Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

What would you like to share? Nothing. We're good. Thank you for coming tonight. Welcome to this December board of supervisors meeting. I call this meeting to order. I call to order the meeting for the King George Board of Directors for the Service Authority.

Stand up real quick so we can the invocation led by Mr. Collins followed by the pledge of allegiance. Dear Lord, as we gather together this evening as a community and as supervisors and all those that put in the work to make this county great, we ask for your blessings, your continued blessings, and we ask for your safety during this holiday season. In your name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Pledge allegiance to the flag of America and to the republic which stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Do we have any amendments to the agenda? None. All right. So this time open the floor to public comment. Comments will be limited to three minutes per person. Before everyone a chance to speak, please state your full name in the district in which you vote so be properly recorded in the public record. First up, I have Judy. You go ahead. You're on the list.

Hi, Tutti Monure, James Madison district. I speak today because I believe our planning commission needs more representative voices that truly reflect the people who live, work, and care about the future of our county. Decisions about growth, land use, and the character of our community affect all of us who actually live here, families, renters, small business owners, longtime residents, and newcomers alike. A planning process that includes only a narrow slice of the community cannot fully capture what our district needs or aspires to be. We deserve an advisory voice to our board where all citizens have a seat at the table, not just those with large holdings or specific interests. I have been deeply involved in this process for quite some time, showing up at meetings, participating, studying the issues, and engaging with my neighbors. Through that involvement, I've learned how critical it is for our community to have someone who not only understands the issues, but listens to the people most affected by them. Bringing that perspective into all discussions and decisions is vital. The commission needs a voice from the James Madison district. Someone who is engaged, willing to learn, and dedicated to representing the broader community. I care deeply about the future of this place and want that future to be shaped by the people who call it home. It would be an honor to serve. I would be prepared to gain proper certification to strengthen my understanding of best practices and promise to serve the county with a high degree of knowledge and professionalism. Thank you. Thank you, Pastor Davis.

Thank you. Um, my name is Pastor Davis, Dr. Davis. Um, voting in Dalton district. First, I would like to thank Mr. Collins for his service. He's got one more meeting and he will be behind us, but I want to thank him for his service. And also uh we have a lady comes our I meet us very regularly by the name of Ken Dodge and she's in critical uh condition at Mary Washington Hospital in intensive care. So she would pray for for Kim. They only really give give her a couple of days. She had a massive uh stroke. And then one of our deputies, uh brother Steven Kellum, his grandfather passed away this morning. So pray for uh Stephen. And uh we'll read you a verse of scripture and uh uh get out of your way. Scripture says in Psalm 1, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, or standeth in the way of sinners, or siteth in his seed of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. And his law doth he meditate day and night. He should be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in due season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Verse four says, the ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. Our Father, we thank you for this word. We pray for Lord uh Kim that's in serious condition uh tonight. And we ask God that you would uh work there in her family's life. And Lord, we pray for

brother Steve uh Kellum and his uh his family, Lord, as they loved one has passed away. And uh Lord, we'll praise you for all that you do. We love you in Jesus wonderful name. We ask these things. Amen. And amen. And thank you. Thank you, Miss Anamarie.

Hi, my name is Anna Maria Lo. I live in presidential lakes. Tonight I want to thank you for your service with a special thanks to Mr. Dan Hamilton. The service authority is a very challenging job because he has been in chaos for a long time. I also want to give a special thanks to King George fire and rescue. On the morning November 2nd of this year, I was awaken at 1:00 in the morning when my husband fainted while in the bathroom. He have bad reaction to a new medication he have been prescribed. I was unable they get him up. So I called 911. They were there within 5 to 10 minutes. They help him to his bed and then he they check his blood pressure and blood sugar levels. All were good. They asked we want them to take him to the hospital. We decide that it was not necessary at that time. So I want to give you a special thanks to the paramedics Christristen Olden Alton Jean Hill and Grant Williams for going out of the way to help us. It meant so much to us. Your kindness was true gift and we are so grateful. Also I want to ask about the solar panels. It's kind of sad that all of you agreed to this project even after the planning commission bought a 421 in September to deny this project. Who will benefit from these solar panels? The people who own the land. Dominino Virginia Power Company that will operate the solar panels, the contractors who will build this project. But the people in Georgia not so much. Where will these solar panels be manufactured? I asked them before in the US or in China also is wrong that you approve a project that will enrich the county lawyer. This

seems like a conflict of interest. Thank you.

Thank you, James Shaw. James Shaw James Shaw James Monroe District columnist for the Northern X Sentinel citizen journalist KG Media. TOP speaking tonight simply as a county citizen who owns a gun. The other theme here is that of historian, which I uh I wore that hat about 18 months ago. The first board of supervisors meeting in December marks an anniversary of sorts. A few of you were here that night about six years ago on December 3rd, 2019. For those of you who use Excel spreadsheets 2,191 days ago, the board in those days wanted more citizen involvement. It was perhaps rumored that some of the seats had cobwebs in the back due to lack of use. No slight uh intended towards the Rivercomb janitorial theme team. With uh the November 5th, 2019 election, a change occurred in the electoral balance in Richmond and thus sleepy issues all of a sudden became front page news and the subject of proposed or recently passed legislation. Gun rights in Virginia were openly threatened. So, citizens and counties across the Commonwealth started writing and passing sanctuary county ordinances soon thereafter. Appamatics County was first passing theirs on November 18th, 2019. King George was part of a 40count group

that followed soon thereafter. The freelance star two days later on Thursday ran a front page story on the event. Kathy, your face shows up on A5. And on the uh cover, we have a picture here and the caption reads, "The Reverend James Shaw asked King George supervisors to protect people like him, a good guy with a gun. We now hear the 2026 anti-second amendment legislation rumblings coming out of Richmond. So let us as citizens prepare, inform our legislators and thank God for our unalienable rights declared in the Bill of Rights. God bless the King George Renaissance where unalienable rights are treasured here. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else I'd like to speak? Miles Hastings, James Madison District. Um, tonight I noticed that you're taking on the task of uh looking at replacing the top of the athletic field again. And I got to thinking about that. Something that happened in 2010 was that the uh referee commission or whoever they were had decided that they couldn't use the pit that year because it was in too bad a shape and the new high school field hadn't been completed. So Stan Mitchell had approached me about

what could we do to take care of the the pit and get it back in condition. And I know this is an entirely different situation, but thought it was humorous, but my part in the thing, I brought a no till drill up to the school and ran over the field four times. There were also some young high school boys involved in helping and learning how to calibrate a a grain drill and stuff with the FFA program, different things. But I was told I had to submit a bill. Well, that was my alma mater. I wanted to do it for free, but that's the way things kind of work. And I'm sure you all have seen that before in the county. And so here was my bill, $182.50. And if you remember that year, 2010, they said the field never looked better. But think outside the box as the recreation department approaches you about replacing the sod and all these things that have to be done. There are people around here that can help out. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else? Is there anyone online? No, Mr. Chairman. Any correspondence? All right. So, we'll close public comment at this time and we'll move on to reports of members of the board. Mr. Stra, you don't want to go first again. I understand. Okay, bender.

All right. First, let me go let me swing back page. I wanted to thank county staff for bringing their favorite foods and all the help that everybody did for the second annual turkey fry celebration that we had just before Thanksgiving. I I know Mr. Smallick loves that event. And uh I I did enjoy Madison. Um it was Madison who had the blowup turkey outfit. That was fun to watch and she was so proud of that outfit. that I think she wore it the rest of the day as as a drape over top. But it it was just fun, exciting event. So, I wanted to thank everybody involved. We I also attended the graduation ceremony for the recruit academy 6 at the middle school. I wanted to thank uh Chief Moody and all his staff for the academy and how nice the presentation actually. I do not know the names of those that were on that call, but I wanted to highlight that my neighbor went out to assist and he had spoken that one of the victims in the car was not alive when she was pulled out of the car and our county staff resuscitated her and when by the time she got to the high hospital, she was alive. So, I want to commend our fire and rescue staff, the excellence they are to save that young lady's life. So, I just want to give another shout out to our fire and rescue. Um, had our GWC board meeting. Mr. Solins and Mr. Mets did come as a new representative. And then the last thing I wanted to mention, and Mr. Stewart probably remembers this is coming his way. At election day, I had some folks ask me a bunch of questions while I was out there um at the voting at the polls. And one of the questions was about the referendum. And the question was from the citizens, because the referendum passed, don't we have to build an elementary school? So, Mr. Stewart,

um, no. The the the answer is you ran the referendum to allow you to finance it in the most costeffective means. It does not legally obligate you to do it because of the referendum. Right. Thank you. I was just waiting for you to come back to be able to say that. And then the last thing was about the uh the dog the noise ordinance that with options.

Um Mr. Smallik was going to give me an opportunity under his I've got some things for you all um for discussion or for you to review. I've also got some information from the Comwalth Attorney's Office. So if you will allow us to do it during his time, I can give you some handouts and let you chew on it a bit. I appreciate that. I just had it down in my board report so I remembered. So, thank you. That's the end of my public comment. Lee, almost forgot about you, buddy. Sorry. No,

it's all good. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I don't [clears throat] have much for the group tonight. I do just want to thank those who came out and spoke. Uh, it's great to continue seeing folks come out. It's great to hear some of the comments uh from the crowd uh this evening. Uh, I would echo a number of them and uh special thanks to our fire and EMS. uh they they are uh fabulous people as we see them around uh around the community and we are very privileged and very blessed uh to have such uh uh great members of our uh fire rescue, EMS and our county sheriff's department. Thank you. That's all I got, Mr. Collins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As my time comes to an end, I'd like to just thank everyone again and um I will see you out there and about. Um earlier in the public comments, uh Tuty said um she'd be willing to um serve on the planning commission. So, Mr. Stout, if you nominate her, I'll second it. Uh that's actually first on my list whenever it comes to me. Okay.

So, you got a second coming. Um so on that solar project on Calon Road so our job as the board of supervisor was a special exception. It was not anything to do with the easement. Um so the the planning commission went down a rabbit hole that had no business going down. Had nothing to do they were that's why they voted 4 to one because it got so jumbled that they didn't even know the information they were voting on. So anyhow, and the 2A resolution now that's still in effect because once the resolution is, it doesn't um stop unless somebody stops it. And I don't think anybody up here would. Um Mr. Hastings, thanks for doing that field. There's plenty more fields and King Georgia could use some work. [laughter] So, it's nice to know and um we appreciate your all you've done for the county. Thank you so much. That's the end of my comments. Thank you, Mr. Collins. Mr. Straoud.

Thank you, sir. I'd like to nominate Mr. Tutti Mon to the planning commission. Second. Motion properly second. Any further discussion by roll call? Mr. Collins. Hi, Mr. Straoud. Hi, Miss Bender. Hi, Mr. Sins. Hi. Chair BS. Motion passes.

Congratulations. You've been very dedicated. He devotes a lot of time and people don't uh realize, you know, there's thousands of citizens in the county that uh on these Tuesdays twice a month they're home uh either spending time with their families or watching TV or doing whatever and and probably don't have a clue what goes on much less all the the hours and time is spent uh getting ready for these meetings. And you know that uh Supervisor Collins is diligent uh reading everything twice and uh and counting all the numbers as well. Um he he's gone through a few calculators, but he has definitely dedicated a lot of time to this county. Um that's time that he'll never get back. I mean, you know, as life gets shorter, he'll never get that time back. So, he's very deserving of our thanks. um he's been very gracious with that and I'm very grateful, sir, to you uh and everything that you've done for the county and and me personally as well. So, thank you. Um, Miss Anamarie, uh, you brought up the the solar panels and, uh, whether they're made in the US, and I don't think we know yet whether the ones they're using are made in the US, cuz there are at least two that I'm aware of that are made in the US. Um and uh the uh I guess comment regarding the county attorney, the conflict of interest. Uh I really uh don't see any conflict with that. So I know there are a lot of people that looks at those things. Okay. And you know, we we set up here and we're under a lot of scrutiny with things like that. And I hear people that you know, throw things out there. Some

of them do it on social media and they're like, well, you know, there's money going in their pocket or this is going on and so forth. And it's rather, you know, irritating. Um, you know, because it it's not that they really know anything, but it's easy for them to say something that, you know, one it's that's not truth, but there's no, you know, I guess I don't know whether they put effort into actually finding out or not. It's difficult to go to every one of them and say, you know, and I guess prove your innocence, but there's no there's no need because here in the US, luckily and thankfully, um, unless we're talking about the IRS, then you're innocent until proven guilty. But the thing is is I know I know the people up here, and nobody up here would uh take any money for anything. I mean, it just um I, you know, it just doesn't happen. But in the county attorney's part um and as far as there been a conflict because there's been comments made about conflict with my business and things like that. So I will say that you know there are things the county attorney um he's not going to do anything that is illegal or um wrong. And um honestly, I'd be embarrassed to make an accusation towards that man because I've known him for some time and and I know that he's very upright and and so forth. But the other thing is is that he knows and everybody knows that in in this situation is that there's going to be a lot of scrutiny there. So why would he ever do anything knowing that that scrutiny is going to be there? That would be wrong. Okay. It's just it's just not. Okay. But um the other thing though that probably would concern me is this

people such as the county attorney or myself if we looked at the scrutiny and and really these these people that are that say things cuz people do and most of them uh aren't you know I don't know about their intelligence cuz they may be able to get a degree from an institution that they um paid to get it. Um, but whenever it comes to their intelligence and the comments they make, you know, I don't think they're that intelligent because but if if we took that to heart and we said, you know what, I'm concerned about scrutiny or I'm concerned about this or I don't know what people are going to say, so I'm not going to run for public office or I'm not going to do this. If the county attorney said, you know what, I'm just done with this and decided not to take this job, we as a county would lose a lot. we would lose a whole lot um because one we lose his experience, his knowledge and you know what we pay is much less than than what we paid before and we didn't have that knowledge or that experience and and the county lost a lot whenever you look at the Amazon deal where [clears throat] the the county attorney was representing us. So, you know, in making acquisitions, I think that people should be careful because, you know, some of the and and the things that could come of that, the repercussions would just be negative for us. And um you know, I know that the county attorney wouldn't do anything and and or would have a conflict either, especially a conflict of interest because I've had that conversation with him a number of times over the years. Um, so I can assure you that there isn't any there. Um, [clears throat] I'm sure he'd be happy to address it as well, though. Uh, Reverend Shaw, as far as uh I know TC mentioned it. Um, you know, it it's uh

thank you for bringing the topic up on the sanctuary second amendment sanctuary county because we have gotten a number of emails um or calls or there's conversation about it and I can assure you and I've responded in an email that uh I support the second amendment uh in the sanctuary county very strongly. Um, and you know, again, I don't know of anybody who wouldn't support it, but in this county, it wouldn't be wellreceived to to be against it. Um, I actually that night here had signature sheets and that everybody I say everybody as many people as possible to sign up on a notepad and um I don't know if I have that any longer but it was a very very good turnout and there were a lot of pages of you know names of people that turned out that night. So we had a very good showing and I was very proud of of the county and the people that showed up to support that. Um, and I'm sure that if it ever became an issue that at least that many would show up again. So, uh, thank you for bringing it up though. Mr. Hastings, uh, you know, you know, you fall into the great American category because that's what America is, the people that that come together and help their community and work together to do such things. And it's hard to find. Um, I shouldn't say it's hard to find. You just don't hear about you hear so much more negativity nowadays and you do positive things. So there are still you know people out there who willing to do great things and thank you sir for for being willing to do that. Um, I don't know how it would fit into this particular issue that gets discussed tonight, but uh I just don't know that much about turfs and and stuff, but uh it's very I'm very grateful for uh you coming up and talking about it before and mentioning it.

That's all I've got, sir. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Thank you, sir. So, I just want to echo um what my colleagues have said with with the thanks for the folks that made public comment. Uh um I won't go back and rehash all those things. Um just to keep things kind of short, uh relatively quick week in terms of engagement. Uh like Miss Bender said, uh did the Fredericksburg Area Metropolitan Planning Organization and the George Washington Regional Commission. So, those meetings were actually combined this week. So, that was kind of nice. Um, probably the most fun thing I've had in the last couple weeks was attending the graduation of the the Recruit Academy 6 and watching King George's newest firemen take their oaths of office. That was interesting because I've always just assumed, you know, with firemen it's a job. Um, I didn't realize that they take oaths of office very similar to the one that I took when I joined the military and some of my colleagues up here. It really shouldn't surprise me though. You know, when we're all running away from danger, you know, those are the guys and gals that are running toward it, you know, and they're looking through trying to find people that didn't find a way out. They're trying to preserve as much property and life as they can, you know, so I guess it makes sense that they would take an oath of office, you know, because it it it means a lot. That ceremony was really cool, too. It was very military in the n in nature. Um, and I want to thank Deputy Chief Henson for serving as the keynote speaker. Um, a lot of good words to say, but among the inspirational thoughts, he touched on three things that are very near and dear to me. The Old Testament, the New Testament, and Alabama football. So, that was cool. Um, so I guess in uh wrapping it up, I want to thank and c congratulate King George's newest firemen, Caleb Bardin, Logan Constant, Jonathan McCain, Callen Thompson, Dale Webster, and Deshawn White. Fellas, this is only the beginning, though. I'm looking forward to reading and hearing about all the cool things that happen to you as your career plays out. So, giddy up.

That it. That's it. That's what giddy up means. [laughter] He said the Navy runs away. I got it. I got it. I got it. I was trying not as soon as I said something, I knew you were going to say something. So, there's a reason I didn't say anything about you having an oath of office.

All right. Once again, thank you everyone for being here. It's been a great year. Um, I got a chance to go to the recruit six and had a chance to speak beforehand and just lead the invocation there and pray for safety. They asked me to pray for safety over top of the people there and the firefighters and I was like, where does that start? You know, it's it really starts with the families because it it's and I painted the picture of it being almost like being a pastor's son. And I grew up a pastor's son. So, my dad was getting called at 2 a.m. and he was here and he was always ministering somewhere and he was with someone's family. And people understand that when you're a a police officer or when you're a firefighter that or when you're in the military that your family is paying the price too to for you to do what you do. You're gone for days at a time. You are home for days at a time, but you're gone. You're missing little league games. You're missing recital. you're missed in all kinds of things just to to save lives and to protect our lives and and it it's a really is a family investment. So when you see a fire man or you see a fire lady, you're seeing someone who there's probably people at home that are also paying the price for them to be there to serve you. So it and I just wanted to make sure that that's a safety I pray over those people too, just their marriages and all that. One of the coolest things about it was was I coach middle school football here in King George. A lot of people knew years ago and um one of my players, Logan Constant was on my team and he was there getting sworn in. And it's good to see good local guys. If you want to keep people in your force and you don't want them to go looking for money somewhere else, you hire hometown guys, people that love their county and want to be there. They're not there for the money. They're there because they love to be there. And uh I told Logan I was like I said I knew you'd be a fireman, you were going to be a police officer or you're going to be in the army or something way back when you when you were in eighth grade. And he was like he goes and those were the three I was looking at coach and it was just good to see him and and see those guys doing that. Uh the elementary school got brought up. The elementary school got brought up. I

haven't had any constituent write me an email or reach out to me and nor I don't think any of the board members have as far as when that's going to take place. But the school themselves, you know, and and I just want to thank you, Mr. board. This is probably and probably one of the best relationships the two boards have had in a in a very good when I came on that people wanted to do a retreat in 20124 so the boards could try to get along and our boards seem to mesh pretty and have we have one vision of where we want to go and the school themselves have changed the vision as far as maybe right now is not the time for elementary school but they see a bigger need something that that we can really fill a need for our county and um enrollment was down a little bit more than what was predicted and things were going to be and uh we're not at max capacity and and I think it was two over in the high school and so we we're looking at the votech building and how that would probably take almost at about 100 people maybe possibly out of the building at a time. So it and it's something that we need here. The kids need to learn a trade. You know, not everyone's wants to go to college. It's not everyone's dream to go to college. And in this day and age, you know, people need, you know, people need to learn how to how to do some things on their own. And it's going to be good that they do. Um the solar farm, the solar farm, this one was different than the rest of them, Miss Amry, because it does benefit the citizens of King George County. There's no substations on it. the electricity from that from that those panels are being pumped directly into King for King George residents to use it. There's no substation to pump it somewhere else like the other um solar farm products that have come here. They're going to they're going to have substations. So, that stuff is going to get sent to Pennsylvania somewhere else. This right here, there's fiber lines leading directly to almost basically the the pole and it's going directly into our grid. So, it does it does benefit us benefit us in that way. Thank you um for your volunteering for the turf. That's kind of a big deal. I tell people all the time when um when things are getting done around here, I said, you know, when I grew up in King

George, almost everything we did was built by volunteers. The Dowren fire station was built by people who had construction businesses. They got together and they built the building. You know, that's just what it was. you know, when they planted the Christmas tree out here, the new one, and uh I was like, "What did y'all do?" And they paid a bunch of money and stuff to do it. I was like, "You know, you probably could have reached out to, you know, there we had several different people out here. Somebody off their farm probably would have donated a tree. There's just that that's how if you go back to King George history and really follow history, that's how almost everything was built and done was the community got together and they said, "We need to build something." And they built it together and it really kept cost down. But the the the 2A sanctuary, we addressed that in January 2024. I think the uh the second meeting that we had in office, we it was brought to us. I think your son-in-law came up and was standing at the podium, brought it up and and I echoed and said that yes, this we would protect gun rights. I think that if you're going to speak to that, probably the one of the most, if not the most important position in this county is that in a couple years from now, you're going to be elected a new sheriff is that you make sure that the sheriff that you vote in is going to be one who protects the Second Amendment. That's going to be the most important part in keeping that. The board up here can say what they want to say, but if you have a sheriff who doesn't want to go by that, it's not really going to much matter. So you just make sure that when it comes up I right now we have a sheriff that does protect the second amendment and he stands on the constitution. So I mean if looking forward in the future that's the place you need to be looking at. Okay. Thank you again for being here. At this time I will close what?

Yes sir. Um on the uh planning commission spot for Miss Tuty Monure. I would like to clarify that real quick. Okay. Yeah. So, I'd like to nominate her to uh fill the unexpired term of uh Mr. Kevin Myers, which expires on 32128. Second. Motion properly second. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. I. Chair votes I. Motion passes. Thank you. All right. So, we will close reports of the board. We'll move on to the consent agenda. Mr. Chair, Mr. Collins, would we pull out 12-01.03?

12-01.03. You want to vote on that one separately? Yes, sir. I can do that. Do I have a motion? So, I'll make a motion to approve the whole consent agenda except 1201.03. Second. Motion properly second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, Mr. Straoud. I miss Bender. I Mr. Collins. Hi, Mr. Sullins. Hi, Chair BS. Motion passes. Mr. Collins, I'm going to bring it back up now to you. 12-01-03.

Is there you have some questions around that one? I do, sir. And why do we want it removed? I have a I have a question, sir. Okay. Um I would I have a question regarding the Assure Maintenance Contract for $63,000. if we could uh you ask uh Miss Leurn if she could tell us what that was for. [clears throat]

Good evening board. That is the annual maintenance contract for cyber security through it. So Mr. Dyn will know more about it. What did happen was they increased the price by $200. So, it's like 12 um memberships and they cost like $5,200 each, but Mr. D can definitely fill you guys in a little bit more on that. Come on up. Thank you, Mr. D.

Good evening, Mr. Chairman, board. Yes, they went up $200 a month. So that cost was pretty much set for the last seven years. It had been 60,000 for seven years. So they just went up this year. So for the budgets coming up, I've just put in a escalator each year just in case they decide to go up again. And what they do is with the regulations that we have and you know about them, Mr. Strad and Mr. How the NIST, the

Yes. All of the agencies federal and state that regulate the cyber security and have guidelines that we must follow and it's usually directly in the beginning was directly tied to the elections. So there's a a less assessment that we have to do every year and they put rules and guidelines in that each locality must follow. For instance, like when Mr. Straoud brought up the one password at the year after that for all the key members of our teams in the whole county that need to have their password in a separate location so that if someone gets fired, someone leaves, something happens that the person who's going to fill in for them is able to keep right up with all of the different things that they might be logging into for grants and all kinds of online activities that they need to do their job. So that's one of the things that's they have to have our penetration test uh inside and outside external internal. Um it's a was a bevy of things. So each year we do this less assessment and we sit down with the registar and she has her plan, we have our cyber security plan. So we all had to mesh. So these people are on top of all those things that go on like in the state senate.

So they know what needs to be done. And so we go to them and they help us make sure that we're compliant. And so we go through it. First started out with thousands of lines of things, but they've kind of narrowed it down to about five or six hundred now. So, we have to make sure every year that we're moving towards making sure that we've upgraded and we're on the schedule that they set that we need to follow. And so, this company assures based out of Virginia and

everybody take their seat so we can start over. All right, guys. We're going to bring the board of directors meeting back in the long awaited Dan Hamilton general managers report.

All right. Good evening, folks. My name is Dan Hamilton. I'm the general manager of the King George County Service Authority. Uh, thank you all for coming out, Miss Chilly, and damp weather. Uh, thank you, Miss Levelvel, for your kind remarks. Um, starting to worry, I'll let you down. I don't plan on it. In any case, I'm going to try to give you a very brief report this evening. Uh I want to follow up on a conversation we had two weeks ago. Um as most of you know, I'm sure all of you know, we've had a short two weeks because had a 4-day holiday, so not a lot has changed. Um but we were just in the process of installing the new solids press at the dog wastewater plant. Am I coming out through the mic? Yes. Okay. Um we had just gotten that press installed. We were still in the process of making the interconnections. At the beginning of last week, the factory representative came in uh I think on the Sunday night for Thanksgiving. He was here until Tuesday afternoon. Um got the press operational. We had it inspected by a consulting engineer on Wednesday and submitted a certificate to operate to the Department of Environmental Quality and this afternoon we were received permission to go ahead and run it, which is good because we can't afford to not have a solid suppressive wastewater plant. So, um, we owe John Eisenb and the maintenance staff a lot of credit. I believe my understanding is there was a $200,000 price tag that would have come with having a contractor to the installation and the interconnection. I was concerned about the management of the rigging contractor and um taken on that responsibility and risk, but it's done. It's in and it's working. So, that's very good news. Um, also in the last two weeks, we've had three water leaks. Um, one of those was just a simple leaky service line. One of those was a failed um, pipe and saddle connection to an individual home. And one of those was an instance where a contractor installing fiber optic cable in Oakland Park um, wiped out about 50 feet of water mane on the night before Thanksgiving and the crew stayed out

late and got that back together. We only had about seven customers out of service as I understand it. Um, also, um, last week or the end of the week before, excuse me, folks, um, we got some phone calls about, um, trucks connected to fire hydrants over at the entrance to the Hopyard plant, uh, the Hopyard area on Port Royal or I'm sorry, Port Conway Road, I believe it is. Um, as it turned out, that was a contractor who was doing work for us who was a authorized to connect to the fire hydrant. But um the sheriff's department had notified us about things like this and citizens have called us about this. I just want to encourage people to do that. We greatly appreciate that. There are people who potentially could connect to a fire hydrant who don't have permission and don't have um a meter and so we don't know what how much water they're taking. They're essentially stealing water. They may not realize they are. Um but we need to keep an eye on that. It's something we're working on. if they're not properly connected with the proper kind of equipment, they could potentially cause a backflow into the system and make people sick. We don't want that. So, I just people may think they're being a nuisance, but I welcome those calls. Um, if you see vehicles connected to a fire hydrant other than a fire truck, which of course we welcome the fire department to use, please feel free to reach out and let us know. We will send somebody to check it if we're not, you know, not aware that that's already happening. Um, we also did did send out the u by monthly bills. Excuse me. I wasn't horse until it was my time to talk. Um, the week before Thanksgiving, we've been getting a number of phone calls about the autopay option. People are excited to have that option again. There's a little bit of confusion about how to set it up, but we're not getting anywhere near the volume of complaints and concerns that we had about that. Um, otherwise, I think that's the end of my report. I did also want to thank Mr. Collins for my very short period of time here. He has kept me on my toes. Um I

appreciate his service and I have not forgotten your request to prepare a legislative agenda. I'll probably seek counsel from Mr. Smolnik and Mr. Stewart on how to best do that as we move in the new year and I will keep you informed. Um otherwise I don't think I will be here in two weeks. I intend to leave a written brief report to the chair or possibly um the county engineer Bryce Young or both. Um otherwise I wish you all a happy holiday and we welcome any questions.

Does anybody have any questions? All right. Thank you, Mr. Hamilton. We will move on to the secondary public comment to address meeting items only. Comments will be limited to three minutes per person in order to afford everyone an opportunity to speak. Please provide your full name and district when submitting your public comment so that it can be properly recorded and included in the public record. Does anybody want to come up and speak just on the service authority and Marie the podium is yours?

I want to thank you Mr. Dan Hamilton for the service authority because the service authority is very challenged job. I just received my bill. And you have a lot of choice in the bill. You can pay at the courthouse, you can mail, or you can get in through the internet and pay your bill. And thank you for doing that. I've been doing that, paying the bill for 50 years at the courthouse, but that's okay. I really thank you, Mr. D. You're doing a good job. and also I've been working with the service authority for 50 years. Thank you.

I'm grateful for your comments and I do I'm well aware that people want the option to pay in person and pay via mail. That's not going away. Should probably mention that. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anybody else who would like to speak? Is there anybody online, Mr. Dyn? No one. Thank you. All right. Well, with that, we will close uh public comment and we will look for a motion for adjournment. Madam Chair, I move that we adjourn the board of directors to Tuesday, December 16th, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. in the boardroom of the Rivercom building located at 10459 Courthouse Drive, King George, Virginia. Do I have a second? Second.

A motion properly second. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Chair votes I. Motion carried. We close the meeting of the board of directors. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Next up, public hearing 12-11. The King George County Board of Supervisors now hold a public hearing that has been properly advertised to receive public input regarding chapter 14 taxation and a an amendment to the personal property ordinance. Second, an amendment to the transit occupancy tax ordinance. I'll first ask the staff report from Miss Regina Pucket. I will open the Florida P to the public for public comment. Public comment that time will be limited to three minutes per person. Please state your full name and where you vote be held in the public record. Upon completion of public comment, I'll bring the matter back to the board for consideration. Miss Regina Pucket.

Good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. My name is Regina Pucket, commissioner of the revenue. This public hearing is for the personal property ordinance uh to be updated to include wording that allows for our locality to have an alternate method of filing personal property. We've been doing this since 2017. Um we just need the ordinance to update it. um transient and occupancy update on the ordinance should include wording that mandates the annual filing of an a testation document um if it's applicable.

Mr. Chairman, we we may want to take those up separately since they're independent ordinances. I know with the personal property ordinance, there are two ways you can do it in Virginia. um that allows the county to do it. And one is you have to send that form in every year. Some time ago, the commissioner revenues office um decided to not do that anymore and to pursue an alternative method, which just the the alternative method just says if anything changes um you need to let us know. But Regina gets all that information anyway through DMV. Um she gets the report through that so she knows if anything changes. But I think what she's asking the board to do and the for the public to comment on is to allow you that alternative method where you don't have to send that form in which is what the county's been doing for right many years now. They just never change the they never changed the ordinance. So this is a cleanup on Regina's part.

That's a person personal property ordinance. Yes, Mr. Chairman. First one's a personal property ordinance. Any questions from Miss Pucket? Mr. Chair, I just on this just one comment, Miss Pucket. I do appreciate you bringing up trying to clean up a lot of stuff and you've been bringing up one at a time and I appreciate that. Thank you. You have any questions? All right. Thank you. Thank you.

There's anyone from the public that would like to speak? All right, I will close public comment as well. I'll bring it back to the board for consideration.

Any discussion? This is just pertaining to the the first one in amendment to the personal property ordinance. Correct. Yes, Mr. [clears throat] Chairman. that just that which makes it so you don't have to send that form in every year which they haven't been asking for anyway. But the public comment is for both. So we can address them both but separately. We need to do them one at a time. When you're doing an ordinance, you ought to have the public hearing on one ordinance at a time. So this is the personal property one. Um getting getting rid of the form and then he could do a second one for the uh transient occupancy tax. I'd like to make a motion, Mr. Chairman.

As soon as I close the public hearing. I thought you did. Didn't I? I did. I closed public comment. Okay. Go ahead. I'd like to um make a a motion to approve the personal property ordinance section 14-13. Second. Motion probably second. Any further discussion? A roll call. Mr. Straoud. Hi. Miss Bender. Hi. Mr. Collins. Hi. Mr. Sullins. Hi. Chair both eye. Motion passes. We need a motion for the number two.

And so, Mr. Chairman, the the second ordinance that Miss Pucket has brought before you um has to do with the transient occupancy tax. And and all this does is this clarifies that an intermediary because some of these houses um that rent on whatever the site is and I won't name one for to be cuz I'm not supposed to. Um sometimes they have intermediaries that collect this tax and then remit it to the treasurer. So, what this would allow for is a form that we drafted and the amended ordinance which allows for that. And again, this is really a cleanup um that Regina has brought before the board. I' I've reviewed all these. They're in good order and I can try or she can try to answer any questions you may have about it.

There any questions about that one either? I see none. We need to open another hearing though, public hearing just for this. Yeah. King George County Board of Supervisor hold a public hearing that's been properly advertised receive public input regarding an amendment to the transit occupancy tax ordinance. I'll first ask the staff report, open the floor for public comments, and then bring it back to the board for consideration. Mr. Gina, you don't need to talk anymore. All right. Anyone in the public that would like to speak? Seeing none, I'll close public comment.

Bring back the discussion to the board. None. I'll make a motion that the transient occupancy ordinance should be updated to include the wording that mandates the annual filing of attestation. Did I get that right? Document. If applicable. tangible. You could just make a motion to approve the ordinance as president. There you go. Fancy. All right. A motion. Do I need to restate the motion? No, just a second. Second. Second. Motion properly. Second. Any further discussion? Seeing none. Mr. Stra. Hi. Miss Bender. Hi. Miss Collins. Mr. Sins.

Hi. Chair votes eye. Motion passes. Thank you. Next up, we have presentation Tri County City Soil and Water Conservation, Madison Morgan. How are you, Madison? Doing good. Doing good. How are you doing? Doing well, thank you.

Awesome. Um, good evening, chairman, members of the board. Hope you guys all had a great Thanksgiving. Um, so I'm Madison Morgan with Tri County City Soil and Water Conservation District here talking to you guys about our FY25 annual report. Um, so this report runs July 1, 2024 through June 30th, 2025. And if you're not familiar with the district and members of the public that might not be, um, so we are a kind of sort of NGO, local nonprofit political subdivision of a state government. Um, lots of fancy words. Um, we cover King George, Stafford, Spsylvania, and the city of Freredicksburg to help citizens on um, non-point source pollution, um, water quality, and through that we we administer this through uh, technical assistance through agricultural practices. So, I'll go ahead and get into this here. Oh, next slide, please. Thank you. Um, so about the district, um, our mission is to provide leadership, education, financial assistance, and technical programs to both rural and urban communities to improve soil and water conservation. Um, our vision, um, we work with our communities and partners to promote awareness and inspire the conservation of natural resources through integrated approaches to improve soil and water health. Next slide, please. Um, board of directors. Um, so this finished out last fiscal year. I'm sorry. Happy to report. Um, I know I came and spoke to you guys back in the summertime about a vacancy for our board. Um, so for King George County, we have Janet Gil Harris and filling the open role is Arin Elias. Um, and we're happy to have him on board. Um, staffwise, super happy to report for the first time since around COVID, um, we're fully staffed. Um, so our big handy team of six, um, Renee Davis is our district manager. Um, Christine McClean is our administrative professional. Our conservation team is Jenny Greenlaw, Jerry Ralph, and Teresa Bradford. Uh, Jerry Ralph has recently been promoted to assistant district

manager. So, he's a great resource to have in the office. Um, and then I ran I round out with education and outreach. Next slide, please. Um, budget. So operating revenues, of course, our biggest revenue coming in is going to be the DCR vax funds. So um the Virginia Agricultural Cost share program funds, um that's over 1.4 million um coming in from revenues with total operations revenues over 2.2 million. Next slide. Oh, thank you. Um operating expenses, um similar to our revenues, our biggest expense is the vax funds. So what we're bringing in, we're doing our best to get out. um followed by payroll regular operations. Thank you. Um so the Virginia agricultural cost share program, our biggest program across the district is going to be the cover crop program. Um so about $1.1 million just in the cover crop program. Um we totaled over $1.2 million last year. Um so when I go into schools, if not everybody's familiar with cover crop program or what cover crops are, when I go into schools, I like to say if we wiggle around our fingers, that's top soil. when come in with our roots, put roots in the top soil, it's a little bit harder to move around. Um so that that's going to be our biggest one across the district. Next slide, please. In King George County, um payout for the vax program was $463,244.64. Um across the district there were over 13,000 acres of cover crops being planted which is a hu it's a over 3,000 acre increase from last fiscal year. Um and then of course cost share the 1.2 million. Um that's going to be an increase as well from FY24. FY24 had 953,000. So we're looking to continue um despite development and the loss of farmland. We're continuing being able to get money out the door which is great. the Virginia Conservation Assistance

Program or VCAP. This is our urban cost share program. Um we didn't have any completed practices in King George this past year. Um but I do know that we have some that are in the process of being approved currently. Um so VCAP, our biggest payout was with permeable pavers. Um then we had a living shoreline and rainwater harvesting system as well. Um we completed a few spot checks for King George County involving a rainwater system over in um Presidential Lakes. Um, and that fun fact about the VCAP program, it's actually gained in so much popularity, we're currently on a wait list. Um, and that happened back in August. So within 2 months of this fiscal year, FY26, um, the state's actually on a pause from VCAP funding. So it's a program that's definitely being taken advantage of. So VCAP by locality, again, um, no completed practices for King George County and FY25. um Stafford and the city of Freredicksburg had the permeable pavement living shoreline and rainwater harvesting system. So education and outreach um for King George County with 12 programs uh with over almost 600 participants. Um this was a huge increase from the previous year. Um and in just a minute I'll get into some of those kind of what those numbers consisted of. So, more so in education. Um, we awarded a $550 scholarship to a high school student to attend youth conservation camp. Um, we actually approved for three students to go. Only one was eligible. Um, so again, we're continuing on with that and hoping to increase stewardship and conservation interest within the youth in our area. Um, in total, 57 educators um were hosted in professional development sessions. Three of those were King George educators. um 885 students were taught through different career days or career resources. Um this was both um most notably I think in my opinion definitely going um helping Miss

Rinko out doing the reverse career days. Those are awesome. I'm very glad to take part of those with the high school um and then working with the middle school um for their career clusters classes. So, our partners in conservation, I won't go through all of them, but obviously um the Virginia Association of Soil and Water Districts, our federal counterparts, Department of Conservation and Recreation, all of our counties um and local organizations. So, we're very happy to continue partnering with them and administering all of our practices across the district. Um what's next for us? I know we talked briefly about the increase from FY24 to FY25. Um we're not quite through December of FY26 and we've already surpassed that 1.2 million within the Vax program. Um and that's in part by having a whole farm whole farm approach program um where we're this is the first year we're participating um taking nutrient management practices and cover crop programs and kind of tying them together um and increasing the payout for our producers. Um so we've had great success in producers taking into that program for the first year. Um, as far as outreach goes, we are continuing. Um, we've been asked for a lot of volunteer opportunities as well, so we're looking forward to continue touching on them. And I'm happy to take any questions.

Thank you, Morgan. Miss Morgan, did anyone have any questions? Mr. Davis, I just want to make a comment because you earlier talked about those coming back and serving in our community. Madison Morgan is a class of 2018 graduate. So, I'd like to see her come out. She's somebody who's now giving back to our community as a King George High School graduate. So, thank you. Thank you. [snorts] Anything else? Thank you, Madison. Appreciate it. Thank you. Oh, I do have like a um complete like paper report of this if you guys would like to have it. Can I bring it to you, Miss Jackie, and then pass out? Cool. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Next up, we have action item 12-3, award of construction service agreement for King George High School synthetic turf install, Mr. Austin Wessel.

Mhm. And Mr. Chairman, if I may interject something before Mr. Mr. Wessle gets up there. So, I know this was presented to the board of supervisors at your November 18th meeting when we were over in the citizen center. Um, at that particular meeting, there was some questions on the whereabouts of Dr. Boyd. Um, so I want to let uh Dr. Boyd know I apologize. He did tell me uh earlier that week that he had another conflict and I had that total recall moment later on that night, next morning. So, I do want to apologize to Dr. Boyd and and let the board know that he did let me know. Just forgot to pass it on to the board. So, uh, just want to get that record clear. Thank you, Mr. Boyd. Do you accept his apology? [laughter]

All right. Everything seems good then. Good evening. We're uh just working on getting the right presentation up that's like a supplemental I have a I have a question while we're waiting. Okay. That I'm sure somebody here could probably answer, but why synthetic over natural? So, we have an existing synthetic turf field, which was back in 2014. Um, I was not around for that. So, the amount of work that would have to be put through to revert it back to grass would not be very cost effective and it can usually take a lot more upkeep to revert back to. Um, kind of the conversation was always replacing the synthetic turf.

Okay. But I don't I don't It's It's a lot of questions a lot of people had when they initially put it in. Most back in 2014, people didn't want it. They wanted to use continue using the pit, but they went that direction. And I'll interject that the county actually made a bunch of money when nobody else had a turf in the area hosting when like a regional field hockey tournament for the Commonwealth District. We made money and then everybody got a turf field but that was very as Mr. Davis said that was very controversial back then. I mean I wanted to keep the pit just updated. But the athletic director at the time made that decision to do the synthetic.

So the decision not to use a pit was so they could have a synthetic turf. Well, they wanted a new stadium that they could use to hold um state championship football games and hockey games, all those things. And that's why and we were the first back in in the first Yeah. 2012, 2014, the first people to have one in the district. So, it it did get utilized a lot. I expert Christian played their championship game down here, things like that. So, that's why it was done that way to my understanding. Y'all ready? Yep. All right, let's go.

All right. Good evening, members of uh chairman and members of the board of supervisors. I'm uh Austin Wessel, procurement specialists. You all know Dr. Jesse Boyd and uh this is uh Reggie Quay with Helis Construction. Uh the existing field [sighs] was uh installed by Field Turf. Um it's a monofilament fiber infill system. It uh had a 10year, I believe, prorated warranty um that has since expired. and the uh completion date was listed as 2012. The expected lifespan of a infill turf field is 8 to 10 years depending on use. And so we've gotten what almost 15 years out of it. So [sighs and gasps] these are just some examples of uh the different fiber types. So the first one is monofilament fiber. Um the pivot system, which is what we're presenting, is a hybrid monofilament system. Um it's also got a shock pad, so there's no infill. There's no granular rubber or sand. And then the uh third picture is a picture of that thatch, which I believe we also have samples if

Yeah. And so those are samples of the uh pivot turf system. The uh pivot turf is manufactured by 10K who uh owns Helis. So they're the actual direct manufacturer of the product. Um it's a blended fiber. Like I said, it's a monofilament. And then also the thatch. You can feel kind of how thick it is. It's a got a shock pad. And then the uh subsurface layer I believe reduces temperatures by 20 I believe around 20 degrees. So good for summer activities. Uh the pivot system also has a 12-ear manufacturer warranty and the expected lifespan is 10 to 15 years again dependent on use but it does seem to be a much more durable product. The uh the maintenance on a pivot system is dragly drastically reduced because there is no infill you know the granle rubber or the sand mixture. It doesn't require any regular grooming, sweeping maintenance. Helis is going to include a uh towbehind lawn roller that'll recompact the thatch, but um it doesn't have to be performed on a uh like weekly semi-weekly basis. Um, let's see here. So, the procurement process was we released the RFP. We received four responses. We all took about a week and a half um evaluated them, called in the uh top two high scored, interviewed both of them, and then Helis was chosen. Let's see here. Um, uh, this is just a quick note on funding and budget. Uh it was approved on the April 1st board meeting as part of the

CIP budget. Um $866,19 was approved for expected project cost. The uh Helis cost proposal for the pivot system with the new nailer board and the uh alternating green panels comes in at $89,560. So it's uh we're about we're $56,000 under budget currently. Uh these are just a quick timeline based on the contract documents. Um we had the initial board meeting November 17th which Miss Cobb presented for me and then uh we're here today for the second one. The uh contract execution the PO and then allowing Helis to order the material will happen by the end of this week. you know, if if it is approved. And then uh there's a 30-day lead time to ordering supplies. Again, 10K, who owns Helis, is the manufacturer of it, so there shouldn't be any delays in that. And then the uh construction contract period, and that covers removal, laser grading, installation, final completion is uh 70 days. And then that should hit right around the uh start of the spring semester again like pursuing on weather. And then uh there are some questions from the previous one. The maintenance plan as I said the pivot system is more durable. It's supposed to act and feel more like natural grass. You don't need to perform any regular maintenance of sweeping, grooming, and fill replacement. The shock pad is what you're using for that cushion. Uh the existing [clears throat]

aggregate base exclusion, which I believe Mr. Stout had questions on. Um so they're going to visually inspect the subgrade and then they're also going to laser grade it to the existing. I believe it's 1%. There hasn't been any noted drainage issues. Um, unfortunately, we don't know the condition of the rock until we remove the existing field. So, that exclusion in their cost proposal was just because they haven't been able to inspect the subgrade. So, they won't know if it needs remediation until that happens. Um, let's see here. Do you guys have any additional questions either for me, Dr. Boyd, or Reggie

Bender? Yes. And I'm I know Mr. Mr. Collins has some, but I'm I'm going to ask specific questions about the turf. Um, number one, there's a lot of controversy, especially with artificial turf, with more injuries, concussions, and even some folks say a risk linked to cancer. So, could the representative speak on some of that? like what makes your turf better than you know the older turf and I know turf has changed since the Astrodome in the 1960s or St. Louis Cardinals push stadium that I think they used to have temperature checks at over 140 degrees on it, you know what I mean, in the outfield. So, what is different about yours?

Um, first I appreciate the opportunity to be here. Like I said, my name is Reggie. I'm with Tinkata. Um, some of the things that set our product apart and the injuries, they're very noted across the industry. Every year, the NFL PA comes out and wants to ban turf, but um, continuously we continue to earn the business of several NFL teams. Currently, we work with 14 out of the 32 NFL teams. Um, and not even all the NFL teams play on turf. So, to have that market share within such a high-profile sector speaks to our products. Um, specifically, Helix was one of our dominant products and a bit of it is incorporated in the pivot. So, traditional turf, the slit film, as it gets old, it starts to lay down. Once that product lays down, you can groom it, you can do whatever you want to it. It's never going to stand back up because that's not the design of the memory of it. So, we designed a product that always stands upright. Um, so over time it doesn't just crumble and then also the infill, the slippage. There's a lot of different reasons that lead to those injuries. Um, but as far as our product, we've seen far less lower extremity injuries specifically is what um turf fields have been correlated to.

And what about, you know, the cancer risk? Have you heard anything with your product? because it there are articles out there and studies that have imply a link to it.

Absolutely. Um, in regards to that specific topic, um, it's not I'm not an expert in that. The one thing I will say is that's mainly been attributed to the infield, the chrome rubber. Um, a big push in a lot of different areas is to get away from crumb rubber. So, Tenata, our parent company, is actually based in Europe. In Europe, no matter where you go, you're not going to see a field with crumb rubber anywhere. They got away from that almost, I think, eight years ago now. So, they're a lot more advanced than us when it comes to the turf industry. Um, and the Pivot product is something that we've been using in Europe for almost the same amount of time, eight years now, because they were at a point where they want no infill. Up north and Fairfax and a couple other districts we work with, they use an alternative infill, not crumb rubber. So, we're at a point where a lot of districts are starting to move away from crumb rubber in totality. Montgomery County and Maryland, they've made a huge push to get rid of crumb rubber in all aspects of their turf uh turf projects. So that's kind of the main thing that a lot of people have attributed those risks to and it's the infield.

All right. Thank you.

Of course. Um and just to kind of touch a little bit in regards to the grass versus synthetic turf. I'm not sure if you guys keep up with the NFL, but Sunday Night Football, you watch the Commanders game. Um in Maryland, it's freezing. The sod that they recently put down has not had a time to adhere to the actual soil. The players were slipping to the point that the sod was actually coming apart. Um, in our area, we're not at the mercy of great climate 247. Um, so as temperatures get cold, your field is not going to be in the same condition that it is typically throughout the year. And then the cost behind that is extremely expensive to maintain. So with a team like an NFL team still not being able to have perfect quality uh surface for their players to play on, and you can see how many slips there were in that game, that that speaks to the value of having a synthetic turf product.

Mr. college. So there's no seialist for turf. I don't believe so, sir. Um, so I won't be on the board in January, but I'll raise hell ass if there's a change order to this.

Yeah. Um, so to speak a little bit on that as well, I've been with the company for almost four years now. All the projects that I've been a part of, I've had two projects that required a change order. And that was mainly because they actually had a failure in their subbase, which means we had to come in and do concrete stabilization. Um, because the actual soil underneath the stone base was failing. I've walked the field several times. I have not seen any inclinations of that. As well as the first thing we do as soon as we move the existing turf is our team will proof roll it and then do a laser grade. So, we know everything that we're walking into as soon as we get on site. Um, but again, I've been on that site. I don't see any signs of us having to deal with something like that. And my last question is, um, so the turf you take up,

um, are you going to leave it there for the citizens to come get? Uh, we'll bring it to your house if you want me to, but no. Um, we will you really, [laughter] if you ask nicely, we might. So, we're actually, uh, one of the only

I'll be off in January. [laughter] Um, a lot of times we've spoke, we'll speak with the schools because a portion of the turf that's removed, a lot of them want to use it in their batting cage. They want to use it in other areas within their athletic facilities. While our team is there, we always ask that just let let us know where you want it placed because a lot of times we run into situations where a school says, "Hey, we want x amount. Leave it here for us." Those roles are heavy. Um, so if you don't have any means to move it yourself or place it, it gets very difficult and a lot of times it just gets left there for years. Um, so our team is more than happy to help place it into the batten cages, but for the most part, we haul it away and then we're one of the only companies, if not the only company that does recycle our products. So our turf, we're able to take it back to its raw material form as well as it is manufactured in the US as well.

So other than a batting cage, what could it be used for? I mean, you could put a heck of a putting green in your backyard, but that we'll have to talk. I know I I have I already have my mind rolling on [laughter] that stuff, but that's a different subject. But I'm talking about for the schools. What could else could they use it for?

Um, any anything that they genuinely need. Again, with uh used product and the age of it, it's really only beneficial for highway areas like batting cages, things that you're not trying to do upkeep with. Um, if there are any football entrance areas that they want to use it for as the players are running out, there's a lot of different things that the athletic department will find needs for um, and we'll just be there to help. So those the stuff you're taking up has those black granules.

Yes, sir. But what we're putting in does not. So traditional turf fields have about 42 to 46 ounces of turf built in per square foot. The product that you're seeing there has 100 ounces. So I mean you're more than doubling the amount of turf that's actually being built into our uh systems. And even with our traditional systems, uh we're we're the when you speak of companies, there's no other company that can provide an infilled product as well as a non-infilled product to the same level that we can. Um and our infield products, we still use 46 ounces while some companies use 42. So we always believe in having more turf is going to provide a more durable product. And for a field that's lasted you guys almost 15 years, this this product is designed to last a lot longer. without any maintenance. I don't think they ever took care of it.

No. So, with a traditional turf field, there's a lot of grooming and the main maintenance, I go in a lot of times annually to certain schools and our team will provide a decompaction of the rubber. So, over time, the rubber hardens during the winter, during the summer, it moves. A lot of things happen. So, as and also a lot of companies use sand within their fields. So, sand during the winter, it's going to harden. Um, so you we don't have to do any decompaction with this with this product. No. And then also you can have as many people use it and you won't have any issues. So renting it out, it opens the door for a lot more rental use. So Mr. Chairman, my next um thing won't be for either [clears throat] one of these two. Yes. About the money.

Oh, I know. I know. That's next. Thank you guys. My turn. Can I ask my question?

Absolutely. Um, so during this time looking at the turf field and my previous experience on the school board and and what I was told about this act this um turf um account that apparently never existed. Last meeting, Miss um Cobb said that there's been a there was a $400,000 turnover for this particular project in you know already in our funds. So looking at So I thought part of the activity fund was going to go towards um this special account um and it didn't look like it's done that but so this so I I did for you [clears throat] last meeting and I asked for the activity fund accounts balances and how much spent how much they brought in for eight years and So um the whole activity accounts for the schools bring in a lot of money but the talking about the high school specifically. So they bring in about a $1.2 million a year in their activity fund generally averaging over the 8-year period. [clears throat] in the 8-year period, they um at the end of the um cycle, they have $500,000 in the account continually year after year. So, I would propose that we used four 400,000 from the activity fund for the high school and the 400,000 from um a rollover amount to fund this project.

So, if I can provide some clarity to that, what what you're referring to. So, what you received, I think what all board members received is is the overview of all of the activity funds for every single one of our schools, specifically the high schools, which you're concerned about. If you review that information within the high school, there's roughly 50 sub accounts. Those those accounts include the band account, they include the theater account. Those are usually larger accounts because there's a lot of in andout in those accounts. The athletics account is a large account there. uh rentals there. There's a number of accounts in there. The amount of money that you just referred to, that $500,000 is includes all of those accounts. Uh what you often see in those accounts is, as you've already mentioned, money in and money out. So if you take the athletic account for example, athletics on an annual basis, I hope I don't offend anybody by saying this, but usually if you have a successful football team, your your football program funds the athletic account for all activities, for all u athletics. So, the cost typically for an event, for for any game, you're paying for security, our sheriff's department, you're paying for referees, uh, ticket takers, concessions. Football is the only sport that we have right now that covers the cost of that event and then also the covers the cost for other events. So, for example, a volleyball game, a basketball game, a field hockey game. we don't make enough money in ticket sales to cover the costs to run that event. So, when we're talking about using that money for capital expenses, we really need to take into account not only that, it's really just ticket sales. That's the money that fuels that account. That ticket sales that comes in

also is the money that goes out to put on these events for our children. Dr. Boyd, that's why you at the high school you have 1.2 $2 million that comes in. So every year there's still a balance of $500,000. So across all accounts across all accounts, not just athletics.

Okay. So um this I would suggest in the future that you take part of the activity money and put it in a true turf um replacement account as opposed to a shenanigan that never occurred. Um, so I think that this time it would be prudent. I mean, if you spent $400,000 from the school's budget and $400,000 from our budget on this field, next year you'd still have $500,000 more than you brought in. There would be one year that you would um only have $110,000 left in the high school account, but you still have in the in the middle school and the elementary schools, you still have $700,000, you know. So, you have a total every year about like 1.1 or 1.2 million carryover funds in all the accounts

for all five schools, right? So, there's a couple things with that. Um, one, some of that money needs to be in invested to where it brings money back because every year you have the same amount of money that you have left over. That's what I'll call it left over. So, this is I don't mean inter. So now,

so we can we can we can say all these things about, you know, paying the ticket of the people and the sheriff's office and and and and everything else and but the bo bottom line is it boils down to that you still have $500,000 each year in the high school fund alone. So um I I mean I don't think there's any reason why we shouldn't do that if you want a new turf. So again, I mean, this is over 50 sub accounts. You would be you're asking to take money from our theater department. You're asking to take money from our band. You're asking to take money from DECA. You're asking You're not taking the money because you already are spending

and and really on those all those things combined with a $500,000 left over. So you're not taking from anybody. you're you're still allocating all that money spent for all those things, uniforms, whatever, instruments, um travel, um um jerseys, on and on and on. You still have plenty of money to do that. So, you're not taking from anybody. You're simply spending a a overage on a product that all the all the high school use, the band uses it. um um they use it for graduation sometimes.

Graduation is part of it. I I would invite you to take a look at that document on maybe the second or third page where it breaks down those subcategories. You have it in front of you, I believe, where it says you deca, athletics, theater, band. Those are the ones I'm mentioning. And there's 50 sub accounts there. And and if if you want to get detailed in this request, then go down and and let everybody know where we want to take that money from.

We're going to It was pretty simple. I said it now. I'm getting ready to say it for the fourth time. The balance of all the accounts after you've already spent the $1.2 million on DECA, um, football, volleyball, everything else, drama, you still have $500,000 left over. So, you're not taking it from any account. You're taking it from the activity account. No.

Then why why is it why is it the activity account? So, if you look at that third page, you'll see that each one of those clubs and activities has an account balance. It's not a total account balance at the high school of $400, $500,000. What you'll see in the ADCA account is maybe a couple thousand or something where Miss Strauss is raising money to take the students on a field trip. It's not that there's a lump sum of $400,000. That's what you're looking at is that's the total amount and all of the activity funds across the entire high school. So, what you would be doing is tapping into each one of those sub accounts and taking a certain percentage of their money to cover an athletic expense. And I mean, if I had to turn right now and tell all of my club sponsors that we're going to take a little bit of your money to cover a capital expenditure that was approved by the board of supervisors last year, that would be a real tough sell for me. And and to be quite frank, I would I would honestly have to try to figure something else out because I I wouldn't feel comfortable with that.

How are you taking money from anybody when you're already spending money on them? The $1.2 million you're already spending on all these things. You're not taking the So, at the end of the year, there's $500,000 left over. Why? Why? I thought it was one team, one fight. I'm I'm not sure what you mean by that. One one team, one fight. That means we were all We're all fighting for the same thing. We're all on the same team. So, everybody at the high school should be on the same team. The board of supervisor and school board should be on the same team. I'm I'm I'm with that. I'm I'm totally with that. But I This is the This is the one team, one fight approach,

wrote Mr. Sins. Sir, did did I misunderstand? I thought in the opening of your presentation, you mentioned that the the football team that they they generate enough revenue that that covers down a lot of the other expenses across the the activity fund. Is that not the case? So, if you look at that document, you'll see an athletics subcategory there. Within that athletic subcategory, the revenue created in that category is ticket sales.

Mhm. If you look at our athletics, the major contributor to ticket sales is football games. The money comes in most of the time through athletic sales, football games. But the expenses for all of our athletic events, this is some examples, security, ticket takers, referees, which is a huge expense. You know that um those come out of all of our activities. We're paying a bill for soccer officials. or paying a bill for referees for volleyball. The point I was making there was that football is the only sport that we have that raises revenue. All of our other sports tend to cost the school division money. If that makes sense,

right? That's all the more reason I I tend to agree with Mr. Collins that it it should be okay to prorrate this a little bit. I mean, if the money's there anyway, there is an excess of or an excess amount. I I get it. it's spread across 50 50 different you know sub accounts or whatever why can we not prorrate that take a portion of that if it's going back to the football field which generates a huge portion of that revenue anyway so so what you're referring to is just the athletic line so that's one of those 50 lines okay

the so if if following that philosophy along the athletic line then take a look at that total balancing athletic line which is I I think the ending balance there may be maybe $80,000 after ticket sales come in and expenses go out. 22 83702 83 Thank you. Yep. So you're talking about $80,000 that's in the athletic account at the end of the year. So it's it's not I wouldn't feel comfortable. No, I'm tracking now. I see what you're saying. So So $8,000 real quick. I got to let some other people go too. Miss Bender

and I have some experience in this coaching in college. I do know most colleges, the football team and the basketball team do fund most of the other athletics. It's it's just the way it is. It has the bigger ticket draw. So depending on the college and school, that's where they get most of their income. Now, I know in the past, and I have personal experience in this, due to issues, and this was way in the past, way before your time, that other athletic funds were raided to pay for debts of other teams. And it was a very hard cell to tell my cross country parents who had raised $3,000 that the $3,000 they had was now gone to pay the debts of another team. That that was a lot to swallow for my very hearty parents. So I have personal experience so I'm not for that but I actually have a counter proposal that I thought of overnight. So I have heard over the years and and over many years that many different teams there was questions of how money was handled and that. So my proposal is to have you know to approve the field but have an audit an outside independent audit of the activity fund by by subcategory what to basically see where the money goes and to have operations and procedures put in place that to asssure that there's no shenanigans

and it has to be done before you approve the budget next year. I think that's a fair and it would calm a lot of people because over the years I've heard a lot of people saying I think this coach is doing this and this coach is doing that and the money is not being handled right and I think it would finally set the public straight and get what Mr. Collins wants and other people want to see and it has to be done independently an audit of those activity funds.

So I I'm I'm all in favor of more controls. I'll tell you that since 2017 and probably even before that, but as far back as we keep records, we have conducted third party independent audits of our activity funds. We have those uh accounts, their binders right now in our school activity um and our school finance officers offices. Um we do this independent of the county. We follow the same standards that the county has. So every year in July, I think June or July, the county does the audit. uh the same company that comes in and does the county audit basically follows the trail of money through the county audit does the school audit and then we independently hire them outside of the county's audit and we also do all of our activity funds. All of the schools bring all of their activity fund uh ledgers to King George High School and for about a week in our conference room at the high school, we do the same audit to the same standard that the county and the school division does and and we can produce that for anyone that's interested in looking back at it. If you want to do if you want to see it or if you want to do it at a greater degree, then again, I'm in favor of any type of additional controls we want to put in place. I think what you're going to find when it comes to the these type of funds is this is money for children and and as you've already mentioned, it's in it's in accounts like DECA, it's in accounts like FBLA, it's it's club accounts. Uh so you'll see money in and then you'll see exactly what that money goes out for, whether it's field trips or new equipment or whatever it may be. We're certainly interested in being as transparent as we possibly can and continuing the processes we've employed or even making them greater uh for the community.

Mr. Chairman, so

Dr. Border, when we talked about audit during the break and I explained to you, you know, the county and the schools do audits that's required by the state by department of um public accounts. Um those audits [clears throat] are that they're worthless in my opinion. All they do is they make sure that you're following the financial procedures that you're supposed to, right? That's laid out by the Department of Public Accounts, right? That's that's the first thing it does. Then it takes a very few um items and traces it all the way back. So it doesn't capture the real essence of what a real audit does. So they might take, let's say, 30 items. this was purchased. The money came in here, the money came out there, check was written, it was signed by, la. Those audits don't tell you nothing. The second thing is um so let's say the football team generates uh an extra $80,000 a year. Part of it should have been going into turf replacement. Um, and we talk about the children. You know, the field is for the children for God's sakes.

It's not for anybody else. And the the the kids in DECA, the kids in the field hockey, the all these other kids use the field too, man. Um, so it's not like you're taking away from children. I I don't like that that um path you're going down.

So, I'll speak to all three of those points. If if How do I say this in a way that doesn't make it sound like something bad? If if the audit that the county and the school division does is not up to par and you would like us to do one that is more uh transparent or goes into greater detail. I I'm happy to do that. We'll include that in our budget request. Now, I I don't have any problem with your uh uh your uh point about the field being for students. It is. It's for DECA. It's for every club that has been mentioned tonight. When we put this project into CIP and it worked its way through the meat grinder that the CIP is and it was approved, at no point along the way did I turn to my clubs and my activities and everyone and say, "Hey, when and if this gets approved, I'm coming for your money." So, I I it would be hardressed.

Creating a public picture online for people to see that we're the bad guys. And I I I don't like that. I don't like that picture. Let's talk about real life. Real life is that every year for the 19th time there's a $500,000 extra money in the activity fountain. So if you go back eight years that you provided the records, there's at least 500. That's the high school, not including the other ones. So why wouldn't you want to invest in the children $400,000 for you for the school's half of the field? Why wouldn't you want to do that?

Okay. So, I wouldn't want to do that because this was approved through a CIP process where this is a a huge capital improvement process that was approved by the county and suggested by the school division, but it wasn't suggested by the school division that we would use money in existing club accounts to fund. If if that would have been the agreement on the front end, then we would probably be having a different conversation right now. But we've approved this through the CIP process. And now that we're working towards approval in the 11th hour, you're asking me to turn to my those that give extra time and effort, our teachers that are advisers for these clubs and organizations that they're raising money for, and you're asking me to look at them and say, "Hey, all of that money you've raised for all of the wonderful things you do for our students, I need to take that from you because what was approved six months ago is now going to be on your tab. you're you're you're you're you're spinning the story. You still are spending $1.2 million at the high school for all these clubs, so you're not taking anything from them. The the CIP you speak of that was approved. The CIP is a fiveyear document. You have a um elementary school in there. So, [clears throat] the CIP is approved every year with things down the road. It doesn't mean they're going to be funded. doesn't mean they're going to be funded. Just because they're in there doesn't mean they're going to be funded. So, what happens every year is the board picks what they can afford to to pay for.

Mhm. What they can afford to pay for. Um, and this project was chosen. Mr. Strad, do you have anything you want to add?

The rollover. Mr. Collins, real quick, Mr. Str hadn't had a chance to speak yet. Yes, sir. So, um I I think I understand the challenge. Um and uh I think the way that um so Mr. Collins, it's kind of like a household. The husband and wife both work. They both bring money into an account and the husband wants to buy a vehicle or a snowmobile and the wife says, "Wait a second, you know, um you want to spend some part of my paycheck for that." So, um, you know, whenever we already agreed that we were going to use the 401k or whatever and and that's kind of the I think the way that uh that's being viewed and then I also understand Mr. Collins point in that why is there a carryover every year? Why don't why don't we spend some of that being you why don't spend some of that money. In other words, it's just in the way that it's being addressed is just sitting there. But I I think that the money that that is being carried over so by all these sub accounts is they're collecting money throughout the year. And so it's not like um a regular budget if you will where you know the budget is you know you guys put it together, you submit it, we approve it and you start over a new fiscal year. Well, um, the way these funds work, they work based on the schedule for whatever activity it is.

It's based on the school year, it's based on these other things. So, um, it it doesn't fall into that that regular cycle,

right? um when these funds come into the account or when they go out, but it could appear that way because the budget uh is sitting there when the budget goes through even though you know so it it makes it a bit challenging there. Um so I I would like you know not based on this but I would like to see the um the summaries for the activity fund audits. um you know sometime I can see those but uh if these other sub accounts have they received funding from and I may have the the terminology wrong but from the athletic fund is the athletic fund has these other accounts received money from the athletic fund?

Not likely. No. So these other accounts and again I don't have it in front of me. I believe you guys do. If you turn to that second or third the the cover page is just the summary page. Miss Fish, they have that in front of them. I when I did the foyer and got the return, it didn't have a summary page. But okay. So Dr. Boyd, let me just um

let me if if you wouldn't mind if I could just answer Mr. Stra's question. Sure. Yeah. So I if if you take a look at that third page, you'll see all of those subcategories for the high school. And I'll give you an example. So again, DECA is one of our programs that raises a decent amount of money. And and you're spot on with, you know, Mrs. Strauss raising money that sometimes carries over year to year just because of the events that she's doing and the timing of those events. There's 50 subc there's 50 subcategories there probably if you look at and I haven't counted them but they're probably in that ballpark and the ending balance that was mentioned earlier is $83,000. So you you're talking about you know on average$1 to $2,000 per sub account. So you're talking about the DECA program, the band program or whatever carrying over a relatively small amount of money from from year over year. Does that answer your question?

It it does. Okay. I mean I that that's you know you know what I what I understood. Um the the question regarding if they receive money from the athletic fund was uh setting up my next question which was um does it go both ways which is what Mr. Collins was saying is that that take money from them to support athletic fund. So if if if they had been receiving money from athletic fund then what's the issue with it going the opposite direction and athletic fund receiving money from them that's where

so the answer is no there the usually all the money that's going into the athletic fund is for our athlet for our sports programs uh the money that goes in is ticket sales for athletics the money that goes out of athletics uh usually goes for the stuff I've mentioned before honestly it's officials security uh ticket takers There's uh I don't think concessions is part of that. And then really at the end of the year, what we try to do at the high school right now is have a four-year new new uniform rotation. So that one time, and Miss Bender knows this, one time in high school, student that participates for four years on an athletic program will receive a new uniform. So we cycle through a new uniform purchase one time in four years for each of each of our athletic programs. that money comes out of athletics. Um, you know, new balls, helmet and and equipment conditioning and those type of things come out of that athletic fund. The athletic fund though does not fuel into those other sub accounts.

Okay. So, the the people who um are man and you know, I know we're kind of way off track from the the turf issue. Um, so my last question with that is do the people who are managing those funds understand the scrutiny that you go through at this level? Well, they say their prayers for me, I think. I say my prayers for you, too.

Thank you. I appreciate it. Um, I I I think they have a general idea. uh and and I can tell you that, you know, through the audit process and and really the financial secretaries at at each particular school are very wellversed in in the appropriate checks and balances and and things of that nature. So, you know, we do strive very hard to make sure that everything is shenanigan-free uh and and we attempt to do that to the best of our ability.

So, Dr. void. Um, so you remember when you came to this board not too long ago cuz you um so the money that wasn't spent for the year and so the board um most the time has taken the money back of unspent money like from every other department in the county and put it back in the general fund. So when you came this year, you asked for a lot of money back and what did we do? We gave it to you. Absolutely. Right. One team, one fight. Mhm.

So now we, me, hopefully them is asking for $400,000 out of that activity fund for this field. We don't have an endless amount of money. The next one that's coming in front of us know down the roads coming in front of us is this Motorola thing for $1.2 million a year. So I mean there's only so much money and you will still replenish your fund next year and you'll still have $110,000 left over this year. So anything that was going to occur um the $1.2 million you talk about uniforms being that's all in that. Well, it's it's already you're already spending that money. So, [clears throat] um I don't think I need to say anymore.

Mr. Chair, Mr. Chair, you done? I am done. Thank you, sir. I was going to make a motion, but go ahead, Miss Bender. I was going to make motion, too. Go ahead. I'll make a motion to award the con uh of a construction services agreement for King George High School synthetic turd turf field installation for Helis. Is that good enough, Mr. Seart? I'd like to make an amendment to the major motion.

Okay. that the money um $400,000 comes out of the um uh rollover money from um we have already put in that and $400,000 um from the activity fund. Well, I guess $460,000 from our account. Mr. Chair, can I have a discussion on that? Yes.

I'm just going to bring up a point because I understand these finances very well for coaching for many years, but I understand what I'm just going to give an example, Mr. Collins to the band and theater. People don't realize that they pay for their music, their choreography, and they raise money and Miss Miss Wines pays for scholarships for seniors. And so I just can't take from the people that raised money for specific reasons and now say to them, you don't get to give those scholarships or because now we're going to take from that fund. I as someone who experienced it, I can't do that. Don't you understand that they're already doing that? That the $1.2 million, they're not taking from anybody. This is just a shenanigans that's being placed in front of us. Look at the real truth of the matter.

And that's why I suggested another independent audit, Mr. Collins. You're not taking anything from anybody. Well, I disagree with you.

Bring it back in. I think what's going to what kind of help is that, you know, they're raising money. The band's raising money for certain things and this group's raising. I think that they need to get in line with a little bit of um there's other things they need to raise money for, too. Right. So I think what's going to help in the long run and in future planning and what probably should have gone all along is a portion of that money should always go into some sort of sub account that is directly towards the money maker that makes all of them money which is this turf field. Okay. So yes they're raising money for their certain things and I don't want to take those things away from them but maybe they should add to their racing list. you know, maybe it's, you know, the the football team goes out and sells mulch and they've done stuff over the years and they raise money for whatever uniforms and whatever else they want to do. And I think I think that holistically I think that every department needs to understand what what it cost, right? And exactly um what their part is in that and them using the field and whatever it is and all those things and that the football team is making money and they're getting the benefits of all those things. And I think that there should be more. Does that make sense to you as a joint venture as far as them raising more money towards those things?

I I Yeah. So I I don't mind helping and and employing the school division and our students to help in any way that we think would benefit the county. Uh, I know this stems from a a perceived conversation or I I I tell you the reason I say conversation is because we have attempted to comb board meetings. We have attempted to find some type of reference to 2010 2011 of a conversation something formal [clears throat] that says the school division was going to set aside money to pay for this turf field. Now I know that's a unique arrangement. There's probably no other arrangement in our county, in any other department through the CIP process where we're asking other employees and most certainly not children to raise money for a for a facility that that they're using. However, looking through and back, I didn't find any place where that was mentioned. And I know here now we're talking about I I hope I'm I hope I can clearly articulate that I don't feel comfortable and Miss Bender said the same thing in this 11th hour asking

Mr. Boyd you don't have to explain yourself anymore. Okay. Okay. The C what what I'm saying what I'm saying is this is we are where we are today. Thank you. So I I've heard [clears throat] about the conversations here say me cuz I don't know. You don't know. you weren't superintendent at that point in time. I don't know. So, I can't speak either way. I'm just And I'm not saying that I want you guys to say from now on you're paying for the turf. I'm saying that we as a county and those departments in the school, we need to start looking at 15 years from now. What are we going to do?

We're going to need another one. But the way we do it 20 cuz we're doing pretty good. I'm just saying we need to start look planning ahead and looking at what's going to in 15 years and they're just 10% 20% of certain funds go in and and and and making those those groups and organizations because I don't want to I want them to to do the things they need to do, the trips they need to take, the instruments they need to make. But I just want to we need to we need to start looking at that. That's all I'm saying to you. So I'm not looking for you to explain or or bring up a conversation, my man. I I I don't know if it's there or not either. you know, we can't find record of it. Not saying it is or it isn't. So, right, as far as this discussion is uh concerned

again, nobody's taken away anything. And two, maybe when you asked for the $1.62 million back, we should have said no, we're going to save it for the turf field or any other thing that you might want to do in the future. We're going to we're going to keep that money. I think they used that money for a math program that we had to have. They also made a bunch of people assistant principles that were um special needs so they could um make it easier on the um um those programs where they had to have those folks. So there that's a separate discussion though right there. What I'm saying we gave money back for a math program. No,

it was more than a math program. It was three things. It was a math program. It was um uh money for like graduation and things of that nature. Uh what was the third thing which should be in the activity fund should be uh isn't um and again I so I would go back I if again let's look at this moving forward I if there are CIP projects that we present

in this in this process moving forward that you think are more appropriate for the school to fund then I would kindly request that you let us know that on the front end and we won't request it in the CIP because you do not fund any CIP items. We do. You don't have the money. There we go. Your money comes from us. Exactly. So don't say it's, you know, you fund it. We're funding it. Thank you. Okay. And so when this was approved as a CIP project in the CIP,

it was it was approved to be funded by the county and and that's and that's fine. But again, moving forward, if there are projects that I've placed or if anyone has placed in the CIP on the school division's behalf that we think would more appropriately be funded by the school division because we're going to save money in some particular way, then then I would be totally comfortable with that conversation on the front end. What we're doing right now is we've approved a project through the CIP and now turning around and saying school would school activity funds, school activity adviserss who are raising funds, would you mind paying for this? And and that's the only part of this that I'm uncomfortable with.

So it's the whole one team one fight you're not getting. So when when they wanted to do an energy management program, who paid for it? Who paid for it? The county paid for it, right? The county paid $2.5 million for this energy management. What did it do? It fixed windows in the school that have been hadn't been fixed and all these other things. You I know it's already on the CIP. if why put it on the CIP if you're going to pay for it yourself.

Well, in these days and times with the funding issues that we uh have and will have, I mean, you saw um last meeting where all these folks from the different departments came. Yeah. And asked for a lot a lot of money. Yeah. And the sheriff's getting ready to, you know, he wants $1.2 million. So, I mean, I think if we'll talk to that when we one team, one fight, aren't you, Sheriff Bender? Yeah. I'd like to remake that motion again and recommend an action properly. Authorize the I make a motion to authorize the board of supervisors to execute a construction services agreement with Helis for the installation of their pivot system priced at $89,560,000.

I would like to make a motion properly second. I'd like to make an amendment to the motion. It's her she doesn't I don't want to make an I'm not interested in that amendment. An amendment to an emotion. Look at your look at your county attorney. He gets a Senate. I I was just going to point that. I think u Mrs. Bender withdrew her original motion. Yes. Then there wouldn't be an amendment on that, but Mr. Collins, if he can get a second, can offer an amendment on this one if you'd like.

And my amendment is still the same. Uh $460,000 from the the general fund and $400,000 from the school activity fund. All right. So, no second on that one. Motion fails. So, we still have a second on Miss Bender. Fails for the second. Try it.

That should be roll call. I understand that. Is there any further discussion? Start your roll call at the other end. Roll call. Mr. Collins. I'm going to wait for my vote. Mr. Stra I. M. Bender. I. Mr. Collins. Nay. Mr. Sullins. I. Chair votes. I motion passes. Thank Mr. Boy, for your patience. Appreciate you. Thank you, sir. All right. Next up, 12-14. Miss Robin, please don't be scared to come up here. You're going to be just fine. I think so. Anyway,

good evening. I I am Robin Tenny. I'm the Smoot Library Director. Um, and as it states on the board report, I am requesting a carryover of the remaining FY2425 state aid grant grant funding. Um, and without the carryover, uh, the state through the Library of Virginia will take that amount from this fiscal year. So, it would result in an additional $1,676 uh, loss in state aid funding.

Mr. Chair, Mr. Child, I'd like to make a motion that we approve the carryover for $1,676 remaining FI2425 library state and grant funding to FI2526. Second motion properly second for discussion by roll call. Mr. Straoud I Spender I Mr. Collins I can you give thousand to the school turf fun Mr. Sins. Hi.

Chair votes I. Motion passes. See how easy that was? Thank you. All right. Now, the big daddy 1215 Motorola 2026-2032 multi-year maintenance and SUA to agreement. Mr. Chairman, I I can give a an I can start the conversation if that's okay. Okay.

All right. Thank you very much. So, uh, as outlined in your staff report, uh, the new radio system that is operated by our sheriff's department, the schools, and fire rescue emergency services. It's a shared system um that is currently in the one-year um warranty period that will expire February 28 of 2026. So this was done before my time uh with the the I understand this was a several year process to to upgrade the radio system for ample communications amongst those three agencies that I talked about. So what you have before you is a proposal that was dated uh October 27, 2025 uh offering a multi-year maintenance and system upgrade agreement to support the radio system. Um so there are there are a couple figures laid out in here. It's a six-year, fourmonth agreement, $6,540,000. And Motorola uh Solutions is offering a um a $99,996 discount for executing the contract by December 31, not December 15, as stated in the staff report. So, you do I'm I'm saying that because there is still a second meeting in December. No pressure is put on the board tonight to act on this. I know we talked about this at our um board retreat for the budget FY27 budget. That's when it was first uh t uh brought up. I've been talking with the sheriff uh actually before that about these the couple months remaining in this part uh the the existing fiscal year and [clears throat] reaching out to Motorola uh the remaining several months here in in fiscal year 26. We're just going to roll those into the FY27 budget at no additional cost. So, we don't have to go back through and amend anything in the current fiscal year budget. Um, we do have representatives from Motorola in the back. Uh, the sheriff is here also to answer any questions uh from the board.

Anyone have any questions? Yes. Mr. B, any further negotiations for Motor Roller to sharpen their pencil have J.

Mr. Collins, when it was initially brought up, um, we did a huge amount of negotiations with them to get them to where we are right now. And then that's about where we're that's this is their final offer. And uh but we did negotiate with them prior to and and did actually was able to bring it down and and um get it to where we are now. Mr. Sins, Sheriff, is this um from what you can tell, is this a fairly standard contract that uh a fairly standard service contract that would go with owning a system like this? Yes, sir. In other words, it's just if you can if you can own it, you can afford to maintain it.

Yes, sir. Sever several jurisdictions around us have basically the same maintenance contract with the same type of system that we have. Mr. Stride, do you have any questions? Sorry, [snorts] the Motorola contract.

So, I don't really have any questions. I uh my comments are that it's I feel like we're paying too much and I know that um you know a lot of other counties and uh use the same system. I know that Motorola pretty much owns the market. Um and that you know we're in a position now where we feel you know I feel like we're stuck and um but the fees that are charged on these on these type contracts and this type work are uh usually pretty high. So we have no way of knowing what that is. Um, but they're usually pretty high. So, I feel like uh Motorola could provide a better discount on this. Um, doesn't mean they will, but I feel like they could and I would appreciate it if they would, but that's about the extent of my comments, sir. Thank you, Mr.

Collins. So, sheriff, as we discussed at last meeting, when this radio system was posed, my role never mentioned anything about $1.2 million a year. Um, so they said it was under warranty for a year, but that there was never mentioned about a a service contract. So, I think that um they pulled the wool over the wool over our eyes in more ways than one. So the state system that Motorola runs now, the star system has been a complete disaster. Motorola, can you hear me?

You've cost the state a lot of money and they their product is not good. So I'm not real happy about this. I feel like that the sheriff, you're being held hostage for this along with us for this for this contract. Thank you. Stones. Nothing. Miss Bender. Mr. Chair, Mr. Collins.

So, could we delay this till the the next meeting? Maybe that Mr. Smolnik, Mr. Stewart, Motorola could get together and maybe Motorola could sharpen their pencil a bit. If not, you'll still have the same thing when you come back. Sounds sounds all right. Is that okay with everyone on the board? It's good by me. Sure. All right. Move it to the next one then. Thank you, Sheriff. Sheriff, of course, I hope you're involved with that, too, with them. Absolutely. I didn't mean to leave you out of that.

No, no, I I understand. No, just cook. We have discussion on 12-16 propane tank removal installation if B.

Good evening, Mr. Chairman and members of the board. Well, I'm here to discuss the propane tank removal and installation IFB that was issued on October 20th. We received one bid for $147,312.15. The breakdown of the bid is $58,87855 for the county propane tank and replacement, $88,433.60 for service authority. Not included in this total is a $299.99 per tank removal fee by Air Gas. Maragas leasing fees for the FY2425 were $3,781. The county has five lease tank. The county has sorry the county has five lease tanks and the service authority has 13. The ROI based on the total base bid price is approximately 35 to 40 years. This slide provides a breakdown of propane usage. Propane demand is highest during the winter months. However, emergency generations require year-round readiness or field is needed. The county used 15,633 gallons in FY2425 with the average price per gallon of 368 for a total cost of approximately $49,699.

And these were a few questions that I asked of our America gas representative just trying to get an idea of what the leasing price includes. So the question first first question was do lease tanks receive annual inspections or testing and they test each tank before it is filled? What maintenance does Gas handle as part of the lease? Maragas is responsible for all upkeep and maintenance at no cost to the customer and all company owned tanks. Final question I asked was does Americas track tank age or replace tanks when they reach end of life service? They record the manufacturer date and serial numbers on all tanks which is noted on the equipment record for each account. Uh reertification is not required on larger bulk tanks such as 500 or thousand gallon units, but if they are found to be faulty or compromised in any way during the pre-fill inspection, they are replaced or repaired. And bulk tanks do not have an expiration date that requires re certification by Department of Transportation. some additional questions I asked that were had not been answered by the time I received by the time I sorry by the time I prepared and submitted this to Miss Fish uh why is there such a vast price per gallon for some tank refills one of the examples that I provided was on September 15th price per gallon was $3.30 30. On September 22nd, the price was $6.25.

I also asked if we could negotiate rates annually, and I am waiting to hear back on that. Our merit gas representative is looking into the bulk pricing for accounts. The way the accounts were set up looks like as though they were not linked, and pricing has been based on individual accounts instead of grouped together for the county. Thanks for the uh the the report there. So looking at slide three, the the uh annual leasing fee is that total that's all we pay for all the things that we we lease from them

for FY2425. Yes, there have been tanks added since FY2425. So, that number will go up a little bit. That number seems relatively low. I mean, it it seems like a no-brainer that we should be just leasing all of them if they're going to repair, replace, fix, whatever, any problems. And that that's the majority of the tanks that we lease are $187.95 per year.

Okay. Yeah. But there's not a lot of maintenance and upkeep on a tank. I mean, they don't like fix the rust on them. Uh, so there's not a lot of maintenance upkeep. But the key thing here is we're moving away from this company. So, this is just an inform, you know, an informative brief, but uh they've been ripping us off for a while and amen, we'll continue to do so. Uh, so this is just what we have to do to get away from them and move to greener pastures. How have they been ripping us off? And I'm I'm not trying to be argumentative. I want to understand $6.25 a gallon.

Yeah. So it changed $3 in that in in a few days. And the thing is is so if we if you if we allow them to fill the tanks on their schedule and they get to pick when it's higher and when it's lower um you know then we lose. But uh it it's kind of like it's their mo. There are better options out there. Okay. The reason the reason the lease fees are so low is because they're making up the money in other ways. The lease fees aren't low.

Yeah, I wouldn't call that low. You just have to compare them to other other companies and and then also so there are options that we talked about before. I mean, not necessarily a part of this, but I think as we, you know, one of the things we move forward and uh, you know, Miss Cook or they come with the new proposals is whether we, you know, buy or lease. So the thing is you can say well why do we want to buy whenever we can lease at that cost and and that's a fair question. The key thing that buying does is it allows you the choice of who you use to fill it. Okay. So it's just like the Motorola conversation is we're using Motorola stuff so we have to buy their warranty. We have to buy their maintenance plan and yada yada. If we own the tank, then they can't tell us, well, you know, it's our tank and you can't put anybody else's, you know, propane in it. That's that's what it does for us. So, if we own it, then we can choose who we want. And then they'll say, "Well, they have to get inspected, yada yada yada." So, big deal. Just so I don't have to deal with you anymore, I'll do it.

Maragas is very problematic. I've had some personal things with them and they're they're they're just I I called down there one time to Americas and they told me that the employee that answered the phone in Richmond said they don't really like working there anyhow because the company's so bad. That's an employee speaking. That's what I heard. That's what they told me. So $299 for removal of tanks. What does that include? Are they going to pay us back for the gas? Are they going to give us a credit for the gas? And how much are they going to give us the credit for the gas that we already have in the tank?

They can $6. They can recapture the gas, but I don't know how much they're going to pay us for price per gallon. So, if they paid us $6.25, that's what our gas is worth to them. And then we we charge them 29. They're going to charge us $299 to pick up a tank and put it on a truck. That's correct. For each tank.

So, and their inspection when they talk about they test it every time. It's not a test. They come out. They look sure make sure everything that there's a regulator on there. There's, you know, they just do a visual like you do a visual of everything in your own house. I'm not I'm not talking at you, Mr. Cook. I'm talking in general. So, so they don't actually do the testing. That's nonsense. And a tank can last many many years. You'll be have tanks in the ground for 25 30 years. Buy a maragas and they're never taken out of the ground. They're never serviced. They're they're just they open up the top. They look at it. [clears throat] They fill it up. I don't I don't know if it's feasible, but maybe whoever we like we look at whoever we go to and see if they can capture the fuel and transfer it to their tank that we're we go to. Maybe

they can't. That was a question that was asked during our pre-bed meeting. They can't because Maragas won't allow them or because once Ammeras comes to remove the tank, Mr. Smok, you had something to add. It's not their gas. It's our gas and they can refund us for the gas, but I don't know the price that they will refund per gallon. Well, they'll also charge you um a bunch of money to [clears throat] do that process.

Yeah, they will charge you to Mr. Chairman, there there is a law that I'm aware of cuz I've been working on legislation in this arena because of how some of these gas companies um are conducting business. You you can't touch another person's tank. You can't take even though you paid for the gas, you can't put or take gas out of that tank if another company owns it. And there seems to be a history where if you have that particular company like Amer Gas take the gas out of the tank, they may not be willing to refund you for that unless you start another account.

Mr. Smik, you had something to add. So I just wanted to kind of you pull back out. So again, this this this RFP was issued at the request of the board to to get away from the reliance on one company. So this is step one, but we wanted to bring it for the board, you know, for the 147,000 some change it to proceed forward. The next step would be once we if if the board wants to move ahead with $147,000 to remove the tanks, then we would issue another RFP to to go out there to shop around for the best price to fill the tanks. And you know in that situation I will whenever I do contracts I don't like to lo into long terms you know similar to like an engineering service as a one-year with with several options to renew it at our discretion. Um give us the ability to shop around. Again this is the first step. Um you know so really the board needs to to think about whenever you buy in bulk whenever you shop around you are going to get one price and it would be at a discounted rate for what we're paying now. You know, you have to ask yourself, what's the payback? How many years is that $147,000 going to be paid back in the savings that we're going to be spending on propane?

All right. So, I I would say that that would be considerable um in short term because the amount of money that that that we're paying for the fuel itself. I mean, there's some people that I know in this room that pay a dollar or 75 cents a gallon. And so, and that that particular user, we use more fuel than they do. So, um, also the 147 bid was for the tanks. Yes, that was for installation. That's for the tank and the installation of the tank. Where where are the tanks coming from?

That I do not know. What's the company's name? I didn't bring that with me, but it's the only bid that we received. Okay. So, we can we could if that bid was more than you all wanted to spend. You could probably They sell the tanks in Richmond. They're certified tanks. Same thing. And you could you could buy the tanks. I don't know if it's cheaper. I would think so. So if it's a bulk amount buying tanks, if we looked at uh talk with Americas, ask if we can just buy these tanks instead of paying them to take them away and then lose money on selling the gas back to them. I can ask. How much would it cost to just

So there I think that Mr. Small, is this correct that they'll sell us the tanks for $6,000 a piece? Wasn't that a correct? Didn't you show me $6,000? They'll sell it back to us to buy to buy Americas's tanks. Yeah, just buy them. Leave them in place, buy them from them, and not have to worry about installation or removal or any of that other crap. I don't recall that figure. So, the my tank, they wanted to charge me $3,000 to buy it. And

we need to we need to shop it. We need, you know, that's something we can whenever we look at it, just kind of shop it around. But we need to run those tanks empty before we have them replaced. and they're responsible for removing it. Um, you know, so I I' I've been in a a war.

Yeah. I I I mean, I'm I'm the same way. I've told them that, you know, I'll dig it up for them and leave it out in front of the property and then come pick it up. Uh, you know, so I they're frustrating company to deal with, but um that's something that we'll deal with whenever we start, you know, getting bids and stuff on them. Uh because the other thing that they can do is that whoever we deal with the new company, they may just go to Americas and buy the tank from them because that does happen as well. I've had that happen before. These are new tanks. So the the tanks that they will be installing are tanks that he has in his stock now. I do know that that's part of his inventory and those will by who?

I did not bring the Yes, I did. Hold on. I'm sorry. It's called Elite Power Incorporation. They're based out of Deliplane, Virginia. That's one of the companies. That's the only bid I received for the tanks. For the tank installation.

That's just the tank installation. Yes. So that whenever we put it out for bid, it was not it didn't include like uh propane that we were it this bid includes one fill but beyond that service will come from a different company

but um and I'm not so because for the companies for some companies to bid on it they want that continuing service and where we may get the a better option or maybe a better price if they know, hey, um, we're selling a tank, but would that buy propane from me as well? I mean, so so I I don't I don't know because I honestly I should have and I didn't read this the RFP, so I don't know if if it was maybe the way you put out that we only got one bid because we should have gotten more bids on that. So, Mr. drown. So you said that it includes one fill of each of these tanks, correct?

So that makes it much more palatable because, you know, I'm sure you've filled tanks lately. Yeah. But I say that'd be half the money right there. There's how many? 48 tanks. There are use 15,633 gallons. How much do you There are 27 tanks in total. 27. We added a couple since this fiscal year started though. Yes. So there's more than 27. I think

I think we I think it went up by two and that's those were the service sorting. We don't we don't have any decision tonight though, right? Is there a decision? Decision. It's just informative. We're looking for direction, you know, if well ultimately we will need to make a decision. We only got one proposal. So the board needs to decide is it worth it? And then that will give, you know, yes, we're going to award this contract in 147 to move forward and then that will give staff the direction to draft the other RFP for once that first refill runs out. How, you know, who we're going to use to fill the tanks up thereafter.

I got a quick question. Can for the service authority, they're all ones that are probably attached to generators, right? That we're mandated to have. Yes. Yes. They're So, if the power goes out, the pump station doesn't fail, right? And those two new tanks, I'm guessing, were some of the five we have left, the consent orders, we they had to we had to have generators and cuz one of them is probably the Burger King pump station. Yes. One was Burger King and the other one was pump station six. They were required for consent order.

So, Miss Bender, having the tank having as for the propane generator, the generator goes to a test every week. So, it's not it's not like it just sits there with propane in them. No, I was just verifying so people knew why the two extra tanks we had to put them in by consent order.

So, it seems a little more palatable the 147, Mr. Stout, if it's all of them are being filled. It it it does, but I'm just not I I don't know. And I'm not I don't know if some of the companies saw it, and we may need to we may need to put it back out um for a bit. Also, the the um and I'll um make it a point to review the try to come and get with you to review that, but the RFP, but do you know the the sizes of the tanks? Like are there any uh any of them that are like a couple hundred gallons or 300 gallon tanks? They're let's see

pretty big tanks. The majority of the ones for service authority are 325 gallons. They have a few that are 500 and then

the thing is some of the locations are probably smaller tanks. They're the 325galon [clears throat] and then we have 4,000galon tanks for the county and a few 325gallon tanks and those are for cell towers. All right. Thank you, ma'am. So, Mr. Chairman, what's the will of the board? What's your will?

Well, my will is probably the same as Mr. Strauss's will. You say move forward. Is that what you say, Mr. Stout? Yes, sir. That's what I see. If you would like to move forward, I will have to come back to the next meeting with both of the amounts broken out and where our funding source will come from. Absolutely. From the activity fund. Okay. Is that good? I get any response from anyone else? Thank you, Miss Cook. You're

welcome. Matthew Smok, you're up. Any administrative report.

All right. Thank you, sir. I do have a couple things. Just uh want to remind everybody. Sunday, December 7th, 400 p.m. to 6 p.m. outside. Uh the Christmas tree uh tree lighting. So, a great ceremony. Hope to see everybody out there. Looking at the weather, I think we're going to be okay. A little it'll be brisk, but only a 5% chance of precipitation is what I saw earlier today. So, um a legislative update. So, uh, talking to Senator Stewart and, uh, Hillary Peent. Um, so what we did last year, uh, I I reached out to the board members and you all sent me items that were of of, you know, some concerns to you that both the our senator and our delegate, you asked to take to to Richmond for the next general assembly session. So, I I I think the format worked out quite well last year. So, I'll remind you it was just, you know, and I'll I can do it tomorrow morning. Send you all an email. You guys send me the topics that you want. I compile them and I'll include them in the next December meeting um so that we can we can discuss it. And I believe last year you you voted to move all all the items. I think there may be seven or eight of them on to our our representatives uh for the general assembly. And then after you guys give those your initial blessing, Miss Fish works to get those out on official letter head with my signature to uh to all our representatives. So if that's good with the board, uh look for an email from me tomorrow and and you know, if you have any questions on legislative priorities, you know, you can talk to me, but I will just bring the entire list. We'll include that in the packet for the public to see. Um some some good opportunities to talk to your constituents to see what's, you know, important to them. And we'll we'll have a discussion at the the second December meeting. Uh we do have an orientation scheduled for Mr. Mets uh Monday, December 8th. Looking forward to that along with a swearing in ceremony at 4:30 to to conclude that day. So um you know, staff has worked hard to get everything ready for him. So I'm excited about that. I did want to give uh the

board an update on the elevator RFP. So if you can recall um the elevators out here in the administration building, we got one proposal. Uh the board directed staff to put out an RFP, which we did. In that RFP, there was a mandatory meeting to come to learn about uh what the RFP entailed. We held two different sessions for the RFP. Um it was yesterday, one at I think it was 10:00, one at 2:00. We had zero people show up. So since this was a mandatory RFP, essentially procurement is dead. However, um you know, we we we can issue an addendum through EVA to say, "Hey, the the meeting is now non-mandatory. We can keep it open. I think it's till the December 8 13th or 18th." I'll pull it up here. I I've got I got the email from Mr. Wessle. But if if we do issue the addendum to say that the meeting is non-mandatory, we can still keep it open um until, and I'm pulling up the date here, uh December 18th. and hopefully we will get some responses back to this. In the event that we do not get any responses back again the procurement process has played itself out then we would reach out to I would presume the you know Schindler and Otis are the the larger ones that we know of um reach out to them if if you know go to Otis. Does the does does your initial number still uh work or knowing that they're you know competing with Schindler can they get and get a better price for us? So I just want to give the board an update. Uh, I was hoping to see some folks show up, but unfortunately we didn't have anybody respond to the RFP that was put out. Um, and that's really Oh, we have the the barking dogs. Uh, I want to turn it over to uh to Senator Stewart unless there's any questions on the topics that I've discussed before uh Senator Stewart uh takes the floor.

I got quick pass out here.

Mr. Chairman, I've got a memo from the Commonwealth Attorney's Office and I've got two examples for you all. M potential ordinances so you can think about it um and discuss it. I did that because Kl's office would actually be the one I'll get with you tomorrow. Thank you. Sorry. All right.

Mr. Chair, Mr. crowd. Uh, may I make a comment while county attorney's handing that out?

Sure. So, uh, I think it'd be good for us to look at the and I'll get with Miss Cook tomorrow on it, but we look at the amount of fuel that's used in the tanks to determine the size cuz I'm not sure that the size tanks we have. You know, they may we may have a much larger tank than we actually need if they're being used for backup generators because the the companies monitor them and if it gets so low, they'll come and fill it. So you don't need a 300-gallon tank if you're only using 10 gallons a month and they'll come and fill it. So that'll save us a lot of money. We can downsize those. But I I'll get with her on it. I just wanted to tell you guys that.

Mr. Chair, with with the service authority, we will have to check under DEQ rules what the rules of what kind of tank we need for the pump stations because that's mandated by regulation. Okay. Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, Mr. Chairman, the the document that has first up in the right hand corner is an example of an ordinance, and I kind of picked and played with surrounding jurisdictions to our north. Uh, cuz we really don't have any barking dog ordinances in the Northern Act uh at all. So, there was nothing to look that way or I don't think Caroline had one either. So, I went the other way. You'll see that in in this particular ordinance, um there's got to be an audible sound of an ownership of a of a dog for a certain period of time or couple different people can make a complaint. Um it it would be a class 4 misdemeanor. That's just an example for you all to look at. One of the things that is important in here is that it can't can't do anything to violate the Right to Farm Act. Um the Right to Farm Act is statutory and it is pretty much enshrined in the code of Virginia. And so that's a a big out right there. Then the number two, you'll see there's so many feet that it has to be from a dwelling and it has the dog has to bark for at least 10 consecutive minutes. Um, these are just to give you all an example of the paths you can take. If you decide to go down this path, then you need to think about is it only going to be in a residential zoned area? Is it going to be in some other area? Is it going to be countywide or what other other districts? I think one consideration you definitely need to make is you need to talk to the sheriff and see how many FTEEs you'll need to do this because it is incredibly um man-hour intensive.

um because literally a deputy is going to have to come in most cases and probably wait there uh to see if there's a violation or there'd have to be a video or something. And to that end, um I asked the Commonwealth Attorney's Office to weigh in on this because they would actually be the person prosecuting these cases. And so he drafted a short memo sort of highlighting his thoughts and concerns about this. But I I think one thing that is very illustrative, illustrative in this is that he said that he's not aware there's ever been a successful prosecution of the of a violation of the county noise ordinance. Period. And that just gives you an idea as to how hard it is to prove these cases, which was my original concern. And I know that it can be really difficult for people and it really can be a nuisance. They do have that the ability to go to court themselves and ask a judge for relief from that barking dog, but I think most folks would rather have the police handle it. And if the police handle it, it becomes I mean, it's a lot for them to do. I also know that animal control may be looking into some other ways to go about this. Um, and so we may want to hear from them. But the point is there's a there's a wide array of of choices you can make in this and I just tried to give you some ideas as to how go to go about it. But there are a lot of considerations associated with it if you do decide to do something. I'll answer any questions if you have any. Mr. Chairman Collins. So Mr. Stewart on subsection B um noise from animals

on second or one. On two it says for the purpose of this session a person shall be deemed to have allowed his animal to bark or create noises which are plainly audible within a resident's dwelling after two continued. So the word allowed is in parenthesis. So, um, I mean, who allows their dog to bark? Um, and this one, this one was either Stafford or Spennsylvania. I can't remember. Um, how would a court determine allowed?

I don't know how you prove that. That's part of the problem. And otherwise, you've got to have a decibel meter and you've got to have a continuous period. Um, I can't answer that question and that's why Mr. Clark talked about the difficulty improving these cases. So, in the um Commonwealth opinion says that the um animal control is working on on the problem. Do you know what what what that means?

Based on my discussions with Mr. Clark, he's talked to animal control They said this is not a big problem, but I understand it is a problem for the people who have to suffer from it on a daily basis if the dog is barking right at the house. But he said it's not an issue countywide for a lot of people. They have had some calls on it. Um I think they worked with the gentleman that reached out to you, Mrs. Bender. He also reached out to me and he has [clears throat] a difficult situation. I will tell you animal control is trying to look at ways to do it. This is just a very tough nut to crack. Most of the time if you go to a neighbor and say your dogs are driving me crazy, they'll do something about it, but unfortunately not always. Um, so I just wanted to try to provide examples for you all to think about it. But but I do think the Commonwealth Attorney's Office needs to be involved because ultimately they will prosecute this and the sheriff. Thank you, sir. Anything else? Anybody got a motion to make?

Mr. Chair? Yes. Actually, did you want to do a secondary public comment? Did anyone else like to speak? We have secondary public comment. I didn't think so. All right. Closed. All right. I like to motion that we adjourn the board of supervisors meeting to Tuesday, December 16th at uh 5:30 p.m. in the boardroom of the River building. Motion properly second. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. I. Chair votes eye. Motion passes. We are jjourn. Thank you. No smoke. Oh. [laughter]

Um, yeah. I just need your information. Congratulations on your appointment. Um, if you