Town Council - Regular Meeting

All right, everybody, I got six o'clock, so we're gonna rock and roll here. As always, I'd like to welcome everybody who is in person and those that are viewing online. Thank you for tuning in to your local government. I ask everyone that's here in the room to take a second and check your cell phone and silence your cell phone all the way on silent, not on vibrate or Looney Tunes music or anything else. Let's make sure we respect one another's time and each speaker speaking. Your patience and understanding is appreciated as council deliberates on various agenda items. There is open public comment at this meeting and all meetings and signups are encouraged at the front. Specific public hearings are advertised and designated separately. We don't have any specific public hearings tonight. We do have open public comment. And we want to acknowledge the staff's work and preparation. Their insights are invaluable to each topic of town business. We operate under the council manager form of government, and Natasha Tucker is our town manager. He handles daily operations and department administration, 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, and we are duly elected to serve responsibly and ethically the citizens of Colonial Beach. Participation of each member contributes to effective leadership, and collaboration is the key to productivity in local government. Let's engage in constructive discussion, remain open to different perspectives and work together for effective resolutions. And finally, I just remind everybody that the meetings of the town council are formal proceedings and are thus recorded. And with that, we will call to order the August regular meeting on Wednesday, August 19th, 2026. And I've got six o'clock on the dot. Please join me for standing for a moment of silence which will be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. In our roll call of members, all members are present with the exception of Ms. Lisa grand staff, um, who does not have cell phone service. So she will not be calling in today. So you've got six of the seven of us up here. There are no additions to the agenda. Is there a motion to approve the agenda? Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? On our consent agenda, we have approval of minutes for June and August. Is there a motion to the consent agenda?

So moved.

Is there a second to that?

Second.

Okay. Any discussion? All right. All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? All right. And moving right along on council member announcements. And I'll start on your side, Mr. Wood. Okay.

Okay, let's see. First is outdoor movie night, Saturday the 29th. That's going to be at the community center at 8.30, starring the Black Panther movie, my cat Sam's favorite movie. Canning and food preservation classes are Wednesday, September 2nd and 9th, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Coffee Walk has a new route, second Friday, September 11th. Casual walking on the boardwalk starts at Love Bites and ends at Colonial Buzz. second Friday sip and stroll, September 11th. Community board game night is second Tuesday, September 14th, six to eight, and that's going to be at the community center as well. There will be no fitness classes until August 25th. And then in regard to the planning commission, At the July 13th meeting, the commission discussed two chapters of the comprehensive plan. The Board of Zoning Appeals met last night and it approved variance to a lot setback to allow a new home to align with the neighboring homes. The home that it replaced was set back further. There is a vacancy, by the way, on the BZA. So if anyone's interested, please apply through the town website. That's all we have today.

Mr. Larson? Good evening, everybody. I don't have a specific report on schools tonight. I think Dr. Addo and possibly his designee will be speaking and probably update you on the start of school. The finance department just wants to remind everyone, as always, if you're struggling to make ends meet, if you're behind on your bills to the town, tax bills or otherwise, stop in the office and have a conversation. Always better to do that with any creditor, by the way, credit card company, mortgage owner, landlord. Better do that than be silent. But anyway, come see them, and they will work out some arrangement to help you get through. And that's it for me.

Thank you. Mr. Williams?

good evening everybody just a few announcements from the police department the colonia beach police explorers is an organization of young people from our community ages 14 to 21 who are interested in learning about police work explorers receive instruction on police practices and procedures and are eligible to accompany officers during their duties Through this scouting-sponsored program, explorers learn the value of community service and develop their leadership skills. Our explorers will be having a meeting on Friday, August 28th at 5 p.m. in the community room at the police department. We welcome all ages eligible young people to come to the meeting and learn more about what exploring law enforcement can do for them. And also, just a reminder, the next Neighborhood Watch meeting will be held on September 24th at 6 p.m. in the community room at the police department. And finally, the Colonial Beach Police Department will be hosting our National Night Out event on Tuesday, October 13th from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on the town hill. Please save the date and join us for the outstanding community event. Hope to see you all there. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Amford?

Good evening, everybody. I just have a couple things from the Community Foundation. So on September 9th at 6 p.m. at the elementary school, the Community Foundation will be hosting the candidates for town council for the candidate forum. All four candidates will have... a chance to speak and if you have any questions you can send them to info at communityfoundation.org and then on september 19th at 10 a.m to 12 p.m at the community center they will be hosting a colonial beach meetup with guest speaker dan bender and partner with PB Mars. And they will be talking about strategies to keep more of your money in retirement and answer any questions. And then on September 26th, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., the foundation will be having a shredded truck at the high school parking lot for free shredding. So if you have anything that would need to be shredded, bring it on down. And that's all I have. Mr. Allison?

Good evening, everybody. So I have the Public Works Department. Since I wasn't here last time, we're going to do a couple of weeks kind of combined here. And I would like to say it wasn't as fancy as everybody thought it was being in San Diego. I was in a lab for 10 half hours a day that had no windows. So sorry I missed last time, but it wasn't that great in San Diego either.

We had a good time here, so I don't know why I say that.

Anyways, starting off with infrastructure utilities, the water leaks, they had three repaired. Sewer backups, one was cleared. They repaired two manholes near Wilkerson Seafood to address some I&I from the river, inspected four manholes for potential rehab, investigated multiple reports of water leaks throughout town, assisted with cleaning ditches and culverts following significant rainfall. Now moving on to the wastewater treatment plant. They continue daily operations, maintenance and operational support, continue cleaning and maintain the nitrification tanks. Say that twice. Utilize rental equipment to support tank cleaning and maintenance, restore the town's permanent sludge press to service, clean the grit pit. replaced the reuse pump, and continued general grounds and site maintenance at the wastewater treatment plants. For streets and stormwater, they installed stop signs at both ends of the alleyway between Santa Maria Avenue and Locust Avenue, continued traffic sign repairs and replacement throughout town, cleaned storm debris from the roadways following severe weather, cleaned the alleyway between Santa Maria Avenue and Locust Avenue from Wakefield to Route 205. Extended drainage pipe near the beach swings to improve drainage. Repaired the radar speed display sign near the school, which people are still speeding. Cleaned debris from ditches and storm water infrastructure. Moving on to buildings and grounds. Continued park cleanup and beautification throughout town. Continued the grass cutting operations. Completed routine building and facility maintenance. Installed fencing at the entrance to Eleanor Park. Looks great, by the way. Installed new banners along the boardwalk and continued maintenance of town and grounds and public spaces. That's all I have for tonight. Thank you.

Heather, this thing beeped up here and I'm not sure what's going on with it. Yeah, it did. And then it stopped. So I just want to make sure I fix that logistically. Right? I didn't touch it.

Again.

Okay. All right. Hopefully we get that worked out. All right. I just have a few things. First, I'm going to give Lisa's report on her behalf since she can't be here tonight for the EDC. The Downtown Colonial Beach Economic Vitality Committee met on August 11th as a working session focused on creating common understanding among its members of the purpose, goals, and objectives of the body as they specifically pertain to the Colonial Beach community. As a Main Street program, DCB is committed to preserving the past, charting the future for Colonial Beach. The Economic Vitality Committee is at the core of this commitment. As such, the committee's work focuses on growing a diverse economic base in Colonial Beach by taking a proactive, collaborative approach to building community, supporting existing businesses and nonprofits, and encouraging new investment. Specific action steps and a work plan will be identified at the September 8th meeting. Also, I just want to say we were back to school, and so I wasn't able to attend the Board of Supervisors meeting. It was also the first day of school back. Very exciting for the kids, and we have a little bit of a gap in the community right now. We have Boy Scouts and we have Girl Scouts, but the feeder group to the Boy Scouts, the Cub Scouts, has been inactive for some time, and so there's some interest in restarting Cub Scouts in Clooney Beach. If you have any interest in getting involved, send me an email or contact me and I'll get you with the people that are working on that. Also attended the Art Walk Sip and Stroll, but then the weather got dicey, but there was a really cool activity. The Peddler's Market is participating in the Art Walk nights and they have a make your own slime with the kids activity out there. Just wanted to highlight that fun part of that activity that's happening in Colonial Beach. Other than that, we got Comrel next week, next Wednesday, and King George is hosting. All right, that's all I have. Town Manager update. Natasha, I will pass you the mic.

Good evening, Madam Mayor. Council members, those in the audience, and those listening to us online, my town manager report will consist of a sewer plant update from In Bowdoin Environmental Services from Mr. John Simmons, followed by the ARPA wastewater treatment plant updates that I would provide. So we will go ahead and start with John and his In Bowdoin updates.

Good afternoon, everyone. So let's start on page two, please. um it was a bit of an active month at the wastewater treatment plant you know we all had some pretty significant rain events and you can really see on the graph there every day that that occurred and you know we're still dealing with a good bit of i i we have seen that number reduced it doesn't quite get it doesn't get so much flow so fast over there like it was but you know it one of these things that caught that really makes it worse is when the ground is saturated versus when it's dry when the ground is dry the rain obviously gets absorbed by the ground and it doesn't come to the plant but once you have that first couple days of rain then everything got saturated you could see the spike after that so you know as the ground saturated that means more is coming to the plant the next graph there you can see that we have been working on the flow meters there and that's why you see that big increase here for July versus April through June, and that's part of the upgrades and repairs being made at the plant is all of the flow meters. Next page, please. Ultimately, effluent quality wasn't affected much. We had good ammonia, TSS, all of our nutrients and things looked good. Where we had the issue this month was the fecal coliform and entero. When that flow gets up as high as it does, it doesn't have the contact time and the UV disinfection system, and that's where those elevated results come from. And one of the repairs was to replace that UV system over there, and that's obviously gonna help with that moving forward as well. We completed the sludge removal. And you can see the numbers here for July. You know, like for instance, at the beginning of the month, you can see an eight on the nitrates. You know, those numbers have been cut in half since we removed the solids and can change some of the processes over there. So the numbers for August are gonna look much better. I know that's one thing that's a major concern with you all is those nutrient removal. The operational notes, you know, Natasha will get more into that because this could be part of her ARPA update, but it's really just we did finish the sludge processing. That equipment's been removed, sent back to the vendor. We've had some electrical issues over there, some related to the storm, some not, but it's really just kind of the same old, same old with us when we have these bad storm events. We got lucky for several months, had a dry spell. That's bad for the water table, but it's good for the wastewater plant. But that really concludes my update. Does anybody have any questions?

Mr. Williams?

Yeah, just a couple of follow-up questions from prior meetings. Any updates on the fat, oil, grease, fog ordinance that we were considering?

I'm not sure where that really stands right now with Natasha and Powell. I know that that's something that's been discussed, and I think it's just a matter of finalizing how that's going to look ordinance-wise or whatever the next steps would be with that.

Okay, and also to kind of piggyback off of that, the issue we're having with inflow and infiltration with people leaving their caps off of their cleanouts, stuff like that. Yeah. I know we had talked about possibly addressing that at some point with some kind of policy or legislation.

And I think that's something that you'll also see soon. You know, it's definitely something we've all discussed and have been working on that. I think that's where most of the reduction that we're noticing is coming from is where Chris and his team are fixing the clean outs on the town property. I think hopefully some of the citizens have been listening and they're starting to fix some of their issues now that they're aware of what causes that. We've got a significant amount of camera work done. We haven't found any real huge problems, but most of the numbered streets, everything is pretty much decent shape over there. You know, we did find some significant problems, you know, this week that we need to look into and see what next steps are. But we've identified a lot of the major areas that would then be on the town's responsibility. But a lot of it still remains those clean outs on one of the citizens properties. So as soon as we can get that resolved, it'll definitely improve it.

Okay, thank you.

Yes, sir.

Any other questions? Okay.

So we have received ARPA grant funding, and we have put these funds to such great use as you'll see as I go over the projects that we've been working on this evening. These projects represent roughly 3.7 million dollars that the town has invested in 23 projects and these projects are designed to strengthen and modernize our wastewater system. The work is focused on three critical areas of our wastewater system. The pump stations, the collection system, and the wastewater treatment plant itself.

Next slide.

So this first slide represents the projects for the wastewater pump stations. We've invested approximately $429,000 in improvements to three critical wastewater pump stations. New emergency generators have been purchased for the Third Street, RTU, and Horton Street pump stations. Once these are installed, the generators will provide backup power during outages and other emergencies, which will help keep wastewater moving through the system when electrical service is disrupted. The Third Street pump station is also receiving additional improvements. A new roof has been installed, exterior structural supports have been completed, and the building will receive additional exterior improvements. These investments are about reliability and resiliency. Pump stations are critical links between the collection system and the treatment plant. Thus, they maintain their operation during an emergency, which helps protect the entire wastewater system. This slide represents the projects for our collection system. Approximately $992,000 is being invested in the town's wastewater collection system. This is a network of sewer lines and related infrastructure that carries wastewater to the treatment plant. One of the largest completed projects is the replacement of the Sixth Street sewer line, and that project cost $611,000. But replacing infrastructure is only part of the story. I want to highlight that we're conducting camera inspections, smoke testing throughout the system to identify damaged pipes, leaks, improper connections, and areas where stormwater and groundwater may be entering the system. Once the problems are identified, the ARPA funding helps us address these problems. The town has lined manholes, completed targeted repairs, and installed 27 rain guards with additional rain guards and repairs planned. Reducing the amount of unnecessary water entering the sewer system means that less water has to be pumped and treated at the wastewater treatment plant. These improvements also extend the useful life of our infrastructure and allow the town to better target future investments. Much of this work happens underground and they're not visible to our residents, but it is an important part of building a stronger and more reliable wastewater system. And lastly, our wastewater treatment plant itself. The largest portion of the town's ARPA grant funding goes towards the wastewater treatment plant. Approximately $2.35 million is dedicated to improvements at the wastewater treatment plant. One of the most significant completed projects involved removing more than 2.7 million pounds, approximately 1,300 tons of accumulated sludge from the facility. We've also replaced and we're rehabilitating critical equipment throughout the treatment plant. Two new influent pumps and two new effluent pumps have been ordered. Improvements are underway to the denitrification filters and other treatment components. Electrical and structural assessments are helping identify and prioritize additional needs. The SCADA control system has been replaced, which modernizes the technology used to operate and monitor critical treatment processes. Another major milestone was the arrival of the town's new UV disinfection system. We've received the equipment and installation planning is underway. Once operational, the system will provide an important upgrade to the final stage of the wastewater treatment process. We've also completed the engineering and design for improvements to the plant's headworks and new grit removal equipment has been ordered. Together these projects address aging infrastructure throughout the treatment plant rather than focusing on single pieces of equipment or process. When the ARPA funding ends, improvements in the plant will remain. There is still work to be done, but I am proud of the significant process that's already been made. Altogether, this comprises 23 projects, $3.77 million of ARPA funds, and three critical parts of our wastewater system. This one significant investment is a true investment in the future of Colonial Beach. Next slide, please. Okay. So this slide represents The funding that we've received from ARPA, we've identified funding across the central drainage area, which is completed, the I&I testing, the wastewater treatment plant repairs, and wastewater processing system repairs and upgrades. We've requested four rounds of reimbursements We have received the first three requests for reimbursements and the fourth request is still pending disbursement. Our balance of operative funds that remains is roughly $1.9 million. So we are well targeted to complete and use the funds within the timeline of November 2026. However, I wanna stress that once this round of ARPA funds are expended, there's still more work that needs to be done in the plant, which is part of the consent order. So we will have to target additional sources of funding We're in a good position to continue the projects because as we've received the reimbursements from the ARPA fundings, we can use those funds to continue with projects in the plant or we could use those funds for some other areas as council directs. And lastly, mayor and council. I have some very good news to share regarding the town's WQIF monetary assessment. DEQ has officially waived our 2025 assessment in full, thus eliminating the entire $235,152 obligation. It's important to put this great accomplishment into context. In 2024, the town was initially facing a WQIF monetary assessment of approximately $117,000. Through our work with DEQ and the progress being made at the wastewater treatment plant, we were successful in having that assessment significantly reduced. This year, we have gone from receiving a reduction to receiving a full waiver. The town's 2025 assessment was $235,152 and DEQ has now waived the entire amount. That means the town will not have to pay any portion of that assessment. That is a great accomplishment. And this just really demonstrates the progress that we're making. Over the past two years, we've continued to address deficiencies at the wastewater treatment plant, make significant infrastructure investments, strengthen our operations, and maintain consistent communication with DEQ. We still have a lot of work to do, but we're clearly moving in the right direction. I want to recognize in Bowdoin, our third party wastewater operator, for the role that they've played in helping us get to this point. Their operational expertise, work at the treatment plant, and assistance in addressing compliance issues have been an important part of the progress we've made. I also want to recognize our town staff and everyone who has worked behind the scenes to improve the system and our standing with DEQ. This is particularly significant when you consider the investments we're currently making in the wastewater system. Every dollar that we do not spend on a monetary assessment is a dollar that can remain available to support the system and our taxpayers. In 2024, we were able to substantially reduce the assessment. And in 2025, we eliminated it entirely. This is a significant accomplishment and a very positive outcome for the town and our utility customers.

Great job. I want to add one more shout out to that to also, because they don't get it recognized a lot to our finance department, because it doesn't just take the work and the planning and the projects, but to work with the EQ is a federal funds funneled through the state that are audited, tracked. Reimbursements have to include receipts and documentation and communication and there have to be transparency and the process with DEQ has not been an easy one because the staff at DEQ has changed multiple times. So just want to also shout out a little bit for finance to get some recognition in this long process. Yes, Mr. Wood.

You know, if we remember where we were a little over three years ago, we just dumped about a million gallons of sewage into the Potomac. We were this far away from receivership. Thanks to the leadership of this lady here, Natasha Tucker, and the wisdom of this gentleman over here, we have proven that you get what you pay for. We tried to piecemeal it for years and years and years and years, and we almost sunk because of it. So one of the things that I just want to put a little bug in everybody's ear, because not all of us will be here next year, but I certainly hope that we can find our way to continue working with Imboden. I know that our town manager is going to do everything she can to keep us on the right track. And by the way, thanks for the quarter million bucks.

Anybody else? All right. Well, that was a good update. Thank you. I appreciate it. And it closes out in November, so we'll get a finalized update in November. Right? Yeah. And that will come in also to our legislative agenda discussion later today. All right, next up is our presentations. We have a Years of Service Award. Like most of our Public Works employees, Mr. Michael Weldon is of the Shire. and not here tonight to get his public recognition, but he works tirelessly for the town, he does whatever he's asked, he works in the grounds and maintenance crew, and as far as going out and having to work independently, get things done, keep the town clean in a busy summer resort area, it's a big job, it's a hot job, sweaty, sometimes stormy, or everything else in between. And he does it with care and dedication. So we want to say thank you to Mr. Michael Weldon and recognize his valuable contributions over the past five years. His loyal and dedicated service have played an integral role in the success of the town of Colonial Beach. So just a round of applause for Michael. And Chris, you can get this over to him with his. and everything. All right, I'll give that to you after the meeting. Next up is Westmoreland County Board of Supervisors, Mr. Trivett. Welcome, Mr. Trivett.

Madam Mayor, Town Council, good to see you. Mr. Tucker, congratulations. That's not easy, and I'm sure it wasn't an effort only by you, but your whole team, and it's not easy. It's just like when you get in that IRS loop and you can't get out of it. Same way with DEQ, I can tell you. So you really need to be commended big time for that. Rebecca Payness is our new Parks and Rec Director. She worked for the YMCA for several years. We discontinued our contract in Westmoreland with the YMCA and now she'll be the new Parks and Rec Director and she'll reach out to all the stakeholders and she already is. They were having a meeting tonight actually with several different groups to try to help see where we go from here. when it comes to parking wrecks. I'm looking forward to good things there. The sign should be up at the transfer station now saying that they'll accept five by eight trailers. Somebody sent me a picture this past weekend. It hadn't been removed and they couldn't take their trailer in there and it should have been done. We'd asked waste management to do that several weeks ago and unfortunately it just didn't happen, but should have been taken care of today. So hopefully that's been resolved. We voted on the personal property tax relief and approved 20% basically off of your vehicle. So if you own a vehicle that costs $1,000, you don't owe anything. which is good, but there ain't too many vehicles that are $1,000. Anyway, is there anything that anybody has for me tonight? I'm going to be short. One thing I do want to tell you, I was at a VACO conference last week, and the governor was the guest speaker, and she's put $200 million more in. into the wastewater treatment plants for upgrades. And so I know I saw that as at the top of your agenda when you do your legislative session, but I'm going to keep that in front of our state senator because I see him very frequently and remind him every time I see him that we want that money. You know, we will use it. We won't be like a bordering county that got $12 million and they didn't use it. We know we got money here as a result of him getting behind us, and I think he will do that again, and there's extra money there. So keep that straight up there at the forefront, and hopefully we'll get several million again. Any questions tonight about anything?

Anybody? No, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Dr. Otto, you're up next.

Well, good evening. Madam Mayor, council members, everyone present tonight. That's the shortest I've ever heard Mr. Truman. I'm still chuckled by that. That's impressive. Well, onto my presentation. Thank you for allowing me to speak tonight. Since our last gathering from your last meeting, we have started school. It's our second week of school. And as I shared last year, this year is even better. It is smooth. It is nice. It's my 30th year in education, and I'm celebrating that as my 30th. And I'm enjoying every minute of it. But we did start out with our new teachers coming in several weeks ago, and we were able to introduce them to Colonial Beach Public Schools and also around the town in an annual golf cart, and that was amazing and marvelous. The week after that, all of our staff returned to us, and they were excited for our kids to return, and we usually do some professional development and keep them abreast of all the changes that has come from Richmond that impacts us. And that was wonderful. I was able to share with our staff that we are definitely meeting all of our goals in our strategic plan. One that I highlighted, so they're aware of it, is that two years ago, we were able to retain and recruit All of our we had 88% retainment of our staff two years ago. So that was incredible. And this past year we had 89%. So that tells us that we're doing something correct. Our environment, our culture is great. and folks are deciding to stay here at the beach. So that's one I'm very excited about. But moving on, the same week we had our ribbon cutting ceremony, and I do want to thank Madam Mayor, Town manager and chief for showing up and supporting the schools. I'm sure the rest of you guys were there in spirit. If you want to get a tour, please let me know. I'll take you through. It's wonderful. For the outside, you've probably seen, it's even better inside. And I think our kids, our staff are enjoying it every single day. I do want to give a big shout-out, huge shout-out, to BAM, to the Lions Club, and also to our PTA. We had a lot of businesses support the school to get it started, but these three organizations helped feed our staff while they were here the first week, so we want to give a big shout-out and thank you to all of them. We greatly appreciate their partnership and their support of the school system. And as we move along, one last, and I'm going to be short. I do want to thank Mr. Trivett also. Thank you, Mr. Trivett, for being there at the ribbon cutting. He has been a big supporter of us, and we appreciate his guidance. Sometimes I do have to call him to. to have a chat uh... but uh... he's always be very uh... graceful in a wonderful uh... for the school system uh... but finally i do want to tell uh... share with you that we are completing the approach list uh... for the front entrance and the main office and that's that's what we ought to take down little things and we're moving straight into our face too AS YOU PROBABLY REMEMBER, OUR INITIAL PLAN WAS ALWAYS TO BUILD A WAITROOM. AS OF RIGHT NOW, THE WAITROOM IS IN THE CLASSROOM. WE WANT TO GET THAT CLASSROOM BACK AND GET IT OUT OF THAT CLASSROOM AND GET A WAITROOM OUTSIDE AND ALSO OPERATIONAL OFFICES. AND MAYBE WE'RE THINKING ABOUT SOME SPECIAL EDUCATION OFFICES ALSO. It will be an addition to the high school. But we are excited. This is great for all of our kids that are coming from elementary school that will be going to the high school for years to come. I'm old. I probably won't see that. This is my 30th, so don't quote me. I have one of my board members here, and I keep telling them, they say I better not give up on them by the end of the year. VRS said I can go out and relax after 30. So I'm enjoying this last year. I'm not saying I'm leaving. It's just it's good to be in that position. But that's all I have for you tonight. If you have any questions for me, I'd be glad to answer those.

I hope you don't retire this year, but thank you for letting us know and being there. It's been, the ribbon cutting was excellent. The front entrance is really a massive improvement and I'm sure it's going smoother because you don't have a construction crew around there right now as well. But yeah, thank you. All right. Moving right along, next is our public comment. During public comment or hearings, we ask that guidelines be followed. We do ask that you stand at the podium, and for the record, please state your name and 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. You can provide any written statements or supporting materials to the clerk, who is Heather Oliver, and she can distribute them to the council and the town manager. Debate is prohibited. Follow up on comments is provided by the town manager and speak clearly as we want to hear what you have to say. The council will try to hear everyone who wishes to speak on a subject, any subject, and comments are limited to five minutes. Time cannot be transferred to another speaker. If you represent a group, you may wish to identify other members of your group who are in attendance. And after public comment is closed, I encourage you to stay as the council engages in dialogue and deliberation on subsequent agenda items. With that, we'll open public comment. Welcome.

GOOD EVENING, MADAM MAYOR AND COUNCIL MEMBERS. I'M SPEAKING TO YOU TONIGHT AS PRESIDENT OF THE VIRGINIA OSPORI FOUNDATION. I LIVE AT 405 LIVINGSTONE STREET IN COLONIO BEACH. I WANT TO SHARE WITH YOU THE DATA THAT OUR ORGANIZATION HAS COLLECTED THIS OSPORI SEASON. When the season began, we counted 38 active nests, meaning there were a pair of adult birds occupying each of those nests. Out of those 38 active nests, only 11 nests were successful. Those 11 nests produced 20 chicks that were raised and fledged, or raised to fledged size. We are now down to 14 chicks post-fludge. That was caused by trauma, starvation, electrocution, or the fledgling just disappeared. Better than last year, yes, but still another disastrous year. Our reproductive rate this year is only .526 chicks per nest. To sustain a population, the reproductive rate must be 1.15 chicks per nest. I wish I had better news. The Chesapeake Bay itself has seen far worse numbers, well below what was happening during the DDT era. The next item I want to speak to is item 12A on the agenda, the 2027 legislative agenda and propose some additional language, specifically under the priorities of environmental resiliency and stormwater and under economic development and tourism. I HAVE PROVIDED YOU WITH THE ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE. IT'S IN BOLD. AND FOR THE FIRST, IT WOULD BE UNDER THE ENVIRONMENTAL RESILIENCY. IT WOULD COME AFTER THE WORD PROJECTS. AND IT STATES TO INCLUDE RESEARCH AND EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT OF ATLANTIC MENHADEN INDUSTRIAL PER SE AND REDUCTION FISHING IN VIRGINIA WATERS. I believe the proposed additional language to that section shows an understanding of the crisis Virginia, and specifically Colonial Beach, is facing in regards to its osprey. Their reproductivity rate is well below what it was during the DDT era. They are literally starving to death. Organizations like ours have been advocating for better management of Atlantic Manhattan, and I believe it is time for the town to step up and do the same. This is a first step, and I urge you to take that step. As for the economic development priority, the additional language starts after initiatives to include ecotourism events such as the Virginia Osprey Festival. Our town has so much to offer, and ecotourism is an important draw for visitors to Colonial Beach, as they can enjoy the numerous hiking, birding venues in the town and surrounding area, and easy access to water recreation. And the Virginia Osprey Festival is a prime example. We brought in approximately 1,500 to 2,000 attendees in April. They came from as far away as Maine just to attend the festival. And with that in mind, I want to thank everyone that came out to our documentary screening on Sunday, The Last Osprey. Even a small event like this attracted 80 people. They came from Richmond, Williamsburg, Farnham, Northern Virginia, Virginia Beach, and Baltimore. Some of who stayed overnight and had dinner in our local restaurants. I thank you for your time and consideration. If you have any questions, please reach out to me.

Thank you. Welcome.

Madam Mayor, town councillors, Nigel Long, 115 Lynnhaven Court. I was going to be very quick, but let me add to what I was going to say, my support of what Joni just presented to you. I think the Menhaden issue is not only an issue for the Osprey population in town. There are probably many reasons, a number of reasons why our population has declined, but clearly overfishing of Manhattan in the Chesapeake Bay is an issue. Virginia is the only, I believe I'm right in saying, the only state on the East Coast that allows that sort of fishing. And it impacts other elements of the marine community in addition to ospreys and is, I think, something we should care about. My suggestion on the legislative priorities was actually to support something that the Honorable Richard Stewart is also in favor of. I just want to put on record that I agree with him about something. And that is about the protection of the Potomac aquifer and the quality of the Potomac River since it provides the water supply for the town of Colonial Beach. My suggestion is that at the end of the environmental resiliency and stormwater section, where it says water quality, we add the words, including protection of the Potomac River and the Potomac aquifer. I think over the coming years that will be increasingly important for this town, this community, particularly if it grows, and we should recognize and respond to that. I do have, I assume you may have read it, but I can, I only have one copy with me, give a copy to the town clerk, the letter that Mr. Stewart wrote to our governor in relation to the aquifer and our water supply. Now that may well have been written in relation to other economic activities in the state and use of water, but I think the fundamental points there about protecting our water supply that he made to the governor at the end of July are important. If you haven't seen it, I'll give a copy to to your secretary. Thank you.

Thank you. Has anybody else signed up? Would anybody else like to come up? Always open it up. Noted for the record. Anyone else? Okay. All right. With that, we will close public comment. I have seven different times. 6.51 p.m. Um, and that moves us directly into the 2027 legislative agenda. Ms. Tucker.

Madam mayor council tonight, I'd like to begin our discussion regarding the town's legislative priorities for the upcoming general assembly session. Each year, we have an opportunity to identify the issues that are most important to colonial beach. and communicate these priorities to our legislative delegation and our partners at VML. The purpose of tonight's discussion is to determine where council would like the town to focus its advocacy efforts. I would suggest that we keep the list relatively focused and prioritize issues that have a direct impact on our operations, finances, infrastructure, and community. The items that you see on the screen and which is part of your packet, they're consistent with council's priorities from the previous year. And you'll notice that we reduced last year's priorities to seven. I'd like to walk through each of the priorities, get council's feedback, and identify any additional issues that you would like included or excluded from the list. Based on tonight's discussion, we'll make necessary revisions and bring the final priorities back for council's consideration. Ultimately, this is council's legislative agenda, and we wanna make sure it accurately reflects the issues that council believes are most important to Colonial Beach. And with that, I open the floor for discussion amongst council.

All right, so as you suggested, I think we'll take the priorities from top to bottom. We'll go through them one by one, see if anybody's got any questions and tackle it that way. So top of the line is wastewater treatment plant, funding to support critical improvements and upgrades necessary to maintain regulatory compliance, protect public health, and ensure long-term sustainability of community infrastructure. I will say as a... as part of the process when we're lobbying in Richmond or in DC, they want a sort of one sheet summary quick target tagline, right? Then when something is connecting and we see movement on legislation or funding or something we're opposed to, whatever it is, then we provide supplemental documentation Generally a one pager that is paragraph formed and then also additional context like engineering reports or things like that so I don't want to take the Don't take the little quick blurb as in it's exclusive of we kind of purposely make it the verbiage to apply as broadly to the topic as we can. So the only thing I would say about this top one is, and this is kind of a question for Natasha, wastewater treatment plant, do we need to include also like the sewer infrastructure? Should that be in the title at all? It's not just the plant, but it's also the,

I think that's a good suggestion. Madam mayor, I can certainly include that.

Well, I'm just as open for discussion. I mean, other people, what, any other ideas you have about that?

Yeah, I think in your thing, you put wastewater treatment plant and wastewater treatment sewer or something like that. And so maybe just kind of use both of those terms. So we're not limiting ourselves just to the plant because obviously we have issues in the point and we have issues in, you know, different areas of town that require sewer and, I mean, we want as much money as we can get to fix it all, right?

Understood. I do have a quick question, though, since there are additional funds being made available by the state for wastewater treatment plants specifically.

Mm-hmm.

Um, would be, would we be more successful in accessing those funds that we were a little more targeted? I understand the point that we wanna be broad, but I think we want to be, uh, tip the spear enough to take advantage of those new funds.

I think those funds target sewer infrastructure though, as well.

Okay.

I think they do as well. So after we have concluded tonight's discussion, I will also follow up with our delegates and find out particularly for this item, the best way to name that priority so that it's all inclusive and we aren't limiting ourselves to the types of funding that we can receive.

Yeah, we may want to mimic the way the state is. Yeah, the verb, exactly. Like literally cut and paste from state language. Okay, so that's, I don't know, I can't imagine anybody wants to take this item off the list. Okay, yes, Mr. Rogers.

Just kind of general question. We've had, since I've been on council, this will be my sixth year, well, fifth year. We've been doing these, I think, majority of the time. I know we got ARPA funds, but that was a whole different ballgame. Do we have any statistics or figures on what we've received like legislative-wise since we've been doing these? Have we received any money, any support, like big significant things that you can think of?

The North Beach shoreline, the engineering for that's top of mind.

That was through our legislature?

That was through the, that money is federal money from FEMA that goes through the state that we wrote a grant for to the state entity with the Northern act planning district commission. Yeah. That's a direct legislature.

Okay. Yeah. That's a good example.

Do you have any others? So I,

don't have any others that i had prepared for you tonight but i do know prior to uh... me being appointed town council, there was a significant amount that was received. Um, I don't know whether it was through from the state, but it was a direct, uh, relationship with the legislative priorities and communicating what the town needed with our elected officials in Richmond. Um, I don't have that exact amount, but that we did receive those, uh, fundings at that time.

Okay, I think that was DEQ, the 5.7, if I remember off the top of my head.

The 5.7 is DEQ, but then there was ARPA funds separate from that, which were divvied out throughout the state.

And that was a direct result of going to Richmond and speaking with our partners as part of this legislative agenda.

Okay, and just wondering if we have any feedback on the current list that we've submitted from 26th.

From last year's list, no, but that's why we're going through with this year. Every year this comes around and it's an opportunity for us to receive some kind of funding. I do know that all localities within the Commonwealth, they look at their needs and their priorities, and the funds are then addressed that way. So with the additional funds that are now available, we really stand a really, really good chance of being one of the communities that are allocated some of those fundings.

That's good news. Thank you.

So I think we've received federal or state funds in almost every single one of these or are currently underway in that process. So, you know, I think the wastewater treatment plans come prime and easy example, but in community infrastructure, the VDOT road for Dwight Avenue extension, that is also a direct allocation from the state. through our VDOT partners. So when we move to community infrastructure, the next one for sidewalks, crosswalks, roadway maintenance, and other enhancements, things like the design of the first street sidewalk that we didn't get the sidewalk implemented, but the design was paid for, or accessing those sidewalk grants, or getting the zero visibility plan done, that's all part of that second topic there.

Does anybody know if this community infrastructure, does it cover water pipes at all?

Water pipes?

Yeah, I know there's sewer, but like the water pipes, I've heard that they're in pretty rough shape, especially in some parts of town.

I think right now if we want to add in the water infrastructure, that would be a new item to add. I mean. Are we targeting that also separately, or do we want to include that in sewer infrastructure?

Do we have any idea of what the significance? I don't know, Chris, would you know? I mean, I've heard just, I don't know if it's only sewer or if it's water and sewer, but I've heard, for example, the point is in horrible shape with plumbing and one of the worst sections of town. I could be wrong, but I'm just wondering, does the town have an idea of the condition of the water pipes versus the sewer? Is that as significant? Because I know with DEQ stuff, we've been pretty highly focused on the wastewater treatment plant, but I want to make sure we don't skip over that when it could be just as high priority, if not worse.

Just like our collection system for the sewer, our water system is old and outdated. There are sections of it coming to the end of its life. I was actually on a water leak last night where the water line was in horrible shape. It's probably going to have to be replaced. I don't know how much of that's going to have to be replaced, but the water system is definitely worth investing in because without that, you can't live in town. Yes, we do have sections of town with bad water pipes. Some are worse than others, some are manageable, some at some point will no longer be manageable, so I do agree that it would be worthwhile to invest in the water system. I do believe that it should be a separate item from wastewater, since it is a completely different system, and target them independently. I don't know what's out there for water systems, but it's something we could probably look into if that's council's desire.

It's probably so I'm sorry.

Oh, just one little quick follow on when you're all out there. I know you guys see everything because you're in the ground and you have a sewer or water leak. And so I'm assuming you probably see both pipes same time. So they're usually in a similar proximity. Are you are you seeing ones in worse shape than the other? Are they pretty comparable? They're both in pretty bad shape.

They're not necessarily adjacent to each other. Water does not need to have the same depth as sewer. Sewer's usually deeper because it has to have gravity to get from point A to point B. Sometimes we find them both, sometimes we don't. I'm not gonna say they're, equally as of an issue. Sewer has a longer lasting effect on its issues with the sewer pipes versus the water pipes because it has more components that it affects downstream from that issue. But again, like I said, the water lines are definitely worth investing into and need to be updated and replaced due to their age, just like everywhere else in the United States. our infrastructure's aging out across this entire country and it's something that needs to be addressed.

Okay, thank you.

Madam Mayor.

Yes, Mr. Wood.

Is that something much like we did with the sewer lines where we made what we need to do quantifiable, right? So in order to do testing and that sort of thing, um, is that a process that we should begin so that we can maybe put that on our next legislative agenda? Because we can't just say, well, so fill in some pipes for us too. We don't know how much we need.

So that's a, that's a good point, Mr. Wood. Um, so the reason we've been able to be successful with the wastewater treatment plant, um, applications, I mean, a big part of that is Senator Stewart, to be honest with you, but also what he needs in order to be successful in Richmond is quantifiable data, and so we have an engineering report that lists exactly everything that needs to be done, and it has prices estimated on it, and that then is validating the request, right? And when we go back and ask for, I mean, it's still more than $13 million, I think, that is still outstanding on that engineering report we haven't done. There's still a lot to request and a lot to validate getting requested. The same would be true if you want to be successful in the water aspect and water utility is that we have to build out the case, yeah, for it to be, if you're really going after something, you've got to provide that level of detail at that point. So you can't just say we have old pipes and we want them fixed, we gotta get a little bit further into it than that. But like, what happened with the environmental resiliency and storm water piece, which ultimately led to the North Beach Shoreline project, is we got a grant, by putting that on here, we got a grant for the resiliency plan. right? Which came from raft, which was also government funded, uh, federal state government funded. So, um, that's a good example of how that process plays out. Like you put it on there maybe in a generic way, but all you're really asking for that point is help in getting it planned and helping getting the engineering study. And then once you get that portion, and you successfully complete your study, then you take the study and you go to the next level of detail with it and ask for more implementation or a project like North Beach. Now the project is getting engineered. Our next step on North Beach will be to ask for the money to do it. So I think we could add the water system on here, but just kind of with the context that what we're really, The reality of that is you're not going to get all new water pipes if you were successful in Richmond. You're going to get a plan. Right. but not a bad idea to put it on there. I'm just talking through the process a little bit.

Yeah. I mean, I definitely get what you're all saying. So I agree with your comments. It does make me a little nervous that we don't really have a good assessment of the condition because that, you know, could be a problem in the future. But, um, maybe, maybe this open this conversation, maybe at some point, if it's not a legislative priority, at least, uh, some, a study or something in the future to figure out what needs to go on with the, the pipes, the water pipes.

I'm wondering what kind of money is going to be available with all the lead and the other water quality testing that's happening out there. I think we could see some things being pushed at the very top levels across the nation, honestly, on investigating this. Because we're not abnormal in this. Most localities do not have a good idea of the age of their system or what's in the ground or where it's at. We kind of, every single locality is gonna be asking the same questions. So Mr. Allison, I think to your point, Mr. Williams said, does that fit under the community infrastructure piece with the sidewalks, crosswalks, roadway maintenance? I see that more like visible safety and the water more as an invisible. So I would tend to say to separate them, but that's a council decision if you will want to combine them, you know.

I think that would get lost in community infrastructure. We ought to have a separate line item if we're going to do it. I know we're trying to keep this concise. We don't want 15 items on the list anymore. I get that. So let's find the balance there.

Yeah, I think it should be separate. I mean, we already have some backup for community infrastructure in place. This is water we're doing fresh. This is completely new. We need to start from the very beginning. Whereas community infrastructure, we have some plans and other stuff already in place.

Okay. I'm seeing a good consensus on that then. I'm going to keep moving forward. All right. On resiliency and stormwater. And when I know we've had some comments tonight, so I want to recognize that again, this is worded in a brief way to then allow opportunity to get more specific post this one quick page, right? So this is funding for erosion control, shoreline resiliency, climate adaptation, and wildlife habitat enhancement projects, as well as stormwater upgrades to reduce flooding, improve drainage, and protect water quality. I think we're hitting a lot of points on that one sentence. We have been very successful in this particular item in a lot of different avenues. Some unsuccessful, but mostly I think we've got some pretty good track record on there. I know we have VIMS shoreline projects on our CIP for Monroe Bay Avenue that's eroding there. Then as well as the wildlife and habitat issues, that are coming up to highlight that. I think when we say habitat enhancement projects, and we specifically say the word wildlife, if we want to take a stance in that legislation, I think this gives us a strong point to do so if we decide to do so as a body.

So I agree. I don't want to... to completely gloss over the comments from Ms. Millward on the Atlantic Minhaden. But it feels to me that maybe stuffing that in this one might not be the most effective place, sort of like the conversation we just had about the water supply pipes. And if not there, then where? If you agree that it doesn't go there. because it is an important topic, but it's not quite the same as, it's not community infrastructure at that point. Sorry, I mean, it's not community level environmental stuff, it's broad ecosystem.

I think we can make a stance on the Menhaden issue with a direct resolution to the Menhaden issue that is specific and actionable and take that on. I think the priorities list, it needs to be these umbrellas that are kind of broad and generic. But if we want to tackle a stance on the Menhaden issue, I think we can do that regardless of this, and that actually this could bolster that resolution. But we can get hard-nosed in a very formal resolution stance if that's an avenue we want to take.

I was going to say a similar thing. I think that's probably a better approach.

So how do we put that on? or the agenda for something to get done later. Is that something we ask staff to look at first? Do we wanna pull in experts?

Add Natasha to draft a resolution to it. I think we need, we'd probably just bring it up at a work session and get an idea of what our point is. Okay. Yeah.

Just as a quick question in regard to the Menhaden point of view. We're going to, I would think, have more success. Because what we're doing is not asking for specific funding for that. What we're asking to do is to have legislation towards that. And where we're going to be more successful is not the Global Colonial Beach going, hey, this is unacceptable. If we're able to get consensus among more municipalities, and then put it together that way, as opposed to what I don't want to do, not only Joni, but to the entire situation, is to do it a disservice by tucking it away somewhere where it's not going to be seen and not acted on. Does that make sense?

The most similar instance I've seen of that is the 2A movement where multiple counties added in resolutions because of the push in the 2A movement. And I think that's probably a good example. I've seen coalition of strong strength in numbers just as far as the actual process of that.

What's 2A?

The Second Amendment.

Okay.

So I guess my point is to leave the bullet point the same, but then if we decide to tackle that issue to make that specific.

Yeah, maybe address other localities that are towards the Chesapeake Bay that would be influenced or helpful. We can use those as a conjoining effort to do that.

Yeah, I actually wrote down while she was talking that to bring this up at the Mayor's Institute at VML because I think there'll be a lot of other, it's in Norfolk this year, and so there'll be a lot of coastal communities at that conference. I'd like to see what their stance is and what they're doing about it and how it's being brought up in their communities. That's in October, guys, by the way, the next VML conference. Okay. Nope, you can't say anything. Thank you. All right. Moving forward, economic development and tourism. This is big for our Marina Way initiative. It's through this. Grant funds, BTC, some of the things like the love sign money or different grants for promotional things. I think we got a billboard a couple times, stuff like that. I like the highlight on ecotourism, but I don't want to discount all the other tourism initiatives by only highlighting ecotourism. I'm just kind of opening that discussion up.

Yeah, I thought when I read it that if we said anything, we'd just say tourism, including ecotourism. And that's as far, you know, for the same reason we don't want to water down the rest of the message with a single initiative or a single topic. But if that goes too far, I'm open to...

I'm fine with adding ecotourism and tourism. I just think it's a little repetitive, but I don't think it... Either way. You don't think so? Not significant enough? OK. All right.

Not in this instance.

In this particular instance. And again, we do for the Osprey festival. I know this, um, both our delegate and our Senator have written letters for the festival that we read in the beginning and they appreciate it and they've been very responsive to it. So I think we have strong legislative for sport, uh, support for that festival. So that's good. So we can kind of pledge our commitment, our continued commitment in that way specifically. And we did name the Osprey, the town bird. All right, moving on forward, local access to healthcare. We just applied for the FEMA grant for, along with the Northern Act Planning District Commission and the County of Westmoreland for the new Rescue Squad building on 700 Colonial Avenue. It'll be months before we hear back, so don't wait on, don't hold your breath yet, but I think that's an important one to keep on here for our residents and for our community, not just for that particular grant initiative, but also when we get to broadband, One of the openings in opportunities with broadband is now telehealth and a telehealth kiosk in rural communities. And I don't have a ton of information on this yet, but it's something else at VML I'm hoping to get a little bit more info on, that where we don't have, we have a real big lack in doctors and sometimes also a lack in broadband, but if there's a kiosk, a telehealth kiosk maybe at a rescue squad station or something like that. I don't know. They're trying to invent ways to use technology to help us. I don't know.

Where does it hurt?

I don't know. I just want to say there is new technology coming in this stuff and I'm not sure where it's going to go yet. All right, so we keeping that one on here? Yes, all right, there we go. All right, the required local match for schools. So this was on there because the proportionate rate of the local match was getting astronomical for small communities especially. This last year we saw that balance out a little bit. Part of that is because the state cut funding to schools. So naturally it cut our requirement to fund schools. I mean, I'm just saying the truth. That's what happened.

It's also largely due to a projection, a drop in the school population, right? So the multiplier went down.

Right, for the number of pupils. Yeah. Yeah, but they still use an averaged estimate, but yeah.

Mm-hmm.

So do we leave this on here? I remember I had spoken with Delegate Pugh Kent on this twice. She has a subcommittee at the legislature of four, particularly four rural school systems related to this. So if we want to continue working that avenue, it might be something that I end up at a subcommittee meeting for or Natasha does. If we don't want to continue down that avenue, I will free my calendar. I'm just asking for input, guys.

Do you all believe there's more juice to squeeze from this?

I don't know. Honestly, Tom, I don't know.

I don't know. I said, is that enough? I don't know.

I don't know.

Yeah.

I mean, I don't want, we don't want busy work, but for years on end, we were getting scared by the rapid rise in the local match.

Well, I think as long as we have some delegate of some sort that's pushing for this agenda, I think it's best that we keep it on there specifically for our community where that if there's availability for us to save money in that Avenue, we should take full advantage of that because the school system does hit us every year. So, and our numbers are rising within the school, they're not getting any lower and you know, It's just going to be a fact of life. So if we can save money in any way we can, and there's someone there that's pushing for this, I think we should keep it on there.

Does anybody know if we got any feedback last year, and did anybody push for it?

I mean, yeah, I met with Hillary twice, Delegate Kent twice about it, but she was giving, it was a struggle at the state because the formula is this convoluted, very specific, very complicated formula, and making any adjustments to it isn't equitable across the board, and actually some of the adjustments they were proposing was gonna make it worse for small rural communities, which was, really what stood her up to Be opposed to the changes to even though she does want it to change just how they were changing It was actually going to make it harder So it's a very complicated situation to tackle, I think we both were learning about how difficult it is really to do. The biggest point when we're talking about this is not so much of reducing funding to our school system, it's that the state was recreating additional mandates, all of these additional requirements, and then not funding them. And so they were expecting how easy to sit in Richmond and say, you have to do these 10 new things and you have to fund them and mandating that to localities. So that's where the unfairness portion of it was coming from. Hey, you want all of these additional things then state, you've decided this, you need to pay for it on your side, because it was creating local dollar tax raises, but they were state-mandated items. And that was really the point of it, because I could see that it could look differently than that.

Should we consider rewriting the language then maybe that reflects more of that as far as unfounded mandates or, I don't know, just a thought.

Yeah, that's a good point.

It feels like something we want to continue to track because there's a lot of risk there to Mr. Ellis' point.

Well, I mean, if they hit us with another half a million dollars, That's a chunk, right, that we gotta try to figure out how to make that work. And it's not always easy.

Yeah, a half a million dollars is a 12 cent tax raise for us. So that's the reality of it, right, when the rubber meets the road. Okay, so we'll leave it on there, maybe reword it a little bit, improve that. David, I like that idea. You're good with that. Okay. Okay. All right. Last one that's on the list right now is access to broadband. Um, uh, there has been some new traction in this, uh, like I said, with the healthcare kiosk, possibly, um, I don't know if this shouldn't get a little bit more in general technology related, but I'm also fine with leaving it the way it is. I think there's some new tech out there that we may want to go after. But this does say telehealth and opportunities for education and workforce development.

I mean, ultimately, is the problem not that that the people that run broadband, the Verizon Fios of the world, those kind of things, find it too expensive to bring it this far from wherever their next closest hub is, and is there a way to sort of advocate for some government assistance to sort of entice the big boys to bring the fiber here? When I think about this, that's what I think of. Is that a realistic goal? Well, is it?

realistic maybe going too far but is it am I thinking about it the right way I think for us it was you know what we currently have in terms of internet there's a monopoly right we don't have any other options other than the cable or you know some people have starlink and those things are coming but there's a cost to those right what we're trying to do is make the internet we have today cheaper so if the best way to do that is competition so you know all points broadband that's gone down through the county and those areas where they now have both some of that is a little bit easier to get cost down you know i had a house that was built for my daughter and I got internet for $20 a month because they were interested in doing a two year contract, no deal kind of thing. And I was able to get a lot cheaper than your standard $59.99 or $79.99 type package. But I had the ability to say, I'm not going to go with you, I'm going with the other. And that's when the price dropped.

So the question I'm asking is, are there things that the state and federal government can do to make it more likely that we get that competition here? Yes.

What I think that would work against us on that is the study that we had done that took a look at where we need to even be to be standard. And so people are going to focus more on getting us up to borderline, I guess, as opposed to being able to bring a higher dollar service here, because we don't have the folks to do it.

Well, we have the study results, and there's things we can do with those study results. So to the point kind of about the community infrastructure point before is once you have a study, then you have the data that they need sometimes to actually lift off the ground. Having that makes me think we need to keep it on here because if something comes available, we may be able to use that data to our advantage. But to me, it's not just affordability, but also reliability. We had major responses from the initial survey, which was a very poorly done survey by myself, I think. But the major response was the reliability. It's dropping out all the time. I can't do my... cashier checkouts because I'm losing vendor business because I can't get somebody's credit card to swipe, things like that. So I think in that it's competition. It's also putting breeze lines, nose to the grind a little bit and saying you're not meeting the standard and we're going to hold you accountable to it.

But I guess, and perhaps I had a misconception of it, but my thought would be that they would focus more on getting this to where it's reliable as opposed to having more competition.

Yes, both, I think.

Well, new lines would certainly make it more reliable. I mean, the other stuff's been here for 30 years.

I understand, but where are the new lines coming from? So where are the new customers coming from?

Right. So like right now it's going down through like Longfield road and going towards the County. So they would just have to come back down to a five to provide those additional lines.

the same attracting all access, right? All points. Yeah.

But see, they weren't contracted to come this way because they were doing it. They were, the grants and stuff were for specific areas that did not have any, uh, internet at all. And that was the initiative. Senator Stewart and all those went to Richmond and said, you know, we got to make sure that everybody has access. And they, they did that. Now the flip side of that is, you know, at the Verizon tower, gets put up and they bring in cable, I mean, they could definitely pull in cable that way or just give us the little pods for 5G or whatever.

Yeah.

There could be your competition and that could, you know, next year or the year after, whenever that happens, could be removed that off of there.

I think in the next two years we're going to see a lot of changes on this item. I think we're going to see a lot of things I can't even forecast right now.

Well, in all fairness, just the competition of T-Mobile having the 5G available here, I was able to use that. I didn't want to go to a 5G network, but I was able to use that to negotiate my cable provider down to it.

Yeah. Okay, so I'm kind of saying let's leave it. unless I'm hearing something else from people.

Yeah, I think it's sort of like the required local match. We want to leave it there for visibility and to prove that we still care about it, even if we don't know exactly what we want right now.

Yeah, we might have to pair with what's out there too. All right, and then I have noted here to add the water line system, water line utility system as an additional item on here. And I think that probably the action requested will be similar to the wastewater treatment but just pertaining to water. Drinking water, yes, all right.

Sounds good.

All right, anything else to this? That's now eight, we've gone back up from seven to eight.

I'm sorry, did you say drinking water or storm water?

Drinking water. Well, potable water, yeah. And so then Natasha will bring this back at our next meeting in September for final approval. Any other comments then before we?

Okay. The only comment I would have is if we can look at any potential items that we're targeting and Richmond has verbiage to align the verbiage as close as possible. You know, I mean, we do that in proposals or grants or anything like that. You want to kind of make it look like they wrote it and all that fits perfectly. Yeah.

We'll optimize it. Um, okay. All right. With that, so we'll vote on that at the next, at the September meeting. And with that, we're going into closed meetings. So I move that the Town Council of the Town of Columbia Beach, Virginia convene in closed meeting for the following purpose and to discuss the following subjects, all of which are exempt by Virginia law from 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 open meeting would adversely affect the negotiating or litigating posture of the Town Council. And 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 with that, we will go into closed session right after a five-minute recess. Public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion by which the closed meeting was convened were heard, discussed, or considered in the meeting by counsel. I need a motion. So moved. I need a second. I need an individual certification.

ISO certify. ISO certify.

ISO certify. ISO certify.

ISO certify. And with that, we will adjourn tonight's meeting at 8 o'clock.