Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Let us close our eyes and go to God in prayer. Father, it's us again. Father, we come to this place. Father, now we we got to do things that's that'll make you proud of us. in this Milst County. Father, we all feel that we are special. Father, help us to grow, to be of one, Father, and we pray and and this time of year we talk about love, Father, and be in our hearts, Father, that we may be honest with each other and fair. In Jesus name we all do pray. Amen. Amen.

Thank you, Mr. Williams. Uh, Miss Hammond, is she not here? I'm right here. Oh, there. You're not in your usual spot. I know it. Would you lead us in the pledge, please? Yes. I aliance 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. Roll call, please. Mr. Williams, here. Mr. Bill Harris, here. Mr. Kittinden, here. Mr. Jesse here. Mr. Don Harris

here. All right. Uh, welcome everybody that's in the gallery today. Uh, must be some important stuff going on. So, thank you all for being here. Uh with that um there'd be a motion in order for to approve the consent agenda. I so moved. So moved by Mr. Jesse. Thank you. Second. Second by Mr. Kitten. Kittinden. Um roll call, please. Mr. Bill Harris. Yes. Mr. Kittinden. Yes. Mr. Jesse. Yes. Mr. Williams. Yes. Mr. Don Harris.

Yes. Okay. Uh consent agenda is approved. Is there any additions or changes to the minutes? Uh and you have several of them there. One through four. Any changes? Seeing none, uh we'll move right along. Um to dispensements, uh item C, payroll item D. Any comments? Seeing none, I'll move to item uh E, and that's a recognition award for Mr. Glenn Nicks in his retirement.

Where is Glenn? Glenn is here, right? All right. Come on up, Glenn.

U Mr. Mr. Chairman, I just want to take a minute to say thank you for 19 years of service to Middle Sex County. Uh that's how long Glenn's been here. That's a long time to dedicate to one community, and it really says something about your commitment and your character. Over the years, you've been someone we could rely on, steady, knowledgeable, and always willing to help. A lot of the work you've done may not always have been front and center, but it's made a real difference in how this organization functions dayto-day. I know our old county administrator, Charlie Cullies used to call him special forces, Swiss Army knife. He he kind of has leaned in on many different aspects of the county. You probably noticed within the last year, he's added a lot of value to our maintenance staff. He's leaned in on that function and done great work there as well. Uh been through a lot of different projects, a lot of different priorities, and a lot of different people. And through it all, he's been a constant. That kind of institutional knowledge and dependability matters more than people sometimes realize. So Glenn, thank you for your time, effort, and professionalism that you give in this county. You've left a mark here, and you should be proud of that. And I will say Glenn and I have been here almost the same amount of time. So we've kind of grown up here in the county and uh I appreciate not only his commitment to the county, but also his friendship. So with that, I would like to present you with this plaque. And I'm just going to go ahead and read it. It says, uh, County of Middle Sex presented to Glenn Nicks in recognition. Why

don't you stand? Okay. In recognition of 19 years of dedicated and faithful service to Middle Sex County and its citizens, the Middle Sex County Board of Supervisors hereby expresses its gratitude for his outstanding contributions and extends best wishes for continued success and happiness in the years ahead. Here you go,

Larry. Larry, would you like a picture of them over? Okay, let's do do the picture, please. I'll block everybody. One more.

Thank you. Thank you, Glenn, for being here. I know that was a little chore to try to get you away from what you do for the county, but thank you for being here and we we appreciate you, Mr. Harris. Thank you, sir. If I may. Yes, you may.

Um, Glenn, before you disappear, did he disappear already? All right. Well, this is for everybody else here then because this is really important. I've only known Glenn for the past five years. Oh, thank you, Glenn. Thank you, Susan. So, I've only known Glenn for the past five years, but in that period of time, um, I've seen firsthand the kind of employee and professional and person that he is. He's the guy you call when something breaks, when your printer won't work, when something doesn't connect, when a street sign is down, when no one else knows quite what to do. You can count on Glenn. I've seen him shift seamlessly from GIS and the um website maintenance over to animal shelter where he helped out considerably when we were without an animal manager. Animal shelter manager. He's installed street signs regardless of the weather when when he hears of a street sign going down. Um and then to troubleshooting facilities issues that most of us would have been like, I don't even know how to address that. And he goes in full force. There was never a it's not my job with Glenn, it's what can I do to help. So I want to say it's not his technical skill, which has been great that's been a standout for the past five years with me. It's his attitude. It's that can do, will do. So to that end, I just want to appreciate Where'd you go? I just wanted to say thank you, sir, for everything.

And if if I may, before he tries to sneak out again, I'll I'll extend on Amarie's remarks a little bit. Uh Charlie Cully, our previous county administrator, coined the phrase uh special forces unit when he was talking about Glenn. And it it indeed is true. Whether it's been a hurricane, a snow, uh I think one year we were even blow torching snow and ice out there and uh it doesn't matter what it is. Uh usually before I can get to the courthouse, he's already here and and something's going on. He's always thrown in and pitched in when we're most needed. And you can rely on him as Emory says to be kind of a well, as they say, um, jack of all trades, master of none is often preferred over a master of one. And Glenn is a jack of all trades and he has been our special forces unit for 19 years. So hopefully maybe we can write that on a certificate somewhere. I don't know.

Thanks, Glenn. Thank you, Glenn. Okay, moving right along. Uh, item F, uh, resolution 20260002, uh, appointment of the new county administrator. And I'm going to turn that over to our, uh, our Middle Sex attorney, uh, Miss Lewis.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is my pleasure and honor to read this resolution and to have prepared it. Um after I read the resolution, I will discuss the procedural process. So before you gentlemen is resolution R2026-002. This is a resolution appointing Kevin E. Gentry as county administrator for Middle Sex County and as clerk for the Middle Sex County Board of Supervisors and to authorize the chairman to execute an employment agreement. Whereas the board of supervisors of Middle Sex County of Virginia is authorized under Virginia code section 15.2-1540 of the code of Virginia to appoint a county administrator to serve as the administrative head of the county government at the pleasure of the board. And whereas the position of the county administrator for Middle Sex County serves as the chief administrative officer responsible for the proper administration of all county affairs placed in the administrator's charge by law by the board for ordinance and resolutions. And whereas the board acting in its capacity as the governing body of Middle Sex County has conducted a thorough and diligent search to identify qualified candidates for the position. And whereas this search included advertising, reviewing applications, interviews, and performing appropriate background checks and references. And whereas after careful consideration of all qualified candidates, the board has determined that Kevin Gentry possesses the necessary education, experience, professional qualifications, and leadership capabilities to effectively serve as the county administrator of Middle Sex County. And whereas the terms and conditions of employment with Kevin Gentry have been memorialized and an employment agreement which is attached here to exhibit A. And whereas the board desires to formalize the appointment of Kevin Gentry as the county administrator for Middle Sex

County, Virginia effective April 1, 2026. Now therefore, be it resolved that the board of supervisors of Middle Sex County hereby appoints Kevin E. entry to serve as the county administrator of Middle Sex County effective April 1, 2026 and to serve at the pleasure of the board in accordance with the terms and conditions set forth in the employment agreement attached here too. And be it further resolved that the chairman of the board of supervisors is hereby authorized to execute the employment agreement attached. So with that, gentlemen, that is the resolution in your packet with the proposed employment agreement. If it is the will of the majority of the board, it would be appropriate to make a motion adopting resolution R2026-002 and any appropriate discussion you wish to have at that time. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

All the board members uh was actively involved in um discussions um uh contract etc. So y'all all well aware of that. If is there any other additional questions or discussion that needs to take place? I'd like to say that though whoever um however the vote goes tonight, the most important thing is all five of us back the new county administrator and support them to make them successful. For Middle Sex to be successful, we need to have a successful county administrator. And I think it's off to all fathers to make sure and give Kevin what he needs to be able to make Middle Sex move forward. Thank you.

A motion would be in order to accept the resolution as presented by the county attorney. I'll make a motion that we accept the resolution R 2026-002. Thank you, Mr. Jesse. I appreciate that. Uh second would be in order.

Uh motion made by Mr. Jesse, seconded by uh Mr. Williams. Any further discussion? Before I call for the vote on that, I would like to express a couple of things. Uh, one, um, I'd like to begin by expressing our sincere appreciation to Mr. Matt Walker, who has faithfully served this county as county administrator since 2012. His leadership has left a lasting impact on our community. from expanding water infrastructure to establishing our broadband authority to strengthening our budget and financial position. His dedication and steady commitment have helped shape the county and we are proud of him today and we are grateful for his many years of service. Over the past several months, our board has conducted an extensive and deliberate search to identify the next leader who will guide our county forward. We reviewed a field of 20 applicants, met with the top four who were all excellent choices. After thoughtful consideration, the board of supervisors selected Kevin Gentry as a new county administrator. Uh effective April 4th. Um and with that, uh Mr. Walker, we certainly appreciate everything that you've done. We'll probably do another little thing for you at a later date, but

thank you, Mr. Chairman. All right. Okay. Uh, the motion is to accept the resolution. Roll call, please. Um, Mr. Kittinden, yes. Mr. Jesse, I. Mr. Williams, yes. Mr. Bill Harris, no. Mr. Don Harris, I. The motion is carried and we welcome Mr. Gentry. uh April 4th. First April 1st. Yeah. But really won't take uh administrative work till probably the fourth, but anyway or the 1st. Anyway, sorry. Um

it's not lost on me that that's April Fool's Day. Um anyway uh and again uh we welcome you um at current as the current uh IT director he has held for 19 almost 20 years. He has consistently demonstrated proactive thinking strong problem solving and team building approach to every challenge. His institutional knowledge built through the years of working closely with our departments, our staff, our systems give him an understanding of our strengths, weaknesses, and the opportunities head ahead. We are confident that Kevin will bring continually continuing innovation and a strong sense of partnership to this role. He knows the county, he knows the employees, our residents, and he is ready to help lead us into the next chapter. And with that um we did uh with the motion and the second it is approved and effectively you will take over April 1.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. You're welcome.

All right. Cool. Uh, we do need need a picture of, Larry. I mean, Kevin's wearing a suit that looks like it's shiny and very well pressed. Now would be a good time. All right, let's go get another picture.

I don't know why you dressed so much. You knew picture. Congratulations. Okay, moving right along. I'm going to open the floor for any public comments. Okay, I have um two individuals that have signed up for um public comments. Up first is Kathy Vesley of Urbana for Bay Aging. Good afternoon, gentlemen. I'm Kathy Vestley, president CEO of Bay Aging, and I learned late last week that the board had discussed and would adopt a proposal to eliminate one of the two public transit buses in Middle Sex. Um, to say it was disappointing news is an understatement. When you look at the bus, one bus will deliver three, no, four to 5,000 rides per year. Over 70% are to work. So therefore, not embracing public transit is really a vote against

economic development because these people need the bus to get to work. And then as I've thought a little more about it, in addition, when you're voting no to a second bus in Middle Sex, I think it's important to think of another way that the bus is used, and that is a great deal of rides go to health care. This is the only way you can get to your doctor or the therapies you need. And so really voting no to a bus is voting no to public health care. So I just wanted to share those thoughts. But the CFO is with us today and he has prepared more data for you. I just wanted to say as a citizen um not so much as even the CEO of Bay Aging but as a citizen of Middle Sex I would like you to reconsider um that position. Thank you. Thank you.

Our next registered public speaker is um Tinsley is it go good. Thank you. Tinsley go of Bay Aging. Also,

good afternoon. Yes, I'm Tinsley Go, CFO at Bay Aging. Just to put a little more color on Kathy's comments um with respect to the proposal to eliminate one of the buses um with with all due and deserve and respect to our colleagues in the other outside agencies uh one of these things is not like the other. Um Bay Aging with its headquarters in Urbana is a strong and very vibrant economic partner for the county. Uh 43 of our 350 employees reside in Middle Sex, uh representing more than $2.5 million of annual payroll. Um more than 100 of our employees report daily to our headquarters on Old Virginia Street. Uh those headquarters are have have recently had more than $5 million of investment and represent 20,000 square feet of class A office space now in the county for which we pay more than $30,000 a year in real estate taxes. Um the the elimination of a bus uh would effectively reduce the county's budget by $47,000 approximately, but that would result in a decrease in the matching funds for the county in the for this service of more than $140,000 in state and federal money. Um as Kathy mentioned, uh we delivered more than 9,200 rides last year. here. If you cut that in half, we're reducing it to 4600 rides. And uh by definition, we would have longer wait times, more non um more uh

instances where we would not be able to serve because of scheduling and um restoring full investment in Middle Sex Countyy's workforce, local business, and overall quality of life is something I think you should carefully consider. And finally, uh, as part of the economic package that we that we bring and the economic partnership that we bring to the county, we're also continuing to work on the workforce housing development in Raleigh Park, as I'm sure you all are well aware. And uh, we we have devoted um, hundreds of hours of staff time that have not been compensated that we are devoting to the county. And we while while we this is taking t taking t taking t taking t taking t taking t taking t taking t taking t taking t taking t taking t taking t taking t taking t taking t taking t taking t taking t taking t taking some time we are still working on putting that financing package together and we expect that to come to fruition uh at some point in the future. So these are just things to consider as you uh consider the proposal and we hope that you will restore funding for both buses uh in the next fiscal year. Thank you.

Thank you sir. I don't have any more registered public speakers, but I see I've got one.

Please. Good afternoon. Please state your name.

My name is Gilly and I live at 467 North End Road, Deltaville, Virginia 23043. And there's my husband, Toby Gilly. and we're here today to go right along with the last two um speakers. Our son Thomas Edward Gilly IV lives in Deltaville at Fishing Bay Estates um which is an apartment for complex for people with disabilities and different needs. Um a lot of elderly people live there. He's 37 years old and he's on the autism spectrum with pretty significant autism. I met I'm the stepmom. I met Thomas when he was nine years old and he's 37 now. I never ever thought he would come so far. I taught special ed at um for 41 years and finished my last 11 years at Middle Sex County Elementary School. So, I really know a lot about special needs. And um Thomas takes the bus weekly, three day three to four days a week back and forth to work in Irvington. and he works at the office beastro where they provide him with support, patience, and kindness. He'll be working there for three years in the beginning of May. And it's been amazing. He's had jobs closer that he could ride his bike to or walk to, but they never seem to last. This is a special place um that he's found in Irvington. So anyway, he takes the bus there. He also takes the bus once weekly pay by transit to Gloucester for his shopping needs. Um he has difficulties with social skills, with academics. He's comes really far though with daily living skills. He schedules his own transportation with Bay Transit every

week. It's really amazing. It's vi bay transit is vital to his self-esteem, self-content concept, independence and success as it is for so many people living in Delta Village. It's the end of the road and I see buses there often, the Bay Transit buses there often. So, I know it's not just our son that needs these services. So, I appreciate I appreciate y'all listening and I hope you will um consider not cutting the budget. It means a lot to a lot of people like R. Thomas and us people in our community. So, thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Is there anyone else that would like to speak? Yes, sir. Come on.

I promise I won't take much more time. I know we're taking a lot of time as as been stated. I am Thomas's father. I'm here, you know, because I was aware of this issue. Uh, you know, I'd like to say I was a resident of Middle Sex County for years before I was able to have Thomas down here with us. And for about two weeks, I introduced Thomas as my son. And after that point, I began to introduce myself as Thomas's father. But I only say that to say that Thomas has special needs and he has has his his things. But Thomas is a valued member of this community. And I think some of the board members who actually know him will will be quick to attest and agree with me on that. But uh in the end, what I really want to make make clear and known is in as much as as the services are provided through Bay Transportation and the other services that he is so lucky to get and as much as we do appreciate that, it it will be devastating for him to lose that service. But in so much as he's my son, to me, what Thomas is to to you folks and to the rest of the community is a valued member of the community. And and in that sense, he's a a prime example. He's nothing more than a prime example of the people that will be adversely affected by not being able to have these this transportation services. Thank you all so much for the great community we live in and so much for the opportunity. Before you go, I am so sorry. I wrote down Thomas's father. I did not write down what your name was.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Anybody else? Seeing none, I'm gonna close the public comment section. And before we move on, I'll just make a brief statement. Thank you for coming here. It helps us put a face to the usage that we're talking about. It is not an easy thing for us when we get to budget time. Uh there's a lot of people that ask for a lot and we try to do our best uh to accommodate them to a point where we don't have particularly to have to raise taxes to be able to do that. So that's the struggle that we have. Um that's the first pass on the budget. There will be some more discussions on it uh on every department. That by the way was looked at very closely and very tightly. I don't know of any part of our budget that did not get some sort of cut initially on the first pass. Um but we will look at that. Thank you for coming and speaking and we'll do the best we can. All right, moving right along. Constitutional Offices Treasures Report page 5761. But I would like Miss Wright to come up to the podium, please.

Yes, sir. How's everybody? We're great. Good. Tell us something good. Uh, let's see. Collection rates are awesome on all of the all of the taxes. Yeah, I saw that. Good. Yeah, we're we're really doing good. I have um a little over 13 million invested now. So, good. That's another Yeah, that's another plus. And you add to that investment portfolio as you can. Correct. Correct. Continue.

We'll do um my girls in the office are like my backbone. So, I I they're great. They're great with the customers, you know. Hopefully everybody likes them. I don't see why they wouldn't. You do have some challenges at times though. Oh, yes. Especially when you got to write a check for sure. But um do y'all have any questions for any questions for M in particular? I can try to help with No ma'am. I know you come sometimes it's every other meeting. Uh but we hadn't seen you at the front desk. So it was nice that you were here today that I could take that opportunity.

Not a problem. your your staff and yourself do a great job for the county and we do very much appreciate it and it's not said enough but we do. Well, I appreciate that. Okay. Thank you for being here today. You're welcome. Okay. Commissioner of Revenue uh report only page 62. I don't see Miss Diggs here today so I can't bring her up to the front. Um, sheriff's office resolution 2026-003, special election request. Miss Lewis, would you banner that for us, please?

Uh, yes, Mr. Chairman. Again, it's uh I have the uh the privilege of reading this resolution. Also, we have um Major Samson here and his support staff, and so I'm sure they can comment as well. But as the board and the public is now aware, Sheriff Bushy has announced uh an early retirement effective March 31st. To that end, the board by code directs me, although I do it automatically, but I like to have it formalized with a resolution. Um on April 1st, I'll be filing uh a petition and a writ for a special election to have the sheriff's office, the sheriff's position refilled. So, this resolution I'm asking you to adopt. It simply announces uh Sheriff Bush's retirement effective March 31st and directs me to file uh a petition in a writ for a special election. And the way that'll work is that I will file the petition in the writ county circuit court. The judge uh ideally will sign it and enter it. The registar will be notified as well and then potential candidates can apply and begin campaigning. Whoever is elected at the November election, they will take office after the election is certified and then that person will serve the remainder of Bush's term and then we'll have to run again the next November.

So, and um the resolution does it list Mr. Samson as the temporary? It does not at this time. Um that is something uh if the major money comes up we can discuss but um no this just simply states that the sheriff is retiring and that you are directing me to file uh the required legal special election documents that I need to file for the judge. Wonderful. Thank you. So we'll start with that. A motion would be in order for that resolution for replacement of Mr. Bushy and then currently a uh well actually I'm sorry not to replace Mr. Bushy but for the special election that will need to occur.

So the motion would be appropriate to adopt a resolution R2026-003 as presented in your packets. Wonderful. So moved. So moved by Mr. uh Kittinen. Second. Second by Mr. Bill Harris. Any further discussion? Seeing none, roll call, please. Mr. Jessie. Yes. Mr. Williams. Yes. Mr. Bill Harris. Yes. Mr. Yes. Mr. Don Harris. Yes. Motion is approved. Moving right along. Mr. Samson, would you come forward? You didn't think you were going to get out of here today without us quizzing you up, did you?

I was just talking about body cameras, to be honest with you. We'll see how the discussion goes.

Yes, sir. Uh good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, members of the board. Uh just wanted to give a quick update on the uh on the story that is the body cameras. Uh we've been dealing with this. As I was looking back, I had one of the young ladies go back to when we did the initial uh reach out for these different types of cameras. And we did this back in, believe it or not, 2021 when when our deputy went out and took three different cameras and wore them for 30 days at a piece. So we ended up coming up with uh the plan for the GTA cameras. the the history with getting the cameras implemented is long and storied obviously, but uh I was hoping to come here and tell the board that we were up and running and we were live. That was every intent that I had uh until uh February 16th when we actually put them into usage. We kind of went back and looked at some of the things. This was probably this was a little bit of an oversight, I think, on ours. We spoke with the Commonwealth attorney as well as Miss Lewis. Uh, and there was some code or some some verbiage in there that said that we needed to have a public it need to be help me if I screw this up, but it needed to be put out to the public what we were doing and it's our policy dictates what what it would say. Uh, we had there were some differences of opinion. We had one opinion says, well, we had a stakeholders meeting that maybe would suffice for the thing. And anyway, long story short, after speaking with Commonwealth Attorney's Office and Miss Lewis, what we did is we pulled those cameras back 24 hours later. We told everybody to stop using them so we could put it out out on the website for was it 14 days or 21?

I think we agreed on 21. I think it was 21 because they go September 11th is when our policy takes takes effect. Um, and even now we're we're continuing to work out some kinks with G with GTAC and uh their customer service, but it it it's absolutely moving forward. We're we're leaps and bounds ahead of where we were. And again, hopefully on March 11th, we'll be going live with That's your target date is March 11th. That's the new target date. Yes, sir. Okay. And you feel that's going to go pretty smooth?

No, sir. I think I I think the actual implementation of them will I think the admin side and us talking with GTA support is going to be that's going to be where the hiccup is going to be. I think our our our staff, our records manager, records clerk is in contact with GTA whether it be by personal cell phone, company phone or emails daily and has been for the last long time 30 30 45 days just trying to get everything worked out. I think ultimately it will be very smooth. I don't know if the 11th is going to be that smooth, but we're going to continue to work forward.

Wonderful. I know you will. Um and we appreciate everything that you're doing and have continued to do um for the sheriff's office and the county.

Yes, sir. uh do you expect any difficulty uh once they're operational in March with the transition of that information to the Commonwealth attorney? We've had uh Mr. O'Donnell's come over. He's been a part of the training. He's been a part of the things. Matter of fact, we brought him in uh when we had some concerns about if we've done everything that our due diligence to put out the the policy. Um, that's one of the big things that we're working on is how we get our information, our redacted video to the Commonwealth and their steps past that is going to be up to them. We're we're very close. We're very very close to to making this smooth getting over to that point to the Commonwealth's office. And is a lot of that whether it's smooth or not with what uh the service agreement you have with

Yes, sir. It it it's basically the customer service. We're getting a little couple of different push backs from them. Uh but we're going to make it work. We will make it work. Okay. So, nothing insurmountable that you think can't be worked out reasonably. Yes, sir. Between all three of y'all? That's correct, sir. Okay. Any any further follow-up questions for Mr. Samson? Well, I don't see you sweating so bad. I'm not sweating yet. Feel pretty dry. Well, please keep us informed and I know you will about the progress of of of the project, please.

Yes, sir. Absolutely. And if there were any technical questions that you would have had, I don't know how technical you want to get with them, but I did bring our our records manager, records clerk here because they're the ones that are super into the weeds with all this and I don't know how they do what they do. You want to introduce your your staff? Yes. Uh it's Jamie Burch and uh Cara. I apologize. I'm sorry. Um and and they've done a phenomenal job with this. They've done a phenomenal job with all this and if it wasn't for them, we just wouldn't be here. I'm not sure we necessarily know the correct questions when you get down in the weeds. Me neither. If we do find one, we'll certainly uh pass that along to you. Feel free to reach out. Absolutely.

I think we'll be good with whatever occurs as long as you don't come back and tell us we need additional funds, no more money. We got all the money we need. Wonderful. And we're on the same page as far as body cameras. That is Yes, sir. That's my first try. All right. Thank you, sir, for being here today. We appreciate it.

Okay. Agency and staff reports. Uh, VDOT is a report only on page 6465. Do we need to invite VDOT to our next board meeting for any type of update? guys. Reggie,

you don't think so at this point? Well, if you change your mind, let us know and we can get them here. Yeah, Mr. Chairman, I did speak with Mr. Mcnite this morning. He had planned to come here today to let the board know that he is going to be on temporary assignment up at the district office in Fredericksburg for uh unforeseen to be determined amount of time and they're working on an interim uh replacement for him here in the residency. Um something did come up. He couldn't make it tonight, but I told him I'd share that with the board and we wished him well, wished him good luck. I think it's a temporary assignment, so he should be back, but you never know when staff gets called up to Fredbury. I have a nasty tendency to stay up there for some reason, but we'll see how that goes. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay.

Thank you, Mr. Walker. Uh item B 4B, school matters. There's no report there. Uh I think that's probably because they're still waiting for some updated information on what the state budget may or may not be uh at some later point. probably we'll hear more of that in um uh at our next board meeting. So services are port only. Same thing with them. There's there's uh the state budget hadn't been completely approved and there's some things flying around of may be added may not. So, we're still on a hold to find out how that's going to affect uh social services and how it's going to affect uh airboard decisions on funding. Item D, enterprise fleet management um lease vehicle program present presentation. Morgan Alexander, are you here?

Morgan Anderson, I'm sorry. What? Yes. Annaniel, you all um actually had requested that she come give you an update as to where we are with our um enterprise lease program. So again, like to introduce at this time Morgan. Thank you so much. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and board. Thank you so much for having me and requesting this meeting. I appreciate you calling me Morgan Alexander. That's probably the nicest name outside of my regular name that I've been called. So, thank you very much. Anderson, my my bad. That's okay. You know, I've changed quite a few names recently. I got married in since I partnered with Middle Sex County. So had a child. So you guys have been on a journey with me. So Okay. Wonderful. Continue

to talk today about a couple of things. So Enterprise Fleet program. So the county today currently has majority of the police vehicles. So the patrol vehicles that are fully upfitted going out into the field with us. We have some Nissan Rogues, some Mavericks, and we are looking at potentially doing more vehicles in the future. The question came up, and this is coming up very commonly in government, is does this make sense? And there's a few reasons why it makes sense. I'm going to talk through what we do with government partners today. I partner with about 40 of our localities across the Commonwealth. My territory goes the easiest way coast to coast of Virginia. We stop at Fredericksburg and then we cover, like I said, all the way out to Tazwell County to Virginia Beach. We've been able to do quite a few things with the localities. So, like I said, we have 44 localities here in the state of Virginia that we work with in our territory. We have 2400 across the country that we partner with with 175,000 vehicles. We have 60 local offices and part of the great thing about the team is we have client strategy managers which is my official title that come and partner with these localities to determine a few things for first when we look at financial impacts of what we can do. Enterprise fleet has been able to leverage the best buys in the state. We can also go outside of the state. So if you were to not have enterprise as a partner and you tried to pursue state contract, you would get state contract pricing, whatever that may be. And the specific example I'm going to pull today, it's the vehicle minus 6% is what the state contract pricing negotiated. Enterprise is able to get invoice pricing from the factories when we order these vehicles on top of incentives from the manufacturers when these come. If there are immediate needs that come up, we can certainly partner off the Virginia State Contract, Virginia Sheriff's Association. That's a very popular one that we do. But most commonly, we can also look outside of the state to ensure that we're getting our localities the best buy on their vehicles that they're looking for. Why this is important is that we're allowing you guys to make the most of your budget with the enterprise model. I think when we hear the term leasing and enterprise fleet management, we kind of cringe a little bit. It seems like a dirty term, if you will. It's more of just a

traditional finance, if you will, with you guys reaping all the benefit and having the full say in the vehicles, but most importantly, it's helping you all with cash flow. So, in addition to the financial model, we're able to help you guys reduce downtime with newer, safer, more reliable vehicles. That's important on the patrol side because your officers need to respond to calls in a timely manner. They need to not have these vehicles in the shop. They need to be in the field. County support personnel need to get to point A to point B, especially in social services. We're also able to provide oversight to take a look at what's the right type of vehicle. Is this the right type of upfitter that we should be using? Can we look at a lower total cost of ownership when we look at vehicle models and can we find a better price vendor for upfitting the vehicles? All of this pairs well with what Middle Sex County is trying to accomplish today. If we look at your capital improvement initiatives, just to name a few, when I was doing my research, I know the airport runway facility improvements are on the agenda for what we're looking at for capital improvement. And we're also looking at countywide facilities renovation. In addition to that, outside of the county specific with the schools, the high school renovation is top of mind when we look at capital improvement funds. Why I bring that up and why it's important. If we took a look at a Dodge Durango Pursuit 2026, which is what the police officers and sheriffs are currently operating in Middle Sex County, you would see a few different numbers. If you bought this vehicle outright, you would pay $59,255. This is if you went to the dealer that has the state contract that provides these, which is Magic City, and there's a few of those across the Commonwealth. The there's a couple in Lynchburg and across the state as well with the upfit included. that is what the cost of the vehicle is. So that's your acquisition price and the sheriff office upfit, which is a little under $15,000. If you finance this vehicle, you would obviously have a different interest rate and it would still be the same acquisition price, but you would look at about $1,600 a month in a payment. With the enterprise lease program, we're only financing a portion of the vehicle. So your payment is only about $1,510 per month. What this is doing is we're

able to essentially be $117 a month cheaper on a payment than if you went out to a dealership and acquired the vehicle and you're not footing all of this cash upfront. If we took a look at the last slide here, this Dodge Durango Pursuit all-in year one cost is about $18,000. This is the cost of the vehicle fully upfitted, turnkey ready when it's delivered to the police officers in the field. If you were to purchase the same vehicle, your cash outlay would be $59,255. So essentially, you would only get one vehicle where with our enterprise program, you can get three vehicles for the price of one. This allows the county to get the vehicles that they need to service the community and make sure that we are still meeting the overall capital improvement initiatives and balancing the vehicle needs, the total cost of ownership, and what's best for the community. That's all I have for my presentation today. Are there questions that I can answer? Could

you put that last screen back up? Oh, I clicked out of it.

The vehicle you used here, how many years does it usually last in your model here? How many how many years of that vehicle typically lasts in your experience? It can go for as long as you want it to. Traditionally, right now, what we're doing with the county is 36 months, three years. Um, we can extend those terms out. I recommend no more than six years on these pursuits. Specifically with our contract, you have the right to extend the contract out as many years as you want, but traditionally after six years with the mileage patterns and the wear and tear when you factor in idle time that these vehicles are seeing, it's not the most financially smart decision to hold these past that point. With the mileage patterns that we're seeing in the idle time for Middle Sex County specifically, we ran the numbers and we came to the idea that 36 months, three years is the right time to hold these pursuit vehicles. 36 months,

correct? Three years for these. So, but we're not tied to that if we want to extend the life of those. Correct. And I I saw on your previous screen it said 175. Has Middle Sex been close to that number or over that number of miles on the vehicle? 175K. I'm I'm assuming the 175 is the amount of vehicles that we manage on the first screen. Is that what we were looking at? Yes.

That's the number of vehicles we manage. Middle Sex is not anywhere near the mileage. Traditionally, that is just the amount of lease vehicles that we have on term with government partners across the country. Middle Sex County, the great thing about this program, and I'm glad it came up, it's alarte. So, there is no one-sizefits-all. So just because we're doing a certain term today doesn't mean we can't extend the term out and we can't do 60 months, 72 months. We look at this and it's ultimately the county's decision on what the best decision is for it. We just provide the financial numbers of what makes the most sense from a data perspective and we let you all run with what the need is in the field and middle sex on the vehicles that they rent. They're responsible for all the maintenance. Is that correct?

Yes. So the vehicles get taken to the shop for maintenance. If there are any issues, they loop myself and my team in and then we would essentially jump in. And I say issues such as engines, transmissions, things like that where there's warranty concerns that come in. We're still able to jump in and help the county manage those. Oil changes, brakes, tires, middle sections takes care of that. Correct. That's how it stands as of now. Thank you. What? I got a question here. Yes, sir. The $18,900. That's not the screen I was looking at. Did you say for one year to rent one vehicle? This is one year of the lease payment for this particular vehicle. $18,000. Correct. For one vehicle. For one vehicle for 12 months versus if you paid cash for the one vehicle.

No, I I don't want to look at cash. I'm just looking at what it cost me to lease a vehicle for 18 for for for one year is $18,000. Correct. And we got to pay all the maintenance on it. What is the advantage here? And I know y'all got to do it to make money. you know, I could probably say, you know, I would lease a vehicle for $18,000 a month that won't worth more than $50,000. So to me, that's, you know, I'm I'm not getting, you know, the sense here. So So the 18,000 I won't understand for us to lease one vehicle for one year. And basically, we got to do all the maintenance on it unless it's a transmission, ray, or motor. And that's covered from the dealership because you buy it. these things are covered.

Correct. So, y'all got a good deal. I I mean, you know, from what I see, we could we could talk much if we want to talk about it. Yeah. But, uh, $18,000 a year to rent that particular vehicle is it's a pretty good and and it's it's pretty good cuz I I know what I'm talking about, you know. So, um, that just that just pretty good. Do you have a overall price that How many vehicles do we have anyway that is brand new? We get three or four a year. You know, some

additionally, I have had y'all's count for about a year and a half now, for about 18 months, and it's just been about three to four pursuits that we've done. I do know we have some Nissan Rose. I think the exact number is 32 or 34 right in that early 30 range, but that's the total county vehicles. That's not including the police. So, police is what we traditionally focus on because your county vehicles go much much lower and the need is not as frequent as the police officers

and y'all do all the numbers and rewrite the check. I I I'm just I'm just I'm just wondering, you know, when when we start, you know, you we say it's a good deal. You know, I mean, we ain't pay no attention to the numbers, but basically we don't do none of the numbers. And I'm just surprised there so many things that we do. We don't run numbers, but it's it's good on our part. $18,000. I I mean, you know, good god, you could buy you could probably buy the old Silverado I got one. You could buy for less than 18,000. Leave that alone. Uh you say after three years you'd have an average of how many miles would be on those cars after three years?

Yeah. Traditionally for the pursuit specifically it's anywhere between 30 to 40,000 miles a year. So you're looking at anywhere between 60 or anywhere between 90 to 100 is what we're going to get at. Thank you.

And you say we go over the uh amount of mileage. Are we penalized? I'm just looking at 18,000 a year and uh we changing them I guess every year so we get when we get a better price because what I'm understanding that I I guess our contact may might maybe have it wrong but it's saying release we turn the vehicles over uh they will have new vehicles you know to be safe for get you know it's safe to get you but I'm I'm just lost for words on this thing right now when I'm seeing this price so if I get a vehicle for 18 months and I say look I want another vehicle the next year the same kind. So that's another 18,000. Got a brand new vehicle. I don't have to do no brakes, no oil, no gas. Do y'all do that same thing for 18 months? Are you telling me?

Correct. However, if I could add a caveat there, I would do some financial backing to make sure it made sense financially to make sure the vehicle was in a good equity position and not upside down. So upside down meaning that we are haven't paid the vehicle down enough yet that it would make sense to do that. But we do have some government entities that do that. Um, for instance, we have another locality that was operating small pickup trucks for Mavericks to be exact. And we have been flipping those the past few years. We're getting away from it now, just different models, but every 12 months because of that reason you're saying is that it's making sense from a financial perspective when we factor in maintenance, fuel, and acquisition to continue to do that.

Well, I can I can see if y'all paying all maintenance on everything for a year and you're paying because you know that cars up insurance, too. I guess y'all don't throw that in. But yeah, that is something I I'm glad you're here today. I think it was a gentleman before you. He gave a good presentation, too. And uh 18,000 a year. Okay.

And we can certainly talk. We do have a program that we can look at for maintenance if that would be something that would interest you all. Um I don't know if it's something we would want to get into today, but we do have something that essentially fix the cost of the maintenance for the duration of the lease. So everything would be included in one monthly rate. So, it varies based on the type of the vehicle, but for instance, we look at the mileage pattern, the type of the vehicle, and we say based on how many miles it's going, it would be $120 a month. No matter what happens, Enterprise pays every single thing. And you all have a strict number that you can budget with every single year without having the es and flows of the industry. That can be a separate conversation though. That is something we are just now dipping our toes into.

You know, they always tell me I'm trying to look at something negotiate or something like that. Somebody need to negotiate something for me. But I just leave that alone for the day. I um Yes, sir. Ju just so we compare apples to apples, I'm just looking at the one year versus uh this this these numbers up here. 18,123 times 3 years would be 54,369. So it would be about a close to $5,000 savings. Um, and regardless of whether we bought it or whether we leased it, we'd still be responsible for routine maintenance. Correct.

Um, the only thing is that if obviously if you go out and buy a new car, sometimes you can get some get some, you know, like I bought a new car and they give you oil changes for a year and different things like that. I guess that doesn't it's not something that would come with our lease vehicle that unfortunately not at this time. No, sir. Uh, and then at the end of three years, um, I guess, uh, then we'd we'd start the cycle all over again at at probably a better newer price. I would say better, but new.

Correct. So, right now, we're actually looking at this and a lot of the analysis that we're looking as vehicles. I'm sure you all have not been sleeping under a rock. Vehicles have been at peak prices. Interest rates have been at peak prices. So, we're looking at essentially, if you will, refinance. So, looking at vehicles that we can get out of, to your point earlier, and cycle out of at an earlier term and get you with the same vehicle at a newer cost. It can get a little tricky when we look at the police vehicles because traditionally the upfit will fit year-over-year, but sometimes they make a tweak at the manufacturer and the upfit doesn't work. That's the only headache and kind of snippet we run into. But this program across the board, I have worked in fleet for about five years now and we have been dipping our toes in government for five years now and I have not seen a program that's provided more cash outlay to focus on capital improvements than this leasing program. I I know that that uh that currently when we purchase uh police vehicles in particular um we have to kind of put our order in six to nine months in advance. Uh would that be lessened with this particular program? We' be able to get it more more uh frequently. Let's say we had one that was damaged that was totaled

uh and we had to go back. Would we be able to get a replacement certainly closer to uh to now than six to nine months from now? Great question. So that's a case by case basis. Right now the lead time is about 3 and a half to four months for the vehicle itself. And then we're at the mercy of the upfitters for installing the equipment and when they can get that equipment in. That's typically full transparency the longest part of the process is getting that equipment installed making sure it's the right equipment. We've been working with Atlantic Communicators which has been doing the upfit for a middle sex vehicles recently. Um, if we had a very urgent need and it was totaled and we could not wait for the vehicle, we could potentially look at buying one off of a dealer lot that was already outfitted. Now, it may come out of cost, but those are the times we look at those on a case by case basis.

Okay. Thanks. Absolutely. Any other questions? Yes, I was just looking at it, too. Uh, and you know, I I did uh uh four years, and I think the three years is probably the maximum you want to do because at four years, you're going to pay $72,492. Now, do you have a situation where you can buy the vehicle? I guess you got to buy it off at at that market value because if you think about it after four years, uh, you know, it wouldn't be feasible to keep it that long, you know, like that. Yeah,

that is an option for these specific vehicles. I don't recommend it just because they're police vehicles. They're very worn down. We have a specific market we sell those to at the end of their lives. But for your traditional Rogues and Mavericks that we have for the county, that is an option that we can do. So, at the end of the term, it is something we could take a look at the numbers and run it and see if that would make financial sense for whatever parties are involved. Right. Yeah. Cuz I was just wondering about because I I said, you know, why would you pay, you know, you would trade it in? You wouldn't want to keep releasing it after 3 years anyway.

Yeah. So, essentially at the end of the third year, there would be a little bit of the book balance left the principal because the idea is you at the end of the vehicle's life, recycling it out and getting a new vehicle. But if you wanted to extend it out, we would just extend the term a little bit and you would have a small monthly payment and we could extend it extend it out for as many months as we needed to. It's traditionally 12 months is what we do to expedite it so that it's paid off. Okay, Matt, you got any questions on that on lease and stuff? When we looked at it years ago, it seemed like a a great opportunity for us to replace a lot of different vehicles that really needed replacing. I remember when we first started the program, we had a couple of uh sheriff's vehicles that had I think over 200 300,000 miles on them.

And this was a great opportunity for us to replace a nice swath of those vehicles and keep them replaced. And one of the things that really impressed uh me and several other board members at the time was the ability to lease these, get them in a program, and then sell them. I think it was the Maverick at that point in time that we would have sold it after the three-year term and pretty much get our money back out of it. Correct.

That sounds odd, but it was amazing to us. And and it may prove the concept that sometimes you don't want to hang on to a vehicle for 10 years. Sometimes you want to get, you know, let it go back in three, four and get your money back out of it if you can or buy it and transfer it back in. It was a great opportunity for us to, you know, replace a lot of the fleet. And I think as a result, uh, social services, the general admin, uh, and the sheriff's office now has a stronger fleet. So there you go. I'm glad you because, you know, you can't remember all the things in history, but you know, you you kind of look at all the options that you have like that. I can remember some of that, but that's what we pay Matt the big bucks for,

you know. I remember a little bit about that too. And it was a different deal altogether. You know, it's not the same thing you're offering us now. It's not the same deal. And uh what I'm saying is that you got to look, we got to look at the numbers. It's not the same deal. I mean, we can look at the 60,000 and the 18 and all that, but you're right about purchase these vehicles. This is not the same thing. I mean, you might invite somebody to your house the first time, right? Once you get them in your house, they start throwing anything at you that they can get. Okay? and you come back because you don't check nothing. Then you're wondering where your money is at now. I don't know if I'm making sense. You got to check. I mean, you know, over and I think y'all do a whole lot better than what you got here cuz it show it was years ago when we were doing the vehicle. This is not nowhere. This is not nowhere near what it was. And I don't I'm not checking numbers, but I know what was said and uh the gentleman was doing it then and I questioned him and he was doing it, you know, on the math. So, uh, that that's my thing. I I I got this, but where I won't be at on this. And I'm just saying, uh, miss, you done a a nice fast, uh, uh, your presentation was good. Your voice was clear, and I like what you said and everything, but somebody tell me I had to rent a car for $18,000 a year. I don't know what kind I have. I don't see nobody. Oh, I get ambid.

Matt, you mentioned the word sale and we were talking about leasing. So, does the county have a portion of the sale when it return it or what?

We have since we've been engaged in the lease, we one of the reasons we initially went with the program is because Enterprise could offer those vehicles that we were putting back in or getting rid of into their apparatus to sell them and they were able to get us better deals. Having said that though, we've gotten uh Sarah and Amarie have done a really good job uh learning a little bit and getting more involved with gov deals and we've been you know we try price it both ways and if we can get a better deal selling a vehicle through gov deals that's what we do. We try to get the most money we can out of it. So we rent the vehicle for three years and then it's ours. I don't Well, you can buy the vehicle at the end of the three-year term and then you own it.

Okay. cuz I was under pressure. You rent it for 3 years, return it back into you and get another vehicle and there is no sale. Sometimes it can be either one. So, traditionally in these last 12 months, we haven't sold anything. The way the program works is exactly to your point. So, we get the vehicles for three years and then at the end of the three years, we turn it in, we sell it, we get a new vehicle. However, things change all the time. Needs change. So, we can certainly extend the term like I talked about earlier and we can look at other options. And we can also sell, to Matt's point, your own vehicles that are not part of the enterprise program if it makes sense. Anytime a number is given to me, I can go to our team and see if it financially makes sense for us to sell it or if gut feels.

Okay. I think there is one more number there. Um, what do you typically sell those vehicles for once we turn them back in? Is that something you could find out for us if you don't know tonight? Yeah, great question. I can pull your specific data. I didn't have any for the last 12 months. I can certainly follow up with that data from the partnership beginning to now. One thing I will say is right now Enterprise as a whole is selling about 15% above Blackbook. Blackbook is essentially the fleet market similar to Kelly Blue Book. But whoever would sell the vehicle would get that same. No. So the money comes back to you. So we would essentially there's a fee for us to sell it and then that money comes back directly to you in the form of a check, an invoice credit, or we can apply it to a new vehicle to lower a payment on a new vehicle.

So we rent a vehicle for three years, we turn it back in, you sell it, and we get some money from the sale. Yes, sir. Okay. All right. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions from Miss Anderson?

Okay. Uh I do have two follow-up questions. Question number one, I think I heard that normally it's a three-year uh before something's done with that vehicle or somewhere close to around 120,000 miles. And I won't hold you to that number. Am I correct on that? Yes. Traditionally, we try to get out of fees before 100,000 miles because that's when the extended warranty order needs directly from the factory expires.

Okay. And I can get this from staff, but just to see how how well you know our account. How many vehicles? I know you said there was 33 vehicles from the sheriff's department to social services to the general operation. How just for the sheriff's office? How many vehicles are we uh under contract currently? For the ones that have been acquired the last 18 months that I've had the account, we have had eight that are under contract currently that have come through me. I can pull the exact numbers that have come since before I took over the partnership. Do you know that number?

I do not. And in fact, I just had it open because I use that number for budgeting. I just had the invoice open. I want to say Friday. So, okay. Apologize for that. I should have thought. We we'd like to see that number. I can provide you with the invoice, which is really good information. And my question is, is the sheriff's department carrying 15 vehicles, 17 vehicles, 12 vehicles, 19 vehicles? If I may, I can pull that information up relatively quickly. If you give me 30 seconds, I can grab that. Sure. If I have a few more seconds. You want her to do that right now? We can get it right now. Okay.

One second. Um, and I'm going to say that she was giving you the information on the um, police vehicles. For the administrative vehicles, we do a little bit different. We might do a four or five year lease. Correct. And a shorter lower mileage as well because obviously a vehicle that's used for Carlos and around town wouldn't get the same mileage as a police vehicle.

Correct. So, you all are traditionally doing the fiveyear and then we can extend it out. And your mileage is at about 10,000 miles a year is what we have it set up at. Give me just a moment. It's loading. the vehicle specifics are loading. What we have loaded in our system for vehicles are 23 vehicles in total. I can see model years and I can confirm that over 50% of them are the police vehicles, but it's loading me the exact number that I can follow up on if this takes too long. Wonderful.

Any additional questions? I just like to see all the numbers when you get all that stuff added up. I just just like to see all of them so I can look at see what we're paying as a county. That's what I want to see. What would make the most sense for the board to see? Um, obviously I can send over the resale that we talked about for what we've been able to sell vehicles for. How would you like that to come over? Or would it make sense to I just I just want to know what we are paying and if we get any money back that's that's fine but I want to know mostly the cost. Yeah. I want to know the cost. Yes sir. I can get that for you. No there ain't I just write the check man.

Okay. Well thank you for all the information. Uh, welcome to standing at the podium at Middle Sex County, which may be a little different from some of the other areas that you go, but we appreciate you being here today and keeping a good smile on your face. And I don't think we asked anything too awful hard. No, you guys have been great. Thank you so much for having me. Wonderful. Thank you for coming. Take care. Okay, item number 4E. everybody's favorite and been waiting for the airport update.

So hopefully Kevin gets pictures up. I took more pictures at the terminal building today. The carpet's been put down in the conference room and in the pilot lounge. Pretty much all the flooring is down. Uh there are a couple pieces where they ran out of the edging tile that they're going to put in.

And and Mr. Chairman, this room that's on the screen now is where we were proposing to hold an upcoming board meeting if at all possible. It's the meeting room. Uh it's really nicely done. Uh Dave Cretz and myself went down there this past week and uh I mean the tile work is amazing. Uh I commended the uh the tile crew for what a good job they were doing. The attention to detail is something you don't see very often around here when it comes to tile work. But go ahead. He tried to hire the tile tile guy. Well, there may have been some discussions. I still want that.

So, anyway, the it's coming furniture. Like I've told a couple board members already, I got all the furniture ordered. We came in under budget. I left $56 on a table. So, so I spent the safe money well. Uh looking at four six to eight weeks before that would show up at the at the office. I don't think there's anything else. So anyway, back when I first came on the airport committee, I was looking through the department of aviation's website and I found the economic impact study for the Virginia for the Commonwealth Virginia for all the airports in there. And the last study was done in 2016. That correct? So Steven Smiley is our airport planner, but he was also the project manager for the current a Commonwealth Virginia aviation impact study that you have on your desk and I've handed out everybody. If you don't have one, let me know. I'll get you another one. Got more on the back desk back there. So Stephen,

thanks Richard. Uh Mr. Chair and the members of the board. Um I'm Stephen Smiley. I'm a senior planner with the Virginia Department of Aviation. Also I am the program manager for the economic impact study for the uh state. Our last study was done in 2016 and we have a update cycle of every four years which would have placed our original update in the year 2020. Um didn't have a particularly good year that year as you may recall six years ago. So, we decided to hold off on updating the economic impact study until the industry, the travel industry really recovered, which happened to be uh this past year. Using 2024 data, we updated um the study in two parts. One for commercial service using passengers passenger data from that and the other for general aviation. general aviation consisting of Hmelfield and the other airports in the state. Um we updated this in a manner that was on the ground. We had consultants go to every single airport in the state, contacting the managers, doing an in-person survey of all the tenants on the airport, all the business tenants on the airport, um asking questions of employment, how much they spent on capital over the past year. Uh the survey was sent to um the tenants by the airport manager and then confirmed in person by the consultants. Then we followed up with a visitor survey that was posted at the terminal of every airport. Um, and we had that out for about six to eight months. It's a voluntary survey. We had links to Survey Monkey that they could take throughout the year. At the commercial service airports, when you get onto the Wi-Fi, we were able to get onto the

splash screen and we had that across seven or eight different languages. Um, we take the total amount of visitor spend data that we acquire from these surveys and we look at the amount of employment and um income generated on the airport. We put it through an economic m model called implan which is an industry standard model and it comes with the numbers that you find in the back of your packet. um we split into jobs and wages and gross state product which is similar to gross domestic product but for the state of Virginia and then we look at the total economic output of the airport which includes on and off airport um inputs. Uh Hmel Fields unique in the state that in the interim between 2016 and 2025 um the runway was realigned and extended and you guys are really reaping the benefit of that here in Middle Sex. Um you have the benefit of having the highest increase in the entire Commonwealth of Virginia in terms of total output from 2016 to 2025. The total output of the airport increased over 723%. Um that comes at minimal expense to Middle Sex County. uh jobs, wages, and gross um gross state product are way up and we expect to have a um technical report to come out in early April which should help answer more detailed questions that you guys might have. However, in the interim, I'm here if you'd like to ask any questions. I'm happy to answer.

Are you staying for the close session? I can't. It'd be the first item on the close session. So, um, yes, we'll we'll hammer you a little harder in there. Okay. Any questions right now for Mr. Smiley? Okay. What else you got, Richard? That is it, sir. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Um, item five, regular agenda items. Uh, budget supplement requests. Uh, 2026-010. Uh, looks like uh something for animal tag, whatever that is.

Yes, sir. Um, as you'll if you'd ever see my car, you'll notice that I buy the animal friendly license plate where you pay the extra fee. That extra fee when you live in the county and your car is registered in the county, comes back to the county specifically to be used towards animal sterilization programs. Middle Sex County Animal Shelter itself doesn't do animal spaying or neutering, but our pet friends for life does. So when we get this $27464, we ask for the board to appropriate it so we can send it over to Middle Sex Pet Friends for Life for Spayneuter. And of course, I've already reached out to Kate who runs it. Um Kate Ogden, as you know, she runs the Pet Friends for Life. And she says, "Of course, if you give us that money, we will spend it on spayneutering in the county." So that is all at this point. I'm asking for the board to appropriate the money that we received last month, the amount of $274.64. All right. Any questions for Mr. Ricardi?

Okay. I got a question. The license plates that you have is just like the license plate we put on our cars and we put any other name and it's generated back to the county and you want to take that money that is name on the license plate and use it for the is lutering on the county. Other words, we got special license plates on our car, which is example, but we're not calling animal friendly plates. We have any license on our plate. The funds is comes back to the county.

These are specific. These this when it when you buy the pet friendly plates, when it says I'm pet friendly, that's specifically when I signed off on paying that extra $10. I think it's $10. Um the agreement with me and the state when you get that license plate is that the county gets that funds. It is not the case for every license plate. For example, if you get what college you go to, which a veterans vet, that wouldn't come back to us. Um the college plates, the sports plates, those wouldn't come back to us. Yes. The money. Yep. This one is the only one that we handle directly.

And just to be clear, every time you have that amount that will come due in the calendar year, you'll come back to us. Yes, sir. For for that. That's correct. Last time I came back, it was a little over $400. So, I need to promote it or something better. Any other questions, Mr. Ricardi? Seeing none, a motion would be in order to approve the request uh 2026-010. So move. So moved by Mr. Williams. Thank you, sir. And I'll second it.

And second by Mr. Jesse. Thank you. Seeing no further questions, uh, roll call, please. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. The motion is approved. Okay. Uh, citizens appointments item B. Anmarie Ricardi, you're still on the hot seat, please.

Yes, sir. Um, we received one application. um to fill a vacant position and that position isn't vacant yet. It becomes vacant July 1st on the water authority, but we did receive an application from Jim Naggie. You all remember that name very well and he has requested appointment to the water authority effective July 1st, 2026. We saw no reason to wait since the position opens. We figured we'd go ahead and ask that the board go ahead and approve that for us, please. That's the only one I have. Good. Uh I just have a question. Um Mr. Chambers. Uh, would you come to the podium just so I can ask it so it's on the record?

Yes, sir. Thank you for being here. Uh, do you perceive any other vacancies for the water uh authority? Um well we uh we're finishing our 12th year this year. So uh all five of us have served uh served those terms and we have this vacancy uh which is Carlton River is stepping down and will be replaced by uh Jim Nai and I've also learned that Janet Riggs uh intends to uh uh to step down from the authority. So we will have one more vacancy that we anticipate. Uh, do you have a just at a uh do you have a date of when she says she's going to

Well, she's going to serve out her term, which would be June 30th. So, we'd need someone as of July 1st, just like Mr. Nai will replace Mr. River. And you're of course looking for somebody to replace. We are looking and I would welcome your help. Wonderful. Okay. Um, thank you very much for just making sure we were all clear on that. And just as a side note, chips on board, too. Okay. Just as a side note, um, we're not looking to replace anybody else on that committee. So, the rest of y'all got to suck it up and take it. Correct. It's a life sentence. You've you've done a great You've done a great job. At least the life of the pipe. You know,

I can't under uh underst say how strong y'all have been and how well y'all are operating. And uh hopefully we got a couple of uh surprises that may be coming down to help you a little bit more. So hope so. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Okay. It would be in order then uh to accept the nomination for Jim Naggie to be appointed to the water authority effective 7126. A motion would be in order for that. So move. So moved by Mr. Bill Harris. Second. Second by Mr. Kitten. Any further discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Bill Harris, yes. Mr. Yes. Mr.

Yes. Mr. Williams. Yes. Mr. Yes. Motion's carried unanimously. Tell Jim we're glad he's back. All right. Thank you.

Uh item number two, current bas vacancies. I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time on that other than just make sure you see it and know it. Okay. Uh Jamaica's got uh two two spots. BZA in the wetlands and Pinetop has a wetlands as well. Okay. Uh moving right along. Item six, administrative updates. Cigarette tax is a report only. Staff report is a report only. And I'll um bring your attention to there have been a couple of changes, not many, but just a couple on the budget calendar. So, make sure you you pull that out or or take a look at it. That's revised FY27 budget calendar on pages 79 to 81.

Yeah, Mr. Chairman, I can speak to that if if I may. Um, but before I do, I if it would be okay, I'd like to draw your attention to a portion of the staff report under our planning director's uh heading. He gave the board some information that we had discussed briefly in a previous meeting regarding our wetlands board. Our wetlands board has a number of vacancies now and upcoming. And uh we had briefly discussed the possibilities of whether we want to turn that activity back to the state since the state would do it without the county participation. Uh we had some discussion on that and I think you'll find that Dave's been fairly responsive in his staff report. The number of counties around us that don't have one, the number of counties around us that have one but don't appear to have met since June 2022nd or June 2022. That's fairly bizarre. But long story short, um there are several counties around us that don't have one. And um it's it's yet another budget saving measure that we could put into effect that could save us some money. And more than the money, uh the staff time that's needed to support and operate that endeavor is intensive. So I just wanted to draw the board's attention to that. If there are any questions on that, Dave and I are here. If not, it's just for your information. All right,

hold on. Yep. Mr. Cretz, would you come to the podium, please?

Yes, sir. Um, do you have a particular opinion on uh whether we should continue with the wetlands board or turn that over to the state? This is really a tough decision. Um, so, um, if you would have asked me 10 years ago, I would have said definitely no. I'm leaning somewhere in the middle now. um what's going to happen what you'll see the reduction will be in the time it takes for preparation and and you you'll reduce some staff time uh with respect to you know right now uh Mr. longest will uh he he in fact this morning what they do is they meet they actually go in the field and they look at all the projects together as a board and then they actually have their ne next Tuesday uh morning they will have you know next week not this week but the next the following Tuesday they'll have their board meeting so you have that time it takes for staff to to it basically takes up one morning and another morning so you add the two together you have the better part of a A plus the paperwork associated with the uh permits and and that type of thing. What you're still going to get and it's um and you're still going to have some staff time required for this position because everything that's done along the water or even upland or anything is uh requires a submission of what they call a joint permit application. And what happens is the uh these are submitted to the core of engineers and they distribute it to anybody that would have an interest in it. So staff will still have some involvement in this process. It's not a total handoff. So uh so when a when a project comes in, there'll still have to be the need to look at it

because some of these projects are multi-jurisdictional. You'll see some that are in BMRC jurisdiction, some that are inner title, which would be the wetlands board jurisdiction, and from the inner title, Upland is the Chesapeake Bay. So, some of these projects could have three different jurisdictions. So, staff's still going to have to look at these projects and make evaluations as to which jurisdiction, what do they take, what do they don't. Um I think your main savings would be in the um facilitation of that wetlands board. You the u the advertising the all these little different components. Now we do get fees to cover some of this cost but um I don't know that a fee ever covers staff time.

You know that uh you can't recoup it all. We probably, you know, our department has somewhat of a business model, but as best government can have, I guess it's hard to equate anything as a a net uh saving, you know, a net u even cost, but um that that would be my basic uh take on it. You're going to save some of that money and some of that time with the with the savings with the wetlands board, the facilitation and all the all the work that goes with it, calling them, but you'll still have some you're still going to have to have a staff member there that can do some of that work. It's you can't eliminate a staff member. You're still going to have to have that staff member will be the Bayak person, which you're still going to have to have uh because that that in itself is um still still with us. We can't get rid of that. So you you do one per that one person is going to save some time that may free them up to something else.

So not necessarily a large um uh amount for revenue whether we stay with it or whether we give it to the state. Is that correct? Well, you would have some cost savings, no question, if you send it to the state because you're going to eliminate all the time it takes for staff to deal with with the facilitate staff currently does all the staff reports, everything for the wetlands board. Okay.

So, so you would probably if you were to the board probably wants how much are we going to save? I'd say maybe 30% in staff cost. Just that's a rough guess.

Okay. Um here's the more pressing question from me. How does that complicate the process to land owners that are requesting uh looking at their property etc etc. So those those citizens that would now be able to go to a wetlands board here would have to drive to Hampton which is uh the old Fort Monroe. That's where BMRC is located now. The commission. So projects needing a wetlands permit, not all of them do, uh would have to go to Hampton and before the commission for hearing.

Okay. Um, and we can talk about it. There's not a time-sensitive date on making a decision on this, correct? No, not that I'm aware of. Okay. Only that that you know, it may be it coincides with your budget. That's that's probably your only pressing matter. And the vacancies and and your and of course your vacancies in the report.

Okay. Okay. Well, and we'll think about that and talk about it. I don't want to make it. I mean, it'd be something different if we if we were talking about this in a county up in the, you know, northern area, uh, or mountains that don't have all the water that we have here. Um, I'd like to be pretty confident that it's not putting undue pressure on residents to have to go to CA to to Hampton to uh apply for whatever they may be applying for.

Right. Well, if any of you know marine contractors in this interim to talk to them to get some feedback, many of you do. Um, you know, you might get feedback from them. If I hear anything, we might run it up the flag pole and try to get a kind of the see which way the wind's blowing with them. I know the one there's one c local county that sent it back and their citizens were more happy with the process of VMRC just because their their board was not as accommodating to their citizens as our board is. He's being very diplomatic right now. I can tell.

Okay. Does that make I guess you can read between the lines. I do. I get I get what we've been very lucky. We've had the past few years we've had very good weapons board members. They've been very um they're very businesslike. They um are very sensitive to uh what most people are doing when they come in there. There's trying to save their property, right? Right. And when they save their property, they're they're preserving our tax base. Yeah.

Because as as their property goes away a little, you could say their the tax base is going away. So, it's, you know, our board has been very conscientious to try to help citizens in that process and get them through it and still follow the law. That's kind of a two-prong thing there that they have to do.

And Mr. Chairman, if I may elaborate a little bit on that, we have been blessed in the the boards and the commissions and the committees and the people that have served on them on behalf of the board of supervisors upon y'all's appointment. We've been blessed with very talented, very intelligent, very dedicated people. It's getting harder and harder to find those people in the community that want to give up their time and and serve the community in those capacities. Um, I I can't remember a time in my 33 years where I've seen citizen appointments go unfilled month after month after month with no applicants. Um, I know when I see somebody and they ask questions about anything. I'm like, "Hey, it's great that you're interested. Would you consider serving on a committee? I I try to recruit people for the board." I said, "Well, what do I need to do?" Fill out the application. Put anything in everything you would want to be on because we have vacancies come up. it's very fewer and fewer people want to serve. It's getting harder and harder to find folks to serve on these committees. Um and and that has become more and more challenging. So, just asking a question. I'm looking for an answer particularly. Would we want to consider putting something out? I know it's on our website of what's vacant and what isn't.

Run something in the paper. maybe run something in the paper talking about the advantage of having local people making local decisions. I I'll get with Larry on it this week and see if we can't get something in the paper this week. Specifically any targeting the the wetlands board, but any any board member out here general recruitment type thing. Yeah, be happy to. Why don't you look into that? I think that would be a

good idea. And as a side note, we the our wetlands board does take care of the town's wetlands applications as well. That's there's a couple there's a few things that our department does for the town and that's one of them. Erosion sediment control being the other and building uh you know review and inspections are the I believe the third one. Is that correct? Wonderful. Yes, sir. Any other questions for Mr. Kretz? Thank you, sir, for cleaning some of that up.

Yes, sir. That's a That's a tough decision. I'm Yeah, it is. It really is. I've worked I worked with when I first came here, I worked with our wetlands board, and some of those members have become friends, and it's, you know, there there's a good group there. Some of them are have retired, and it's it is it it it's a tough it's tough decision. Really is. It it could have some cost savings and solve some issues, but well, not significant cost savings, some, but

you you're still going to have some cost involved in it. Yes. Yeah. There's some crossover between the Bay Act and this and um you know, if if violations are spotted, there might be some involvement there, too. Um still our county, we still have to do something. So, Right. Right. Right. Thank you, Mr. Car. Yes, sir.

And Mr. Chairman, if I can talk briefly about the budget uh calendar, I'll ask Kevin if he can to pull it up. Uh most of the changes are on page two of the budget calendar. They're really everything affecting this month and beyond. Of course, the board re remembers the budget work session that we had planned for Thursday's pretty much been postponed until the state finishes their budget. So, your next budget work session on the revised draft is Thursday, March 26th. And assuming we can get everything done that day, we can get advertisements to the paper April 2nd and April 9th and have our public hearing on April 16th and then deliberation and adoption on the 23rd. Now, we can still push that back substantially. uh here to forward, no one's suggested any real estate tax increases. And the real estate tax rate is really the main thing the commissioner and treasurer need to know well ahead of time if they're going to be adjustments made so they can get the bills printed and mailed and uh stay ahead of that curve. Um I don't think anybody is suggesting any kind of a real estate increase with our assessment coming in on January the 20 uh 2027. the reassessment being completed this fall probably would not be the appropriate time to raise interest or excuse me real estate tax rates when we may be lowering rates or doing rebates next fall next winter as a matter of fact in the next budget but I want to make sure the board understands if you adopt this draft budget it can still change hopeful the state's going to finish their project soon or excuse me their budget soon and we'll have information before the 2020 20 uh excuse me, the 26th budget work session meeting, but there's considerable flexibility to have

more work sessions if the board chooses either before or after that week uh and or during that same week as the 26th. Uh we are required by law to pass a school budget by May 15th. We're should pass ours by June 30th. So, we got substantial amount of time. Um and with that, we hope to have some flexibility. And Mr. Mr. Chairman, I'm glad that you commented after public comment today. I'd like to add to some of that if I may. We have the board has not made any decisions on what cuts or what potential cuts are going to be made. We're just looking at any and all scenarios on how we can balance the budget in a pretty lean time when we're down on our revenues and uh trying to really get by until we get the reassessment in place. And then that will afford the board a great deal of flexibility next year. So while these are proposed or possible cuts, they're not final. And they're not final until the board approves it. And they're definitely not final with staff even as a recommendation. We've made no recommendations. These are just drafts at this time. They're not going to be final from us until the state finishes their project. Excuse me. I want to say project. I'm Yeah. Until they finish their budget and get it signed. and we know from the state superintendent's office how much state money the schools are going to get until we know definitively what the revenue stream is going to look like for social services and until we hopefully have uh the latest tax information from the department of tax. Um so we hope to know that by the end of March. This is a more normal budget adoption schedule that we've had in years past and there's no need to expedite it. Though I am retiring on the 31st. I promised y'all a finished budget before I got out of here. So, I'm going to be here to help Kevin any way I can to finish this one and hopefully leave him with a great budget to build on in the future. So,

Mr. Chairman, that's all I had. I do think y'all need to adopt the proposed draft budget. If you see any errors, please let me know. I've had Emory look it over, but between the two of us, sometimes we don't catch everything. That's why we depend on Chennai. So, okay. Uh, any, uh, questions on the revised budget? Is it a problem? Not a problem. What? I No, I just have one question. Uh, if you next Monday's schoolboard meeting, Yes, sir.

has budget approval. Uh, just curiosity, how they how would they do that if they don't know how much money they're going to be getting from the state or how much money they're going to get from? They take the best estimate they can and I think they're using the proposed governor's budget as the guide. Okay. With some adjustments that I suggested they make. So it it's always a challenge. Um sure. I mean it just you know horse or whatever.

I'm not running for higher office but I can pontificate on an hour for how our budget process belongs in the colonial era. But I won't. Well, and their their budget is not necessarily what our budget is, so we'll just leave it at that. Um, okay. Wonderful. Um, moving right along. Uh, oh, we do need a to adopt the revised. That way we can let Larry and the media know and the public of work. Okay. Uh, a motion would be in order to adopt the revised budget calendar. So move. So moved by Mr. Jesse. Thank you, sir.

Second. Second by Mr. Bill Harris. Thank you, sir. Any further discussion? Roll call on on the motion, please. Mr. Kinden. Yes. Mr. Jesse? Yes. Mr. Williams? Yes. Mr. Bill Harris? Yes. Mr. Don Harris? Yes. Okay. The revised uh budget has been approved. Budget calendar. Budget calendar. Excuse me. Okay. Um, moving right along. County attorney update. No, sir. I don't have anything outside of my staff report. Really? I mean, I was going to, but I I'll

Okay. You good? Yes, sir.

All right. Um, item eight, unfinished and new business. Let's start with unfinished business. Nobody has any unfinished business. Okay. Um, new business. And item number one under new business is golf cart draft ordinance, Lovers Lane. Dave Cretz. Well, actually, I think this starts with Mr. Kittinden. Uh, it should have been both of them listed on there. So, um, Randy, if you could just just because procedurally this is under board new business. If you could give us the opening on what your citizens have requested, then Dave and I are very happy to take it from there, but we'd like you to start us off, please. Sure. uh the uh the the citizens that live on um Lover's Lane and the the joining little feeder streets that come into Lover's Lane, Noral, Norhal and and the others. They um they are requesting the uh us to have an ordinance that they can drive their golf carts on those on Lovers Lane and the adjacent streets. They realize that they're not uh that there are certain things that they have to do as far as the equipment on the golf carts, the the slowmoving vehicle signs, and more importantly, the fact that they they're not allowed to drive off of Lowers Lane onto Route 33 in Deltavville because that is a uh 35 mph zone and they're not allowed to drive them out there. And also that anyone who is operating the golf cart has to be of legal age, that is age old enough to get a uh a driver's license. Not necessarily

have one, but they have to be 16, I guess, or older. And um they they have uh they've gone through the procedure of of uh making this request. And um so I don't I don't have a problem with it. Okay. Thank you, Mr. for that. So, uh, Dave Cret and I will be happy. I'm g ask Dave to join us back. So, is the board uh, we can pull it up on the the the picture that we have on here, Kevin. I think it's page 85. Dave, you want to I mean, this is our standard ordinance. You want to come up and

um, I think the main question that we had is the signage and who will be responsible? I mean this isn't without like cost and obligation. So some things to work out and Dave can talk about the process involving VOTE.

Right. So uh for starters obviously the citizen this is a citizen request. Um I took the liberty of producing this map and I sent it to VOTE. Um I got some initial comments back. They evidently the the last sign the last golf cart ordinance that the board passed was 2018 and it was for Whiting Creek subdivision. And and looking at the signage in Whiting Creek subdivision versus what VOTE's telling me now, it looks like VOTE has created a little bit more process for this. Um there's some requirements uh with respect to signage. the uh they're requiring what they call a W 1111 30 by 30 inch golf cart symbol sign. They want a W11 series sign 24 by8 for the golf cart community sign. And then they're calling out a R5 series uh 24 in by 30 in and golf cart zone sign. So, they want this drawing or another drawing updated to show where this where the existing speed limit signage is and where these signs would be placed. Uh, there's also some requirements uh with respect to road width. They're probably going to want the some like some crosssections or something like that. Now, all of this is work that I can do. Um it but it seems to be more uh a lot more detailed than it was eight years ago when we did the other golf cart ordinance. It seems to me we just sent it to VOTE and they did it for us as best I can tell because the only thing I can find in the file is the uh is is the ordinance that was passed. I can't find any working drawings or anything of that nature. And I remember

when we did it, I worked with Ron Peaks. basically he just came and and got our subdivision plats and that's all I ever heard about it from my end. So So anyway, uh looks like there's some if we do this there's some cost involved in this is with respect to signage. Uh the signage is it's in a VOTE rightway. They have a specification for their signpost. So there is some um associated cost uh with these. I looked up one of these signs. They're about a hundred bucks. You know they're it's a standard transportation type of sign. I think it's probably gerine to many states. You can sometimes you can order them on Amazon or whatever, but it would have to meet their probably construction

and beefiness I guess specifications that they would require. So, and we have to maintain them just like you know. Yeah. So, you'll have some maintenance costs if somebody knocks one down. uh you would have to go you know the board or whoever would have to be responsible for that. So just to to and then you have the cost of installing them where you obviously have your maintenance crews probably going out and doing it. VOTE's not doing any of this. All of this the onus for us to put these signage these signs in are directly related to the county having to do them themselves and

and you you would be getting total cost information for us at some point. Well, the there's one we can I I would I would estimate the signage cost probably in the $500 range just roughly and that is a ballpark figure. What I don't know is how many signs they're going to require because you have to submit this this plan to them and then they review it. So, they may go out and look at it and require extra signage or put the sign here or whatnot. you know, they might have some it's a plan you submit and you have to obtain what they call a land use permit in association with with the uh application. they'll review it and then um he you know Lee said once they uh you know once if it meets their criteria then they issue the permit but it sounds like every all the u actual the actual preparation of what you send them is on us and actually the it says the cost of the signage is on us as well. Well, but clarification point there as I sent to y'all in a memo. It's similar to the no wake signs and as you will recall in administration Matt can weigh in. Um people who live on coes come forward and ask to have a no wake zone declared and then what we do is we adopt the ordinance and that citizen is responsible for the sign and maintaining it. That is the question. That is one of the questions for the board in this situation is um who pays for the signs for this special golf cart. It does not it the code is the citizens can be it it's just like the no zone a citizen or a group could be responsible or the board can it's it's your pleasure. It is not automatically put on the county. There is that discretion there for that discussion. um what's been done in the past. I think you mentioned Whiting Creek subdivision home association play

a role in that one or Yes, sir. Mr. Harris, the the last one um there's one sign up. I was going to say it's really important for Dave and I are trying to we need that's my neighborhood. Yeah. So, we want to stress that previously when we looked into this process, it we'll say it again. It was extremely simplified. I mean, we gave a subdivision plat to gentleman at VOTE and it just went it just happened. Just just trying to tell you things change. V dots. Now, I mean, Dave and I've spent more time talking about this ordinance than I think I have in my entire tenure here talking about all the golf cart ordinances. So, that gives you an idea like it's just and no offense to do, but it it does appear to have gotten a lot more bureaucratic

and the cost of the signs. I mean, that's something a neighborhood could bear if they choose to. I mean, I know and the maintenance of them

and the maintenance of them. I mean, once you get them up, unless people are running them over, it's not that big of a problem. I I feel like VOTE has almost taken a position where, okay, these are becoming more of a pain, so we're just going to make everybody do everything for us. And I hate to see that, too, because I look at these golf cart communities, especially dead-end neighborhoods, neighborhoods that have deadend roads. as you know, if you allow golf carts and you have more people walking the roads, not that we want to encourage people walking in the middle of the road, but these are neighborhoods, it slows people down. I mean, one of the things I've noticed in my neighborhood is we have a lot of people walking, riding bikes, and riding golf carts, and it slows people down. VOTE does not want us using a speed bumps because for, you know, whatever reasons that doesn't meet state requirements. And golf carts are are widely accepted in communities like ours is kind of a quality of life type thing. You can get in your golf cart, go see your neighbors, ride around. So, I don't understand why it's gotten more bureaucratic. I apologize to the community that it has. I think some of them are here tonight to talk about it or not talk about it, but see what we do. But um yeah, I mean if the community pays for the signs

on your map here, you have two yellow symbols. Yes, sir. Is that where potential signs would be or is that something different?

This Well, coincidentally, they probably So, yes, sir. Okay. You'll see that um see the two the two green pins. The one at the beginning at the upper top of the page at General Puller and the one at the bottom that goes to the state dock. that that is the length of one run and they would you would you would have to put a sign at the beginning when you come into the neighborhood and then at the end obviously I don't know what the option would be to go any further but

uh Dave I got to ask you a question so VOTE's telling us we need a golf cart sign at the state dock are they thinking people are going to amphibulously land golf at the state dock now

that's kind of intuitive that you wouldn't go much further. But anyway, they're saying you have to have one at the beginning into the end. And I take that as meaning that you'd have to have one at the end of Norhal Lane. There's a private road that kind of takes off at the end of Norhal. I So you have what, four to six signs in there. Then they want a community golf cart sign. I I searched that. I think it's just a a white square sign with, you know, similar to theseformational signs like end of state maintenance type of thing that just says that's the end of the golf cart um path as far as you can go. Like I think you could figure it out either way, but in this I guess they have to somebody in Richmond will review this or wherever they send it back to Fredericksburg and that's that's what they want. So I think I think their justification has been well written in here that uh I'm not sure do we do we have any I know that the for instance Cove has a that's a golf cart community you said your neighborhood um Urbana has golf carts

um do we have any sort of a of a of a universal or or standard restrictions? I mean, are they required to do the same things that they put on here? Well, pretty much so. I mean, I know I think Urbana, I think that they require um some sort of a uh insurance on the golf carts. That's not listed in here. Proof of insurance. Yeah. Proof of insurance. So, these are all things that I brought up to y'all to Right. Yeah. It's for you to discuss. Yeah.

Yeah. So, I think that I mean I don't like I said, I agree with you. I think that it is something that um it it seems to be growing. More and more people are using golf carts. I think it to me it kind of promotes sort of a community uh spirit. It's it's not the last one you'll probably see, right? You're going to see more. I imagine timber deck will be next and and you're probably going to, you know, grab hold of some policy or how you going to, you know, just how what responsibilities fall on the requesters and what the county is willing to take, you know, on and obviously the the county has to be the the point person

VOTE, you know, it's a count it's a they're county roads. The county owns those roads. So, it's the uh well, they're they're old Bird Act roads. So, they're Well, how about this? So, board staff's looking for your direction. Um, we need Dave, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe what we need to do is kind of present like a we get a plan approved by VOTE for where you would put the signs and then you would still need to send this to public hearing because it is an actual ordinance if it's the majority will of the board. So, we'd have to advertise it, have a public hearing, and then at the conclusion of that public hearing, you can either table it, approve it, deny it, you know, or your will.

Um, would it be a good idea to send it to public hearing a couple of months out or should we come back before you? What would be the board's pleasure? Do you want to send it to public hearing next month or what I recommend is that if if it's the will of the board to send it forward

that would direct me to prepare the remainder of what they're requesting um as far as the comments that VOTE sent me and that way we they could review it. Uh they're going to review a couple things. they were they were um you know width of pavement is is taken into account the the all the ditches and you know I think they want to make sure there's enough pavement width for the for vehicles to pass safely. So there's u you know if if you if you give me the green light I've got to get some work going on it so I can get it submitted so we can find out um if it's approvable. You know they would they would issue the permit. So, we should probably start with that is first the board direct if they desire.

Yeah, this is kind of a weird timing thing because I'm we've never done this before. I don't know if they

not like this. It's it's kind of odd. And this this site has some a few challenges. I see. Uh Whiting Creek had a much wider road section, you know, nicer ditches. Um this is an older area, very narrow road. you know that not probably just a lot more built up along the ditch lines and whatnot that might trigger some questions. So, and this may, you know, this may be me taking a couple whacks at it, so to speak, to try to get it through. Just like any plan that we get in our office, it's not unusual to send, you know, have a consultant, you know, take several uh tries to get it approvable. So, so that's that's one way to approach it. Well, I think we need that information before we make a decision on that. Number one,

for sure. Number two, and I'll address it to you, you probably need to canvas that group and see if we were to do this, would they take over the cost for um new signs andor update? Now, if VOT says, "Oh, no. You're going to have to dig ditches or you're going to have to extend the roadway. That's going to be very problematic. Yes, sir. For sure. But you might want to get a jump on that. And there's a contact person right here, you know, um just to get see what the flavor would be, right? on

and and and I think I think that in in the the end of this exercise what I would like to see is if we had something that the next time because there will be a next time that someone comes in and wants to do this we can say these are the procedures and this is what you have to do and and these are our standards. It it may be even where you can delegate what I'm doing to the next party and say, "Okay, now you you have to produce all this and it's kind of unusual to expend this much staff time on a golf cart lane, but

Well, but it's not us. It's I mean, we're trying to it's I just want to clarify. I mean, VOTE is asking and we're not we're not trying to say that it's just times have changed, right? They're just asking for different information. So, is it the board's pleasure to direct uh it would take a vote to direct Dave to submit uh the proposal? He's got to take a few extra steps to submit it to VOTE. That doesn't commit you to it. It just starts VOTE's official review. Is that is everybody in favor of of gathering more information by that process through VOT? We'll see more of them as they come up.

Okay. you are directed to gather more information and particularly with VDOT and what their standards may or may not be and how that will affect the county residents uh and the county board of supervisors cost uh etc etc. Right. Okay. I I do have two other questions. I'm not sure whether Dave's going to answer that or not. I see this petition where you have a bunch of signatures. all these signatures because I see some uh right drive. Is all of that in the same general area? Yes.

Uh of of the lover's lane, uh Mr. Chairman, John Wright um drive is that extension that goes to the point and that's a private road. So that wouldn't be included in this. Okay. Yes, sir.

Okay. But the residents in favor of that. Um Okay, good. That answers that question. My next question which is probably premature I assume that we'll put something in the paper if it comes down to that and we approve that uh that whole area needs to be well saturated with information that this is coming and here's your restrictions particularly item section one definition and authorization section two I would assume that all needs to be at some point sent to residents so they know

well how about if I help here a little bit um um I think I think what you're you're proposing is very admirable and of course if that's the majority will of the board and with a vote we would do it but what we would do typically when you have an ordinance which is what you would be adopting we advertise it in the paper as required by state code and then a copy of the ordinance is always available a physical copy For those who like paper like myself at the administrator's office and planning and zoning, but for those who are more modern and on the digital age, it's also on our website. Yes.

Um, and we can also provide it via email. So, that is our standard operating procedure for ordinances, but of course, if the board wishes to deviate, we could do that as well. Um, I would caution against deviating against what the code requires in our standard procedure, but we could discuss it. Um,

well, and and I get that. Yes, sir. So, yeah. So, that's how we typically handle it. We do need to back up just a little bit, please, if I may. And I appreciate um Bill Harris. I think he made a he made the first on the motion. We need a formal motion um for the board to direct Mr. Cretz to file the application with VOTE for consideration of making this um particular area highlighted on your screen a golf cart, what do you want to call it, Dave? Golf cart friendly

friendly area. Uh, we'll work on that language staff, but basically you need a motion directing Dave Cretz to actually make the application with VOTE for their review to determine if they will allow this to be a golf cart use area. So move. Thank you. So we have a question. So moved by Mr. Kittin, second second by Mr. Bill Harris. Any further discussion before I call for the question? Yes, I'm just ahead of the ball game here just a little bit. I know you're keeping us on our toes. I'm telling you, I'm writing down my to-dos.

I don't know about that, but you know, my point was it needs to be well educated. Yes, I know the way it'll be on the website, etc., etc., but not always does people look at that. So, we need to make sure and I'm just looking down the road to to slow down any instances that may happen or the sheriff's department saying this is becoming crazy for us to try to administer. That was my own only point towards more information is better than less information. And the more information that everybody has, which was getting ahead of the ball game a little bit with Randy talking to all these people to say, okay, if it if we approve it, how much are you into it for the signage andor the maintenance of those signs?

Absolutely. So, it sounds like um Absolutely. Yes, Mr. Chairman. Uh if I think once we find out um what VOTE's going to require of us, that will be better information we can provide to the citizens and to Ry's district that's asking for this. So, wonderful. There's a motion on the floor uh made to um have Dave Creds and Heather work on this and continue on the process. Um if any further discussion, if not seen, roll call, please. Mr. Jesse. Yes. Mr. Williams. Yes. Mr. Bill Harris. Yes. Mr. Kittin. Yes.

Mr. Don Harris. Yes. Motion's approved. Y'all can run with it. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you. At one point, you you mentioned law enforcement comment. Yeah. And that is a VOTE requirement. That's been obtained and forwarded to VOTE already. Okay. The sheriff has already made a comment. Okay. All right. Cool.

That's been forwarded. Yes, sir. All righty. Uh matters presented by the board and I'll start with our senior member. Well, um I had did have a peninsula planning district meeting. Um we're looking for uh they're going to be advertising for a new director there as you as some of you all know that. Okay. One of them had resign resigned. also attended the renovation Middle Sex High School renovation committee meeting. Uh I did ask a question, you know, uh were they interested in, you know, new and new? They said no. Um I talked to quite a few of them um a few years back, you know, they looked into it, but it, you know, they just say, you know, right now they're looking at, you know, renovating the high school up there. So right now they're not looking at any new areas because uh they had a few years of getting to where they are now and and new did come up at one point in time a few years back but right now uh they're kind of concentrating on uh renovation right now and renovation and adding the other wing and all that up at the high school. So thought I'd let the board members know about that. also attended the middle peninsula. I mean, uh, what's the one over in in in, uh, Whit Stone? I go through so many D meetings,

V River County, River County Community Foundation. Yeah. Well, like I said, we had some more new members there and uh, we they just started about starting up for uh, granting and all that. And let's see, any other meetings I had? I I would have the AR professor foundation meeting uh Thursday. So that's all for my meeting of that month. Randy, eat your heart out. Wayne, I didn't have any meetings. Great. No, nothing else to share.

Okay. Um uh also sat on the same committee with uh Wayne on the school board. So been involved with that. Uh I've been involved with uh Heather, Matt, Anmarie, and Kevin about all kinds of issues with the county, including replacements. So that's kept me very, very You've been having lots of fun. Yeah, lots of fun. So with that, I'll turn it over to Mr. Harris. Bill, I had the opportunity to go down to the airport and look over what's going on down there and uh it's on top shelf. I mean, it is really nice. It's coming along. I mean, something for Middle Sex really to be proud of. No doubt about it,

Mr. Williams.

Well, I went to the middle peninsula along with Wayne and Matt and I ain't trying to do so many things in gloss and nothing in Milex, you know. So sometime we look at things a little different and you know uh sometime you make your mind up to do something and I always say are you man enough? Are you woman enough to change your mind in the middle of the stream? You know, I always like to look at the numbers when I'm doing something. And you know, and some things I really just don't like what's going on. Some things are said this afternoon. I really don't care too much because I think anytime that you look at anything that you don't make your decision that what you're going to do before you actually get it done and let the communities know and being fair to the community that you stay I'm talking about Mils County exactly what you want to do. But then you get a couple of individuals that make their mind up with somebody patting them on the back and they decide to put it up front and we'll never know the truth about anything. But it was idea example in the middle peninsula kind of laugh a little bit when they had four things they uh want to do in gloss. I ain't hear neither one of the projects that was pushed in mil sex. Sometime the help that you come from come from where they at and it's a lot of things that they say are from where they came from. But you get foolish when you think you only can have one idea to do something and you turn down what you really want to do. And like Wayne and uh like Wayne and Don said for instance, you know that he said a few minutes ago, you know, they had a meeting last week and they plan on doing something to the high school. They want to renovate or finish the renovation of the high school. And you know, uh to be straightforward, I don't even think you would have said anything if I had mentioned something maybe about six years ago. And for the last year and a half, they've been talking about doing something and they didn't know what they want to do. I said some things like this. If the blind leave the blind, and the ones you know that I'm talking about, if you know where it come from,

then you end up in a ditch. If the blind leave the blind, you will end up in a ditch. So that I get did get it out of somewhere. And uh I just like to look at the numbers. Some of y'all won't hear. We was looking for instance uh when the leasing program come out you know it was a little bit you know things change and today we get it seems like we get complacent and we just make our mind up based on what we doing nothing we getting lazy you know we don't pay attention you get old like I am now you get your get your bills and when your taxes and stuff go increase and things going in the community you wondering why we got a reassessment on I think that was mentioned this afternoon for instance we got a reassessment and what you hear well if I can't pay my bills today we got a reassessment now something I didn't say in that I can't pay my bills today but we got a reassessment coming so what that mean can you pay them tomorrow or if the bills going to do any increase I always say the increase and uh the more input that we have from everybody to me it makes it a better place to be because you know I ain't planning on going nowhere you know you I'm going stay here in Milis County till I till I fly away one day, you know. So, uh and and you know what I find things interesting and and being on the board six years, you know, I seen some stuff and y'all have heard me say, you know, I'm I'm a pretty straight shooter. Don't get upset if I don't agree with you. And I'll say this, and I mean this, honestly, build trust. I don't want nobody trust me. If I'm honest, honesty build trust. You take that home and you take it with you. I'm going say it again. Honesty build trust. and foolishness make all us look bad. Don't never make your mind and say this is what you know I'm I very say I'm not going to change my mind but then that's that's a different scenario but in my heart if you if you tell something to express you know uh I can change my mind but this board is very very very it's we

we going to get along me and Don we the stingiest ones up here you know I just will tell you but you know I lack look at the process and I feel real good after being on the board six years that you know you can bring something to me And don't think you ever fool me with it because I always say you don't fool me, you fool yourself, you know. And uh it's it's Larry asked me the other day something. He asked me, "Did I like being on the board?" I said, "Lar Larry, my paper man, he asked me that." We were talking over there and I showed him some information in my phone and he said, "Do you like being on the board?" I said, "Larry, I work at a place for 46 years." And I never thought of, but I went to work every day and I try to be good at what I'm doing. I I don't worry about what I love something because I found out that if you love something, it can change overnight. So, I do the very best I can do. And I think I'm pretty good at it. But I did say that. Thank y'all for listening. Thank you all for your comments. Appreciate that. Um, we're going to move right along to um I'm going to open the floor to public comments. We're now in the public comment section.

I have one. You have one, please. Um,

hello. I'm Gail Mitchell from Hardyfield, Virginia. Welcome, Miss Mitchell.

Uh, thank you for the opportunity to address this board. Uh, I'm requesting the board of supervisors submit a resolution uh opposing the redistricting efforts. Uh this efforts led by the Democrats in the general assembly is wrong on several different fronts. It's against the state constitution and 2020 over six 65.7% of Virginiaians voted on a constitutional amendment that established a bipartisan redisting commission so that this type of political power grab would not happen. The Virginia Constitution stipulates that redistricing shall occur once every 10 years. They have chosen to ignore the will of Virginiaians. While Democrats won 51% of the presidential vote in the Virginia uh election of 2024 and currently hold 54% of Virginia congressional district seats. The new map would give Democrats over 91% of Virginia's congressional seats. How is this fair? Our congressional maps are supposed to be representative of all Virginiaians. Rural voters across Virginia will be disenfranchised. Five separate districts would have representatives from Fairfax County and five districts would run through Prince William County. Fairfax, Alexandria, Arlington County, and Prince William County would be in our district should this amendment pass. Do you think Northern Virginia really cares anything about our rural eastern Virginia issues? You were talking about the wetlands board and whatnot. Do you really think Northern Virginia is going to care about our coastal waterways, about our issues that affect our areas? When it's time to choose places to put their data centers that require a lot of water or solar pan panels, where do you think they're going to put them? You think they're going to put them in Northern Virginia or in our eastern Virginia? And do you think we're

going to have any representative from Northern Virginia speaking on our behalf? I can tell you now the majority of those uh urban areas are densely populated and those areas are the ones that will have representation not rural Virginia. The general assembly also broke their own procedure rule in passing this amendment and it's against state law that says you must allow 90 days from passage of amendment to the start of voting. The amendment was passed on January 16th and early voting starts on March 6th. That is not 90 days. The ballot language is another problem. It's bias and discriminatory. It infers that the current district maps are unfair, but that's further from the truth. A bipartisan commission put those district maps together. You cannot put opinions on ballot amendments. The ballot amendments uh strictly says that this uh redistricting amendment is going to make for fair elections. Really? I mean, isn't that opinion? Is that your opinion it's fair? Or is that your opinion it's fair? Whose opinion is it that it's fair? It's not mine because I say it's unfair. Are you willing to sacrifice your vote for so the rest of the country can fight over who wins or who has unfair representation? Virginia voted for a fair system by having a bipartisan commission. We shouldn't have to do this every couple of years. that was be that was per the purpose of putting in the sit in the constitution in the first place was where we wouldn't have to go through this every couple of years. So I asked the board of supervisors to please consider a resolution opposed to this gerrymandering so that we can keep our vote and we can keep our voices voices moving forward. Our communities deserve to have our voices heard and to be represented by leaders who understand our values, our priorities and our way

of life. I think Don, it was you that said that the wetland board advantage is that we have local people making local decisions. We will not have that if this amendment pass. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Mitchell. Is there anyone else that would like to speak?

Thank you. My name is Tom Clark. I live in Urbana and I'd like to just take a minute of a time to talk about Bay Transit and the impact that it has on Middle Sex County. Um, from a professional perspective, I was the safety manager for Bay Transit for seven years, and I was able to on multiple times see the homes, see the people where they went, how they were served day in and day out, that they were taken to college, they were taken to jobs, they were taken to doctor's appointments. These were individuals that uh many of them were uh impaired and needed wheelchair assistance. Many of them needed just something to get them to that spot. And the homes that I visited, I'm sure you all have seen them. Um these are difficult places that these people live. These are tough tough tough spots. And these individuals really benefited from Bay Transit's transportation to get them from A to B and back again. And so I really am am hoping that you will uh consider keeping funding as it has been and not to be reduced. On a personal note, I moved here in 1959. Uh we moved here because my father was paralyzed and my mother needed uh her brother nearby to help raise myself and my three sisters and she was by herself and then and then my like I said my dad was paralyzed. She worked um out at Lord M and for many many years and dad would have to sit at home and that's his only option and that's all he had that he could do. If there had been Bay Transit to help him get out of the house, to get to see different people, or to go and get out

and about, the quality of his life would have been a lot higher. I just I've witnessed it personally. I've witnessed it professionally to see what impact they have on the citizens of this county. So, I'm I'm hoping that you will retain funding and that you'll consider that strongly to do so. Thank you for your time. I appreciate it. Thank you for your comments. Thanks for everybody's comments. Anybody else? Good evening or afternoon. My name is Dawn Moore. I currently live in Burroughs Marina in Urbana. I attend the budget sessions when I can. So, you know what direction I'm going in. As I sit in the budget sessions and I listen to all the presentations, I do agree with some of the ask, but the others I was having a hard time with. I listen to the comments being made on both sides. Even after we leave this room, we lose perspective sometimes. There are things the board of supervisors is required to fund and fund only with the budget decision. I would hope that as a board member elected um and I emphasize on elected because you're supposed to represent us, we the people out here um that you would have a town hall or some kind offormational sension that Mr. like Mr. crit has done because you can't vote for me if you don't know where I am and I've only talked to one person on this board on a consistent um you were elected to represent we the

people in the district but how do you vote for all the people when you don't know the thoughts of the people we can all get we cannot all get to a 3:00 meeting and if you have children you are running a sports and it's too late to get here. I was late because I had to pick my child up from school. There was a statement made that people are calling board of supervisors members about school issues. I would hope that you would be deferring these people to the school board members in that district because last I checked these parents are not coming to the school board. I could be the only parent sitting in there most Mondays. Now, back on the budget, I hear that when a department is asking for money, the reminder that it can cause taxes going up. Just a few reminders on projects that I did not hear that with the EDA getting a million dollars and then getting an additional $35,000 for a law firm. That should have been the responsibility in my opinion of the EDA. $35,000 was not unexpected when you had to go to someone for help to make the deal. Law firms are not free. And please note, this is recreational. It's not a necessity for me. In the Southside Sentinel edition December 11th, 2024, the county spent 7.8 million on the sewer system so far, which included a $1.7 million study, engineering, and design collection system for Deltavville topping Hartfield Saluda. Topping's design was complete, but there was no construction that had begun because HRSD's main pipeline had not been built. The county's total money, including the $4.6 million to build a Cooks Corner pump station to pump the sewer water to Salua Saluda for treatment. Necessity, I would say yes. But this has been put on

hold indefinitely. So, was it a necessity? The sheriff's office? Yes, we needed it. Did we need all the extras? There may not. In November 2024, according to the Southside Sentinel, 177,000 worth of change orders were approved. That was not the end. There was another 41,888 for a total of $218,895 worth of change orders. Where was the accountability in the design to continue with the change orders? The budget approved was 3.3 million and spent 3.5 million. I am an advocate for the school. You would not be sitting here where you are right now if you did not go to school and get a quality education. I feel my child living here in Middle Sex deserves a quality education not to be taught by a computer but by a teacher. We should not be celebrating the lowest paid school system east of Interstate 95. We should be embarrassed. I am not just an advocate because I have a child. I am an advocate for all the children because they are the future and should not have to worry about who or what will be teaching them. The time has come in the slim budget year to take care of the school. The renovation has gone on forever. Just like everything else, prices go up. They have more than tripled. I will be the first to tell you I do not agree with everything the school board does. But I do go to the meetings and voice my opinion and I do talk to my school board members. In closing, I would like to see some of the budget request in numbers. As a as board member Williams always says, I don't want to see the chart. I want to see the numbers. I would like to see numbers.

Um, and just a PSA announcement, the NAACP and the Rotary Club will be having an indepth session on AI. Where is it taken us? Where are we at now? And how will it affect us and our community as growth on March 16th at 5:30 open to the public at St. Clair Walker Middle School. Thank you, Miss Moore. Anyone else like to speak? Yes, sir. Come forward. Present your name, please.

Hey, good afternoon everybody. My name is uh Keith Ellenburgger. I live in Urbana, Virginia. And I just wanted to come up here and uh uh second the the uh request presented by Gail Mitchell to uh pass a resolution re uh opposing the redistricting here in Virginia. I just want to point out, you know, in a diverse and competitive society, the rule of law is essential. You you can't let it be the law of the jungle. and tearing up the constitution of the state of Virginia. If if a specific political party can do that to the constitution of the state, then any ordinance passed by this board or any other board of supervisors in this state is nothing but a worthless scrap of paper if that specific party chooses to ignore it. So, it's uh this uh I I strongly urge you to uh uh consider a resolution opposing this redistricting which is uh clearly obviously a vi, you know, in in in total violation of the the constitution of the state of Virginia. So, thank you very much.

Thanks for your comments, sir. Anyone else? Seeing none, I'm going to close the public comment section of our agenda. And with that, I need a motion uh for us to move into close session, Miss Attorney. Yes, sir. Uh Mr. Walker, do you anticipate taking action afterwards? I do not.

Okay. But unfortunately, we will still be in this room because Matt has an affinity for Google Earth and we have it here. Um, with that, it would be appropriate for the board to make a motion to convene in close session pursuant to Virginia Code sections 2.2-3711 A3 and A8. This is so the board can discuss about acquiring real property for a public purpose and about the disposition of county-owned property and where a discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position of the board and so that you may consult with legal counsel regarding specific legal matters, procedures, processes and questions about the acquisition and disposition of said properties. So move so moved by Mr. Jesse to go move into close session.

Second. Second by Mr. Kittinen. Uh, seeing no opposition. Uh, roll call, please. Mr. Williams. Yes. Mr. Bill Harris. Yes. Mr. Kittinen. Yes. Mr. Jesse. Yes. Mr. Don Harris. Yes. Uh, we're going to take a 7 minute break and then we're going to move into uh close session. Thank you all for coming and we will be using this. There will be no public uh hearing