Council - Regular Meeting

I will begin by telling everyone that this is the first meeting with electronic attendance. To those who are viewing from home, there may be a bit of a lag. uh bear with us in this new process and I thank everyone for attending. We will start with the invocation given by Chief Tester. Let us pray. Dear heavenly father, we want to thank you for having opportunity to be here tonight uh as a community and along with Councilwoman Hayes to uh join us in attendance tonight. Want to thank you for many blessings that you've given our community, Lord. And u for the workers to be able to put up the flag today in remembrance of our fallen soldiers and community members that have been significant in our life and in Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Mark Cheney will lead us in the pledge of allegiance from the American Legion. 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. Thank you folks. And we will begin with the roll call. We will because we are meeting electronically we will answer the roll call. Carter present. May here. Atwell

here. Jennings here. Spencer here. Gates here. Hayes here. Mayor Cornet here. Thank you. We are all in attendance tonight. That's wonderful. And I want to welcome back Council Member Hayes. We will need approval of the minutes of the May 4th meeting. So move. Second.

Any changes be made to those minutes? Any questions? None being heard. And I will ask you to uh acknowledge both uh with your hand and with your voice if you will for the electronic. All in favor of approving the minutes. Yes. I I uh we need a uh we need to wait for Miss. Thank you. I knew there'd be some hiccups. Can't hear you. need you to vote on approval of the minutes. Can't hear you.

Uh, can you hear now, Deborah? Just barely.

Okay, we're voting for the approval of the agenda of the minutes, I'm sorry. And we need you to vote for the approval of the minutes. both audio and uh with your hand sign. I believe that was an affirmative. Is that correct? We will proceed now with the approval of the agenda. Are there any additions to the agenda?

Nothing. No changes. I make a motion we approve the agenda as written. Susie Jennings. I second that motion. Todd May. Council member Jennings has made the motion and Council Member May has seconded the motion. All in favor of approving our agenda for this evening, please sign now. Yes. I thank you. And Miss Hayes, can you hear us now? Miss Hayes. Miss Barely. Okay. So, we're voting to adopt the agenda as distributed. If you could vote, please.

Uh, Council Member Hayes, we're voting for the approval of the agenda. Just go ahead. I can't hear you. So, go ahead. We can't we we we can't proceed with uh the meeting until we're able to both hear and see you. Uh so, we're going to work on the technical aspects of this. We knew that we would have a few. Okay. I think she may have her volume turned down on the iPad. Can you hear me, Miss Hayes? Yeah.

Okay, I got you. Wonderful now. And we're all voted in the affirmative. That's unanimous. And approval of the agenda. And now we'll move on to the easy part. We have no public hearings scheduled for the evening. So, we will move on to public presentations. And I will ask that um only the speaker at the podium speak during the public presentations. First we have Sarah Galisby from the chamber and Bailey. I'm sorry. And you have the floor. Thank you.

Hello. Thank you all for having us today. Can you hear me? Okay. I'm kind of loud. Anyway, um we are here of course to talk about funding. Thank you for inviting us to be here and speak. Um, as you all know, we have been at the level 12,000 in funding since 2023. Prior to that, it was at a $6,000 level for many, many, many years. I think maybe since I joined the chamber, and that's been a couple years ago. Um, we have asked for an $8,000 increase as we continue to grow and take on additional operations. Um, I'm sure you know that the chamber within Smith County operates well beyond the traditional scope of what chambers of commerce traditionally do. um our service not only as a membership organization but also a strategic partner in tourism, workforce engagement, economic development, small business development, community marketing, quality of life, and all of that contributes to our economic vitality here in Smith County. Um we often serve as the front door for businesses and visitors, especially um since we began to operate the welcome center. Um and we've really expanded our program since we were able to move there as well. Um that includes not just operating the tourism center, but also facilitating programs such as our healthcare excellence and our manufacturing excellence which are our goal both of those is to feed our youth directly into our workforce here in Smith County and show them the careers that they have. So those have grown exponentially since we began those. the existing funding level that we're at um no longer reflects the scope of services that we're able to deliver and the cost to operate the chamber based on all the things we continue to take on and do, which we're happy to do, but we also had to add an additional person to our workforce um to do all that we do. Um so, we want to keep working towards building what we do. Um we want to support all the things that Marian do and strengthen the economic position for the town and the county. And we'll do that also through um additional grants and partnerships that we plan to pursue. But as you all know, many of those require matching funds. And I want to

let Bailey talk to a little bit about our advanced membership. Thanks for having us here tonight. Um one of the things that I want to point out is in your packet you have a recap of events that we hosted in 2025 and then a little bit more detailed version of events that we've had in 2026 as well as a schedule for the remainder of the year. These programs and events that we host are only possible because of your continued partnership and support. Um, our event growth continues to grow each and every year. We've had an increased number of attendees year after year. One that I like to site is Witches Night Out that we have here in downtown. It's a great night for our downtown businesses who participate. The first year we had about 30 ladies join us, which we thought was great. And then last year we had 75 ladies join us. So that shows huge growth and success. Um our social media reach is growing. We have about 7.3,000 followers on Facebook, um 1.2,000 followers on Instagram, and 3,400 subscribers to our newsletter. We send out at least three newsletters a week that feature um different job opportunities, grants, internships, and then as well as events, different things like that in our community. Um, we've also been thankful to secure some grants um with uh Smith County Tourism as well as some other grants. So, we're excited to continue growing what we're able to offer, growing how we're um representing Smith County and highlighting the tourism assets that we have here. Um, another important stat that you'll see in your packet is at the membership stat. roughly 140 of the 225 chamber members we have are Marian businesses or located within Marian's footprint. So I think that speaks huge volume to Marian's economic development and growth and we're thankful for those businesses. Um with your continued support we are

able to continue reaching new businesses to work with as members as well as bolster what we do for our members currently. Um and then back to the visitor center side of things. Running a visitor center is not always easy. It's not always fun. We see a lot of interesting characters, but it's something that we take pride in showcasing our community, highlighting our towns and all that they have to offer. And um Virginia Tourism has told us multiple times that we are the busiest tourism center in Southwest Virginia. And I I think that's true.

Um in closing, we won't say very long because we haven't got here from a lot of folks tonight. Um, one of the best compliments we've ever gotten to the chamber was one of the board supervisors members said, "We see you in the chamber like water. You guys fill in all the gaps." And that's what we want to be here for. Any way we can support what you already have going on, we want to do that. Anything that you see that is lacking and needs to happen, we want to help develop that. Um, as you can see, our capacity and everything to end, whatever gets thrown at us, we keep finding new ways to develop new programs and new things, and we want to keep doing that through your partnership. We appreciate all the support that you guys give us. Um, half years and please lean on us to help you with whatever we can and I'd like to give you guys a chance to ask us any questions about current programs.

Uh this is Mayor Cornet. Thank you for your presentation. Very well done as always. And now if any council member would like to ask any questions, uh the floor is open, but please do remember to state your name first. Trisha Spencer, I'd just like to say thank you. I think you're doing a fabulous job, both of you, Susie Jennings. And that's what I was going to say, too. Thank you all so much. Well, if any questions arise or you think of something after the meeting, we're very accessible. Just give us a call. I think probably everybody's got my cell phone even, so you can text me tonight. But thank you all. I appreciate that much. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. And this is Mayor Cornet. and we will call in the next Amanda Livingston from tourism. And Amanda, you have the floor.

Thank you. Um, so I just want to say to echo what Sarah and Bailey said. Um, we I do think of myself as uh the tourism organization as a sister organization to the chamber because we do work so closely together and we do uh again really fill in those gaps. So, quick recap and then I'll kind of want to talk about next fiscal year and what we are intending to do. Um, Bailey briefly mentioned the grants that that we were able to partner together and get that is uh solely focused on marketing dollars. Uh, it is focused on outdoor recreation marketing for all the great outdoor recreation in our area specifically highlighting the five over 5,000 hiking challenge which is the brainchild of Sierra in the chamber. Uh but what we want to do is amplify that and use it as a way to highlight and if anyone doesn't know already um I hope you do but there are within a spitting distance of where we are right now five mountains over 5,000 ft in elevation and you can hike all of them in about what a day or a half you can do them in a weekend easily in a weekend. So that is something we really want to highlight. That is something that no other uh town and county in Virginia can boast. So we're really excited about that. Um, I I highlight marketing because in addition to all the great work happening in the community, tourism is really solely focused on communicating with people outside of the county. So, the advertising that we're doing, the marketing messages, the PR that we're doing, you will rarely see in the county and in the town. And that's by design because we wanted to reach people in North Carolina, in Knoxville, in Washington DC on the coast to get them to come here and spend their dollars, spend the day, spend the night, hopefully spend a week. So, having said that, um Andrew, if you don't mind to cue up the presentation, I wanted to talk a little bit about some projects that I had brainstormed specifically focused um for Marian next year. Uh we

work very closely with the chamber, with Smith County EDA. also work very closely with the office Marian office of community and economic development to supplement what they are doing. Uh and so we are able to come in and again kind of plug in some of those gaps in a way with a little bit more flexibility and a little bit more access to grant money for the marketing side. So that's okay. I don't mind to just wing it. I'm coming right now. I'm sorry.

That's okay. I think there's gremlins in the internet tonight. Um so just really briefly there are a few things um on the marketing side that I have realized and I've spoken with Ken Heath about. One of them is the town of Marian website which is a government local government website. It does have visitor information on it. Um fantastic. Thank you. And if you don't mind just go ahead straight to the next slide.

Yeah. So the town of Marian website does have visitor information on it to be totally frank. It is not very visitorfacing. Um and that is because local government websites have to have multiple functions. You have to have government information. You have to have uh where to pay your water bill. You have to have all this information that's not necessarily relevant to visitors. Um, and so what I am proposing is that we create a landing page on the Smith County website that is dedicated to Marian, that has a plug-in um, calendar that is specific to Marian events, and that we do some dedicated advertising to drive folks to that landing page on the Visit Smith County website. The reason I propose that as opposed to building a brand new website is that that is incredibly time consuming and expensive. Um, even to develop a very small uh very simple website is going to be several thousand dollars up to $10,000. To develop a website, a brand new local government website is going to be tens and tens of thousands. So, uh, next slide, please. So, this is just a snapshot of the current visitor, uh, page on the town of Marian website. As you can see, has minimal photography, minimal text, minimal information, lots of links. that is um not due to anyone's lack of trying. That is just a function of how a local government website is set up. And then if you go to the next slide, this is an example of a landing page that we created for the um Association of Museums in Smith County. This is a campaign we did for the Virginia 250 campaign highlighting history in Smith County. As you can see, lots of imagery. This is just a still. It's not a live uh shot. Lots of imagery. If you go to the next slide please, Andrew. This is a specific embedded calendar that can be filtered. This particular one is filtered for history events, but what I would propose is to filter it for Marian events. And then if you go to the next slide, this is just additional content that links

out to blog posts. Um, you can embed video, you can add any kind of text, and you're going to get a lot better SEO result because you're going to have that additional text and those links and that content. Um, and it's something that we can update frequently. So that is um kind of a new marketing thing in addition to the the general marketing that of course we do for Smith County that incorporates Marian every year. And if you go to the next slide, Andrew, just really briefly, I highlighted these are a couple of things that are in the current tourism work plan for the next three years. Um specifically pertaining to Marian as well as Smith County. Um, the tourism board has identified that they would like to have additional outdoor recreation focused events and so I would like to propose an exploratory committee. Um, as I think I've mentioned before here, I do not plan events. I'm a onewoman office and I'm not as good as these ladies and so there is no point in competing. And so what I would propose is that we do some sort of exploratory committee with Ken Heath's office, with the chamber, with the other partners, perhaps the park, and start thinking about what a really amped up outdoor recreation event would look like in 2027. Um, Virginia Tourism is encouraging us to explore sports marketing, and so that is a really good fit as the Kalen Drive development comes online and as the town explores what that is going to look like. I would like to be a part of that conversation because as you build the physical facilities, it's important to think about how they will be used and what outside visitors might be coming in, sports teams, parents, families, travel, ball. Um and then uh in addition we are beginning to work with the arts nonprofits in Marian um at the very beginning stages of kind of doing a cultural asset inventory and plan which if you think about a feasibility study for a building. This would be almost like a feasibility study for the art scene in general in Marian. So rather than one specific location, it's the

general art scene because that is an enormous draw to visitors uh to Marian. So that's just a sort of a pitch for the upcoming fiscal year. Uh and then the last slide is just one of my favorite pictures. So I just like to show it. Um and uh so are there any questions about any past work or future? Yes, I have council member Jennings. Susie Jennings. Uh thank first of all, thank you so much. You have just done a tremendous job for our community. But what I wanted to ask, I think I missed a little something on the town of Marian's website. Yes. Uh who where do you think it should be? Again, can you repeat what you said?

Yeah, that's a great question and I I probably was blowing through because I was aware of time. Um right now I am not proposing to make any changes to the town of Marian website. That's both not my not appropriate role for me and also involves a lot of expense and decision-m. What I'm proposing is in addition to everything that is currently on the town of Marian website to create a landing page on the Smith County website that would also have and we would have links back and forth as appropriate. But it would just be another way to get the town of Marian information out to the visitors without having to get into any kind of redesign of the town of Marion website. All right. Okay. Thank you. Mayor Cornet with one question.

Yes. Um would you be creating a QR code that we can publicly display that would take them directly to the Marian Absolutely. part of the website? Yes. Yeah, we can create custom QR code uh and custom link. I think uh you know something like visit Smith County or something very simple and then also QR code is very easy to do. Would there be advertising opportunities for businesses there?

At this time I am reluctant to say yes. Um, I have dabbled in advertising in the visitor guide. It's very time consuming and it also we're a small community and we all kind of compete for the same resources. And so what I discovered was I was competing with Hungry Mother State Park for their advertising, with the chamber for their advertising and sponsorships. And it didn't it didn't I'm not opposed to it, but at this time I'm hesitant to to jump in with both feet. So what I would propose is to fund it with marketing grants as I'm able to get and then you know pooling the money from that we receive from town of Mary with the county and the other towns. Okay, that sounds fair enough. I I appreciate that.

Yeah. And council are any further questions then? Thank you very much for your presentation and um we will call the next person, Shannon Naf. And folks, we're really going to enjoy this one. Hi everybody. Hey Shannon. Hello Shannon.

And Andrew is pulling up the PowerPoint now. Thank you'all very much for having me come out today. Uh I certainly do appreciate it. Uh I think I know most of you. I'm Shannon Nath. I'm with PBS Appalachia, a Marian native, and I moved back about 3 years ago to help launch this public television station. And I'm here tonight to ask for funding for an upcoming documentary project that we're working on that I really think is going to showcase one of the main reasons why America or Marion is really America's coolest hometown. It's about the Surfer, and that's the precursor to the modern-day snowboard. Uh, it's a fascinating story and a story that that Marian doesn't really get credit enough for. So, we've got a couple different models here. All these were manufactured in the in Marian. Uh, first the one closest to the door is a Brunswick model, the first one, and then we had a Gym Corporation uh model. So, I brought some visual aids with me. Oh, I'm sure. Okay. So, yeah, these are the two versions of them. There's a lot more. We have access to a huge clutch double. All right.

Thank you, sir. Appreciate it.

All right. Thank you. Thank you so much. All right. If you wouldn't mind the slide, that would that would be great. Uh, so I want to give you a little bit of information about Blue Ridge Public Television. Um, we are a 5013C nonprofit. Uh, we're uh, Blue Ridge PBS in Reoke and it used to serve this area through a transmitter on uh, up on the mountain there on channel 52. Those were shut down. They kind of aged out and there had been a big gap. Instead of building a new transmitter, we launched the first uh, nation's first all digital PBS station. That's why I moved back to be part of that. I think it's pretty cool. We've also launched some new sub channels in case anything ever happens to PBS. We have a brand called Echo. It stands for education, community, health, and opportunity. So, you'll be hearing more about that come July 1st. Uh want to give you a little bit of information about some of our uh programming. Being a digital station, we're across multi-creens across social media, different channels. It's really important now. TV viewership has changed a lot. So, you've got the map of our service area. together. Our stations cover about 42% of the geographic footprint of Southwest of Virginia. And then the map of the United States is how some of our programming is distributed uh distributed. Uh our show Hometowns, which is a travel show that we we're doing. We've done three seasons so far. It's running in about 83 markets around the country. So, it's a lot of exposure for Southwest Virginia. And you know, we did an episode on Marion a while back. So, Andrew, if you could go to the next slide. And a little bit about some of our productions. Uh, we've won quite a few Emmys, 16 Emmys in three years. Uh, the Emmy nominations just came out. We were nominated for seven more, I believe, or maybe nine more, I'm not sure. U, but some of our shows are Hometowns, which is our travel series that it's kind of an Anthony Bourdain style look into small communities across

America. Then we had a Emmy award-winning documentary on uh Appalachic Grasslands called The Prairie Preacher. We just finished a documentary called Resolve to Live and Die that's uh showcased uh Southwest Virginia's involvement in the Revolutionary War. And then we also do other things on different platforms. We've launched a YouTube and Facebook series called Roaming Appalachia that's quickly gain gaining a lot of momentum. Uh please follow us if you can on social media. And then one that I'm really happy about is called Appalachia Jobs Explained where we produce short form video content that is encourages people to pursue career paths here in Southwest Virginia, keep our young people here. So that's on Instagram and Tik Tok. It's gaining a lot of lot of feed and we just recently partnered with uh the Chamber of Commerce on their career fair and helped with that. So try to be as active on as many fronts as we can. So now if you could go to the next page, we'll talk a little bit about this Nerfer documentary. This Nerfer was invented in Michigan in 1965 on Christmas Day. Uh the patent was sold to Brunswick and with the abundance of hardwood here, the Brunswick location, they decided to start producing them here. Then a company called Gym Corporation took over. Then there was a big historic flood in 1977. It's a real fascinating story. If you live in Marian, you know the story. But outside of Marian, people don't really know that we had such a birth uh such were so important in the evolution of snowboarding. Um the picture that I showed at the beginning, this picture right here is probably the first picture that anybody's ever been airborne on a surfer. Uh that's Scott Demond at Primary Hill. Uh it was really becoming a sport. It's just a fascinating story. uh Jake Burton came along and he he basically took the idea and made his version of it. It really should be called snurfing instead of snowboarding now. But it's such a

fascinating story that that we want to tell it. And um so when we produce this, we're going to do a premiere at the Lincoln Theater uh before it airs on television. Then it would air regionally on uh Blue Ridge PBS in the Renault Lynchburg area and then PBS Appalachia as well as other arrange stations. It'll be on the PBS website forever. Uh once it goes live, uh it'll be on Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, all of our distribution pass. Uh we've talked to the US Ski and Snowboarding Hall of Fame. Will be part of an exhibit in Michigan. And we're going to enter it in film festivals. We've got all kinds of plans when we do the screening at the Lincoln. Uh we've got a connection that has probably the largest collection of vintage snowboards. We'll have an exhibit there as well as an exhibit at our PBS Appalachia Studio in Bristol. So, it's going to be pretty high profile. So, if you want to go to the next slide, please, Andrew. Um, I talked to Ken about it and he said give him a couple options. So, I gave him a couple different options and there's one for $14,000 and one for 7500. Um, the more that you can invest to help support it, uh, the more you get with it. The reason I came up with those numbers, and I've crunched this these numbers many, many times, it's about a $60,000 documentary project between all the uh distribution cost and, you know, manh hours, the equipment, uh everything from closed captioning, uh it it does kind of add up, travel and everything. So, we do have some grant funds that are going to help us cover about half of it. So, I'm trying to raise about 28 to $30,000. And so that's where I came up with these two options. Uh the one on the right, the $14,000 one, both of them you would have placement within that documentary at the beginning and the end. The larger package has a 10-second video message so we could craft a really nice message to get people to come to Marian. The other

one is a logo. Both high-profile exposure uh just get a little bit more for the $14,000 investment. And in addition to the being included in the documentary, I'd like to run a 30 secondond spot schedule. And I've done one previously with Ken, and I appreciate y'all supporting that. Um, so we would run the spot schedule across our stations uh on Blige PBS up in Ro. And the folks from the travel people, you know, they were talking about being outside of the area. So, we want to pull people here. So, we could do a really high frequency spot schedule on all of our channels, PBS Appalachia, Blueridge PBS, and all of our uh Echo channels that we have. So, it's a lot of exposure either package. You just get a lot more. And if you did want to go with the larger package, I'll work with you any way that I can. I could build it over two years. I could stretch the spot placement out over two years. However you needed to do it, I'll work with you. I think it's a truly truly remarkable thing for Marian. It's a story that people haven't really heard outside of this area and we want to share it with you and with them and um we just generally like to ask for your support in this project. I I feel like it's something that Mary can really come together over and be proud of because uh if you want to go to the next slide, Andrew, uh we just did a couple posts on Facebook and these are all the comments that we've got. There's one on there that I love. Somebody uh said, "I know about the Michigan part. I want to hear about Marion. I want to know about the flood." So, uh that's pretty pretty neat. And then the final slide is just some scenes from our first day of production that we've done. And my contact information. I certainly do appreciate your time. I'm open for any questions. Uh my contact info is there. I'm happy to help any way I can. And if y'all can support this, I will promise to take good care of you,

Mayor Cornet. And I just want to say thank you. Wonderful presentation. I'm very excited about Surfers. I was part of that. Yeah. Um when we were down in Edwolf a long time ago. Absolutely. And I'm working to get that footage. It may be lost, but WDBJ up in Renault shot that that's part of the expense, too, if we have to buy footage like that, but uh yeah, I really hope we can get it. And I did come across some some photos from it. And then that tour schedule is interesting. They had that competition. Then they went to like Colorado and a couple different places. It was part of a bigger circuit, but people don't realize that Marian was right there with it. Council,

uh, Susie Jennings, and thank you, Shannon. Have you got a date at the lake of theater yet? Uh, we have not. I I spoke to Bob, you know, I've been working on this for a while to try to get that initial funding in place. I had a conversation with Bob s short shortly after he started and then I saw him the other day and I I left him a voice voice message and then I ran into him and we we don't have a date yet. It's it's going to be a next year production when it comes out. So,

uh and then we're not sure whether we, you know, summer's always good for turnout, but it is kind of a winter sport. So, we're kind of playing with that. Plus, we do have to travel a little bit to get some some interviews as part of the story, but we don't have a date yet, but it'll happen and we'll know well in advance and we'll promote it like crazy. We're going to get a big turnout and we'll have that Snurfer exhibit there as well. Larry Carter Town Council. Uh, Marian, I don't know if anybody's here old enough besides me to remember, were you part of the Marian JC's when we had that? What mid mid70s? We had a snerfing competition actually

out at Sky View Theater and the weather permitted uh with snow and it was quite cold also. Yeah. And we were going to get national exposure but the lady skier that we had lined up came down I think that year was a Hong Kong flu. She couldn't make it. So, wow. We were We had JC's had a big to-do. Yep. I was actually fortunate enough to participate in that when I was 10 years old. Yeah. I have a trophy of the only trophy I've ever seen from like youth sports. Uh but I have a fifth place beginners trophy. Yeah, we did it right. And uh

yeah, and we're good. We're trying to get track down that footage from DBJ. They were part of PM Magazine or the PM Magazine station. So, we're hoping that we're going to be able to to acquire some of that footage, but we do have some photographs and we can always incorporate photographs in with everything. Kind of that Ken Burns documentary effect. It was sometime in the 70s. I don't remember the exact year. Actually, no, it's 1980. Was it 1980? 1980. Yep. I've got a somewhere. I've got a picture on my phone. I can get to you. So, yeah. Yeah. All right. Thank you.

And then actually, it was in the Marian High School yearbook. I didn't realize that until our first day of shooting. There's like a two-page spread on that. Some very good photos. And I do we do have a little bit of rough uh film video from that event as well. So, I'm hoping we can get it from the PM Magazine folks at WDBJ because that's that would be great. That would be great. Thank you, Shann. All right. Thank you, Shannon. Mayor Cornet, thank you very much. And uh I appreciate All right. Thank you for coming here. Thank you all so much. Certainly will. Um, yes, Vice Mayor Gates, since we've heard the presentation, this is Jim Gates. Uh,

as chairman of the finance committee, I'd like to refer that to the committee and we can make some decisions on it by the next meeting. I'll second it. Susie Jennings.

We have a motion by Vice Mayor Gates and a second by Council Member Jennings to put this before the finance committee. Um, is there any further discussion? Then, uh, we will vote and, uh, Miss Hayes, we will be voting on the motion of Jim Gates and Susie Jennings to put this before the finance committee. I have not tested the audio yet, so if Miss Hayes, you would respond by voting with us. Um, all in favor? Yes.

Yes. Very good. It's unanimous. Thank you everyone. Um, I see that we have um our county administrator with us back here in the very back of the room. And uh I just want to acknowledge him and give him the opportunity to address us if he wishes to. Might be a file on the wall. Thank you, sir, for being here. And now we will move forward um with a resolution. And this is a resolution in recognition of EMS week. And out of respect for everyone that works in the EMS field, I will stand. If anyone wishes to join me, they're welcome to.

Mayor, I thought we could bring up the EMS staff that are here.

That'd be great. This is a resolution in recognition of EMS week which will be May 17th through 23rd of the year 2026. Whereas emergency medical services is a vital public service and whereas the members of emergency medical services teams are ready to provide life-saving care to those in need 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And whereas access to quality emergency care dramatically improves the survival and recovery rate of those who experience sudden illness or injury. And whereas emergency medical services fills health care gaps by providing important out of hospital care including preventative medicine, follow-up care, and access to tele medicine. And whereas the emergency medical services system consists of first responders, emergency medical technicians, paramedics, emergency medical dispatchers, firefighters, police officers, educators, administrators, prehosp nurses, emergency nurses, emergency physicians, trained members of the public, and out of hospital medical care providers. And whereas the members of emergency medical services teams, whether career or volunteer, engage in thousands of hours of specialized training and continued education to enhance their life-saving skills. And whereas it is

appropriate to recognize the value and accomplishments of emergency medical services providers by designating EMS week. Now therefore, we the town council of Marian, Virginia, assembled in regular session this 18th day of May, 2026, in recognition of this event, do hereby proclaim the week of May 17th through 23rd, 2026 as EMS week 2026 with the theme of we care for everyone. And we encourage the community to observe this week and join us as we honor the EMS profession, our EMS providers, and the essential services that they provide. We will need to vote on this resolution. All in favor of this resolution,

I I I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. Absolutely. You do quite a job and it's fearless. Thank you.

Would anyone like to speak from EMS? Well, on behalf of the department, we appreciate the town's recognition for uh for EMS week. you know, EMS is a big part of what we do and uh we're thrilled that the town and the county supports us in this endeavor and helps the citizens of the county and town. So, thank you all for supporting us. Thank you very much, Richard. Thank you. Thank you.

That completes the public presentations and we will continue with public comment time. The first speaker that we have is Mark Chain. Please approach the podium. Name, address, and the floor is yours, sir. Good evening, mayor, council members. My name is Mark Cheney, and uh I uh run post 18 Marian uh 107 Laurel Springs Road in Marian. And I just want to take a moment of your time to um uh first of all thank you for all the support that you give to our veterans in uh in the town. And uh I was just talking with the ladies which I apologize if you overheard. Uh but we have a lot of veterans that are coming down from Northern Virginia uh part of an American Legion riders program motorcyclist and that we have beautiful roads to ride here in Marian. And uh but one of the things that uh we are remiss about is that we we don't hold on to these people. Uh they go down to Bristol and everything else after they've ridden uh some of our nice rides. So we're going to try to do some stuff through the American Legion to keep those riders here and keep their money in our in our town. The other thing that I have is uh June 6, Saturday, June 6 is our uh community breakfast fundraiser. Give this to you.

Sure. Thank you. We try to do a a fundraiser once a once a month, a breakfast, and uh and I'm proud to say uh Mayor Cornett's been out there and help served and and it's been a tremendous uh blessing, but also all the money that we gain that we get, it goes back into our community to help not only our veterans of our community, but we've also been able to help uh people that just need help at in uh in our town. And a lot of times stuff flies uh past the radar and uh and and we don't see the need until it's desperate. And I want to take a moment to just thank uh Sean uh and Smith County for all that they've done as well and helping our veterans. And uh truly our veterans make our community safer. Uh but uh just to uh my last thing that I want to talk about briefly is traditionally Armed Forces Day. Armed Forces Day was uh May 16th, this past Saturday, and it's conducted uh a lot of times near our large military installations, Hampton Roads, for instance. It's uh celebrated on the third Saturday in May. In previous years, not all cities, towns participated. It's just not a big event. Armed Forces Day celebrates and recognizes our active duty military members. And on a personal note, I have a son-in-law that's in the Air Force and I have a daughter that's in Space Force. So, it hits home personally when they get activated and uh to uh go on tours and uh overseas. So, uh anyway, that that's Armed Forces Day. Uh but Armed Forces Day changed drastically after September the 11th, 2001. And I just want to bring it to your attention in a respectful way that our community, we're blessed with the outstanding men and

women that have that are serving in uniform on behalf of uh the war against terrorism. And that's been going on since 2001. And a lot of times this falls on deaf ears. But we have comm we have um active duty military that uh are deployed from our community. uh with the American Legion, we have our eyes on them. We give them we send out uh packets to them. We send out things that they need when they're on deployments, but also these folks are our neighbors. They're our friends. They're our relatives. They are members of the National Guard up the road. They are reserves. They are sharing the burden of battle uh against terrorism around the globe as they are on active duty. They also have wives, they have husbands, children, and family members who pray for the s their safe return every day that their loved one is gone. And I just want to bring it to you that these are our hometown heroes. And I don't say that lightly. uh as a 28-year plus firefighter, that term gets thrown around and our firefighters, first responders are very important. The military gets very little recognition because they deploy. They're not here to get the the uh handshakes. And so I would just say to everyone here, everyone in council and in our Smith County, when you see one of these military members, thank them. for there is an al there is a great sacrifice that they have put up to be able to defend what we can have known as our freedoms. Uh I apologize I'm going to have to leave because I have another meeting which mayor you probably are aware of that. So but I thank you for uh

everything that you do to support the American Legion. Thank you Mayor Cornet and I want to say thank you very much and thank you for bringing this to our attention. And I think it's something that we really should uh honor more. So, we'll work on a way to do that. Uh I want to open the floor to council in case they have any questions. Just want Susie Jennings. Just want to say thank you. Thank you, ma'am.

Okay. Thank you very much. I know you need to go. Thank you, sir. Uh I'm sorry I I a Mayor Cornet. The next speaker is David Fulton. Uh David Fulton, Pearl Avenue. I'm going to give you town counselor bypass today if you don't mind. And I would like to address the town manager. As a veteran, I would like to thank you and all the town employees that worked on the flags today and all the other volunteers. Also, it was last week, last Monday when it was raining. To me, it was an issue. To some people, they may have took it for granted, but last week when the trash people ran, the little thing they done impressed me. It was raining and they took time to put the lid back on my trash can to keep it from filling with water. To some people that may not be a big issue, but to me that shows the dedication of your town employees. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Fulton. Mr. Mayor Cornet, uh council, any response? And uh thank you Andre. Absolutely. Thank you. Uh the next speaker that we have is uh Lucia I believe Wolf. And did I get your name right, ma'am? No, that's all right. Uh could you pronounce that for me, please? Lucy Wolf. Thank you, ma'am. You have the floor.

Thank you. So, first off, good evening, mayor and me members of the town council. Thank you for your time. Uh, my name is Lucy. I'm the owner of Katie's. Currently have a lease and keys to 212 East Main Street and I'm fully invested in this community. I have a lovely home, a lovely place, volunteered and helped out in the community. Um, I have decades of industry experience and a business model that scales from an operational baseline of over 135,000 to a comfortable to projection in the future of over 197,000. This is real revenue brought to our local community. Plus, also have plans to offer reasonable commission for local artisans, create jobs through regional vocational and DAR programs. And yet, for the second time in a year, the gap between the small businesses reality and local economic processes have stalled this project. Last year, I was told verbally if I ran under an existing brand rather than my own, I'd receive all the help that I needed. And yet, that space is now closed. It's empty and it's storage. It's just off of Main Street. And there's other businesses in town that are closed and really just derelict looking. This year, I applied for county level funding. I was told that my application looked great. The only remaining step was to have my business plan reformatted by a designated county rep. I reached out and never got a response. I'd heard she was meetings, traveling, but never got a response. In the meantime, representatives had asked me to consider a partnership with the local person, with the local company. I took time to

consider that, had a meeting, talked about what would be involved, and ultimately declined it without going into details with the county. Total silence. None of my calls and emails were returned. Then I was notified that my application was denied. I was given generic, vague statements that my numbers, which previously looked really good, suddenly were no longer realistic. Katie is offering something entirely different from the high-priced niche specialty shops that have been in the area serving very expensive coffees or just sweet things. We're offering an affordable, accessible variety of both sweet and savory and scratchmade items designed for everyday families in this community. I've reach re reached out to leadership across multiple levels of the local government seeking a path forward and I am looking to hear back. I'm looking to help bring forth an encouraging, walkable, and vibrant downtown. And this cannot be built on a foundation of shifting requirements, bureaucratic gatekeeping, and ignored communications. It's built on action and positive action. My business is ready to open. I'm ready to hire. I'm ready to help revitalize downtown. I've got a great business plan. I want to serve this community with more than just donating my donating my time to help clean out a yard or, you know, help somebody, you know, with some projects. Not that those aren't important, but I'd like to be able to hire people. I'd like to be able to help increase the taxes that I pay. I'd like to really help serve this community. So,

I am looking forward to a response hopefully an email what we can do to correct all these issues and get this place open and I don't know. I'm hoping that we can come to an agreement. Thanks for your time. Uh, Mayor Cornet. Um, and, uh, I, uh, don't know if you, uh, know about our office of economic development, uh, small business boot camp, and several resources that the town of Marian has to help, uh, existing businesses and startups. So, you may want to get in touch with Ken Heath's office.

Oh, I I have. Thank you. Yeah. Um, those are open in October. Yeah. So, unfortunately, okay. Well, I didn't know if you were aware of those. Um, so, um, we thank you for your, uh, comments and, uh, we wish you good luck in your business. Thank you.

Uh, that was the last person that we had signed up for public comment. Um, is there anyone else here that would like to speak? And seeing none, we will move along from public comment to council members uh reports. We will start with Vice Mayor Gates. Uh this is uh Jim Gates. Uh no report, your honor. Thank you, sir. Council member Spencer. No report, sir. Thank you. Council member Jennings.

Uh well, I just want to say welcome back, Deborah. I don't know if this is Susie Jennings. Uh, and I attended a wonderful fundraiser for her on Saturday and I just want to say I'm happy to see you. That's all. Thank you, Councilman. I don't have any report, but I just have a quick question for Miss Wolf. Who is it that you're expecting a response back from that's not responded to you from the town? If I can ask, please. Um, well, I had already sent emails to those people information that I talked about.

The only reason that I asked is because you mentioned that you had contacted the county and I didn't know if if you possibly had us at the town confused with the county board of supervisors at all to where we could maybe help guide you. No, I don't believe confusion on that matter. Okay. Thank you. Councilman May, no report, your honor. Thank you, sir. Councilman window. Carter and uh that continues with the mayor's report. Um I do want to say that I'm sorry, Councilman Carter. Did you uh

Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. I I told you to This is Mayor Cornette. Keep me on track here, folks. Council member Hayes, report back. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you for bearing with me.

And now we'll go on with the mayor's report. I do want to say this is Mayor Avery Cornet. The crosses and the uh flags are going up on the courthouse. Memorial Day is right around the corner. We have a lot planned going on very soon. So, I want to invite everyone out. uh caring for our community. We'll be putting up signs um and directing people where they can volunteer, how they can volunteer for our community service days coming up. Um if there's any uh problems with those, please uh let me know if we place a sign where we shouldn't, that kind of thing. Um we are uh I'm proud to have been included in the celebrity bagging with Mariam PD. That's always a good thing for juvenile diabetes and good for the community. And I want to say a big thank you to the PD and everybody there for involving in that. It's a great endeavor and that will be the uh end of the mayor's report for tonight. U one thing I will add to the mayor's report uh that I might um there is a difference now in the way that we are responding. You may have observed that. Um, I touched on that at the beginning of the meeting. I wanted to make sure that everyone knows that um, we're doing our best to uh, honor the FOYA and the electronic communications and we're getting through it as best we can. So, I want to thank everyone for their participation and their cooperation in that. And council, thank you for your cooperation in this as well. I think we're you're doing a better job than me right now. So, we will continue on now with the attorney's report.

Mark Finnick, town of Attorney, no reports. Thank you, Mr. Finnick. And we will continue now with staff reports. Uh Cindy Stanley, just the accounts, please. I'll make a motion to uh pay the accounts.

Second. We have a motion by Vice Mayor Gates to pay the accounts and we have a second by Council Member Jennings to uh pay the accounts. Uh everyone has viewed the accounts. Are there any questions that anyone has about the accounts that you see before you? Give you a moment to look over those. And hearing no questions, I will uh ask for a vote on paying the accounts. If all in favor will raise their hand and since this is an important thing, let's go to a roll call vote.

Carter, yes. May, yes. Atwell, yes. Jennings, yes. Spencer, yes. Gates, yes. Cornet, yes. Miss Hayes, yes. Thank you. Thank you very much. Uh, anything else, Miss Stanley? That's all. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. And, uh, we will continue now with the, uh, town manager report. Andrew King.

Yes, sir. Uh, I'm going to do a quick FY27 um budget presentation and we're at a little bit of a time deficit. We're uh creeping up on on um some times that we have blocked in um close session. So, I'm going to move as quickly as I can. Um so uh our goals for today or my goals for today um as we look at this FY27 budget is to um do a quick overview of our revenues and trends. Um consider our fund balance reserves and uh recent activities. Then an overview of our current expenditure plan which includes um departmental personnel, community organizations, capital prioritization. um and then uh a review of the balance budget and the remaining budget calendar and then take any questions um or uh engage any discussion you may have following this. I wanted to quickly touch on the revenues. Um our total revenues are currently sustainable and projected to increase slightly as we move forward. Um our major revenue streams are of course water. uh the the activities that we've seen there that um have impacted water recently or radio read. Uh there's a rate adjustment that we'll talk about uh in in uh this upcoming budget. Uh as well as ongoing SER activity as we move through the uh the SER phases, of course, meals tax. We have some new restaurants. Um and then also uh McDonald's is increasing their uh open hours to 24 hours. So, uh, that's an additional 40 hours a week at that location, and we hope that that impacts meals tax in the coming year. Um, our fund balance reserves, this is going to be our one-time money, um, that that, uh, most of which started as as ARPA funds. U, we have these, um, funds in a

in a high rate environment. Um, and Cindy has keeps a close eye on the the investment portfolio we have there. So, we're we're happy for that. Um and then these funds again they are one-time funds and um with that being the case it's important that we we spend them appropriately and strategically. So uh we certainly don't want to um use them in a way that that impacts operational funding u because we don't want them to be necessary for ongoing costs. But um these will be used for strategic one-time expense uses. Um, as far as what's coming up, um, uh, potential increases in meals tax, like I said, as we, uh, increase the the number of restaurants and and open hours of some of our facilities. Um, with an increase in meals tax is going to come an increase in sales tax. Both of those, of course, are tied to the gross receipts. So, as those receipts grow, both of those revenue line items are going to grow as well. Um, then cigarette stamps. Uh, this is going to be, I believe, one of the only revenue uh lines that we actually see a decline in. This is one that we anticipate as as um fewer people smoke year-over-year. So, um I do anticipate seeing there will be a a budgeted decline year-over-year and anticipate seeing this decline slowly um in future budget years. Um so, to look at expenses, um the operational expenditures in the departments are largely flat year-over-year. Um personnel changes to be considered here are a 3% cola increase for all the employ all the all of our employees. This is aligned with other localities as well as um one of the state budgets is being proposed. It was an 11.7% increase in our health insurance premiums. Um, and these two numbers, the 3% cola and the 11% increase in health care costs are

are um I think sometimes easily misunderstood, but um the town pays 85 to 86% of our employees healthcare premiums. So the employee themselves is only responsible for about 15% of the total cost there. So, uh, with that being an 11% increase year-over-year, it's still going to be considerably less than the 3% caller raise that even our our, uh, lower plate lower paid employees see. So, even with these increases, all of our folks are going to see a um, a positive impact in their paychecks come July 1. Uh major expenditures to note uh wanted to talk about uh investment in capital of course our annual paving um calendar drive rec park which we've been talking about um a lot recently and then um some things to or something to be concerned about going forward or or be vigilant of rather would be the potential for fringe benefit cost increases. So just like our health insurance um uh workers comp things like that these are are costs that that certainly could grow as we go forward. Um, want to take a look at our capital improvement investment. Uh, just over 1.5 million this year and potential for over $2 million if we get a specific grant match. Um, we've got a uh payroll machine that is is um necessary to run our payroll. It's going to be $35,000. We've got $120,000 in police department vehicles budgeted. Um, fire department has got some specific uh toolage that they've requested in the amount of 46,000. Um, public works wheel loaders is going to be 216,000. We've got 120,000 budgeted for fleet vehicles. Um, then our snow removal fleet, we have 425,000 budgeted. Um, there is a potential for a 55% grant match um, which would come in

at 520,000 from USDA. So, um Samantha has has worked very hard uh on putting together a um uh grant application for congressionally direct spending through uh the Kane and Warner um uh monies this year and we have been advanced to the appropriations. Samantha, we made it through Warner County's offices. They have um recommended to the appropriation committee that we receive that funding. We get $945,000 in snow removal fleet for our part would be a maximum of what they say 425,000.

So we have $425,000 budgeted which will certainly go towards the purchase of new equipment. Um, if this budget is passed the way that it's written with our appropriation in there, it'll be uh just shy of a million, $945,000 in equipment we'll be able to uh to purchase, which will be a a complete revamp of our um our snow removal fleet. We've got an asphalt recycler in the um CIP budget for 120,000. Then we've got 500,000 dedicated to the drive wreck park uh which is our portion of the uh the grant match for that project. I wanted to talk a little bit about this budget. Um I think there is a lot of accomplishments here to uh to consider. We've got an investment in personnel. Like I said, we had a 3% cola raise for each employee. Um investment in capital 1.5 million. Like I said, possibly upwards of 2 million um depending on if that grant is realized or not. Um that's a a tremendous investment in um in our our equipment needs. Uh we've got an accelerated payoff of non-served debt in here. Um there are four loans in the FY27 budget that we have allocated funds to pay off completely. Um that are a little bit higher interest rates. Um so I it's it's my goal to uh kind of chip away at the debt service line that we've got um which would you of course create new room in the budget as we u lower the debt services. So, there are four loans in this budget that aren't slated for payoff according to the amortization schedule. But, um uh if revenues remain um uh like we hope that they do and if expenses stay within reason, we do hope to pay off four loans um that will essentially afford us new room and upcoming budgets by paying those off early. Um investment in parks and wreck. talked a little bit earlier about the $500,000 match um for the grant awarded to us by

the Department of Conservation and Recreation. Um that is in this budget. We've got an aggressive pursuit of grants like we talked about um Ken Drive, the CDS grant with our capital. Um I know our police department has been working uh with a lot of grants as has the uh fire and EMS. So uh really as a department as a whole or as a organization as a whole, we've really been going after grant dollars and um have have been fairly successful so far. So something we're going to continue going forward. Um then lastly, just a um a conservation of the one-time funds that we have. Um this budget is a is a zerobased balance budget that does not require any use of fund balance. So all of the expenses that we're portraying here are to be offset by revenues this year. So um this isn't going to take any of our one-time money to realize these goals. Um then the budget calendar for the rest of the year. Um of course tonight is the recommended budget. Um you all will have as of about 5:15 this evening. The budget itself will be uploaded to the iPads. Uh the budget is available to the public in the um that's on the agenda group email and it's also on our website so it can be reviewed there. U also if anybody'd like a paper copy that's something that we can produce out of the office as well. Um, at the next meeting on June 1st, we're going to have the budget public hearing. That'll give folks about two weeks to dig into the details and see if there are any questions or consideration. Um, June 15th is going to be our projected adoption date. Uh, with our last meeting of the year being June 30th where we close the close the books. Um, that'll be a placeholder for a delayed adoption should we not do so on June 15th. Um, and I know I ran through that pretty quickly. Um, and I know you all haven't had a chance to look at things in depth, but are there any questions uh regarding what's been presented?

Mayor Cornet, um, thank you for a very articulate and concise, uh, extrapolation of our budget and, uh, you're doing a great job. Council, do you have any questions for Mr. King?

Susie Jennings, I just want to thank you and your staff that helped with this and the budget committee for their hard work on the budget. Thank you. Larry Carter, I don't have a comment on the budget, but I will give kudos to one of the best investments we've made is the radio read. Uh I noticed I've noticed I'm church treasurer uh at my church and had a huge spike in the water bill. So being an old investigative type person, uh Sam and I got together and Tony came in and the thing was remarkable. He pinpointed the Sam correct me about a 12hour period or something.

12 hours that you were running running at an exorbitant amount of water. Come to find out after further resolution we had a rather large bapt baptizer that I was proud of service and that was the problem malfunctioning baptismal. So might have not still been guessing as what was going on if it hadn't been for the state of the art I must add. Um and with people know how to operate. I sure would. So kudos to Samantha and Tony for their assistance.

Council, anything else? Then uh that concludes the business that we have on the agenda for uh the public and uh we are going to take a recess for a few moments after which we will go into close session after which we will go back into open session. So we are in recess. We need a motion to recess. We need a motion to recess. I make a motion we go into recess. Maring Town Council Susie Jennings. Can we do that? Second. Trisha Spencer. We have a motion by Miss Jennings and a second by Miss Spencer to go into recess. All in favor of recessing.

I thank you.

Marian Town Council is now back from recess. And is there any motion that the town council would like to make? Motion to reconvene. I make I make a motion we reconvene to the open town council meeting. Uh, and then we have to second. I'll second that. So, Miss Jennings has made a motion to reconvene. Miss Spencer has second that motion. All in favor of reconvening. County. Okay. And Miss Hay votes the affirmative. Now, um, we will be going into close session. Miss Jennings, if you'll take us there.

Yes. Thank you. I make a motion we go into close session to discuss a personnel issue. The hiring of a fire chief hiring process as allowed under state code 2.237 1181. Second. Have a motion second to go into close session. Oh, and can I add something to the motion, please? I just forgot. I'd like for You can amend your motion. I'd like to amend my motion to ask that Todd along stay with us. Um, as technical assistant as technical assistant. I'll redo my second for Cindy for for Sus's

for Suz's update. Okay. So, we have a motion by Miss Jennings to join the close session and also include Todd Long in our close session as a technician. And we have a second uh by Mr. Apple. All in favor of going into close session. Thank you, Miss H. We are now in close.

I make a motion that we go back into open session and declare that uh the council only listen to the N3 the three interviews as allowed by state code 2.23712. Second motion and second to return to open session. All in favor and this must be a poll. Yes. Yes. Yes. Junior, yes. Spencer, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I want to confirm that uh Miss Hayes has both audio and uh video function. At this point,

I'd like to make a motion that we appoint Chief Richard Keysling as fire EMS chief. Second. We have a motion to appoint Richard Keysling as fire EMS chief and uh by Miss uh Spencer and a second by Mr. Carter. Um is there any discussion to this? None being heard, then we will take it to the vote. All in favor of the motion of hiring Richard Keysling. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

And it is unanimous. Is there any other business that needs to come before uh one other thing? Um, HR needs to take care of the hiring package and um, so is that is that motion contingent on his acceptance of the package? The motion is just for the offer. Okay. Just for the offer. Okay. Immediately. Okay. Thank you. Um, and so is there any other business that needs to come before the Marian Town Council? We We don't keep these, do we? Quick, I'll pick them up if you um I'm I'm going to make notes from mine and then I'll destroy them. Yeah, I've got a shredder, but I don't really need

I'm just going to leave mine you pick up. I make a motion to adjourn. Second, what happened? What in the world is it? I I'm going to take that as Dr. Second. All in favor of adjourning. Uh, yes. Thank you, Deborah. Now the council