Town Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. Welcome to the meeting of the Municipal Council of this night, Tuesday, Wednesday of 2026. Note that there will be opportunities during the meeting for the citizen to go to the council when the mayor declares open public comment. I ask that whoever is going to speak sign up, get close to the pulpit when called and say your name and surname.

And Kim, please make the call when you're ready. I read.

Present. Present. Vice-Mayor Austin. Vice-Mayor Anderson.

Now, Councilor Dona Kim will lead us in the oath to the flag.

The oath to the flag of the United States of America and the republic that it represents. A nation under God, indivisible, with freedom.

Agora, se todos puderem permanecer de pé, o pastor Paul Sida, Igreja Metodista Unida da Avenue, nos conduzirá em oração.

Boa noite. Até eu me sentei... Vamos orar. Dear God, as this day comes to an end, the night falls, we thank you for the day that is almost passing. Bless the work we have done, the care we have dedicated, the seeds we have planted and the journey we are on. Forgive us, we pray, for the mistakes we have committed and for the sins we have practiced. And help us also to forgive others and ourselves, to offer grace and to receive it. Be especially with those who need it in our community, in this nation and in your world. We pray for the sick, for those who are dying, for the hungry, for the lonely, for those who suffer and for all who have lost hope. Be for us and for all the light that shines in the darkness. As our nation prepares for this Friday to remember and mark September 11, the 25th anniversary, we ask that you be with us. Bless everyone who suffers so that they can be consoled.

As our minds return to that dark day, we pray that you fill us with light.

In a moment of division, we pray that on this day we unite. Tonight, oh God, please bless and guide the work of the Municipal Council. Thank you for your leadership and for everyone who works hard to help our city prosper. We made a pause for these moments to take these things to you and say that we are grateful for calling this place our home for each day of life you give us, because this life is truly a gift in the name of Jesus.

Thank you, Pastor Paulo.

If I could get an approval for tonight's agenda.

So I do.

Does anyone support? Support. Any other discussion? Kim, please make the call.

Webb. Quet. Vice-President Austin. And Mary Anderson.

Now we have the approval of the act of our meeting on August 3, 2026. If anyone wants to make a motion about it. Quet. Any other discussion? Kim, please make the call.

Webb.

Peon.

I apologize. Vice-Mayor Ostroff. Mayor Anderson.

Now we need the approval date of August 20, 2026. If anyone wants to make a motion on this.

I propose that it be approved.

Yes. Any other discussion? I think I lost that meeting. I was also absent.

Please make the call. I abstain. Abstenha-me. Vice-President Austin. And Mary Anderson.

And we'll move on to the public comments. There is a person registered for public comments today. It will be Rachel Shepp. If you can come forward and declare your name, last name and address, please.

My name is Rachel Shepp. Address is Jones Madison Street, South. My concern is this. I know we have few policemen at night. Where do I live?

In Kingsmount. There have been many robberies and people stealing... And we have an invader who shouldn't be on the other side of the street, who has gone and returned and also stayed on the other side of the street. It's a nuisance with all the traffic and people, and Duane was aware. Let me also know what's going on and people can't sleep at night.

I even got sick. There are other people.

People are receiving knocks on the door but afraid to call. And tell someone at two, three or four in the morning and just comment among themselves and are afraid because they fear that they will come after them. Because there are so many people in the neighborhood working for the police. They are so afraid to say anything that they think they will come back to them and will invade their homes. Not only in Kingsmount, but also in Tellers Hill there too. Something will have to be done. Tired of that, I'll solve it with my own hands. That's what we got here.

First time I hear you talk about this.

I warned you.

We called. I know the chief of police was notified of this. But I don't suggest you take any measures on your own.

We're just saying that we're going to let you know, you know, we're going to have a community surveillance meeting. I mean, we're going to solve it with our own hands.

We're tired of it. We're tired of calling. Nothing is being done. People are going to the houses, invading, and simply not. They're afraid. I'm not afraid of it. I'm just tired of it. And the people down the hill where I live. But if it continues to happen, you know, people will do what they have to do. But these elderly people, you can't keep knocking on their door at three or four.

I don't like to knock on the door at any time.

No, I don't either. And they're fed up with saying anything. They're being ridiculed. And they come up to me and say, and I answer, you guys need it. They don't, I don't have it.

I'm just fed up with it.

Comprehensible.

And at any time of the night, people complain and call the police. I met some back there, and below me. But what do you do? And then they say, ah, we're working, you know, if they're working, you know, inside, but nothing is being done. It's been a long time since I've seen the police patrol. It's very rare.

I live in that neighborhood and I see the police patrol, but I would only suggest that when you see it or it happens, please call the police department of the avenue.

Yes, I have called.

Have a good night.

I think this is the only person registered to comment.

We have no proclamation.

And now I would like to open the public hearing. I don't think we have anyone registered for the public hearing at the moment. So we will open the public hearing and we will close it if everything is fine.

We have no resolutions. We have a first reading of the port, which is a port to include in part 2 of the code, chapter 18, business article 8, exemption for food tanks in certain markets for restaurant regulation.

We have the municipal administrator Mike Cochran to discuss.

Thank you, sir. This came up a few weeks ago.

We were analyzing municipal laws in search of something specific and when the laws were updated in relation to street vendors and advertisers a while ago, this specific law was left out. So this is basically just reactivating an old law basically just replace it because inadvertently we separated the street vendors, advertisers and applicants and this was simply ruled out during the process.

Someone has a question for Qualcomm?

I'm going to ask, this proposal must be rejected. If there is no objection, then it will move on to the second reading.

Digo, precisamos ir para uma segunda leitura ou deveríamos simplesmente seguir em frente, pular a segunda leitura, promulgá-la.

Existe alguma emergência imediata para isso?

Digo, se não há mudança em algo que já existia.

Não há nada urgente que eu saiba. It was just something that, when we were analyzing the regulations for food sales at Meadows, we forgot everything to analyze, so we found out that this had been...

I don't know, I think it was on purpose, but I think we'll bring it back in the future, but I think it's a very limited application of people from the school serving

Well, it doesn't matter to me.

Apparently, it is necessary because it happens. The city wanted to see if it would fall into this exception, where you don't have to go through all the approvals of the health department, and we are not a school and we are not serving them. There is a limitation, I suppose. You know, the primary school does a festival or something like that. You serve food there.

We are going to follow all the regulations of the Department of Health.

They can serve food that the mother made at home. That's what it's for.

My personal thought, and I've already expressed this three or four times. I know it's always better to read a law on at least two occasions, in case the audience has a comment to make and maybe they haven't been able to see it.

Or in case we meet or think about something later that is not in our minds tonight. Therefore, my preference, unless there is an emergency to decree in the first reading, is to always wait and do it.

Thank you, Mike Cochran. We have no second reading of decrees, nor consideration of bids. We have new topics today, an update on the Virginia Highlands Festival of 2026, a future program, and we have Jethra Colwick to come and present this. She is the executive producer of...

As usual, I prepared a list of notes to keep me on the right track. So you all pressed yes, right? We have a great year for the Virginia Highlands Festival. I think this last summer was one of the most successful festivals we've had in many years. Certainly since before COVID and I truly believe that this is totally related to the support we received from the city, but it is more collaborative support. Monetary support is important, but if you don't have the infrastructure and the collaboration between everyone, everyone in the public sector, it has been simply incredible. From each person, from the municipal council appearing in a ribbon cut, to me being able to call someone and say we don't have enough transit cones or we don't have it. Everyone is always attentive and they are fantastic. We should all be very proud to be in this city. And the festival is very grateful for that. In the middle of this festival, we launched a totally new website. We facilitated, with the support of the Wellspring Foundation, a strategic plan, excuse me, an impact study to see how we can better serve the city and the festival as we move forward. So this impact study will end in a few weeks.

So we will be happy to share this data with the city.

And we also launched a new platform for our donors, so that we have a better way of communicating. So it's been a great year. Usually you don't do these three things, besides a festival and all the low season events. and somehow we managed to do it successfully. I think this is due to our leadership. Chana Carico, our president of the council, is sitting here. Also all the relationships and contacts that we have built, especially in the last five years, Mr. Mick Lisch behind me, in the agricultural market, all our community partners. It is simply a beautiful moment for the festival in Abington and we hope to be good administrators of it. Temos eventos por vir. Teremos uma masterclass na próxima semana para adolescentes, chamada Bird Boss, como parte da nossa área de culinária para jovens. É gratuito. Teremos um workshop com Adam Goldson e depois o Plein Air Abington. Estamos no nosso décimo aniversário do Plein Air Abington. No ano passado, recebemos mais de 85 artistas de todo o país de Utah. Minnesota, Nova York, Florida. It is the jewel of the festival's crown and we hope that, as we move forward with Plain Air Edmonton, we can integrate the city more, because it is an honor that artists of this level want to come to Edmonton, Virginia, to paint. Imagine someone who ministers workshops internationally, who is an educator and also a professional artist, barely able to wait to come to Plain Air Edmonton. This is a testimony of our Creeper Trail, our rural areas, our recreation in the open air and the quality of the arts here. I always appeal to the Virginia Art Commission, your city is as strong as your arts and your culture. So if this is our criterion of measurement, we are doing very well in the city of Aras. The festival wants to be a vehicle for our community and we are always counting on you to give us new ways to do this. We thank you so much. We couldn't have done this without you and we still have events to come. We are anxious for the Liberty Fest and to see how we can collaborate and be a productive part of this local culture and art.

When will the plein air be?

The plein air will be from October 7th to 10th and we will have two temporary galleries 70% of all art sales go back to the artist, which has used the word unprecedented many times tonight. It's a very large proportion going back to the artist. And we usually try to choose a noble cause, beyond ours, to target the rest. So, two years ago, we promised a certain amount of money for Damascus Recovery and we just donated thousands of dollars in paintings that were presented to us by our artists for this mission. So, we delivered them so that they can, you know, try to review them in the best way they find appropriate. We are super excited about it. You can't always be able to do it. You can't always be able to do it. You can't always be able to do it. You can't always be able to do it. You can't always be able to do it. You can't always be able to do it. You can't always be able to do it. You can't always be able to do it. We are very grateful for being here. I think that when I took on this position five years ago, if it wasn't for the growing relationship we have with the city of Abingdon, I don't know if the festival would be going as well as it is now. Because we are also blessed to have you in this role.

Thank you.

I want to say, this is very gratifying, but it's teamwork, and I'm not saying this just to say it. I really believe in it. And what happened in Meadows during the end of the Balloon Week is simply magical. And again, we are very grateful for being there. National Night Out, the back to school party, was amazing. Even after being postponed for a week and with a storm coming. I mean, there were 1,700 people there. And just imagine, if it had happened on the right date, we would have had twice as many people. So this is a wonderful progress that we are making as we connect with the community. That's why we thank you very much. We hope you get in touch with us and we'll come back after the emplenar to tell you how it was. And please wait for an invitation to come. We hope you come and share this success with us. Do you have any more questions?

I loved the balloons. I'm so happy I got up early and came on the only day they managed to take off because I would have lost. Yes, for sure. The weather didn't help, but I'm very happy I got up. It was very, very fun.

Well, you should, I managed to guarantee a balloon ride to Ashley Lincoln. You have all kinds of, you know, drone filming and photography available in the city. And that was exciting. I think it's something magical in those giants floating towards the sky. So next year I'm going to the captivity. Wait, fingers crossed.

Yes, there were people who asked me about it.

Well, I kind of canceled it for this year. I didn't feel like we were ready. And it's better to have people asking for it than to try to do it and do it badly. So this is, you know, on the horizon for next year. So we're working on it. We were great. All the balloon pilots' culture matches Abby. So this will make you excited. I mentioned our balloon master, if we should consider at some point, not next year, if we need a bigger place. And they all said absolutely no. Because of the intimacy, although we are in two huge fields, you know, the maximum we can safely put are 14 balloons and they like the small city environment. We became one of their favorite events. Again, this is because of the city of Abington, the people here and our community. So they said, no, we prefer to keep it small, keep it in the city, right here where we can interact with people. So, and these people come from Massachusetts, Georgia, South Carolina, and they are not coming here because we are paying, they love and love the city.

Besides, I got there before the sun rose. I've seen grandma walking with her grandchildren, bringing their chairs to ensure a good place. That was before dawn. It was very crazy. I showed up at 5.30.

I must have passed the hard drive at 4.30 to get some biscuits. And people wanted to know why the pilots weren't here yet. I see where they're going. You know, they're on their way. They just can't go out in the dark, you know? But they were so excited. And yes, so I hope we can capture this energy in all the other events we do, because they are all so broad and valuable. Well, it doesn't matter if we are reaching 5,000 people or 20, as long as these events have quality and integrity behind them. That's what counts. Thank you very much to all of you. We thank you.

We don't have pending issues today.

We have various issues and communications from our municipal manager, Mike Coll.

Thank you. On behalf of the fire department, I would like to remind you that on Friday at 11, sorry, Friday at 8.30 a.m. we will have a ceremony at the fire station, referring to the 25th anniversary of September 11. And they will serve the original energy drink, also known as coffee and water, and maybe a snack or two. Ah, but the original energy drink is not very praised.

So it will be Friday at 8.30 pm at the fire station.

One of the things I want to mention. Clean this place. They are almost finished. There are still some lost batteries out there. Public works have a tremendous amount of material and I know that this delayed them in other projects. But they are... working as fast as possible. We worked last week with three trucks, three days in a row, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, just to be hit by a storm. So there are still some lost batteries out there, but they should finish them with luck tomorrow, because they are doing all this, in addition to their regular work. Sometimes it really delays when big things happen. But the public works staff did an incredible job. We had the short version of the car race in Rolimã on this Saturday. And they were there, making everything happen, along with the police and all the others who were there. Or the fire department. I think they had the chance to hit their truck again. At least one of their inscriptions. And no, it was a good moment and people had fun. It was good, so the climate interrupted, which was a shame. But anyway, it was a great event. So yes, I just want to say hello to the public works staff and to the citizens who are putting things on the side of the road and also during the cleaning. We include a collection of large items, which is usually an event of full time by itself, because people really find an incredible way to find things to discard here. So, besides that, it never ends. So the slabs wash everything to Valor and block the well. So it's very funny, but I'll keep them busy. And they are working hard. But if there are files of people here, just let us know. Public alerts. If you haven't subscribed yet, it's not spam. They will only notify you. And you can choose for who wants to subscribe. We will put a copy of this alert system. Along with the water account. So, all users will receive a copy. If you haven't yet.

I couldn't think of anything.

No, I think that's it.

Members of the council, do you have anything you would like to say?

I want to start by saying that it was very cool. Yesterday, Amanda Billion and I were at Feeding Southwest.

It attracted a good audience there. I am very grateful to everyone who participated and did their part.

As Mike said, it was like imitating a car race. Sorry for the rain, but we had a good audience there, you know, we managed to do some things.

I think we only have this three or four young people left. But please don't let that stop you from coming back next year, because it will be even bigger and better next year too.

I think Chef Roblox has some plans for his own racing car. That's it. Let's see who's faster. Let's see. Anyone else from the council has something they would like to report?

We have no recommendations for councils or committees without closed session. Now I declare this meeting closed.