Town Council - Regular Meeting

The pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Good afternoon to everyone. Another good crowd. We have some interesting items on the agenda to bring everyone out. Um, first thing is approval of the minutes. You all had a chance to review the minutes. And any additions, if you please, corrections? If there's anything good, so they stand approved as is. Report of town manager, Mr. Warner. Thank you, Mayor Stahli, members of council. Uh, first item I want to report on is under the terms of section 58-171 of the town code, the updated six-month priced cost adjustment for the electric utility bills is scheduled to take effect as of May 1st. Based on a projected increase in cost to customers uh, related to that calculation, staff is asking council to defer that adjustment for 1 month in order to give us some time to determine ways in which those costs can be reduced or deferred. So, when the time comes, I will be asking for this to be added as an item of new business at tonight's meeting as a revision to the agenda. Also, I just wanted to report really for the benefit of the public, council will be engaging in your work session on Saturday, May 2nd, to review and discuss fiscal year '26-'27 budget. Few highlights as it is currently proposed I want to pass along is that it does include a proposed increase in B pole to 20 cents per $100 on businesses with gross revenues of $10 million and above, while the current rate is 15 cents. No other tax increases are currently proposed.

Uh, the budget also demonstrates a concerted effort to identify all costs associated with the electric utility and to allocate those costs within the electric fund. This eliminates the traditional transfer from electric to general funds. However, a payment in lieu of taxes is included as general fund revenue related to the electric utility. This is calculated as the amount of tax revenue that the town would receive from the utility if it were a private entity. Compared to last year's transfer of $799,000, the proposed payment in lieu of taxes is $589,000. Also, I want to report that the decision to withdraw from commercial solid waste service is showing some benefit. Solid waste fund is actually transferring revenues, $10,000 for the first time in memory, to the general fund. The budget includes a 2% cost of living adjustment for employees. We were originally looking at 2.8% to match the social security cost of living adjustment, but our health insurance costs increased once again. On that note, the budget includes continued funding of employee only health insurance coverage for all employees at the $1,000 deductible level, but we are already looking to make changes in fiscal year '27-'28 to drop the $500 deductible plan and offer a high deductible health care plan instead. Also, note that there is one vacancy in public works as a result of retirement that will be frozen and is not proposed to be funded. Other vacancies that occur through retirement will be considered in similar fashion during the coming year. And finally, I just want to close by noting that there is a $332,000 contingency budgeted within the general fund, uh, but this includes the possibility of debt for the municipal building renovations and other obligations, but it is nice to balance without use of prior year reserves and actually to budget a contingency.

And that concludes my report for you. Thank you, Mr. Warner. And before this before council, we have a few. And before I get started, let me tell everyone you will have a 3-minute time limit. We have a lot on the agenda today, so you will be limited to 3 minutes total. So, once you hear the buzzer go off, your time is up. So, please be courteous to that. Uh the first one is Mr. Ken Bolka. Take me 3 minutes to get up to the stand. Well, your time [laughter] will begin then. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, and distinguished council members, and town manager. Good evening, everyone. I stand before you as a resident of Bedford as co-founder with my wife, Linda, of the Bedford Boys Tribute Center. We've had in operation for 7 [clears throat] years now with approximately 22,000 visitors from all 50 states and 34 countries. I'm here to discuss a very important issue that requires your immediate attention, discussion, and decision. The issue at hand is the proper time to display our community's Vietnam War fallen and the Bedford Boys lamp post street banners in a respectful and appropriate manner. Recently, I had a very very sincere discussion on the issue with the leadership of the Vietnam War Monument Board of Directors. It was presented to me that in the opinion of the board that the Vietnam War fallen banners should be displayed with the same equal 9-month period as the Bedford Boys banners are displayed. The reasoning offered was that eventually, over time, the National D-Day Memorial and the Bedford Boys Tribute Center will fall out of

visitors' interest and no longer be visited. Furthermore, it was expressed to me that the downtown historic district of Bedford is in a depressed state and has no retail future to speak of. In the board's opinion, the new Vietnam War Monument would become the new draw for visitors to come to Bedford and therefore be an important attraction that will be the source of revitalization for downtown Bedford. I strongly disagree with this reasoning and position. To accept the fact that National D-Day Memorial and the Bedford Boys Tribute Center will be less visited in the future would be like saying eventually, we will be forgetting Gettysburg and Valley Forge. The DNA of our town is the D-Day invasion and on June the 6th of 1944 and our Bedford Boys first wave 9 minutes of sacrifice. To provide equal 9-month lamp post exposure at the same time for both the D-Day and Vietnam fallen would truly be an injustice to the legacies of our beloved Bedford Boys. Do not under any condition

[snorts]

interpret or have the opinion that I do not have respect for our fallen Vietnam boys. To the contrary, they must be honored, but in an appropriate fashion and time. Let's face some facts. Liberty University did not produce a play featuring the Vietnam fallen, nor has there been a book written about them. I offer these perspectives for the benefit of the town of Bedford. Because of the historical worldwide uniqueness related to the invasion, I firmly believe that the National D-Day Memorial and the Bedford Boys Tribute Center will continue to be recognized nationally and will be increasingly visited because two new hotels are under construction. Mr. Parker, your time is up. We'll have to ask you to whatever else you have, pass that on to us. But uh next time, you know, be more brief. We understand what you're saying. Fully understand. And we know what you've said about the banners. And I I understand what where you're coming from. We're here to recognize all the all the fallen heroes as you well know. I don't disagree with you, but we understand what you're saying. So, whatever else you want to say to us, put it in print and pass it out, please. Thank you. All right. Next one [clears throat] is Mr. George Palmer. And give your name and address, too. I'm sorry. Yes, George Palmer. 1100 Pine Crest Pine Crest Avenue. I've been a resident for 12 years. Uh tonight, I just want to address the council about this new business proposal 9-CC-15-1-4-21 speed limit change on Longwood Avenue. First of all, I personally, on a daily basis, either jog or walk the streets of Bedford. In the past 12 years, observations I've made is that people

have become increasingly distracted in their driving. And any type of speed limit change going from a lower limit to a higher limit, I highly disagree with because it puts me at a risk and it puts the other people at risk. Longwood Avenue is a highly residential area with a lot of foot traffic and pedestrian traffic. And it wasn't but a couple years ago that the change was made from 35 to 25 as I understand it. Now, maybe I I'm incorrect on that, but was that change not made too long ago? So, I would like to know what data you have that would suggest that a change to increase it would be beneficial because based on the observations I've made by driving and walking on the town town streets, people they definitely don't pay attention to the speed limits now. So, increasing it would be a danger. I also suggest that a little more traffic enforcement be exercised in these areas, especially in on Longwood where it's it narrows down and people excessively drive over the speed limit. Thank you for your time. I appreciate what you do. Thank you. All right. Tom Ippolito. He finally let me speak.

[laughter] Name Name and address. Uh Tom Ippolito, 1680 Quaker Mill Road. I just wanted to remind all of you uh that Bart had brought up about the uh what you guys are going to be passing soon. But you need to uh make sure that you go ahead and hire somebody for the ticket [clears throat] person. I don't know how you do all that, but you got to vote on it and stuff. But we do need that revenue in town. [clears throat]

So, I mean, you need to really think that over. That's all I have. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Leslie Mahaffey. Come on down. Leslie Mahaffey, 1517 Woodland Road here in town. Thank you, gentlemen, for allowing me to come before you to speak. I'm in here in reference to the proposed banner policy. In review of this uh items that are under the placement under C, it's listed as historically significant persons. I'm taking that that that's the museum historical banners and I would respectfully ask that that name be changed to such. Um also, there are 18 of those banners that are currently There's only 17 on display right now due to a fire damage, but the 18 is not identified. And looking over the policy, also, I see that there is some inconsistencies in naming of streets. Uh Central Street, North Bridge, doesn't say street. And also within the uh C section where the historical banners are, um in years past, they have historically been on Bridge Street. The way that I'm reading this, you're tacking it on at the end of the Vietnam veterans and the end of the Bedford Boys. I would like to see that actually on North Bridge Street. The museum has been in this town for 93 years. We are your next door neighbors. We represent all

history from when the town went from the county was formed in 1754, the town in 1782, all the way through. We represent history of everyone. So, those items I would ask for your consideration on that. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Leslie. Um Mr. Warner, did you take notes on that?

Got it. Good deal. What What did I ask? All right. Uh Terry Foster. Hi, I'm Terry Foster. I live at 611 Longwood Avenue in Bedford. I'd like to address the proposal to increase the speed limit on Longwood. First, let me express my huge disappointment that this is even up for consideration again when it was resolved less than 2 years ago, Longwood Avenue is mostly residential and speed limits in residential areas are 25 through most of the town. Most homes on Longwood are old and it's these homes that make Bedford charming. Some homes, including ours, are within Bedford's historic district. These homes were built long before heavy vehicles came along. The heavy weight is destructive to the foundations of a house, especially an old house. Every house or our house is 150 years old and I assure you that we feel every bump and rattle day and night when large vehicles, especially trucks, drive past our house and that's with the current speed limit of 25. Whether we own one or not, we are all stewards of these old houses. Driving slowly on Bedford's on every Bedford street is how we do our part to protect them. Driving at 25 is a small price to pay to live in such a special town filled with old houses and history. Longwood has a walking loop and crosswalks. Our residents and families who walk and run the loop need to be kept safe. Drivers aren't paying attention like they used to and increasing the speed limit near a

walking trail is a dangerous idea. Also, bicycles and scooters drive along the street and oftentimes in the center of the street. Unless your address is Longwood Avenue, you really have no idea how a speed increase, even a small one, will affect the traffic. Drivers aren't going to yo-yo back and forth. They will increase their speed and keep it there, which is the which is the same reason we had the problem 2 years ago and fixed it. When the speed limits were inconsistent a few years back, they were resolved with a consistent speed of 25 throughout the entire stretch of Longwood, which is only 1.2 miles and it still makes sense today. I'm not sure who wants to increase the speed limit again, but I'll take a wild guess they don't live on Longwood Avenue. This is our street. We live here. We see, feel, and hear the traffic every day. They don't. They pass through and complain they have to drive slowly. At the current 25 mile an hour speed limit, it takes only 4 minutes to drive from Food Lion to the old middle school. I'm dumbfounded that this issue has resurrected again. Please keep the 25 mile an hour speed limit consistent. And if you do anything, please enforce the law and add a few more traffic signs while you're at it. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Brinkley Hill. [clears throat]

Hey there. Brinkley Hill, 706 Vine Street. I also just wanted to speak against raising the back to 35 on Longwood. Um I think that it'd be dangerous to do so. It's unnecessary. But I just wanted to add it acts as a great like traffic calming area when you're coming into a town as a driver. You just naturally feel the sense when the speed limit goes down, it's showing you, okay, I'm coming into town. People live here. People are playing outside. People are walking. They're on Longwood. Um other towns like Stanton or Warrenton or Farmville do the same thing where as a driver indicates to you, okay, I'm coming into a town. It's time to slow down. Um one thing I might suggest is that I think people feel like it should be a 35 in that area because there's still two lanes like when you're driving on the right, there's two lanes on other parts. When you see a two-lane road as a driver or a wide road, you just naturally feel like, okay, it's time to drive faster. Um so I don't think that it's enough to even necessarily just smack the 25 sign out there. I think it'd be really great to even decrease it to one lane on either side with like a grass median in the middle, put some trees up. It does You You see this in numerous other towns, right? And it indicates to you, okay, I'm in a small town. Slow down. People live here. It'd be a great place to add a bike lane even. Or increase the sidewalks or I have kids, you know, I love pushing my stroller and walking next to my wife at the same time. Uh so but Longwood is a It It's a beautiful place and it shows you like like I've been mentioning, the historic homes, the loop goes through there. People walk. So just generally, even on top of not increasing it to a 35, I think it'd be a great place to make a statement for the town of this is a beautiful place. People live here. So I say keep it at 25 and also let's let's make it a beautiful place as well. Thank you, guys. Thank you.

[clears throat] All right. And finally, Mark Knutson. [clears throat]

Hey. My name is Mark Knutson. I live at 720 Longwood Ave. I'm also here to speak about the speed limit change and I am against it increasing to 35. I have four kids and our house is pretty close to the road. So our safety, just in case a ball goes rolling into the road, I'd rather not have the speed increase for any reason to to make that more dangerous for them. Um I know that also in this area, you know, Halloween is is a big thing and the roads get really busy and I know that um there's there's going to be a lot of foot traffic, especially during times like that. So for that reason I think as well it would be good to keep the speed low and you know, I That's really it. Thank you for your time. Thank you. And that concludes the appearances before council. Councilman Evans. Councilman Bileto, what do you have for us? Oh, it's good to see a big crowd here this evening. We appreciate everybody that spoke. Ken, George, Tommy, Leslie, Terry, Brinkley, and Mark. We hear all of what you're saying. Um we appreciate it. I'm sure y'all know through Facebook that they have increased the ticket limits in town of your parking and stuff and I don't know if y'all paid attention or noticed a lot, there's a lot more places to park now in town. Which so we are very happy about because now our customers can come see us, which will get that food tax up. Um I also had the pleasure of meeting a couple this week that purchased Holy Land. I don't know if how many of y'all ever went to Holy Land or remember Holy Land, but they purchased Holy Land and they signed the papers today and

they're in the works of reopening Holy Land back up. So it was a real good pleasure to meet them and see them and hopefully that'll get some more touring back in to town with us. That's all I got. Well, thank everybody that's here today. I hope everybody had a chance to vote today. It's after voting time now. Um we have a busy meeting tonight, so I won't say a lot. I just want to thank you for being here and thank you for your comments tonight. Um just want same thing some of the what Todd said and everybody else said. Thank everybody for being here tonight. Thank you for all your comments and concerns that you came up here and spoke and whatever. Um also I want to say I I attended a event Saturday. I attended the Bedford Professional Women's event. It was pretty cool. Going in, I ain't know how many women in that. But they had some of the best food in the world there at the event. And they This is a fashion show they put on for every year for people and stuff like all that vents and different clothing um organizations and stuff like that. So I think that was a real great event to just go to and just sit there and watch. I met a lot of people. I saw a lot of people I already knew. So it's pretty cool going to something like that. And [clears throat] I just want to say thank everybody for being here tonight. Councilman Haley, we've discussed a whole lot of things since I've been on council. That's the biggest I've seen you smile about anything particular.

[laughter]

But yeah, thanks thank everyone for being here. Appreciate you coming in and and sharing your thoughts with us. All right. I thank every body that you have for coming up tonight and you know, and also we listen to y'alls comments. We take a lot of comments and also like to welcome the people watching by YouTube. I get a lot of comments from people watching by YouTube. Well, I'd just echo appreciate everybody coming out. It's good to hear uh your opinions and also to see so many people out. There's two things I just wanted to bring up real quickly. A few meetings ago I I mentioned a group called Mission Serve is coming here in July. They're the group that comes basically sixth graders through 18-year-olds who come and do work on homes for the needy in the community. They'll be back like I said, back here in July. And if if you want to make donations, you can still make it to the town of Bedford. Just in the memo, put Mission Serve there. But also was reminded that I if if you need work done on your house, if you're in need, um you can contact our very own Mary Zirkle, director of planning community development at 540-587-6006. She's compiling a list of people who need who need work done. And lastly, I just wanted to do uh tell everybody that came out the last Tuesday for the electric meeting. Appreciate all the citizens coming out, but also wanted to just do a shout out to the our Ampere rep and for for John for being there and taking questions and answers at that meeting. So, thanks. Um I have very little other than to say I too want to thank everyone who came up here and spoke. Uh we do appreciate that. Taking the time to voice your opinion. There are

times where you we may be undecided about a few things, but when we hear the public opinion you know, that makes a big big decision uh for us. So, I do appreciate that. And and I also want to touch uh based on what uh Stacy said. Uh my wife is usually involved in that uh fashion show. Uh she's usually one of the models, so but we were out of town this uh week, so I walked in and asked her, "So, what would I do if I came?" Cuz I'd be the only guy. She said, "Probably so, but you know a lot of them just sit there and talk." So, so maybe next year we'll both go, Stacy. [laughter]

All right, uh moving on. Report of council committees. Um I don't think we had any. Nope. And revisions to the agenda, Mr. Warner? Yes, sir. I would like to request that we add as item number 12 a an action to defer the implementation of the PCA for 1 month. Uh let me look at that. That's at the very end you want to put that. Yes, sir. All right.

[clears throat]

All right. Is everyone okay with that? Yep. All right. Okay. Public hearings. Adoption of Bedford 2045 comprehensive plan. Notice is given of a public hearing to be held by the town council 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 21st for the purpose of considering adoption of the proposed town comprehensive plan as required by the Code of Virginia section 15.2-2223. The proposed plan includes studies, goals, and strategies for key topics such as land use, housing, transportation, economy, infrastructure, and community facilities and services for guiding future development. Copies of the proposed plan have been available for public review in the office of planning and community development, and I understand that tonight there are representatives of EPR who did excellent work in drafting the proposed plan who may be prepared to give a brief presentation ahead of the opening of the public hearing. Okay. Um Yeah, Todd, I think you and Alan. Okay. Um I will open this public hearing and then you all come up and give your presentation and if anyone else wants to make any comments, then we'll go from there. So, the public hearing for 2045 comprehensive plan is now open. And then once we go down the agenda, we'll make all you back for further questions. I made the screen come on, but thank you very much for having us. I'm Todd Gordon, I'm principal planner at EPR. With me is Alan Simpson, also at EPR. There we go. There's some slides. Um So, we have had the opportunity and we're very thankful for the opportunity to work with

town staff and with the planning commission on the update of town's comprehensive plan. We've been working on that for approximately 18 months. Um and so uh we'd like to make a a brief presentation of the contents of that. I may have gone the wrong way. Uh so, we uh called this plan our goal Bedford 2045. Um and so, the comprehensive plan is uh meant to look approximately 20 years into the future at where the town of Bedford would like to see itself and what strategies should be in place in order to get you there. Um with this plan, the town has expressed its aims to protect town's history and identity while growing the local economy and providing reliable infrastructure and services.

[clears throat]

Some of you may be veterans of comprehensive planning, others may be new to this idea, uh but the comprehensive plan is required by Virginia law, required required by the Code of Virginia for all cities, counties, and towns. Um the code is the plan is meant to be a guide to future decision-making on a range of topics. Um and it's very important to note that the comprehensive plan is a non-binding guide. It's meant to be a reference that you can look to as you make many little decisions about building or approving developments um and so on um to keep on track for where what the town is aiming for over the next 20 years. Um ultimately, the plan is a guide. Um it does not hold the force of law the way a zoning ordinance does. So, important to keep that in mind. I wanted to briefly mention the planning process. As I said, approximately 18 months since we initially started. We kicked off the project in the summer of 2024. Um we had the information and a community survey available at CenterFest that fall. Um throughout that winter and into February, we met with various stakeholders, um community groups, town departments, and others. We conducted a great deal of technical and and demographic analysis looking at the town's growth, um property values, housing values, etc. And began to come up with strategic proposals and goals for the future. Um We presented goals and strategic proposals at another public workshop in August 2025. Um and then drafted plan language through the fall. We then presented again to the public the draft plan in February a couple of months ago and then made revisions and brought that plan back to the planning commission in in March. And so, um ultimately, we've had a a wonderful time and I'm very happy to work with the

planning commission on the construction of this plan. Um and they have recommended the approval of this plan to you, and so we bring it to you this evening. Um I mentioned a minute ago the the number of stakeholders that are involved in that in this. Um and so, uh spoke speaking to the public through uh in-person interactions at various events and meetings, um getting the public's input through a survey that we conducted, but we also sat down individually with um various folks um who had something they might share with us about the future of Bedford. Um and those included some of the people listed here, the police department, fire and rescue, public works, um County of Bedford, the hospital administration and other health care providers, church groups, property owners, small businesses and business groups, uh the real estate industry and real estate agents and professionals, um schools, utility providers, as well as the Virginia Department of Transportation. In doing all of that, we've had this website up throughout and I hope many people have had the opportunity to visit it, but bedford2045.com where we posted all the draft materials, results of surveys, uh presentations, invitations to come to public meetings, and others. Um and so, the draft plan that's uh available in your packet is also up on this website, and we've used the website to collect feedback on it. And so, this website continues to be the the landing place for this project through its adoption. And so, the the comprehensive plan starts very broadly with where Bedford wants to be in the future and and whittles itself down to specific strategies and actions that might be taken to to help deliver you there. But the the vision statement that was constructed using the input of of residents through the survey is essentially a vision of growing the economy and and culture of Bedford, becoming a hub for your region,

and being a town filled with high-quality housing, um high-quality employment, and high-quality public services. So, I'll invite Alan to speak for a minute. So, I'll talk a little bit about the plan itself. So, as you review it as you have reviewed it, it's organized around 12 chapters. So, each cover different topics. So, we have analysis of key issues and opportunities, so strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, demographic analysis of current conditions and projected population, uh so on and so forth. Uh so, then we talk about the economy, we talk about housing, community facilities and services, uh infrastructure, transportation, parks and rec. We have one on community identity and partnerships, uh then land use and growth management. That includes future land use map, existing zoning, that sort of thing. And then finally, implementation to talk about how the plan will actually be put forth. Uh so, first, you know, each chapter has uh some analysis of existing conditions. Um so, it includes public facilities, demographics, utility statistics. This is an example of the one for water and sewer services. So, uh, you know, we we have that analysis there as kind of a baseline. Um, and with that we go on to information analysis. So, we then analyze opportunities, uh, threats, strengths, weaknesses that we identified through our own analysis, through talking to the public, stakeholders, and the survey, things that the town is real good at, things that people would like to see the town improve at. Um, so it has, uh, you know, information on future growth and change for each chapter topic. Um, and then finally, goals and strategies for each topic in the plan. So, each chapter proposes one or two goals for the chapter topics, the overarching goals, and within those strategies to spell out actions to achieve those goals, um, and some strategies below that. Um, so the implementation chapter has a

matrix that talks about, um, we've got the overarching goal. So, here for economic development, goal one is to strengthen and diversify the town's economy while revitalizing downtown and our community. How do we get there? We have strategy 1A, 1B, 1C that that dig down into how to how to get that done. Uh, talks about who the lead authorities would be on that, uh, who would be [clears throat] support on that. Um, and in general terms it talks about the length of time it would take to achieve that, the the cost using dollar figures. Uh, so, you know, one dollar sign being low cost, three being higher cost, uh, and then, uh, some discussion about the resources available to achieve those things. So, that's at the end of the document and it's kind of a summary of everything that we talk about and then recommend in the plan. Um, transportation is the transportation chapter is probably the most significant chapter in terms of content in the plan. So, uh, we talk about transportation being more than just about moving cars and automobiles around. Uh, so it used to be about supporting center access to downtown, uh, schools, parks, jobs, services for people of all ages and abilities. Uh, so Bedford obviously is positioned around Route 460, regional ties in your nearby metropolitan areas. Bedford shares commuting, freight, and visitor travel. So, we focus on walkability, uh, safer crossings, transit, uh, and readiness for a future passenger rail stop. Um, so we worked with, uh, the CVPD C to develop this chapter. They were, uh, co-authors on on that part of the plan, um, and it was reviewed and approved by the Virginia Department of Transportation. So, that is a significant part of the plan. Uh, another significant part of the plan is the future land use map. Um, for those who, uh, have not looked at the future land use map before, um, it's a complement to the zoning map. So, the existing zoning map talks about what's here now, uh, what the land use is as of today. Um, and the

future land use map is not a zoning map. It is a guide for what the future zoning should look like. So, this is uh, the vision for what the town would look like in horizon year 2040. Um, it's not necessarily, um, it is not law and it is not prescriptive, but it's a guide and a kind of a way forward to what the plan what the town wants the town to look like in [laughter]

2040. So, [cough] uh, this is an important feature of most comprehensive plans. It helps organize areas that may be appropriate for different types and scales of growth and development. Um, so Todd, you want to take over? So, it it's it's certainly difficult to to summarize the whole comprehensive plan in a in a brief presentation. The document is roughly 100 pages long. Um, I encourage everyone to to give it a read. In the grand scheme of comprehensive plans, it is, uh, relatively brief compared to some places. Um, but the plan is meant to be comprehensive. It covers, uh, a wide variety of topics, um, but ultimately, um, it is, uh, again, a guide, uh, to decision making, um, primarily to be used by you all as you approve developments, consider budgets, and other priorities. Um, there are some other uses to comprehensive plans. Uh, the comprehensive plan is in some ways a key to funding that may be granted by the state or or even federal agencies. Um, in many cases those agencies want to know that these plans, uh, or or your request for funding is included in your comprehensive plan, um, because that shows that it is, uh, accepted as part of the vision for the future of your community. Um, it's also true, um, in our experience that the comprehensive plan is turned to very often by potential investors in your town, um, employers, um, property developers, and others as an indication of, uh, what the town is, uh, interested in and what its vision for its future is. So, we we present this plan that we think is, uh, strongly based in public input and feedback, um, charts the the demographic, um, and and other, uh, existing conditions of the town, and presents goals and strategies to to point Bedford toward where your community has indicated they'd like to be, uh, in the future. Uh, so, uh, your last comprehensive plan

was, uh, adopted in 2017. There have been some updates and additions in the intervening years, um, and now we present this as, uh, as, uh, this year's update to the comprehensive plan. Um, we are certainly happy to hear your comments, public comments, and answer any questions you have. Probably time once we get to the, uh, new business we'll probably call you back up with any questions we may have or, uh, any concerns. Yeah.

[clears throat]

Is there anyone else who would like to make comments on the comprehensive plan? Going once. Going twice. And the public hearing for comprehensive plan is closed. Now, the next one is vacant building registry. Mr. Warner. Notice is hereby given of a public hearing to be held by the town council at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 21st. Purpose of the public hearing is to receive comment on a proposed ordinance to require buildings that are vacant, boarded up, and disconnected from utilities for more than 12 months to register with the town as vacant structures and pay an annual $100 fee. Further information on this action has been available in the office of the town manager. Also, before the, uh, public hearing is open, I wanted to note council has received comments by email from three citizens. Well, first is Barbara Owen, second is Bill Moseley, and the third is Ms. Ann DeLong. And I would ask that those comments be appended to the minutes in the official record of the meeting. All right. And this public hearing for the vacant building registry is now open. Anyone who would like to come up and speak about that, you may come up at this time and tell us what's on your mind.

[laughter]

This is a big surprise, but I love Bedford, and I can't stand seeing these empty buildings. The this does not sound like it's going to deter anyone from having an empty building. I think $100 a year, woo be do, that's nothing. I think it should be harsh it should be very harsh and you need to hit a hit them harder than that. Thank you. Good. Thank you. Um, could you Um, then anyone else? This public hearing is closed. All right, consent agenda. Uh, Bedford Town Carnival. Mr. Warner. Bedford County Fair Incorporated has requested permission to host the Bedford Town Carnival at Liberty Lake Park from August 21st through 23rd. The event will also require quite a bit of put up and take down work in the days before and after the event. Special event application has been completed and is attached for council's reference. In addition, all fees included within the current special events policy have been paid. Tonight town council is requested to approve the Bedford Town Carnival on August 21st, 22nd, and 23rd from Friday at 4:00 p.m. until Sunday at 6:00 p.m. at Liberty Lake Park. All right, hear a hear a motion? Yeah. Uh, Councilman Haley made the motion and Councilman Haley made the second. Any questions, comments? Same concept from last year where they had it out there, right? That's my understanding, yes. Okay. Yeah. And and I will say last year was kind of a kind of a a new beginning, kind of went along and did things, uh, as per the moment, but this year, uh, it's in line. It's kind of more as

Jonathan Haley said, we copy and paste and think we have it down pat and worked out well last year and, uh, I'm happy they came back for this uh, year at Liberty Lake Park. Anything else? All right. Dorsey. Mr. Evans. Aye. Mr. Foreman. [clears throat] Aye. Mr. Foster. Aye. Mr. Haley. Aye. Mr. Aquilino. Aye. Mr. Eftekhari. Aye. Mayor Stanley. Aye. Motion carries with all members voting aye. All right, new old business and new business. Invitation for bids for a franchise franchise for the lease of the town's transfer station. Mr. Warner. Yes, Mayor Stanley, members of council, as you may recall, um, when we exited the commercial solid waste business, we retained ownership of the transfer station facility that frankly we have no practical use for since we no longer collect and dispose of solid waste from customers directly. We advertised a request for firms to express interest in obtaining a franchise and tonight I can report that we have received one qualified proposal from Baze Trash Removal to negotiate for bids for franchise. I will tell you that staff's opinion is it's not quite where we'd like to see it but we would ask for your authority to engage them in negotiations to bring a possible franchise agreement back under the terms of the process. Okay. And uh the town attorney advises me that approval of this motion does require a 3/4 vote. Okay. So we're giving you the approval Yeah. Yeah. You're you're not approving the franchise just to to To negotiate Request Enter into negotiations. Yes, of course. All right. We just you know Does everyone understand that?

I hear a motion. So moved. Councilman Haley made the motion. Second. Vice Mayor Updike. Any questions or or discussion? I have a question. By the way The only question I had probably dealt with the maybe franchise fees, royalties or other charges. Talks about town waste. But I my question I guess really generally is for town residents are we still are residents still going to be able to use the first 500 lbs free drop off their residential waste there like we do now? That's something we can negotiate as part of the franchise but I'll make a note of that. And brush also. Yes. Yes, there are certain town interests that were referenced in the advertisement that we will pursue. Good. Very good. Anything else? All right. Dorsey. Mr. Foreman. Aye. Mr. Foster. Aye. Mr. Deely. Aye. Mr. Ippolito. Aye. Mr. Updike. Aye. Mr. Evans. Aye. Mayor Sumner. Aye. Motion carries with all members present voting aye. All right. Next is a brief presentation regarding operations and outcomes of the planning and community development. Miss Zucco. Floor is yours. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I am the second of our department heads that are bringing presentations for to the public and so I wanted to give you just a very brief overview of what community development does and also have

some information on the economic development side of the house that we have in the two departments that I supervise. Um starting with the building side of community development, we have two staff there. We have the building official and building inspector and wanted to give you some statistics on what they processed last year in the way of building permits. They processed 226 permits and they range from everything from electrical change of services to bouncy houses on up to commercial things like the hotel and I wanted to give you some statistics. 28 new houses. That's pretty big number for the town of Bedford to see in town and we we know that's going to be growing over time. So um some scale for that growth over time is building permits year to date 76 and if we continue that current rate of growth we'll end up with 260 at that rate. So compare that to 226 of the last year. We know those are coming mostly in Eastern Crossing and the other subdivisions that are currently being built. Uh second part of permitting is inspections. So just for scale there each single family dwelling has about 11 inspections that need to be done um for the final certificate of occupancy for someone to move in for safety. That's what it's all about is safety cuz that is the public purpose of most all things is public health, safety and welfare whether it's building or zoning. Uh other parts of that and we do share this lovely responsibility between those of us in the town among us in that in the department. So a lot of the things we see for enforcement are signs that are in the right of way and we keep a running tally of the look in the back of the the trucks that staff has as they're picking this up again out of the right of way, not on private property. Um property maintenance so it is now grass season as we're beginning to put out those notices. Other things that we look for are illegal uses that didn't receive zoning approval or that are unsafe. Nuisances in zoning that can be lighting as you see in some things we get calls for lights that are too bright. Uh on down to unsafe structures which are the most imminent danger to the public that they will get on very quickly if there's

a situation or someone car goes into a building. Those those are within their purview as well. For planning and zoning on my side of the house we also share an administrative staff and most of the processing of zoning permits are done by Kathy Johnson in the office and we processed 126. Those range from sign permits down to chickens in that lower left picture. So if anyone has any chickens we're happy to give you that permit there and get you hooked up so that your neighbors don't call us and tell us you have chickens. Planning actions these go mostly to the planning commission. These are conditional use permits, rezoning actions, map amendments and the like that we have there and we also do uh notices basically the letters of determination when someone needs to have something in writing what they can do with their property. That comes through us as well. We also do site plans and plats of platting of subdivisions. So that's what the picture is of the large one there at the top there as we bring things online they go through a review process that goes among agencies and lastly are signed off by the subdivision agent which is me before they are recorded in the courthouse. And you heard tonight the long range planning that we've been working on for 18 months here was our comprehensive plan which we've been very excited about to have and we appreciate the work of the planning commission in guiding that process as is required. Is required for code but it's also something that we need to have a thought of what we want Bedford to look like. So that's actually a good exercise for us to go through. That also informs the capital improvement program for budgeting purposes. And so I also serve as staff to the housing authority. That is one of your appointed bodies that you're familiar with. The big things they're working on right now are the community development block grant which is over a million dollars for the second phase in the Hilltop community. This is one of the houses that have been built on Cook Street nearing completion as soon as we can get a sewer hookup there where we thought there was one and there wasn't. So we're so close. And the second part that you may be familiar with is South Street lots that town council that

you sent about to bid and you did not receive any buyers. You gave those to the housing authority and they turned those into their budget. So the first lot was sold to the Habitat for Humanity Greater Lynchburg and that home dedication is this Saturday 10:00 a.m. Everyone is invited. Just watch where you park but you are more than welcome to attend that for the new the new homeowner there. The second lot is under contract and due to go to closing right now actually. So thank you for that in lieu of budget. They were able to turn that into money that they are then using for grants part of which is going to go for Mission Serve as Councilman Foster mentioned to you. Some of that money will go there as well as other home improvement in the community. The other body that I serve for is the economic development authority another one of your appointed groups and they had a strategic plan in 2021. They laid out three projects and they're pretty much through with all three of them. So they're looking to update their strategic plan. The first was a business class hotel. You can see the Hampton Inn is under construction and should be opening early next year. Second project was the metal workforce training center that took over the old Wheelabrator Frye Winola building in order to focus that on I say that's almost done. The study is done. They had a grant to do that and now we're looking for tenants in that space. We're focusing mostly on a foundry or others who may be looking to do critical or rare earth mineral reclamation. So that's how we're marketing that. And the third project was an incubator or business development center. We used tobacco commission funds to do that. That study is going to the plant the EDA on May 8th at their meeting as a draft and we'll be bringing that back to the public. We had a really good meeting of entrepreneurs a couple [clears throat] of weeks ago at CVCC in order to find out who would be the tenants of this space. So those are the three projects. I'll talk about incentives on the next slide but the other thing that I do is retention and expansion visits of our top employers on a regular basis annually. Go out and ask them what they need, what their challenges are and who their friends are

in case we can bring them here to the town to as a supplier or another entity in their supply chain. That is the trickiest part of economic development is having space for businesses to locate. People ask me all the time well what's coming in? Where are you putting them? Where are they coming? I'm like where am I putting them? Exactly. We have essentially one publicly held piece of property and that is the Bedford Center for Business which is held by the Bedford County Economic Development Authority. We do have a shovel ready lot right there. It's actually graded and ready to go. So that is one that we end up marketing jointly with the county and we did just have the joint EDA meeting of both bodies last week. So we do that annually with the two EDAs and there's going to be a working group convened members from both of those bodies to get things done not just once a year but throughout the year. I mentioned that we have the incentives that the economic development authority does. What the print is kind of hard to read but from 2018 to 2025, 68 grants were awarded in the downtown area for real property improvement that totaled over $248,000 across 68 recipients. Now, some of them have come back more than once for facade or other work that they've had done to update it. And in 2025, the EDA led the charge on child care grants. We had two recipients that each received $15,000 in order to enable child care as a workforce issue. So, trying to move that forward in that that body. Uh transportation, some of the other work that we do. Uh the Federal Rail Administration has given us the grant that you are familiar with in order to be siding the Amtrak passenger rail stop there along Main Street. So, that is underway. AECOM is your consultant who is doing that work for you. That will be wrapped up in early 2027 so that we can talk about how we actually fund construction of that. So, stay tuned for how we're going to do that. Uh we This is a breaking news here for the Otter Bus. We had 4 years of demonstration

grants through the state. We are now on the list the the 6-year plans for the state has put us in as a Federal Transit Administration recipient for going federal. Where we've talked about this before, you've authorized an 80/20 grant through the state, then you authorized a 70/30 application, and it looks like we will be getting that if it passes in June with the Commonwealth Transportation Board. Another aspect of what my department does is grants, and ones you're most familiar with recently are the USDA downtown strategy. That was a $50,000 grant that was done to provide information on actionable strategies that are meant to be done in 5 years. So, the next steps for that, as you're aware, we'd like to assign core teams that will be responsible for each of the different actions in that. And one of those is actually on your agenda tonight. The recommendations we've talked about carrots, and one of the recommendations was to have a vacant property registry, and that was recommended in that strategy as well to close that circle. One of the things you may you think you should be aware of the FEMA grant that the hospital has for a new generator. So, that's another large-scale grant of $8 million. Well, that's $4 million but $8 million project. And other things for my department, workforce development. This was the most recent chamber event we had with the Career Tech Expo that was held at Susie Gibson for all of the eighth graders in Bedford County came through. It was a fun day. Highly recommend if you want some excitement, stand in the hall while the kids are going through. And this is your attraction. I want to just remind everyone we had the World War II Heritage City designation from the National Park Service. We do have new brochures out and about, and signage [clears throat] is the last step in that grant that we received for that. So, that will wrap that up. And as everyone knows, all of us in the town have other duties as assigned, and we're happy to do them. And the website for specifically for economic development is betterinbedford.com.

Well, thank you, Mary. Any questions, comments? Things you did not know? Oh. Earlier this week, I had a uh conversation with an individual who certainly has the the gift of gab. Our conversation was was about electric rates. Um so, I knew at that point it was going to be a very long conversation. And um uh at one point he said that he'd had um uh had spoken with with with Mary Beth you know, some some some various aspects of of that issue that he was trying to resolve. And um and at some point the conversation got to um the the the the tourism and and the lady that runs that and how just involved and on the ball and had an answer for everything that she was. He compared her compared Mary to this lady. He said, "And if I can find a way for the county to scoff Mary up, I'm going to find a way to do that." Don't say that in a public meeting.

[laughter] [clears throat] But you know, he was he was very much aware of some of the things that that Mary was involved Mary was involved with and was very thankful for the things So, thank you for all the work that you do.

Thank you. It's my pleasure to serve. And they're done that, but uh I will say too, I'm very pleased with what I'm seeing, and and I told Mary several times, I don't really know what you do. So, you know, this gives us a a lot better indication as to all the duties that she has. I mean, we tend to and and and the citizens do focus on one thing, but there's a lot more going on here than just one item. Uh but uh I thank you for all you do, and just keep up the good work, and uh and whenever you retire, I'll come back and and sing or whatever you want me to do if I'm still around. [laughter]

All right. Thank you again. All right. Resolution, adoption of the Bedford 2045 Comprehensive Plan by Mr. Warner. All localities in the Commonwealth are required to adopt a comprehensive plan prepared through the Planning Commission according to the Code of Virginia. Town Planning Commission has been contemplating a revision to the 2017 Comprehensive Plan since late 2022 awaiting incorporation of new land with the second phase of the boundary adjustment agreement through reversion. After a competitive bidding process, Town Council authorized a contract with EPRPC in May 2024 for planning services. Work was carried out over several months and included numerous opportunities for public engagement during the drafting of the plan. Our goal, Bedford 2045, is a long-range policy guide for growth and development for the Town of Bedford through the year 2045. It provides a foundation for decision-making on land use, housing, transportation infrastructure, and community facilities so that future development aligns with the community's goals. The plan combines technical data and trend analysis with extensive community input to paint a clear picture of where Bedford stands today and where it aspires to go. The plan also references various other planning efforts undertaken in the past, including those by the Redevelopment and Housing Authority and the Economic Development Authority. The Virginia Department of Transportation is required to review local comprehensive plans, and VDOT found the proposed plan to be consistent with state transportation plans on February 2nd, 2026. Planning Commission held a public hearing on April 2nd, 2026. No citizen spoke at the public hearing. Commissioners discussed the best chapter for pocket parks in the plan and a paragraph about the potential recreational opportunities on the reservoir property. Commission decided to leave the

reservoir information in for Town Council to choose how to address that based on recent Council action. Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend the Comprehensive Plan to Town Council for their action to adopt it as required in the Code of Virginia. Tonight, Town Council is requested to adopt the Our Goal, Bedford 2045 Comprehensive Plan as recommended by the Planning Commission. All right. [clears throat] Do I hear a motion? Motion. All right. Councilman Evans made the motion. Second? Second. All right. Councilman Foster made the second. [clears throat]

Questions? Discussions? And Daryl, you've been heavily involved in this. I was involved in in my time on Planning Commission. Yeah, there was a a lot of a lot of work that went into went into this comprehensive plan. Um you know, like to have seen a little more community involvement with that, but I think that between the the town and the consultants that we had, they did a did a good job of trying to reach out and and and bring people into the into the discussion, and and got some you know, real really good information and feedback you know, from that from that process. Um the the the product that that's that's before us, I think it's a very good plan. Um you know, is is it a perfect plan? That's you know, kind of a you know, an individual analysis evaluation kind of thing, but uh it is a very good plan. And um um you know, it's as far as the uh the section area that that discusses the um uh the property around the reservoir and stuff, and you know, my position was we need to take that out, but um you know, that's that's kind of what what's before us. All right. You know, I want to say something. Please please do. You're getting better. I like that.

[laughter] Well, I mean, first of all, I would just I did want to like echo what Vice Mayor Updike said about all the hard work that went into it. That's why I wanted to go on record to thank the Planning Commission and EPR and Mary and her staff for all all that hard work. And you can call me a nerd because I actually enjoyed reading the comprehensive plan. I mean, the narrative was really well thought out, but I really enjoyed the the piece on the SWOT, you know, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, but also the way the strategies were laid out. So, my comment would be if we adopt this plan, I would like to make sure there's a way we can use it as a guide. [cough]

Kind of And I believe I say that but similar to what the town manager has been doing with the downtown strategy. How when we something comes up before council, he kind of has tagged certain things to the downtown strategy so to make sure that we're following this guide or the plan that we tagged things for decision making to the plan. Does that make sense?

Mhm. A lot of sense. Um and and Mr. Warren, you help me out here. I think that's one thing that uh I have discussed with the previous one and that sometimes things get lost in the weeds and that we don't give it a clear direction at times and that's one thing we have to keep pushing and and and seeing where we are and what we we want to do and what we can do or probably some things are not going to work out the way we thought. But uh and and the question to to Mr. Foster is that will technically be up to council to review or would it go back to the planning commission then? And I'll I'll defer to Mary here and say but there is a statutory requirement that it be reviewed every 5 years. I will say that planning commission has the ministerial duty primarily to do that and and does that. I mean honestly, I think on an annual basis there probably one meeting where they review the contents and what things are working, what things are not, what needs to be included. But yes, on a formal basis uh we'll make sure that we comply with the review requirement of state code and you know, if it comes time to to review the whole thing, we'll we'll certainly do that. I'll I will say editorially I was the author of the last two plans. This is a great improvement over what I did. Well, I will say you you learn as you go along. And it's it's no different than the county fair or or town carnival, excuse me. Uh you learn things as you go along, have to improve and make things better and that's that's what we're doing and making no fault for anybody. We just learn how to do things better and that's the key as long as we learn and improve. So, does that answer your question? It'll kind of be the council and we need to keep bringing it up to to review. Yeah, I I just my I guess my just what your point you made is that we

we use it as we must start making decisions for the future or on different things. We look to this and say, "Okay, this fits right here for this." and And [clears throat]

and and as I keep saying, 2045's a long way away. Of course, it'll be here before you know it. But it's a vision and a guide to go by. It it things will change. Technology will change some of it and [clears throat] and people will come and go, but it's a guide and a vision to go by basically is what it is. So. But but you have to kind of read this thing. You made a good point. Every decision you make you see how does that fit in with with what you're doing? Yeah. And just couple things I'd like to add, you know, along with dovetailing with Councilman Foster said, um I think it would be beneficial if when we do our strategic planning things, that we have the comprehensive plan there so that we don't have two different good plans moving parallel. We we want them to converge at some point and that would also create an avenue for us to review everything, you know, what was talked about in the strategic plan last year versus what it is we want to do this year versus how does it compare with the comprehensive plan. Um and the the other note is uh again, this is a state mandated, you know, document uh and there is a specific section in there and you'll find it in most any community comprehensive plan. It's about parks. You know, and we need to take a realistic look on, you know, how we're going to meet those needs. And if we're going to keep growing residential areas, we need green spaces other than just places to mow. We need things for for families to have, you know, some type of interaction, you know, that kind of stuff. So, um so again, they like I said, we need to keep these things, you know, uh you know, up front and and we need to be focused on them, you know, with just about every time we meet, you know, how

how are we meeting those particular standards that we set for ourselves? Very good. Very good comments. What else? We're kind of on a roll now, so let's let's keep going. [clears throat]

So, only thing with Mr. Warren said is play comprehensive plan is pretty much what everybody else has said. It's a guide to move forward or whatever. Things can change over time like he said, some things is working, some things are not working and stuff like that. So, it's really just having a vision to move forward in the future or whatever. So, and Mary has done a great job on putting this together or whatever with her hard work and stuff. So, we that's why we're here at this moment tonight voting on this to move forward for the future. Anything else? Um I just want to also thank uh Todd E PR. Uh you guys did a great job. You come in. I was in there in the beginning and then uh rotated off. But uh I know you all kept it going and Mary, thank you a lot for being involved in this. So, planning commission did a great job. I sat through sat through some of the meetings and uh saw some of the uh slides and all that and it was a lot of thought that went into this. Uh so, I thank everybody that was involved did a great job and here we are. Nothing else? We will proceed. Well, No, what What about the the item about the reservoir land acquisition? Do you want to We we can address that later. Okay. Cuz we we don't have documents here to address that. But Mary, the planning commission I guess would address that. They actually wanted town council to um Right. to to have that conversation. Yeah, this is one they didn't feel comfortable taking out or doing anything with that. They want it to be your decision. Okay, then as what did it say? I can read that for you. What is it? We don't own the property around the reservoir anymore. Or we're No, I'm Let's let's see

let's see how we need to address the reference. Yeah. So, it it currently references it under um I believe it's under the greenway section of parks area of trails and open space other open spaces. And this will change of course. The town also owns an undeveloped reservoir property that currently serves solely as a water supply and is closed to the public. This large wooded area presents a unique opportunity for future passive recreation such as hiking, nature observation, fishing or picnicking if portions of the land can be opened to the public. Any use of the reservoir property would require rigorous protections for water quality and safety, but with careful planning, this site could eventually provide residents with a new place to enjoy Bedford's natural environment. This might be a great time and for the public here as well to speak to the action we took recently with regard to that reservoir property. We resolved an ownership question raised by the water authority about specific parcels. But we continue to pursue plans to conserve the property and to certainly conserve the water supply. We're engaging with the water authority in that discussion um as well as the county to explore possibilities of passive recreation that can [clears throat] be applied to it regardless of the other administrative factors. So, we we are pursuing that and I forgot the name of the gentleman in Lexington who is advising me on that currently, but that that is underway. So, thank you for bringing that up. So, so at this point, we we own the property on the opposite side of the reservoir and and but we're not sure what we're going to do with it at this point in time. So, it technically could go into something of that nature. Yes. But but I guess my question is do we need to change that in any way, shape or form from what it says now?

And again, we're talking about a document that is a long-term vision kind of thing. So, we're not any one particular thing is is is nothing that's going to, you know, happen fast. You know, this we got to do it anyway. Yeah, and I will say and Mary, correct me if I'm wrong here, none of that is etched in stone. It can be changed by planning commission or reviewed at some point in time or when something does change, it can be revisited and and and changed. So, uh so, I don't want to throw it back to the planning commission. I don't I don't want to play this ping pong back and forth, but but I do think that that's where we're at right now. Where are we at?

If we come back with a programmatic solution conjunction with the state, we can add that as an amendment to the comp plan. Yeah, but at this point, all that is a possibility right now. As to the property we own cuz we've not yet decided what we're going to do with it. And I think that's will be a long discussion on another time.

Oh yeah, but but that was It was in uh yeah. The uh planning commission asked us to discuss it. But uh or we're just saying that I think it's okay as is. I'm good with that. You good? Everybody else good? Mr. Carson? Mr. Evans? Aye. Mr. Foreman? Aye. Mr. Foster? Aye. Mr. Haley? Aye. Mr. Rebello? Aye. Mr. Updike? Aye. Mayor Stanley? Aye. Motion passes with all members voting aye. All right, next is ordinance registry. At its regular meeting on February 17th, 2026, town council discussed development and passage of a vacant building registry ordinance. A proposed draft was used for specific reference as part of that discussion at that time. Consensus of council was to move forward with formal consideration of such an ordinance and to include a public hearing as part of that process. Since that time, staff and the town attorney have worked to develop a final working draft for consideration by council. Tonight, town council is requested to consider adoption of the vacant building registry ordinance as submitted by the town attorney. Okay. I'm not going to ask for a motion yet cuz I think there may be some discussion we want to have and figure out just exactly what we want to do and what direction we want to go. So, I'll open up for discussion. Uh I'll start off with maybe a talking point, maybe it leads on to something else, but uh uh Mr. Lockaby mentioned previously that uh the vacant building registry was uh kind of one of the things that was uh recommended by the consultants uh for the you know, to help us revitalize downtown. But I think they also said that it would

be better if those types of regulations, rules, or whatever were came from the business community as opposed to being mandated by by council. And that is certainly [clears throat]

I feel like the the best case scenario. Um however, uh we still have buildings that that that need some type of addressing. Um A- and if you know, proprietors, you know, can't or won't, you know, bring these buildings to where they are a little more marketable, you know, then then maybe, you know, council does need to step in. Um But but I I do have some some issues regarding, you know, property rights and mandating what what people can and can't do with with their with their property, but um you know, I'm certainly open for to hear more discussion about it. All right. What else? I'm going to ask you a question. Um in under derelict building, it says not lawfully connected to electric service, not lawfully connected to water or sewer service, and then it's got if required. What do they mean by if required? Or what do we mean by if required? I I thought we were requiring it by the ordinance, but I didn't draft that part, so I'm sorry. Yeah. It just seems like it should be required and then we're putting if required at the end.

I'm trying to I'm trying to I'm not just saying whether you're not required to to be honest. There may be rare exceptions where um there might be some private systems that are allowed, but I'm I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

re- I mean, it wouldn't be possible to remove that at the end? If required. And I'm sorry. I'm looking at Mary. I just forgot. I I can't I can't imagine there are too many exceptions. And I don't know if that's straight out of the state definition for um derelict building. I think that was the source of much of Mr. Lockaby's drafting of this was to be in compliance with Perhaps there are communities that have private water and sewer systems and that informs the state language. But I'm speculating, so. I imagine it is probably the state language. I think it was Graham Anderson who was Cuz it just seems like it would make it a little confusing for somebody to see that. Cuz we Cuz I've supported this all along. We want to have something to help to help uh because we offer, as Mary said earlier, we offer a lot of carrots, but we need a stick to get people to comply sometimes. Um and that's what they talked about in the meetings that we were at. And this is there's not This is a very easy so far. I mean, all you have really have to do is have a building with electric service and um water water connection to it. So, and if you have those uh for 6-month period, then you're not a bit derelict building or vacant building. So, I mean, it makes it very easy. So, you know, so that's that's something that I thought we needed to look at that if required and and I know you're looking at it now, sir.

Mr. Mayor, uh the uh the statute that that uh Mr. Lockaby was referring to had to be referred to, does or speak to uh not lawfully connected to any required water or sewer service from a utility service provider. So, and the language that he used was close to that. Um and and I think it's to the same point, but it the derelict building definition is in statute and includes this this uh concept of what is So, they have to have it. So, it's saying it is required to have it. Well, it's If if it's required to have it. What what I would kind of surmise is that most places you got to have electric, but some commercial buildings may not have uh water connections or a restroom or anything, so that would not be required because they don't have water or sewage coming into the building, but that would be That'd be the only reason I would think that that would be there. But certainly you do have some buildings that that don't have those water or sewage. Everybody's got to have electric because it's If they make Yeah, I Okay. I Yeah, I think yes. I think you may be right there. And it says or, so it either has electric or has sewage connection. So, it's not both. A- And I think it's one thing that it's it's the the terms they use to cover everything that could possibly happen. Um and I I I will say this. Um To to back to what Vice Mayor Black said, this this stems from the downtown strategy. Um and it and and that and and I thank Mary I thank her a hundred times. I'll probably thank her another hundred times for our league for this, getting that

grant cuz it's given us guidance as to what we can do. And it's kind of like comprehensive plan. It's it's a guide. And this is something they said that we encourage to be done and that No, it it doesn't hit them very hard. It's it's very light, but it's a start. And and it's something that has not been done up to this point. And and until you start something and then, as I say, like like a lot of things, we can look at it in 6 months or or a couple months and do if we want to tweak it, do we want to change it? But this is a start to start addressing some of the vacant buildings that may make this model. That I I don't know if there are any or not, but it's very I would call this for what it's worth, very lightweight. But it can be changed and it can be uh made to hit a little harder whenever council wants to do that. But it But it's more than than what we've had in that I know we've I'll just be blunt. We get criticized if we don't do anything. We get criticized if we do something. So, this is a start and it it it's something to try to address the vacancy. So. And I knew one of the public comments talked about the criminal blight in it, but I think it's something we can leave in it and then if we want to expand it in the future to other areas in the downtown area. I don't think I don't think we'll have any criminal blight in our downtown areas by this definition when I read it. But if we decide to expand the areas in the future, we could. And and that was one of the questions that I had, you know, it is is there a reason why we are

making requirements of buildings in a certain section of of the city or the of the town that we're not requiring buildings elsewhere to to to meet those same standards? Uh you know, could you know, Well, it's only because this was called the downtown strategy. It addressed downtown now. I understand where it came from. I'm just saying couldn't we apply that to all town buildings? Well, I guess my question would be this was modeled for downtown, the downtown area. If we wanted something to expand to the other parts of town, I would I would suggest a different ordinance, but we can discuss expanding this, but I think this was modeled or targeted for downtown, the downtown district. But if we want to expand that to the other parts of the the town, then we could probably get something very similar, but uh of course, would hit a lot harder. We'll just take out the reference to downtown district. Yeah, I was going to say if you just take that out, it would be the whole town.

Then it would apply to everyone. That that would Okay. Why? I mean, I don't know. But So, a couple of questions myself is I I was going uh talked to uh Councilman Foreman about criminal blight, but also where you sit over here, Washington Street is split, cuz you know, one side of Washington Street had businesses too, just as well as the other side of Washington Street. So, how can you break the street up as when you have businesses on the right-hand side going up Washington Street and on the left-hand side you have businesses? I mean, that just don't make sense. I mean, I don't mean that's not picking on any businesses on the right-hand side, but it it should be fair and fair if you going focus us on downtown and business related things. And also, you talked about I read a couple of the um uh papers that people was sending here. Couple good points said a few points that talked about hard fees. I don't see where we need to really punish anybody. I think we need to just show them and help them to move forward with our buildings and stuff like that. So, I that's my opinion. The vacant building registry, is that going to be listed online like the other vacant building registries, or is that just going to be something kept here within our office? We will follow the direction of council. Our understanding is the intent is to publish it on the website. And it would be for it would be it would be you'd be able to obtain it through the Freedom of Information Act anyhow. The um yeah, but I was looking tonight through and you know, I'm all for doing

downtown. I'm one of the people that's been all about let's fix the downtown, but the vacant building registry, if you look on there, they get treated very nasty, really nasty. And their buildings get overlooked, their insurance gets canceled. Um some of them are forced to lose their buildings. There's a lot goes on once you put them on there. And I understand that they say that we, like I said, give them a lot of carrots, but I passed out 18 applications to different businesses downtown to tell them, yes, we have help here, but then at the same time they was told, well, you got to wait. So, how you going to punish somebody when you tell them that you got to wait? Yeah, I'm giving you this hand, but you can't have it right now. You got to wait for it. So, you know, yeah, we need to help them and we need to get them fixed, but I don't think they need to be punished by putting on the vacant building registry and you humiliated by everybody. And then plus two, once they get their building fixed, it's still going to show that they was on there. So, you know, it's kind of like a when you get [cough] a ticket, it stays on there and it follows you around. But if you read it, all they have to do is keep the electricity on in the building. Right. But what if suppose you can't get electricity in the building? It's not ready for it yet. You know, not not every building downtown is It's an older building.

Is that a building permit? Yeah. Okay. It's not it's not immediate. It's uh they have to be over 6 months.

Yeah, they they have time for that to correct it. If if they are in that situation, which I I don't know. Cuz I mean, I just don't want to see somebody go out, you know, tomorrow and get slammed on a vacancy What? on a vacant building registry that It won't won't happen that quick, you know. It has to be over six in excess of six months. Well, when does the six months start? From today or from We could we can say that like I can We can We can say a start date for the ordinance if you want. Yeah. The um cuz I mean, I do want to see town fixed and you know, I've done a lot to try to help to get the town fixed, but at the same time I don't want to really kill people too. That you know, sometimes it's just not as simple as you think when you you know, you own the buildings to to do. Until you actually have owned a building downtown, run a business downtown and dealt with the whole downtown, it's not nothing easy to have to deal with. Well, most people who own the buildings if they got a tenant in there, they going to take care of the building and keep them up to date and keep them going if they want to keep the tenants in there. So, I have a You have to rent the buildings downtown. Well, most

thank god I got a good I got a good landlord now, but there I've had some rough ones, let me tell you. Well, that's my point, Jay, and I'm not going to argue with you, but I'm just saying, most rental property, if you want to keep a tenant in there, you're going to take care of it and keep it up to code and whatever else you have to do. You're not going to let it dilapidate, because then you're going to move out and go somewhere else. Well, that's why I moved six times. What do you mean? So, so what do y'all want to say? What do you want to do here? How do you want to phrase this? I just want to ask a couple questions. Oh, well. I just want to [laughter]

say it's okay. I mean, I I know it's but I No, no. I just have a couple of things. I mean, one of one of the things in on the second page, now paragraph B, which talks about the owner or owners of buildings that have been vacant for continuous period of 12 months or more, and then it has three stipulations, and then it says or for the fourth stipulation. And my understanding the way that is grammatically is that that that and applies to the first three stipulations, that it would have to be uh it have to be within the downtown district at least right now, and it'd have to be a derelict building, and it'd have to have criminal blight. And to me, those three criteria, it I would think that it would be in the downtown district and a derelict building or criminal blight, because the uh you know, criminal blight is self-explanatory. So, I don't I don't think it's Does that make sense not meeting the first three criteria as far as having and in there? So, I would say one and are within the downtown district if we continue to have it at that and derelict building or criminal blight or in which the town manager designates. And that's one comment, the other is, you know, we talked about earlier in vacant it being vacant for six months and and then I do wonder why if vacant is or I guess derelict building is explained as six months, then why would we wait 12 months for it to be continuously vacant before we we act on it. Would you want to table this and wait for Mr. Lockaby to get back and explain his uh Sorry. his explanation's better? Well, this I I do

I'm struggling with that with this paragraph B myself. Could So, it would be 12 months from then from this. But I do struggle I do have had the same problem that Councilman Foster had about being and it has to be I read it also the same way that it has to be criminal blight also. Oh, yeah, all inclusive.

All inclusive between all three or it would have to be the last thing. That's the way I see it also. Changes? Comments? Why don't we just table it and let's clean it up and let Mr. Lockaby come back and have had a solid, strong thing where we can get these questions out of the way. It's not going to We don't need to table it, but uh six months and nothing like that. We'll table it to maybe the next meeting or meeting after that or something like that. Have it done before the first of July.

the only question I would have is do we want to leave it as just downtown or do we want to expand it cuz that was kind of the Vice Mayor brought up, so I I wanted to ask that question. What do you What do y'all want? Doesn't have to be all of town. It can Well, right now it's written just for the downtown. Yeah, but I think when you look at that bylaw, it's supposed to be all of the buildings like Well, that ordinance that would be up to the attorney. Yeah. Well, Well, that The way it's written now, it's just downtown. Yeah. We can pose that question Yeah. for Mr. Lockaby to consider. Okay. Yes, sir. We'll we'll uh we will uh consult on that. You You have your mission, if you decide to accept it.

[laughter] Is that okay to where we table it? Do we need a vote on that or I don't know. I don't think an action is necessary. General consensus. Okay. I think it's a good idea Okay. to table it. I I think it's a good idea. It puts the questions we have.

All right. All right. Next is consideration of a formal banner policy, Mr. Warner. On two separate occasions, March 3rd, 2026 and March 17th, 2026, the Streets Committee of Council met to review and discuss development of a formal policy related to a consistent policy governing the locations and time frames for display of banners other than town government banners on municipal light poles. Based on direction provided by the committee to staff, such policy has been drafted and submitted for discussion and consideration. So, I town council is requested to consider adoption of a town of Bedford banner policy document as submitted for review. All right. I think you had a chance to read that and study it. Do I hear a motion? Or do we want to discuss it? I think it needs to be some discussion. All right. Then we can do that. What is on your mind? Oh, wait. What? I'm going to go. I don't know. I guess I guess I'm just I guess I'm just a little confused on the one of the Well, Mr. Parker, his his comments earlier. What what the If we've got 19 of the Bedford board banners going to be displayed throughout most of the year except for one at Christmas time and I guess when the art things are and we also have the Vietnam veterans banners. Is it Is it placement that you've been worried about? I guess that's my question or is it is it placement? As

I think it's placement and length of time that other banners are displayed. Yeah. You know, that and and I spoke to Councilman Haley about this earlier and he was reviewing some other places policies and had some ideas that he would share them. Well, my ideas are this. And I mean, no disrespect to nobody. But, you know, I read the policies like Rocky Mount and stuff like that. They don't seem to have any groups or any special organization. They just put the banners in general where it has like I'm going to read you what Rocky Mount does. Just be patient. And you know, this will rectify a lot of the things, hopefully, where it make it easy for all of us. So, Rocky Mount A person granting permission to display a banner over a public right-of-way or public meeting will surely reimburse the town of town reasonable costs. So, we don't have to charge. It's just reading the things to let you know. But, it says in the end of the day um the town manager shall determine the cost of the erection or the removal of the banner using the cost of labor or equipment and all the signs a town employee shall erect or remove banners. You know, the whole point is we use a lot of town employees to put banners up. And we use they pretty much take a day or two days to put banners up downtown. You know, I'm not saying that we charge, but I think it should be some kind of process or application where you fill this application out, give it to town manager. Let's take town council out of the equation about this part of

the banner thing right here. Say, "Well, any new banners or any other requests to display a banner should be a standard form or and shall be reviewed by town council." You know, really uh I think we got better things a lot of other things to make decision on what banners go up on our street. That's more to the economic side or more to town manager side or whatever. But, you know, I think it should be a universal universal policy where, you know, if you want your banner up this month, put in application, we'll put it up for this month. And it makes it fair to everybody. Cuz, you know, this other times of the year, say if February is Black History Month. Just using that for an example. And you come up here, you got October Breast Cancer Month. So, I mean, it makes it more and it like I said, we can keep the banners in certain areas downtown or whatever, but what it does it gives other opportunities for other people to put different banners up. And remember, talking about we was on Bedford Main Street. So, the Bedford Boys banners actually came from the D-Day and they paid for them banners. So, in the process we had the Bedford Overlord banners that Main Street created. That was downtown. I mean, we are rich in history, but, you know, let's give everybody opportunity to put different banners, Vietnam veterans. So, I mean, we got Civil War. How about the Iraq veterans? How about the uh Desert Storm veterans and stuff like that. So, there's a lot of stuff in the down in the way where we can play display some pride in our town. I like its size because the size will minimize a lot of aggravation, a lot of town employees to try to put banners up. So, you know, you see sometimes you go into they have banners coming straight into town. So,

we can run banners all the way up to CVS up here to make it look nice for us coming in town. Run it all the way to D-Day. Run it all the way to 460 out here. Run it all the way down past the middle school. Maybe Longwood. It gives everybody in town to have different ideas and stuff on banners. And you know, a universal policy will just be easy. Instead of organization, cuz you read Lynchburg, Salem, all that policy, they don't need no such such groups. They just put the banners. What the policy is, what can be done, how you do it. And that makes it easy for everybody. There's There's a couple things that um that uh Mr. Parker pointed out that I I From my perspective, there's there's no argument. Um One is that uh D-Day and those servicemen that that that that died in that um you know, they deserve recognition and at least for this community um you know, should not be forgotten. Understand that in other places of the world outside of our little slice of heaven here, um that people may forget. But, that's why we have organizations such as D-Day and the Bedford Boys Tribute Center to promote that particular aspect. Um you know, and we also have the Vietnam veterans. And uh you know, one of the comments that Mr. Parker made was that, you know,

basically, no one service member's sacrifice is any greater or lesser than another service member's sacrifice. You know, and and I and I totally agree with that. Um as as far as a governing body um I think that we should make sure that we recognize each each particular uh historical event of that nature equally. We need to make sure that it's all done equally as far as we're concerned. Now, again, you know, we've got, you know, organizations that, you know, are here to um you know, make sure that that D-Day is not forgotten, that World War II is not forgotten. And we have an organization that, you know, is here to make sure that, you know, the the the veterans that that died in Vietnam that uh that they're not forgotten either. Uh you know, I think we need to honor both of those. And you know, and if another, you know, organization says that, yeah, in time that these things may be forgotten, maybe, but not here. So. Uh Yeah, that's that's that's kind of where where I am with it. That we need to make sure that both are forgotten. You know, I just want to say that the 15th of this month was 1 year that I started working on the banners, the new banners that we have. Working with Leslie with the Vietnam vets, working with April with D-Day to come up with these new banners. The banners we had in town are over 20 years old. And there shouldn't need to be all of this over switching a 20-year-old banner. When you have a Vietnam vet thing here, you should automatically

know Vietnam vet flags need to go here. When the Bedford Boys march down Main Street, okay, take them down Main Street. You know, the historical things that Leslie talks about for the museum, you know, those are people that really did something for Bedford. But, in creating banners, if y'all only knew what a headache it was. 7 months just to get a copy [clears throat] of one to see because it can't have a church, it can't have a business, it can't have this, it can't have that. I mean, after thing after thing after thing after thing. And, you know, going to see about something and being told no and then going to see about something say I don't have time for you. And, you know, it was just a horrendous deal to deal with just to say And Stacy knows cuz he did the Christmas banners. It is nothing easy to create banners for this town. I mean, you got to it to create a banner for this town. And you know, this is to me this is nonsense. It's It's It's the right thing to do, but it's like Stacy said, we have other stuff to do than to sit here and say, "Oh, you can do this and you can do that." You know, if the person that wants to come up and they want to hang their banners up, God help them. Well, I'll help them. They'll come see me cuz I can't help them. They um but I mean, I I don't think it's something the council should be involved in either on that. I think it should be you know, the right thing to do for wherever the stuff is. Because that way Keans getting his banners leading down because whenever they leave Keans, when people come in my restaurant all the time, you know, they say they're going to be day or they've came in and they got their little D-Day stickers on. I ask them, "Have you been down to the Bedford Boys Tribute Center?" Some say yes, some say no. I send them there. You know, we talked about taking some of the remember banners leading them up

Crenshaw Street up to the Welcome Center so they can follow the banners to and from town. I mean, there's a lot of stuff we can do, but that's not for us. You know, let's just let it be and and and let it go and you know, I understand that the Bedford Boys went all the way up this way. But you know what? There's 26 light poles from Bridge Street down to where you turn at whatever that street is, Crenshaw, what's it called? There's 26 poles. There's only 20 Bedford Boy banners. You know, there's 20 poles this way. There's only 14 poles cuz trust me, we painted them. And you know, uh people do stop and read those banners. When we was painting those banners, you would be surprised how many people you see looking at those banners, stopping and taking pictures with those banners. You know, when the Vietnam veteran banners was up there, people was constantly with the Vietnam banners being up there, they see that name, they can look at those faces right there in the front of them. So, it's kind of a common sense thing. But I don't think we need to be involved in it. Well, and I guess the only response I have to that is that I think the council needs to do things necessary to keep us out of civil litigation. And if we don't have some type of policy and somebody fills out an application and gets turned down and we don't have a policy, I think that weakens our position and I mean, the attorneys can weigh in on that, but you know, that's just you know, my layman's outside view of things. Sure. We have to have a little guidance of some kind and and there is a lot of liability issue involved here, too, to where you can't just let anybody hang banners or things like that, but I'm I'm misunderstanding the point here in that

are we we focusing on when the individual banners go up or or where? What What are we I'm not sure what we're discussing and talking about. Well, the way that this is written out, it it addresses both the where banners are hung and the times of during the year that they are put up. Are we okay with that, I guess? That is the question. Well, the problem is the Bedford Boys banners always been up on this end. So, I mean, if you put them down that end, I mean, you've got to compromise either you've got to either put them here or there. And uh I'm going to say this and I'm trying to make nobody mad. Promising people stuff shouldn't happen. My point is you're talking about uh so, if you want to put the Bedford Boys up one side of the street and the Vietnam up the other side of the street to make it even, to be fair to everybody? But you know, the whole point is it's like I was talking about Bedford Boys. We're not taking away from our respect and our dead and our people that fought for our country and that that actually lived here in Bedford. We was the highest number of boys lost during World War II. Per capita. So, you got World War I. You got the Revolution War. You got the Civil War. You got other stuff like I was talking about that other people in Halifax, I'm going to use this as a sample. They got veterans that's still alive and got banners up on the street. So, you know, there's different stuff. I know you made a comment up uh Vice Mayor update, that our town is based on war. It is based on war. Our town is a war based town because of what the heritage and history we have. Not taking that away. But the whole point is placement of banners

and this and that, you know, the town's been putting up banners and we hadn't been involved with it for years. And now we're trying to get us we have a policy, put the policy down, let our town employees take care of it. That's what I'm trying to do. So, we do not as council need to get in here and tell people where to put banners up downtown. That's my opinion. So, you're talking about F. Yeah. So, we have to we'll review it every time somebody wants to come and put a different banner up. That's my opinion, but So, what is the rest of council's thoughts? What direction do we want to go? I mean, leave this as is, tweak it or where are we? What? What What do you think? I agree with Stacy. Why should we get involved in it? I mean, Well, let's ask the attorney.

Nobody got a banner going. No. No. I mean, They had banners running all the way down Jackson Street one time. Bedford Main Street did. I mean, I agree with him. Let's let our town staff take care of it. Give our Yep. Uh and I'm I'm going to say this. Sometimes we always step up bounds with Mr. Warner and we tell Mr. Warner to take care of stuff and then we go behind and do different, but let Mr. Warner and and the public works director take care of this and we take ourselves out of it. I do like the standards on it, though. Yeah. I like them being standardized and I like that I like that. [laughter] I I'm with you, Todd. I like something in order. Yeah. I I don't like What What do we want to do is the question. What Well, legally, where would we stand? That's right. If we just allow, this this this the town manager to do something and then if another one comes in later on, you know, he has a he or she has a different viewpoint and so that, you know, then there is no consistency, there is no, you know, so what what what's [clears throat] our legal standing in turning this over to the town manager? And then how does our town manager feel about, you know, creating internal policy uh to address something like that? They've been doing it for years. We also had lower tax rate for years. Look where we are now. Yeah. So, we can't base it What we did for years. Let's let's be Let's let's tell it like it is. Yeah, the only question

Things are going to change. Yeah. The only question I would have about it is with what he's with with what's being said here and this is where I would ask a question and it I think it's very similar to what the Vice Mayor is asking, but you're you're putting specific ones on here. What happens when somebody else comes and wants to put an add a banner to this list and they're they're restricted from doing it because it's someone else that wants to do it. And does that have bad liability If you're talking about liability, does that add liability because you're you're taking the opportunity from someone else away from doing it? Well, we have 94 poles.

Yeah, we have We have light poles everywhere. No, I'm just saying by listing them out like this and saying, "This and this and this and this one." Mr. Lockaby did address that in the uh streets committee meeting. There are some kind of liabilities to certain I forgot how he said it. The ones that Mr. Mayor, uh the the ones that are specified in here where you have the specific guidance that I mean, Mr. Lockaby has reviewed it and and approved it. Uh you know, that and and uh indicated to me that those don't create First Amendment problems, which is what I think what we're concerned about here. Um the the remaining uh category, which is F, um does say that that uh these requests do give you It does give town council some guidance on what it can accept or gives you a, you know, the ability to say maybe not this one. Uh but uh the banners cannot uh establish formal uh formal statement, speech or position on behalf of the town. That Those are words, legal words that that that are designed to um help keep you from uh running into First Amendment problems, getting sued. Um but I I uh uh I'm not sure that that just throwing it on the city or town manager that she, you know, change the the um the risk from liability. And they cover some of that uh right there in number F. liability going to other banners. Um Right now, where we're addressing the ones that are normally up.

Do we have any consensus? Do we want to just pass this and tweak it or any issues that Mr. Warner has, he can come back to us? Well, were all these Cuz I wasn't involved in this policy. The Were all the people on this because we have Mr. Parker is the only one that spoke today about it. Were they all involved in the conversation of forming this policy? We have heard from Vester Boyd, from D-Day, from Vietnam, Leslie historical. Okay. Yeah. Yes. Only after the fact. After they've been submitted. Yes. So so these are the ones that are normally put up during the year. And they're normally up all the time all of them. Yeah. Yeah. It's just a replacement of really replacement for what this is what the contract is. And and back to what Councilman Haley said, I probably Bridge Street would be D-Day, maybe East Main, Vietnam I I don't know. That's could be decided. But that's may be may be looked at. All I'm saying is this. You got 94 poles. Yeah. I ain't saying poles. We I counted them counted poles years ago. What my point is, I think we do need a policy. I don't mind a policy. I just think the policy needs to be cleaned up some little bit and get things where it would be fair to everybody. That's my opinion. That's all I'm going to say. Cuz I've told the town manager that we do need a policy on the banners. But I think it needs to be fair and cleaned up. That's all I'm going to say. And I'm I mean we don't have banners for today. That's all I'm going to say. It's 250. Because we wasted time to take

banners down at the end of March well in April. And then we didn't put nothing back up. Okay. I don't know that to you. That's That's for a Christmas. Well no, but I'm saying if we got people coming for a parade and it's going to be a military parade in the town, we'd want some something up there. Then I'm sure it will be. But at the same time, let's decide on something on this right now. That's where we are. We we're in April here. Are you all okay with this? To pass it as is or do you want to tweak it or I'd like to tweak it. Okay. All right. Councilman Haley says tweak it. What about the rest of you? Want to pass it as is or Can we pass it and take out banners? But I don't think we'd want to do that. Because F allows other banners to be posted at other street lamps or light posts or you know, that kind of stuff. And that's the very thing that Mr. Lackey mentioned in the streets committee. Yeah, that that covers us. It covers the the town. All right. Well, I guess the only thing that I I hear Councilman Haley and maybe Councilman Foreman was that in the in in F where it says on behalf of the town should be reviewed by town council then maybe it's just you want to get out of the business. So maybe it should be by town manager reviewed by town manager. Is that in F? For F? For F. I mean we've never we've never I long I'm going to say as long as I sit on council I don't know if I'll ever vote on any banners. And I'm being honest. You can ask Leslie. She's been seeing me up here for years. We have never voted on banners. We've never It's really just been a a I'm going to say Bethune Main Street

contacted Mr. Warner when we put up the Bethune Memorial banner on Condit D-Day. They weren't they went up there a couple weeks later. Okay. So so what is the solution?

Yeah, exactly. Let's let's get down to nuts and bolts. What are we going to do? Do we want to vote this as is unless Mr. Warner and let them hear or unless Let let let let me ask the question same way. Um can we can we vote on this with two changes? Okay. One, we um redesignate historical significant persons to the recommendation that that Leslie made. Uh We're going to do that anyway, And um and in F where it says reviewed by town council, uh review that by town manager. I'm okay. I think you hit the nail on the head. I mean I would be fine with that. Are we still Let me ask you a question. Are we still placing poles and where is stuff supposed to be going or is it just going to be first come first serve? For all other poles, first come first serve. Outside of these. Outside of what's already in there. Outside of the the three categories that we that we have to deal with presently. I mean we can vote on that if you want to. I mean I don't have a problem with that. But is that a motion you made? So moved. That would be the amendment to the We haven't made the motion

We haven't made a motion yet. I made a motion. So then yes, that would be the motion. Mr. Warner, do you think those changes I got it. Okay. So you You got Leslie's changes and you'll let me handle all the ones that are not [laughter] I can handle it. He can handle it. Are Are we okay with that? [clears throat]

Okay. Who wants to make the motion? I'll make the motion that we approve with the changes. with the with the changes that we have listed. I'll second it. Vice Mayor Updike made the vote motion. Councilman Haley made the second. Any further discussion? No, please. Darcy. Mr. Foster. Aye. Mr. Haley.

Aye. Mr. Burrito. Aye. Mr. Updike. Aye. Mr. Evans. Aye. Mr. Foreman. Aye. Mayor Stanley. Aye. Motion carries with all members voting aye. All right. Next on the agenda is speed limit change on Longwood Avenue. Mr. Warner. At a regular meeting on October 8th, 2024, Town Council voted unanimously to apply a speed limit of 25 mph to the entirety of Longwood Avenue within town limits. This action was taken in response to a recommendation made by the Public Safety Committee of Town Council on September 24th, 2024. At its meeting on March 3rd, 2026, member of the members of the Streets Committee of Town Council moved to revisit this decision decision and to consider restoring the previous speed limit of 35 mph in both directions on Longwood Avenue between its intersection with Oakwood Street and its intersection with Grove Street. Tonight Town Council is requested to consider the recommendation made by the Streets Committee at its meeting on March 3rd, 2026. All right. You have a motion? So moved. Vice Mayor Updike made the motion. Second. I'll go to go to sleep. Somebody make it.

All right. I'll do it. All right. Councilman Debleto, discussion. I have a discussion. All right. Discussion. So 35 me and Councilman Foreman was on safe public safety committee when we did happen. And you know, I'm not picking on the mayor. I'm not picking on streets committee, but it should have been a public safety committee meeting on this instead of a streets committee on this about changing speed limit which street the public safety committee actually changed the speed limit. So 35 mph all the way up to Grove Street, you know, that gives that opportunity for people when they come off right after you pass the graveyard, you can hit up the that 45, you're still almost running 35 45 around that curve before you get up there to the middle school. I think my opinion is keep it at 25 cuz it confuses our citizens. It confuses everybody else. It's a safety issue on top of it. And the whole point is we just changed this less than a year and a half ago. And I think it would be ridiculous for us going back and changing it about 35 cuz a couple people complained about it. That's my opinion. Thank you. You got it.

[applause]

What was the reason with the street committee changing it? What's the reason? We stood up in the Remember the hot summer we stood up there on that woman's grave. Bugs eating us up, sweating running down our back. No no, let's let's make it Let's make it Let's make it clear. It was mentioned. And I said we can discuss anything. I'm willing to discuss anything that they want to put on the agenda. And that was a discussion. I've heard I've heard just as many people complain about 25 as I heard about 35. So it it's it you can we'll People don't respond to surveys. if we did one, you get about 50/50. Now, I go that way about every day of the week unless I'm going down through a line, but uh I dare say not many people drive 25, it's more when it's 25 it's 30, when it's 35 it's 40, but no, I do agree with what the people who live along that street said. And I reiterate what I said earlier. I'm glad y'all came tonight and said what you did. So, no, it was only a couple of suggestions.

Suggestions. Yeah, comment. It's just a comment. That's all it was. So, that's why they changed And and we're talking about it and I think I think we're getting a very good response. And you know, ever since we we adjusted the speed limit uh from 35 to 25 uh I've heard more people that weren't in favor of that particular action than in favor of that particular action. Now as far as the people that were complaining about the speed limit being reduced, whether they live on Longwood Avenue or not, I don't know. Um I would venture to say that they probably do not. But I also venture to say that they are people that that travel that road on a daily basis. And so they they had concerns about it being about it being lowered. Um In the 27 years that I worked for the police department, I don't ever remember Longwood Avenue being a traffic hazard at 35. Or as the mayor said, probably closer to 40. Um you know Chief, well I I got complaints every day about speeding, every day about speeding.

you got complaints you got complaints, but do do about the whole But you have many traffic accidents do we have? I don't know I don't have those details. That'd be a good question. I don't recall looking any. Uh I had one right there on right in front of his house where one speeding though, but they had a pole hit the tractor trailer. Right. Right. And and That's you know, that that's not that's not a speed that's not a speed issue. That was But there was also a child struck in the street though. Yes. Yes, there was a child struck on that street when the car was speeding toward Halloween. [cough]

Right. And [clears throat] and even at Halloween and even with all the signage that that we had up there you know That was that was before the signage was up. That was when we started doing it after that.

Okay. Jim Chief Day was there then. Okay. Um So, yes. You know I've had you more more concerns about the speed limit being reduced than than than I've had you know, people you know, speaking tonight. Uh so you know, that's another reason why it was it was brought up. Um you know, I don't think that um uh again, you know, it it's 35 you know back when I was here, you know, I didn't see that uh as as being a traffic safety issue. Um you know, we addressed the the traffic and at certain times we we heightened the enforcement you know, during those areas. Um but um but again uh we have Like the mayor said, we probably had you know, as many people that wanted up as we wanted down. They had concerns and again, that's why it was brought brought here to be discussed. I will say So, I don't I don't think that it was you know, nonsense for us to discuss it. I think that any type of you know, citizen concern needs to be addressed. And it's like like CG said, we're willing to listen to anything and hear anything out, but like said it's it's just the senseless on our part have to go down and change it again and somebody else will complain about it and then we'll have to change it again and then we just keep rolling back and forth and wasting time and poor wasting time putting signs up and stuff like that. And it's you know it's just awful right awful day a little bit like Mr. Warner said. You have like three or four different designs you know, that four lane highway that's that's what causes all this 35 and 25 stuff. It's that four lower half of almost a mile four lane highway right there in the middle of the town. I mean, we could do we they moved us off at one time before put up the little things in

the middle to slow down traffic. But you know I just think it's great to bring it up, it's great to talk about it, but I think it should just stay the same. That's my opinion. I will say this that when we voted on it last time we voted I think on four different streets at one time. It wasn't one street voted on. It was all lump sum and uh Longwood was one of those that that we probably should have put them out pulled them out separately and voted on them, but we did not vote on each one separate. But uh now I think uh at some point in time I think that that area will take care of itself with uh some revisions, some uh need not funding and you'll probably be back to two or two lanes like it was back 50s and part of the 60s. So, there's there's change on the way, I'm sure. Are we okay? No. Yeah, since everybody else had a talk, since I live on Longwood, I've got to say something before we start. So, I I just something real quick um you know, that half mile stretch we're talking about on Longwood, it's got 37 driveways and six road intersections. Obviously stopping distances increase with speeds. Um it's so it's safer to maintain the lower speed. Um and so for instance we get a lot of semi trucks coming through there, which aren't supposed to be coming through there, but they do anyway. Um you know, if they're fully loaded and they're traveling at 35 miles an hour, it takes them twice as long stopping distance to stop than it does at 25 miles an hour. So, people pulling out, kids playing or whatever, you've got a a semi truck that takes almost over 200 feet to stop at 35 miles an hour and only takes about 80 to 100 feet at 25 miles an hour. Um yeah, the other thing uh the PD had a uh a radar

uh whatever it's called Speed check down on the street.

Speed camera type thing, whatever. In December. So, just in December the in December one way traffic the total volume was 101,441 44 vehicles in the month. That's at average of 3,272 vehicles a day coming one way on Longwood. So, it's easy to extrapolate that you got uh 6,500 cars going both ways on Longwood. And even if you have 15% speeders, that's 1,000 people speeding per day on on on that stretch of the area. Whether and that not the then I agree with what the vice mayor said about uh time, but whether you have 27 years or or 60 years in law enforcement and you never had an accident, that's not a reason to raise the speed limit uh to 35 miles an hour. And lastly, I'll just say that we you know, not long ago we adopted a bike walk plan and it recommends that we place bicycle pavement markings on Longwood. So, instead of increasing the speed like we talked about because of four lanes, how about we restripe Longwood down to two lanes with a center turn lane and follow a plan we adopted by also providing bike lanes. That's that's all I'll say. And something like that's probably to come at some point, yeah. And replacing the park signs so Okay, park until they're not being good read. Working on that. Okay. You need you need more comments. I echo what Mr. Wallace Mr. Wallace said, you know, with the with the tractor trailers stopping at 35 and 25, I witness that pretty much every day. So, I can agree to that. Yeah. You know, stopping distance stopping distance on vehicles. I think tractor trailers do get And cars same way. Yeah, it's GPS that I think messes them up at times. Uh

they're not been here don't know what they're getting into. But that's neither here nor there. You need Are we good? Mhm. Ready to vote? I accept. So, we're we're making motions here, aren't we? Yeah. All right, Dorsett. Mr. Aley? No. Mr. Aguilera? No. Mr. Uptain? Yeah. I'm sorry, Mr. Stanley No. Mr. Evans? No. Mr. Foreman? No. Mr. Foster? No. Mr. Stanley? No. Motion carried with all members voting no. Okay, next resolution approval of Central Virginia Safety Action Plan. Mr. Warner. Central Virginia Planning District Commission received a USDOT Safe Streets for All Grant to advance a collaborative regional approach to improve safety along the region's roadways with special emphasis on reducing fatal and serious accidents. The Central Virginia Safety Action Plan Safe Streets for All documents the areas within the region that have the highest number of serious and fatal accidents, establishes performance measures, and provides programmatic and project recommendations to improve safety for all users along the region's roadways. Plan was developed through an extensive stakeholder engagement process and aligns with the Commonwealth Transportation Board adopted Virginia's Strategic Highway Safety Plan, which establishes the target to reduce roadway fatalities and serious injuries by 50% by 2045. CVSAP was adopted by both the Central Virginia Planning District Commission and the Central Virginia Transportation Planning Organization on November 20th, 2025. By adopting the Central Virginia Safety Action Plan, Safe Streets for All, Town of Bedford will support the goal to improve safety along its roadways and the goal to reduce serious and fatal

accidents by 50% by the year 2045. There is no penalty by VDOT or federal transportation for not meeting safety goals. Rather, adopting the CVSAP document and committing to the goal to reduce serious and fatal accidents provides access to certain federal transportation planning and construction program funds. Included Included is eligibility to apply for US DOT SS4A planning and construction program, which just opened a $1 million application round with applications due May 26th. Tonight, Town Council is requested to adopt the resolution approving the Central Virginia Safety Action Plan, Straight Safe Streets for All. All right, you've heard the reading. Do I hear a motion? Yes. Councilman Ippolito, and how about a second? Second. Councilman Evans, any discussion? Any questions? Any comments? Dorsey. Mr. Ippolito? Aye. Mr. Updike? Aye. Mr. Evans? Aye. Mr. Foreman? Aye. Mr. Foster? Aye. Mr. Haley? Aye. Mayor Stanley? Aye. Motion carries with all members voting aye. All right. Grant Management Agreement and Budget Amendment for SAFER grant received by the Bedford Volunteer Fire Department. Mr. Warner. Bedford Volunteer Fire Department was awarded a grant in the amount of $258,000 from the Department of Homeland Security. This grant award covers a period of 4 years and the subject annual caps. The award provides for two separate programs, which include a tuition assistance program and a pay per call program. For the current year, the program awards $20,000 towards tuition assistance and $40,000 towards pay per call stipends to volunteers. The pay per call program starts at $5 per call at a minimum participation level of 10% of call volume each year, as well as a requirement that volunteers

attend 25% of training drills and 50% of meetings. The pay per call rate increases based on the increased response percentage for $1 for each 5% above that minimum. This program was previously initiated through another SAFER grant program. The new award would allow the town to continue the existing pay per call program through FEMA grant assistance. The award was issued directly to the Bedford Volunteer Fire Department. In order for the department for the town to administer the grant, the town needs to enter into a grant management services agreement with the Bedford Volunteer Fire Department and amend the existed existing budget to include the grant award for the first year allocation. Tonight, Town Council is requested to approve the attached budget amendment, which will appropriate budget to the general ledger accounts and authorize the town manager to enter into a grant management agreement with the Bedford Volunteer Fire Department. All right, do you hear a motion? So moved. Councilman Haley and second? Yes. Councilman Ippolito, I think this pretty well self-explanatory. Any questions? Comments? Dorsey. Mr. Updike? Aye. Mr. Evans? Aye. Mr. Foreman? Aye. Mr. Foster? Aye. Mr. Haley? Aye. Mr. Ippolito? Aye. Mr. Sorry, Mayor Stanley? Aye. Motion carries with all members voting aye. All right. PSA agreement to 1 month? Yes, I think I can be quick in answers for everybody here. So, according to the town code, the price cost adjustment goes into effect automatically every 6 months. Um we are set to see that take effect May 1st and we'll defer to Mr. Wager and Ms. Cantrell to tell you the details, but we're looking at a pretty significant increase and frankly, all of us have had several high bills lately anyway, so what we'd like for you to do is to defer

the automatic action of the PCA for at least 1 month to give us a chance to find a way to offset or defer those costs for all of our electric customers, including ourselves. Yes, I think that's very reasonable. Do we understand that? Yes. Be okay with Yeah, I'm just curious what it's going to cost us. Yeah. That's my question. Go Go ahead and tell them, John or Randy. If we defer for 1 month, what's it going to cost? I'm I'm sorry, what What what what is what would the PCA cost be May 1st if we enacted all of it?

Oh, yeah, it's going to be significant. It would be uh I don't even know if I want to say this, but uh uh it would be about uh 2.4 cents per kilowatt hour in addition to the current rate, uh which translates to uh for the the typical 1,000 kilowatt hour per month customer, about $24.32. Okay, so if we delay it for 1 month, what's the cost going to be to the town? Town approximately. I know you can't

Actually, we we waited as long as we could to calculate it because we wanted to get March into it. March was favorable, so it reduced the amount that we had to our under recovery was. I don't know I wasn't suggesting we recalculate. We could do that using April data. Yeah, but there but we got to cover that cost for 1 month, right? That's what I'm thinking. For You mean the shortfall? We've already paid for it. From May until June, we have to cover that month, correct? If we delay it for 1 month. Well, I'm what I'm trying to say is I think that in April, we may be favorable. Oh, okay. So, it's going to lower maybe lower. Right. The shortfall [clears throat] was from January specifically, right?

Correct. It was primarily from January. If If we hadn't had that uh call it weather event in January, we wouldn't even have an increase. We wouldn't be asking for it. But unfortunately, we did have it. Uh it was a significant shortfall. Uh right now, we've already paid it. It's already been paid. Uh now, the question is how how we want to recover that or how much we want to reduce it. is So, what we're talking about is the money that we the the billion dollars we paid back in January.

Correct. That we got to recover somehow. That's correct. That's our income draw or our money draw. That's correct. We will have some options. Yeah. Yeah. So, we're not accruing interest or anything like that. No, it's already gone. Right. I think I think we've had some bad experiences with trying to defer Yes, that's why.

increased costs and and I I don't want to go down, you know, that that that road again either. You know, as opposed to, you know, 2.3, 3.4, whatever percent, we get hit with a 15% increase just because we have to make up time. That doesn't Nobody swallows that pill easy. Right. No, and the clock will restart uh from uh beginning of Okay, so it's not like what we've what's happened in the past where we Right. It just has to happen every 6 months. Well, 6 months just happens to be May 1st. Okay. I think that's a good point. This will, yeah, come up every 6 months. Right. And hopefully, restarting the clock, it goes down. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Exactly. Anything else? Go ahead, Dorsey. I'd like to make a motion. Yeah. Oh, we've not made a motion. You're serious. Motion. Vice Mayor to accept the recommendation by by Councilman Evans by by Town Manager on deferment for 1 month. I know what it was. Uh Vice Mayor Updike and uh Who Who made the second? Uh Councilman Foster. All right, Dorsey. Mr. Foster? Aye. Mr. Haley? Aye. Mr. Ippolito? Aye. Mr. Updike? Aye. Mr. Evans? Aye. Mr. Foreman? Aye. Mayor Stanley? Aye. Motion carries with all members voting aye. Okay, this meeting will be adjourned to Saturday, May 2nd at uh 9:00 a.m. Light breakfast at 8:30 a.m. for a budget work session right here in Town Hall. And we are adjourned.