Town Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call the uh town council meeting Wednesday, October the 1st in session. Cam, if you'll please call row. Mr. Webb here. Miss Quetch here. Miss Pion here. Vice Mayor Austin present. And Mayor Anderson here. Now, Miss Pion, will you lead us in the pledge of allegiance? I certainly will. I pledge algiance 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.

Now, we're going to have Tyler Vincel come up and lead us in prayer. If everyone will please rise.

Good evening, Tyler. Good evening, mayor and council. Thank you so much for the opportunity to come and and pray for you guys tonight. Let's bow our heads. Heavenly Father, we're so uh we want to pause in this moment just to give you honor and glory for the day that we had and uh for the opportunity to gather and to um to ask that you um give us wisdom and guidance and the council and the wisdom and guidance and their governance of our community. uh community that we love and that you've placed us in uh for for such a time as this that we're here to serve and uh to love the people that live here and help us to make wise decisions and um God continue to bless our our our town and the people that are in it and uh bless this council and all the folks that work for the for the town and the staff that the incredible work that they do. Um God, we're thankful for them, each and every single one of them. and uh we love you and we thank you and we praise you. It's in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Thank you, Tyler. Thanks, Tyler. Now, if we will have an approval of the agenda. I'll make the motion to approve the agenda. Do I have a second? Second. Any further discussion? Kim, if you'll please call roll. Mr. W. I. Miss Quetch. I. Miss Pion. I. Vice Mayor Austin. I and Mary Anderson.

I also have uh approval for the minutes of the September the 2nd, 2025 meeting. Anybody would like to make a motion on that? There are a couple of very minor changes that I would suggest to these. Uh first of all on page it's like I believe page three where we were discussing the uh 8week road closure for Thompson Drive and Stanley Street and it says during the time uh school should be added in there is out and school recommences in 2026.

Okay. And then on uh two pages over where we're talking about consideration of the planning commission certificate of appropriateness uh that I made a motion uh to reverse and we need to take and hold out. We need to just say to reverse the decision of the planning commission. That's all. Thank you.

And I make a motion to approve the minutes with those small changes. Do I have a second? Second. Any further discussion? Just let the record reflect I was absent for that meeting. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Kim, if you'll please call roll. Mr. Web. Abstain. Miss Quedge, I Miss Pion, Vice Mayor Austin, I and Mary Anderson. I And I guess we'll make their uh approval for Was that the September the 18th meeting? Vice Vice Off Mayor Austin? No, that was the second. That was just the first set. The September 18th. The September the 18th was that the one

a couple of of of small changes also u under first reading of ordinances. Uh the next page uh I said I was not in favor of waving w a i v i n g and then in the last part where it says wavering it needs to be waving of the second reading. Okay. At the bottom of the page it says or not or or not they should pass. I believe we need to put a period there and strike the and if they should.

Kim, are you seeing where he's at, ma'am? Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. And then under consideration of bids, uh, item K, we talked about and did approve the consideration of the bids for the Muster Grounds rehab. And I'd like to add uh the paragraph where it says a a proposal reading was conducted on August 6th. Uh I think we need to add at the end of that paragraph, time is of the essence and will be included in the contract. As we discussed, time being very important in the performance of that contract.

That's a that's a good point. Yes, sir. We did. Thank you for pointing that out, Vice Mayor Austin. Those are all the changes I would suggest. And with that, I would move we approve those minutes as modified. Do I have a second? Second. She beat me. Sorry. No, she got it. Any further discussion? Kim, if you'll please call a roll. Mr. Web. I. Miss Quetch. I. Miss Pilia. I. Vice Mayor Austin. Hi. And Mayor Anderson.

Hi. Now we will open the floor to public comment. And with that being said, please note when you come up, please state your first name and your last name and your full mailing address. And the first one signed up for public comment tonight will be Mr. Greg Lily. If you'll come forward, please state your first and last name and your mailing address, please.

Thank you. My name is Greg Lily. I'm at 244 Valley Street Northeast, Abington, Virginia 24210. I um I would like to speak to the broadband franchise agreement for IGO. Um as I look through that, and it's not specific really to this vendor or anyone else, something just jumped out at me that um has been bothering me. Um, in August we were stringing more cables along our utility poles on Valley and I went and looked out my window and counted 21 cables going across the road. Um, I know we want to keep the historic district looking nice, so we seem to have a lot of debris up above the roads. Um, so when I was looking at this franchise agreement and it's in your packet on page 51, there is um an item 2.12 discontinuence or removal of network facil facilities. And in the middle of that paragraph, it says, "Alternatively, it's if mutually agreed by franchisee and municipality, such network facilities like the cables um may be abandoned in place." I don't think I think that's something we need to look at. Um abandoning cables in place means we have 21 cables going up and down valley. And I know they're not all being used. Um, so my suggestion is, you know, if somebody could look at that and say, what happens when things are outdated or if a vendor goes away, do we just let them hang there or do we

have the vendor before they leave take them down? I'm just hoping to get this cleaned up a little bit. Thank you.

Thank you, Greg. Next person signed up for public comment will be Mr. Josh Fuller. Josh Fuller, if you'll come forward, please and state your first and last name and your mailing address, please. Sir. Hello. My name is Josh Fuller. Mailing address is 279 East Main Street, Abington, Virginia. I represent uh two businesses here in town, uh the Tavern as well as Dwayne and Company. Um, I understand part of the agenda tonight is looking at the town noise ordinance. Um, the two businesses that I represent, we're grateful and thankful that we are on track to collect somewhere between $250,000 to $300,000 in mills tax for the town. Um, that being said, $40 to $50,000 worth of that mills tax is actually coming from our late night um service that we're now currently running for the last couple of months. That being said, you know, mills taxes are great and we are happy to do that for the town and, you know, I do believe the town and all the restaurants are there to support each other. Um, what's really important to me is wages for the staff that I represent. Uh, between those two restaurants, there are somewhere around 50 people. The wages for those Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights surpass $10,000 a month. I would like to think that those wages are what's allowing families to pay their rent, send their kids to travel ball, cheer camp, um fix their cars, and uh be a contributing member in their restaurant scene. Um those extra profits also allows both businesses to be very charitable. you know, we have supported numerous charities, um, different golf events.

Um, you know, I know this last week we, you know, supported Shriner Circus as well. Um, I think the noise ordinance as it stands being to midnight, I do agree that there can be some issues with that time frame. You know, I know a large part of our community works Monday through Friday, 8 to 5:00. That being said, I know other than mixeduse businesses, the noise ordinance is 11:00 p.m. I guess my offer that I would like to point out there as a good compromise. Maybe Sunday through Thursday, we resend that current mixeduse noise ordinance back to 11:00 while also leaving Friday and Saturday at midnight. I think that compromise would allow businesses to still thrive. I think it would allow all the families and workers that are in the restaurants to still be able to leave with good compensation and uh would allow us to really be able to move forward and hopefully solve any of the problems with uh any hard feelings with neighbors or anything like that. Um, I appreciate you all's time and again, thank you for what you all do.

Thank you, Josh. And I don't think we have anyone else signed up for public comment, so we will close public comment at this time. Uh, we have no proclamations, no public hearings today. We have uh resolutions and the first we have several resolutions tonight. The first resolution will be a resolution supporting the application for the grant of the Trig Street sewer extension and we'll have the town manager Mike Cochran explain that to us. Uh yes sir, thank you mayor. Uh the um there was an opportunity to put in for a grant from the tobacco commission uh and it's to pay for engineering studies. What happens when you apply for certain types of grant funding? Uh they always want projects that are shovel ready and then you'll get reimbured for a lot of your expenses. But in order to get things shovel ready, sometimes you got to have the uh these studies done. And so the tobacco commission is a grant out there with requires a 50% match. Uh and for this grant, it's $118,238.50. Uh the nice thing with this one is that the Wellspring uh foundation has offered to match on our behalf. So we would we're applying for 118 in funding and they will match it with 118. And what this is to do is uh there's some economic activity opportunities along Trig Street and there's also a lot of failing septics along Trig Street and this goes from Nicholas down towards the interstate and it would allow that area uh to have additional services and so uh that's what this is to study. It's uh it's just the engineering uh of it. But again, it's little bits at a time. So we had the initial part where we knew it was undersized. Now this will tell us what it would look like to do it the right way. And then once we get that, then we can seek funding uh to actually get it built.

Does anyone on council have any questions for town manager Mike Coch? With that being asked, is this something that we would like to go ahead and put put in a motion for? I'd make that motion. Do I have a second? Second. Any further discussion? Kim if you'll please call roll. Mr. Web I. Miss Quetch I. Miss Pion I. Vice Mayor Austin I. Mary Anderson I.

And the second on our resolution tonight is going to be a resolution arguing the state investment of the Virginia area agency on aging. And again we'll have Mike Cochran talk to us about this. Uh yes sir. Thank you mayor. Uh we were contacted by the district 3 uh uh governmental cooperative and as I think you sit on their board. I sit on that board. Yes sir.

Yeah. And uh they have had some funding um just some changes in their funding streams and what they were asking for is a resolution to support that they would get uh funding from the uh from the state's physical budget. Um and as you know in this area I mean there's just a uh we have a lot of people with a lot of life experience uh and they rely heavily on the district 3 for uh for services and whatnot. between the the busing and just the things that they do for our older folks in town. So, uh this is just trying to see if we can't help help get support for their funding. And as Mike Cochran says, I I stand on that district board. Um I'm there every other month. I I see the needs and the wants of the the older population in our community, not only in our community, Southwest Virginia as well. And I really think that this is something that that we should support that that I stand strongly on. And does anybody have any questions for me or Mike Cochran about this?

If not, would someone like to make a motion on this? I'll make a motion to accept the resolution. I'll second. Any further discussion? Kim if you'll please call roll. Mr. Webb I. Miss Quetch. I. Miss Pion. I. Vice Mayor Austin. I. Mayor Anderson. I.

All right. We have no first reading of ordinance tonight. We do have several second reading of ordinance this evening. The first will be the ordinance to adopt chapter 34 fire prevention code protection article 3 fire prevention code section 34 through 57 pre preblast rules and regulations. And with that being said, I'll turn it over to Mike Cochran again. Uh yes, this is uh it's intact from the last time we we looked through it. Uh the fire chief had to be out of they had a situation couple cities over he's helping out with.

Yes, sir. Um so he's unable to to be here to present on this. Um this is just uh he acts as the uh as the fire marshal and in that capacity uh he oversees the um the blasting. Uh and what this does is calls for uh the notifications based on distance from blast sites. Um and you know as as we recently learned I mean the uh the companies when they do the blasting it's very heavily regulated uh and they do a lot of their own work. This just verifies uh or makes makes it incumbent upon us uh to make sure that it gets done. Uh normally the insurance like the company said insure them make them do it. This just allows us in the unlikely event that somebody didn't do it by by you know being compelled by their insurance company the fire marshall has the authority to it and make them do it now. It's part of the ordinance. So it's just about getting people aware of what's happening and stuff like that.

Does anyone have any questions for Mike Cochran about this? I continue to think that it is important, as I think council has recognized before, that homeowners be advised if there's going to be blasting on or near their property. And I'm very much in favor of an ordinance to to require that. Uh I think this ordinance goes far enough. Uh but however, we can always revisit it later if if we don't feel like it does. But uh at this point in time, I I certainly am in favor of this ordinance and would move that we approve it.

Do I have a second? I'll second it. Any further discussion? Kim, if you'll please call roll. Mr. Web I. Miss Quetch. I. Miss Pillia. I. Vice Mayor Austin I. And Mayor Anderson. I. Next on the agenda is going to be the ordinance to amend chapter 30 environment article 2 noise section 30 through31 and 30 through 33 amending language concerning explanation. And going to turn it over to Mike Cochran again as well.

Uh yes sir. Thank you mayor. Uh again this is the second read on the noise ordinance. Uh, and the uh the the essence on this one is it changes it from um in a uh well 30.1 is goes it used to say mixeduse area uh and that doesn't match with our language. So it's down to mixeduse parcel uh because that's what we're talking about. It's the actual parcel of property. And then on the uh the times instead of it ending at uh at midnight, it would end at 11:00 p.m. And that as it currently reads is for all seven days of the week. And that's the uh the only two changes. That right from the existing ordinance. Does anyone have any questions for Mike Cochran on on the noise ordinance? Um, as I always do, I always uh solicit uh town residents and citizens to talk with me about their thoughts and feelings regarding proposals that are coming before the council. And Mr. Lily, who's present here tonight, is is really good at doing that, and I appreciate him doing that. Uh, he pointed out in an email to me, and I guess I'm asking Mr. veiled this question. He pointed out 30-32 of the town code saying prohibited acts in the town uh such as noise, such as u um radio, television, musical instruments, etc. uh is prohibited between the hours of 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. How does that affect uh Mr. unveil the ordinance that we are looking at uh tonight.

I think that I don't have 3032 in front of me. I don't think but I think 3033 is an exemption to 3032. So basically 3033 overrides 3032 is the answer to that. These are exemptions from the the ordinance itself. So the there's 3032 is the broad ordinance. 30-33 is the exemptions from from the ordinance. So that's how we comply. So 3033 is making it more more specific and limiting it as as said forward. Well, it it it is excluding things from the coverage of it. So for instance, okay,

sound amplication equipment. Ordinarily, you wouldn't be able to. You'd have to do things with permit, but if we're doing it for public parks or recreation fields, then that's exempt from the north ordinance or clock chimes, bells, and music played for calls of worship are exempt from the ordinance. So, that that's how it applies. this very specific thing, if you remember sort of back to how this particular A9 got enacted was uh to a very specific piece of property and and through uh the comprehensive plan and lots of other things that not only just an area, a zoning district that had mixed uses, but a particular parcel that had

uh for instance a business on the bottom floor and residential uh above it which are there are several throughout the town but not as many as would be in for instance this just not just this wouldn't be just allowed in just the HPV just the old and historic district itself it would only be allowed in mixeduse parcels and that so that's the the change before but um yeah that this is a specific exception to the overriding okay

so you couldn't just have you couldn't just have at your house somebody play music until 11:00 at at night of one of your neighbors. It would have to be a specific exception beyond that for it to apply.

Well, let me say that uh that I personally uh I've listened for I guess the last three meetings with homeowners uh with business leaders in our town. I listened very intently tonight and uh you know it certainly is a a difficult proposition and I sit here as I always do and try to search for some sort of a compromise between the two positions because I certainly understand the homeowner's position uh in terms of of wanting to get rest and in terms of feeling that their quiet enjoyment of their home was being disturbed. And I also uh understand and really appreciate their business leaders and uh caring for the community and and the money that they generate from uh the taxation of of of this type of situation. Uh the word was used, I think three meetings ago when this first came before us, of a of a balance and a balancing act. And I suppose that's the same as the compromise that that I I mentioned a moment ago. I'm not sure exactly what the right compromise is. I'll be frank with you. I mean, I want to, as we discussed with our exchange students a little bit earlier tonight, we want to learn to disagree better and we also want to learn to compromise. and we understand we can't please everyone all the time and this is one of those situations that that we're faced with as a as a council. Uh so I just voice those concerns and I voice uh you know how I feel about it and

trying to reach some sort of a balance there. I have one question. You know, I would I would have to exclude myself from this motion because uh I have I think that would be a good idea.

Yes, sir. But I I do have a question if that's okay about this ordinance. If this ordinance was to take place today and we were to vote this ordinance in, would this would it start tomorrow? Would it start next week? because I I you know, like I said, um we we have things on the calendar on the books that are already in the works for this week and maybe throughout the rest of this month. Typically, all I'll just address all this is we used to have it delayed enforcement, but many councils ago, it was changed to be enacted immediately. Acted immediately. That's how we typically do it, isn't it?

Okay. Can we not delay the implementation of it though? Is that still available too? Sure. Yeah. Delay. I'm just saying speaking as you know being part of Yes, sir. something that's in question with this ordinance you know for the month of October. Uh today is the 1st of October. We have scheduling that we've already done months ahead and u you know this could you know jeopardize what we've got going on with the people that are entertainment that we have coming in. So I just want a a brief clarification of it can be implemented whenever the council votes for it to be implemented. No,

lately the way the council has been adopting it, it's been applicable immediately, but it used to routinely not take effect for 30 days or and and and that that is something that me questioning as not being the mayor as being part of. Like I said, I'm going to exclude myself from this, but um you know, I think that there should be if this goes into effect, if if we count motion this in tonight, that you know, we should we should look at that as to say, hey, you know, at least 30 days and this will start in effect of November 1st.

November the 1. Yes, sir. Is that something that we could say or? Sure.

All right. Um, well, with that being said, do we have a motion to uh amend the ordinance of chapter 13 environment article 2 noise section 30 through31 and 30 through33 amending the language concerning explanation Would someone like to make that motion? And it's going to be 11 o'clock, right? Okay, I'll make that motion. I think this is a compromise. It was 12, they wanted 10, this is 11. It's a compromise. Um,

and and would you make part of your motion that delay the implementation till November 1st or how do you feel about that? You know, I don't have a problem with it except that, you know, I think it somewhat makes us look like we're showing favoritism. Whatever you want the motion to say. Sure you're the motion's on the floor. I just I mean I'm trying to view it as others would view it. No.

Are there other businesses that have outdoor music that may have already hired um performers or or um situations? Also, I would think so. I mean, you've got Brisket and Bourbon. They have live music out back. You've got Blues knows the scene pretty good. I would imagine those are because I think that businesses that would have, you know, correct me if I'm wrong, but that's the that's the point is that they've already paid they've already hired people to come and so that's the issue. I mean, we could just as easily table it till November.

Yeah. as opposed to taking action tonight if you don't want to put that disclaimer in there. I mean, I'm just throwing options out there. Well, like I said, I'm I'm I'm going to exclude myself from this. And uh with me excluding myself, I'm going to to do what I think is right and to just step back and I'm going to let Vice Mayor Austin go his role from here with until we pass on to the next the next Well, I think you can still act as the mayor. I just don't think that you can vote on it. Yes, sir.

Um but however you want to do it, don't know if you want to move forward with your motion or you want to withdraw your motion and wait till next month or Mr. Fuller had made it had made another uh suggestion, but uh however you want to do it. Wayne Austin, do you have any thoughts on this?

Well, I I forced, you know, my thoughts on it. I I recognize both sides of this and and I I like the idea of a compromise. um in in some fashion and I had not heard discussed until Mr. Fuller came tonight and talked about doing it at 11:00 except on Friday and Saturday night. I had not heard that discussed and there may be a lot of validity to that. Uh I

I don't know. One of the things the homeowner brought up that night though I think was the fact that even getting up on Sunday morning for church. So that was that was brought up. So,

okay. Everybody's looking at you. I don't have strong enough feelings to second the motion is what I'm trying to say. I don't know how you all I would say I would second it if the exemption was put in that it not be implemented until November 1st because people have paid money out hired people to do things and I think that's unfair. So it's it's your motion. Okay. Technically, we couldn't interfere with existing contract relations anyway. Right, Mr. Ros? That's exactly right. Okay. Well, I'll make that motion. It's called torsion interference.

It will start day of 11, but we'll start at November 1. I would second. Any further discussion? Kimville will please call roll. Mr. W. I. Miss Quetch. I. Miss Pion. Vice Mayor Austin. I and Mary Anderson

sustain. Now we'll move on to the third reading of the ordinance authorizing and directing the town manager to execute the point of presence to lease agreement between the town and Igo Technology Incorporated for the installation of the vault length 48 in by width 30 in by depth 2 in to go in place of the GP fiber distribution cabinet measuring height 35 in by width 33 in by depth 18.5. 5 in. Located at Munchkin Park, 353 Clark Street, Clark Street, Abington, Virginia on the northeast corner behind the restroom facility along the northeast side of the building. Mike Cochran, I'll turn that over to you. Uh yes. Um so I go is a cable or a fiber provider and they're running uh cable out towards the uh the coal fields and um they needed a it's called a point of presence. It's a box that'll attach to the side or the rear of uh uh the restrooms at Munchkin Park and they needed that in order to just affect their cable uh distribution and they also had interest from some uh folks in town which is why the next item is up but it's really not big at all. It's like you read the measurements but it's you know less than 2 ft deep 33 by 35. It's really not a big uh big item, but the whole idea is you have to have it in order to be able to to spin off uh or to run lines to customers.

Does anybody have any questions for Mike Cochran or about this ordinance? I'm going to ask would anyone like to put this in motion? Um I feel like the box is discreet enough as described. I'll make a motion to Authorized. Do I have a second? Second. Any further discussion? Kim, if you'll please call roll. Mr. Web. I. Miss Quetch. I. Miss Pion. I. Vice Mayor Austin. I. And Mayor Anderson. I.

And then next will be an ordinance granting the franchise agreements to IGO Technology Incorporated to operate and maintain the telecommunication systems in the town of Abdin. And again, I'll ask turn that over to Mike Cochran to speak about that.

Yes. Again, they're running uh fiber into uh going out towards Russell County and further u and they have permission to be on the lines from the uh power company and uh as uh during the public comments uh Mr. Lily mentioned the item of uh stuff on the poles. It's a tough one to deal with. I've dealt with this a lot just because the companies will abandon them and then in 10 or 20 years if you ever go to Barry Berry power lines you got to find whoever owns that legacy and it's a really hard thing to do. Um I'm not uh you know but it would be nice to have an additional fiber provider in town because competition hopefully lends to better service for our residents and hopefully at a more competitive rate.

Um Mr. Cochran about the possibility of requiring them to post a bond that the town would would hold uh for the guarantee of the removal of the line in the event that they did discontinued use. I think that that's that's really great. That's a good question because like like Mr. Lily was up here early talking, you know, we have lines now in my neighborhood that sprint AT&T U that that are just no longer here anymore. But the process of getting those taken away, that's, you know, that's work to do.

Technically, the way the franchise is granted, um, they've they've bid on this franchise already with those specific things and that bid has been taken in. I think we could probably after we pass the ordinance maybe negotiate with them to add that now. we could do that sort of midstream without just rejecting the ordinance and starting over since that's the the bid that they responded with. Um, as a practical matter, certain entities own polls. So, the companies you mentioned have all been absorbed into other companies. So, Centry Link, for instance, is that that they or Appalachin Power own most of the polls in town.

Okay. Uh the the typical way that works is that you have a pole attachment agreement with somebody who puts the line on your pole. You don't allow some some third party to put a line on your pole without collecting attachment. So that provider, even if they've abandoned it, they're paying 30 times 10,000 uh to be in town. typically are not going to let a dormant line that's not used for anything still stay on that line. So there they're I don't doubt Mr. Lily that right in the middle by the courthouse for instance that there are many many lines for many many things. I think it's probably not accurate to say that that most of them if not all of them are still in use for something. Lots of people still have landlines at their house. Lots of us don't, but they're still have to have wires running copper on these. Some people have cable television at their house, even though lots of people still don't have those things. So, um, we are what I think Mr. Lily's point was is we already have the right under the franchise agreement as it's written to require it to be removed. Um, and like Mr. Cochran said we just have to get to the bottom of somebody doing an inventory and paying a consultant to figure out who is on all those lines. But I I don't one I think there is a procedural question I have to think through of where we are tonight. But I I think that what you would approve already gives us the right to require that if there is a franchise that doesn't exist and those lines are still there that we require that entity to remove it. I'm not so sure it does. It says by mutual agreement of of the franchisee and the municipality, they may abandon it in place.

Right. So if they don't agree, I don't think we could require Well, isn't that saying that we would have to agree to allow them to abandon it in place,

right? I mean, we could always and probably for the situation that we're envisioning, you have to have a franchise to run a utility in the town. So, if that franchise has expired, um, then, you know, we could tell them that they have they'd have no franchise and they have to remove all of their facilities. And I think that's in all of our franchise, all the standard franchise agreements, too. So, I think the agreement would have to be for us to agree that they can leave it. they can leave town and leave all their stuff here. So, I think we have the right to if they are leaving town to require them to remove it. Well, can we remove that abandon in place?

Um, well, like Mr. Austin said, even if it's in there as written, the town would have to agree for them to abandon it without removing it when their franchise expires. So, I'm not sure that we would need to change the language for it to be that way, but if they decided to just to to leave town and leave the lines in place, yeah, we can say you need to remove those lines, but without I mean, we don't have any way of really enforcing. Well, if we had a bond in place, we could, right?

I'm not sure. They don't already have to have a bond of of some sort either with us or or the utility commission. I just have to then we would need to make particular removal of the lines in that bond. But but that language, right? Um yeah, I I just don't know off the top of my head what the answers to all those questions are, Mr. Frost. And so I I'd need to to look at it. I mean, we can you can pass obviously what what you want to pass and we can look into it then, but those are the issues I see if we do it right now. Well, I think it's worthy of having something in place for to remove the lines.

I I believe this gentleman, I don't think he's here tonight, is he? I don't think he's here. I don't see him here tonight. The last meeting that there there wasn't an immediate requirement that we pass this now. So, do you want to pass it on and we can look into that and and see if if they're agreeable to it, then that makes it easy. Um, but we'll see one if we have the right to do that. Um, and and two, how how we would do that procedure. Do you need a motion to table it or Sure. Yeah. Because well, just one bit their uh the franchises for them to sell sell to uh customers in town. They needed the pole attachment or the the one we just passed that was so that they can attach and then run lines out. But I think they needed that. And Kevin, they needed the lines. Can you got a second?

Can you come forward, please, Mr. Kevin Blank? Well, the pop is just the pop and the franchise is the franchise. So, they couldn't operate without the franchise agreement. So, the one we're talking about now, they can't string up any lines yet. We're just the the ordinance we just passed for the the pop is just a lease basically. Yeah. Yes. Just for them to actually be able to locate that box. Yeah. I think they were running lines. We're getting ready to run lines. We want to put Kevin on the spot. Yeah. Know, you know, he actually went out there and met with him. So, yeah. Kevin and Kevin, if you'll come to the mic and please state your first and last name and your mail and address and what you do for just for the record. Just for the record. Yeah. So, I'm Kevin Blankenship. Unfortunately, I live in Bristol, Tennessee. That's fine. Not everybody's living.

We know the position you hold. We know where you work at. Yeah. But you're exactly right. Uh it's a fiber optic cable that they basically just need to place on the property uh for them to be able to do their splicing uh for their fiber optics and so forth to run for the franchise piece should be for them to provide service to customers. So if we wait on the one that's currently on the table then we can look into the issues that that you've asked about. We can take it up next time. Yeah. The table for the month or table for a week. this something that we would table it until the I said I said do we need a motion? I'll be glad to make one.

So you want to table it until the first meeting of Well, let's do it until November. Okay. Yeah. So I I'd make that motion to table it till the first meeting in November. I'll second that motion. Any further discussion? Thanks. Kim, if you'll please call ro. Kevin. Thank you. You're welcome. Yes, sir. Mr. W. I. Miss Quetch. I. Miss Pion. I. Vice Mayor Austin. Hi. And Mayor Anderson. I.

Okay. That's going to move us to consideration of bids. We have no consideration of bids. Next on the agenda will be new business. Uh we have a couple things under new business. First will be a quarterly update from the tourism department. We'll get Miss Blackburn to come forward, please. Looks like she's got her handy dandy crew with her today. We travel. Yes, ma'am. Glad to have you all here today.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for allowing us to be here and council members. Um, we we definitely have a new look to tourism. Next slide, please. So, yeah, Adam Bolt, as most of you all know, he's our events and marketing coordinator, and after reading the uh town uh newsletter today, I see that he uh sp uh this is his first year in August, right? Yep. Ashley Linkis is our new marketing manager and she celebrated her first month of employment and um I'm Diana Blackburn and I um in October, this is my second year. So, next slide, please. So, we just want to give you a little bit of overview of what we've been doing. Uh some of the things that have been uh that we've been working with our uh PR firm is Pi Pineapple Public Relations. This is kind of a snapshot by the numbers for 2025. Um, in 2025 we had 3.89 billion media impressions. So the work that they do, these are these are impressions. Everything that we do be be advertising, press releases, um, social media post. These are things that come up um, visible to people whether or not anybody engages with them. Uh, we that's about a one $18 million publicity f uh value. So that's earned media. That's nothing that we pay for. Then uh the ad value equivalent. So if we had to pay for all of that, it' be about 34.2 million. So that was for so far in 2025. We've had uh total placement coverages uh um in 196 different placements and that was 99 unique media outlets. Next slide please.

So in uh from February to uh to August we uh hosted four press visits. Um and some notable outcomes from that um the adventure mon blog uh resulted in syndication on MSN and an audience re reach of over 122 million. uh comes some social media buzz uh from Adventure Mom. She shared nine trip posts and to about 29,000 followers. And then one that we're really proud of, Okra magazine. This feature positioned Abington as a culinary destination to southern audience. And we do have a copy of that article that just came out this month. And um I'll leave that here and y'all can take a look at that. Next slide, please. So this is information uh data supplied by Virginia Tourism Corporation and this is just a snapshot of the 2024 uh Virginia economic impact data and this is for Washington County. They can't just uh boil it down to uh the town of Abington. Um but just kind of the some of the key highlights for this uh $129 million in visitor spending. Um so that was up 1.2% over 2023. Um you'll see the bar graph down at the bottom and you can look at the change over time since 2016. So you know gradually increasing of course 2020 there was a drop there but visitor spending by category and this is for uh euro year-over-year 24 over 23. So we were up food and beverage 1.1%. Lodging uh that was about even transportation uh it was down a bit. Uh, recreation 6.6% increase. Retail was down just a bit. Next slide, please. So, these are visitors through the door.

This data is collected by people actually walking through the doors at the Avenue Visitor Center, the Cooper Trail Visitor Center in Alto Station. So, um, visitors through the door, we were up 9.2% at the visitor center in u corner of court. I mean, of court in Maine of Maine and Street. The Virginia Creeper Trail Welcome Center up 32%. Um and then Alvado Station, of course, we didn't start counting them until May of this year, but they're averaging about 3,200 people that come in the door at Alvado Station. And that's each month. That's each month. Yeah.

Pretty impressive. Next slide, please. So, where are the people that are coming in the door? Where are they coming from? We collect their zip codes. Um, so we've get a lot of people that come in uh from Abington, of course, Bristol, Tennessee, uh, and Virginia, Concord, North Carolina, uh, Hickory, Knoxville. Then we've got a a good deal that come from, um, Kerry and Apex area. We had four people, um, man and wife and two children that were here from, uh, Switzerland today. Next slide, please. Um so this is looking at our website traffic and user behavior and this is just in the last 90 days. Um so we have 62,000 new uh users to our coming to our website. So the average engagement is one point uh 1 minute and 31 seconds which is we're pretty good considering you know how many times you go to the websites and how much time you really spend there. What they're looking at homepage um our calendar event gets a lot of good hits. you know, they want to know where to eat and drink and things to do. And then the townwide yard sale, um, we had a lot of views on that. So, people are very interested in those events that we're deering here in town. Next slide, please. Um, so yeah, uh, where these website traffic is coming from, we have so many people from, uh, Abington and then Nashville and on down the line. Next slide, please. All right. And I'm going to turn it over Ashley Lincolnis. So, I'm Ashley. I'm in my first month at the town today exactly. Um, and so I'm just going to go through some of our social media metrics over the last 90 days. This is for our Visit Abbington,

Virginia accounts specifically. Um, and it's comparing to the previous 90day period. Um, as you'll see in the PowerPoint slide, um, lots of green, lots of trending up, which is good. There are a few, um, areas where we are down a little bit. Um, including the content interactions on Instagram um, being down 22.3%. which um I in my um auditing that I've done of the account I think could be contributed to um less content being posted on Instagram than Facebook over the period. Um could be a signal of why you're seeing less content interactions on that. Um but it is good that we see um increases in our reach um and profile visits across both accounts as well as new followers on both accounts um indicating good health of our social media accounts and I'm excited to continue growing um those accounts as I get into my role. Um next slide please. Um, and now that I am here with the town of Abington, um, really looking to, um, roll out a new plan for social media. Um, and so what's next for the town of Abington um, is I've been undertaking a really in-depth social media audit um, of our visit Abington, Virginia accounts. um seeing, you know, what we had done well, areas of improvement, um things that we can change and just improve upon our past efforts. Um and then out of that, I've been building an updated social media strategic plan. Um and really excited to grow our social media presence um over the coming years

um at the town. And I just wanted to highlight a few of the key objectives of that plan that I've been building um over the past month. Um the first is a creative visual overhaul. Um working towards building a cohesive visual identity um for the town accounts and a cohesive aesthetic on social media and in our grid. Um, so when you instantly look at our profiles, you see, oh, that's Abington and you can tell. Um, also want to showcase niche experiences. Um, go beyond just the main attractions, really get into our small businesses and um um stores and um outdoor adventures and really just tell the full story of Abington and the things that we offer um for visitors. um short form video production really ramp up the frequency of Instagram and Facebook reels. Um these are high performing pieces of content that give us a better chance of um showing of growing our audience and had been just previously underutilized um on our social media accounts. Um also competitive positioning. Um, I want to benchmark ourselves against our top competitors in the southeast and, you know, western North Carolina. We've seen that, um, people from, you know, Concord, Apex, Hickory are all coming here. And so, we're wanting to look at those competitors from where those people are and benchmark against those destinations and work into what they're doing with their content on their social media accounts into ours as well. um update photographic imagery um work to build out a large library of professional photographic content inhouse

and then protect the brand. Possibly the most important thing um in this strategic plan is to implement quality standards to ensure consistency and strengthen our brand voice on social media. I'm really excited to start rolling out all of that I've been working on in the past month with this plan. Um it's a perfect time as we're getting in the fall season and peak colors in just a couple weeks. Um and so if you're not already following us at Visit Abington VA, make sure you are. And without further ado, I'll turn it over to Adam.

Thank you, Miss Linkis. Hey, I am going to give you a little update on events and how we have done them in the past and how we're hoping to do them uh in the future. Um so next slide please. U in our past um our our events kind of felt disconnected with no identity and um they weren't necessarily community- based or f uh felt connection with the uh community and the Abington brand. And um a lot of times you'd hear just we just need something that's happening, something that's going on. And there was no nothing that was really substantial about the event that made it unique to Abington. Um and then a lot of times events would pull away from other businesses and other businesses were trying to have their own thing and then a town event would take away from that and pull people from different different areas. So next slide, please. So now uh currently we're uh changing a lot of those things. We would like um events to tell our story and showcase our local culture. Um focus on experience over activity and have strong partnerships with the businesses, nonprofits, other towns and the volunteers. And um so this is an example of uh a few of them. This is the from the soapbox derby. Um, this business had been uh telling us they needed something that uh to bring in more customers over in that little area that they're in. And it just so happened that was a good hill for the Soapbox Derby. And it turned out that this is a post that says uh our view from Boho Collective today, the very first annual Soapbox Derby. We're loving the energy, community, and and fun right outside the door. And so they actually had a really good day business-wise. And that's exactly what we're trying to do. That was not our intention to to do that, but it is now and it will be in the future. So, uh

this is also a White Birch um they did a theme, a cocktail and lunch theme for the soap box derby. So, that's the type of partnership uh we're looking for going forward. And next slide, please. Um changing the way we think about experience and events. um if we build a strong community, people will come to this community and and it will show that um we've got something going on and that in and um in exchange promotes tourism from different regions. So that's kind of what we're looking at. So from just events to community identity and experience, isolated planning to partnership and storytelling, and isolated planning to uh Oh, I hit that twice. Oh well,

lot of pl a lot of planning. Yeah. So, community being the roots, tourism being the fun, treehouse up at the top, and that is what we're looking for. And next slide, please. Uh, just to um to use that as an example, we've got the Main Street trickor treat coming up where we invite businesses to hand out candy to thousands of children and their parents. And at Fields Pin, um, we have a footprint in town. If if there's no, uh, if your business lies with outside of the footprint, more than welcome to come to Fields Penthouse and hand out candy there. So, what's the date on that? That is October 25th. October 25th. 4 to 6:30.

October 25th, 4 to 6:30. I'll hand it off to Diana again. Well, again, thank you for being there. Uh, being we're being here. Thanks for, uh, having us. Do you have any questions? Don't have any questions. But one thing that I just want to say to everyone that works in the tourist department, thank you all for everything you all do. This town, this town thrives on tourism. And you know, I think with with Miss Lincoln on board now, Adam and you, Miss Blackburn, I think that we're headed in the right direction. But I just want you all to know, thank you all for everything that y'all do for the town, promoting this town, promoting the restaurants in town, promoting everything that you do for the town of Admin. Thank you all.

Yes. Thank you. Thank you. If I can just say uh so while they have not been with the town a long time, they have decent experience in the tourism industry and Ashley uh has understands the media shorts and photography and all. She's got great skill sets in that area and uh a lot of experience with the short videos in her previous employment uh and improving track record. And we all know Adam and he's been around a while picking that was 30k or whatever that one was. Yeah. You picking it Adam's been picking grapes and uh picking grapes songs. So yeah. Anyway, thank you.

Thank you all. Next on the new business agenda, we've got discussion regarding proposed change to chapter 18 business article six peddlers and vendor vendors. Mike Cochran, I'm gonna turn this over to you as well again.

Yes, thank you. Uh month or so ago, we had uh one of the companies in uh was trying to sell product in town. They went through followed our current ordinance and uh they were able to obtain uh you know peddler's permit for 30 days and uh some you know actually prior to that the police chief had had a knock at his door and uh it's I think we've all had the situation. And I had one on Labor Day at my house. Labor Day. What was the one we just had? It was Labor Day.

Yeah, it was Labor Day at 5:00 p.m. or whatever. And they knock at your door and they always want a flim flame and never never they're never straight with what they're trying to tell you. It's always, oh, I applied for the permit or whatever. Um, and so one of the the things that we did, I think the chief had posted it online that, hey, we we did issue the permit for these three, and we've been overloaded with people trying to get permits to go doortodoor. And one of the things that uh I've gotten feedback from is I don't know that anybody uh likes getting disturbed at their home from direct sales. It's, you know, if someone wants to buy something, you can call a salesperson to your house or or something like that. But when it comes to just having someone randomly knock at your door, it's just never uh never uh something that people say, "Oh, wow. This is great. I get to listen to a a sales pitch." Uh and then one of the things that concerned me is we have a lot of folks with a lot of life experience and an older population and they tend to be more trusting and uh and susceptible to getting um you know uh like I know a story of one 71y old that signed for 25 years of solar panels. So when they're 96 they'll get discounted electric. Uh it's just you know sometimes those those sales are not something that people want going to their door. And so uh when many years ago uh I had passed an ordinance where I worked where it restricted the u the door to door soliciting in a similar fashion with the exception that they're allowed by uh religious uh religious canvasing is is permitted and so is political canvasing. But other than that it was to uh to restrict it greatly just because um it's just not something in today's world that is normal anymore. It's just, you know, I don't know. I think we've all had experiences with people knocking on our door and gotten complaints and I know the chief has some input on the topic if you wanted to hear from him on it. But basically, I wanted to find out before we put it in ordinance form as to uh just get to see

if there's any what y'all's thoughts on it were. I I really think that, you know, this is a a thing of the past. you know, maybe like in the 80s, you know, people were doing this, but you know, it's 2025. Um, I'm in agreeance with this. You know, I don't like the doortodoor. You know, we we have a lot of elderly people in our community that can be overtaken. you know, with people knocking on the doors. It's also a good way for someone to come into someone that's in a little bit older to come in and case their place to come back later on and maybe cause damage harm to their family or to something that they've got going on. So, I'm all in favor of this proposed change to this chapter 18. I have no problems with that. You know, there's lots of other ways that people can get their businesses out nowadays besides knocking on doors.

Yeah. And and this is just be uh clear, this is just u this is a blend of two ordinances, but if the will of council is to go ahead and put it in ordinance form, we can go ahead and do that. I just wanted to gauge everybody before just out of curiosity, does this limit the children from selling their No, no, it it it stuff like that. I don't think we talked about this because I I personally those are the only ones I enjoy see coming to sell me tickets or whatever. That was the thing is I would like would like to craft it so there are limited exceptions cuz like I buy probably three of those

uh Falcon discount books each year and I think I might get one free put those kids in a bad place and that's something Derek that me and Mike talked about and I should have said something about that. I apologize but thank I figured I thought that was the case. I just want to make sure everybody heard it and uh yeah, so that would be the the limited exception for for those things and anymore a lot of times under the charitable a lot of times the the groups that do that don't don't want the kids going door to door unless they have a parent with them or something like that. But um again it's uh the whole idea is like we sign off before we do permits for these folks.

Um you know they have to submit um a list of who they are and I mean almost never are they from here. They're almost always from places far and wide and um we just don't know who they are and you know just um just it's we don't get calls have been complaints about much. We got lightning rod complaints about this and it's just one of the ones where I think before it gets out of hand cuz in the last month we've had requests from what more cable and then we had what else were they? Vacuum cleaners.

Oh vacuum cleaners cuz everybody needs a vacuum cleaner. Uh so but just a lot of a lot of times these uh the sales things just they just aren't welcomed by the residents. And again, if you want to buy a vacuum, you can certainly call somebody and have them come to your door and sell you one. Um but I don't know that the random door knocking is something that would be appreciated. Well, if you're just looking for consensus, I'm in favor. Okay. Do we need do we need to make a motion, Cam, for this? Okay. I just wanted to get your the pulse before we move forward. Yes, sir. All right. I'm in favor. All right. Thank you, Vice Mayor Austin. I in very much in favor of that. Yes.

All right. All right. So, with that, we're going to move on to the next thing on our agenda, which is old business. We have nothing for old business today. Um, we've got next on our agenda, miscellaneous business and communications from our town manager, Mike Cart. Mike Cochran. We're going to turn this over. The first is a discussion regarding the graffiti program. Yes. So, in Avenue, we're extremely blessed. We have very, very little graffiti. Uh, and on occasion, we get hit and we get hit a lot. And, and discussing this with the police chief, um, one of the things that is enticing sometimes, uh, is, uh, to get rid of the stuff right away, but, also to identify the culprits. Um, because a lot of times it's just one or two rotten apples that will cause the issue. And in my experience, um, when you get a following or you get something trendy online, people will get the message and then maybe they'll go somewhere else. Um, but one of the the discussions with him is, uh, in other areas that I've worked, they use like crimes stopper type programs. Now, there's not one of those in this area, but the discussion would be to offer some sort of, uh, incentive. Uh, and one of the cuz with the media stuff that Ashley was talking about, but if you did a like a little program with snitches get riches, if someone wants to dime somebody out for you can make some funny videos,

but the idea Yeah. But so the idea would be the idea would be is to is to put out a couple videos and and help uh encourage uh people to uh to get rich by turning people in if they know who's doing it because it you know we when we see it we immediately go out and and abate it. They painted over today at the one behind the gas station down at by exit 14. I was going to ask if excuse me for interrupting. Yeah. How many how many times has this happened in town? Very little. Very little

except very little. a couple times a year maybe and we typically get rid of it right away. But in this particular one, he's the one that hit the underpass at exit 14 uh for that DOT fix for us right away. And then this building cuz it took us time to uh we had to give them a little bit of time to paint it, but I went to a meeting today at 2 or 1:00 and it was not painted and I came out at 3:00 and it was so I mean they were able to get to it. But the whole idea is is that um if people know that that someone's going to dime them out if they get caught, then they're less less inclined to do it. I think that that's a good idea. And so what uh what I was just what I would need is um Yeah. Is there a resolution in there? No. Oh, okay. I'm sorry.

Yeah. The whole idea would be is that to you there's a to see if that would be a will if we can appropriate a thousand bucks whatever then put up like a $100 if someone the whole idea is to is to encourage people to not do it here. Yeah. Because I u graffiti is one of the most I personally find it offensive. Um but it's just it's an indicator that people aren't paying attention to the details. Exactly. And uh and Abington's all about the details.

Yes, sir. We are. I don't know. Um, and when I was at the uh playground the other day, uh Kyle and I went out to the skate park, the uh the metal things. And when we were out there with the Boy Scouts at the last day of service, I painted over that with with a couple kids and painted it blue. Uh and then some kids went out the other day and put some interesting artwork on there. But the sad thing is is while we were uh doing the playground build, I saw a family out there with little kids. And I from what I saw out there on as far as artwork, little kids don't need to see. And so the more uh we can just let people know that we don't appreciate it and if people think they're going to get dined out by their friends because when little kids do stuff like that, other people know. Yes, sir.

And we want to be able to catch them. I think you have anything you want to chime in. This is John Hullbrook, our police chief.

Yeah. State your name and your address. Welcome to Avenue. You're in Avenue now, bro. Yes, sir. And uh when you're going door to door, the chief's house probably not the first door when you don't have a permit with the graffiti. Now, this would this would be a way for us to entice people to come forward a little bit. Um give us a tip so that we can see who's doing spray painting and of course prosecute from there. I've recently talked to a business owner, owns a lot of properties throughout town, um, and he's been evicted a couple times and one of his tenant wants to move out because, um, they got some spray paint on their trailers. Um, and we don't want that. And, uh, we want to,

you know, if we can't prevent it, we want to solve it. And this would give us another little tool to put in our tool belt um to get out there and help the community help us um figure out who's doing this and who's damaging our property and and spray painting some of these things. So, this would this would just give us another little edge um that would be very helpful and beneficial. I think this is a wonderful idea. Cool. I don't know how the rest of the council feels about this. Do do you need a consensus? What do you need, Mike? Yeah, it was just Is that something we could take out of council contingency or Yeah, it was a res just

I mean, as you're describing it, I think it's probably something that the town manager could do. Okay. On his own. Okay. Know what how you guys feel about it, but as long as there is consensus and you have the ability to do those things through the change budget or or however Yeah. He's got a lot of line items. Yeah. or or your your just administration budget generally, but it's up to you guys. I'm in favor. Okay. I'm in favor of that, Amanda. Sure. All right.

All right. Thanks. Yeah. And it's one of those ones where um you know, I think the publicity and u would certainly help make it happen. Um because it really is frustrating for the for the business owners at all. It's just and no one wants to see that. So, well, thank you for that. And um did it in the back did they have do you have that video queued up by chance? They I wanted to show the uh on the tourism I'm sorry on the parks and wreck website they have the playground build and I didn't learn this till today but if you go in the there's a in the far corner when you log into this this screen you can see the time lapse you can see by day and then you can see from the beginning till now. So, if you hit play, it's only like 15 seconds, but it's really cool, but it's on their website and it goes just a little bit. You get to see it each day and you also can see the the wet because we got wet a few days. But it really is it's pretty pretty darn cool. And if you click on the lefth hand side, you'll be able to pick which day you want to see. Um, and uh it just it really is neat stuff. So, what we're working on is when it's done, uh, so the fall service goes in uh, starting later this week. I think the 5th is they were supposed to be here today, but they had a delay. The 5th, and then that'll go in. It's going to take a little bit of time to get that put in. Uh, and then we'll schedule a grand opening and all, but it's just going to be magnificent for the community. Uh, the the kids are going to absolutely love it. And

I've got kids asking me right now, when is this going to be open? When is open for business? and uh the the fall surface in you know if you've been to the meadows we have the brown uh stuff that's underneath and that's called poured in play and that's just a solid I mean it's it's literally it's poured and then they smooth it out but we're getting are similar to the carpet squares they're 9 in deep and they're rubberized and so they're going to come in and smooth everything out and so the the playground is a community build uh but the installation of the rubber stuff

is someone else doing the labor thank goodness uh because our our staff is uh is uh very good, but they're also very tired and they also have other work to get done. So, but that said, that is coming uh and we'll we'll let everybody know about that. But the uh so that video will actually be there uh for people to see in the long run because everybody we've had multiple families out there uh when we're doing the build and they're like, "Oh, we were here with our uh grandkids and all that stuff." So, it's neat. Um, and then I've also uh we've had several drone photo drone uh videos we put up, but we put up one on yesterday and it's at 20,000 views already, which is pretty crazy for a small town for that many people to be interested in how our playground build is coming. But uh we're really looking forward to it. The kids are going to be so excited. So,

and it'll just make uh Abington a really awesome place. But our public works has really uh and others town staff and recreation. Um, yeah, we had some guy looking to see if he could take a time off to go weed eating today cuz it's uh we got a great staff, but yeah, they are looking forward to getting back to their regular duties. But, uh, that's all I had. Thank you. All right. Next on the agenda is going to be council members reports. And if it's all right, I'll go ahead and start first and then we'll move down if that's okay. First of all, I'd like to give a big shout out to everyone who helped, volunteers, construction crews. I don't have the names of everyone that was there participating with the rebuild of the playground, but I want everyone to know that was out there, you know, old, young, corporation, skilled, unskilled, thank you for everything that you all did to put forth the effort to help us making this playground a success. Number one, thanks to everyone. Two, I would like to talk about the new tennis courts up at the high school. Um, the day we were there, Donna, Amanda, and uh, Mike Cochran were present. Um, that was a very nice day, a really nice collab with the town, the school board, and the county as well. Um, from the people who were there, most of them were parents of kids that are still on the tennis team. This is a big excitement for them that they we now have a home court. Uh we don't have to go to the country club to practice. We don't have to go to Emery and Henry anymore. There's no partner up with your kid and my kid riding together and we got to get permission slips. It's the simple bell ring, go outside, practice tennis, play tennis. Um, so big big ups to the town

council here, the town mayor, the school board, and the county the county commissioner people as well, too. Next, uh, on the agenda, I was just going to give a shout out. Fire chief is not here today. Um, Saturday, October the 11th, is going to be a open house at the fire department from 10 until 2:00. They'll be doing hot dogs there as well. I think that's a something that if anyone doesn't have anything to do, reach out, maybe come out and help support the Abdon Fire Department. Um, we had the Yeti race in town last week. Um, big ups to the Yeti that brought lots of people to the town of Abinan. Um, I know the restaurants were excited about the Yeti race. I know the hotels were excited about the Yeti race. This is just something that comes to the town of Abdon and it helps generate money in the town of Abdon. So I think the gentleman's name is Jason Green. Thank you Jason for letting Abinham be a part of the Yeti race. Um and then this is going to be a big shout out to Chief Hullbrook. Um I don't know how other towns operate or their systems, but last Friday I was off at work. Um, I have an employee at Dwaning Company who locked their keys in their car and they were stuck at CVS. Um, they called me to problem shoot to see where I could go about getting their keys out of their car and the first thing that came to my mind was Chief Hullbrook. It was probably maybe 10 or 15 after 5:00. Chief was on his way home. I called him on his personal cell phone, told him the problem. Within 45 minutes, Chief had my employees keys out of the car and her on

her way back home. You don't really see that a whole lot in big cities. in the small town here. Like I said, I love this community and it's people like Chief Hobbrook that I stand beside in this community to say thank you for everything that you do for not only me, for everyone in this community. I I really appreciate that. And the lady that you helped out, she does live in the county, but she had no other person, no one to call. She didn't know who to reach out to. And I just want to say thank you, chief, for everything you do for everyone in this community and this town as well. I'm going to pass it on to

I don't have anything. I don't have anything additional. One last bit. Chris Bell, city the town manager over there in Damascus. uh he he let let me know that they anticipate 8 to 10 shuttles running every 45 minutes this Saturday and for most of October because of the in the fall foliage. Their reservations are way up. So we've made some adjustments at our parking lot and whatnot, but just expect to see more folks in town on Saturday. Yes, sir.

Just one quick thing I wanted to mention. So, I have been solicited by a couple of the sports teams at the high school and you know, it's no no secret that we've got a couple of dynasties in the making. One was the golf team, the other's the running program and and many others. Um, but one of the coaches reached out to me and I think maybe reached out to Miss Pillian as well about getting some sort of signage um on both sides of town that would recognize the state championship uh teams that we've had and we've had quite a few. So, while it was on my mind, I just wanted to mention it in front of the rest of the council. And it may be since we're doing the the wayfind signage as well, it may be a good time to sort of try to incorporate that so that it all matches and looks appropriate. Um, but I just before I forgot it, I wanted to mention that for the rest of the council, Derek,

I do. I think that's a great idea. They had mentioned I think it was maybe Kingsport has a similar setup going into and out of town of their state champions. I know will have that too of their small town. We've got lots to celebrate. So, I thought maybe that would be a good gesture. Yeah, I've seen it before. I'lluh I'll see what we can do. Yeah, since we're, you know, revamping the signage anyways, I thought maybe it'd be a good time to consider that as well. Thank you, Derek. Yeah, of course. And our our chance get to live in Abington. That's it.

And one other thing, I'm just going to mock what Adam Bolt said. October the 25th from 4 to 6:00 p.m. the town trickor treat. Um, that's a big turnout for us. I know we've been doing this for what? This will be the third year. I think so.

This will be the third year. Um the second year succeeded the first year. So I want the third year to be even more special. So if anyone doesn't have anything to do October the 25th from 4 till 6:30 the town trick or treat. So I'd like to invite everyone to come out for that. So, uh, I guess that will we'll move on to the next thing on the agenda, and it's going to be, uh, appointments to boards and committees. Um, I I looked at this earlier myself. I don't know if you all had a chance to look at this. I don't know if this is something that we need to go into close session about. I think it's all reappoint.

It's all reappoint. We notified them, right? All of them. So, and um, I feel comfortable with Dicky Kaiser. I feel comfortable with OD Dudley and um I feel comfortable with um Donna Marie and I feel comfortable with the the Chris I don't know if I'm Minick Mick I feel comfortable with those people returning. So, I don't know if we should go one by one and and talk about this or if we should go close session or if we could just say if I could have someone make a If it's appropriate, I'd make a motion just to reappoint all four of them at one time.

Second. Any further discussion? Kim, if you'll please call roll. Mr. W. I. Miss Qu. I. Miss Hill. I. Vice Mayor Austin. Hi. And Mayor Anderson. Hi. And I wanted to add something in council member reports real quick that No, no, no. No, no, no. I said I didn't have anything to add and then something has just been brought to my attention. So, I'll turn it in. You didn't skip me. You're fine. I'm sorry. Um, there is a drug takeback at Food City Pharmacy on October 25th and people can turn in old pharmaceuticals that they no longer need. Yes, ma'am. Yes. And this is probably the 10th year in a row that we've participated. It's a huge turnout. Um they'll take anything pretty

and it's bad to it's not good to flush these things. Correct. Correct. They have they have specific devices in which you can put your tablets and dispose all at one time. They'll take whatever you have in hand. Um they do it they set up a nice little kiosk outside the store. Um and it staff it with uh sheriffs and police officers. So yeah, it's it's a great great turnout. And what's the date again? October 25th. Yes. Thank you. I forgot that. It's a Saturday. It's almost always a Saturday. All right. Trick or treat. Yeah. You could drop your pills and that that is a concern for people. You know, if somebody's been ill and you have um you have somebody who's been ill in your household and you have a lot of pain medication.

There are people, especially elderly people, that are concerned about having that in their house. So, it's it's good to know what to do with that medicine if you don't need it. Yes, ma'am. You know. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. And with that being said, I will call tonight's meeting adjourned.