Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

I'll call the 3 PM session of the April 28th, 2026 U meeting of the Henry County Board of Supervisors meeting. Like to welcome our uh visitors uh here today. Thank you for coming out and being part of your county government. Anyone wishing to be placed specifically on the agenda uh for the board of supervisors needs to contact the county administrator's office at least 7 days in advance of any of our regular meetings. However, the public may address the board without being on the agenda under agenda item number 19, which is matters presented by the public that we'll take up this evening in our 6 pm session. Again, welcome everyone. Uh thank you for uh coming out and participating. Um we did have uh at everyone's uh desk uh one uh proclamation in regard to the uh fire and em EMS appreciation that will be added to the items of consent uh if that's with the approval of the board. So with that uh agenda item number five, items of consent. What is the pleasure of the board?

Mr. Chairman, I would make a motion to approve the items of consent. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor? Is 6. Uh Jennifer. Agenda item number six is going to be taken up this uh this evening uh meeting because of the scheduling. Uh but uh we're actually moving an item from the evening and going to take it up at this time. It would be agenda item number 14 and that's a consideration of a proclamation recognizing May 2026 as Ruitton Awareness Month. Uh Miss Buchanan, I believe you have a proclamation for the board's consideration.

Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman, this is a proclamation of the Henry County Board of Supervisors honoring Ruitton clubs serving Henry County. Whereas Ruitin National had its beginning on May 21st, 1928 by community leaders in Holland, Virginia, and has grown to become America's leading community service organization. And whereas during the past 98 years, Ruitton has grown to an organization of more than 20,000 members in 799 clubs throughout 24 states. And whereas the Ruitton Clubs of Henry County have served for many years consisting of 251 members in 11 clubs. And whereas men and women of all professions, ages, and ethnic backgrounds are Ruitan members. And whereas Ruitans pledged to support urban and rural communities in times of stress and need through fellowship, goodwill, and community service. And whereas Ruitton under its motto fellowship, goodwill, and community service has made substantial contributions to the well-being of the citizens of Henry County and of the nation. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Henry County Board of Supervisors hereby recognizes May 2026 as Ruitin Awareness Month. And this is signed by Jim Adams, chairman, Henry County Board of Supervisors. Mr. Chairman, I move that the board adopt this proclamation.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor? It is uh 6. Jennifer, uh how many board members are Ruitton members? So that's two of us. Well, all of you non uh Ruitton members, we're going to encourage you to join a club in your area as as you can or either start a club. Um uh and I'm sure that these ladies would would you all please join me down front. Uh and uh as we um pass this over to we have Sher Lawrence with us and Pam Smith with us representing the uh Ruitton regions in this area. Thank you too much to watch.

Thank you. I know smoke starts coming out. We are two. The last one to take the picture reminds people of the beautiful events all

Um I just want to say that the request for this proclamation was made by our district governor Pam Smith. Our district is um four counties, Patrick, Henry, Pennsylvania, and Halifax. Um I'm here representing as a zone governor the Henry County clubs. And we just want to not just increase our membership, but make people aware of what we do in the community and um funding that we have available for different things. Everything from children with special medical needs to scholarships. And so we really appreciate you helping us make possible hopefully to get the word out and I will probably see some of you this Saturday at the Ridgeway Beef Festival. Thank you very much.

Mr. Cannon, how many years have you served in Ruth? At least 30. 31 32 something like that. Okay. Over 30 years. and I joined I joined my local club in September of 1979. So I'll let you all do the arithmetic. Thank you. That takes us to um agenda item number seven um consideration of proclamation recognizing April 2026 as sexual assault awareness month. Um Mr. Mr. Puit, I believe that you have a a proclamation for the board's consideration.

Yes, sir. This is a proclamation of the Henry County Board of Supervisors recognizing April as sexual assault awareness month. Whereas sexual assault awareness month is intended to draw attention to the fact that sexual violence is widespread and has public health implications for every community member of Henry County. And whereas rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment impact our community as seen by statistics indicating that nearly one in three women, approximately 840 million globally have experienced intimate partner or sexual violence in their lifetime. And whereas within the US over 53% of women report experiencing some form of contact sexual violence, more than one in five women have experienced completed or attempted rape in their lifetime. And whereas child sexual abuse prevention must be a priority to confront the reality that one in six boys, one in three girls will experience a sexual assault before the age of 18. And whereas staff and volunteers of the Southside Survivor Response Center, SSRC, antiviolence programs in the county of Henry encourage every person to speak out when witnessing acts of violence, however small. And whereas with leadership, dedication, and encouragement, there is compelling evidence that we can be successful in reducing sexual violence in the county of Henry through prevention, education, increased awareness, and holding perpetrators who commit acts of violence responsible for their actions. And whereas the County of Henry strongly supports the efforts of national and state partners as well as our local partner Southside Survivor Response Center and of every citizen to actively engage in public and private efforts, including conversations about what sexual violence is, how to prevent it, how to help survivors connect with services, and how every segment of our

society can work together to better address sexual violence. Now therefore, be it proclaimed that the Henry County Board of Supervisors hereby joins antisexual violence advocates and supports service programs in the belief that all community members must be part of the solution to end sexual violence. Along with the United States government and the state of Virginia, we do hereby proclaim April 2026 as sexual assault awareness month. This is signed Jim Adams, chairman, Henry County Board of Supervisors. Mr. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to adopt the proclamation as read. Second.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor? It is 6. Jennifer, I'm going to ask Supervisor Dillard and Vice Chairman uh Puit if you all will present this to representatives of uh Southside Survivor Response Center. Uh on behalf of the board, Three, two,

thank Thank you. Any of you like to offer a comment? Absolutely. Thank you so much. On behalf of SXRC, my name is Tracy Basker. I am the director of emergency services for SSRC. I have my colleague here with us. She is one of our advocates. Um we are very appreciative to receive this proclamation. We are grateful to serve as a pillar in our community to serve victims of sexual violence since 1981. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you all for what you do and uh being a part of the community in what uh can be uh considered as some of the most frightening times in a person and family's life. So, thank you all for what you're doing. Agenda item number eight, we'll have a monthly report on a delinquent tax collection efforts. It says that we have uh county treasurer Tiffany Harrison, but I better say Tiffany S. Haristen since we got two in the room with the same name. Welcome.

Good afternoon. for delinquent taxes on personal property. As of March 31st, 2026, we collected 70, excuse me, 87.78% of our 2025 personal property taxes. We collected $416,945, excuse me, $416,9458 for the lo. In real estate, as of March 31st, we collected 94,000, excuse me, 94.20% 20% of our 2025 real estate taxes. We collected $286,29524. Since March 31st, 2026, TACS, which is the taxing authority consulting services, has collected $424,30014. For debt set off, we collected $129,335.30 on April 15th. For the year, we have collected $145,728.96. As far as EMD stops for the month of March, we place or handle 297.

Okay. Thank you. Does anyone have any uh items or questions for Miss Harrison at this time? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Agenda item number nine uh will take up financial matters beginning with 9A, an additional appropriation referencing grant funds for the circuit court clerk's office. Uh Mr. Wagner, Circuit Court Clerk Katherine Sargado is asking the board to approve an additional appropriation of $23,384 received from the circuit court records preservation grant program. Court Zado has stated the funds will be used for the preservation of marriage, birth and death bonds and order books dating back to the 1700s.

Okay. The board has background material on that. Um what is the um action the board desires to take in regard to this item? Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to approve the additional appropriation of $23,384 from the circuit court records preservation grant program. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor? This 60. Uh Jennifer 9, an additional appropriation referencing the Virginia Opioid Abatement Authority Grant. Mr. Wagner,

this has been on your agenda before. Uh, you may recall the county agreed to serve as the fiscal agent for a regional project with Franklin County, Patrick County, the city of Marshall, and Pemont Community Services to expand support capacity for individuals experiencing mental health and substance abuse use related emergencies. As a result, staff is asking the board to approve an additional appropriation of1,197,347 that was received from the Virginia Opioid Abatement Authority grant. The grant does not require local match and Pedmont Community Services will manage most aspects of the project with grant funding for review.

Okay. In regards to this uh additional appropriation, uh what is the pleasure of the board? Mr. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to approve the additional appropriation of 1,197,347 from the Virginia Opioid Abatement Authority Grant as requested. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor? Is 6. Uh Jennifer 9 C an additional appropriation referencing vehicle insurance settlements for the sheriff's office. Mr. Wagon,

Sheriff Wayne Davis is asking the board to approve an additional appropriation of $22,700 received from vehicle insurance settlements. Sheriff Davis has indicated that funds will be used to repair existing vehicles. In regard to this additional appropriation, uh what is the desire of the board? Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to approve the additional appropriation of 22,700 from the vehicle insurance settlements as requested.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor? 6 by Jennifer. 9D. An award of contract referencing removal of unsafe structures for planning, zoning, and inspections department. Mr. Wagner Lee Clark, director of planning, zoning, and inspections, is asking the board to award two contracts for the removal of 10 unsafe structures following a request for bids. JS Escavating LLC of Stanley Town submitted the lowest bid of $70,389.91 to remove six of the structures. And right now, Remediation of Martinsville submitted the lowest bid of $51,45 to remove the other four structures. And a list of those 10 unsafe structures scheduled for removal is included in your package.

Okay. Uh yes, thank you, Mr. Wagner. and the board does have uh adequate background material on there. Uh what action would the board uh want to take in regard to this? Mr. Chairman, and this has should have come sooner, but uh I'd like to make a motion toward a contract of $70,389.91 to JSE Escavating LLC to remove six unsafe structures and a contract of 51,415 to right now remediation of Martinsville to remove four unsafe structures as presented.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor? is 6. Uh, Jennifer 9E, an additional appropriation referencing the 1% sales tax fund for new construction and renovation for the school board. Mr. Wagner,

the school board is requesting an appropriation of $162,100 from the 1% of the sales tax fund designated for new construction and renovation of schools. According to a memorandum from the school superintendent, the fund will be used for architectural and engineering services related to the replacement of electrical here at Bass High School and Magnus High School. Okay. The board has background material as well as the action that was taken by the school board in regard uh to this. What is the uh pleasure of the board in regard to this additional appropriation? Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to approve the appropriation of $162,100 from the 1% sales tax fund for new construction renovation of schools as requested by the school board.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor is 6. Uh, Jennifer, agenda item 9F, categor categorical transfers referencing school upgrades and school bus purchases for the school board. Mr. Wagner, the school board is requesting your approval of two categories for transfers. The first one, $195,560 from administration, attendance, and health category to the maintenance category. The second one, $653,17 from instructional category to the pupil transportation category. And according to a memorandum from the school superintendent, the funds will be used to update the intercom system at Basset High School and to purchase school buses for the school.

All right. Uh there is also attachments and u um memorandum and appropriate uh documentation from the school board in regard to this request. What is the pleasure of the board? Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to approve the categorical transfer totaling uh $848,577 as they requested.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor? There's 6. Uh, Jennifer, that takes us to um agenda item number 10,formational items. And I'm actually going to start with county. Uh, Mr. Wild, you've uh had something placed uh in front of the board members, and I'd like for you to uh detail that uh if you will, please.

At the last meeting, the board asked me to follow up on Mr. Lawless's request about can we and and he had some suggested language. Can we regulate the outdoor storage of tires? After looking into it, it's uh it's my opinion that we can. Uh and using really the outline that he gave me, I also met with him to find out what his concerns were. I talked to some other localities and um I suggested that a pretty simple ordinance where we would regulate the number of tires you can store outside for longer than 48 hours. Um, so the amount of time and the number of tires I I really just use the suggestions that the supervisor made. That's a policy decision. I will say that the state um tire dumps, storing, uh disposal is regulated by the state, but they kind of as a rough estimate, they start at about a 100 tires is when they start requiring permits, regulations requiring you to be a landfill or some other um facility, you know, a junkyard. Um, so, uh, if the board, you know, kind of like under a hundred, uh, the board I would say would be at the discretion of what they think is good public policy to regulate how you can store your tires outside. And that's what I put in with this. Um, violations, I just made them punishable by similar to other litter violations in the county ordinance. And also with these type of property maintenance type of violations, you're required to give notice. And I use the same notice when people accumulate other kinds of junk on their property uh and are required to remove. We we give them notice. I use the same notice procedures that we did under those. So it kind of whoever ends up enforcing this. It would be uniform. You know, if you find a violation of accumulated waste on someone's property

or you find too many tires, you send them the notice. It's one way to send notice and then if they don't follow up, it's a class one misdemeanor. It could be also there's authority for the county to go onto the property and remedy the problem, remove it, clean it up, and put a lean for whatever the cleanup costs on the property. That's all kind of similar to what we do with other similar violations of not maintaining your property in a safe and healthy manner.

Are we at a point we need to uh should we go forward with this advertise for a public hearing to take input on it? Well, that's kind of the board's decision. I mean, you know, yes, we could. So, if you advertise for a public hearing, there's no obligation to adopt it. You could change it. You could, you know, change the number of tires, the time it can be outside, those type of things. You can make any kind of changes you want after the public hearing. Um, and you can adopt it at really any time, days, weeks, months, same meeting. Um, but I guess if the board wants to go forward with it, if if if the board wants to pursue an ordinance, then that would at some point we're going to have to have a public hearing, but you could have a public hearing at the next meeting and then decide if you still want to go forward or make changes.

And and again, I'll leave that up to the board. You're just seeing this for the first time. Do you want a um some time to think about this before we shut the public hearing or uh what action? I have a couple of questions. Who would serve notice?

So, I I you know, right now our ordinances, um I mean, those type of code violations, I guess, are enforced by the sheriff's office, but we don't have a tire ordinance, but they do the mowing and the trash. I don't know if they would also do this or not. Um other things like unsafe structures are more enforced by the planning department. You know, we have building inspectors, but they're not really out. They're inspecting buildings, not looking at tires. So, you know, who would enforce it is a good question to ask. I mean, because if there was going to be any significant enforcement of it, I mean, you know, it's going to take resources from somewhere. So, I I I don't It could be enforced by any of the ones I just mentioned. Law enforcement planning and zoning, county staff could do it. I mean, but it I'm not suggesting that either any of those do it, but someone would need to probably decide who's going to do it. Well, would we need to decide that before we put it out for a public hearing?

Um, maybe the county administrator wants to weigh in on the logistics, but I mean, it's not required. I mean, you wouldn't dictate who's going in the ordinance, you wouldn't say who's going to enforce it, but that's probably a good idea to know. I mean, if because realistically, we can have this ordinance, but if no one's going to have the resources or be assigned to enforce it, that that would be a problem. So maybe that is a conversation you you that should be had by the people who you know do that stuff. Talk through that.

Well, I get so it's a little getting a horse before the court. One of the things I, you know, that I had talked about with all of y'all about at some point in time was, um, and I've talked to the sheriff as well now he's back here. U, but it was to allocate funds that we've allocated for another code enforcement agent that that code enforcement agent work through planning and zoning. And I'm assuming it would start off with that person and then go to the sheriff's department after the first one had been, you know, basically you give them notice, hey, you got this amount of time to clean up. up and then if they just say, you know, go pound sand, then you will send the sheriff after them as a way because the way I understood it was Mr. Clark told me in order for this to work, it has to be a partnership between both both, you know, the zoning and and law enforcement in order to make these things, you know, go. So, with the proposed budget that we're bringing up, you know, tonight, part of that one one portion of that is for this code enforcement agent, whether it be through the sheriff's department, whether it's through plan and zoning. But that's how I would think that would work.

Sheriff's here. Sheriff, do you uh have any thoughts or comments that would be helpful to us about this or please? Sure. I'm glad to speak briefly, answer any questions may have.

You know, there's there's been a uptick in demand for grass and trash enforcement and which led me to do a little homework of my own. What I found out is Henry County is quite an anomaly. What I mean by that is we're one of the only sheriff's office in Virginia that enforces grass and trash. There 12 23 sheriffs in Virginia. I've reached out, spoke to a number of them. Uh the vast majority of them do not even have local code enforcement deputies under their umbrella. It's handled through their zoning and planning departments where they go out and issue the notices. Only when the people fail to comply with the notices and it becomes act criminal in nature do those sheriff's offices intervene. And some of those sheriff's office I spoke with rather large agencies such as co pepper. Um with that being said I I spoke with uh Mr. Lawless and there was a proposal for additional grass and trash and Chris was like to inform them financially what we talked about. kind of one of the things we discussed was what it costs to provide another deputy sheriff to serve local ordinances so everyone understands we have to hire someone. We're maintaining about 19 to 20 vacancies now. We're having a difficult time filling all the positions we have. We add another local code deputy, we will certainly fill that position. However, it will come the expense of somewhere else in our law enforcement division. Someone who answers 911 calls and keeps our community safe. So that being said, if we go out and recruit someone, from the date we hire them, there will be many months before they go to a training academy, nearly 6 months they'll spend their training academy. They'll get out of that training academy and they'll go through at least the 3-month FTO program plus additional training before they're ever even eligible to go out and serve the first grass notice. So we're well over six figures in salary and training

before we could even hire a deputy to serve a grass and trash notice. By comparison, we could hire at a rate of 2 to one civilians to work inside the zone and planning department and they would be effective within a matter of a short period of time with some variety of internal training versus an entire law enforcement academy. So it's food for thought. Um we're always looking at ways to save the taxpayers money. This is a way. All right. I have a question either to Chris or to the sheriff. Do you think this could be done through part-time means if it if we went through planning and zoning? Do you Chris, do you think it could be done dur through

my personal opinion? You could ask the sheriff about how many calls he gets on a regular basis. What I would say is with the amount of work there is to do right now, it's going to take a lot of extra effort. Now, maybe eventually maybe being able to slack off on that, but initially I think it's going to take somebody full time in order to be able to keep up with all six of us. Plus, you know, the sheriff and you can you can talk on what you get on that and what your feelings are on that.

Uh I wouldn't want to speak for how zoning plan would want to manage a civilian employee, but if you're asking for my opinion, I don't think it could be done on a part-time basis unless you had multiple part-time employees. I have to I agree with Chris and the sheriff. I've said it the past two budget cycles that we need to put someone in planning and zoning um to do code enforcement. And I've talked to Mr. Wagner, too, about um the communication issue between and having some type of app that the public can use to report these items. that person can follow up um with it and then move it through the process and everyone's informed and then when they need assistance from the sheriff's office, I'm sure he'll be glad to to assist there.

As Mr. L stated, uh when we serve these local code notifications, whether it be for high grass or trash, they're given a time period to fall into compliance and we have to go back out and check on them. So, that's what the vast majority of time that the deputies who are serving these are going. very little, very few occasions does it rise to the actual level of criminal. We're primarily serving notices and checking for compliance versus issuing actual criminal charges. So, I guess what the board would need to ask itself is that the best use of taxpayer funds to fund another deputy or possibly use the same amount of money by the time you do salary, benefits, and training. Like I said, you could almost hire a rate of two to one. And then I know Chris also has been getting calls from constituents in Reed Creek about the tires in Reed Creek and it's a specific one specific place where we've been talking about it, working on it even before he came on the board. So they're reaching out to him and he and I of course we share a portion of Collinsville. other tire places in Reed Creek look okay, but it's this is one and then there's another particular home near that area that also they've reached out to him and they've reached out to me. There's that and then also sharer for three years you and I have been talking about and then this past year when we always when I come to you just to have a discussion before budget and everything ideas and thoughts that you might have one time it was either last year or the year before when you said at one time in Henry County there was a code enforcement officer almost per district. So can you talk about that just for a minute? That was well before I became involved in this level of process. But yeah, I wish Chief Deputy Harris were here. He oversaw the unit at that time. And so there were there were community

policing officers. And so each supervisor, some of you may remember, uh had almost one person per district. Those were cut. Uh I think best we could figure 2009 2010 that budget was cut back. So it's been quite some time since that was in place. Would that, and I'm not saying anybody has the answer to this, but would that be a possible reason that the litter has gotten completely out of control? I mean, over over time where it's just caught us and now we're in a desperate situation just to get things cleaned up.

Well, I think when we talk about litter, uh, we think about trash along the side of the highway. And I don't think any amount of local code of executives will be able to resolve that. I do think the amount of household complaints we get does get backed up and stacked up. Um so I think we're dealing with two separate issues. Okay.

Unsightly and unkempt structures versus litter thrown out on the side of the highway. So no, I don't believe additional manpower would help the litter situation on the side of the highway. That comes down to people simply doing the right thing for the right reason and we don't see a lot of that. Um, but as far as unsightly structures, obviously when you throw more resources at a problem, you're more likely to solve it. Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Any other um discussion of or direction from board members? I I would like to put this to public hearing and then we can make make decisions after we we hear from that

and I would recommend each of you to look this over thoroughly. Um get get some different opinions as to uh do you think something goes a little too far one way or the other? Is it enforcable um to a degree that uh or or is this a first step to take us to where we really want to be? So So you put that in the form of motion that we set the public hearing. That would be our 6 p.m. session of the May meeting. Correct. Yes. Is there a second? Second. Have a motion and second. Any other discussion at this time? Just can we get an electronic copy? Yes.

Okay. Yeah, I can get you electronic copy. And um one thing uh as a point of discussion even after public hearing, we could set after that a uh enactment date. It doesn't uh correct. Yeah. Yeah, that is true. I think if you don't set a date, the default is almost immediately, but uh you the board can set future dates to enact any of their ordinances if you wanted to people have time to come in and comply.

And I guess where I'm coming from, public hearing allows us to take some input. We may need to tweak some things and give audibly and through press means some notice versus it happening. Okay, we we do something on a Tuesday and Wednesday morning, you know, uh you're in violation, right? You can pick a future date for it to become effective. And and as I said earlier, um we we do this board commonly does adopt ordinances after right after the public hearing, but you can if you want to make changes, uh there's really no limit. You could probably go months or up to a year from a public hearing to get it exactly the way you want it.

Thank you for answering that. Any other questions or discussion before we vote? All in favor is 6 Jennifer. Thank you, Mr. L. I appreciate your uh background uh on this. Um we'll continue withformational items. Uh starting with taking comments from the board. Uh and beginning with Dr. C.

Yeah, I Sheriff Davis Sheriff just a couple more things. Uh we've talked about and I've had the conversation also a few times with with Mr. Wagner couple of things and I don't know that I'm using the right terminology but in one of our meetings either last year the year before talking about a civil liability or a civil citation for individuals that somehow uh we can identify that are throwing out trash. Uh, best I recall, we were speaking specifically about trash bags and things that are found along the highway. In fact, there's not many days that you drive the highway and you don't see where a trash bag is blown out of a truck. Um, it's a common misconception that we can pull over and cut that trash bag open and find a letter or something to address an individual charged with littering. Well, littering is a criminal offense. It goes before the courts and requires a level of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. And uh part of our discussion was, you know, if I go to Mr. Wagner's house and I say, "Hey, let me haul your trash off." Blows out of my truck. Oh,

we don't want him charged with a class one misdemeanor for something he didn't do. However, if there were a civil penalty for Mr. Wagner's trash being found on the highway, I think that would be a much more reasonable approach versus attempting to charge someone with a criminal offense, which we're not going to do at the sheriff's office. But again, littering requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Civil penalty does not burden proof lies on him why his trash is on the highway. Mr. Low could probably speak more about that, but that's why we don't just go about and say, "Hey, we found this trash on the side of the road. It had Jim Adams name. We're just going to issue a warrant for his arrest." Uh, that's not providing a good service and it's most certainly not due process to the individual. And that would also be I'm not saying we're going to do it, but that's just been up for discussion a couple of times. Would that also be an ordinance that would have to change?

Now, currently, the only option we have is the class one misdemeanor for delivery, which is criminal. It's criminal in nature. uh we essentially would have to identify whose trash it is, go out, conduct an interrogation, get a confession, and then we could charge him with a class one misdemeanor. And as you know, most people are going to say, "I don't know how it got there." So, okay. Do you have any thoughts or comments about that? Have to look into it.

Just again, it's been it's been subject for conversation for a couple of years. while all of this is just really really coming to a head so to speak that something has to be done and I do believe and I get calls we've said weekly and then even I know that delegate uh Eric Phillips he's not here but he has said publicly and he's contacted Chris and myself together and individually about doing something also about the trash we know that and the only other thing that I have about that is that uh there has been discussion about an ordinance. Again, these are just ideas up for discussion. Uh to cover that trucks that or vehicles that are carrying trash to have to secure the trash or to cover the bed so it's not blowing out. I was driving down the road on 220 and the entire time that I was driving, the trash was blowing out of the back of the truck onto my van. And I'm saying miles of trash. And that was just one example. I have had an individual to take pictures of trash blowing out of someone's truck. They take the picture that So, we have discussed securing or covering the truck beds or the vehicle. Do you have any thoughts about that?

Again, there not many days. In fact, in the last week, I've probably got three bags of trash, complete bags out of Kings Mountain Road here. people coming to and from the dump blown out. Would a cover bed ordinance fix that? I would fix it. It would probably greatly reduce the problem. However, as a legislative branch of government, it's up to you to decide whether you want to tell people what they have to equip their vehicle with and what they don't.

Yeah. But your opinion as I mean as as sheriff, do you feel like that that's heav too heavy on the citizens or do you think that we need to be more strict to get to the bottom of it or do you think that uh that people as you would say just become more responsible citizens? Dr. That's a very complex question and and I would like to simply say that do I feel like a covered bed ordinance would reduce the problem? I do. However, I think most of you know I'm not a big government guy and I don't like to impart uh things on the citizens that don't need to be there.

Yeah, I hear. Yeah. Okay. And that's and that and that has come up because we are about small government and I know that we have had those discussions. So, how how do we how do we ask citizens to be more responsible to the point where it's like if the trash blows out? Now, if trash blows out, I mean, I I I don't care my trash, but I do have trash that is thrown out in front of my house. And obviously, I'm not going out there and picking it up myself. I have to find someone or ask someone to do that. And if I have to do that or if I see trash that's around and I'm making an effort to do it, how do I get Figs birth pretty clean, how do I get those some another area of citizens to pick up their trash? And I am at the point and again I hear so many complaints about it that I feel like that we just we need to small government very conservative but but people need to start taking responsibility to help clean up Henry County.

I agree and I think when we figure out a way to impart that upon society and change the way they look at it, we've all done something pretty miraculously. Just my little soap box. Yeah. flower on the soap box.

Can I just say something about So, and I think I this will sound flippant, but this littering is a lot like um drug abuse. I mean, it is something we know we shouldn't do and people do it when others aren't looking. I mean, we can have all kinds of enforcement mechanisms, but the bottom line is people throw stuff out on the side of the road. They know they shouldn't. They do it when no one's looking. And we have to clean it up. And and I think yes, we should come up with more ways to enforce the rules we have, but the reality is it's going to be trying to change people's behavior through education and ju just like substance abuse. It it's we've got to get people to stop doing things that are wrong and hurt our own community and hurt themselves. I mean I mean, you know, we can come up with all kinds of rules, but you know, civil offenses, well, they throw a Coke bottle out, it's not going to have their name on it. I mean, I I mean, you I mean, do you agree, Sheriff? I mean,

I agree. as a legislative body, you know, let's look at the truck bed. If uh if they're willing to throw trash out the window, are they really going to be willing to comply with their truck bed orders? So, again, that would go back to uh while everyone fell in compliance, it reduced the problem. However, those who are part of the problem are not going to comply with that order yet. So, it would punish those who are already abiding the law in some ways. There's pros and cons to everything. I was a pretty strict classroom teacher. Pretty strict. I mean, we had fun, but there was but there was structure and they didn't leave their the room until they cleaned up their area and their desk at their desk. And it's uh uh why has it gotten worse? I mean, why is that? And I'm not sure that we any of us have the answer, but thank you. I didn't mean to. Well, you know, you understand. We we have conversations about things. So, thank you for the your time.

Any other questions? Okay. Thank you. Anything else, Dr. Copper? Thank you. Uh Mr. Puit, um just a reminder of the D Festival in Ridgeway, um from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Um and that's on this Saturday, May the 2nd. Um and I also have a request for some district impact funds. Uh that will go to the town of Ridgeway. uh 600 of that will be for uh face painting at the bee uh festival and the remainder of it will go towards some small items to finish out the uh recreational ball court uh such as some trash cans uh various items like that

and they will be able to keep an accounting for it and turn in the appropriate paperwork. Yes, absolutely. Put that in the form of a motion. Yes, sir. I second. Have a motion and a second. Any discussion on this item? All in favor? Is 6. Uh, Jennifer. Uh, anything else, Mr. Pro? That's all I have. Uh, Mr. Dylan.

Yeah. Sheriff Davis, when you go on patrol live this weekend, can we get them to follow you guys picking up the trash everywhere? Ju just being silly. But, but we're all of course looking forward to that. and appreciate you continue to do things to, you know, highlight Henry County, you know, and it's I'm not going to say good, bad, or indifferent, but just to show Henry County and um, you know, those things. You never know where those types of things will lead and the type of assistance and help. And um, back to what Mr. L said, I think pride is the big answer. Um, you know, whether you're talking about, you know, somebody's health, somebody throwing trash out, drug use, uh, jobs, if if we continue to build that pride in the community, people want to see their community look good. And that's why you go to certain parts of the county and there's more trash than other parts because some people take more pride in the area that they live in and other people do not. Um, you know, same thing for neighborhoods. So, we just have to continue to promote, you know, pride and people have to take that individual pride in their particular um location. And so, you know, that's something hopefully we all can continue to do is to promote, you know, pride in, you know, people's living space. I do have uh requests for two district impact funds, and I'm just going to put it in one motion if that's okay. But one of the things I'm trying to do with my district impact funds is, you know, get youth engaged, involved. Um, so I'd like to make a request for $500 for CPJ fitness training in which um this is will be a training for some of our young athletes who play football and then another for performance 276 which will be a reoccurring opportunity for young folk and both of these will be at the Smith River Complex but it will be one day per week during the summer. youth can come out and take part in um you know different physical activities and

that would be by performance 276 and the first is by CPJ fitness. So I'd like to put that in the form of a motion that both of those entities will receive $500 um to support their event that they will hold at the Smith River Complex this summer. Okay, we have a motion u uh and as Mr. Dillard described to use impact funds with following the same criteria that the proper documentation will be turned into accounting. U is there a second? Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor? There's 60. Uh Jennifer, anything else? Mr. Dillard,

that's it. Thank you. Uh Miss McCann,

I do. Um, I had a local farmer in the area to call me and asked me if I was aware of an ordinance in Henry County that taxed uh livestock. And uh I was not aware of what he was talking about. and he proceeded to tell me that um bulls valued at $2,000, cows were valued at $1,000, donkeys were valued at I think $500 maybe, but 25% of that is what they were taxed. So, I was not a aware of that. Um we talked about the fact that, you know, our farmers, which are becoming fewer and far between here in the area, um their profitability is unpredictable. you know, with the rising cost of feed and fertilizer and all, but uh I understand also that Henry County is only one of a few counties in the state of Virginia that still do this. So, I reached out to Mr. Wagner, who in turn, uh talked to Mr. Lyall. And so, uh Mr. Lyle was to provide us with some additional information in regard to that.

Right. So, and I met with Commissioner Harrison and um so we Henry County, you livestock is viewed in the eyes of the Commonwealth. It's a state law that it's it's your business personal property. So, uh and it it is um I think in Henry County, I'm told we only tax cows and donkeys. Um and it's it's a self-reported people who come and have dealings with the commissioner's office report uh how much livestock they have uh and when they got it. And it's depreciated like business personal property and it's taxed at the I guess $155 rate. Um but uh in as I from talking to the commissioner she said that from looking talking to her peers most Virginia localities have exempted livestock over the years but we we've never exempted it. It's always been on the books that's been collected and I guess someone brought it to Miss Buchanan's attention.

He did and and I I'll ask Miss Haristston. Do you have any idea how much revenue we is generated from that a year? Very little. Very little. Very little. I think it probably would be notice if it was gone. Be honest. Okay. Well, I would propose and whether we have to have a public hearing on it or not. Or either we can change the ordinance here. I'd have to ask the county attorney. It's it's a it's an ordinance. We'd have to advertise it public hearing, but it would just I would probably create a new ordinance that just says these things are exempt from business personal property and list off whatever the state code says because most farmers are taxed on their farm equipment. But, you know, with livestock, it's unpredictable. You just want to exempt the livestock.

I think so. And I would like to u set a public hearing for that if the board's agreeable to that. Well, to follow up with that, I think we have enough on agriculture that uh if you if you look back 50 years ago, yes, it was part of the area and so much is placed on agriculture, the farmers, those whether it be uh livestock u of some sort. had a manu last week adjoining area vice chairman of a of another uh board in an adjoining area said he's got $6,000 laying out in the field just laying there because I asked him about his hay crop. He was waiting on rain. So that's an expense. You've got fuel cost. You've got something that's enacted by the state legislature that's going to drive up minimum wage costs. All that combined, it would well remove us from promoting agricultural growth. I think it would deter.

Yeah. With the net effect only being a small amount of revenue. I appreciate more than anything the due diligence of the commissioner revenues office of looking into things. I think that that's uh a refreshing thing for all of us that we're looking for the uh opportunities. But I also appreciate the part of it that when do we tip the scales too far. So would you like to make a motion to the effect of a public hearing? I would I would like to set a public hearing for the May meeting um to hear input on this uh ordinance change.

I second that. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor? 6. Jennifer, thank you. Anything else, Mr. McCann? No, sir. Mr. Wallace.

Yeah. I want to say one thing. Well, actually two things. Um, what I don't know if you guys have been following, but we talked about it goes back to what Dr. Conver said. Um, and the sheriff having and George actually all of them. uh taking pride in your community and trying to educate the youth because at the end of the day people have kind of forgot after co I think they got lazy and a lot of people need to realize we need to get out of that right as a community as a whole. Well, one of the things we looked at was we did me and Mr. Dillard teamed up with posters for pandas uh which was a coloring contest and a drawing contest that we did inside the elementary schools um to try to actually get to these kids and hope it'd be like smoking the bear where you're constantly saying, "Hey, don't do this." And that way the kids start pulling on the strings. We had some great artwork um you know and and we got some 4H camp for these kids out of it and we did some you know awards but um I think we like to continue doing that. We had 150 entries which was really great for the first time and these kids you can tell they really put their heart into it and you could tell that a lot of them put some effort into it. So I want to thank all the schools that participated in that for us number one. Um, and the second thing I want to say was springfest, which planning an event is totally different what I thought it was. I want everybody to know that. And procrastinating does not work. So, you can't wait till a month before and make this happen. But, I did and it was stressful. But, I want to thank the community and everybody that come out to help support that. I got nothing but positive feedback from it. And anybody does plan event, God bless you, is what I want to say. But, um, there's been a lot of interest. So, I think we're going to do it again next year. I'd like to make it a yearly thing except this time we'll go and put the date down now a year ahead of time and you know basically what we did was reptile fest was going on and we had our thing going on as well. So I want to show that both things in the community worked at the same time so it doesn't have to always be one or the other. People left from there they come over to there but the whole time the place was full. Um I heard nothing but positive people

talking to each other. Got some new businesses out there. So again, um you know, I just want to say thank you to the community and everybody participated, but those only two things I got for you.

All right. Thank you. um like to offer uh at least comment that uh our recipient this year, the Jack Do award uh having past offer the board's condolences and what a life lived as far as a community particip participant in generosity in hands-on in volunteering. Uh I don't think that we could uh say uh enough things that even cover the depth of the impact that Charles made and I'm sincerely uh on behalf of the board. I think all of us are saddened. Um but Charles would uh want us to um I think it's been expressed um see uh some things uh when other comments are being made as a celebration of life because that's the way he lived uh pretty much uh in regard to thinking of fellow man and uh what would make a community better and for that I think we owe a tremendous amount of respect uh in his memory. Mr. Wagner,

thank you. I have a few reminders for you all. You probably have them on your calendar, but just in case I'm going to go through them quickly. Uh Friday, May 8th at 6:00 p.m. at Jack Dalton Park is our annual Fire and Rescue Volunteer Appreciation Day event. I'm sure the volunteers would love to have you there and it's a good event and meal is provided. So, if you're able to come out for that, Tuesday, May 12th at 6 PM is at the Basset Train Station is our annual employee services awards banquet where we recognize our wonderful employees for their longevity and dedication to the county. Uh May 13th, which is a Wednesday, at 11:00 a.m. here in the Summerland Room will be the annual uh police officer memorial service where we uh remember the men that have died in the line of duty here at Henry County uh serving our our community as well as uh state police.

Mr. Wagman, would you give that date again? It's uh Wednesday, May 13th here in the at 11:00 a.m. at 11:00 a.m. Okay. Okay. And then of course we have on our calendar for next Tuesday, May 5th at 3 p.m. for a subsequent uh budget meeting to assuming you all come to agreement or whatever to approve the budget for next Tuesday. Tuesday and time of that meeting again. I had it on my calendar at 3, but we had a couple notations that we didn't have a time. So I guess you know if you need to adjust it now would be the time to do. So, Tuesday, May 5th at 3:00. Yes, that's what I had on my calendar,

which is the adoption of the budget. What is that? Assuming you all are able to come to an agreement and we're able to to get to that point. Otherwise, I assume it would be a work session. Okay. Uh, in regard to that, any word whatsoever on what the state budget's doing? Either you or Dr. Boon, if you want to comment. My understanding, you know, they they left the general assembly, left Richmond after a day of work and the speaker of the house made notion that uh we probably should not expect a budget before June.

And we've been in this situation before um where we not ideal makes things a lot of work on a lot of other people. But uh in the past what we've done, we've adopted our budget the way we think it should be. If we need to adjust, we'll do that after. All right. Anything else? That's all. Thank you. All right. That takes us to agenda item number 11 as allowed by the code of Virginia. If someone will cite the uh items that will allow us to go into a closed meeting.

Mr. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion the board convenes in a closed meeting as permitted under the following sections of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act 2.23711A1 for discussion of appointees to the Parks and Recreation Board, Economic Development Corporation, Henry Martinsville Social Services Board, Patrick and Henry Community College Board, Pedmont Regional Community Services Board, and the Southern Area Agency on Aging Board. Also 2.23711A7 22 3711 A7 for discussion of pending legal matters. 2.23711 A3 for discussion of the acquisition disposal of real estate and 2.23711 A5 for discussion of as yet unannounced industries.

Second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor is 6 Jennifer and I'll see you all upstairs in 5 minutes. Hey madam closed meeting on a motion by Miss Buchanan second by Mr. Puit. U Mr. Pal will you pull the board please? Yes sir. Board members to the best of your knowledge on the public business matter agenda for opening meeting requirements code of Virginia section 2.23711 heard discussion or considered in closed meeting. How do you vote? Mr. Adams. Yes sir. Mr. Laws. Yes sir. Mr. Yes sir. Mr. Billy. Yes sir. Dr. C. Yes sir. Mr. Brooks.

Yes sir. Okay. Um, Mr. Puit, I believe that you have a resolution uh before the board for its consideration.

Yes, sir. I move the Henry County Board of Supervisors approve the county's participation in the proposed settlements of opioid related claims associated incorporated and American Associated Pharmacies, JM Smith Corporation, the Louisiana Wholesale Drug Company Incorporated, Morris and Dixon Company, North Carolina Mutual Wholesale Drug Company Incorporated, and United Natural Foods, including its uh subsidiaries, supervalue and advantage logistics, collectively referred to as the six remnant defendants and their related corporate entities and direct the county attorney and county administrator to execute the documents necessary to effectuate the county's participation in the settlements by adopting the attached resolution dated today.

Okay, we have a motion. Is there a second? Second. Okay, motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor? Is uh 6. Uh Jennifer. Um prior to a recess, Mr. Wagner, do you have any items for the board? I do.

Board members, do you have any? I will declare a recess at 4:49 and uh we will start the evening session promptly at 6. I call the 6 pm session of the April 28, 2026 meeting of the Henry County Board of Supervisors back to order from uh recess from our afternoon session. Like to welcome all of our visitors, remind you if you uh want to address the board, you must sign up 7 days in advance of any meeting to be put on the agenda. The county administrator is the contact person for the board. However, uh there is a spot on the agenda uh as matters presented by the public that the public is uh uh afforded that opportunity and that will come up as agenda item number 19 tonight. Again, welcome everyone. Thank you for coming out participating in your county government. Um our first agenda item uh tonight is agenda item 12, general highway matters. We have with us Robin Keeler from VOTE. Robin, welcome.

Thank you. Thank you all for having me. Um, just some regular routine maintenance going on, getting ready for our paving schedules. Um, you may have seen the back truck and the uh uh sweeper truck in some of the uh areas. Collinsville. Just we just finished up there. We're moving on to Carl Island and some of that work. Our mowing schedules will begin on May 1st. We're going to start on the primary I'm sorry, secondary routes first and then we'll move to the primary routes and that work will be completed within 30 days. Um then we're going to um move on to Murray Hunter Drive. We're going to do the second phase of that uh sight distance um project out there. It will start when school is out on uh June 1st and the road will possibly be closed 24 hours a day for about a week or so and then we hope to be able to open it, you know, sporadically, especially at night when we're not working. um that we have a uh secondary six-year plan uh meeting uh public hearing for Henry County next board meeting. I wanted to remind everybody of that. Um and then we also have the secondary six-year plan for the Salem uh district in uh Ron Oak this year at um May 13th at the Holiday in Airport on Broadway Drive at 400 p.m. And uh it will be uh open to public comment. Uh this will be to talk about the fiscical year 27 to 32 six-year improvement plan and this includes highways, rails, and public transportation. Guests are welcome to come and uh like I said, we'll take public comments, but if you do not want to do a public comment, you can do a written comment or uh you can email it in later. We'll accept those through June 1st. And if you uh want the information on where to send that or email address, whatever, you can reach out to our office or your board members also have that information, too. Um, again, that's at uh May 13th at 4 p.m. at Orway Drive in Low Calian Airport. Um, that's really all I have. Have any questions?

Any of the board members have anything for Miss Kayla? Yes. I would like to just ask that someone would ride down Axton Road and shortly before you get to where the Martin Farm is located. The trees are just hanging over the road. It would be nice if somebody could take a look at that and, you know, start cutting those back sometime soon. Okay. Sure. Anything else? Anything else? Thank you. Thank you. Agenda item uh number 13 will have a presentation of the Henry County Headliner Award. Mr. Bennon, I believe you have some background material on this.

Yes, sir. Tonight we have the privilege of recognizing an achievement that is not only remarkable in its own right, but one that reflects the ingenuity, determination, and collaborative spirit that defines Henry County. The Virginia 250 car project began as an ambitious idea to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the United States while showcasing the deep roots of motorsports in our region. Built right here in Henry County, the car is a unique blend of history and engineering, drawing inspiration from classic racing design while incorporating modern performance and craftsmanship. What started as a vision quickly became a reality thanks to the dedication and talent of many individuals. I want to take a moment to recognize not only the two men that we are honoring here tonight, but also those who helped bring this project to life. Danny Turner and Dr. Pam Cobbler played an instrumental role in building support for the Virginia 250 car and helping move the project forward. This advocacy and commitment ensured that this idea could grow into something truly special for our community. Of course, at the center of this effort are Joey Arrington and Tommy Hurley. Joey's skill and expertise as the builder of the car laid the foundation for this achievement. and Tommy's role behind the wheel brought that vision to life in a truly extraordinary way. Together, they achieved a top speed of

253 miles per hour, setting a land speed record and bringing national attention to Martinsville and Henry County. This accomplishment is about more than just speed. It's about innovation, teamwork, and a shared sense of pride in where we come from. It is a testament to what can be achieved when local talent and passion come together with a common purpose. In recognition of this achievement and the positive attention that they have brought to our community, Henry County has created a custom trading card that commemorates their success and serves as a lasting milestone. Um, it's a reminder. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to award Joey Arrington and Tommy Hurley with the Henry County Headliner Award.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Uh, all in favor is 6 Jennifer. NOW, I'll ask u uh before I ask board members to come down, uh, Dr. Cobb, would you like to offer any comments?

Yeah, just uh I was sitting at another meeting with Joey and he had a model car wrapped in a flag and he it was sitting in front of him and I said, "What's that?" He said, "I need to talk to you about this." And that that started the conversation. I will give the majority of the credit and recognition. Thank you, Deborah, for coming up with this to really Danny and Joey. They they started it from the very beginning and then pulled me into the team. So, it was just an honor to be a part of it. And yes, everybody knows that I referred to I mean, I love cars and love racing. So, I was a good person to ask and it was a privilege just working on that and helping just the way that I could. Thank you.

I'll ask all board members if you'll join me down front. We have uh some packs of uh these uh sports cards and uh I'll ask members of uh the group uh Joey, you and others to come forward to receive these While we've got the sheriff here, do you have radar that will catch this?

He knows how to post photos. Nice. 3 2 1 2

All right. like a sign.

I haven't seen

Well, this was a uh an exciting venture. I remember Joey sit there and said, "Before you died, he wanted to set this world record at 250 mph." I said, "Hey, let's see if we can get the state officials uh through the 25 commission and commission to chip in some money, make this a little easier, and we'll celebrate the 250th anniversary of this country." And so, it was a big success. Uh going forward, the uh House of Representatives and the United States Senate is going to recognize us in the coming weeks and uh also the Virginia General Assembly is going to recognize us. I spoke with Joey and what we want to do, we want to bring some of the celebration back to Mars and Henry County. So, next month we're planning on the house resolution of our congressman making that presentation to us probably at the Sears building, the former Sears building. And uh I don't know where we'll take the resolution from the United States Senate. that'll be read into the uh history of the United States and how proud we are of Marsville and Henry County. And uh we are going to have some type of event and we want to uh invite all the STEM kids in the region before graduation because it's on a very short schedule, but the congressman's agreed to come and uh so we look forward to the kids. One of the big things we got the University of Virginia's uh engineering school involved and uh they actually took all the uh data that we had and came up with some uh some ideas. So this is a young kids uh this is a great place to start to give an example. Two of the kids at the University of Virginia as soon as they graduate they're going to work for uh SpaceX. And so I think it'd be great to have our local kids see these kids and say, "Listen, four years I can be there or I

could be getting in trouble." So I think it'll be a great example. Now Joy,

well, I just like to thank uh Joey Aron for giving me the opportunity to to drive the car and all the help that went along with it. And uh I just like going fast. I don't really know what to get up here and say, but I just I just like to drive fast, but uh I appreciate everybody's uh help. Well, I got a little bit to say. On March 23rd at 10:47 or 10:53 a.m., Mr. and Mrs. in Martinville County give birth to a missile and there was a guy known by the name of Tommy smacked her on her ass and she got the other end they called the Virginia missile and we are so proud of that um it it uh and and the other thing it done and I don't think anybody realizes you know the Virginia missile cleared the path for Artemis to circle the moon let's think about that for a second clear clear the path so anyway Thank you guys and thank Henry County. Come on here.

And thank y'all very much.

Thank you. Quite a quite an accomplishment. Uh I don't know how anyone can top that. Uh, next agenda item is agenda item number 14, but we actually took that up this afternoon because of a scheduling uh uh difference. We actually are taking agenda item number six in that spot. And uh agenda item number six is a consideration of a proclamation recognizing the 70th anniversary of the Martinsville Aluminina chapter of Kappa Alpha Sai fraternity. Mr. Dillard, I believe that you have uh some background on this for the board's consideration.

Yes, sir, I do. And I'd like to ask the members of Kappa Alphasai to step forward as I read this proclamation. and it's a resolution to Henry County Board of Supervisors honoring the 70th anniversary of the Martinsville Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alphasai Fraternity Incorporated. Whereas Kalpa Alphasai Fraternity Incorporated established in 1911 upon the enduring principles of achievement, service, and brotherhood has long served as a beacon of leadership and excellence in communities across the United States. And whereas for seven decades, the Martinsville Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alphasai has exemplified these principles through steadfast dedication to uplifting the citizens of Martinsville and Henry County by way of mentorship, scholarship, civic engagement, and community service. And whereas the chapter's unwavering commitment to cultivating young leaders, advancing educational opportunities, and fostering unity has created a profound and lasting legacy that continues to enrich generations of families throughout the region. And whereas the Martinsville Kappas have consistently embodied the fraternity's guiding motto, achievement in every field of human endeavor, serving as role models, advocates, and champions for progress, equity, and opportunity. Whereas the 70th anniversary of the Martinsville Alumni Chapter stands as a significant milestone, one that reflects decades of perseverance, brotherhood, and meaningful service to the community. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Henry County Board of Supervisors hereby proudly recognizes and celebrates the 70th anniversary of the Martinsville Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alphasai Fraternity Incorporated, honoring its distinguished legacy of service, leadership, and achievement. And we we extend our deepest gratitude to its

members, past, present, and future for their enduring commitment to strengthening our community and inspiring generations to come. signed by Jim Adams. And I would like to make a motion that we accept this and present this to Kappa Alphasai Fraternity Incorporated. Second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? 6. Jennifer. Uh Mr. Dylan, if you and Vice Chairman uh Puit would present this on behalf of the board, I would appreciate it.

Yes, sir. And just a few words if if that's okay. you know, I'm also in a fraternity and we, you know, in our college days, we kind of rival against each other, but as we grow older as men, we realize that we're in the same uh situation. We're just trying to help our community. And I I won't steal anything that they have to say, but u you know that that's a great part of being a organization in the Divine Nine is that you leave college or even if you you know, join later, you your goal is to make your community better. And these guys, I'm sure, are going to share some of the great things that they're doing in the Martinsville Henry County community.

Thank you for those comments. Just 3, two, I think I got you in. Step back.

This is really pretty land. Did you miss this? That's beautiful. Mr. Grley, if you would like to offer comments.

Thank you. Thank you. Um, just a few since well, my name is Winy Gravel. I'm the past president of the Mville Virginia Alumni Chapter of Capital Secretary Incorpor since June the 2nd, 1956. Our organization has been honored to serve the Henry County community. We do it not just through community services, through our mentoring program, but we also offer leadership and we our motto is honorable achievement in every field of human endeavor. We um base oursel on try striving to help the next man up. You know, if we can't help you, we sure not going to hurt you. You know, and as brother uh well, I'm going say brother, he's not my brother, but Gary Dylan, he's in another fraternity. We um go back and forth and it's friendly competition because what we do is we we try and we strive to help the community the best that we can. So one day they may get an upper hand, we make it upand but together we um the whole D9 organization we strive to try to make our community for Henry County and also Martin V and other surround um community better overall. Thank you.

Thank you. Will you mention your event that you have coming up in June? Yes, I have um brother um Daryl Ashley his school. Okay. Yes, sir.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Diller. Mr. Diller was my college roommate four years at Grand R. for a long, long time since the seventh grade. We want to thank you for this opportunity and to the event you just mentioned. We will be celebrating that 70th anniversary this June 6th at TD Space in Martinsville. It's our 70th ann Charter Day. It's a really big event. If you're interested, please find one of us, let us know. We can tell you more about it. But it's a community event. And also um I think you mentioned Mr. Dillard um educational opportunities. That's what we really want to put out there for our young people. But uh one of the things that we do um the main thing is exposing our students to educational opportunities. So we also uh take trips almost every year. We're going somewhere to expose our students to colleges, universities. Um this past fall it was VMI. We taking students to Virginia Tech, Bradford, um North ENT, Virginia Union, you name it, Western Central State. We want our kids to be exposed and we want them to to do well in life and we think it starts with education. We also give scholarships. I think that was mentioned as well. In fact, our committee will be meeting this week to determine who our scholarship winner is going to be for this year from a Maroy Henry County area school. So again, we want to thank you for this opportunity and we want to get to 70 more years of working hard for our community and our youth. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. And I'm sure uh through the generations that you all have served uh your efforts uh haven't gone unnoticed and you've made a longl lasting difference in a lot of people's lives. So, thank you for your service. Next agenda item is agenda item 15. will have a public hearing on a reszoning application R-26-04 for Jeffrey A. Scott. We have with us to give us background on this our director of planning and zoning, Mr. Lee Clark. Mr. Clark.

Sure. This property is lo is located adjoining 2303 Figsboro Road, additionally accessed by Victoria Court. It's in the Re Creek District. Property is shown on tax map 1761A as lot 11M. The applicant has requested reszoning of approximately 16 and a half acres from rural residential district to agricultural district A1. The applicant plans to construct an accessory building on the property which will be used for storage. Following the public hearing, both the planning commission and staff recommended approval of this request.

I'll open the public hearing to take input on this resoning uh application at 6:21. Is there anyone wishing to address the board on this resoning application? Seeing no indication that anyone uh wishes to address the board, I will close the public hearing at uh 6:21. Dr. Cobb, I believe this is in your district. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to approve the resoning request as presented. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor? is uh 6 Jennifer. Agenda item 16 uh public hearing for reszoning application R-26-05 for Ruben Ramos Torres, Mr. Clark.

Okay. This property is located in 15 Ridgewood Roads in the Re Creek District. Property shown on tax map 158 as lot 199A. The applicant here is requesting the reszoning of the property from commercial district B1 to suburban residential district. and the applicant plans to renovate the existing structure into a single family residence. Following the public hearing, both the planning commission and staff recommended approval of this request. Also, I'll open the public hearing to take input on this at 6:22. Is there anyone wishing to address the board on this uh reasonzoning application? Not seeing or hearing any indication. Uh I will close the uh public hearing at 6:22. Dr. Cabba as well. I believe this is in your district.

Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to approve the resoning request as presented. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor? Is 6. Uh Jennifer. Agenda item 17, public hearing for reszoning application R-26-06 for Christopher D. Whitlo. Mr. Clark,

this property is located in 911 Balden Road in the Horse Pastor District. The property is shown on tax map 60.1 as lot 139 C B, 141, and 142A. The applicant here is requesting reszoning of approximately 12 and a half acres from rural residential district to agricultural district A1. The applicant plans to potentially keep livestock and to construct additional storage buildings on the property. And following public hearing, both planning commission and staff recommended approval of this request.

I will open the public hearing to take input on this at 6:24. Is there anyone wishing to address the board on this resoning application? Not seeing an indication that anyone desires to. I will close the public hearing at 6:24. Uh, Miss Buchanan, I believe this is in your district. Uh, yes, Mr. Chairman, and I make a motion to approve the reasonzoning as it was presented.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor? Is 6. Uh Jennifer, agenda item number 18. Um this will be a public hearing on the fiscal year 2026 2027 setting of tax rates. Uh Mr. Wagner, will you give us some background on this, please? The proposed fiscal year 2026 2027 budget was presented on April 2nd and then the board held a work session on the budget on April 7th. Pursuant to 58.1-3321 of the Virginia code, the board must hold a public hearing to receive citizen comments when a general reassessment of real property by the county would result in an increase of more than 1% of the total real estate tax levy. Henry County has proposed adopting a tax rate of no more than 50 cent per $100 of assessed value. The difference between the lowered tax rate and the proposed rate would be 13 cent per $100 or approximately 35%. Uh the public hearing has been properly advertised and scheduled for this.

Okay. Um, we had a signup sheet uh on the back table for those uh wishing to speak, but that does not exhaust uh anyone else from speaking. Those that have signed up have that opportunity first prior to calling you uh to the podium and you can also opt out if you decide not to speak if you've signed up. Um I have a brief policy statement uh to read. This is a time for public comment. We welcome your participation in tonight's meeting. We're here to listen to you. If you care to address a board, come to the podium, state your name, and the subject matter, of course, is the uh the uh tax rate um and the district in which you live. By coming to the podium, you have agreed that you'll exhibit respect for the board, staff, and its members. You'll receive the same consideration from the board. And please try to keep your presentation between three to five minutes. And as we get with some public hearings, uh we have members of the public that want to engage the public. I can assure you that the uh each member of the u excuse me, I may have said that backwards. Each member of the board is here to listen and they will be uh taking vigorously the notes and input of uh what anyone has to say. So uh we'll move through the public hearing and uh then uh I'll offer an opportunity for the board to respond if they so wish. Uh at that time the first name that I have that's signed in I think is John Lexa from Ridgeway District. Uh Mr. Alexa if you'll come forward.

Hello. My name is John. You probably know my wife Marcy. We've been residents at home in M County, Virginia since May of 99. And I was re recently informed by the county that our property has changed valuation from 140,900 to 268100. That's a 90% increase which kind of took me back. Um, now I did some research and according to Carton News, they said that the average residential value has increased approximately 66% in your recent valuations. They state you were considering dropping the present tax rate down 55.5 to 50% 50 cents per 100, which is a 10% decrease, but would still amount to around a 50% increase in taxes. That's that's even more than what gasoline is going up right now. That's that's kind of nice. Our new valuation on our residents would change our property tax at the new rate of 50 cents that you're proposing to from we're paying 782 perom to 1,340 per. That's a 71% increase. We're facing $558 more. And while my wife is still working and plans to do so for several more years, I'm a disabled senior citizen on social security. And according to the last census, the median income in Henry County, Virginia is around 5760. And along with skyrocketing insurance, medical, gasoline, food prices, this property tax increase could be the following domino to just knock some people down or they can't get up again.

Um, you're proposing by the also in the budget. I saw a 2% cost of living adjustment. Henry County employees. How is that going to help with property taxes? It's going to be that high of a if your budget increases for the next fiscal year is approximately going to be about 3 and 12%. Then wouldn't that be more of a just increase to property taxes on average rather than this 50% that I did get in with. I wish the board would consider these points with me when you're proposing the new tax re. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Mr. L. Next name I have signed in is uh Andrew C. Palmer from the Collinsville district. Good afternoon, dear members of the Henry County Board of Supervisors. I am asking to respectfully urge you to adopt a real estate tax rate of 48 cents per $100 of assessed value as originally recommended by the county administrator. As you know, the proposed budget already reflects a significant increase in property assessments across the county, approximately 51% overall and 66% for residential properties. Even at the proposed rate that the administrator suggested at 48 cents, the average taxpayer is expected to see an increase of 31% in their tax bill. Rising the rate further to 50 cents per $100 of assessed value only compounds this burden on residents who are already struggling with economic pressures. Inflation continues to drive up cost of everyday necessities, including food, utilities, and fuel. might add that we're at war with Iran. Many families in Henry County are working hard just to keep up and an additional tax increase on top of sharply higher assessments will be difficult for them to absorb. While I understand the county does face rising costs and importing and important funding needs, I believe the rate of 48 cents per $100 of assessed value does represent a balanced and reasonable approach. It allows a county to meet its obligations while recognizing the financial realities facing its citizens of inter county. At a time when households are tightening their budgets, local government should do the same

whenever possible. Adopting a lower rate would distrate fiscal restraint and a commitment to protecting taxpayers that you represent. I respectfully ask you to support the tax rate of 48 cents per $100 assessed value to provide some relief to the residents of Hinder County and I do say that this board is is doing a good job and um I appreciate everything you do and just hope that you will reconsider that rate of 50 cents. Thank you.

Thank you. That's all that have signed in. Is there anyone else desiring to address the board during this public hearing? Is there anyone else by show of hands or indication? Yes, sir. Please come forward and uh state your name in the district in which you live. My name is Jody Duncan from Ridgeway District. Just have a couple of comments. one is going to 50 cents as was advertised would be a 35% increase in revenue over the previous year. Everything that I've read from the uh local media, the proposed budget is only increasing 4%. So my question is where's the other 31% of the money going to? We're increasing our revenue by 35%, but we're only increasing our budget by 4%. So, I'd like for you to take into consideration, you know, that's an awful big increase. The only one I saw that was large was the uh refuge department at 11 12%. So, if you raise the tax rate from the 37 cents per 100, even a 12% increase only gives you 41 12 cents per 100. So, please take into consideration how much you're actually increasing your revenue. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Is there anyone else desiring to address the board during this public hearing? Anyone else? Okay. Seeing Yes, sir. My name is David Craig and I'm from the Blackberry district and um this is kind of indirectly but I think that some of the burden should be shifted from the law abiding citizens to those others because um one thing that I've done is I help with some of the trash pickup and a high percentage of that is uh from the food the uh fast food restaurant drive-ins. We got uh bags from McDonald's, Wendy's, um um uh Burger King, and all those other it it's it's a common denominator is you got trash from the drive-in restaurants and then from the convenience stores of the beer and cigarettes. So I think that you know we should shift some of the burden to the ones that are creating the problem and and and look into some way of of shifting it to them. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Is there anyone else wishing to address the board during this public hearing? Anyone at all? I will close the public hearing on this at 6:36. board members, I'm going to uh uh move on with matters presented by the public and then come back and allow you all uh as much time as you desire to take after matters presented by the public. Uh that's agenda item number 19, matters presented by the public. Does anyone wish to address the board on any subject uh at this time? I see two hands. Um same policy. Mr. Craig, I saw your hand first. If you'd uh come forward again, I'm David Craig and I'm from the Blackberry District. And I would just like to take this opportunity to thank uh Sheriff Davis, Captain Hines, Lieutenant Wagner, Sergeant Robertson, Deputy Flannry for their uh presentation at the sample rule at the club yes um Monday evening. I think it was a great opportunity for the community to get out and uh meet with the sheriff's department and also the it was valuable information that they presented to the community. And again, on behalf of the Sam Ruitton Club, I would like to thank the Henry County Sheriff's Office for their uh dedication to the community.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Craig. I saw one other hand over here. Yes, sir.

Hi, Tim Thompson from Paxton and I have a very brief uh suggestion. Uh, here we are in this room and it's very difficult to hear anybody speak. I don't know if it's these microphones or what it is, but it's like being in a big hall in the 1950s. And I think that some of the big bucks that you guys are trying to get out of the taxpayers could be spent very well in this room, which represents all our districts to all of our people to give us a better sound. Thank you for considering it.

All right. Thank you. Anyone else under matters presented by the public allowing you to speak on any subject? Is there anyone else wishing to speak? Seeing and hearing no indication as such, I will uh close uh that agenda item and come back to uh uh first to Mr. Wagner. Do you have any comments from the uh public hearing on the uh setting of the tax rates? I do not.

Okay. Board members, do you all have any comments at this time? Uh and and prior to that, Mr. Wagner, if you will, for public knowledge, state the date that we're to come back and um and time to determine uh the budget. Yes. So, we're scheduled for next Tuesday at 3 p.m. That's May a week from today. May 5. Yes. May 5 at 3 p.m.

3:00 p.m. And prior to that, uh, just for those that are in attendance, uh, there are some specific things that I know that the board members will be talking with county administration about. Again, part of what has been advertised and every one of you are absolutely correct. It was uh advertised at uh 5050 50 cents uh per 100. That mean we could not exceed that. We can't go over that because of that's a law requirement. However, considerations can as some of you have spoken uh it can be taken in consideration to lower that but we could not exceed that amount. So again that's part of the process of uh I guess advertising uh publicly. Board members uh do you have anything? Yes, sir. Mr. Lawless,

I got something I'd like to say. Um being my first year up here, I want to be as transparent as I possibly can with everybody. And what I want to say is what I've learned in my brief time of being here was we started out a revenue neutral at 37 cent whatever that might be 37.9 vice versa. It was brought to our attention that um there's a deficit of 3 million from the adult detention center. There's where we've lost population or we're doing better by the LCI that now we have to pay a million that the state was giving us that we have to do directly now. So that's a total of 4 million. And then the last million that you talk about for the refuge department, First Pedmont Corporation has went up on their contract bus dumping our trash. We don't have a landfill that has to be taken from here to Damville facilities. We have no control over what another company does. So that's another part. So that's $5 million. In order to make up that $5 million deficit, we have to bring in the total being 48 cent as Mr. Palmer discussed. Now the other sense that we are trying to get here so everybody understands why it is 50 cent or why we're proposing that is um the county needs help like if you look at the cyber threat that went through the city and you see how bad that shut the city down that's not something we want and we got like one guy in it so we got to have two guys in IT to protect our county the other thing is is Basset uh volunteer services is actually letting their contractors I'm going to call them contractors but for a better lack of term the people that run calls for the Bass Community Center. Those people are the community I mean the volunteer service is no longer going to utilize that service. So when that happens now you got to have people running calls. So then three efforts are being put towards public works and stuff like that uh public safety in order to be able to take care of those things. So there's a reason why that we're using your taxpayer money. It's not to be able to abuse it. I've been on the same side as you guys. And when I get up here and I look at it, I look at surrounding areas and I know it seems like a lot for this

area. I mean, I I work along a lot of people in this area. So, I know that a lot of people struggle. There are programs for certain people that can and cannot afford it. So, those those things are out there and I I I would tell you to tell your friends to explore them to see if you qualify. But, it's been 5 years since this has happened and now we're here. So now it's it's part of the process and that's the reason we come here and most people understand in order to be able to get the sheriff's department which we all say the sheriff's doing a great job. So we have to keep funding that public safety when you need somebody or you're falling out you need those people you need to be able to pay for it. You got your schools you got all kind of different things that go into play and everything we all know as everybody's come up here and said things have went up in cost. Nothing's got any cheaper. So, it's up to us as a community to make sure we tear. We haven't even got a state budget yet. So, we don't have no idea what that's going to be yet either and we're waiting on that. So, at the end of the time, I just want everybody to understand from my point of view, what I've seen in a short period of time of being here, what your tax dollars are going for. It's not a big slush fund. There's not anything extra. There are some extras there, but you need some money for a rainy day. And when you say, "What is that number?" That number is, I forgot what it's like 12 minutes unallocated, but it's really not a lot if you keep pulling from it. So again, there's many different things that go into this equation, but I just want everybody to understand my view of where I'm at with it.

Thank you, Mr. Law. Other board members,

I was just going to ask Mr. Wagner, when can we expect something from the state or do you have an idea about that? So the general assembly left Richmond without even discussing the budget as I understand it and the speaker of the house announced in a public session that table probably be June before they got back together to discuss by law they have to adopt the budget by June 30 and that's a a good version your question Dr. cover because the majority of the county budget is made up of state revenues. And that's one reason there's a a discrepancy in the tax rate versus the budget increase is because we had a dramatic drop in state funding for school to school, uh we got less money for constitutional officers on a percentage basis. So even though that that meant it required more local money to continue providing the same level of services that we're providing now for education, law enforcement, the other constitutional officers and public safety

and that was included in the 48 cent but didn't include what Chris was talking about in terms of some of the additional items or positions that that we have considered for our budget. again without knowing what the state is going to give us knowing that the state's going to give us less. Yeah.

The the 48 cents that were proposed was essentially providing those services exactly as we provide them today uh on and same level funding the schools, public safety and law enforcement taking into consideration since our last tax increase the amount of inflation that occurred since 2018 that is finally catching up with us on the local level. Uh we have not had a tax increase since 2018, but inflation has went up 31% since that time. And the cost of doing business for for government. So if we're going to continue to provide the services at the same level that you're expected to get them today, then 48 cents is the rate.

So what you're saying is June and we're meeting on Tuesday, we'll still be trying to see in the dark basically still not knowing what a number is. So, um, as mentioned, a large part of our budget is dependent on state funding. Um, and we will not know what those final numbers are until the state budget's finished, particularly with education. That's probably the largest one. Um, we have seen both the House version of the budget, we've seen the Senate version of the budget. So assuming they adopt one of those two, um, we'll be within a few hundred,000 of those numbers based on the estimates we used in this budget. But the reality is we will not know for certain until they approve their budget exactly how what impact that'll have on Henry County.

And one one more question, please, Mr. Would you consider our taxes right now still low compared to some of our surrounding counties? I know we've talked about that before, like the counties that that are bordering Henry County. Well, low is a very subjective term to but our our tax is

less than many of our neighboring localities. Um, Franklin County, as I understand, just recommended a tax rate of 47 cent, went from 43 to 47 cent. But it's one thing to note about Franklin County is in Franklin County, one penny on the real estates generates a million dollars. In Henry County, it generates 450,000. Uh, Patrick County is considerably higher higher than ours. Uh, Pennsylvania County, I think, settled on a rate of approximately 64 cent, which was like a 7 cent increase, I think. uh Rockingham County, North Carolina is considerably higher than ours. And then if you branch out even further than that, it gets even further more. So yeah, I think that answers your question.

Thank you. Any other comments? I would encourage board members between now and Tuesday to u talk uh with Mr. Swagger and uh and um as to what you would like to see when we come back uh to determine some things on uh Tuesday as well. So all right with that I'll accept a motion for a journ. So moved. Second. Have a motion second. All in favor? 6. Jennifer everyone have a good evening.