, Town of Colonial Beach, for tourism. They're working for the date for the small business breakfast, and we'll have that out when that date is decided. But it will take place either in September or October. That's it for me for EV and tourism. Thank you.

Good evening everyone. So for NGOs from the Virginia Osprey Foundation, they've recruited volunteers to monitor osprey nests of their choice for two-hour increments on various days throughout the week. The program is designed to collect data on provisioning rates, specifically how many fish are brought to the nest during each observation period. Volunteers also document Any additional activity observed at the nest during that time and data collected will be submitted to the Center of Conservation Biology and they have 12 volunteers participating in the program right now and are currently working on looking for additional volunteers for the critical period of time when chicks are hatching. So if anybody's interested in participating in this program, please reach out to the Virginia Osprey Foundation through their email, which can be found on their website. Also, the WWER, our radio station town, is making seven years on the air and will be having an open house and barbecue on Sunday, May 7th, or May 31st from noon to 2 p.m. at the studio. So all are welcome to drop by at 116B Hawthorne Street. And congratulations to them for seven years. Mr. Allison?

All right, good evening, everybody. Before I get to the public works, I want to echo Mr. Larson's school activities. I attended the kindergarten graduation and the seventh grade graduation. If you haven't ever seen those, those are adorable and amazing. And those kind of see where, you know, the next generation of Columbia Beach Drifters end up being seniors. And as we move to seniors, my niece, Olivia Cook, was the valedictorian. A lot of accolades for her. She also graduated governor school, she also graduated RCC, and she'll be attending Virginia Tech coming this fall. Speaking of college, my son also graduated from college this past weekend, so we had to miss Olivia's, unfortunately, but he graduated from ODU. Just took him a little longer than four years. All right, so now I'll move the public works. We'll start with the infrastructure utilities. There were three repaired water leaks, two sewer installs, one sewer backup cleared, completed multiple missed utility markings, and attended meter class training. wastewater treatment plant. They have ongoing support for the wastewater treatment plant systems and operations. Completed portable press valve installation and water supply connection. So the portable presses should be up and running here very shortly. Streets and stormwater. Perform stormwater system checks, maintenance and ditch recutting throughout town. Patch multiple road cuts throughout town. Cleaned alleyways on Locust Street, completed a town-wide pothole repair project utilizing all Public Works crews over a two-day period to ensure full town coverage, applied approximately 8,850 pounds of asphalt for roadway repairs. Uh, buildings and grounds, uh, completed the beach nourishment project utilizing 5,000 tons of sand and 403 tons of rip rap, uh, provide approximately 200 yards of engineered wood fiber at all the town parks utilizing all the town of town, public works crews and continued grass cutting operations through town. And that's all I have.

It's been a busy couple of weeks, so I have quite a few things too. I do want to echo again the graduation ceremony of this particular graduating class. Every year I'm impressed by them, but there was a special place in my heart for a lot of the kids in this class and what they had been through, but the most noteworthy thing I wanted to pull out from that, other than Olivia's speech made me cry in the middle of graduation, but was that they chose their guidance counselor to be their keynote speaker, Ms. Campbell. If you have not met this woman, she exhilarates love and support for these kids. it's around her at every moment. And she is very, very passionate about what she does for them, which is, and you can see it from how all of them have these amazing plans and future goals. And that's what a guidance counselor really does guide you through that. And we're very grateful to have her. I just want to give her a shout out. She did a great job at graduation and really has taken the kids of Columbia Beach under her wing. The scholarship program has grown from almost, you know, very few scholarships to having students you know more than half the class apply for scholarships and it was impressive and that is her guidance and her love for these kids um it's just what a small town's all about and so it's worth noting as well um also i attended the small business appreciation on last thursday i miss grandstaff and miss sanford were at the small towns conference which um is also really impressive for them as council members to have traveled to Chincoteague and get all the wonderful information from the Virginia Municipal League. That was a great event and thank you Charlotte Cole for organizing that. I don't know if you still have some small business appreciation t-shirts left, but if so, make sure some of the council members get some t-shirts, get your t-shirt. There was also the Colonial Yacht Club flag raising. It's the annual event by the Colonial Yacht Club on Saturday, along with graduation, along with a car club event at Stanskate Land and a tee ball game that day. But at the flag raising, I think it's worth noting that a torch was passed. My parents have sold the marina at Colonial Beach Yacht Center and it will now be Stringer's Marina and the new owner was there to see the, meet the Yacht Club and introduce himself. So I recommend go down there and meet the new owners. I also attended the Westmoreland Board of Supervisors meeting on Monday and Mr. Trivett, Supervisor Trivett is here so I won't go too far into that. I will say it was a really nice honoring of the law enforcement that they did at that meeting, very meaningful and I very much appreciated it and highlighted some of the fraud investigation work that the Sheriff's Office has done. which you know maybe it's a little behind the scenes and you don't think about or see about and that was very interesting and worth noting they also added Old Monrovia Road to the paving list for VDOT which is the road that goes behind Food Lion so that is of note to the town of Colonial Beach in a big way it's probably six years out so don't get your hopes up real excited but It did get on the list, and I think that's worth noting. We do have a ribbon cutting coming up tomorrow at Tiny Tailgate. I don't know with this rain how it's going to be because it's a very outdoor bender at our Washington Park VENDOR LOCATION RIGHT HERE AND BUT THE TINY TAILGATE RIBBON CUTTING IS TOMORROW AT NOON AND I'LL BE THERE AND PLEASE JOIN US AND IF IT'S WITH UMBRELLAS JUST BRING YOUR UMBRELLA AND HELP SUPPORT EVERY LITTLE SMALL BUSINESS THAT OPENS HERE IN COLONIO BEACH UM Also related to business, the ice house, I don't know if you all remember, we expanded the enterprise zone to include Marina Way and some of First Street a couple years ago, and that was in coalition with the Westmoreland Board of Supervisors, and that has come to fruition for several positive applications, including hopeful ice house, for a lot of the renovation. If you haven't noticed, they've done a lot there to be appreciated. And so they will hopefully reap some reward out of the Enterprise Zone expansion that happened from this council's work. So excited about that. And lastly is the Save the Bay Day is June 6. So mark your calendars. And before you go see the dinosaurs, show in your car, um, come out and pick up some trash with us for save the Bay day on June 6th. That's all I got for now. And we'll move forward to the town manager update. Ms. Tucker.

Good evening, everyone. I'll begin with, uh, some new hires that, uh, We've had some new staff followed by the sewer plant update from in Bowdoin. I'd really like to give a shout out to our human resources manager, Susan Richardson. She has really done an excellent job at recruiting some fantastic hires for the town. And so I'd like to go over the few that we have added between last month and As you all heard planning Beth started this past Monday.

Next slide.

So first we have our part time general maintenance person Trevor South with Strouth rather from Public Works. I know Chris is very thrilled to have him join the team and they have already put him to a lot of work. Next slide. And the chief and I were pleased that we were able to hire two very qualified officers to our ranks. Brian Holmes serves a dual role. He actually is a police academy instructor. So he will help instruct other new recruits that we hire. He has extensive knowledge and experience from that realm. He is a certified police officer from Georgia as well as Virginia. So he brings years of experience to the town. We've also hired Quavante Taylor as a new police officer as well. When we conducted well when chief and Susan conducted interviews for these two openings we received a lot of qualified applicants and these two just rose to the top. Everyone was really pleased by the way that they interviewed so we are really really pleased to have them on board. And of course lastly as you all heard from council member Woods we have hired Beth McDowell from She originally was at the county and she brings well over 20 years of experience and planning and development. And she was able to just hit the ground running and help us with a lot of projects that we currently have going on. And she has insight when we have to collaborate with the county on certain projects and things that we need to get done. So we are very pleased. and happy that Beth has joined us as I know that Angela and Melissa really, really appreciate the expertise that she brings. And now we will move on to John for the Imboden update.

Good afternoon, everyone. Let's go ahead and go to page two, please. So the monthly flow reports there, um, as you all know, we are in a, what they consider a significant drought period, which also affects the flow with the wastewater plant due to the I and I. So you can see here in April, the flow is pretty low there. Uh, we do, believe we're having some issues with the flow meter at the plant we do have some some people scheduled to come in and take a look at that so next month that'll go up a little higher I'm expecting that it's we know it's dry that's still a little bit low for that month so we're gonna have the flow meters checked next page please Um, no, no violations this month. Everything passed. It was a good month at the treatment plant operationally. Um, this warm weather transition come in and everything is working good. The biological process is pretty happy. Um, next page. So here we have the phosphorus and nitrogen. We're still a little higher in our nitrate, 5.36. That is down this month to 3. So by the end of the year, we do expect that to average out to below the 3.0 limit. No real concerns with that this year. That'll be the first year that we've seen numbers this low, so we're pretty excited about that. and that kind of goes into the next part of it. Part of the ARPA funding projects, we have the sludge press that you all had approved. We got that set up this week. We do expect to start that pressing operation tomorrow. Once we get all the solids out of those tanks, that's even going to help the treatment even better. So all the violations that we had, well, since I've been here, really, other than the cold weather, is caused by the lack of available treatment at the plant because of those solids. So once we get these solids processed out, it's really going to improve the treatment there. And then we'll just be able to focus then on the equipment and maintenance over there that needs to be caught up with. Second, we have the 6th Street sewer line replacement that is also an ARPA-funded project that, depending on the rain and weather, that should be wrapping up by the end of next week. So that was definitely a much-needed repair. Other than that, everything is going pretty good. We've got a lot of work that we're getting done before the October deadline for the ARPA money, and we're on a projected path where we need to be there, so no concerns. Does anybody have any questions?

I saw Mr. Wood's hand first and then Mr. Williams.

Hi, John. How long is it going to take you guys to process all that sludge, do you think?

We got that reserved for three months.

Okay.

And so three months is what we have calculated out by the amount of solids inventory that's in the plant, and we do have an additional monthly fee to that. So, you know, right now we're tied in for three months on that, and if we need it additionally for a month afterwards, we have that option. Okay. But, you know, right now we expect that three months is going to be enough time to get it out of there. We've got a pretty big press. That's a pretty big operation getting ready to happen. So, you know, it's going to be there for the next three months for sure. So if any of you guys would like to see how that works, feel free to set up a meeting with Natasha or Chris, and I'll be glad to show you.

You know, John, you're like an all-pro offensive lineman. The less we hear your name, the better job you're doing.

So it's good not to talk to you quite a while. Right.

Mr. Williams.

Yeah, just a quick question on the status of the 24 coverage. Are we making any progress? Do we think we might have an estimate of when we can stop the 24-7 coverage?

You know, that's really still a decision between Chris and Natasha. You know, we still have some of those issues that creep up, and most of the time it's during the night. And it's odd that that happens, but the way that that plant's designed, you know, and I've kind of showed you on site with that headworks, being that that's pumped up to those tanks. If anything goes wrong there, you're at a risk of overflow. So me, I'm a little paranoid about it. You know, I don't really like doing the 24-hour shift. That's a lot to keep up with. But that's really their decision and I think they realize that that's a pretty big liability for the town that if another overflow occurs there. So I would really have to lean on them for that. Okay, thank you.

We'll be running both presses.

Yes. Yeah, I'm going to come see it. So this press is really more of a supplemental press. The other press will continue to get the solids out of the digester. This press is to get the solids out of the plant itself, you know, because I know a couple of years ago you all had received a quote to do that work for like one point to one point three million dollars. And we're doing it for around 250, 260, you know, 250,000. So, you know, that's a huge savings to the town to be able to do it in this manner to get it done without doing, you know, however they were going to do it. But no, so yes, two presses will be operating. One to keep up with the daily, you know, intake of sludge. And this one is to get all of that built up sludge from years past out of that plant.

And one before and after photos too.

All right. Okay.

And I'll definitely come see it. Yeah, it's pretty neat. Does it smell really bad? Not really. Well, it doesn't matter. It'll still come, but just wondering.

John, I don't know if you mentioned it, but last time you had mentioned clean-out issues are still at 40%. Has that changed? Say that again? The clean-out is still at 40%. You had mentioned something about that.

The clean-up?

Clean-out.

I'm not sure I know what you're talking about.

Okay.

You're talking about like sludge, cleaning the sludge out?

Right.

I don't I don't know where that 40 percent came from, but we're just getting started. OK, so it's still 100 percent of the solids built up in the plant. You know, now there were other tanks that were full. There was one EQ basin that was completely full of solids. And we process that process that through the plant. But that's taken way too much time. You know, it's we've been going at that for two years and we've barely touched it. So the supplemental press is absolutely the way to go.

Yeah, I was just referring to when you mentioned it back on. in March and nothing was mentioned again.

So I just wanted to go back to that on the 18th and not real sure the rest of the context to it. It's lots of things happening over there that could have went with anything.

Okay. She might mean the caps on the clean outs of people because then we do I and I project right around March.

So you're referring to, you know, we were, we were estimating the amount of I and I that's being caused by the clean-outs. Is that what you're talking about? I think that's what it was. Oh, okay. Yeah, that makes more sense. So, yeah, my estimate for that would probably be a little higher now.

Okay.

Yeah, because the majority of the I&I problem here is the clean-outs in everyone's yard. Not everybody, but a lot of people's yards. Okay. There is pipe replacements that need to take place. There's some lining that needs to be done. But every single time we do smoke testing, we find busted sewer caps. And that's the customer's responsibility to fix those. So if you come home and you've got a flag in your yard, that's what it's there for, is because that's identifying that we found smoke coming out of that cap. and even doing some of the camera work, there's some of these places that we've identified that has that water running in that cap that has done so much of it, you can see the nutrients and the stains inside the pipe when you do the camera work, the buildup of mud and stuff that washes in through those caps. So you can get a pretty good idea how long it's been like that.

Can we just order new caps for everybody and put them on?

I mean, putting the cap on is nothing but... That would be up to the council if they wanted to approve that cost. That would be... I don't know what it would cost, but that's pretty expensive in some places. Cause it's some of them aren't just caps. Some of it's where the pipes busted in the ground. Well, obviously that would be going to the next step, but some people have even made drains on top of it where they know they're draining their yard into these caps. And I mean, you'd have to go in there and dig up their structure that they've built and then fix it.

So yes, Mr. Williams.

should we consider some sort of finding system or something to enforce that? Cause it sounds like it's the big part of the water and sewer bill is that we've actually been working on, you know, some, some of that, some verbiage for that.

So yeah, I do believe it's going to come to where you are going to have to, you know, vote on something to enforce that. Okay.

Is that, have you seen that in other communities? Yeah. Yes. Okay. Thank you.

Chris, do you have anything to add? Anybody else?

All right.

We'll keep moving forward. Thank you. All right. Next up is a proclamation for national public works week. And our public works have been really hard at it recently. If you haven't seen every crew beach park, We played at Washington Avenue Park, I guess this was Monday or Tuesday, and the, or I don't know, it's not mulch. What do you call it? The engineered wood fiber. Much better, really appreciate it. My kid was trying to jump from the top of the slide down, so I appreciate the impact resistance of that. Okay, National Public Works Week. I did ask Kenny if he wanted to read it.

He likes it when I read it. Thanks, Kenny.

Whereas public works professionals focus on infrastructure, facilities, and services that are of vital importance to sustainable and resilient communities and to the public health, high quality of life, and well-being of the people of the town of Colonial Beach, and whereas these infrastructure, facilities, and services could not be provided without the dedicated efforts of public works professionals who are federally state and locally responsible for rebuilding, improving, and protecting our nation's transportation, water supply, water treatment, and solid waste systems, public buildings, and other structures and facilities essential for our citizens. Whereas public works professionals are first responders during natural disasters, and emergencies provided essential services that protect the health, safety, and comfort of our community. Whereas this year, 2026 marks the celebration of National Public Works Week, sponsored annually by the American Public Works Association, which emphasizes the importance of public works and community life, and now therefore be it resolved. that we, the town council, on behalf of the town of Colonial Beach, do hereby proclaim the week of May 17th through May 23rd as National Public Works Week in the town of Colonial Beach and urge all citizens and civic organizations to equate themselves with issues involving and providing public works and to recognize the contributions that public works professionals make every day to our health, safety, and quality of life. Witness hereof on this day, 20th day of May, 2026.

So, Public Works Week.

Great job guys, keep it up. Moving right along is our District 5 Supervisor and County Board Chair. Welcome Mr. Trivett.

Town Council, Madam Mayor, good to see you. Mr. Larson, thanks about mentioning the hazardous waste. The number one thing that goes to that is paint. And we all have paint and old paint. So when you have another one, if you got old paint, they take that. And that's the number one thing that they take a ton of it. So trash pickup is going to be around down Route 205 around the same time as you do the Chesapeake Bay litter cleanup. So that would be a good thing Mr. Beale advised us of. The architectural drawings. You brought up at our meeting for the new squad building that's still in the process. John's a little he's working on it. I'll put it that way. So we're hoping got a call out to him and about let's move along so we can see where we're going with this. So we hope maybe some good news will come pretty soon. We had four proclamations that we approved. EMS week, which was, you know, can't say enough about EMS people there. They're doing an outstanding job. And, you know, we're staying right on top of that, even in town. National Law Enforcement Week. Thank you, Chief. to you and your staff, outstanding. Mr. Stewart talked about that fraud after reading that proclamation and five detectives were involved in that. It's normally a federal case because it involved across state lines and wiretapping. It was in today's paper actually. I mean, you can't do enough education about that. AI generated a cashier's check into bank cash, and it was way, way over six figures. I'll just tell you that. It was thousands of dollars, even though Mr. Stewart didn't say how much it was. It was a substantial amount of money. And that young lady is in jail now in Northern Neck, and they recovered all the money, which is unheard of. But they got right on it, went to Florida. Unbelievable, but you got to be, I don't care what you do this day and time, you have got to really make sure you look at documents and you get second opinions that it's the real deal when you're dealing with anything, because that's a lawyer. And as they said, a law office in Rhode Island, $500,000 they got that law office for. So it's just something I think that we need to continue. And you all may do that in your citizen training or interaction when you have those meetings for the community. And it's something to stay right on top of. National Safe Boating Week, we did a proclamation for that. And if you don't know, most people die in boating accidents because they're not wearing a life jacket. And it's really sad to think that a lot of people could be saved if they had that life jacket on. But, I mean, I'm guilty. I don't wear one either. Most people don't wear them, but I hope you always have your children, one on them. And I fall right into this category for the last one. Maybe you don't, Madam Mayor, but the Older Americans Month. I know I'm not the only one. There's a few of us in here that fall into this category. And so we even get a month instead of a week. So we're pretty special if we're older. So and I do want to comment to Mr. Williams. He hasn't gotten a personal phone call from me yet because we still don't have a budget. No clue when we will have it. Hopefully by July one. You know, it's disappointing that we don't have it. We've done no work sessions yet for a budget, so I couldn't even tell you where it's at. But hopefully it's on its way, and we'll see. I do know I met with our auditor, and he said our revenue was better than our expenditures, which was good news for this year. But like I promised you, when I hear something, I'll give you a call and let you know. Guess what? It's Christmas. Or either it's going to be some other day that's not going to be very pleasant. Any questions for me from anybody? It was hot today.

Yeah, it was hot. And we need some rain.

We need rain. A lot of brush fires. And like you mentioned, the fire ban, there was a fire yesterday out by Pope's Creek out on Route 3. You know, we've gotten a lot of brush fire calls. Not supposed to be burning anything at all. And it's very, very dry, very hazardous conditions. So please don't burn anything and think it's okay because it just is not good. Anything else?

I do have a question. Does the burn ban include, like, gas grills and stuff, too? No. Okay.

No, I think it's if you burn any kind of debris or trash or anything like that. Now, I remember that question came up about these – these things that you have in your yard. Smokers. Wooden or whatever. No, the... Fire pit.

That you set around, whatever.

I don't have one, so... Yeah, and I think they even said those are included in that ban. They might not specifically say that, but... Right. You know, and I think if you have one, you have to have... It has to be covered or something, maybe with something. I don't remember. I remember when it came up last time. Haven't had any questions about it this time, but I think I called last time to see if that was included. Okay. But I wouldn't even do that because it's... it's extremely hazardous conditions right now and it's not fun to if you've never been to a brush fire it's the absolute worst thing that a firefighter ever wants to go to it's just not fun at all so say that you can thank you sir please do anything else thank you madam mayor okay thank you all right next up is dr atto

Welcome. Are you walking slow from all those graduation ceremonies and all that?

Well, good evening, Madam Mayor, council members, all those that are present tonight. Yes, last week was a busy week, but it's a great week. It's one of those weeks that you look forward to. as a school employee, even as a superintendent. But let me start. Mr. Trived has started, so I'm going to jump on the budget too, since he mentioned the budget. So far, currently, for the FY27 budget, the governor's biennium budget is still somewhere. WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT IS. WE ARE HOPING THAT IT IS RESOLVED, IT IS SIGNED, IT IS PASSED SOMETIME IN JUNE. IT DOESN'T RUN INTO JULY. SO LET'S CROSS OUR FINGERS FOR THAT BECAUSE IT HAS A HUGE IMPACT ON SCHOOL DIVISIONS. WHILE I'M THERE, I WILL MESH INTO everyone that even though the budget has not been passed, the General Assembly has been busy. This assembly, it was 271 or 79 education bills that was put forth, 150 bills that have been passed. and it's still continuing. So we have a busy time ahead of us in trying to make sure we meet whatever bills have been passed that will impact us greatly. I know I've communicated with the mayor and the town manager about the 1% school construction and renovation bill that was on the floor. It died. uh it didn't it didn't pass but it will probably come up again the indoor air quality bill the collective bargaining bill all of those did not pass committee so that that has been tabled what what our legal folks call maybe continued and they may pick it up again and it will come up maybe next year while I have your attention I want to put this in front of you we we know that our ADM has a lot to do with our funding for state and local and it looks like we will end up at probably 539 if you recall we we did a budget our FY 26 on 555 we We are closer to 555 more so than 539 due to we had about 10 seniors stop coming to school. They finished their requirements for graduation in December, so they get excluded from the March 30th. So that plays a big role. So therefore we approximate the local, what I call required local match, or I will say investment, to probably be around 3.2 million dollars. For the local government. I'll be remiss if I do not mention this. I did say that $3.2 million for the FY26 and I've shared this with all of you guys. in our two, four meetings and even in public that we are requesting that council seriously consider and make sure that we maintain This level funding for next year, which which looks like it's about 3.2 because it does have an impact on the school division in terms of programs and even staffing. So with that said that I will move into what most of you guys have mentioned earlier. Thank you Mr Lawson for your comments about the school division and Madam Mayor. The year was fantastic. It was magnificent. We had a wonderful year and I think our students did. a great job academically the results will come out soon but preliminary results indicates that our kids did very well so we are very proud of that also it was an exciting kindergarten graduation seventh grade moving on ceremony and the big daddy of them all their seniors graduation, their 2026 high school graduation. We want to congratulate all 43 seniors of the class of 2026. We do wish them the best in their next chapter of their lives. They are destined to They represent us well, I will say that, and do great things. I want to give a big shout out to our leaders on the school level, Mrs. Coates, and also Mr. Lush and their staff, because they did a fantastic job in those end of the year celebrations and activities. Everything ran smoothly, and I'm very proud to be working alongside them Thank you to our board members for their support and attending events so that kids can know that there are folks that are invested in them. Thank you, Town Council members, for your support, especially Madam Mayor and Mr. Tom Lawson. I did see your graduation. If I miss anyone else, I apologize. There was a lot of people in the gymnasium. So if I miss you, I apologize for that. I do want to give a big shout out to the Colonial Beach Baptist Church for hosting the baccalaureate for our kids. It was wonderful. Pastor Ed did a great job with that event. also i'd like to thank bam pta the athletic boosters for their generous support and dedication to our students and staff of the school division their commitment to our school community is truly appreciated a special thank you to ayla zaco olivia cook and zach papa nicholas hopefully they are watching or their parents are watching i want to give them a shout out because those were our school board liaisons all year long. They have done a fantastic job of representing the student body. Now to some capital improvements. We, at the end of the school year, we purchased a new bus and a weapons detection system at the elementary school, new card readers for all buildings, additional cameras, school board parking lot, new front entrance is underway to be completed in July. We've done quite a few this year and we're very proud of that. And you guys already have our three-year capital improvement plan that we'll continue to work on. And to close out my presentation, I will say with 100% certainty that Colonial Beach Public School is in a better place because of our wonderful, high-quality staff that we have. Our students are loved, they're cared for, AND AS THE MAYOR MENTIONED, AND I WILL MAKE A CORRECTION BECAUSE MS. REYNOLDS IS HERE. SHE'S GOING TO CORRECT ME. I KNOW SHE WAS SITTING BACK THERE. SHE'S LIKE, WELL, MAYBE WE NEED A CORRECTOR. IT'S NOT A GUIDANCE COUNSELOR. IT'S NOT A COUNSELOR. BUT MS. CAMPBELL IS OUR MAIN OFFICE RECEPTIONIST. SO WHAT YOU SAY EVEN WEIGHS EVEN MUCH MORE BECAUSE THEY SEE HER AS A MOM. AND SHE CUDDLES AND NURTURES ALL OF THE KIDS. at their high school. We love what we do, and absolutely we're going back for the kids because these kids are our future right now, what we've got to look forward to. In 10, 15, 20 years from now, these kids will be running our communities, our environment, and we want to make sure they're equipped with all the right tools to do so. With that, that's the end of my presentation. Do you have any questions for me?

No, that does make her even more impressive though. Yes. Okay. Yes, Mr. William.

I was just curious when I was the liaison, one of the things that one of the student body members mentioned was revamping the personal finance class. I was wondering if you had any updates on that. Is that in process? I think that's definitely important for our young people to know how to get out into the world without debt and be of savers and responsible.

Yes, absolutely. What... what she was referring to also was that we have a hybrid system. We have an in person, uh, instructional, uh, personally economic and personal finance and those that struggle to fit that class within their block. There's also a virtual option. So the virtual option is lacking some of those face-to-face, maybe speakers, bringing bankers in and so forth. And we want to move almost all of them into that face-to-face so they can have more hands-on. And I think we're trying to accomplish that. But sometimes it's challenging. So we're still working on that to make sure they're getting everything they need.

Okay.

Thank you.

Anybody else? Thank you. All right, moving forward, our next item is general public comment. During all public comment or hearings, we ask that certain guidelines be followed. When you get called up, just stand at the podium, and for the record, please state your name and your address. If you'd like to be contacted, please provide your contact information to the clerk. Make your comments to the council as a whole. Be brief, state your position, and provide facts. And you may provide written statements or any supporting materials to the clerk and still distribute them to the rest of the council and the town manager. Debate is prohibited. We're here to listen. Follow-up on comments is provided by the town manager, so that's why it's important to provide your information to the clerk. and speak clearly as we wanna hear what you have to say. So council will try to hear everyone who wishes to speak on a subject and comments are limited to five minutes. Time cannot be transferred to another speaker. If you represent a group, I do encourage you to identify any other members of your group and who are here in attendance. After public comment is closed, I also encourage you to stay as the council continues to engage in dialogue and deliberation on various agenda items subsequently to that. With that we will open public comment. I've got 6.56 p.m. Welcome, Mr. Long.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, town councillors. I must say I'm a little concerned to read that the public works celebration is only for one week. If old people like me are celebrated for a month, I think our public works department should be celebrated for the same amount of time. Let me... See if I can get through four things. I've said before that I don't think fees and service charges are the best way of raising funds for local government activities. They're a regressive form of taxation. Income taxes, property taxes are far more equitable. Clearly nothing to be done. tax period, the motions are in front of you, but I would ask you to consider equitable ways of raising the funds you need in future years as you consider your funding requirements. When we look at this Topic two, when we look at the funding for this year and the fact that you've been able to not increase the tax rates, Dr. Addo raised this, but that has really happened because of the $265,000 that you are not budgeting for paying to the school operating fund. was going to make some joke about birth rates or something like that. But to be serious, you will need to consider whether that's going to apply in future years, and if not, what actions you're going to take, both to ensure that we have an effectively funded school division here and how you raise the funds you need to keep the town in the condition it's in and improve things. my third comment was about closed meetings you have three items 13 a b and c on your agenda tonight and i always find it frustrating not to know the topic that you're discussing i would congratulate the county mr trivett and his team for actually when they get to close meetings announcing who they're discussing with things and what the general topic is in those instances that they can do it. A couple of examples over the past year were closed meetings they had about the situation in waste disposal and the refuse center and what was going on there, and custom team motorsports. and they announced what they were talking about. They were being not detailed transparent about what's going on, not saying what those discussions were. They clearly needed to be in closed session, but they did give the general public an idea of those topics that they were having to discuss in closed session, and it creates a transparency to the general public of the work that you're doing. I'm not suggesting anything's wrong with that, just hoping that where you feel you can, that you share with all of us what it is you need to discuss. And that perhaps brings me on because maybe the development on what's called the Lenar site is one of the items you're planning to discuss. And I see Mr. Dugan's memorandum to Ms. Tucker and the town council where he says that Lenar is ready to move forward on the development of the CDA district. Well, you know that that will be an enormous potential impact for the town in future years and decades, not something that's going to happen today and tomorrow. It may indeed be something that is, again, a pipe dream on the path to those developers. but do please keep us all informed. We will want to make decisions about the best way that the town should grow, will grow, under the rights that the law has. And I would point out to the general public that there is a whole section of our zoning regulations for a planned unit development, which they may want to consider if they're wanting to look at how that land could perhaps be used in the future. Good luck. Thank you.

Next up is Mr. Michael Whelan.

Good evening.

Aloha. Aloha. It's been a while since I've been here. I used to be semi-regular, coming to every other meeting, and probably been a year since I've been here. But my heart's here. And I see some really incredible people that have gathered here in the meantime. Thanks to you new members, I haven't talked to you for a while. And I come on a couple levels here. Mostly, I want to make some suggestions. I want to make a stand for small business. And I like to make it clear that we rely on you folks. You guys are leaders of our community. And most of you are doing a hell of a damn good job. And we need, we citizens, need to enforce that good job. We need to speak up, as well as we need to support you. You guys are on board, you're doing most of this for love, and I'm incredibly grateful. We've had some huge additions here. I've been coming to Colonial Beach for 12 years, attempting to make a living here for five. It's been a challenge, and I'll share that with you in a moment. But we've made some great strides. I remember having a need for a community development person. We found a sharp one. And I remember the Parks and Rec Department floundering and some issues with that. And we got a really good guy now running the show. And what you guys have done with economic development, Charlotte, oh my gosh, what a bright light. So folks, yeah, keep going. And that's what I feel that we have a responsibility as citizens to help guide you, encourage you, and enforce what we love to see continue to improve with Colonial Beach. So I have a question for y'all. What's the town of Colonial Beach's greatest asset? Is it our crystal clear waters that are beaming with tropical fish? Sometimes teeming with bacteria and we can't swim in those waters. Sorry, I'm not here to be crass. Is it our beautiful powdered sand beach that's now mostly imported sand that I have more than one visitor telling me every summer it cuts their kids' feet? What could it be? It's the people. It's the people, especially the people that want to be a part of this growth and encourage our visitors to have a great positive experience. And I'm here to encourage the council and talk a little bit about, I hope that we can come to some grips about making some changes to some of our ordinances. But I feel that we all have the opportunity, if you will, sorry, I'm from Hawaii, so I kinda lean towards what I know. But I tell ya, being a comer is a good thing. I'm not denouncing anybody who's from another place. Sometimes those comers come with a different perspective. Because they've endured what they've endured. They've experienced what they've experienced, right? And they can bring it to a new locale, and it can really benefit the locals and our population and our growth and our vision. That's why I'm encouraged with our economic development side. There's been some prophets in the past that have spoke up that have been kind of denounced. I don't see them here anymore. They used to be here all the time. Sorry, again, this is not... Addressing the situation, it's saying, let's enable the people, you folks that are making these decisions, and let's all be on the same team, right? So I feel that it's the council's responsibility to make people's experience here a positive one, and especially small business. It's tough, it's really tough to make a living here, trying to do it for five years, especially in the winter. I attended the chamber breakfast last week, that was really awesome, the guest combination of the town and the Chamber of Commerce putting that on, and it was great to see people and interact and see the community that we have, which is really strong. And at the end, they gave out T-shirts, It said on the back of the t-shirt that Colonial Beats loves small business. Well, I apologize, but I have to differ with that. It has not been my personal experience. Having been here five years, really trying to make it, hired over 15 high school kids, a couple of my own grandkids.

Pretty much worked for free for my first four seasons.

Almost got a niche last year, but that changed. It's tough. It's very tough to make a living here. And so, you know, invested over half a million dollars. I'm here to stay. Yeah, have I thought more than twice? Should I have maybe gone to another locale?

I have. But I'm here.

And here's my point. It's really simple. I believe that you counsel. Am I being gonged?

Yeah, we have to keep the same rules for everyone.

Okay, well, I honor that. But I hope that you guys will include some of the ideas I have.

Mr. Whelan, thank you very much, but I'm going to enforce an equal.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Next is Mr. Wilmot.

Good evening, Will Knuckles, 24 Monroe Bay Avenue. I thought I didn't have much tonight, but y'all have brought up a lot of things. So, well, let's start with the sand. We brought that up, right? I'm going to keep beating this drum until somebody actually listens about this. So, we continue to make basic engineering mistakes and wasting money perpetually, it seems, on the approaches that we continue to do with how we're handling what y'all are calling beach renaissance and revetment enhancements, right? So if I had been judging all, like if you were back at the Naval Academy and I was judging all as a class, like I'd done in the past, right? I would say like, I would just give you a bad grade and you would probably still trip over the line, right? And still graduate, right? But your grade would go down. In this case, it's not something as trivial as like what's on paper, right? It's the money of everybody that's in this room, everybody that's watching online and everybody in town who has no idea what you're up to. But when you continue to consent to bad engineering practices that waste money, you're kind of complicit in the problem, right? So I don't know how you're going to get schooled up on this and try to stop making these continued mistakes, but at some point you've got to stop bleeding the public just because you're making the same mistakes each year, right? It's just not fair to the people who live here. Speaking of the beaches, Memorial Day is coming up, right? One of the kickoffs to the big part of the town, right, where the town really gets going and it's beach season and we're getting lots of tourists and hopefully filling our restaurants and packing those – piggy banks that everybody talks about that we need to have lots of money in the summertime to make it through the lean winter months. I really hope you consider taking on a resolution to notify the public the moment that you notify the state anytime that there's a significant violation. This has happened that we've had significant delays and moderate delays between when you notify the state because the town has been doing the right thing in terms of the law. It tells the state when it screws up. It just doesn't tell the people that live here. It doesn't tell our visitors. So while mistakes are going to happen in the future, if people knew that, well, as soon as a mistake happened, like you know about it, right, it would give some sense of feeling that the town has your interest as opposed to, well, we're going to tell the state, but we're going to actually make sure that we don't tell the people that live here or our visitors in a timely manner, right? It's the same process. You're already doing the notification with the state. Just let the public know at the exact same time. It's gonna have to come as a resolution from y'all. I know that you just already said like, well, I hope that people will do this, but we saw after the first major spill, it didn't happen in the second major spill, right? So that should tell you something. Third, the operating cost thing about having to operate 24-7, that was originally going to be, what, a three-month, I think, sort of Band-Aid where they said they had to have extra staff. Now we've gone from three months to infinity. That's a big cost swing. I don't know if that's even accounted for in the way you're doing this, right? But it seems to me that if that's sort of in perpetuity, you might actually want to look at hiring some qualified people actually work for the town, right? Because it doesn't seem like having to pay not only for the services, but the profit of the companies that are providing these services is in the public interest. Utility cost structures. There was a soliloquy at the end of one of the last meetings about the fact that we only have two choices in the universe, right? We can do metered rates, or we can do sort of a flat rate structure where people just pay one thing. This is a gross misunderstanding of how utility structures are done. There's a wide variety. It's not an infinite variety, right? But there's probably at least a half dozen, right? So you can do sort of like block tiers, you can do linear tiers, you can do seasonal approaches even, you know, if you're trying to do things. But all these sort of relate back to, and all you got to do is go on the EPA website, right? None of this is hidden. None of this is rocket science. To get to the basics of this is to look up the fact that you're not dealing with an A or B binary choice here. There's a range of options. And I think that that speech that happened last time sort of grossly mischaracterized what you could be doing as a body. And I hope you'll do some homework on that before you make more decisions on that topic. waivers that relate to things that are provided in town, which seems to be somewhat inconsistent. I have no idea what the bottom line total impact on this is. Doesn't seem that y'all have to know what the total impact on this is. I hope you'll do that as a resolution. Also call for a full reporting and accounting of all the waivers that are happening because a waiver isn't just that like, oh, the cost went down. The waiver is a cost shift to where it goes from one entity to the public in general, right? So we need to understand the scale of that and make sure you're covering that. The Lenar property face was great. I was just appalled with the lack of transparency, seeing there's something called 12A, hire a lawyer, and then you go to tab E, so 12A to tab E to find out what's going on. in the town that would dramatically and potentially irreversibly affect the future of the town. That's an alarming way to sort of try and back gore your way into this. It makes you look bad. It makes the public confused. It makes the rumor mill sort of take off out of control. None of that's healthy, right? And the engagement the way you're talking about, that also sort of isn't a binary thing. If you need counsel, you should be about actually authorizing the search for counsel. the team that you're talking about doing, look, you're going up against a $22 billion corporation, right? So kind of the local folks being the option, you should really rethink that. And Nigel was on track, by the way.

There's no one else signed up. Would anybody else like to come up? Yeah, come on up. I open it up to everybody.

Good evening. I honestly wasn't sure if I was going to speak this evening. Um, my name is Veronica Redinger. Many of you know me as Veronica Reynolds. I just changed my name back to my maiden name. Um, I live at 95 Leah road colonial beach. I'll just be open and honest. That is Placid Bay and I am a come here. Uh, I am speaking to you tonight though, um, as the high school English teacher for the past 28 years. Um, so I am speaking on behalf of the school. Um, In my 28 years, we have definitely had some ups and downs. We've had years where we really struggled. We've had years that we've excelled. And of course, everybody knows that COVID, I know we can't just keep talking about COVID over and over and over again, but The truth is you've got kids that started pre-K and kindergarten during COVID. We are going to see the COVID repercussions for a long time. It's going to be beyond when I retire. But I can say that we have made tremendous growth in recent years. We've got fantastic leadership. We've been able to get fantastic faculty. even being creative and getting our teachers from the Philippines and so forth. Ironically, some of the financial issue is because we had kids that were so far excelled that they ended up graduating early and weren't counted in the numbers. And when you only have graduating classes of 43, a dozen or so makes a huge difference. So I am here not to ask for more money, just to ask that you support the idea of maintaining the funding that you have done so far. And I also want to express my gratitude toward you as well as the town for all of the support that you've given and continue to give to our students. I can't remember a time when the gym was as packed as it was the other day. And that wasn't necessarily our biggest class either. It's not like, oh, we had 60 kids. It makes sense. That place was packed. And I'm guessing Dr. Addo probably has the dollar figures. But when you think about the scholarships that were given, you know, this town is pretty amazing. And I hope that you all will continue to support the school. Thanks.

Thank you. Still open? Anybody else? Okay. All right. With that, we will close public comment. It is 7.15 p.m. And I'm going to take a 10-minute recess from there so everybody can stretch their legs for a second before we get into the rest. All right, and we're back. We should have commercials play in between for small town business. All right, back in session, 7.26 p.m. for the record. And next up is resolution 20-26, adoption of the capital improvement plan. And Angela, I'll let you take it away from here.

Sure, you saw the presentation at the last meeting and had the public hearing. Next. But a few revisions were requested, so I'll just review those. These will be included once you vote. These will be included in the plan that is published. The first was a request by council to add a placeholder for bicycle, pedestrian, and traffic safety study. Were you speaking of Vision Zero program or a different?

No, that's it.

It's a data-driven strategy to increase safe, healthy, and equitable mobility for all. We do not have an idea of the funding, and we don't believe, unless Council says otherwise, that we'll get a grant by this fiscal year. So I am anticipating putting it in for FY28 for $300,000 for the first phase, which would be the study. Of course, we can refine that in the next year and bring it forward for FY28 next year. So that will increase the general fund five year plan will increase by 300,000 in the CIP. We will look for grant funding and phase two implementation will be determined by phase one recommendations. Any comments or questions on that one? Okay, next.

Oh, sorry.

the um is it i guess it might be for natasha is the is there a high likelihood of getting grants on these things i know you went through the classes we don't know when i took the um class they just really indicated that these were very um lost my train of thought the grants they're very well

very competitive. They're very competitive. But if we submit a good action plan, we do stand a good likelihood of receiving grant funding just as any other locality.

And also, we had mentioned Castlewood in there. Did you? Is that in the comments somewhere?

Um, I just kept it general for this point of view.

Um, what would you, what would counsel like it to, so as part of the grant application, we have to identify different projects and Castlewood could be one of the projects that we identify in addition to say, um, streets as well and sidewalks.

Okay.

I have one question related to it too. Should it say, specifically say safe streets for all somewhere in the item? Because oftentimes when you are applying for the grant, you kind of have to align the, you know, things like the CIP and the public process of a CIP with the actual grant language. So if it says SS4A with Safe Streets for All, it would align to the Federal Department of Transportation, you know, application that we're going to have to check boxes off. And so I just want to make sure those dots are connected.

I've added that to my notes.

Okay. Yeah.

Although I think we want to be careful not to exclude ourselves from other grant programs. No, you're right.

Yeah, I can see both ways, but you're just somewhere kind of making sure it's...

We will add, so that will add a worksheet as the other programs have and then put it unless there's a suggestion otherwise in FY28. The other revisions are the Dwight Avenue extension. We have updated numbers and so what you see there would be We had 1.2 million for a grant, and actually that was for the project. So what you see on the slide is the accurate numbers, 654,598 and FY27. These are 50-50 match grants, so they're equal. And 30, it's 5,046, 215 divided by half for each. and then although this plan only goes through fy 31 because a cip is a five-year program we wanted to be completely transparent and put what the construction phase of this project would would be and that's um over three million dollars so half and half would be 1.5 million and also this is

something that we could apply in the safe streets for all kind of aspect of things.

Okay. Okay. Yeah. And, um, and so we'll revise a worksheet and add that FY 32 to the text, but, um, not to the total figures for this plan. And then items 21, 22, 23, the wastewater treatment plan, plant repairs, and I, and I will be finishing the ARPA grant, um, during FY27, so all of those numbers have been changed to grant funds. So if you go to the next slide, Heather. So the total breakdown, Grant program opportunities vary from year to year, and it's really hard to project more than one year out where you might get some grant funding. So I know the request was made to break down grant versus town funding, so I did that for FY27. We just don't know what the grant programs are gonna look like in the coming years, and this plan gets updated every year. So FY27, Anticipated grant funding for the general fund projects is just over $1.2 million. Anticipated town funding would be $1.3. So about 50% of our capital improvements in the general fund will be funded by grants. The water and sewer projects, the utility fund, is almost all grants next year, 1.2 million. And that's those leftover ARPA funds with the consent projects and consent order projects. And the town would be contributing 80,000. And so the actual program total cost has changed a little bit because we adjusted, as I said, a couple of those projects, Dwight Avenue in particular. Does that satisfy what you were hoping to see in terms of grant versus town funding?

I think I made that request. I'm satisfied if the rest of the council is. Thank you.

And we will add that, and I've already told planning commission, we'll add that next year and break it down a little bit more and give you more detail year by year.

Ms. Sanford? I've worked with grants before. I think there are some reoccurring grants that happen like every year that we could make a list of, I mean, grants. I know there are some that pop up every now and then, but there are like the yearly ones that have, that we should be looking at, like,

There are annual grants and annual grant cycles. We don't know from year to year which ones are actually going to get funded by the federal government or the state government. Most of the grants we go for are federal funds that are passed through the state or state funds. And so it's hard to say even though they keep those in place. Some grants are every other year. But I can go through and try to estimate the grants if the department had that information.

I think the one year projection is very helpful and I think always being hopeful that the remainder of The projects are also received such grant support. I mean, 50% of your capital improvements being grant funded is pretty remarkable. So I hope that's the case. Let's make it 70% though next year, right? We'll just set the goalposts.

This is an exceptional year, especially for the water sewer projects, unless you want to have the same situation you've had before. No, we won't repeat that. And same with that one, almost all of the 1.2% uh million is the a lot of that is dwight avenue and some of the other bigger projects that aren't going to come along every year these are these plant just to give you an idea how long's the dwight avenue project been it's been several years since that was awarded and we're just going to get to it next year in the first phase i want to say that started somewhere around late 2020 ish yeah But we are gonna try.

2015, we don't know. No, it has been some years, and hopefully we'll get more like that, though. So that's a pretty big grant.

Madam Mayor, I move we adopt the Colonial Beach CIP for fiscal 2027.

Okay, with the amendments as presented by Angela, by Planning and Zoning. Okay, is there a second to that?

Second.

All right, is there further discussion to adopting this plan Yes, Mr. Williams.

Just final comments. I'm not super excited about it. It's very hard for me to follow. And if it's hard for me to follow, it's probably hard for staff to follow. It's just so much in here. I think I'll support it just with the caveat that we're going to have a special meeting later in the summer to kind of prioritize things. Maybe that'll help give staff a little clearer direction. But other than that, I don't really have a whole lot to add. It's just a lot of money in here, a lot of projects. I don't see a whole lot of focus, but that's just my observation. So that's about all I got to say.

Anybody else? All right, I'll do a roll call vote. Grandstaff?

Aye. Aye.

Sanford? Aye. Allison? Aye. Wood? Aye. Larson? Aye. Williams? Aye. And our vote aye. And I think we have it tentatively set the prioritization meeting July.

I thought we had discussed moving it to August.

Yeah.

July or August. They want it as soon as possible. So if we but if you'd rather do August, I'm open minded. August work session.

We can do that. That would work.

Why push it? Yeah. I don't care. Well, either way. Well, we'll pull council members in an email and see which one works better for everybody. Does that sound good?

Yep. Okay.

Okay. All right. Well, let's work. We'll work on the date, but yes, it's in the works to get scheduled. All right, Ordinance 782 amends the Town of Colonial Beach code for water and sewer by increasing the residential flat water and sewer rate, and then the subsequent one will be the commercial water and sewer rate. So we do have to move on them separately. I just want to make sure people didn't think there was only the residential rate and not the commercial rate or that one was excluded. It's just, there are two separate motions.

I'd like to make a motion. Yes. I'd like to make a motion that we postpone a vote on this to have a discussion at our next work session where we can kind of go through the general fund budget to see if we can find ways to cut back on the increase for the water and sewer.

So the motion is to postpone the vote to supplement it with funds from general fund.

to hold a special the next not a special meeting, but the next work session we can have a deeper discussion on the overall budget and the implications of this and.

OK, is there a second to that motion?

Second.

Okay, is there any further discussion to that? There's a motion on the table. Yes, Mr. Wood.

We've gone through this in excruciating detail. I mean, realistically, what we're talking about is vote up or down. I mean, there are principled ideas either way, but it's not as if we've had insufficient information on which to make a decision. So I would hope that... We get to a vote on this, on the resolution, vote it up or down, and then after that, assuming that it's voted down, we have another resolution to take it as it's written, if that makes sense.

OK. After my meeting with the time manager today, I guess you're going to be bringing up some MOUs that have been happening at the next council meeting. So I think once we get that information, we can kind of move forward, but until then, I just don't know about it.

Can we get further clarification on what she's talking about?

So coming up on a previous council meeting is going to be a discussion on dots and MOUs that, uh, phases three a and three B that have already been approved and signed. Um, I guess this goes around. some economic incentives and such but those mous have no bearing on what's on the agenda for tonight so they wouldn't add very much value or context to the decisions that's been asked for tonight they're not going to change the budget is what you're saying

Okay.

And I think what Rick's point, let's go ahead and vote on the resolution as it was suggested.

Well, we do have a motion on the table, so yeah, that's what I meant. Order of procedure. And then, uh, we'll see where that goes. Correct. Okay. Yes. Mr. Williams.

One more quick comment. Um, We've heard from a lot of citizens. People are really worried about the increase, so I'm trying to find ways to maybe help lighten that a little bit for them. I realize that we're in a tight spot. There are potential ways we could go through the general fund budget to find some one-time stopgap funds so we can get things straightened out in the coming months but that's mainly the reason why i suggested this and we'll vote and see where it falls okay if we're talking about one-time funds wouldn't it make more sense to pull it out out of our reserves rather than trying to pull it out of our general fund i mean it's a discussion that's definitely part of the discussion we can have

But didn't you specifically say that you wanted to pull it out of the general fund and your amendment?

No, go through the general fund budget.

To fund the sewer, water and sewer, correct? Correct. So we have a balanced budget out of the general fund and you want to look at that to make changes rather than pulling out of our reserve funds that would make it all balanced. Is that correct?

Well, I didn't know that that was an option, the reserve funds.

We've done that in the past.

Um, okay. I do want to bring up the fact that we have instituted some additional financial policies and I think, um, pulling from a general fund to an enterprise fund, which is what water and sewer is, where it has to stay maintained balance on the people that it supports is against our financial policy. So if we want to have an issue with audit, we might be a little bit concerned about that. Yes.

I did some research on the general fund loaning, and it is a loan, to utilities. I contacted my network in the GFOA regarding best practices, and if the general fund was to provide assistance to the proprietary funds or utility funds, it would have to be paid back.

So it's creating a loan within our own system?

Correct.

What's the time frame for the payback? Are there guidelines on that?

That would be up to our town council. For 17 bucks. For 17 bucks.

Okay, I do think in June we already have a pretty robust agenda moving on from this and on to many other items, I would say, including some of the capital improvement items, just so that you have a heads up and an outlook for that. We have a lot more business to do. As a town so I don't want to get behind on those things because they do add up quickly especially as we enter the summer months and only have Some we don't have two meetings in July and things like that. So so I make sure we don't get backlogged in anything All right, is there any more public comment or council comment from this, for this vote? All right, we'll take it from grand staff side, Lisa.

Okay, my disclaimer will be that since we increased it back in May of 2020, May of 2025, I vote no.

Okay, this is for creating the work session.

This is for Mr. Williams.

Move this to.

oh okay thanks for the clarity there were so many motions but thank you okay okay i'll go ahead and vote tonight okay

so that's a vote yes okay mr allison no okay mr wood no okay mr larson no okay mr williams hi okay and i vote it doesn't matter but um no we'll move on with the vote for is there a motion for the Uh, council action as written for ordinance seven 82.

Yes. That's a motion. I made it first.

You haven't made it. Oh, I'm sorry. That's right. Would you like to make it?

Yes. I so move. Forgive me.

There we go. Is there a second?

Second.

All right. Further discussion on this.

Just for clarification, this is to raise the water and sewer rates to what for 421 quarter.

What's the 422 56 422 56 for water and 109 448 for sewer annually. I don't know that the quarterly rates are in the ordinance because we've been presented with that multiple times at this point.

You want the quarterly amount?

2341. Yes. 2341 is the total increase. That's what we're voting for. Okay. Quarter. Gotcha.

Thank you.

2341. Is there any more discussion on that? Okay, Mr. Wood? Aye. From your side. Mr. Larson? Aye. Mr. Williams?

Nay.

Ms. Grandstaff?

Nay.

Ms. Sanford? Nay. Mr. Allison?

Aye.

And I vote aye. And hopefully this is the last year we have to do that for a while. That would be really. Yeah. Okay. Now they're not happy. Nobody's happy.

All right. Ordinance 783 Amendment of the Town of Plenty Beach.

Code of Ordinances Chapter 21 Water and Sewer. This is a commercial flat rate water and sewer fees. Do we want to just move to a motion for it to still move it? Is there a second to that?

Second.

Okay. Discussion on the commercial side. So the residential side has passed at this point. This is just the commercial side. Is there any further discussion on the commercial side? Yes, Mr. Williams.

Just the same feeling as the residential. That's all.

All right, I'll do a roll call vote again. Ms. Grandstaff? Nay. All right, Ms. Sanford? Nay. Mr. Allison?

Aye.

Mr. Wood? Aye. Mr. Larson? Aye. Mr. Williams?

Nay.

And I vote aye. All right, next up is the town budget and the school board budget.

um resolution 21-26 adoption and appropriation of fiscal year 2027 budget adoption appropriation of the 2027 budget for the columbia beach school board and the town of columbia beach and we had a presentation and we we did this presentation at the work session so i'm going to run through this kind of quick we're now in the budget process of adopting the budget heather next slide please Next slide. And one more, please. Just want to go over the impacts we had. Healthcare costs went up 10.8. Dominion Power costs 15%. The 911 costs, we're still waiting on the county, but we have an estimate of 114,000. We gave an extra twenty five thousand to the volunteer fire department and just overall Inflation our cost of goods and services continue to rise and our revenue is not keeping pace Next slide just again shows you where the revenue comes from the next slide where it's expended On the general fund, just want to, the bottom line, we balanced the general fund this year with no tax increases. We did that through some deferrals of staff and the only thing we added was one part-time position and a 3% COLA for our employees. Tax rates are gonna, next slide. How's your tax rate? There's no change. Next slide, Heather. Moving on the water sewer, we made additional cuts in both those budgets. Um, to bring those rates to where we have them at, they were a lot higher at the beginning. Can we just kind of run through the next slides?

I don't know.

Uh, the bottom line is a 1.8%, um, increase in the water rate and an 8.5% increase in the sewer rate. And we just, um, passed those resolutions. Um, is there any more questions on this?

Can we make sure we stay on general fund? I mean, we just did this and since that's now I would have thought that would have been, you know, presented before the, so I don't want anybody to be confused out there. Yeah.

What did you want to see the general fund?

We are voting on the general fund.

They're all in the resolution.

Oh, they're all in it.

Yes, ma'am. It's total budget.

Okay. So the water set or the setting, and now this is the total thing. Yes. All right. That makes more sense.

Yes.

All right. The whole can go little Lisa says all of it together.

Yes, I see the resolution has your general fund, your school board, and your water and sewer funds on there also.

Okay, I just didn't say that at the top of the title of it. All right. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second?

Second.

Is there discussion? Yes, Mr. Williams.

Just a general comment. I've been on council voting on budgets for five years now, and pretty much every year we hear the same thing. Revenues are not keeping up pace with expenses, so just want to urge the town staff and council to really take note of that at some point because we're pricing our citizens out of this town, so we gotta figure out a way to get that under control. I do have some ideas, things I'm working on to try to figure out possible resolution to rein in any kind of discounts for builders and also to make sure that All residential properties are paying for water and sewer bills. And so my general comment is I just want to make sure that we find ways to get this under control and hopefully stop the increases. I will support the budget just because it's balanced. Like I said, I want us to urge us to look at this in the future.

I look forward to working together with you on that. um all right anybody else i will say it's worth noting that the school budget in from the town side is a decrease this year and that's a big reason why the balance budget is balanced that's you heard some about that we've been talking about it um As a drifter and as somebody who avidly supports our school system, I think it's important to note why I will also support this budget, as balanced as it is, because the increase in the school funding mandated from the state has been increasing at a substantially massive rate, a rate that is unsustainable for our residents. It was half a million dollars in one year prior. And when people talk about their tax taxes going up and fees going up and where's all this money coming from and outpricing our own citizens, um, finding a half a million dollars in a small town budget is no easy thing. And oftentimes these increases at the school level have come at a cost to other town services, cutting public works budgets, cutting other department budgets, cutting other staff members, cutting economic development or other things that could be producing revenue, hopefully as well. I really support the school, and I do know that they need to fund a full and robust budget to support our kids. But it has been multiple years of that happening. And the town used to budget for the school $1.8 million a year for many years. And it is now $3 million a year. And that is a state mandate. So it's going from 3.2 this last year down to 3 million. So there is a cut in the school budget by a little over $200,000. Um, it was about $500,000. I think some of the ADM numbers came in, but it is a cut to school budget. And I don't want to pretend like I don't see that or know that we have talked about in the past. Um, but also it's been unsustainable at the rate of the school funding has increased as well. And I know what a burden that's put on all of our other students. So it's a balance in the job and you have to consider all the pieces. So I just wanted to have a moment to acknowledge that.

Madam Mayor, I'd also like to point out that as those ADM numbers come through, like Dr. Otto said, at the end of the year, those numbers did decrease from the original. There's nothing to say that these ADM numbers could change going into next year. We're just trying to make a balanced budget on what information we have available today. we could get you know 20 30 more kids with the amount of houses that have been built within the last six months to a year where people may move here with children that go to the school so yes we are saving money this time but more than likely it's going to go up yeah i know it's that as well yeah good point

All right. Further discussion on the budget. All right. I'll start with Woodside. Mr. Wood. Hi. Mr. Larson. Hi. Mr. Williams. Hi. Ms. Grandstaff. Hi. Ms. Sanford. Hi. Mr. Allison.

Hi.

And I vote aye. All right. Retainer agreement with the attorney firm of Sands Anderson. Are you walking us in through this?

yes let me let me go through it i seems to be some confusion about what we're doing tonight so i wanted to give you some background um lenore has about 490 acres across from wilkerson they had it zoned under a pud so there's zoning but nothing has happened for almost 20 years so i'm sure they're going to be some zoning issues to be addressed by planning and community development. Nothing has been filed with zoning yet as to building any units. The only plans we have were there are some potential plans before that had a golf course on there and some units, but it wasn't much to it. They got a long ways to go on that. putting before you Lennar's whole development tonight. This only, I don't know why I'm hoarse tonight, but this only has to do with financing. And so let me give you the history. In 2007, the town established the Development Authority and also the development district for the 490 acres. And that was passed by council and included council members as members of the authority and included some others from Lennar. Based on the documents from them, there's a set way of determining who's on the board of that authority. That authority is still in existence with State Corporation Commission, but it has no directors shown. Richard Stewart is shown as a registered agent. So that is still around, but that would need to be built up again. What the issue before you is about concerns financing. Lenora went through all this process in 2007 to establish a tool where it could finance this property more cheaply and give benefits to the town. The idea was that Lenora would be able to sell bonds through this development authority with the town's backing. And the people who bought the bonds, these would be taxes and bonds, so the people buying the bonds would not have to pay tax on the interest, which results in a lower interest rate for Lennar. Out of that, it was proposed that the town would get about 10% of the net loan proceeds, which at that time could have been a million dollars. That may be the figure we're working with. We don't know that for sure. That was in 2007. In 2008, many of you remember we had a real estate crash, and nobody was building homes anymore. The interest rates, loans were being called, and so everything stopped. What Lenore is doing now is wishing to go back to where it was with the CDA and look at financing and get this started again. So that's what I meant by they're ready to move forward. Still got a long ways to go for the zoning and before they build any residence on the lots.

So...

I can tell you what I believe this involves with the financing, try to set that out. I haven't had any direct experience with this financing. I have had experience with financing for the hospital I represented for years with several bond issues. And I think it's probably similar to that. So basically what you do is you have an authority established With my old client, it was the IDA that was established to do this. With this, it's a development authority. The borrower will pay less. The town would benefit because part of this financing apparently involves 10% back to the town. I don't know if that 10% is set or not. I don't know if that's something that can be negotiated. based on that on what I heard from in a meeting with Lenore and their attorney. The documents with this stuff can be very voluminous because you have to issue bonds and you got to establish the underwriting all the requirements and due diligence and all the attorneys have to issue opinions saying that the investors can rely on these bonds and so forth. that this is a legitimate transaction and everything was properly executed. The reason for specialized counsel with this is what I can do is I can review documents that they have. Where needed, I can go back and forth with their attorney out of Maryland. I can give a legal opinion as to everything being valid, and I'm sure they'll ask for that. What I don't know is how this type of financing works. What I don't know is the rules of the CDA and the town of this, and whether the town can just say no. You know, they did this in 2007. We don't want to have this financing available. So an ARQ on a build, you have to go somewhere else. I don't know if that's an option or not. That may be, but. And, you know, I don't have the background to, spot tricky provisions in the documents. I mean, I can spot regular contract problems in documents, but there may be something specific to this where something can be snuck in that could be important. And So that's a reason for it. Now, what's before you is to retain Sands Anderson, and they have been involved in bond financing in the past for the town. They were here, as you recall, when we were thinking about borrowing money for the capital improvements. We didn't need to use that, so they didn't play an active role. They are experienced with this and their rates are reasonable. If you were to go to a big firm in Richmond, like one of the big firms, like what used to be Hunt and Williams, their rates would probably be twice of what Lennar's would be for providing the same service. Yes, Ann Sanderson, sorry. Yeah, Lenore's going to provide the attorneys. So that's what's before you. Your options are, you know, you don't hire an attorney at all. I mean, hire another attorney or firm. And now the fiscal impact of this is ideally... these fees will be paid out of the financing we proceed with the financing so that will the fees for colonial beach's attorney maybe i can put some of mine in there to be reimbursed um will be paid out of the the financing probably the fees of the baltimore attorneys will be paid out of the financing but they would end up paying like 90% of ours and we end up paying 10% of ours and theirs because we get 10% out of this. So I don't have a recommendation, but I think this is an area where outside counsel would be helpful.

All right. Is there a motion to approve retaining sans Anderson?

So moved.

Is there a second to that? All right. Is there any discussion on this item?

Yes, Mr. Ryan. First question is, is Sands Anderson the one that used to provide our contract attorneys, like Vivian Seagiles and others? Okay. And my only concern is just we're only presented with one option. I would feel more comfortable because this is a major decision with potentially huge implications. I know that the public has come to me numerous times complaining about deals that we've made in the past with developments like the taylor street in north irving the meadows where we didn't get the roads paved like we were supposed to we didn't get the ladder truck we were supposed to get um so maybe some of the people might say some of the dots and stuff but I just would feel more comfortable if I had more than one option and maybe even had an attorney come and present what they do and how they would represent us in their experience in this area.

If I could respond to that. This is just about the financing. It's not about the zoning. It's not about the development of the property. It's just about the financing of the property, making sure everything is done right with all the paperwork and everything for the financing. Your concerns really wouldn't apply to the financing, I don't believe. And also, you know, in Virginia, you don't have to have, there's a specific statute that says you don't have to get multiple bids for attorney work. So.

I understand. It just definitely makes me nervous. Financing is probably the biggest piece of all this. And I know bonds are, you know, can be risky and there's definitely some, Factors that I have no clue about some definitely makes me nervous, but I do understand what you're saying. Thank you

Is it possible, because per you, Powell, you were saying you don't know if the town can say no, you would have to confirm if we're getting 10%. So with certain questions, we need to get clarity on that. Is it something that we can go back to get the certain answers that you don't know about? And then secondly, I know you are not aware like you say, proficient or knowledgeable on this part of the law, but is it something that you as our town can, for lack of a better term as they say in the courtroom, co-chair or be a part of that with them on this negotiations and getting the answers?

Well, definitely with, you know, as soon as Anderson is retained, you know, once they're retained, I think we can get a lot of this information from them. And then once we hear from them what possible options are with this financing, we can bring it back before council and see if council wants to proceed with this financing.

That's the perfect justification for retaining them is because we don't know what we don't know. In order to find out what we need to know, we need to retain somebody to do it. The only real question is do we retain these guys or somebody else? We've worked with these guys before. We know the quality of the work. And we're putting ourselves further behind if we're trying to shop other attorneys when we don't know what we should be looking for among those attorneys we're shopping for.

Well, are you finished, Mr. Wood? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Well, for me, my clarity is those who have been here can say, oh, we have dealt with them before. I wasn't here in 2007. I just got here. I'm not familiar with them. And usually, for me, you do your due diligence before you engage and sign contracts. You know about the person you're entering into business. I'm not familiar. There were some, like I said, I allude to the questions where you said you still have to go and get some answers and see if the town can say no to certain things. So like I said, I would probably have to abstain because like I said, I'm not familiar. I only read what is here for the CDA, but those of you who have known him, but my disclaimer is that not knowing and to retain them with not the knowledge, but what few have, I don't feel comfortable with that because I don't know enough.

Let me give you some background that may help. Sands Anderson has been around for quite a while and their focus is on government work, contracts, all that. I'm a member of the local government attorneys and we have meetings twice a year and I can tell you that lawyers from Sands Anderson are at those meetings and presenting at those meetings and they're very knowledgeable attorneys. Now, that's from what I know. The towns work with them. They helped the town with some modifications, I believe, to the zoning ordinance about three years ago. So that was part of their work. And I said recently they would have been involved in the bonding. So that's the experience we have with them. Now, the reason I'm here is because they were serving as general counsel for a while. And my fee is... half of what they were charging at the time. So having a firm like Sands Anderson serve as your general counsel may not be a good idea, but for specialized work.

What you're asking for is permission to allow them to help you research these ideas. I know, but I'm trying not to use lawyer language. Can you talk to me like not a lawyer for a second?

I know she's asking to dumb it down, like I said. I don't need it dumbed down.

I'm asking for that. No, I'm not asking for you. I'm saying that you would like their help.

I would like their help in answering some of those initial questions. But more importantly, as we go through all these complicated documents, to have somebody else looking at them to make sure we're covering all the bases.

But we have to pay somebody to find out the answers we want to find, right? I mean, so I would agree with Ms. Grandstaff. It would be great to have that information going in.

To have the information at least meet them. I know it's like, okay, dollar retainer or... you have to retain them in order for them to answer because time is money. But like I said, for those who are not here and like I've researched them, I know they do the municipal bonds. I've checked out Jesse Bosch and he is very well, he specializes in this and it's something that is in his niche and I'm sure he'll do a good job. He's out of Richmond, but like I said, Never seen them. I'm not familiar with them. And that is my only reservation. I thank you for your clarity. And like I said, I've researched it as well and I know they're capable, but it's just like you enter into something with somebody you don't know. And that's just me. The rest of you are comfortable. Cause you know, I'm just speaking from my general perspective and the way how I do it. So thank you for that.

How much does it cost to get them to come here in person?

certainly ask them to to do that i i they've come before i mean their rates i think for jesse bosch he charges 450 an hour so probably cost about three thousand or so

I got a comment. I just remember my experience with them is that I felt like we were being gouged. It was like we're on pace to do $200,000 in a year and we were freaking out because of our budget and that's why we ended up hiring you. So I remember them being extremely expensive. But like I said, I just would like more than one option. I mean, we don't even have to have an option where they both come, but like... multiple companies and we can research and we can do our own homework as council members. Because they are gonna be representing a big piece of what's going on. Financing is the big piece.

is a decision on this time sensitive because it doesn't sound well only till ladar uh only to lenore okay i've been telling them that so realistically you're retaining somebody after this meeting so realistically and guide me folks to tell me if i'm right or wrong where we would have a comfort level as a council is if we had, I think it was three questions that were foremost in mind, if I recall correctly. If we could get an answer to those. And it sounds as if people would be more comfortable having a second option as well, okay? How onerous would that be to do? And if it's not time sensitive, What can we do to accommodate everyone so we can make this process a little easier?

Well, I guess the question is where do you go for the second option? I mean, you can certainly ask Hunt & Williams, McGuire Woods, some of these real big firms, but if they are even interested, then you're gonna see a different type of retainer agreement, I believe. Okay, so what do you say, guys?

Yeah. OK. Yeah, we still have a motion on the table right now. Um, this has been more information than, um, I mean, it's a good, but I'm learning as we go. I also feel very, I mean, I, I do hope that whoever we retain can come in person and, and help council understand this decision. I don't think that we are going to know which law firm is supposed to be the best one to do this. I don't have any experience with CEA. law firms or any contacts with any of them. But I would like, if you get some help in this, educate us, help us understand through it.

Just to follow up, these questions may seem simple, but it's probably going to take hours and hours of reading and research to figure out the answers to them. Somebody's not going to do that unless they're retained. Jesse may have the answer off the top of his head, but I doubt it.

And you would be a barometer as far as when people are trying to think of those padding things a little bit, you'd be able to see, gauge what is reasonable and what is not as far as lawyer hours, right?

Natasha could send me the bills to look at.

I'll be glad to do it.

Is there further discussion? I want to make sure if anybody else has any comments to get a chance.

I mean, I just want to I mean we've dealt with them for years and years at this point and Um, I mean, I don't see the avenue of trying to get additional council where we don't know the quality of work or, you know, we could retain them and they tell us the answer in 10 minutes and it'd be 10 minutes or one hour worth of work. Right. Rather than going through the hoops of trying to find the one we think might work. when we have noted work from Sands-Arenson in the past, from our council that we had, and then other projects that we've done over the years. So that's my point.

my my disclaimer on this is i'm not asking that we find another council because like i said i've researched them you all have the historical data of having worked with them but just like going back to where we had the tower and questions and we asked for that person to come there have been there are more people in council now where we aren't familiar with them So a phone call or Zoom or for them to just introduce themselves because we have new, I mean, this was 19 years ago. So I don't think it's unreasonable. I'm not saying to replace them or find alternative counsel just to have some of these questions answered and just to see for the new ones who we're dealing with. That is all.

You want to meet them?

I think the problem is most of those attorneys aren't giving out free estimates.

I know they're not construction workers and time is money, like I said, but I'm just, for the record, just laying out where I stand. That's it. Thank you.

I'm just adding my points as well. Okay.

All right. Any further discussion? Okay. All right. There's a motion on the table for the retainer agreement. Um, I'll go, uh, grant stuff. I'll go on your side first.

I'm just going to abstain at this time.

Same as Sanford.

I just want to meet him. I don't know. I have to agree with myself. So nay.

Nay? Nay. OK. Aye. Mr. Wood?

Aye.

Mr. Larson? Aye. Mr. Williams?

Nay.

All right. I think the eyes have it already, but although I, and also let's get them here to meet them. I mean, we've got two council members asking to meet them. If it's zoom, save us some money or something, you know, let's not do this wrong. It's still not, it's not traffic time. They don't have to pay for travel. Yeah, yeah. Let's meet them.

I mean, I think the retainers said, I read another retainer agreement today, but I don't know if they charge half for travel or full for travel. Most charge half.

Tell him we have very nice restaurants here. All right, last step is closed session. I move that the Town of, Council of the Town of Columbia Beach convene in closed meeting for the following purpose and to discuss the following subjects, all of which are exempt by Virginia law for meeting, public meeting requirements as indicated, namely pursuant to Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711A7 for the purpose of consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff members or consultants pertaining to actual or probable litigation where such consultation or briefing in an open meeting would adversely affect the negotiating or litigating posture of the Town Council pursuant to Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711A8 for the purpose of consultation with legal counsel retained by the Town Council regarding specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel and pursuant to Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711A1 for the purpose of discussing and considering performance of specific public officers, appointees, or employees of the Town. Is there a motion?

So moved.

Second?

Second.

All in favor?

Aye. Aye. Sold to the lady in the yellow jersey.

So moved. Second.

So moved like a big dog.

Second.

Second.

ISO certified. ISO certified.

ISO certified.

And ISO certified. And with that, we will adjourn at 9.53 p.m.