County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Thank you. We've got a couple of changes to the agenda here. Down on general business, number six will be Robin instead of April will be presenting that. And back up on general business, number three will also be Robin. Oh, we're deleting that. Okay.

Okay.

Deleting. Number three.

Second.

and we're going to add a closed session make a motion to approve second motion second all in favor 4-0 okay minutes of 7-6-26 meeting trust everybody's looked over that if so need a motion to approve accept make a motion we approve the minutes from 7-6-26 second motion second any discussion all in favor 4-0 so at this time we'll open the floor for public comment pertaining to anything on the agenda anybody come right ahead mr larry hey how are y'all good so i just wanted to tell you a

in anton county north carolina which is just east of charlotte and they're having a severe water crisis there between their job and some water quality issues that they've had and i just kind of found in my mind they were asking for any support anybody could get with water and then i was shortly after that i was in a meeting with uh ltrg which is the allegation long-term recovery group So I emailed Daniel and asked him if there's any chance that we could send some water to Hanson County, and he didn't hesitate to say yes, and I guess he talked to the people behind the scenes and arranged, but the bottom line is that Allegheny County sent a tractable load of emergency water to Hanson County, who was very grateful, and it was just, you know, out of the goodness of the heart of Allegheny County people and our management. So I just wanted to thank you on behalf of Hanson County.

thank you we appreciate it okay moving on down presentation of the board i'm going to move right over here to the podium

So it's been an honor. It really has. 33 years. It's been a long time. But I remember whenever I walked into Sheriff Michael's office asking for a job, I never dreamed that I would have one day become the longest serving sheriff's office employee in the history of the county. And that's just, I never thought that would happen. But it's all because the citizens are so wonderful here. We've had wonderful boards to serve alongside. We've had awesome county managers. And I just want to say, God bless you guys. Thank you guys for putting up with me for so long. And it means so much to me. And after the meeting, I'll text all of you guys a picture of your county manager as he visited me for the first time i thought he was a crook so i'm gonna lock him up and uh so after i got his booking picture taken well he introduced me as the county manager so anyway i'll shoot you guys that image but anyway god bless you guys and thank you all thank you

I appreciate you, Mr. Bryan and Mains. 31.8 here at the local government service. Have a good weekend.

Hey, can we get a picture with all the deputies and the sheriff's office staff, too? Sorry, Greg. Sorry, I have to go get on the bus. Get real close.

It's for everybody. Thank you.

okay moving on down next mr forrest pulley and larry van hoose outdoor trails i'm forrest pulley and i'm the board chair for the angus water trails association i'm larry van hoose i'm on the board of asda as well as and i think we have a miles of the mountain to the sea trail and 33 miles of the new river just right within our little county 20 to 25 percent of allegheny county is protected property with this we have two state parks two game lands natural area and a private conservation easements for example with the blue ridge conservancy so sparta and allegheny county truly is already a trail tale however The state of North Carolina has designated certain towns as official North Carolina state trail towns. And the chamber and ASTA went through this process with the state to get Sparta and Allegheny County designated as an official North Carolina trail town. to official trail town. And with that, there's a significant amount of marketing promotion that's done with it. It promotes stewardship and accessibility with all the trails that we have here. And Sparta this week will be announced as one of only 30 towns in the state as an official trail town. So a couple of websites that As a part of the process, while she's getting this, as a part of the process that we went through, we had a lot of paperwork, as you might expect. We had several meetings with them to do this, and we had to develop websites and web pages associated with that. And this is the one that you can see that is set up through the Chamber of Commerce. Over here, if you want to explain what that is.

they have certain requirements a lot of it is in conjunction if you've ever heard of the leave no trace principles that are nationwide and we had to have our own leave no trace principles and adhere to them in conjunction with outdoor nc so this website kind of indicates that um the allegheny spartan trail system has already kind of adhered to the leave no trace principles and certainly we we are working at uh communicating that information more to the public whether it's our residents or visitors alike and this is just one in and we don't want people to come up into the county and basically destroy our, what we feel is our home. So here's a lot of guidelines and tips. There's actually a whole page on tips of just hiking and traveling in North Carolina, or in the Alley and Camp.

You can go to the second one. Website. The next one is, we also developed on the ASTHO webpage you'll see here that again one here you can scroll down through here is describing what an outdoor trail town is again as larry mentioned if i join the movement of sustainability for the outdoors here and so this will be embedded on the aspen website talks about accessibility sustainability Okay, on here you can see that one of the things is that it talks a little bit more about the trails if you're going down. And it talks about our local trails and hiking trails. And one of the things I wanted to show here is if you click on learn more under hiking trails, you can go down and you can select the level of difficulty whether it's an outback or whether it loop accessibility available or not and the location and then once they do that then they can scroll it will give them a list of the trails within Allegheny County and the near area around Allegheny County So this is the official state trail down guide and you'll notice here that it has all of the, when you go down through there, it finds your trail down. Okay, you can see these are the towns. Again, I mentioned there are 30 towns now. And you can see down on the bottom right, it's Sparta area. So if you'll click on that, it tells you different things about Sparta, going to trails, destination tips that Larry mentioned, that type of thing. And some of the trails to explore. And they asked us to pick seven, and so we picked a combination of hiking trails around some of the ones here, to promote on here and we can change these on a regular basis if you like and again that explorer more trails will take you to the website you just saw on here this is supposed to be announced this week we think right um and so we'll have more to follow as it comes but the selection has already been made obviously it's already been done any questions on this

on the trails that have bicycles what about these e-bikes are they going to be allowed or that's a it depends um on some of the trails like on the state trails they do allow those and on other trails they're not so in each trail can be specifically designated whether it's an e-bike or not

i don't have a question but i got a comment and i think it's great that allegheny or as part of the allegheny county is one out of the 30 out of all the cities and towns across this state we appreciate what you guys have done right there that's a that's quite a quite an accomplishment yeah i thought i would like to tell you the chamber pays for this okay thanks to the generosity of the allegheny team

Anybody else have any questions?

I just want to briefly say that what we've been working on is more of a comprehensive plan. What we hope to do in the coming months, years maybe, is we really want to get And for most trail town, we want to get a trail designated from the mountain to the sea trail, which parallels the Blue Ridge Parkway into Sparta, which can attract more people coming in, can provide access here. And a lot of studies done, it also promotes business. Actual businesses, they come along with being designated like this and having that kind of accessibility to the town. And all of this kind of ties together. You'll remember the walkway we did, the Greenway that we're currently working on with the Greenway Grant, and again, along with the other things. So there is a longer-range plan to tie all of this together too. And I wanted to take the opportunity while I was here, if you don't mind, just a couple more minutes. I want to talk about Sandbrown Mountain Park for just a second, if you could.

One more.

I don't know if you've had occasion to go out there recently, but there's, in addition to what we had when it was first opened last year, we are in the process of doing additional signage. It's gonna look something like this, where I'll have a larger sign, similar to the ones that goes into Cross Park, on that, that will lead you into the area of the library, community college, et cetera, and then down into the park itself at the end of the thing there. As of this morning, he was putting the finishing touches on those signs, so we hope to have them in the next week or so in doing that. We've also planted endangered trees within the park, the American chestnut trees, the English walnut trees, to try to reintroduce those back into the county on doing that. And we've got additional trails that have been added on further into the park there. And on the right, you'll see just some of the groups that we've worked with and utilized only asked the board to research the history of sam brown the person and also the history of now in the process of we're just about out of money on the San Fran fund so we're in the process of trying to raise some additional funds that could fund that because it's going to cost about three or four thousand dollars and we're still trying to do that right now but there's a lot of activity that's going on out there and we're really proud of the park quite frankly thank you I got a question is to stay in the rankings out of every year thing or is this how long you stay in this top 30 in North Carolina

it's every year it's every year ranking okay I wonder how that work yeah that park great up there it's nice Sam Brown y'all doing a great job anybody got any questions comments we appreciate you guys thanks for all you're doing thank you moving on down general business Miss Rita Miller tax administrator

Good afternoon. Let's have a few things for you today. The first thing I wanted to let the board and the public know that the state, the DMV, has increased notary signature fees for anything coming into the license plate agency. So that's increasing for one signature from $7 to $9, and then three or more signature, the maximum is $11. So that's one thing that we got noticed from DMV on. Second thing is we have a tax foreclosure sale coming up on July the 30th, 11 o'clock at the Allegheny County Courthouse. There's two properties that are going to be sold for the county by a law firm. Parcel number 3040204782 is in the Prather's Creek Township, also known as 1051 Delft Road. The opening bid on that is $6,800. And parcel 3989-62-3029 is in the Whitehead Township, also known as 125 Folger Road. The opening bid on that is $10,600. And the third presentation to the board I'd like to introduce to you. We're going to give you an update on our 2026 proposal. So this is Sam Whiteheart with Vincent Valuations, who is doing our 2027 reappraisal. I think Lisa has his slideshow for you. So I'll let Sam take over. Thank you.

Very nice to meet all of you. As Rita said, my name is Samuel. I'm an appraiser with Vincent Valuations. And today we're just going to talk a little bit about the reappraisal process for those who aren't too familiar with it. And I'll be happy to take some questions. so re-appraisals must be conducted at least once every eight years in north carolina for a statute this county of course is on six year cycle so our last re-appraisal was as of january 1st 2021. the effective date of the next re-appraisal will be january 1st 2027 and on that date all tax values will be updated to fall in line with current market conditions So reappraisal, the general point of a reappraisal is to distribute the overall property tax burden effectively and equitably across the county and across property types. So property values do not generally change before or within, excuse me, between two reappraisal dates. The only reason that they would would be for physical changes such as new construction or splits and mergers of parcels. So currently in Allegheny County, there's a bit over 14,000 parcels of real property, and that's what we are appraising. So appraisal is, excuse me, the objectives of the reappraisal is to

appraise all the real property at 100% of its market value.

This can be confusing. Sometimes out of state taxpayers will call them to the office and they'll ask what percent we tax our properties at. In other states it might be 75%, it could be 50%, but North Carolina statute does dictate I'm not going to read that whole blurb, but the true value in money is basically what we can determine to be the most probable price of a property to sell between a willing and able buyer and seller. So over time, most properties do change in value. This occurs at different rates depending on the property type or the location. It's very important, and we try value the only thing we do is examine the current conditions in the market and look at what people are actually buying and selling to determine the value so the actual market value is created by the actions of the buyers and sellers within this county so excuse me county-wide reappraisal studies are where we use market rates as of the particular date. So here, these are our reappraisal process, just steps, sort of. We'll go into a bit more detail here in a second, but basically it just starts with data collection, where we visit each property individually, and then it goes all the way through to the appeals process, where the taxpayers can voice their concerns and even challenge our values that we So this is the Allegheny County specific timeline. My coworker and I started in the county last summer in 2025. You may have seen us at some of your properties around the county. We were coming out just checking the fiscal improvements as well as the vacant land on every single property, just comparing to what data we had in the office. We are currently sitting in sort of between summer 26 and June and to January 26, which is the value modeling and value review. So the modeling process is when we actually look at the sales across the county. We kind of go into what we call neighborhoods. It might be a better term as market areas. So sections of the county such as subdivisions or locations that have been We then take the sales within the market area and build tables to accurately reflect those properties that may not have sold as well as the ones that did sell. So after we model a neighborhood or market area, we then go into the value review. This is when we, once again, look at every single property, but this time with updated tables to reflect a more accurate appraised value for current market conditions. So this kind of involves looking at topographical maps, data error or something that we can't clean from a computer screen. So after this process, once we've developed our tables, reviewed every parcel in the county again, and presented the schedule of values to you all, we will move on to mail value notices. So January 1st comes around, values are then set. And late January to early February, we will mail out notices to every property owner in the county, value and which will then roll us into the appeals process where the taxpayers do have the right to challenge or dispute our property values so where do our values come from as I said before the come up with we use the sales to determine the current market rates for areas and typical sale prices across the county there are some variations to properties that we can't always discover from an external view such as the bonus rooms or cathedral ceilings whether some space is finished or unfinished this is really when we do have to start relying on the appeals process it's a system where taxpayers can't actually review everything that we've looked at and let us know if we have made any mistakes. So the challenge then is to build these tables and models, like I said, to develop sound values for not just properties that have sold, because that's pretty easy, but those that may not have sold in the last 40, 50 years. So we're responsible for appraising almost 15,000 individual properties at once. This is, in essence, what mass appraisal is. Most taxing jurisdictions across the country and across the state kind of deal with the same issues, that there isn't a practical way to use what most people might be familiar with as fee appraisals, use their every nook and cranny and they have as much detail as they can possibly gather. So to get around this problem, we have industry standard methods and practices that we employ, such as sales ratio studies and other statistical tools that we can use to take our groups of sales and apply or use them to come up with It's very important for us to have a healthy range of sales in not just the county as a whole, but each market area, because you can imagine that if you only have one sale in a particular neighborhood, that neighborhood eventually won't be as accurate as the rest of the county, which holds the rest of the sale. And so how do we know it's right? Like I mentioned before, we do use our statistical tools of that property will be valued exactly what it sold as. And as I was mentioning earlier, to have an accurate sales ratio study, you do need multiple sales and accurate data for those sales. So in broad terms, values have changed since the last rate appraisal. Most areas of the county have may have had a decrease or stayed the same. Some areas and some improvement types may have increased more than others. Some may have decreased, and others will remain the same.

So finally, the next steps are to finalize our values and present our values. Then in January, we'll be running final checks because

and all data changes or sales that occur on or before January 1st. So January, we are running final checks. Then in February, new value notices will be mailed. And then that will roll into spring and summer being the appeal season where you all will convene the Board of Equalization Review and figure out the taxpayers. And do we have any questions?

um if you have a house in a homeowners association does that any way affect the value of that property whether we currently do not look at homeowners associations specifically i would assume that you're kind of asking if it's in a subdivision that board well some homeowners associations have very strict rules you know on roads on maintenance on colors of houses which would in my opinion affect the value of the house if a homeowners association is very strict i don't know if that would reduce the value yeah um so that

that's not really a question I can answer at this moment um you know it's possible that we could look into the sales across the county to determine what kind of effect that would have but it's like you say that it's possible it could lower the value it could raise the value they could have a group of people next to come in and they hate homeowners associations so those houses end up selling or it could be that people are looking for you know well-kept neighborhoods in which case those values may rise because there'll be more competition for those particular homes but in general terms i i couldn't really say okay another question is you know years ago we went through the earthquake is that that earthquake the area that we consider a heavy earthquake area

Did that have an impact on the value of those homes?

I would say it all goes back to what the buyers and sellers are doing right now with the HOA or the earthquake area. If sales in those areas are down, then their new values will reflect that. But it's all going to depend on what the market is doing. They're specifically saying this is an earthquake zone. We do not do that. We have not. well i know that some of the houses were had to be destroyed so there was no i guess no value to that house once it was deemed unlivable right and those have came off the tax record and if they rebuilt then that's been picked up during the new construction process now any of those have been rebuilt and sold i'm not aware but that could be picked up in his neighborhood

research of what what that's doing in that market area okay one last question if a home is within a certain area of a or a certain distance of a fire department that value of the home i would assume would be more than a house that's what we call in a gray area is is that accurate be that is not something that we currently track or account for when we are building our models so the the main thing you go by is what house sold for uh i mean that is the biggest thing you judge it yes so what it's sold for is how we

Um, if I was trying to figure out whether blue or red houses sold for more, I would want to have a healthy list of both blue and red houses. And I would, uh, I would do my best to find the most similar blue and red houses that are most similar together. And then I would look at what is the difference between their selling points. Um, so for example, with like the fire departments, It may be possible to come up with some sort of value that being close to a fire department is contributing, but when you look at it at the whole of, okay, well, we need to consider that, yeah, it's close to a fire department, but also it has this many bedrooms, bathrooms, it has this amount of square footage, this much acreage. What it's sold for is how we determine each of those little points

Thank you.

Do we have any idea how much of the percentage is going to go up? 70%?

I'm not really at liberty to say that at this point. I mean, if the bottom falls out of the market on January 1st and somehow 10,000 houses in the county sell, then I have to take that into account.

So if nothing changes, how's the percentage going to be?

If nothing changes and the sales show that,

the same but again that's you know there's so much time until the date of reappraisal that i really can't comment to any specific percentages so if reappraisal was today would the percentage be going up i really can't comment to that at this point i got a question about the junk junk does that how much does that take away from a decent property or a house

or if you've got a junkyard there correct me if i'm wrong but it's a state regulated um junkyards i believe they're state regulated right there's a specific strategy i might have to look into that a little bit but um determine or depending on how you all classify junkyards It could be a significant deterrent. I mean, if it is an automotive junkyard where you have toxic metals and just stuff leaching into the ground that could eventually make the property not patentable, or you couldn't build a house on it for the next 150 years, that would be a very significant impact to their land value.

And in mass appraisal, you don't really get into those specific things. but that is where the appeal process is very important because those homeowners would come and bring their evidence that I'm located next to a junkyard or this so in mass appraisal you're looking at all the properties but during that appeal process is when those homeowners need to come in and let us know what they feel is affecting their property values good good information there any other questions comments

we appreciate you good good programmer thank you thanks next up Mr. David Spicer chief operations officer thank you mr. chairman board so as everybody knows we we did have a 250th celebration here on the 2nd of July which went over very good and was very well received and if you've noticed around the county our buildings still represent the 250th year anniversary so we've got those banners up and different things the courthouse was lit up so things look very nice i thought for the celebration for 250 years for United States of America so that was very nice at the courthouse we have a new roof on the flat part there we had of course that money from legislation and we put a new roof on there for now we have a roof with a 10-year warranty labor and materials so the DSS we do have a plan for the move we've been working on that very diligently we've been meeting and talking and doing some things and making some plans and getting things in order so that looks like it's on track to be just exactly like we said it would be at ems i think the fourth day of august we will be full staff so we've worked hard on that to get people here that are qualified and certified to work ems to help take care of our citizens in their time of need and The commissioners have been very instrumental as well as our county manager and executive team to provide different working conditions and different shifts. And now we're going to be full staff. So we're proud of that fact. at the fire grounds of course the fiddler's convention went off with a bang i reckon so it was all good we had put a new 400 amp service out there blue ridge electric helped us with that the school system gary finney and his students helped us get that in place and then the other boxes my staff took care of that we've they've worked very hard to get all that taken care of and there was a few minimal things that happened out there at fairgrounds but they were quickly remedied so that went off pretty good we have some new lots at Davis field April as you may recall had about two weeks to get a grant in she applied for that grant she got that grant for us We use that money to put new lots up at Davis field. So that was a big project and Blue Ridge Electric helped us with some of that as well as the staff here, the maintenance staff, they worked on that. And then Robin Hamilton, was very instrumental in helping me get all that settled out and finished up and if we met the deadline or before the deadline we had it all in so thank you Robin for helping with that and for being able to get that grant for us so that worked out very well Veterans Memorial Park during the heavy rain it washed a little place out down there at the walking bridge so that's been corrected it's been fixed so those guys went down there Friday and made sure that was like it's supposed to be so it could be back open back up for the weekend so that was all taken care of At the transfer facility, repairs to the tipping floor that's existing is still ongoing. It's really becoming more frequent now that we're having to repair that floor. So we're still working to get those things done so that it is not a hindrance to the county to be able to dispose of their waste. And so we're trying to keep that going as best we can until we can get a new one built. So we're still in the process of getting the RFP out, which should be coming in within the next little bit. So the commingle loads was three at 10.23 tons. We have four loads of cardboard at 18.81 tons. We have five loads of scrap metal at 22.77 tons that yielded the county $4,138.90. So then on the animal control, we had three well checks, nine dogs and or cats picked up. We had three that was running at large. We've had two attacks, but zero bites. We also had trapped one, I believe it was a cat. I had 70 hours, 17 calls and 364 miles traveled.

so i'll answer any questions that you might have for that on our last meeting we talked about when people make a complaint if x number of complaints are made and you investigate you know if 10 complaints are made do you investigate 10 10 complaints yep are you keeping track of that

i think they are right now we answer every call there's not one call that goes unanswered all of them we may not have to actually respond to all of them some of them are handled over the phone but we respond to every single complaint every single call that comes in okay so it's a hundred percent hundred percent if ten people call there's gonna be ten answers to those complaints yes okay

David, can you touch base on the amount of pounds that's going on when trailers are coming out from the landfill with that new excavator over there?

80,000. 80,000, and that's without having to use the wheel loader to mash it or compact it any. That new excavator, they're able to pack that stuff in there, and they're getting 80,000 pounds on just about every trailer.

That's good. That 80,000 pound, that is truck and

yeah yeah yeah yeah so that's 80 I think 84 86 is pretty much max I don't think you want well you know 90 90 thousand they don't want to go over 90 but About $84,000, $86,000 is max. So about $80,000 is pretty close to being just about right on money.

So you're getting about $46,000 a pound of waste on the truck.

Yep. That's working pretty good for them guys over there. And that's maxing the loads out too.

Yeah, they're really enjoying that new excavator.

Yeah. Okay. Let me ask one more thing. We don't own the trucks, do we? No, sir. Okay. All right. We ain't got to worry about you.

I just wonder if it's overloaded who paid the fine but we well if we overload one we weigh it before it leaves we take it back out there and dip out of it what the overage so we don't we don't send any down the road that's over okay any more questions if not we'll move on down consent agenda miss Rita Miller certified tax administrator she got hit back up tonight

afternoon again. So I'm going to give out the consent agenda information in front of you. I'd like to let you know that on August the 4th, Candice will be stepping into the role of Assistant Tax Administrator. So you'll be seeing her more often as well.

Good deal.

Any questions on the consent agenda? I'll be glad to answer them.

If no questions, take a motion.

Make a motion to approve. Second.

Motion to second. Any discussion? All in favor? 5-0.

thank you all moving on down general business miss rita miller again so each year at this time i'm required by general statute to make tax collection settlement for the 2025 taxes which includes a report of all unpaid taxes you will find in your packet along with the general statute after reviewing all of the unpaid taxes then before I can collect 2026 taxes, I must have you sign and review the order to collect. The order to collect is the board, given the tax collector, the authority to put those taxes out, collect them by whatever means are legally necessary. So the 2027 tax, 2026 tax bill, sorry, will be going in the mail on Monday.

bill if i can just get your signature on that we need a motion on that don't we i'll make a motion to approve second any further discussion all in favor 5-0 thank you very much thank you mr chairman yes sir i just wanted to congratulate candace she's done an outstanding job and will continue to

to do that in this new capacity and uh congratulations to you yeah that's that's for sure we appreciate you okay next is mary rector gis administrator seeing none and we're not here okay we'll move on down it was presented last time oh okay i'm sorry okay yeah it was presented last time there was no opposition the name change or anything so entertain a motion to accept second got a motion second any discussion all in favor 5-0 Melissa rector director of allegheny in motion Okay. This is what you presented last time, correct? Yeah. Okay. We've got a motion to approve. Second. Second. Any discussion?

All in favor?

Five-0.

okay moving on then mr bill shepley uh yes mr chairman so um you had at the last board meeting a chance to to see the uh the details of the out-of-state trip that would be occurring let me see with amy lucas a request for the 4-h trip and so ask it

for the board to vote on whether we give them permission to do the out-of-state trip I make a motion to approve the out-of-state trip second any further discussion all in favor 5-0 thank you very much thank you 4-H is a good deal for the county okay moving on down I'll take this the Glade Creek Firemen's Relief Fund they've had to take one off and add one And all we need to do is approve that so they can send it on down to Raleigh. Entertain a motion.

The one we're putting on is Mr. Shepherd back here.

Do what?

Tony.

Yeah, yeah, Tony's the one that's going on. Tommy came off, right? Yeah. Okay. This is just a formality so they can get it on to Raleigh. It's to have our authorization. So entertain a motion. So moved.

second motion second any further discussion all in favor 5-0 okay speaking up for april ham and robert hamilton i pilot a budget amendment for ems they have a grant that they're getting to use as a resume

okay heard the request there ask for a motion move got a motion hear a second second any further discussion all in favor 5-0 thank you robin okay moving on down david spicer again chief financial officer chief go ahead

board as you know we put out an RFP for the auditorium to have the heat and air system replaced or fixed and so we're going we've got a bid from Stanley Heating and Air that's in your packet pages number 85 and 86 that shows in detail the things that they are planning on doing everything except for gas pumping and gas tanks. So this is all the duct work and everything on the inside of the auditorium and the outside of the auditorium, electrical included. There'll be a unit on both sides, both 15 ton units, two 15 ton units. So this is the only bid that we were able to get. We put it back out for bid. so i did contact some other contractors one said they didn't they didn't have time and the other one i asked that to did he said he he would try but then he decided he didn't want to so and those were local contractors yeah yeah where it's been put out twice that's all we're obligated to do right here yeah so

make a motion to accept second i i got a question have we done budgeted this money in for this year i'm pretty sure the money yeah so it's done budgeted in how much is that 375 000. so we done got that what about the gas and stuff going to be fixed is it budgeted in we have a budget today so

we budget part of it not the rest of it yeah we're gonna sit there for another year before we get the gas in well our main objective was to have AC in there for now and then the heating system still kind of works so we have we have some ideas about how we're going to accomplish that but we haven't got there yet but this this will be so that they will be able to have air conditioning in that auditorium to be able to have those um events that they was planning for this summer um one's planned for august but i don't know that we'll get it done that fast but they might be able to get one off of you so we ain't got no idea what the gas is going to cost no not yet what amount did we budget for i'm sorry

What amount did we budget for? If we budgeted for it in this most recent budget, what's the amount we set aside to complete the project?

We have the $400,000. But the rest of the money that would be needed is going to have to be found through grant money. Yeah. And we're actively pursuing that, but it's going to have to come through grant money.

So we are going to partner with TDA and the school system. They're going to have skin in the game, too.

Why don't we wait and see what grant money we can get before we jump the gun here and then come up with no money for the gas?

Can you see a difference in what this cost and what the $400,000 is there? What was the actual cost?

$375,000.

$225,000. You said you had four, right? Between those three entities.

Yeah, we're just talking about running gas line and you won't have to buy the tanks. You probably rent the tanks. Yeah.

Well, there'll be a thousand gallon tanks, I would assume. I don't think so. So, you know, a thousand gallons, a whole 800 gallons of gas can run about 80%. I don't know exactly what the rate is. It's $2 or $3 a gallon, you know.

Well, we have a contract, you know, with Blue Ridge Energy on the gas, so it won't go above that amount. Right.

That was pretty good, at least I remember. Yes. I've done that contract.

Don't they set the tanks and run the lines as part of the deal?

I think it costs us to run the lines. Okay.

But don't set the tanks.

I think they will.

Okay.

more question what kind of heat do we have in there now it's a boiler it's a boiler system so how much longer you think it's going to last a week to 10 days it's about done yeah i mean it the boiler system still works right now and it's mostly the piping and the radiators that's that's the wore out part um but it's it's still okay for just a short period of time but we need to go ahead and get rid of that as fast as we can so so comes up in january here and the heating ain't working have to get more money yeah but yeah but it won't be it'll be a minimal amount we minimum hundred thousand I'd say that or less that's a great building out there go ahead Commissioner Walker good questions and there's no plan to

start taking physical action until the money is secured. Want to make sure you, you understand that part. So we have a good amount of money for it, but we don't have all the money that's needed for it. So we don't say we're seeking that out through the grant process. So we are not going to jump ahead and then say, Oh, excuse me, ran out of money. And where are we going to get the money from? We want to make sure we get that money before we take that physical action. I want to make sure.

gotten got to 400,000 yet.

We have 400,000 because we have 130 from the TDA, 130 from the school and 130 from us. So there's between those three, it's like 390,000. Yes. But it's probably going to cost more than that because you've got to do some work to the seats. And you know, there's some of the seats that are, that are finished and some that are not. And we're seeking out a substantial amount of money to be able to do, do it right. And we're not going to take any, any action until we get, we find the sources that we need. So we don't get into something where we have to come back to you all and say, now we've got to take a hundred thousand of unbudgeted money. We don't have a hundred thousand unbudgeted money. So we don't want to be in that situation. We agree with what you're saying.

So we are not going to fix the AC. Do we see how much more money we need to get?

the money in here so we can, we know the project is going to be complete.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And we wanted to get our ducks in a row in preparation because we think there's a good chance we're going to get the money. We have two or three sources that we've already applied for. We think amongst those three, that at least one of them is going to go. We don't know for sure, but at least one will come through. So we thought the best thing to do would be to get everything lined up, ready to go. Once we get that money, we can make that happen. Yeah.

What if that falls through? What are we doing?

If it falls through completely that we don't get additional money for this fiscal year, there wouldn't be any action we could take unless you all wanted to take money from the fund balance, which I wouldn't, I wouldn't recommend. No. So we'd have to continue to fight for it and try to find a way to get it. So, yeah.

So now, I mean, we've, we've had this thing out for like two, three months now and, and I've been asked about it several times. So we have this, this quote. So to accept this quote is not accepting that we're going to start the job tomorrow.

more question how long was that quote good for they told me the last time it was still yet good till after august so it will at least give us a ballpark figure figure you know on it yeah bobby you mentioned the seats i know that there was a gift given of 25 000 that's still sitting with the school budget yes so i mean that's another 25,000 to go towards the seats yeah and this building is the largest indoor facility that the county has and it's set there not being used for several years we need to move ahead with this and get this thing rolling so the children can use it the community can use it I agree it just sitting there doing nothing right now

and so our grant writer rahel knows this is one of our top priorities and again we're in the i mean we've we've already applied for a couple of grants so we're waiting to see we agree with you okay well it ain't that the seats are not usable isn't it it's just the cushions off somewhat man

yeah they replaced the the part of them with the cushion seats and there there is quite a bit of money left for that project to to continue you know if we can get grant money we're going to get grant money we'll find funds somewhere right now it's just been conversations but we're trying to make it come to fruition a large part of what we're what we need to do

that 300, what are three, three, three 90 plus 25. So four 15 is already there. We do have the largest part of it is already there. We just want to make sure, you know, with any kind of building project, there's going to be cost overrun. So, you know, we don't want to get stuck in that kind of situation, especially in a year where we've tightened the belt quite a bit. You know, we want to secure an additional funding.

people yeah little bit right around there it's 938 it's come down a little bit over the years the way they moved the stage and everything but it's like I say the largest indoor facility the county has it's a nice facility it just needs some heat and cooling in it and maybe some work done on the seat and that ain't a great deal of improvement I mean you know you're right

It'd be something well worth fixing up and getting it in use. So we need a motion on that.

Yeah, we got a motion and a second.

We got a motion and a second. Okay. Any further questions?

If not, all in favor?

I vote. Thank you all. All right. Moving down to county manager comments.

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

I just wanted to kind of kick off this new fiscal year, take a couple minutes to talk with you. As we gather tonight for our first board meeting of the new fiscal year, I want to take a moment to reflect on what we've accomplished and more importantly, where we're headed. Our budget process this year was one of the most complex, thorough, and comprehensive that we've undertaken. It involved thoughtful conversations, careful planning, and a shared commitment to make responsible decisions that will benefit our county for generations to come. On July 1st, we officially began a new fiscal year, and with it comes a renewed sense of purpose and opportunity. If you had to describe the next year in one word from a county government standpoint, it would probably be building. We're building new things, new opportunities in this county. We're building the infrastructure that will carry Allegheny County into the future. We're building opportunities for our children. We're building partnerships, and we're building a stronger community for everyone who calls this county home. One of the most important projects is the continued redesign and reconstruction of our transfer station. For more than 30 years, that facility has served our county well. Now it is time to invest in a modern facility that meets today's needs while preparing us for the next 30 years. This project represents more than replacing a building. It represents a commitment to planning ahead and serving future generations responsibly. We are also making an investment in our youth. Construction will move forward on two new ball fields at the Veterans Park designed for our youngest athletes. At the same time, we are actively pursuing funding to partner with our school system on two to four additional ball fields for our older children. These facilities will provide more opportunities for our youth to grow through athletics while also positioning Allegheny County to attract league play in tournaments that benefit our entire community. Looking ahead, we are excited to begin planning another transformational project in partnership with our school system. Together we are exploring the redesign of the elementary schools 900 plus seat auditorium into a community venue for concerts, theatrical performances, educational events, and other entertainment opportunities. Imagine a place where families can gather, students can showcase their talents, and our community can celebrate together without leaving Allegheny County. That's the vision we're working toward. These projects are about much more than bricks and mortar. They are investments in the quality of life of our citizens. They reflect our belief that Allegheny County deserves modern infrastructure, outstanding recreational opportunities, and vibrant community spaces that bring people together. None of these accomplishments happen because of one person or one board. They happen because of partnerships between our commissioners, our county staff, our school system, community organizations, and most importantly, the citizens that we are privileged to serve. The road ahead will require hard work, patience, and continued collaboration. But I believe the future of Allegheny County is bright. We have a clear vision, dedicated leadership, and a community that has never been afraid to work together to accomplish great things. Tonight we begin a new fiscal year. I invite everyone to share in this vision. Stay engaged, stay involved, support these efforts. Together, we can turn today's plans into tomorrow's accomplishments. Exciting things are on the horizon, and I truly believe the best days for Allegheny County are still ahead of us. Thank you, and I look forward to working with all of you to accomplish this over the next year. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Moving on down to county commissioner comments. I guess, Greg, we'll crank up on your side.

Just everybody get ready for the 21-yard sale this weekend. Rodeo going on.

hope we get a lot of rain maybe it won't rain a yard so that but we need to rain that's about all i got all right thank you group yeah i wanted to mention too um again to thank the allegheny trail association what they have done and actually made the sam brown mountain and actually connect us with the state trails thing i think it's all great stuff I know a lot of people volunteered and put a lot of time in that and wanted to say we appreciate that. And a couple of things that I'm really tickled about that our EMS is fully staffed, which is something that's always been a up and down thing. So that's really good news. And wish April a speedy recovery. That's what she's trying to get through and look for her to be back and also congratulations i think to candace i hope rita's not thrown into the woods wolves but anyway i think it's great that we have assets in the county that we got younger folks that's coming and falling into that i know we a lot of us are getting older and we're gonna go off in the sunsets someday uh see yeah and i just want to remind everybody we're halfway through summer and we talking about the allegheny um the fire grounds and the different events we have first thing you know we're going to be through the fall and everything so everybody enjoy everything any opportunity you have um and and watch out for the events i mean i know we have some website and um

keep a lookout for that because there's a lot of things going on until we get through the summer so um that's about all i have thanks thank you mr garrison i don't know what just uh thank you again to uh sheriff manes and his uh continued service over the past three decades uh that kind of commitment means a lot and thank you to all his staff that showed up to support him thank you mr chairman thank you bobby

uh i just want to comment on how much the veterans park is being used in these last few weeks i've been down there several times and uh looking at the new brick area and uh we're we're set for the next 20 30 years i believe with uh being able to sell bricks to finish out that side and uh it's amazing how many people are down there walking going over the bridge using the track facility and i think more people now are using across the bridge those fields that we've got those signs removed from so i think that was a big a big step uh the fiddler's convention like we said was a great uh event now the rodeo is coming that place will be packed i'm I'm pretty sure for that one thing and I'm not sure if this is for Heather or I don't know who it's for but the farmers have the option to have a farm tag put on their vehicles and the farm tag carries with it several things that you don't have to have your seat belt on for and i just wanted to read some of the things from dmv what farm tags can be used for agriculture transport hauling your own farm products livestock supplies or equipment and to and from the farm farm errands running essential errands for the farm business, such as picking up parts, fuel, seed, feed, and going to the vet. You don't have to have your seatbelt on. Basic maintenance, you don't have to have your seatbelt on. So I think at some point, it would be helpful if there'd be some clarification to the, local police department about what constitutes legal use of the farm tags. I had the privilege of being stopped by a very polite, nice policeman. I just don't think he understands, you know, what all the farm tags are used for. But I just think all the farmers that we have, they need to be

reassured that they won't get a ticket for doing their farm business that's all right thank you i don't have much to add everything's been covered i'd just like to thank brian maynes for his dedication to allegheny county that's a lot of years put in here and mr forrest pulley for the trails and larry van house they've done a great job sam brown mountain looks really good up there it really does and i also am glad that ems is about to be fully staffed and that's a comforting thing to know and we just appreciate all employees do and we've got a great group in allegheny county that works here and and they're just doing a great job and i guess that's all like 21 road market of course it uh it'll be crowded this weekend so drive with caution i gotta tell a quick funny about what you're talking about right quick huh

I said, Bobby, get your seatbelt on.

Get your seatbelt on. I'm going to tell you a joke. Anyway, my nephew had my pickup. He's 18 years old, and he's going down 18 north. And, of course, I had farm tags on. So a trooper pulls him over and says, what are you doing, buddy? And he said, well, I'm going to check and go and see my girlfriend, talk to her. And, of course, that boy says, what are you stopping me for? And he said, you ain't got your seatbelt on. Well, he said, well, I'm going to see my girlfriend. The old trooper said, yep. He said, you ain't farming, are you? you sure you can say all this yeah dang right i guess i don't know they don't say nothing there about going to the county commissioner that's right that's right anyway we got a request for a closed session uh 143-31h dot eight or dot two what is that one dot one one excuse me dot c eight c do i hear a motion to approve except got a motion hear a second second All right. Yeah, let's have a five-minute break right here.

I'm going to run upstairs and see if I can get my tag.