Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

I will call to order this meeting of the King George Service Authority Board of Directors.

Please stand and join me for the invocation and the pledge.

Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for the time that you've given us tonight to come together and have a little bit of fellowship, enjoy one another's company, and get down to business about the county. Lord, I pray that you will be with us tonight. Lord, I pray that your grace will be over all of our conversations, that we'll be kind to one another, that we'll be edifying to one another. and that we'll make wise and smart decisions. Father, I pray that you'll bless our county, continue to help us grow, prosper. We'll pray for our children as they grow, that you'll continue to be with them and take care of them in the future. We say all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right. Thank you, everybody. Do we have any amendments to the agenda?

Do you want me to do it, Dan, or you want to do it? You can do it, Dan.

How about now? All right. The report on the surface water master plan, unfortunately, although it is complete, The copy I had available to distribute says the word draft on it, and I don't want to send that out to the public or discuss it in its draft form. So I'm asking to remove it from the agenda. I'm hopeful we'll be able to put it back on at the next meeting. Sounds good.

Everyone okay with that? Any issues? All right. Any other amendments?

Okay. Moving along, we will kick off public comment. Public comments will be limited to three minutes per person in order to afford everyone an opportunity to speak. Please provide your full name and district when submitting your public comments so they can be properly included in the public record.

And we'll kick it off with Pastor Davis. Not Sunday, sir.

Now it's on, yes. Pastor Davis from the Dauberman District. I weigh 232 pounds, 5'7 1⁄2". Do you need any more information? It's good to be here tonight. I have Sherman Davis. Just don't squeeze the Sherman. Good news from 1 Timothy chapter number 1 from the Word of God tonight. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That's a pretty good description of us, isn't it, sinners? And why did Jesus come? He come to save sinners, all sorts of sinners, all kinds of sinners, not just certain kinds of sinners, but just sinners, not just respectable sinners, but sinners without qualifications, And they're pollution without strength, unable to save themselves. So Jesus had to come to save sinners. And so it makes sense you have to be a sinner to be saved. But some folks think they're not sinners. So we'll move along from there. We see the word saved or salvation there in that verse. He came to save, not to show us how to save ourselves. He didn't come to show us how to help us to get saved. But he came to save sinners. He did it all. And we see his name. His name is Christ Jesus. Jesus, of course, is his name. Christ is his title. He's Messiah. He's Savior. He's Lord. The Bible says every knee shall bow and every toe shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of the glory of God. His name should be called Wonderful and Counselor and the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. And the government shall be upon his shoulders. Isn't that good news? Because there'll be no more board meetings, no more complaining citizens, no more ducking on Tuesday nights, you know, because the Bible says in Psalm 24 that everything belongs, all the earth belongs to God. And right now we're just kind of overseeing. We have a little stake driven, this corner of the stake driven over here to say this is mine. Well, actually it's his. He owns it all, and one day he's going to come back, and he will rule, as the Bible says in the book of Isaiah. And so there's a sure fact. The Bible says that he came into the world, and so he came into the world. That means he was somewhere else before. Fifty years ago, when Bill was about two years old, I moved to King George from Henry County, Martinsville, Virginia. They got a good sheriff down in Martinsville, Henry County. His name is Davis, Sheriff Davis. You know, you think about that for a second. But anyway, we moved to King George, and now Jesus came to earth from heaven, and he's coming again one day to set up his kingdom here on earth, and that's a sure fact. He will come again. They all said amen. I wish you'd ring a buzzer. Okay, thank you.

All right, Mr. Moncure, good to see you again. Very carefully.

Tutti Moncure, James Madison District, speaking as a citizen and not as a member of the Planning Commission. Thank you for all that you do. I just want to start out with that. According to this morning's Freelance Star, the approved Amazon data centers in Stafford are asking for amendments to their agreement to the data center campus off Route 1. This amendment includes the use of potable water in the amount of 217,000 gallons per day, even though their original approval included an Amazon constructed purple water plant. Amazon is running into difficulties building this plant, so now they need to use potable water. A cautionary tale, no surprise. Oh, and by the way, They want to expand the data center campus by another 45 acres and want to reconfigure the layout of the data centers to place them closer to Route 1. They also have asked for permission to start the second data center early. These requests or modifications to agreements for data centers in King George County will definitely be on future agendas. You can see them coming. Green Energy Ventures will not have electrical power for a number of years. It is predictable that they will ask to use natural gas or diesel in the interim. They will be asking for permission to use potable water, of course. You can just see it coming. It's how they do business. Thank you.

Kenny Morgan, did I get that name right?

Awesome.

Hi, my name is Kenny Morgan. I'm in the James Monroe District. I'm here to talk about the Dahlgren West Data Center being built. Turns out it's 83 yards from the closest house's backyard. I'd ask you to think about how you would feel if someone approved an 80-foot tall data center on a 500-acre plus size lot to be the view that your family now looks at. How hard would you want people to speak out to help preserve the peace, you provide the ones you care about. To clear the air on the Dahlgren West Data Center, because last time there was a lot of confusion, let's go over some of the construction notes. This will have massive diesel generators to supplement power. The cooling system will be fans, which is the worst kind for residents that live nearby. The noise created by these fans can carry up to two miles, looking at some research. There are well over 1,000 homes inside of a two-mile radius of the Dahlgren West Data Center. Data centers require massive electrical infrastructure to operate. This gives electromagnetic frequencies, which research links to childhood leukemia and other serious health concerns. This is what they have decided is best for our families in this county. Is this really the only answer we have for King George? I do realize that it's kind of hard to get information out to people. But as the meeting two weeks pointed out, there are a lot of people that just weren't notified. So I would say maybe we just have a flawed system of notification. Just talking to people in the local area is kind of what stirred up the notification about it. And a lot of people that live within the neighborhoods that even touch the data center itself had no idea. They knew a data center was coming, but they had no idea it was going to be that big. Amazon was approved. It was a signed and sealed deal, and the board canceled it, only to now be sued by Amazon because we have backed out. Our county ends up having to pay these litigation fees. Ultimately, I don't see how we could win a litigation when we all agreed to the deal if we're backing out, which means just we're going to have more data centers. If Amazon owns the land and we all agreed to it, We're not only going to have this 10 building data center put in our backyards, but the Amazon one will eventually come through. In closing, I hope that you will reconsider your positions. You backed out of the Amazon deal. You can absolutely do the same here. We do not want data centers in King George. This won't be the end of us fighting it. And thank you guys for your time.

Ms. Lovell? Ms. Lovell? Yes.

Hi, my name is Ana Maria Lovell, and I live in King, in Presidential Lakes. I want to thank all of you for your service to the community. I know this job is hard. Well, I also want to thank for lower the assessment to less than it was in 2021, and 2021 was 40%. This year, I think it was 20%. I want the commissioner of revenue next time to work with the supervisors. I feel that instead of hire someone from out of state, next time hire someone from Virginia. It seems like Virginia does not have people that know about assessments. I want to thank all of you for keeping the real estate taxes lower this year at 58 cents for $100 of assessed value, instead of 68 cents for $100 that it was last year. I am glad that all you are working together for the sake of the county. When I came to May 5th meeting, I had to leave the meeting at 10 o'clock. It was a little chaotic. But people tell me that you reach an agreement. I am so proud that you could work together for the sake of the King George citizens. Also, people of King George and all over the state of Virginia are worried about these data centers. These data centers are going to use a lot of water and electricity. These data centers in Virginia will be the world's largest concentration of these facilities. that has seen dramatic rise in water consumption in recent years. Many of the data centers in Northern Virginia use up to 5 million gallons of water per day. Well, I am proud of you for trying to renegotiate the terms with Amazon. But Amazon has sued the county in 2025 for failing to validate the company's vested property rights in the new zoning after purchasing 800 acres of land for $169 million. I think this was virtuous. What people worry about is the water and electricity these data centers will use and how to provide it by the county. I think these two items are essential to the people of King George. Thank you for listening.

Hey, ma'am. All right, that's all the people that have signed up. Is there anybody in the audience that didn't get a chance to sign up that would like to speak? Pastor Shaw, come on up, sir.

James Shaw, James Monroe District, columnist for the Northern Next Sentinel, citizen journalist, kgmedia.top, speaking partly in my capacity as an EDA member. repeat hat or maybe slight variation, Elon Musk fan. The largest IPO in history is behind us. SpaceX was founded by Elon Musk on March 14th, 2002 in El Segundo, California, 24 years ago. Some of their first meetings were in airport lounges because their warehouse location did not yet have any chairs or desks. So when a small startup company comes to this blessed refuge in rural America, don't laugh. Welcome them. Let them use a corner of your unused barn for a few weeks. Let them use some unused office space that is slated for expansion but is not needed for three months. Connect them with the people who know who have the experience. So they can get started and start creating goods and services that serve not only the people here in the county. But people far beyond our borders, even perhaps around the world. Data centers were an issue here two weeks ago. They can be built with a lack of smarts, a lack of creativity, just like all the stereotypical horror stories one can find on the internet. Or, or, one can do the smarter things. building them quieter building them darker making them good neighbors it's possible the technology was out there when elon musk got started the technology was not there he and his team made it happen ask yourself the obvious question who purposely will want to be and become a bad neighbor Let's teach the outsiders that come our way how humanity should work, bringing peace and prosperity to those near and far. May God continue to bless the King George Renaissance.

Thank you, sir. Anyone else in the audience would like to speak?

Anybody have any correspondence that they would like to share? Mr. Dines, y'all have anybody online?

No, Mr.

Chair.

All right. Thank you. I will now close public comment at this time. For those that if you do have anything that pops up, we have another We've got 2 more public comments the one in the middle basically between the 2 meetings that allow you to talk about stuff in the board of directors for the service authority and at the very end of the meeting you can bring come back and talk about stuff that we talked about tonight so if there's something does pop in your mind. Those are your opportunities all right moving on to reports of the members of the board. This vendor.

All right. First off, I want to thank everyone coming tonight. One of the informational items that was brought up about the data centers, I would more than willing come to your neighborhood and chat since I've been here for all three of the votes. And the Amazon one was a little more nuanced, especially with the reconsideration. It was due toward a performance agreement, not to the actual agreement of the vote. So I'd love to come and chat with you about it if you have questions. So I had some cards last week. You can find information on the internet or stay after and I'll give you a card. So the next thing I want to mention was we had our monthly Healthy Generations, which for those that don't know, that's the Area Agency on Aging. and we had a presentation from the gentleman who does the VICAP coordination, which is about signing up people for Medicare or Medicaid. And it was a very informal presentation, but one of the biggest things that the gentleman was there and then they're also hooking up with libraries and maybe the YMCA to basically bring this out more so folks can get to them to ask questions about signing up. The big thing is if you don't sign up before 6 65, you might get a penalty if you don't sign up for certain parts. He can explain it better than I can because he kind of gave a very quick tour of it. But I encourage you to call Healthy Generations if you have any questions, if you're nearing 65 or you want to change your plan, please reach out to the resource. The county is one of our state mandated outside agencies and they help by running a cafe and they also pick up people to take a medical appointment and also to the senior cafe. And they have a lot of help for those that are a little older navigating Medicare, Medicaid and other issues. So please reach out to them. So I just wanted to bring that to everyone's attention. Last meeting, we had a discussion on the renewal for visualize and rise. Association and my microphone is cutting out. I wanted to bring that up again because I was notified by someone from the organization that they are seeking more grants. So I would like to put that a little sooner on the agenda so that we can decide whether we want to renew those MOUs because they are trying to seek grants. uh next thing is i did reach out to a school board member to ask about the teacher attrition we hear that a lot as about why teachers are leaving and i've been asking some teachers and others and what the data was very interesting since the 2021-2022 school year to now the numbers of teachers that are left have been pretty steady they're within six or seven people with the highest being the year after a lot of the covid which was 44 i think it was yeah 44 And then last year was 41. And then the lowest was the year after COVID. Well, the year that included COVID, 21, 22, which was 36. So I just wanted to get that information out because a lot of times people think lots of people are leaving in droves. Every locality has this problem. There's always a locality that pays more than you. Stafford pays more than we do, but Prince William pays more than they do. And then Pennsylvania pays even more because they're a union state. So I just wanted that information out so people could get a different opinion and hear some different facts. and then was mentioned earlier about notification for data centers and I wanted to bring up that possibly maybe in the future that we look at how we advertise and I don't mean how our community our Amy Southall communicates I'm talking about what do we require of the developers and maybe instead of just whoever exactly touches the property maybe there is a certain radius that has to be included around because I think that's kind of like a really slippery slope because thinking about St. Paul's, they don't exactly touch, but they're very close. So maybe there's some way we can add that we require developers to advertise in a certain radius around a project. And that's the end of my Board comment.

Thank you very much. Mr. Metz.

Okay, thank you. I would say I also support putting the Visualize and Rise MOU back on the agenda sooner rather than later. From a Board report, busy couple of weeks I got to do, try to speak into the microphone so it picks it up, was participate in the Gwyneth's Gift fundraiser this weekend. I know some folks in the county helped support that business to get that fundraiser scheduled and on site at the marina. Very successful day, quiet, no events that included having to, you know, the sheriff. Speaking of the Sheriff, I would also like to thank the Sheriff's Office for having their boat out the last couple of weekends on the rivers. It has kept down issues we've had in the past with people voting on the rivers. I think sometimes just being visible within the community helps reduce number of calls. So thank you very much, sir. Today I actually got to I joined another member from the county here, Mr. Neuchock, out of the landfill. Got to get a tour of that site and facility there. Very informative. And even got to meet the manager from waste management there while we were there. I'd like to address a couple of these comments. Regarding a lot of these business decisions, and admittedly, while they predated me, I own the results of people that were on this board before me. You're going to see tonight, and we talked about it through really the last probably six board meetings, the county budget and the negotiations that had to happen there. Just to get to the budget we have today, we're using $2.5 million in one-time funds. We're borrowing a little bit, $800,000 from savings. If we actually execute our budget as planned, that means we're walking into next year's budget $0.07 from our real estate taxes if everything else stays level. And that's even before we discuss inflation, which is sitting at 4% right now. So inflation impacts us just like it does all of you, right? Everything we buy, every service that we get, every licenses that we work with companies, they all go up, right? They all inflate every year. So we are always looking for opportunities We also look for input from the community on what services you may not need going forward and where we might be able to do better. We get a lot of requests for new services and I'm quite like Parks and Rec, right? There's a lot of things in there that I would love to do. The money just doesn't exist. And so unless we can talk about increasing other revenue sources, and one of those is from business revenue, We don't have a lot of choices, right? And when I say business revenue, I don't mean just bringing in big new business. I'm talking about selling more meals, getting what we can out of tourism and across the board. So it's not a this or that, it's all of the above, right? We have to take a look at all of those. I will say, right, when we're talking data centers, all of those proffers that were related to the rezonings for all three of those properties are still in place. We've had no requests to change them. That Stafford meeting is happening tonight. I am going to look and see what they talked about and how they chose to address it. But I can tell you how we will, which is we put those proffers in place because of the impacts that those businesses could have on the surrounding area. They were related. The rezoning proffers are related to the impacts of the property site being requested to change. You brought up, we went back, right? That was a discussion on tax incentive. That's different than rezoning. There are multiple layers to most of these business discussions. So, you know, all I can say is, yeah, businesses will always ask questions. They will always bring proposals back. We will do it in the public like we have been. And I hope that that gets recognized. Sorry, that was my one address from a public comment. Lastly, the Monroe representative to the Ellie Smoot Library Board of Trustees is retiring this year. I would like to thank Ms. Margaret Clark for her service. She's been on the board for quite a while and done a great job, but she's chosen not to renew her time for another, another period. So I do, I would like to make a motion for the nomination of Mr. Mike Iudi of Wheeler Drive for the Monroe District Supervisor position, Representative. Probably got that motion wrong. I should probably fix that. You're good. Okay. He was the alternative on our border zoning appeals.

I think there was a second. Second. All right. Motion probably seconded and seconded and seconded.

I do have a discussion just to make because I did forget one thing in my board report. One of the librarians reached me and said that also Dahlgren has somebody open. So I just wanted to, so people are interested in Davis' district. Okay. Sounds good.

All right. Any other discussion? All in favor? Aye. Chair votes aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. All done? Cool. All right, Mr. Stroud.

Thank you, sir. I'd like to nominate Ms. Ashley Terry to the Director of Social Services Administrative Board for the James Madison District. Mr. Franklin has already vetted her and approved her for the position.

Second.

Properly second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Chair votes aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you, sir. You all done, too?

Really? I mean, the last board, I wasn't able to go through my notes because, you know, we're, well, it took a long time. So, thank you, everybody who came out and spoke. I, too, want to, you know, address some of it. But I think I'm going to let Bill or Celi addressed those remarks. So I'm sure that they will. I'm referring to the ones that came from Mr. Morgan and the data center. But on 20 May I attended a Bay Consortium local elected officers at Clio meeting. They provided the resources for the community and those who are looking for training resources, jobs and employees. So I'm trying to get that information. It'll get over to Amy. Maybe she can post some of it. But I would recommend to people that are looking for jobs and training as such, go to the virginiaworks.gov website. And there's a lot of resources that are there. And I'll get those as well to you, Pastor Shaw, if you want to put them in your stuff. But there's a lot of training, job resources and things for people. So that's available. I attended the several of the board of equalization meetings that had happened and I wanted to note that I was impressed with how helpful the board members were to the applicants. I felt that they were looking for ways to help the applicants out and and everybody that was there that I spoke to were happy with the way that that with the results that they got. So I thought it went really well. I wish we would have had them in place earlier. This happens again. I hope that that happens and they get in place earlier, but everybody was supported and I think it worked out good for them. I did listen to the George Washington Regional Commission, the last one that, and I mentioned this briefly at the last meeting, that Supervisor Bender chairs that and they spoke about the rates that the fredericksburg regional alliance had previously set for the amazon data center that was approved at $1.25 and the gwrc they were they're seeking to retain a regional approach to the rates initially i was against that because i think we kind of got jacked the first time around and being stuck with $1.25 but then after they were continuing to talking and I think as Mr. Bender mentioned before that's a minimum rate it's not the maximum rate so what they're doing is they're setting a minimum rate of $1.25 so the individual counties can go up it's just you can't go below that so after hearing that then then I felt better about it I also wanted to note because we get a lot of people to come and speak about data centers and you know, there's a lot of information that people find on the website about how bad data centers are. And I'm not saying that, you know, I'm far against, you know, I'm not, I'm just saying that I would ask you to go and research, just Google, you know, that The misinformation, China is his back. They are paying and sending money, a lot of money to United States backing a misinformation campaign. Okay, that is on MSN, New York Times. There's a lot of information out there if you look at it. China is pushing a misinformation campaign about data centers in the U.S. because we are competing with China on data centers. So they're pushing that information to pump a lot of money for that to happen in the U.S. So whenever you're pulling your information, understand that you could also be pulling some misinformation because they understand, they know in the United States, they can build up rhetoric. A lot of people that are against something, just like, well, a lot of other things from the other wars with the Palestinians, Iranians, and all that such, they use that against us with the protests and all that stuff in the United States. They use it against us. So don't fall for that. whenever you're researching stuff you need to get both sides of it and understand that don't don't allow yourself to be a puppet of misinformation so with that uh i think i conclude my march thank you awesome thank you sir thanks for the info mr davis thank you everyone for coming out i really appreciate it yeah we we spent a lot of time

last week and you know last week was very unconventional was not a board meeting you know it turned into a town hall and I and I allowed that because if you're gonna have 20 some people walk into a room and say they haven't been heard I'm the worst thing I can do is send them out of the room not being heard so we did and we had back and forth questions and if you've ever watched a board meeting you've never seen that before it just doesn't happen but there is some misinformation Mr. Stroud is right concerning China has dumped aid trillions of dollars into America because the only way to defeat America is from inside. And it's happening in our college campuses. They had these protests that are being paid for and they want to cause division with everyone. It's not to say that when data centers started out, there was some bad, there was some bad stuff going on. And I think when Virginia first started off on this road, it was probably, it was very few people that were against it. The number now grows to probably about 70%. It's probably going to increase more. And that has a lot to do with our water and things of that nature, which is on the Amazon deal. I'll speak to you on that. We didn't reject the whole thing. We rejected the performance agreement. The board before us on the very last meeting approved it. But my bylaws rule me, not Amazon. OK, my bylaws say that in the very next meeting, someone who voted yes for that can bring it back up for a revote. So by that time, a whole new board came on, which is me, Mr. Sellers, Mr. Stroud came on. and our plan person the whole day was to vote down to reject the performance agreement because there's it was a lot of issues involved in it one was with DEQ and the fact that in about 12-13 years we we have to get a straw in the water and get out of the aquifer but yet they have the straw in the water right and then you got Caroline's wanting to pump the water out of the Rappahannock and so we have to protect the river and then the ground and what we've stood on is We can't allow any water to go out of our rivers from inside the ground or inside a river to cool any data center. There's already two paper mills in our state that are ruining our aquifer. And our legislation in Virginia will do nothing about it. And they're like, well, it's an agreement. I'm like, well, you know what? This country's made a lot of agreements since 1776 that they had to renege on and back out of because they turned out to be bad. You know, so that's that's something else that if I'm protesting anything, I'm protesting two paper mills that suck the majority of water in Hampton Roads. They're shooting water as fast as they can to the aquifer, but they can't if the two paper mills are gone, we'd be fine. And everyone knows it. No one would do anything about it. So all we can do going forward with with them is I'm not worried about a lawsuit. And the lawsuit is more about if you want to call it that is more about us not rezoning the property back to agriculture because they want invested rights because they and all they did was buy the property they haven't put a shovel in the ground as far as I know and you get invested rights because you purchased something I'm not worried about losing that sir I know that you may not see any way through but I'm privy to more info on that um but it's worth fighting for I'm not it's not about People say, well, it's going to cost a lot of money. And I'm not about what's time and money. I'm about what's right and wrong. And when it comes down to what's right, it's I got to protect King George because this is where I'm from. And I got to protect the state of Virginia because this is where I'm from. I got to make sure that my kids and their kids and whoever else has enough water that their wells aren't, the wells aren't failing. There's my King George, my whales coming out. But everything that we're doing is trying to make the best decision. You saw our budget last week, it's $150 million. And I can't continue to keep going over and tapping on the people of King George and the farmers of King George say, hey, we're gonna raise your tax a little bit more, give us some more money to pay for stuff. Why? Because there's no infrastructure in King George. No one's bothered taking the time to put the infrastructure in with the service story in the water and all that for a business to come here. Lowe's isn't gonna come here. Home Depot isn't coming here. When our site isn't ready, they're going to go, you know, opportunity shows up and opportunity, if you're ready for opportunity, if you're not, it moves on. Opportunity doesn't care who goes to the moon. It goes, do you want to go to the moon? Okay, you ready? You want to go to the moon? It's going to keep going until someone is ready to go. That's what opportunity does. And so right now, like I said last time, you see all the infrastructure we're putting in is to bring those other businesses here. But in the meantime, there has to be something to fill the gap or people and people are feeling the inflation, they're feeling this. And I've said before, I have, you know, when I ran for office, he was 78 at the time. He's about 80 years now. His family's lived here for generations and he had to go back to detailing cars and pay his property taxes because taxes were going up. I mean that, and you see people are selling off their property now. They're selling all property to developers and everything else. So, we can fight it but the other end of that is you have developers coming in because the farmer can't afford his land anymore because he's getting taxed so he has to sell his land off and now you have if there's nothing is wrong with hop yard but if we have another hop yard you lost King George because you will not be able to afford to live here without some sort of business or something coming to supplement the tax taxes because that's schools that's roads that's fire that's police that's emergency and someone's going to pay for it and it's going to be you unless there's a business that can come in and somehow alleviate some of that i voted against and you know two of the data centers that have come here one of them we didn't have a chance to we just amazon as far as we just rejected the performance agreement of it but something has to take the place and we went through a lot with them as far as especially Dahlgren West on working on what would a good healthy project look like that's not going to infect the environment around it uh you asked the question today um who would build something within two or three miles I live within two miles of it he lives in Claydale so we just not we can't do that anymore this if you want to sign up for time you can talk and we can answer the question but what I did last week was never happens Okay, as far as me talking back to the audience and whatnot, I did that just out of respect for you guys because you showed up and you had never been to a meeting before. But it's, that's why they have the time and that we talk back to you. That's how they do it. Else we'll never get out of here. We'll be here all night long. But I don't want to talk too long about this. There's nothing I care more for than King George County. There's nothing I care more for as body as the water going King George into Machota Creek. I grew up on Machota Creek my entire life. And I've done everything I can to make sure that nothing's going to happen to that creek. And that's going to invest in that I've done the best that I possibly can. But I do appreciate and I'm glad that you guys are paying attention to coming out to meetings, though. If there's any that you got any questions, please reach out.

All right. Thank you, sir. Excuse me. For me, for the engagement stuff for the last couple of weeks, I had a meeting this past weekend with one of the local residents who had some questions about schools and something that he wants to try to bring into the area in the near future. I'm not going to steal his thunder. I'll leave that. I'm happy to talk with you offline about it. I got to speak at the tea party and provide an update on the budget situation and the taxes, property taxes, the assessments and things like that. regular phone calls and emails. One of the more fun things I got to do was I got to do a presentation for a couple of brothers who are now Eagle Scouts. And so just wanna inform the board, Ms. Fish did a couple of, of proclamations for them. My understanding is, although we've been voting on these, we don't have to. It's not required since it's a proclamation. It's not a law or anything like that. But I did want to bring that up, that there are two proclamations. And so I want to congratulate Jackie Fish, her husband, Greg, and the young men, Andrew and Christopher, because it's her two sons. She is a double Eagle Scout mom now. Neat, neat young man. I highly encourage you to get a chance to meet him. They're way cooler than their mom. true all right I only pick on the people that I like if I'm not picking on you I either don't like you or I don't know you very well yet so okay anyway so that was the engagements I want to bring something to your attention local public account reached out to me and let me first and foremost say this is information only I we cannot and will not help you with this I'm just sharing information apparently the irs was directed during and soon after covid not to collect penalties or interest on taxes at that time if you have paid penalties and interest in the last three years or so not your regular taxes it doesn't apply to me because luckily i've been keeping mine up to date and so there's no penalties or interest that i had to pay but if you have paid those two things you may be entitled to a refund now here's the catch you got to file it by july 10th i think double check me on that but you got to file it by july 10th the irs was sued because they collected those penalties and interest anyway they lost in court they've appealed it the appeal process could take another three years you may not see your money for another three years from what i understand from the accountant the form is fairly complex he charges people about 300 bucks to do it and you may not see that money back for three years but if this is something you care about look into it and uh if it applies to you but again this is a federal thing we're not able to help you with that this is fyi only now other things uh let's see the data center Like you said, it's in my yard too. I live over on North Stewart Road. My wife's not real happy with me because I voted for it. But that vote was three years in the making. We've interacted with those guys so many times. We've seen the drawings. We've seen the engineering specs. We've seen the proffers. That's how much faith I have in what they're going to do for the county. So I am good with this. As far as... Communication and sharing information. Last week or the week before, I saw a post on Facebook about the data center, specifically the Dahlgren West one. There were a little over 100 comments with it. I didn't weigh in. I typically don't weigh in on stuff like that. Because when we jump in on Facebook, it's a public record. And if it gets taken down because it's not our page, now a public record's been destroyed and all heck's going to break loose. So I try to stay out of that mess. Over 100 comments. Three people on there actually sounded like they knew what the heck was going on. Everybody else is just repeating misinformation, bad information, incorrect information, however you want to term it, that they've heard elsewhere. Nobody bothered to ask, what are we really doing? They're just repeating horror stories that they've heard elsewhere. And I get it. There are some genuine horror stories out there. We put up as many boundaries as we possibly can to avoid that. We've been asked to try to keep the taxes low, and if you've paid attention to our meetings, you probably remember a while back I went on a rant about taxes and doing some basic math. Everybody wants this, that, and the other thing in the county, but nobody wants to pay for the doggone thing. And I get it. I want to try to keep the taxes low. I want to try to keep the noise levels down. The young man in the front here, you'll probably hear from him later on over the course of the year. But as he was introducing himself, I apologize for calling you out. I didn't ask for permission on that. But his introduction was, he kind of grew up in the American dream, the Americana thing. And I was like, that's really cool. That's what we're trying to give our residents here as much as we possibly can. We want to keep those taxes low. We want to keep the noise and the pollution and all the other stuff down as much as we possibly can. But there's going to be some give and take. It just has to be that way. If you don't understand it, go buy a copy of the SimCity game and try winning that sucker. It's not simple. We're doing the best we can, but we can't. unbuy this car. We can't unsell this house, you know, after the fact. The thing with Amazon Web Services, that was a very unique deal where it was a very specific piece of that that we were only able to go back and reconsider that two weeks after because that's where our bylaws were written. Only the performance agreement and only within the I can go into detail about it, but we're well past the statute of limitations on being able to go back on anything with Green Energy Ventures or Dahlgren West. And we do have some serious properties in place to try to keep them in a box. We were trying to be very strategic about this for the county. We don't want to be loud. We don't want to have wall-to-wall data centers that start at the county line and go all the way to Port Royal. Absolutely not. But these two, maybe three, I don't know what Amazon's going to do, but these data centers if if this board whoever's up here is smart with the way that we slash they spend that money it can be we can be set up for for decades with this and not have to worry about it i feel like we made a very strategic decision we tried to keep these things back away from folks as much as we possibly could um it's about maybe a quarter mile from my house so if If it is going to be loud, noisy, blah, blah, blah, I'm going to pay for it. It's my fault. I'm sucking it up just like everybody else. But that's how much faith I have in them. So it is what it is. All right. I'm done with that rant over. Thank you for listening to that. We'll move on now with the agenda. Mr. Solins. Ma'am.

I forgot, Lee.

Oh, shoot. Howdy. Save the best for last.

That's all good. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So just real quick, I'll keep it short and brief, but appreciate everybody coming out this evening. I know I don't want to steal too much of our general manager's thunder here, but we have a lot of projects that are ongoing for the service authority. And again, let me clarify, I'm speaking on behalf of the service authority. I know that I usually go before the board, but we switched up a little bit. That's my fault. It's all good. It's all good, sir. So we have a lot of good progress going on these projects that are ongoing. I'll let Mr. Hamilton talk some more on that. But things are relatively on budget and on schedule, which is which is good and very important for for these funds being ARPA funds that need to be basically spent by the end of the year. So that is that is good moving forward. There was a lot of discussion and it's already been touched on by a number of the board members from, you know, data centers and water. So from my perspective on the service authority, I'm happy to sell data centers water, but that's potable water for potable purposes. There's no data center that will take potable water to use to cool equipment, period. As long as I'm on the board here, I will never vote for that. That is not something that will that will ever happen, at least as much as I can influence that. water is for the residents of the people by virginia law and that's what it should be used for um if the if the data centers want to use wastewater so you know purple reused wastewater uh i'm happy to give them that that's fine uh happy to sell them that water happy to sell them potable water but uh aside from that not uh not for cooling purposes um one last thing um Mr. Hamilton may or may not touch on it again this evening, but I put in this shameless plug last week as well, last time as well. But the Service Authority has a number of openings, open jobs. There's pump truck operators, there's maintenance positions that are open. I would highly encourage you, if you have any young professionals who, you know, want to work with their hands, want to do skilled labor type work, have them apply, have them reach out to myself or Mr. Hamilton so we can get them to the right area. It's a good opportunity. Water and wastewater is, I mean, just water in general is huge, right? I've heard Mr. Davis say on multiple occasions, water's like gold. especially in the state of Virginia. So if you have the opportunity to get into something with the Water Authority, you know, especially a young professional, I recommend they take it. And with that, I will close out. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Appreciate it. Thank you, sir.

Okay, jump back in real quick.

Yes, sir. Mr. Chair, I just found out I have a member of the library board of trustees whose termination will end in uh or period will end in two weeks so I'd like to re-nominate Mr. Art Sheffield to the board of trustees for the SMU library okay we have a nomination second um discussion have you spoken with Mr. Sheffield so yeah he won't see that okay he expressed an interest in staying on I've been looking for a note board member for a couple months so any other conversation

All right. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Chair votes aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Now we'll slide into the Board of Supervisors Consent Agenda. Do you have a motion?

I'll make a motion to accept the Consent Agenda as presented.

Second. Properly seconded. Roll call vote. Mr. Metz. Aye. Mr. Trout. All right, Ms. Bender? Aye. Ms. Davis? Aye. Chair votes aye. Motion carries. And now we'll move down to constitutional officers. Do we have any constitutional constitutional officers present who would like to speak? Seeing none we'll move on and I'll hand it off to uh Ms. Bender with the Board of Directors.

Thank you very much and I want to clarify a couple things off the bat. Next meeting uh first meeting in July the Board the Board of Supervisors and the Service Authority are going to switch it up a little for a permanent change where the Service Authority Board of Directors is only going to meet once a month and it will be the second meeting that we have with the Board of Supervisors which is the third meeting a third week in the month and that is the same time we always have Imboden's report there's just not a lot it takes up a lot of time and we're gonna we're gonna I promise that I want to keep it under an hour it'll start at 5 30 that's the way it used to be done we're just going back to that model but we're only going to do it once a month so if you just remember that everybody on the audience once a month the third week of the month when the we get our Imboden report Yep, July 20th. I forgot the date, but that's July 20th it will be. And then it will be every month, not every two weeks. Just for the service authority, not the Board of Supervisors. The second thing I want to mention, because we were talking about water and the plants, the paper mills and all that. Mr. Hamilton will be joining me. I have the pleasure to serve on the, this is a long title, Eastern Virginia Groundwater Advisory Committee. And we talk about a lot of the, it's at DEQ, it's at the Bank of America building. It's tomorrow at 10 o'clock at the Bank of America building, third floor, if you'd like to come and geek out on water and aquifers and all that lovely stuff. Mr. Hamilton will be attending it with me and hopefully they'll have finally released the governor has signed the latest aquifer report and groundwater report right now from my last government Governor Youngkin didn't sign it and it's still in Governor Spanberger's desk and so we're supposed to for the last two meetings we've been supposed to be talking about it and that maybe there's a little more than the paper mills that take some of the water and one other last part why I bring this up is a lot of people don't realize that Amazon Data Services owns the intake on the Rappahannock in King George, because as part which we had no part in that was with them in Birchwood, they purchased that intake from Birchwood at the end. I didn't agree with it. They should have had a larger public meeting that the public had an input, but they did it under the DEQ allowed it and they own that intake. So please remember with that we do not control the intake that is currently in King George on the Rappahannock River. It was owned by Birchwood and it is now owned by AWS. And also why I bring this up, it was mentioned by Ms. Moncure earlier about AWS now using some other water. And so I always have a concern out there that that might be used to give Stafford water. So I've said from the beginning, I've always been worried that the water should be used by the citizens and not by a company as an intake, as an intake, because you have all the water in the world. But if you don't have it, it's just going to lie in your coffin. You'll have all the money in your coffin. So that's my comment on that. But I'm going to go on to the Imboden Environmental Report. Mr. Simmons. I was gone on there and I forgot the consent agenda. Sorry, John. Do I have a motion on the consent agenda? Thank you for reminding me.

I make a motion that we approve the consent agenda as presented.

So I second. Motion properly seconded. Any further discussion? All right. Roll call vote. Mr. Robotham?

Aye.

Mr. Davis? Aye. Mr. Solins? Aye. Mr. Metz? Aye. Chair votes aye. Motion carries. Now, Mr. Simmons, you got the mic.

So it's my turn. Good afternoon, everyone. So have a little bit more to discuss this month than last. So for the water systems, all bacteriological samples came back good. We did start the lead and coppers. It is that time of year again that's going to be taking place from June to September. We've only got 2 left out of 30, so we're making progress there. Moving on to the wastewater, all of the plants were in compliance except for Perkins and Oakland Park. Typical equipment issues that we have there, which is leading us to be commissioned Perkins Perkins had a TSS violation. It only happened on one day, but it's a violation. Nonetheless, we're close to getting that plant decommissioned and definitely looking forward to it. Oakland Park had a TK and a TSS violation. That is also due to equipment error. There was one violation that was due to operational error. That error has been corrected internally. That won't happen again. and we're moving forward with it. So we are sitting back with the progress that Dan and the service authority are making. We're pretty excited about that. Otherwise, everything's just normal. Any questions?

Anybody have any questions? Thank you, John, as always. Thank you all. I know it's a long travel for a short report, but thank you for all you do. All right. We got a short agenda because our introduction to the service warrior plan isn't there. So Mr. Hamilton.

Yes, thank you. I'm going to keep this brief by email the written report to you all this afternoon. I apologize for the administrative issue with the surface water report. Again, having it sent out to the general public, which is something we want to do and want to be transparent about, but having the word draft on the cover and the incorrect dates and possibly a missing edit, it was not the time to do it. So I'm going to get that back in front of you, hopefully in two weeks. Um, part of that would part of what's contained in that surface water management plan does address some issues related to future planning and potential surface water withdrawals from the Rappahannock. But we'll talk about that when it's time. So as far as my report goes, I briefly just want to follow up on the rate study. I did have a kickoff meeting with the staff from Stantec and Davenport last Friday. It was kind of a preliminary kickoff meeting, really just internal to go over what kind of data collection we need to do and how that's going to happen and timing. I will have additional information for you moving forward. I know there is going to be an early meeting with the staff from Stantec to just talk with the board, get input from you all. And of course, anything that the public has to offer as well. I will point out that one of my hopes, primary goals that I sort of offered to Stantec with respect to our rates is that we need a classification change to where we don't just have one rate for all customers. There needs to be a residential rate, a commercial rate, an industrial rate. And those are the types of things that they will analyze. They will compare to other utilities in the area that are similar. And there'll be lots of good things that I expect to come from that. It is going to take roughly five to six months for them to complete that work. but it will provide us long-term guidance in terms of where we stand and how we look towards the future, towards capital improvement and maintenance of existing equipment and assets, things like that. As Lee just mentioned, there are a number of jobs that either have posted or are about to post. The pump truck operator position, when I asked Human Resources to post it, I'm going to do this moving forward, it's going to be classified as open until filled. So we have enough resumes. We're going to be interviewing within the next two weeks. At least I hope so, if we can squeeze that in through all these holidays. But people are still encouraged to apply as long as the job is still posted on the board. We would welcome your interest. And if it's not too late, if we haven't scheduled interviews and chosen a candidate and they've accepted, then, you know, feel free to apply. I guess it's kind of like on Facebook Marketplace. They say if it's still up, it's still for sale. So if the posting is still up there, it's still open and technically not filled. Um, as far as our construction projects, I don't have a current upgrade update on the hop yard decommissioning. There is progress, but our monthly meeting to review all that is actually tomorrow or Thursday. So I don't have kind of an update there. But the water main force main project with Spratt is definitely coming to an end. We did approve a change order at the last meeting for some additional work. You recall there was a couple of water and sewer connections that needed to be done. A sewer line replaced here from the old courthouse down to Route 3. So that's added a little bit of extra work and we added a little bit of extra time for the contract on that. It's still predicted to be done and I'm confident will be done by September the 7th. Well in front of the ARPA deadline, which we need to have all the funding submittals into BDH and DEQ by November 1. So that's progressing well. The Arnold's Corner Well project, I know I communicated there were some issues with the contractor not being responsive and getting back out to work. We sent them a cure letter. They've responded. I expect them on site any day. They are claiming they'll be done by the first week in August. I will believe that when I see it, but I still do expect that to also be done in time for our upper reimbursements. And then the BoilNet project is ongoing. We have an update on that, an update meeting, progress meeting on that next week. I did go ahead and sign the proposal for the extra biological process modeling work that we really need in conjunction with everything else. I'll have an update on that soon. The Stantec water withdrawal permit applications that we have submitted in Bowdoin and Stantec that were due by June 3rd to be submitted. We got our first round of comments back. It's going to be a negotiation between now and January when they'll be renewed. Other than that, we received permission from the Health Department yesterday or Virginia Department of Health to go ahead and open up the interconnect between the Greater Courthouse System in Canterbury. So we're going to flush those mains, do bacteria testing and try to have that in service by the first week in July. We're also going to revise our permit for the Greater Courthouse System to show that Canterbury Circle and Arnold's Corner, Perkins Corner, all that is all going to be under one operating permit. But the good news here is that the construction work is done and now going to be in service. There'll be extra fire hydrants and more reliable service to Canterbury. Other than that, drought is the last thing I wanted to address. Of course, I'm well aware that we're in a pretty serious drought here in the Mid-Atlantic in general, particularly in Maryland and Virginia. We are definitely monitoring the situation pretty closely. Both VDH and DEQ are monitoring it. We're not seeing any heavy, you know, drops in the groundwater levels at this point in the aquifers that we're pumping. That is being monitored. And if we see that or we see issues where we're not able to produce enough water to keep up with demand because people are watering their grass, we may have to institute some type of of water restrictions. But at this point, I don't see that happening. So that concludes my report. I will be going to this conference with Kathy tomorrow, and I look to get lots of good information there. So I'm happy to answer any questions.

Does anybody have any questions? All right. Thank you as always, Mr. Hamilton.

Thank you.

Next, we will have our secondary public comment. So now just for the audience, this is just on the service authority to come in and give secondary public comment. Comments will be limited to three minutes per person to afford everyone an opportunity to speak. Please provide your full name and district when submitting your public comment so that it can be properly included in the public record. Would anybody like to come up and speak on the service authority only? All right. Is there anybody online? No matter is there any correspondence possibly in the time you've been up all right with that will close public comment and I will take a motion for German.

Actually that I'm sure if I have a real quick yeah, thank you when it regarding the agenda. We just need consensus if you want the agenda for the second meeting of the month combined service authority and board of supervisors like it is now or if you want separated.

And when you mean separated, just like a separate sheet, is that separated completely? How does everybody feel about that?

I like it the way it is. I'm good with it for two years now.

Just keep it the way it is. All right. Thank you. All right. Do I have a motion for?

Yes. So, as you know, Patty Norris is going to be retiring about the end of July. I expect to have a replacement for her hopefully by the time she leaves. If we're going to make changes to the process it would be awesome if we could kind of wait until we get that new person situated and then maybe we could take a little bit more on with respect to that as well. So I appreciate everybody's support.

Thank you. Do I have a motion for adjournment?

I make a motion to join the Board of Directors to Tuesday, July 21, 2026 at 5.30 p.m. in the multipurpose boardroom of the Sheriff's Office located 10-445 Government Center Boulevard, King George, Virginia.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Motion properly seconded. Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Chair votes aye. The meeting of the Service Authority Board of Directors is adjourned. Mr. Solins?

Thank you, ma'am.

All right, we'll kick it off with the Board of Supervisors agenda. We have no public hearings or presentations tonight. We'll go right on down to the action items. First item up is 0614, Tax Sponsorship Grant Applications for Fiscal Year 26-27.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. So this was presented by Ms. South Hall at the last board meeting. Ms. South Hall is on vacation, so I'm covering in her stead. As you'll see in the board report, there are two, two different grants that went through the TAC Committee and were presented to you last month. The first one is for St. Paul's Oktoberfest, Episcopal Church Oktoberfest. This particular uh item is in its fifth year there are uh requests and you can see here requested action um four thousand nine hundred fifty dollars uh fifty percent up front and fifty percent after the project's receipt uh the project report is received um and then there's two separate uh events going on at valor ranch one's a ride for valor the second's a run for valor the ride for rail is coinciding with I believe this is Colonial Beach is having a large motorcycle festival and this is to get, you know, people into the county, as with all TAC grants, spend money here and really, you know, spend the nights here. That particular request, $3,600 upon award and another $2,400 after the post project reports received and all the provisions of the grant are met. I'll be happy to answer any questions the best I can. Ms. Southall explained this last meeting and everything is in your report, but if you have any questions, I'm here.

Mr. Solins. Yes. I just wanted Mr. Smolnyk to clarify to understand how this where this money is from it's it's not from the tax revenue.

No it's not it's from the tourism fund so the way the the transient occupancy tax is set up as dictated by state code the first two percent goes to the general fund uh the remaining three percent goes to the tourism fund which is a separate account in the the budget and that money can be spent to encourage uh overnight night, people staying overnight here and spending money within the county.

Because a lot of people might not know that.

All right. Thank you for that distinction. Any other questions? All right. Do we have a motion?

I will make a motion to approve tax sponsorship grant applications for FY26-27 for St. Paul's Episcopal Church for Oktoberfest and the Valor Ranch for Run for Valor and Ride for Valor events.

Second. Motion properly seconded. Any further discussion? All right, roll call vote. Ms. Pinder?

Aye. Mr. Metz? Aye. Mr. Stroud? Aye. Mr. Davis? Aye. Chair votes aye, motion carries. Mr. Solins? Ma'am.

Can I ask a quick question? I know there's a lot of youth out there, especially those that need Honor Society hours. Can they volunteer for these events? If possible, just want to put it out there, these events we approved, any student out there would like to, we can hook them up, Ms. Southall probably can facilitate that, hook them up so they can have a volunteer opportunity.

You know, and Mr. Chairman, if I may, you know, in my role as Economic Development Director, one thing that we're doing through the EDA, the EDA has been sponsoring a lot of county FBA, DECA, SkillsUSA over the last year or two. We're revising that program and it's more of a, instead of just a get the funds, you have to earn the funds. And part of the revised requirements, unfortunately, the EDA didn't have a quorum. uh there was an incident uh family members okay but we didn't have a quorum last week but it's to require the students for every i think hundred dollars um that they receive from them to do one hour of community service so um i think this is you know a good thing to to teach the young men and women you just don't ask and get but rather you can earn so that's that's something the eda we're implementing through the eda so i like to see that great idea

All right, so we did vote on that that passed. All right, item 0615 VDOT. I have a hammer.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So these are the roads that need to come into the VDOT system. In addition to the public roads, there's a resolution in front of you, R-1326. These are for the school bus loops at Sealston and King George Elementary School. The information, the AM3, the resolution and the schedule, the location of these bus loops is in your packet. If the board doesn't have any questions, I would recommend adoption of Resolution R-1326. 2026 as presented.

So moved.

Second. All right. Ms. Fish. And R-14 too. I'm sorry. There are two different resolutions. Thank you, Ms. Fish. There's R-13 and R-14. I think you can. So moved twice. Second.

Our county attorney's not here tonight to make sure that that's okay. He's doing his other job down in Richmond, fighting for the budget for us.

Do you want me to reclassify that?

No, I think we're fine. Probably seconded. Okay. Money's involved here. So Mr. Metz. Roll call vote. Aye. Mr. Stroud. Aye. Ms. Bender. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Chair votes aye. Motions carried. Thank you very much. All right. Item 06-16, Adoption of Proposed Fiscal Year 2026-2027 Operating Budget.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So as you and the public are well aware, the FY27 budget has been discussed for several months here at the Board meetings. We did hold a public hearing to solicit public comment at the last meeting. State law requires you to wait seven days before adoption. That seven days has passed since the public hearing. So before your for you tonight is in the board packet and adoption to adopt the proposed FY2627 King George County operating budget.

All right. Thank you. We have a motion on that.

Yes, and these have to be done individually, correct? I will make a motion to adoption of the proposed FY26-27 operating budget.

Second. In the amount of, yeah.

Yeah, let me just look up there. I forgot. In the amount of $146,683,998. No, no. Let me redo that, sorry. Please. One of those days okay, I will make a motion to adopt the fiscal year twenty twenty six twenty twenty seven operating budget in the total amount of one hundred forty six million six hundred eighty three thousand nine hundred ninety dollars.

Very good second probably second any further discussion.

All right roll call vote Mr. Metz Mr. Stroud Mr. Bender Mr. Davis Chair votes motion carries.

Next. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Now that the board has adopted the budget, you need to appropriate the funds as outlined in Resolution R-15-02026 as shown in your board packet.

This one.

I move to appropriate $38,542.01 at one time.

So Mr. Dines, it's R-152026. I've got it. Let me do it.

Yeah, go ahead. I make a motion we adopt the resolution for appropriation of the FY2026-2027 King George County Operating Budget as presented.

Second. One more time.

Second.

All right, probably second. Any further discussion? All right. Mr. Metz? Aye. Mr. Stroud? Aye. Ms. Bender? Aye. Mr. Davis?

Aye. Chair votes aye. Motion carries.

Okay, next is 06-18. So as part of the FY26-27 operating budget, there is a large component, a larger component of this is the public schools and the board needs to appropriate funds as shown in the board packet for the major classifications. The amount of $69,821,608 and the breakdown as shown in your board packet.

Okay, I will make a motion to appropriate for the King George County schools fiscal year. Twenty six, twenty seven, the operator operating budget by major classification in the total amount of sixty nine million, eight hundred and twenty eight thousand six hundred eight dollars.

Twenty one, eight, twenty one, eight, twenty one.

Sorry. I think I need to clean my glasses. So it's sixty nine million, eight hundred and twenty one thousand six hundred eight thousand. Sorry. I'm messing this up. Somebody else make a motion.

I'm scared now. I'll make a motion we appropriate the King George County School fiscal year 2026-27 operating budget by major classification in total amount of $69,821,608. We have a motion on the floor.

Do I have a second? Second. Motion properly seconded. Y'all picked that up, right? Motion properly seconded. Any discussion? All right roll call Mr. Metz. Aye. Mr. Stroud. Aye. Ms. Bender.

Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Chair votes aye. Motion carries. Thank you so much. And I want to take a pause for a moment and I know it seems like we for anybody that's not following along that just jumped in here tonight it sounds like we just

we're just slinging money left and right because we just approved, you know, almost $150 million worth of money movement here. That's been a work in progress for weeks and months now.

So I want to thank Mr. Smallmont for the work that he's done and herding the cats on that. I want to thank Ms. Fish for keeping track of all the records. I want to thank Ms. Dillard and Ms. Cobb for all the work that they and their staff have done. So these folks have done an outstanding job. One of the When I knew I was going to be doing the invocation tonight, one of the things that I wanted to pray for was that we would be good stewards and good guardians of the county resources. And of course, you're up here doing something live because I don't want to read it and I forgot those things. These people are guardians and stewards of our resources. So I really want to thank them for that. All right. Discussion items. 0619, one time, 2%. I think I saw something about that a minute ago.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board. I'm back again to discuss the 2% bonus. But this time is actually for the General Registrar's Social Services and the Electoral Board. So as you all know, during the 2026 session, the General Assembly approved a one time 2% salary bonus for state supported local positions. that is social services, general registrars and members of the electoral board. The bonus is based on authorized salary amounts as of June 1st, 2026. The locality is only responsible for the FICA portion of the bonus. So I didn't want to go through everything because I know, you know, don't want to delay the hour. But I move to appropriate or the recommended action is to move to appropriate $38,542 from the general fund fund balance for the one time 2% bonus for the Department of Social Services, General Registrar and Electoral Board to be allocated per department as indicated below and paid out on July 24, 2026. Go ahead. So moved.

Second.

All right. We got a second. Properly seconded. Motion before properly seconded. Any further discussion?

Yes. Yes. So I would just say, Mr. Metz and I, because I kind of volunteered him to be on the Social Services Board with me, but I think he's glad he did it. That, you know, that those people never complained about anything. And they, we haven't put a new position, we haven't hired a new position for social services in almost 10 years, the last time we checked. And they've been just, the staff there just picks up the extra work, just does it. They don't, you never hear a complaint from them. And when you go into their office, it's one of the most culturally positive offices you can walk into. Just the people, they're happy to be doing what they're doing. They love their boss. The boss loves them, but at the same time, they respect them. It's just, it's just, Mr. Franklin's doing an outstanding job. And I can't brag on him enough. So I'm happy for all of them, but I'm happy for them to get a 2% bonus in this. They've been doing a fine job.

Any other discussion? I've got to ask, you know, I'm absolutely in favor of this and I'm going to vote for it no matter what. But is there a reason why we had to jump it ahead and make it an action item tonight instead of waiting customary two weeks?

No, sir. It's on discussion.

Okay. So I didn't need any action tonight. But yeah, we have a motion on the floor.

Yeah, I just wanted to go through the recommended action. So that's all totally on you all.

Just putting the bumper sticker out there. All right. Any further discussion?

I read it as June 24th, not July 24th. I was thinking it was next week.

No, like I said, I'm going to vote for it no matter what.

You want to put it on the action sticker?

We got a motion now. We have to vote. Yeah. So, Mr. Metz? Aye. Mr. Stroud? Aye. Ms. Bender?

Aye.

Mr. Davis? Aye. Chair votes aye. Thank you all very much for the work you do. All right, next item up Zotac Planning Commission recommendations. This is something that has taken up a lot of time and then it kind of fell to the wayside and we wanted to bring it back and make sure that all that work was actually not only acknowledged but you know some some form of action is taken on this.

Mr. Thank you Mr. Chairman. So so you all know I think we were actually in this room back in November of 24 uh 24 and we we initiated some some proposed amendments the ZOTAC was uh formed uh numerous of your staff members met with ZOTAC for six to eight weeks put together a position paper It was discussed at the Planning Commission. And then I think I believe there may have been discussed briefly, I think, at a joint meeting with the Planning Commission also. And then it was brought to the board. There were a lot of good ideas brought up by the ZOTAC. You know, it was just a it was a great think tank. And the board's initial I guess sparked their, you know, sparked a lot of conversations and some good thoughts how to manage growth here in the county. I've been asked by some of the staff members and some other members of the public, I think some of you have also, you know, what is the status of ZOTAC? You know, right now we, you know, essentially the committee is done. I mean, they've made their recommendations. You know, we just have their recommendations, you know, what do we do with them now? Now we received or we are going to receive the, no, I'm sorry. get all my procurements mixed up. We are under contract now for ERP for the comp plan update, the firm that we selected. And I'd like to have them come to a future board meeting to kind of talk about that process, how it gets kicked off. If you're looking to me for, you know, my professional recommendation, you know, we know what the ZOTAC talked about. We know what Planning Commission talked about. Those are memorialized in the records. We may want to, you know, kind of put those on the back burner right now. Typically, you know, the order is a strategic plan, comp plan, zoning ordinance amendment. That's the typical fashion that the localities do it. You know, so before we go ahead and make any drastic changes to a zoning ordinance, I think we go through that public hearing process with a comp plan and we keep these recommendations from the ZOTAC in our mind as we talk about and develop. And this is a very, very public process for all those who are watching. One of the most public processes in local government is the comprehensive plan update. So it would be my professional recommendation that the board not take any action right now, but rather keep those ideas in mind as we develop the comprehensive plan. And if any amendments are needed, justified, we take them up once the comp plan is finished.

But that's my recommendation. We can do whatever the board would like. All right. Any questions?

None at this time. All right. Thank you, sir. So is it general consensus that that's what we're going to do? Yes, I would agree.

Okay. Thank you. Is that what your staff

Yes, I've talked about it with my staff. You know, I've talked about, you know, I've thought about it in my professional background, and that's our recommendation. Just looking for consensus from the board so now we can clearly let the board know, you know, the public know this is what we're going to do. Thank you. Sure.

All right. And over to you for your administrative report. You're earning your pay tonight, big guy.

So I want to let the board know that we are in the process of my staff evaluations as described during the budget process. Those are going very well. Um, not a whole lot else. I'm gonna be out of the office a little bit here in the coming weeks. But I just remind everybody that June 19th, this upcoming Friday, is a state holiday, which means it is a county holiday also. So the county offices will be closed Friday, June 19th. And I see a lot of the people in the parking lot, a lot of the activity reminding everybody that taxes are due to real estate and personal property. So please pay attention to those deadlines and to avoid any penalties or whatnot, you know, please pay on time. That's all I have, Mr. Chairman.

All right. Thank you very much. Quick question on the last one. So personal property in particular, I think I received mine Saturday. Can you just reiterate what the due date is? And really my question maybe to the rest of my counterparts here is, is that enough time?

I received mine in the mail also. I think it was, I think it was June 25. And I believe there was till July 1 without penalty. These dates are set by the treasurer. He can give a grace period. I believe those are dates without having the documents for me. I believe those are the dates, sir. If anybody. Okay. Penalty free. I believe. But in order to avoid a penalty, the best way is to pay on time. That's listed on the document. And there was a delay in getting those from the May 5th tax date, whenever the board approved the tax rates. It was quite some time before they got put out by some of the constitutional officers. So that's less than the 30 days?

Yes, sir. You guys good, but making it 30 days and even 30 days.

I think the treasurer all that's the treasurer. I think the treasurer is called, but Randy has to choose that. But I mean, so you guys concur we're making a recommendation to that. Yeah, I'm probably making a recommendation.

I only have a question on that. I mean, without these funds, the county doesn't operate. So July 1st, correct?

The county can still fund them. This is a good, you know, this is why we have the $48 million in reserve. Okay. That is our cushion. In the event that something like this were to happen, you know, delaying getting the tax bills out and delaying receiving the funds, you can use your unassigned fund, general fund, fund balance for these. I'm looking at my finance team.

It's not, but everybody. We'll be fine. Well, everybody's not going to wait until then to pay anyway.

I know, but I just wanted for purposes just to put it out there. And this is why I asked Mr. Smoltz because one of the things to add our workshop is maybe discuss going to once a year payment of the taxes later in the year. So we don't have this problem. A lot of places do that.

Yeah, I think as we had talked to her, my understanding was, um, the difference between real estate and personal property, there were some issues with our first data drop from our contractor on the personal property side of things. And given that, I would, I would definitely recommend you reach out to the treasurer. My recommendation would be to move that, because everybody reads a due date. Not everybody understands the penalty-free date, but to officially put something out, On what he is going to enforce for those dates, if it's a 25th and a slight grace period on on. Um, penalties, let's get that out into the public and if he has the authority to make that date change, I would definitely be supportive. Not that I guess I don't get to say, but he's a constitutional officer.

All right, what's the consensus of the board? We good with making that recommendation? Sure. All right.

If you're looking for a consensus. What was yesterday? I would extend it two weeks.

I don't agree with that at all.

You don't think? No.

I mean, they're the same every year. If anything, they're less expensive this year than they were last year because we have not changed their rates. The value of the automobiles have most likely declined just because of depreciation.

So remember, we're a prorating county now, so they owe taxes even on a new vehicle, right? And we didn't give them anything in their mailbox until, I mean, we basically gave them a bill with two weeks to pay.

And it shouldn't have come as a surprise to anybody except for possibly somebody getting their first car. I mean, I don't mind extending it for a week or so, but I mean, We're well into the next FY if we start doing that.

The one after that July 1 date, 25 plus 7.

Yeah.

I'd support a week.

I'm good with a week. I mean, you're talking about the holiday weekend as well. So, but... It's not a surprise, we're only talking about probably a few members of the county, but there are some that see it as a hardship. So we're just talking about a few, but at least we're extending it for them. Thank you. Okay.

You got what you need? Awesome.

All right. Any other questions, discussion before we move on?

All right, cool.

We'll open up the floor to secondary public comment to address meeting items only from tonight. Comments will be limited to three minutes per person in order for everyone to have an opportunity to speak. Please provide your full name and district when submitting your public comments so they can be properly recorded and included in the public record. Is there anybody who would like to make public comment at this time? Yes, come on up.

Good evening. My name is Isaac Luthold representing Hanwha Renewables. During the meeting tonight, it was brought up when Supervisor comment that for the county's revenue and budget, it's advantageous to have businesses come in. It's also brought up that alternatives like major housing developments are less desirable. And I wanted to provide a courtesy update notice regarding the Gibson solar project. This is the same project that was presented a roughly a year ago to the county. and at that time it was owned and being developed by Open Road Renewables. Hanwha Renewables has acquired that project and the courtesy update notice is that after the 12-month wait period elapses in July, we do intend to resubmit to the county for that project's special exemption permit. This is a business or commercial aspect that would bring revenue into the county and is not a major housing development that would also bring with it the need for increased services. Thank you for the time.

Thank you. Anybody else would like to make public comment? Yeah, come on up, Sarah.

Hi, my name is Sarah Baylon. I live in the James Monroe District. I just want to put out there that I understand any form of frustration that you may have towards being told that an application was not advertised properly. As someone young getting into local politics, I constantly face a similar frustration. For example, after our first vote, a friend who lives in my district, sorry, not first vote, after our recent vote, a friend who lives in my district said that he left the Board of Supervisors box blank because he didn't know that it was going to be on the ballot. When I told him that you should always look up a sample ballot and that TC Collins' retirement was discussed at almost every board meeting leading up to the vote, he told me that he suspects that the board hides when the meetings take place. The board meetings consistently occur at the same time in the same place typically, hence why we're all here. I felt the same frustration when I came to speak about the Daisy Lane solar development, and members from my neighborhood came to say that they didn't know it was being proposed. My neighborhood has only one entrance, and when you enter, you see a sign, and when you leave, you see a big sign. If you have ever seen Stafford County signs, they are extremely small. They say public hearing and the date, and they have a QR code that you have to get out of your car and scan to see what is being proposed. unfortunately we are always going to have people come forward and say they weren't informed or didn't see any signs so with that said i do hope we seriously consider having a set notification radius that was mentioned today putting that aside we do have a major problem with our county website when i search data center in our county website the first five results are policing data submit data download data gis data and genealogy I have to go to page two to see the first mention of an actual data center being Green Energy Ventures. And when I go to our King George County GIS page and click view for Green Energy Ventures, it just brings me to a picture of the site. Stafford County may have unhelpful signs, but they do have a user friendly website. They recently made a new applications page where all applications are sorted by month. If you search data center, data centers come up and then you can click on a proposal and see the application impact statement, GDP and permits all in one spot. We could then link this to our view link on the GIS page instead of just having a picture. I don't think creating an application page would just be helpful. I believe it is necessary to make the applications easily accessible to the general public if we want to have meaningful conversations about what is being proposed in and for our county. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. Anybody else like to speak? Mr. Dine, do you have anybody online?

No, Mr. Chair.

All right. In the way of any correspondence. All right. I'll put closed public comment at this time. And I will entertain a motion to adjourn.

I have a question. Sure. Yes, sir. So, Isaac, did you mention where people could find information on your project?

If you don't mind.

If there's anything available for people, tell them where they go or how you guys are going to get the information out.

Sure, certainly. So again, Isaac Luthold with Hanoi Renewables and it's the Gibson Solar Project as presented by Open Road about a year ago. So many people are already familiar with that. We will be making public or live a project website so that people can familiarize themselves with the project. uh they're also welcome to reach out to myself and my contact information will be provided and available we also intend to hold some open houses or town hall type meetings that are just open to the public to become familiarized with the project as well thank you sir certainly thank you anything else all right then i'll entertain a motion to adjourn

Mr. Chair, I make a motion to join the Board of Supervisors to Tuesday, July 7, 2026 at 530 PM in the Multi-Purpose Boardroom Sheriff's Office located at 10445 Government Center Blvd, King George, Virginia.

Second. Motion properly seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Chair votes aye. We are adjourned. Thank you.