Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Normally I leave it on. Uh I'd like to call to order the uh regular uh meeting of the Middle Sex Board of Supervisors May 5th uh 2026 at uh 3:00. And with that uh Mr. Williams, would you lead us in a prayer, please? Let us shut our eyes, bow our heads and try to go to God in prayer. Grac gracious God our father. Father is once again that we come to this place. Father, we only ask one thing that you can open our minds and open our hearts. Father, that whatever be said or whatever is done, it can be done in unity as best as it can. This is my prayer. In Jesus name we all do pray. Amen.

Amen. Thank you, Mr. Williams. Miss Mary, would you lead us in the pledge, please? I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Like to welcome everybody that's here today. Thanks for being here. And we'll start on our public um uh comment section in a few moments. Uh prior to that, um Miss Lewis, do we have any changes or corrections to the agenda?

Yes, Mr. Chairman, we do. Um, it is my understanding the board and staff would ask that the board uh bring the noise ordinance which is under 8 um 8B1 that you please bring that up and we'll make that um put it right at uh before number three on the agenda please. And Yep. And so with that, uh, Mr. Chairman, a roll call would be appropriate and then a motion to accept the conend consent agenda with the proposed change.

Could we briefly interrupt that roll call for attendance? Roll call. Yes. Let's start with a roll call. Thank you. Mr. Williams, present. Mr. Bill Harris, here. Mr. Kittinden, here. Mr. Jesse, here. Mr. Don Harris here. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Do we need a separate motion for moving the agenda up? No sir. It would be appropriate to have a motion to approve the consent agenda with a proposed change if that's the desire of the board. I so move. So moved by Mr. Jesse. Thank you, sir. Second by Mr. Kittin. Uh any additions to the minutes from the last two meetings, I think.

Seeing none, hearing none. Um roll call on on um the consent agenda, please. Mr. Bill Harris, yes. Mr. Kittinden, yes. Mr. Jesse, yes. Mr. Williams, yes. Mr. Don Harris, yes. Okay, let's move right into um public comments. And prior to doing that, uh, Mr. Kittin, would you like to say a few words? Yes, I would. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Actually, Mr. before we jump there, I apologize. I'm being rude already jumping in. Would you like to recognize Mr. Cretz before we jump into that that it's number E one. No, I I'd like to uh Oh, you want to just go? Okay.

I'll recognize that afterwards. Okay. My apologies,

Mr. Chairman. Uh I I would like to uh to thank uh the the the people who are coming. I know a lot of you are here to to discuss the uh the noise ordinance and I appreciate you being here. Um I assure you that we are listening. Customarily uh the board does not comment back when you make public comments. Uh but uh we we do welcome your constructive ideas. We're listening. We want to get this thing right and um after the public comments period uh we're going to uh discuss uh what how we're going to proceed further with this. So uh so again, thank you very much for coming.

All right. Okay, we uh we're going to enter into the public comment section now. And um you want to give the instruction, please.

I do. Um good afternoon. As a reminder, this is the time for the public to make comments to the board. Please direct all comments to the board. The rules are as follows. Number one, each speaker will give his name, please, and his or her his or her address for the record. Number two, comments from individuals are allowed three minutes each. Number three, all comments and or remarks are to be addressed to the board of supervisors, not to the audience. And number four, comments from speakers representing a group must represent four or more individuals. They must stand and acknowledge they are being represented by the speaker and that they forfeit their individual time to speak and they're allowed 12 minutes. So, to that end, I have um three public speaker cards that I could start with if that's [clears throat] okay,

please. Okay, starting with Michael Shrieves.

Good afternoon everybody. I can guarantee you nobody here knows me. Uh I bought a house here in Saluda in December. It was a distressed house. Six years nobody had been there. Uh my better half and I have killed ourselves bringing this thing back to speed. We took 43 trailer loads of debris off the property and the house to store. We finally got where we can rest a little bit. Now we can't. We have a problem with the property adjacent to mine with roosters and guineies and noise. And I I didn't write all this down correctly, but it's all morning, all day, all evening, sometimes all night. We cannot enjoy our outside in the morning because of birds squawking. I'm hesitant to open my doors now in the morning because of birds squawking. I opened my window this morning. It took less than a second. Birds walking. It's caused me chest pains. It's causing my wife headaches. This is not a quiet environment for us. Now, I realize there's a lot going on with this noise ordinance stuff. I didn't come here for that. I came here to complain about this. I'm outside today. not three hours ago wearing headphones to drown out birds. I'm wearing or running speakers to drown out birds. I contacted the sheriff's department back in I think February. It was told to me nothing could be done unless the bird was chasing me. Well, that's not happening. Um I went to the zoning department one week ago today, I believe. They told me contact sheriff's department again. Okay. contacted officer Negron. Seems things have changed a little bit. This that and the other can be done. Virginia state law, I can't quote the law. I looked it up. Says I I'm entitled to live. We're entitled to live a quiet life. So is everybody else. Zoning

ordinance tells me that this is quote an agricultural area. What is I mean is it Thunderdome behind my house? I have three acres of land right behind me. I I know where it's at. I've got pictures from a drone of it. It's a huge trailerized house with birds. I told my wife, I said, "You know what? I'm not going to open a business here next year. I'm going to sell my house and leave Middle Sex County, go back to the Eastern Shore. I don't want to do that. I think that something needs to be done where people who have these birds can be addressed. Rooster collars can be implemented. All a rooster does is fill up his throat, blow air out. Collars prevent that from happening. I think after a certain amount of time, possibly animal control or so, this could be addressed. It is making life hard. And I had people live around me. There were 20ome houses right. We're at 355 Saluda or uh Raven Road Saluda. We have people around us said we don't want to come speak. We're scared to. That's all I want to say. I've said my piece. Thank you.

Uh sir, do uh is his address on the card that was submitted. I've got 355 regent Raven Road Haven. I'm glad you said that. Thank you. Right down the street. Thank you, sir.

Mr. Ricardi, who else? Yep. My Oops. There we go. My next public speaker is I can't make it stop. There we go. Huh? All righty, y'all. Oh, where there's dismiss. Found it. Um, that was new. Uh, Wandra Wand Wandra Thornton of Pinetop. Did I get all of that wrong?

Please present your name and your address, please. Wandra Thornton, 138 Kittton Road. You have the podium. Yes. Can you hear me? Yes.

Okay. I'm going to start out with um we all love our animals. Whether we have dogs, cats, chickens, whatever, we should be able to have them as long as we are respectful and responsible for them in our actions. That said, the ones that aren't usually cause the most conflict. And I've got a recording that examples. This is the hunting dogs beside me that I listen to all day and all night. That's one recording. every day. This is out of my bedroom.

That was day six. Then out of my bedroom, I hear the same thing.

From the bedroom every day, all night. They're just getting started a little bit, but they're usually louder. That's inside my house with the windows and the door shut. I guess y'all get my drift. Okay, so I have neighbors that have six to eight hunting dogs. Believe me when I say they're loud. They are. The howling and barking goes on for hours at a time each and every day. Some nights I've asked a handful of times if they could do something and they both said that we can put bark collars on them. Well, obviously that they're not doing that. And then the [clears throat] Evely people have come to me because they're scared to say anything and they're concerned about it because it's bothering them and they're across the street and um and they said it's driving them crazy. I feel like it's I feel like I'm trapped in my own home. I can't open my windows. I can't sit on my porch. I can't open my doors. I've gotten so I've got two fans on in my bedroom. I turn my TV up loud and I still hear it and it's actually causing a lot of anxiety with me. Um, it's very stressful to hear that all day every day inside the house all over my house. And it doesn't seem like it's being very respectful to me or my neighbors. And yes, I I have two dogs, my own, but when I let them out, they don't bark. And I don't let them bark. If they bark once, of course, they're a dog. I won't allow that. So, I just wanted to um throw that out there because it's it's very exhausting to be their neighbor and unfortunately I sold them the house.

Thanks. Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Cardi. Yes. I have one final registered public speaker and that is Mike Mike Longest of Saluda. Hello, I'm Mike Longest, 127 Meadow Lane, Orurbana, Virginia. And I'm I don't know what the ordinance said. I just going by what be people been telling me y'all about the noise early in the morning and late in the evening doing construction work. You got to work in the morning and you got to work in the evening to stay away from the heat.

[clears throat] And another thing is if people live here and they work in Richmond, time they get home and eat dinner and it's cut the grass, it's after 7 o'clock. You going to write some get somebody in trouble for cutting the grass? Let's be real. We all live in the country. All right. And we get up and we go to work for a living. And that's all I got to say is the noise ordinance. And the other thing that I heard that is if you have more than 10 people at your house, my family's more than 10 people. If I invite my family over for dinner, that's more than 10 people. So, I'm going to get in trouble to have my family at my own house that I pay taxes on and I own the property.

All right, let's get real. Yes. Because somebody down the county had a party and they weren't out they were out of control. the rest of us are going to have to pay for suffer the consequences. That's unfair to the rest of us. And I don't care if they were up the county whether wherever they are. If somebody's out of control, call the sheriff's office and let them get them under control, but don't make the rest of us suffer for it. That's all I got. Thank you, sir. [applause] Mr. Ricardi,

there's no more registered public speakers. If there was anybody else that was going to speak, that's um we have one more. We have one more public speaker. Okay.

Hi, I'm Karen Mentor. I live at 116 North Chesapeake Boulevard. I have a few objections to how this was done because first of all, many people around us have homes here and live in Richmond. So unless you are part of the Southside Sentinel, you had no idea. I live here. I had no idea because it was in an area that we don't really look at. Like it's the area that you have all the we're repossessing these boats and stuff. That has nothing to do with me. But the noise ordinance. We have a holiday weekend coming up. You're going to make everyone go inside at 7 o'clock.

Really? And the summer is here. We are a summer community for most of the time. That's when everyone makes their money. That's when all the businesses are are have people. The museum has things. You're putting restrictions on people who don't need it. Listening to the two people about the animals, the outside animals, the birds and stuff. That's an individual problem. There should be something somewhere that addresses that. the sheriff's department, the animal control, but you don't penalize an entire county for individual things. You have to think about the whole community. And we are a whole community. We are not just individuals. I mean, we are individuals, but we're not. Anyway, that's it.

Thank you, ma'am, for your comments. Is there anybody else?

I have two more public speakers wanting to speak. Good evening. My name is Dawn Moore. I live on Burl's Marina Road in Urbana. I know you had a public comment session for the noise ordinance, but it was not very well publicized. I know you put it in the paper, but I don't get when I get the paper, I may or may not read it that week. You could have done better. I've asked and I've asked when you have stuff like this. I think me now I'm in one of your districts so I think my supervisor should have had a town hall a question and answer because I read this and I have more questions now than I had answers ever. Now I look at the old ordinance and it was stated that it was unconstitutional. Well, looking at the old ordinance and looking at the new ordinance, you use the same stuff. You might have changed a word here or there and you put a resolution on top of it. So, what makes this constitutional now? You said you wanted to do it right. As far as I'm concerned, you didn't do it right because you didn't ask we the people because two people in Deltaville had an issue. I came to this board where my mother had a problem with her nightmare from hell. next door where at 1:00 in the morning, her walls are shaking because of his music. Sheriff's office called, they come out. Well, we can't do nothing about it. Well, what makes this ordinance any more effective than the other one? Then they told the man next door that my mother's the one that called, which made her life even more hell. Now, I live on the back side of the

camp. I came to you when you allowed them to add an additional 200 campsites. Why don't you come to my house? Because at 10, 11, 11:30,4 to 12, the camp may have shut the music off, but the people in the camp didn't shut off. I hear that and I'm more than 100 yards away. I don't think you thought this through. You did not consider we the people. We elected you. I expect more in return. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Is there anyone else that would like to speak? Name and address, please. Doug McM. Doug McMman. Wow. I got to move it up. I'm sorry. Yes, you do. How about I hold it? Does that work? That's fine.

Okay. Doug Mcmmin uh 1379 Wake Virginia. I'm back again. Mr. Kittinen asked for uh suggestions. My suggestion to you is that you actually pull back what you did, get some study groups and go forward from there. The noise resolution that was put forward, um David, I love you, but it will affect businesses because the previous noise ordinance affected my business 10 years ago. It's not through a sheriff's department. it's through an attorney that's going to be outside the county and they will come after you as long as your neighbors want to push that way. What you have effectively done is created more opportunities for that to occur. Uh there are a lot of businesses in this county that will operate before the sun comes up 4:30 a.m. The trucks are loud, the boat motors are loud, but that's what we do to get out on the water. I second the guy who talked about construction. They need to roof early in the morning. They need to build early in the morning. They need to build into the evening because it happens during the heat in the summertime. You have a new crew of young entrepreneurial entrepreneurial uh uh young people, I guess I would say, who have lawnmowing businesses and they have been mowing from 6:00 to 9 non-stop so they can get as many lawns in, do as much as they possibly can. What is the normal business hours that won't matter to the person who sees them mowing past 7 o'clock or here's them mowing before 7 in the morning or 8 in the morning, whatever it is. [clears throat] These ordinances needed to have time. They needed to have different communities come together and work with you on this to move it forward. particularly if you want to keep businesses coming. This looks like Hilton Head, South Carolina, what you

put together, a retirement community. If that's where we're heading, I I hope that's not the case because young people won't come. They won't want to stay because this is the headache that they'll have to deal with. I know you are trying to solve some problems. Um my suggestion is we start looking at those specific problems. I've heard one over and over again. Maybe something needs to be done to address those specific things. But my suggestion is just suck it up, pull it back, put it back what it was, and then let's regroup, have some meetings with the public, and go forward from there. Thank you, though. I appreciate what you do.

Actually, then there's two more. Go ahead. Go ahead.

Good afternoon. My name is uh Charlie Board and I live at 6008 General Pull Highway. I live right next to Riverbir. Brian Major is my neighbor with his business. And to give you a perspective, that par three golf course in the front yard is where I live. Now, this was brought to my attention about two days ago. I really think you need to put some more thought into this. This county is considered a rural area. It's really not a city. Now, I give you a perspective. I lived in Middle Sex County when I was uh young. I left here in fourth grade. And I went to a town called Planefield, New Jersey. And in Planefield, New Jersey had all kind of ordinance. And I knew why? Because people lived together. you know, people were uh concerned about when a person put up a fence, which side of the fence should be the pretty side and which should be the ugly side. So, it's things like that you see people talking about in a city, but I remember when Middle Sex County where people had tractors coming down the road and all kinds of noise. I used to hunt here and this is a rural area and somebody told me when I came back that they wanted this to be a rural area. They didn't want a lot of uh um things from the city, fast food and all that kind of thing. So, I'm asking you please reconsider what you wrote in this audience in this ordinance because we want Middle Sex County to be a rural area and you're going to have noise. Here's a perfect example. Brian Maj wanted to play music at night because he didn't want anybody to steal his plant. And then when I first came down, there

was all kinds of noise. You know what I did? I went over knocked on Brian door and said, "Brian, I recorded this." That's like she recorded a dog sound. You know what they were? There were frogs at night creaking around. I said, "My god, I [laughter] didn't know frogs can sound like birds." But I sort of enjoyed it. Then when it got so bad when he was playing his music, you know what Brian did? He actually built a wall between us. I came down to the county say, "Well, he's putting a wall up. Do I get the pretty side?" They said there's no ordinance where you put the side. I get I say when in Jersey when you put a wall up, the neighbor get the pretty side and they get the ugly side. So the point I'm making re Please reconsider because this is a rural area. You're going to have a lot of noise. I get a lot of noise in the morning from the guys that go out and work for Brian early in the morning and then they're dumping stuff back there. But it's not going to kill me. If it gets too bad, I go back and talk to Brian. And maybe this what neighbors should do. We should talk to each other before we go and try to incorporate something that's really not for this county. So I thank you.

Before you step away, I did not get your last name. My name is Charlie Boyd. B O Y D. Thank you. Thanks very much. Thank you, sir.

Excuse me. We have one more public speaker. Let me start this over. We have one more public speaker. Carla Rothman, please. Hi. Uh, my name is Carla Rothman. This is the first time I've ever done any kind of public speaking in a long time, so I'm a little bit nervous, but I appreciate your attention. So, my name is Carla Rothman. I grew up in Charlottesville. I absolutely loved the area, but as it became more expensive, I knew I was going to move away. And when my daughter graduated high school, I actually fell in love with the Middle Peninsula in 2015. during a weekend stay at the Hope and Glory Inn. So, when I was offered a job locally, I jumped at the chance to move to this beautiful area. It was quite a culture shock. Um, coming to such a small town, I I remember specifically when my parents came to visit me during that first year and we wanted to go out to eat to lunch on a Tuesday and we had a hard time finding a place to do that. Um, but since that time, I have come to treasure the rural nature of Deltaville, the small town feel, the people, the family-owned businesses, the open spaces, and yes, the sounds. This is the first home that I have owned that I do not hear the highway from my house. Instead, what I hear, what is audible on a typical day is the wind, sounds of agriculture, the wildlife. I can hear a nearby dog kennel from time to time. On a particularly still morning, I can hear the boats on the Rapahanic, horses up the street, and even a rooster on a nearby farm. From time to time, I hear summer music from a local campground. These sounds represent the local character of our town and its rural nature. For two years, I have been planning the acquisition of chickens.

This is a big deal for a girl who grew up in the suburbs. I put my money [clears throat] into the local economy to prepare a place for my new pets. I thought about how to keep them safe. I told my neighbors that they were coming and that in fact my flock would include a rooster to protect my hens from predators and with a thought that someday I might want to hatch my own chicks. Every single neighbor told me they loved the idea of chickens nearby and even a rooster as part of the sound that comes with living in the country. The ability to own animals and do as we please with our property is part of the freedom that I feel is part of the treasure we have living here. The ability to have backyard chickens would never have been a possibility in Charlottesville. The recently passed sound ordinance threatens some aspects of our lives, including the sounds that are inherent in small town living, specifically those of dogs and livestock. There is no way to tell an animal they cannot speak for more than a minute for 10 minutes in a row. Please revise this ordinance. Please do not turn Deltavville into Charlottesville. Thank you. [applause]

Thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to speak during the public hearing comment section? Okay, seeing none, I'm going to close public comments. We've had an agenda change, so uh I would ask um well, prior to that um Mr. Gentry, would you speak briefly on um how we're going to do some changes with informing the public, please?

Oh, yes, Mr. Chairman. Um we've heard some feedback this afternoon about people not being able to uh know about upcoming changes, ordinance revisions, things like that. And for our part, we want to make that easier to follow. So to do that, we're going to use every tool we have. We have a website for those you don't know. If you're not on the website, make sure you're checking that. And we are also going to see about leveraging social media as well to try to make sure the public is up to date on what the board's doing. So the goal is more transparency and more ways for our community to stay engaged. So we'll absolutely do uh what we can to make that happen.

Wonderful. Thank you, Mr. Gentry. Um we're going to now move um the ordinance um discussion on the noise ordinance from 8B1 to where we are now. And with that uh county uh attorney, you have anything you want to say or not at this juncture?

Um I'm happy to do what the board desires. I have uh the current ordinance prepared. Um Mr. Dr. Kittin and I have talked and a few other board members and that feedback that I know y'all have been receiving, you've been forwarding to me and um so I'm I'm happy to give guidance on whether you want to amend the ordinance, leave it the same or rescend it. Um it's the board's pleasure and I'll be happy to assist in either way.

Um Mr. Chairman, I as I say, we have uh a couple of different options on the noise ordinance. Uh first is uh make a motion to to direct the county attorney to draft an ordinance to rescend the noise ordinance adopted on April 7th and schedule a public hearing for that ordinance on June 2nd. Uh the second option would be to uh direct the county to draft an amendment to the noise ordinance adopted. Um and with the following changes that we had discussed, remove the definition and provisions regarding large party public nuisance. Um add a warning provision to section three for firsttime violations of this article within a one-year period to result in a warning only to the offender. Um, we have to decide what we're going to do about the the animal noise. Uh, we we've heard from both sides. Um, I know that, uh, there are people who have who have really legitimate complaints about dogs barking. We heard the recording earlier today. We also heard from Miss Rothman about the uh about the nature of the sounds. You know, I've heard somebody say that, well, dogs bark. You know, that's what they do. Well, they dogs also do other things. They bite people and they and they make a mess in your yard. But we have to have, you know, controls over in some way. So, we just need to figure out a way to do that. Um, we need to uh it we definitely need to change the hours of the uh the construction uh and lawn mowing and that sort of thing. Um to 900 p.m. uh and to from from 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. would would be would be prohibited. and then um change the hours of refuge collection from 9:00 pm to 6:00 am uh uh

when it would would not be accepted. Um there was there exceptions remove the following language provided the such activities and not placed between the hours of 10 10 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. So those those are these are all changes that we we could make. Um and uh there are some others. Uh I guess whether we whether we rescend it and start all over again or whether we amend what we have, I think we have a good idea of of what what the public wants and what there are going to be some some issues that we're just going to have trouble figuring out something in between. I heard somebody say, "Well, these are isolated instances and you should call the sheriff's office." Well, the sheriff's office doesn't have an ordinance or doesn't have a law to to to back them up there. They can they can say, "Well, there's a complaint." But there are people who who use noise as a weapon, as something to to annoy, intentionally annoy their neighbors. I've seen it happen and and I've had a number of complaints about that particular thing. So, there would have to be something that the the sheriff would be able to to enforce and the county attorney would be able to to to uh to prosecute on. And it would be nice if if if just it was a matter of going next door, knocking on the door and saying, "Hey, your music's too loud. Could you turn it down?" And they say, "Oh, I'm sorry. We'll turn it down." And that's what most reasonable people do. Laws like this aren't made for reasonable people. Ordinances like this are made for people who are not reasonable. But you got to have them or else you're going to be at the mercy of

people who are jerks. Pure and simple. So, um I I appreciate the fact this is a rural area. That's one of the things that I love about this county. And I wish that none of this was necessary. Um, neighbors should be able to talk to each other. Sometimes they can't. Sometimes just they don't listen. They they don't want to. They say, "Look, I nobody nobody there's no law says I can't do this, so I'm going to do it." Um, and so, um, I I I I've heard I I know I've gotten posts, you know, I've I've gotten letters, I've gotten, uh, phone calls, I've gotten text messages, I've gotten so many different ideas on how we could fix this. And and I'm I'm happy to do that no matter how what it takes. So, it's up to the board whether you want to to uh resend the this or and start over or whether you want to uh we could we could put a put a committee together, but I I think that probably what we're going to end up with is fixing the things that have already been identified. But, Mr. Jess.

Yeah. Um well, we got a lot of work to do here. Uh I would like to say uh as you know, but a lot of this stuff is common sense. Uh, I'm farther up the county, you know, and you know, if if you if you want to cut grass till midnight, if you want to work till midnight, that's that's your business, you know, but we have good neighbors. And but everybody don't have good neighbors. That's the thing about it. But like I'm saying, a lot of this stuff on here is complaint only cuz So, so if you want to cut grass late, you go ahead cut grass late. Your neighbor, a lot of your neighbors should be uh in their house watching TV or doing something else or they going to be complaining about a neighbor. I think we should be able to get along and talk to each other. But there's a lot of work that needs to be done with this and I'm glad that all these people came out here because a lot of times we had a meeting and it was advertised two months in advance and I guess the the it didn't get out like it should have and uh but it is what it is. But uh Facebook got your attention and and and everybody's here and I'm I'm it's good to see you out here cuz we don't normally see this many people but the word is getting out and and we got work to do. There's no doubt about it. Think about it. We got work to do. But meantime, if you want to have A PARTY, HAVE YOUR PARTY. Let your neighbor say, "Hey, I'm having a party. COME ON AND PARTY with me. And I'm going to be I'm going to take my time and I'm going to be all right with you. You got somebody that working on a house or cutting grass." Yeah, you got to cut the grass. Sometime it rains and you want to get there before the rain, cut till midnight with your lights on if you want to, but you ain't going to do it all day, all night long. Think about that. You It might be for a c few hours and it's over with. And and if you got a neighbor who can complain about you trying to cut your grass or doing some work on a home or whatever, you got a poor neighbor. I can tell you that. But but we got to get along. We got to get along. And and and I think a lot of times you should go out, reach out to them and say, "I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. Would you mind?" And and and and some things can be already automatically settled without ordinance.

It's just common sense. Think about that. and be and be be and be cordial to each other and respectful. You know, you're not going to be out there at 1:00 in the morning doing stuff, you know, cuz you're tired. But I'm just saying we got a lot of work to do. We're going to get it straight and we hear we're hearing from the constituents here and I appreciate all of you that came out here to find out what's going on because a lot of things got way out of out of whack. I'm gonna just let you know really way out whack because you know it's a lot of common sense because summertime you have cookouts. You think you gonna have 10 people? No.

You invite everybody in your neighborhood to the cookout and you play till you want to. But I mean, I'm not saying do that, but do it as a reasonable time of doing it and everything is going to be reasonable and common sense. That's all this that's all about. But the thing about this whole ordinance, one or two people make it bad for everybody else, right?

So now we got to figure out how we going to adjust this and just that because I can I can tell you uh the rural areas, we don't have that problem. you know, we we hear all kind of wildlife and everything like that, you know, and and and a lot of things are exempt like uh agriculture, um racetrack, schools, and it's a lot of exemption to this. But, uh if if you going to think somebody going to call up cuz you working on your house at 11:00, uh I'm I feel sorry for you. That's all I can tell you. Uh but that's all I need to say on that point.

Thank you, Mr. Jesse. Mr. Bill Harris, you have any comments, sir? Yes, I um [clears throat] I think as um Mr. Jesse said, there's a lot of work here needs to be done and this does not fit Middle Sex in its current form. I'm going to be making a motion to resend the the ordinance in its current form. In the future, I hope that we will enter into discussion of some type of maybe get a stakeholders meeting committee or something like that to make sure that the people that are coming here to speak that we can hear your voices. We've heard you

and we hear that you need to be involved and this is how it should have been from the front. So, I'm going to be in a minute I'll be making a motion to resend the ordin the current ordinance. [applause] Mr. Williams, [clears throat] you have any comments? I agree with Bill. Okay. Yeah. No, that's not that's not a motion yet. Well, not a Well, I agree with Bill. Okay. Let's go back to the original thing.

Okay, cool. Um, and my only comments are yes, we do need to do some additional work on it. Uh, the county administrator is going to try to do a better job in us being able to educate the community on what's going on. Um, it was kind of surprising that when we had the public hearing, we anybody that spoke about that was speak speaking about issues they were having in their community and home. And it's surprising to me that we had nobody like we have here today speaking about what you were speaking about. And I can't imagine that everybody here today at least didn't have an inkling of what was going to be talked about and what was being presented. That being said, I I will take it that you didn't know and you had no communication about that. We will for sure improve that. So going forward, we'll have an opportunity to get more engagement from everybody on on the issues. Um, so where we are today, is there a motion to be made on what we're going to do with the ordinance as it sets today?

Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a motion to resend the order the noise ordinance adopted on April 7th as in its current form. Motion made by Mr. Bill Harris. Is there a second? I second that motion. Second by Mr. uh Williams. Thank you. Any further discussion necessary? County Attorney.

Yes, Mr. Chairman. So, I just want to um just add procedurally just so I manage everyone's expectations. The motion is appropriate in its form, which is to rescend the noise the noise ordinance adopted April 7th, 2026. But what I want the public to understand is unfortunately it requires an ordinance to revoke an ordinance. So, the way this would work is if it passes, it'll be advertised for the next two. It'll be advertised twice and then at your June meeting that first Tuesday. What day is that? I think it's the June 2nd at 7 p.m. we would have another public hearing for you to adopt that rescion. So, I just want to be clear that there is a procedural lag, but this will this is the quickest the law allows us to move.

Would you also comment on procedurally where we stand with that not being heard till June the 2nd? where we are on enforcement of either this ordinance or the old ordinance that we have.

Yes, sir. So, um presuming that the motion passes and it's adopted on June 2nd, there would then be no noise ordinance in effect. The 2004 has already been repealed and it was replaced with this. So, that would in fact remove all noise ordinance from the county's ordinance book. As far as enforcement, um I don't want to speak, but I believe I saw the major and the sheriff. Uh and they could maybe if it would be appropriate, Mr. Chairman, if you wouldn't mind, you could ask maybe the sheriff to come up and speak briefly on that because his he and I have been speaking quite frequently. Um and I think he has a really good plan on how he's communicating with the public before you make your vote if you think that might be helpful.

I would. Sir, sheriff, would you like to come sir forward and speak to that? Yes. There seemed to be a little bit of a common theme that everybody was referencing the sheriff's office that we're coming up here and talking. So, I'm glad I got to come up here. We're thinking that's a good thing. I hope so. I hope so. We'll look at that positively.

Uh, so what we've done, uh, when the when the ordinance was passed, I got with the chief deputy. We decided what we would do is give this a 60-day window to where if we got the call, they were in violation of an ordinance, we would let them know that. We would educate the public. Okay? We didn't have any we didn't have anything to do with the ordinance, but we are obligated to do what the board says and enforce the ordinance. Okay? So, what we were going to do is give it that 60 days, educate the public, put some things out there, and then after 60 days, which it doesn't look like we're going to make it, uh, we we would start the enforcement after that. Um, this is not this is a very reactive ordinance. The sheriff's office is not going down the road with their windows down listening for dogs barking. Okay? If we get a complaint, we can address the complaint. I would also like to say if you want us to cook the dinner, can we at least go to the grocery store with you and have some input what this ordinance looks like. Okay. So, the stakeholders meeting, I would like to, you know, if we could be a part of that as well.

I just assumed you would be part of that. Thank you, sir. That's just me. Yes, sir. uh and we would want you part of that or what you think's enforcable or not or do we have enough teeth in the ordinance to be able to do anything to control that? I think it' be some good discussions to be had. Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you, Sheriff.

Okay. Uh before we um call for the roll call on the vote on the motion, um I would also like to um just remind people we already had an ordinance whether you knew we had one or we didn't have one. It wasn't necessarily enforcable the way it was, which dictated some changes to be able to enforce or no it wasn't. Now, maybe it went a little far on one end or the other, and we're going to try to correct that as we move forward. Um, would you repeat the motion again, please? Uh, Mr. Harris, would you like me to do that? I would.

Oh, sorry. I was looking for Mr. Bill Harris. Sorry. Bill Harris, did you you either Yes. I'd like to make make a motion to resend the noise ordinance that was approved on April 7th, 2026. It's in its current form. The motion's been made and there's been a second on it. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, roll call, please. Mr. Kittinen. No. Mr. Jesse? Yes. Mr. Williams? Yes. Mr. Bill Harris? Yes. Mr. Don Harris? Yes. The motion is rescended. Um,

motion wins. So that is now uh the board is directing me to advertise this and schedule the formal adoption of that resention for June 2nd. Is that correct? That is correct. And I have a consensus of the board. I've heard from the chairman and I'm seeing head nods. So it will be advertised in the paper twice and at the June 2nd board of supervisors meeting at 7 p.m. there will be another public hearing to formally rescend the noise ordinance. So, I just want to make sure the public knows. If you want to mark your calendars, June 2nd, 7 p.m., come on back. We'd love to see you. And the stakeholders committee would happen after the June meeting. Is that correct?

I think procedurally that would be appropriate because at that time, presuming that the vote passes it, you know, I think that would be a good time maybe um Mr. Bill Harris and I talked about this briefly. maybe if there's citizens that are interested in being on that or stakeholders, people could start thinking about how they'd like to serve and could submit that information either to you or to the county administrator. So, I think that would be a good call to just wait until that June meeting because there might be even more feedback. Right. And Mr. Chairman, we do have some forms here in the boardroom. If people in the gallery right now would would be interested in perhaps serving on a future panel like that, just we have some forms you can fill out and you can leave with us. That would be great. Excellent.

Would you like me to bring those out now at this point? Yeah, just have them available, please. Yes. Thank you, sir. Whether you sign up for that committee or you don't sign up for the committee, you would still have time to be be added to that. Absolutely. So, if you want to think about it and sleep on it, that's fine. I would just encourage you that if you do want to be added on to that and you haven't filled out a request, uh you contact the uh county administrator's office um to get to get uh your name added to that committee.

Mr. Chairman, can I make a shameless plug while we have we we don't normally get this many members of the public um and I Mr. Jesse I know has said what the rest of the board feels. there are other vacancies opened and we would love to have you serve and so you're here today and we would love to see you again. We genuinely would. I know sometimes you may not think we're being genuine but we really are. Um we're local. We live here you know third generation here. So we've got an opportunity on the board of zoning appeals wetlands. That's some exciting times and uh social services as well. So we would love for you to apply for any one of those. Um and the BCA is Yes sir. for the the board of zoning appeals.

And I think there might even be some other opportunities. So, thank you again for being here tonight. Wonderful. So, we're putting a little subtle pressure on you. We welcome you to be here and speak, but get involved with the county. It get gives you more of a voice if you're interested in doing any of that. Okay. All right. Uh I think we are ready to move on. Correct. Ju um one thing just to make I think it make needs the public this needs to be made clear. As of right now there will be no enforcement of a noise or um we've rescended it. Is that correct?

No sir. So you know we have to be a little bit careful because unfortunately um and the the sheriff and I talked about this. Um, I I would be uncomfortable making a blanket statement, but I would say that, you know, the sheriff has already said that he's going to give a grace period. Okay. And then, but what I'm afraid of is a really egregious situation that no one here is thinking about, but maybe like an Airbnb and there's just think of like Animal House, right? Like I don't want to say that we wouldn't do anything about a really bad situation, but I think the intention is right now for it to just continue to be a grace period. We're a rural county.

Yeah, we we are. Yes, sir. And I mean, the other side of it is is that it would then come to my office and um like I said, I'm a local gal and I I'm I like to think that my parents raised me with a little bit of common sense. I did become a lawyer, so clearly I lost some of it, but I like to think I have a little bit still. So, um yes, sir. I I think the intention is to have the grace period, but I cannot say uh that there's no example in which it an extreme.

Mr. Jesse, you got anything you'd like to say? Okay, wonderful. Again, thank you for coming. You can stay, but as far as the noise ordinance, I think we have a direction now uh of of what the next steps will be uh for that. All right. Uh moving right along on the agenda. Um

I will give them a moment. Thank you. That's right. Sorry. Thank you.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Absolutely. Okay, we're going to get back to our meeting at hand, please. And with that, I would ask um um Mr. Gentry, the county administrator, um to have some comments on uh us recognizing the retirement of Mr. Dave Cretz.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh this is bittersweet because Dave, I was uh here when Dave got here. Dave has been a great addition to the Middle Sex family and to the community. You don't know it, but the influence he's had on this community is profound just through the work that he's done in planning and community development. And it's all been for the good and we we truly appreciate his service here. And uh it's my pleasure to is give him this plaque. And I'm going to just read it very quickly. and it says uh county of Middle Sex presented to David Cretz in recognition of 15 years of dedicated and faithful service to Middle Sex County and its citizens. The Middle Sex County Board of Supervisors hereby expresses its gratitude for his outstanding contributions and extends best wishes for continued success and happiness in the years ahead. Dave, come on up and I'll give you this.

[applause] [applause] Come on, board members. Thank you for all you've done. A great job.

We're gonna get a picture with the board. How about that? It's not too late to change your mind. One, two, three. People taking behind me, so don't run off quite yet. Thanks.

Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Yeah, I'm gonna get to him. Yeah, no problem. Um,

um, anyway, um, yes, thank you very much for what you've been invaluable to the county for. Sure. For me, you've been very easy to work with. um you keep a levelheaded temperance on everything that you you have to deal with and that's been a pleasure to work side by side with somebody like that. And sir, would you like to address the board? Yes, sir.

Well, I was kind of bittersweet to get to a point like this and it becomes time. So, but um I have to thank everybody. I'm only as good as the folks around me. I have to thank Matt for hiring me and just my staff that you know I have fantastic staff. The people that I work with are just they've become more than just co-workers. They're friends. It's just uh you know I've made friends here that I met since we came here. So uh this is home. It's a community and I this not only this board but I enjoyed immensely working with the previous boards. I made you know got close to all these you know all you guys I we call we talk. So it's it's it is kind of a humbling experience to have this kind of relationship in a community like this to to have that to be able to work with your governing body and see how government works just like it did today. It works for the people. So that's what we're here for. We're here to serve the people. So I've tried to do that to the best of my ability and hopefully I've served that purpose and hopefully we'll have good succession with that and you know the next person will come in and be just as good or better than me. So um so to thank all of you board members and again my my friends that I work with. Everybody here is they're more than just co-workers. friends and very close to me, family, all my staff, just a really good situation. So anyway, and I have to thank my wife for she she puts up with the evenings and she has dinner ready for me and all that. So would be remiss not to mention my wife. So my lovely wife. So any thank you all very much. And I do have a planning director's report in a few minutes. So I'll just brief you on that. That gives you another opportunity to

kind of interact with me and get me hit me for a few more questions before this evening. So, well, thank you for your comments. It's representative of what a true leader is, of the relationships that you've built with all of the key people in your office, etc., planning commission, the board of supervisors, and how you spoke to that just really magnifies how good of a leader that you've been. And thank you very much for that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Appreciate it very much, Joel. And I'll be up in a little bit. All right. He'll be able to answer some more questions. Thank you. [applause]

Okay. uh constitutional uh officers. We have treasurer's report that's on 4750, commissioner of revenue um report only on page 51. Any comments on either one of those two items, item A and B. Seeing none, hearing none, we'll move to the sheriff's office update. And Sheriff Samson, if you'd come forward again. Mr. Chairman, board members, uh if I could if I could bring David Layman up for the first part of this that's a collaborative effort that we've been working on and uh he's much more in the weeds on this than I am, but I am supportive of it.

Okay. Um could I ask a question before Dave gets into his presentation? Yes, sir. I don't think it's on the agenda that I saw anywhere other than some notes. Um, how is everything going or are you Dave going to speak about the body cameras? I certainly am, sir. That's very first on my list. Wonderful. Thanks for being ahead of me. I appreciate that.

Good afternoon, board members. As a recap of yesterday's work session, we discussed an opportunity that directly impacts public safety across Middle Sex County and our surrounding communities. re we reviewed the county's current lack of waterborne emergency response capabilities. Over the past five years, we averaged approximately 20 water related incidents annually requiring requiring mutual aid to provide the necessary response resources. We also discussed two recent water related incidents within the past month that required mutual aid response from Matthews Volunteer Fire Department and Gloucester Volunteer Fire Rescue emergency response vessels. The board was briefed on an opportunity for Middle Sex County to apply for River County's Community Foundation grant to potentially fund an allhazard emergency response vessel. This is a competitive no match grant opportunity and is not guaranteed. However, if award awarded, it would provide a pathway to significantly enhance public safety capabilities without requiring any local capital investment. If awarded, the proposed vessel would serve as a true allhazard platform supporting law enforcement, EMS response, fire suppression, hazardous material incidents, and search and rescue operations. Additionally, we discussed the strong partnership that will be formed between the sheriff's office, the four volunteer fire departments, and the rescue squad working collaboratively to support this initiative. If awarded, a multi- agency committee will be established to finalize the vessel specification, develop operational policies, and ensure consistent training requirements for

first responders. We also highlighted that if awarded, the Virginia Port Authority Maritime Incident response team will provide all the electronics, personal protective equipment, and operator training, and we will integrate Middle Sex into our broader marine response network through a formal memorandum of understanding. Finally, we reviewed estimated annual operating costs based on comparable programs in other jurisdictions, including fuel maintenance and insurance. If awarded, we would request considering the consideration of establishing a $6,000 line item in FY2728 budget to support ongoing operational expenses and ensure long-term sustainability of this asset. Yesterday we [clears throat] Mickey and I got back to the office. We want to address some of the concerns that we heard from board members. Training was one of the issues. If awarded the grant, we will implement a structured structured phase training approach to ensure operational readiness. We ne recognize that marine response training is inherently equipment specific while foundation instruction and classroombased training can begin in advance. Full operator certification and proficiency will be completed once the vessel is in service. Our approach is a parallel model. We will identify personnel in advance across the sheriff's office, volunteer fire departments, rescue squad, and begin the foundation training as early as possible. Upon receipt of the vessel, those personnel will transition into a hands-on approach training and certification to ensure full capability and readiness.

With the support from the Virginia Virginia Port Authority Maritime Incident response team for formal instruction and operator training, we will build both a team and operational capability in coordinated and a deliberate manner. We talked a little bit about operational procedures. If awarded the grant, if awarded the grant, we will engage peer jurisdictions that currently operate emergency response vessels to obtain established best practices, including standard operating procedures, training requirements, and deployment models. This approach will allow us to build on proven frameworks rather than developing processes independently. ensuring safety, efficiency, and consistency with regional operations. [snorts] It will also strengthen inter agency relationships and support seamless integration into existing mutual aid and maritime response networks. Couple comments were made on staffing, specifically that the sheriff's office might need additional staffing and so forth. If awarded this grant, we will implement a multi- agency staffing model that leverages existing personnel across the sheriff's office, volunteer fire departments, and rescue squad. This will not be a sheriff office only function. This vessel will operate through a coordinated structure utilizing trained volunteers alongside exist existing deputies allowing us to maintain operational capabilities without the need for additional full-time positions. This model is consistent with regional practice as neighboring jurisdictions such as Matthews County and Gloucester County operate their marine response vessel using a volunteer-based staffing model. In closing, this this initiative

represents a practical collaborative opportunity to address clearly identified gap in public safety across Middle Sex County. It leverages strong local and state partnerships and requires no lo local capital investment if this grant is awarded. Most importantly, it strengthen strengthens regional capabilities to respond more quickly and efficiently on our waterways. [clears throat]

improving outcomes for residents, visitors, and property owner while actively remaining achievable and sustainable with modest future operating support. We would respectfully request the board consider the following. Consider a line item of $6,000 in the FY2728 budget if awarded for fuel insurance and maintenance. allow the county administrator to provide a letter of support from the board to be included in the grant application and allow the county administrator to enter into theou that's already been reviewed by the county attorney with the Virginia Port Authority maritime incident response team be glad to take any questions if you want questions Don't see any. Go ahead. I think this will be a excellent opportunity to have, you know, have the waterways safe for Middle Sex County, you know, with with all the uh boats and different things and activities and campgrounds we have and response time is very important. you know, when we have incidents and you got to wait for Matthews or Glosser to come in. Uh, you know, some lives can be lost by that time. And uh, and I just like to support this. Uh, and if nobody else, I'll let everybody else speak, but then I would like to make a motion afterwards. If anyone else have to would like to say something

questions or comments. Yesterday we were in public and I'd like to clear something up. Uh you had mentioned I don't know where he got the information from but he had mentioned that Milford Haven the Coast Guard station does not do search and rescue out of there anymore. So I called the sector Coast Guard and they said that statement is false. Okay.

That they will our area is completely covered and they will dispatch from where they need to depending on what the situation is that they will dispatch from Milford [clears throat] Haven if they need to. Yes, I've been stopped from my ant team boat, which is a navigation boat from Milford Haven. So, they will send those boats if need be or whatever. And I have the gentleman's name and whatever so forth if you if you need it for some odd reason. The next thing is that we're looking at emergency response vessel and I think you mentioned to be around 29 ft. Yes, sir. The other vessels that we're talking about came over from Matthews. Are they this large?

25 26. Okay. What kind of horsepower are we looking at? Probably 400 horsepower a piece. Two 250s. Excuse me. 200 two 250. Oh, really? Okay. All right. So, in our emergency response boat, they say around 5 years, maybe as much as seven years, they got to be replaced. So, that's something we'd have to add in as well. There's also, you say it's going to have a fire pump. I take it there's going to be an engine to drive the pump. No sir. It's a portable 500gallon per minute fire pump piped into a front bow mounted monitor. How are we going to shove the water? I'm sorry. How are we going to move the water? Is there a engine hooked to a pump?

It's it's a portable fire pump mount. Right. Okay. Okay. Exactly. You set it up just right. Exactly. Okay. Not a separate not a separate motor pump. Well, there's an engine that we have to maintain. Now I take it a private will have a generator on it.

No, sir. No generator. Okay. Well, those are monetary things that we need to look at, but as Mr. Jesse brings up, health, safety, and welfare, and I have some concern over the safety of our first responders. I think we're going at it by just getting the boat, and we're going to train everybody, and everybody everybody's dedicated, but I think we're going at a halfhazard. If we going to get a boat, then we need a dedicated team to the boat. We need to have those. Now, they can do something else other than that, but they are constantly with the boat, take it out. They're the ones that make sure the maintenance is done. They're the one take care of it and everything. The sheriff's department, sure, we can go in just you take care of the maintenance, take, but in reality, if we're going to do this, let's do it right. Let's not jeopardize our first responders in any kind of way.

[clears throat] If we're going to do it, let's go do it and let's hire the right people, put them in place, and have a vote. If we're not going to do that, then I guess we're not there at this at this particular time. Okay. M Mr. Harris, I'd like to introduce Kevin Mle, the fire chief of Hartfield. He's representing the volunteers today. I see Paul's in in the room as well. Kevin, you got anything?

Good afternoon. Kevin Mcartfield. I'm currently the chief of Hartfield Fire Department. So, first of all, Dave, congratulations. Have a party. Just keep the noise down. Um, I think that uh I've always wondered the whole time I've been here is is is how a county that's surrounded by three sides on water doesn't have a some type of rescue boat. Um, I'm looking at this a little bit probably a little bit different. I think the collaborative way is the way to go. I think first of all that's the most fiscal thing to do for the county instead of everybody I mean we have four separate entities and fire departments and a separate entity with the rescue squad instead of everybody saying hey I'm going to get this boat I'm going to get that boat I think the collaborative thing is the way to go also think that I I agree with you as far as the training I don't think that everybody that walks in the door in the fire department needs to be trained on this boat I think that there needs to be dedicated people and we will have like I said not Everybody along with that is uh I have in Hartfield we have a it's it's auxiliary type of associate position for some members who really want to help the fire department but don't want to engage in firefighting because this everybody out there doesn't want to be a firefighter but I think this would give us an opportunity to maybe use some of those people or either get more people in. And I kind of looked at it as a tool that the volunteer fire departments could put out there saying, "Hey, this is what we have be a firefighter. Also, we were able to add in this this vessel." So, those are just a couple things that I'm thinking about. I know that uh everybody around here, we do have a ton of members that have a lot of experience on the water. Um, and I think that that's a plus. I think it's a good foundation. I still think that they need the appropriate training to be able to handle this. Uh like I said, I agree.

You can't just get on a boat and go out and get somebody. But I think the collaborative part is going to be great. I think uh working with the sheriff's department, working with other departments, which as far as the fire side, we do that pretty much now. Uh you know, we work together, but uh even with the rescue squad working together, I think we'll be able to put up and establish a uh very well-trained team. So that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. Any further questions or comments from the board? Yeah. Uh I don't remember exactly, but how much did you say the the the the value of the boat is that we're going to be

we are requesting $300,000 for the boat in the through the grant. Okay. That will get you think $300,000 will get a good boat with. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? Mr. Jesse, I'll get my attorney help me to remember all these things over there. Oh, yes, sir. All I was going to say, I was going I was going to phone a friend to to Mr. Layman, but I see he's he's phoning a friend back to me. Right.

All right. So, it it would be appropriate if the board wished to consider a motion to adding a line item totaling $6,000 for in the fiscal 2728 budget. You can say so moved if you want to be used for fuel, insurance, and maintenance of the boat if we obtain the grant. to direct the county administrator to provide a letter of support from the board to be included in the grant application and to direct the county administrator to enter into theou with the Virginia Port Authorities Maritime Incident response team. That would be an appropriate motion if the board wished to move forward. I so move that motion.

Second. Motion made by Mr. Jesse, second by Mr. Kittin. Uh, I do have uh one more question before we call for the roll call vote. Um, so you're asking for a specific amount. I think you said 300 or 350. That's what we're looking at right now. Yes, sir. Okay. And does this grant uh they'll either appropriate all of it or they appropriate some of it? We're going to ask for all because I don't see this working any other way. We're working with the foundation now to see how that we can make that happen. Okay. Well, then there would need to be a process. If you're not awarded that amount, then the deal currently is dead. Yes, sir.

We all recognize that, correct? Yes, sir. Okay. Any further discussion or questions? Roll call, please. Mr. Jesse? Yes. Mr. Williams? Yes. Mr. Bill Harris? No. Mr. Kittensen. Yes. Mr. Don Harris. Yes. Thank you very much. Motion is carried. See if you can get it. We'll try. Yes, sir. Sheriff Samson.

Yes, sir. Thank you all for having me here today. Uh, first thing I'd like to lead off with is a little bit about these body cameras. Um, we're still working through some bugs. I don't know how long that this bug infestation is going to last, but we we have two very capable young ladies that are that are hustling at the office. They're in constant contact with GTA who who is the name of the company to to include their uh tech support team. Um and I can't say enough really about Mr. Reed Quinn who they've worked with and his uh technical expertise as it comes to the IT world. Um he's been monumental. He's been fantastic to work with. Um,

Major Easter is very involved in the day-to-day policy and to include the policies and procedures uh policies and procedures and has very very good working knowledge of these cameras and he's helping the young ladies in the back. So, as again as we continue to work through everything is up and running currently just working out the bugs. So, they are operational. Yes, sir. Is that correct? That is correct sir. And um sidebar question. Yes, sir. How many uh requests have been forwarded to the Commonwealth Attorney on any um There has been several and I do not have a number. I apologize for that.

I'd like to know that for you and I'd like you to continue to keep track of what that number is. Yes, sir. Based on a month time frame, etc., etc. Yes, sir. Not a problem. Okay. So, I'm guessing at this juncture there has not been and you're only forwarding the footage that's requested by the Commonwealth attorney. Is that That's correct. Is that correct? That's correct. And so, if I'm hearing you correctly without knowing the exact number, it's been very few. I don't want to say that. I I [laughter] don't want to say that. I'm not 100% sure. So, is it less than It could be daily. I think it's less than 10 right now. Sorry. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. I'm the uh chief deputy for Middle Sex County Sheriff's Office. So, I would say I can't give you the the actual number, but I can tell you it's probably around 10. I mean, it's it's you know, as far as the bugs and all the stuff that the sheriff was just talking about, some of the some of the issues that we are having on that side of the house, we're we're being put in contact with India, right? So, there's a language barrier a little bit and then there's some of the other things. Don't get me started on that. Go ahead. Continue. Get plent of those phone calls a day, right? And when you say it's probably been,

and I'm not going to hold you to it, 10 or so, would you get give me a guess on what time frame that is? Is that a 30-day time frame? Is that a two-eek time frame? You know, best guess. What do you mean by that time frame, sir? since we started and supplying information to to the uh Commonwealth attorney. Is that over a month period of time or a two-month period of time? About two months, sir. When we're talking about the 10 number. Yes, sir. Right. Yep. Okay. Uh I I'd encourage you both uh to make sure you continue to keep a time frame because that'll be a question that'll be asked in the future. Around the future. Yes, sir. Understood.

Wonderful. Any other questions? Thank you gentlemen for being here today. I'm not quite done. Not quite done. No sir. [laughter] Okay. We got a long day here.

I just I just wanted to go over a couple of things. This is the first time first time I've really had the opportunity to address the board first time after about 30 days or so. And I just wanted to come up here and and give a little bit of my opinion about a couple of things now that I've been sitting here as long as I have. um primary constitutional duties of a sheriff is number one the keeper of the jail. Well, we fix that because we we belong to a regional jail. So that's constitutional duty number one fulfilled taken care of. The second one is courthouse security. Okay. Um we currently do that uh with one position provided uh for the courthouse. Um, and to just break that down a little bit, there is anywhere between 13 and 16 court days per month. If you look at a normal court date when court is in session, again, somewhere around that 15 number. I guess there's 22 working days, give or take, however many it is in a week. Okay? You have to have two people up front for security. You have to have one person in the control room. You keep one person at the metal detector. You also have to have your baiff inside the courtroom where the judge is. That's three. If you have prisoners, you have to have an individual in the back. That's four. There has been multiple times where there have been two courts going. So, you can add another two persons to that. Another person upstairs with the judge and another person possibly at a holding cell with other folks. Um, but again, constitutional duty. That's what we have to do. Right now we are back filling with a road position, a road position. We have moved over there. That was my decision to do because it was game day decisions like who are we going to have in this courthouse today. Uh our chief baleiff

over there is doing a very good job. Um he's he's keeping me apprised of things as well as the major and we uh we're we're making it do. We absolutely took a position from the road to go over there and fill that chief baoof position. We we had to do that for the safety of the court just for as not when I said the 15 days that's that's if there is no jury trials. That's if there's no extra dates that are thrown in. Currently, the J&D clerk's office, I'm sorry, I got information from the J&D clerk's office that they're trying to get a fifth judge again specifically for Middle Sex. Okay. Uh there there's a lot of court going on and it's very difficult to do with one person. I'm not asking for anything. I'm just pointing some things out. Okay. Uh third thing that we have to do is court services. Not just in the courthouse, but we have to do civil processes, legal papers, warrants, summones, witnesses, and jurors. Okay. Um, that's a lot of papers. That's a lot of papers to be served. It is a big We have had in the past uh people that we have hired part-time to be civil process servers that typically work three to four days a week and they they take that burden off of our road people. Um, so, so, so we're we're handling that as well. The other thing that we're responsible for is prisoner transports. So, we have to do that. So, on a court date with a prisoner, now you have to have somebody who's going to be doing a transport. I'm just trying to paint paint a picture for you. It's a lot of personnel that moves. And we backfill that with all part-time personnel. And again, we've moved one person from the road to that courthouse. uh in 152530 the powers and duties of a sheriff he shall perform such other duties the board imposes upon him and that's the

law enforcement side of the of the of the coin okay i.e the noise ordinances. And I'm going to touch on because I think this was the one coming down the pipe, golf court ordinances, golf cart ordinances. Okay, if that comes, I know that my the previous sheriff not for this. I'm for what the people in the board want. That's fine. I do want to say increase in calls for service are absolutely coming. Absolutely coming. Just like the noise ordinance when you get that squeaky wheel, the only people that want to ride golf carts are the people that already have golf carts. Okay? Golf cart is a recreational vehicle, right? So, if you're doing recreational things on a golf cart, the propensity for you to have the law called on you, I'm going to guess, is probably a little bit higher. Not only are you going to have that, but you're also going to be transporting a noise box. You're going to have the two 10-in subwoofers on the back, and you're going to be going down the road for everybody to hear. I'm I say this because I know it's coming. I have been here 32 years. I have seen these things happen and I could just I'm not a soussayer by any stretch of the imagination. I'm just going off of historically speaking how that goes down um and what happens with it. Um so I I I did want to touch on one other thing and I'll make this short as I can. Um breaking down two six-month periods in the year and the calendar year. If we broke it down to campgrounds open, campgrounds closed, we'll do six months of each. So from November to May 14th, which is well into the spring. We're not even there yet. We already see the uptick. Okay. We had 7,733 calls for service. Between May 15th and November 15th,

we had 9,416 calls. It's an increase of about 25% in the summertime. We understand what that's from. We understand that that's from the campgrounds and summer homes, people that are staying here, Airbnbs, what have you. I And I know that we've talked about this and I know that everybody here knows that our population increases in those summertimes. Okay? But I'm just trying to give you a just trying to paint you a picture. The increase of calls for service for our dispatch increases 25%. And sometimes we do that with one dispatcher in there. We try not to. We also backfill that with part-time persons who work at other jurisdictions. So I know, and I don't mean to to say anything crazy, we do do more with less, but we keep getting asked to do more. I I'll go back again. If you want us to cook the dinner, let us go to the grocery store with you. And at least start to think about these things when you start adding these campsites. Let's say you add 500 campsites. That's probably not out of question, right? That's certainly been done. Average family is what? Four people. That's on the low end. That's 2,000 people. It's 2,000 people you're putting in the county. The state gives us one deputy for,500. Again, I'm just trying to paint a picture. I'm not asking for anything. Thank you all for your time.

Thank you, Sheriff. I do have one question for you before you leave. And you talk about uh you' made mention that you have to do um prisoner transport. Is that just from the jail to the to Yeah, we we've we've done them across the state. We've actually had to go get them. We get transportation orders and we have to sometimes go across the state, pick them up, take them back. in that particular instance that because the crime was completed in m middle sex and uh they're being held for something else somewhere else. Yes, sir. Correct. Yes, sir. Okay. Yeah.

All right. But we're not necessarily transporting I'm just cleaning it up in my mind. We're not particularly transporting prisoners from this jail to another county for, you know, them to um That's correct. I should have I should have clarified that it's for court purposes only. If they are in Meckllinburgg County, we have to go get them in Meckllinmberg County so they can stay in court here after court. They're in jail in Meckllinburgg and you got to go pick them up because the court's going to hear whatever case here. Yes, sir. Okay. Wonderful. Yes, sir. Um the the uh I'm with I'm on the jail board authority. They go to the meetings that sort of thing and I've noticed that um

I don't think I've ever seen Cher Bushy at any of those meetings. So, can we can we get somebody from Middle Sex to come to those meetings? Major Easter will be attending every meeting at the jail board. Absolutely. Wonderful. Good. Thank you for the report. Yes, sir. Uh we're glad to hear some of what you're dealing with and potentially may have to deal with more at a at as a county changes, etc. So, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Okay,

down to item number four, agency and staff reports. And I'll let uh Ann Marie tell me if we're on time or not. I think we're close but maybe not exactly where we need to be. So far so good. But is okay. All right. So, um agency and staff reports item AD dot. Is Mr. Mcnite here? I didn't see him. There's a report. Uh no, he we had reported that he was supposed to be here. Pardon me? We had reported to each other that he was supposed to be here, but he's not here. Okay. There is nobody from

Okay. V. That's why I asked. I didn't see him and uh wanted to know if he wanted to elaborate on any of those items. Uh I'd encourage board members if it's items that are not being done or you have any question about the items that he listed in his report to uh um let our county administrator know uh and have some discussion with him on any questions you may have. All right. Uh, school matters budget supplement request pages 54 and 60. Um, ladies, how are you?

We are well this afternoon. Thank you for having us. So, we have three separate budget supplement requests. I actually don't like the name of that because we're not requesting any additional budgets or anything supplemental to the budget. It's just movement of items. I'll start with the first one though. That's pages 54 and 55. And this is what covers the additional funds we receive from the state and additional funds we still have available in FY26 to cover bonuses for the school division staff as a retention bonus to finish out FY26. And so you'll see at the top part the 82,000 is the amount that we receive from the state. that's appropriated to SOQ funded instructional and support positions. That funding does run through our LCI, so would look less than a county maybe neighboring us that has a lower LCI. The expense piece, I can explain. It looks like there's a lot of shaking and moving of bonuses there. All we are doing is simply putting the bonus amount in the correct category because we are categorically funded by the board of supervisors and so it has to go into the instructional category for the number of personnel that are considered instructional. The next is administration attendance and health transportation and so forth. And so that's what those numbers mean on the expense side of things and that's what this first request is for. And I'm happy to answer questions about this one first. I think it's probably better to do them each one at a time because there are three very different.

Yeah, let's do them each, I guess, unless the county attorney has some objection to doing that. Let's do them each. Uh I do have one question. The revenue is showing uh 82,664, but the expense side is certainly more than that.

It is. And so the 82,000 is the amount we receive from the state. The expense side is is going to be much higher than that because we have to use endofear funds for FY26 that were unspent due to a couple of positions that we were unable to fill. So the total of the expense all in all for the um in order to give a $1,000 bonus as a retention bonus is more in the 200,000 plus range. How many other positions do you have that you haven't been able to fill

for this current school year? We had two at the elementary. We had two at the middle, one we filled with a long-term substitute. Um, all of them at the high school were filled. We did have one teacher resign mid year and that was that was um the salary was reallocated because other teachers took over teaching those courses. So, it's not unusual to have four or five positions that go in field every year.

Well, unfortunately, that's been a little bit of a trend as we get more and more into the teacher shortage area. It's certainly not what we plan for. Um, just depends on what the positions are and if we've got we've had people retire from time to time that we've been unable to fill specific things. But in this budget coming, you have eliminated two positions though. Correct. We've eliminated four. Four. Okay. Yes. Any other questions? All right. Then a motion would be in order to to uh approve the 2026-12 supplementary request. I so move. So moved by Mr. Jesse. Thank you, sir.

Second. Second by Mr. Kittinen. Thank you, sir. Any uh further discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Williams. Yes, Mr. Bill Harris. Yes, Mr. Kittinden. Yes, Mr. Jesse. Yes, Mr. Don Harris. Yes. So, approval of motion to uh approve the budget supplement request 2026-13 has occurred. Continue on please.

Okay. So, the next one is starts on page 56. Uh the first four items tuition down to e- rate is additional revenue that we are receiving. That's just an increase from what we had budgeted for at the beginning of the year. We had additional students, a couple of extra refunds that came through and then additional monies in rate. The rest of this is adjustments that we have made because we had a reduced ADM, which means we had a a lower number of students enrolled in the school division that we had projected when we approved our budget about this time last year for the 2526 school year. And so it then affects all of those categories that come from the Virginia Department of Education. When you get down to basic aid and gifted education, those are all line items from the state. And when there's a change in your overall ADM, that will fluctuate per student number. And so that's what the the rest of those pages are. Happy to answer specific questions though. Um my specific question just to be better educated your uh 59989 I think 61 uh for Medicare.

Yes. Medicaid Medicaid excuse me. We are able to bill for those services. We are able to bill for certain Medicaid services that our students receive within the school division. students that are identified as students with disabilities if they receive speech language instruction, occupational therapy, transportation for those students, we are able to with the parents permission bill Medicaid to receive additional funding back for that. And is that number reflective on how many students that would get reimbursed that way or is it more than that?

So the reimbursement comes to the school division, not to the students. It doesn't cost the students anything. But so I don't know that I understand then your question. Maybe is that 59 based on a number of students that get that or is that just a supplement that Medicaid pays you on? Gotcha. It is specific to the student and the service that they receive. Okay. Wonderful. Any further questions? All right. Um, seeing no further questions, a motion be ordered to approve that amount of the supplement request 202613 budget request.

So moved. So moved by Mr. Kittin. Thank you, sir. Looking for a second. Second. Second by Mr. Williams. Thank you, sir. Any further discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Bill Harris. Yes, Mr. Kittinden. Yes, Mr. Jesse. Yes, Mr. Williams. Yes, Mr. Don Harris. Yes. Motion 2026-13 has been approved. Continue, please.

All right. And then the last one, all are um federal and state grants that we have either applied for or there were additional funding that was left over from the state and allocated to us. Um quick question on that. Um did uh this was grants that y'all had approved had uh petitioned for? Correct. Correct. Okay. And um this one wasn't.

Was there anything else additionally that came in from the state that would have affected any of these budget request? So the only thing additional that came from the state was the second one which was a title four. If there if there whenever there's additional funds left over for titles, they will reappropriate that and send that division to divisions. That's what this one was for. The first one for school improvement grant we applied for. we were eligible to apply for that. The career career switcher mentor grant and then the supplemental I teach grant both have to do with teacher lensure. So whenever we have grants that open up for us to help our teachers get the license and endorsement that they need, we always apply for those.

All right. Thank you very much. Uh any other questions? I got one question. Uh when you're doing your budget, is this included in your budget? These grants? These grants? No. So this is extra money beyond your budget and you include in your budget the money to take care of these classes or whatever they are.

So the these are very specific grants and they have to go towards very specific items. The last two have to go towards teacher lensure. The I teach program is a is a program that our teachers enroll into to get the courses that they need. Um the top one which has the most the 89,000 that just opened up to us in February of this year has to be spent by September. And so the afterchool tutoring that's going on right now, it is supporting that. It is supporting additional supplemental materials in the mathematics and reading courses specific to this year's so testing and then professional development that will take place this summer with our teaching staff specific to math and reading in the elementary and middle school. So they're very very specific on what they can be used for.

So it's not in your budget at all when y'all doing your budget at the first of the year. When you're talking about money that it cost to do these programs, it's not in there. This is something over the side and you don't know the cost until you do it, right? Yeah. This this top one didn't even open up to it. We didn't even find out about it until January and it was due in February. So, we got a grant here for $89,000. What would have happened to all these expenditures if you didn't receive the grant? We wouldn't have them. We wouldn't have the after school program. we wouldn't have the professional development that we've that we've um purchased and we would not have the supplemental materials in the class. And you don't have any money in your budget to help supplement it?

Not to not to supplement like that. Yeah. Thank you. Mhm. Any other questions? A motion would be in order for uh FY2026-14. So moved. So moved by Mr. Williams. Thank you, sir. I'll second it. Second by Mr. Jesse. Thank you, sir. Any further discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Kittinden. Yes. Mr. Jesse? Yes. Mr. Williams? Yes. Mr. Bill Harris? Yes. Mr. Don Harris? Yes. Uh motion for approval of budget supplement 20 2026-14 is approved.

Thank you. Any other questions? You're learning. I'm waiting. [laughter] I got I got one more question since you asked for it. The total money that you received from the county

and your total budget money that you didn't budget for like the grants, what is the difference in the two? Other words, you got 30 million for the county and your total budget end up spending even with the grants through grant money would end up another, you know, another $100,000. Is there any way you can show that? So, so like I said, these grants are very specific in what they can be used for. So, it's not a supplanting situation. It's not that we can get these grants and now we've got $100,000 left over and and our budget's not 30 million. It's more like 23 million. Um [laughter] I don't And we don't get 23 from the county. No. And it's not all from the county. So, I don't want anyone to be alarmed that we have a lot of spending out there.

I just threw a question in. Yeah, typically they are very very specific and meticulous on what they can be used for and so and it's got if we don't use it for that specific purpose we have to turn it back into BOE and so there's a lot of reporting that's associated with it also. It would be nice if they would open up more money that we could just use for whatever we would like to use for

Okay, I just got a general question, last question. um [clears throat] in your current school year budget and I can't control how you decide to spend that or what you do. It's not but you guys uh we issued a 2% cola for everybody [clears throat] for FY27 next year. 2627. Yes. Yeah. So my question is because you guys are doing additional salary substitutes. Can you briefly tell me how that comes about that you have that kind of money to be able to do that?

Yes. So we received additional funding from the state. Our LCI goes down for the next two years slightly. So we'll take advantage of that. We also eliminated to Mr. Harris's point, we eliminated four of our positions. we've cut some other things from the budget that we knew we didn't need right now. So, we go through the we go through that with a fine tooth comb first, what we can eliminate in um schools and departments. And when I say eliminate, it means that it's it's either positions or items, things like that that we know that we can provide the same level of service and not have to have an additional spot here or item there. We do that first. And so doing that and um the additional funding that we were able to receive from the state, we were able to do an additional compensation to get our teacher salaries more competitive with our regional partners.

So the additional salary increases, you got a total number what that is the percent increase 2% and then you got to add some on different stuff. So, we're doing for teachers, it's a step plus 4%. Which is 5.3% and then for all other staff it's a step plus 3%. The total cost for it all. The total I don't have that I don't have that broken out. Yeah, I don't have that broken out.

That's something that I would I would like to hear personally. Um because these are reoccurring expenses. So, let's just say that it's um $100,000. We know it's not, but let's just say that it is. next year the you're going to be able to cover that and what I'm saying is you're raising the doing these raises off of monies that you have without coming from more for middle sex and it's going to be a reoccurring thing so next year are you going to be coming to Middle Sex hey that extra money we gave last year y'all got to make that up now

yeah I don't have any idea what the 2728 budget will look like I hear what you're saying what I can't predict is what the what the state piece of it looks like that tends to fluctuate based There's a chance then that you will be coming the money that extra money that you're giving beyond the 2% this year, you will be coming back. There's a chance you'll be coming back next year asking for that money to be included in your budget going forward

to sustain the budget that we have. I wouldn't expect that our budget number would decrease for 2728 without making additional cuts and things like that. That's part of what we do when we start in October and looking at our budgets. But to your point, it could be that there's less money from the state. The next two years, the LCI stays low lower. I would expect that after the next two years, the LCI will jump back up again. What percentage you say was increase? Was that 5.3? Teachers is 5.3. Everyone else is 4.3. 4.3. And that's not extra. That's the amount.

That's the total. Yeah, that's total. It's the cola plus what additional you guys have money to Right. Correct. That's not that's not on top of 2%. That's that's the total amount. Okay. Cool. Cool. Any other questions? Thank you, Dr. Sykes. Miss Mary, thank you very much for being here. All right. Thank you. And um have a good day. Thank you. All right. Look, you get 2% right.

Okay. Uh in your book, social services uh report only and that's uh on page 61 uh planning director's report. Mr. your bill 3.3% and 2.3. Yes, sir. Well, I put these these are recent legislative changes that I just put in there to kind of give the board an idea what may be coming down the uh down the road coming months.

Um, some of these are I'm not sure how applicable they are to us. Uh we're going to have to do an audit and Miss Lewis is going to be obviously looking into this more. She's still this is kind of unfolding as we as we speak. Uh some of these have gone back to the governor for modifications and but um I mean some of the big ones they there's some housing components dealing with affordable housing, the abilities for religious organizations and certain I guess u taxexempt entities to do um high density housing on their properties. Um, I don't know if that impacts us or not. We'll have to look at that. I think water and sewer may be a component of that one. Um, there's a lot of um a lot of legislation that's pointed towards trying to address uh housing cost and affordability. As you remember, they removed the planning commission last year from site plan and subdivision review. I'm sure that was I'm sure they're going back to the development community and say what what do you guys need to make housing cheaper and of course this gives the development commun community a chance to get their wish list and whatnot going forward. So um the you'll see that uh the second one um what does that say

question on the first one you you show approved on that what was that the question you ask that that now that that that means the uh it's been adopted by the it'll go into code is that correct that that goes to code okay how about the expiration date the effective date and then as an expires on January 1 2020 yeah some of these are odd components They may be temporary measures uh to allow So like there's a window here to It looks like to me there's a window to build housing on church property. Yeah. And after 2031 that goes away. They don't have

Yeah. It may be to address an immediate need that may this was some of this legislation similar to the uh what they did back in 2008 when the housing and and you know basically real estate kind of went south. They did they they extended approvals for site plans and subdivisions and they kept extending them extending them extending them till they I think it was just last year that they finally ran out. So, we had a balance every time somebody would come in with something. Does it still have vested rights with these things? And this adds confusion as you pointed out, you know, did this make it in before that date and does it expire? I mean, all this is it really makes it hard makes a hard ordinance even harder to deal with, you know. So, and um I'm not sure that that impacts us. I think there may be a a water and sewer component, but it certainly gives a long leash to religious organizations, but very high density uh residential development that kind of doesn't fit any of our check boxes right now. So I there there again as we look into this we'll see if that impact it may or may not impact us but I'm just trying to build that that picture of what's happening in the general assembly and what they're thinking about now with with respect to a lot of focus on uh affordable housing. Now whether this eases it or not I I'm I'm not sure. So, but a lot of these you see the next uh particular provision. Kevin, if you could roll that down just a touch. Um there's this uh this may or may not impact us as well. Um restrict such authorities can that may be for urban type of uh development that that one may not. I'm not sure that that one impacts us as much. Like I said, these will be looked at and we'll look at them and

audit our our ordinance as we go. This is this is a big one that u has a lot of impact. The solar facilities, they're really I'll give you a little background. When we drafted our solar ordinance, we're in the we're in the second at least the second maybe third iteration of our solar ordinance. Ms. Lewis and I started working together when that came about. We knew that we kind of had to follow this fence and not be too oppressive with this ordinance because both of us predicted this. If you're too oppressive with the ordinance, I I don't think we I think we've been pretty fair with ours, but there's a lot of localities that maybe tested the waters and right now they decided they don't like solar. They just made it so impossible to get it done. They've made such restrictive ordinances. What this is doing and this is trying to combat the local you this current movement of denials of solar facilities. So they have a mandate you have to they supposed to build so many solar facilities. developers are going back to let general assembly, legislature, the whoever Dominion, they're going back and they're having these discussions. We can't get our solar facade on us. We can't get them approved. So, here's the general assembly's response. They're going to start dipping into our ordinances and telling us what we can put in the ordinances, what we can't. So, this provision, if you read the provision, this is just a summary. If you go in and dig deeper, there's uh they're changing setbacks, setbacks from buildings. Um there's one of these components that might not be in this one, but uh energy storage facilities will now or accessory to that particular use by right. Um this

particular provision has an interesting component. If you deny the special exception, they haven't taken the special exception way yet, but in this case, if you deny the special exception, planning commission, I guess the board has to give a narrative as to why they denied it and send it to the state corporation commission. So what happened last a uh last summer when the solar facility was denied that you would have to come forward with documentation as you know you'd have to give reasons for denial and the members planning commission board would have to give those reasons and those are sent to the state corporation commission but miss Lewis and I are not sure what happens with the debt are are are they now the are are the people that we've answered to. That's kind of all these are just ongoing little changes. So, uh this will have to be audited. Actually, I think our ordinance now, some of our ordinances aren't too bad. Our setbacks, you know, we have some pretty good setbacks in there. They might have to change our energ I believe energy storage facility buildings are accessory in ours. I'd have to go back and look at that. I think we may be okay with that. So, but you can see those are some pretty impactful changes that you're starting to see that leverage kind of fight back against the localities. And I believe Veco is probably advised as you know they're kind of our legislative uh liaison or or advocate I guess to localities and I believe they their position on these is for them the not to pass these. they've been kind of on the locality side to try to try to give the localities more voice in their uh you know in their decisions. So um what can

what's the next one? The do any of these that you've listed require our local ordinances to be changed? They they will they will these these these affect the zoning ordinance

starting when? Well, technically some of these I believe the one of them was what a year away, Heather. Some of them you have a little time. Uh possibly July 1st. Now obviously most of these localities will not have these provisions in at J July 1. They always kind of lag a couple months. You know, we're still we're still getting feedback and and these are still in legislative changes and they're still trying to get um get maybe the finetuning on the language. it goes back and forth and some governor wants this change or that change. So, right.

So, anyway, so but I just want to make the board aware of some of these things. It's this has been a bit it's a little bit busier than it is usually we have maybe one or two. There's a lot of code change here.

Um here's another one and all this again is kind of uh pointed towards affordable housing. Now, this is pointed towards what they're known as accessory dwelling unit. We have a pretty good ordinance for accessory dwelling units. We allow accessory dwelling units by right with certain conditions. So this this we may have to we'll have to audit it and see how this correlates with the new code section, but there's a lot of localities that have really restrictive uh provisions on what they call ADUs or accessory dwelling units. They don't they don't like them very much. Uh we've been a little bit more um you know amanable to these types of things. Um they u we do it it used to be a special exception. Now it's by right use under certain conditions square footage percentage that type of thing.

So we are we're already pretty much complying in a way with this.

I think we're not far off on it. We'll look at it. Um, but we we do allow ADUs by right. So, you know, most of these are I think there's fear that these ADUs end up being like small housing units. We've always considered them accessory to the dwellings. So, they tend to it's usually in most cases here it's overflow from the from the house. They need the extra space. You know, we have, you know, a lot of people, especially the some of these river homes, you get families, they come and they, you know, they need to grow the apartment to house extra people. That's that's what you see a lot here. So, but anyway, also I just put these in a little narrative and it I wanted to come up here one last time and let y'all [laughter] let y'all have some questions and

come up anytime you want.

Yeah, you might want to hit me on a couple things while you have me. So, I just wanted to give you an opportunity. There's also I thought there was Yeah, there's also um the manufactured housing. Um that's a big one too. Um ma manufactured this is stating that manufactured housing would be able to be built anywhere that a a normal on-site stick built home would be able to be built. So, um, that's again that's targeted towards more affordable housing, trying to, uh, you know, make make housing more affordable for the average person. So, I I don't know how that impacts us yet. Um, you know, sometimes you're going to you're going to get into some of the, you know, where restrictive covenences may prohibit them and then that's how, you know, some of the language is older, mobile homes, manufactured homes, that's how lawyers make money. So, but we'll have to amend our ordinance to, you know, if somebody comes into our office and so I want to put this manufactured home here and we didn't used to maybe allow it. Now we do. So, you know, we have to follow state code, right?

Dave, that what what Paul wanted to do cuz he do that down there now or you have to have some changes. Uh, well, I mean, obviously the um ordinance will have to be amended to, you know, to enable, you know, correlate with state code, right? Now, you know what Mr. pal wanted to do was a little bit higher density. Uhhuh. So that that that he may not be able to do the the intensity that he wanted to do in and the density that he was projecting, but the way I read it and he'd be able to do something there, right? With manufacture. It may be just like regular lots or however, but right, he would that's the way we've kind of looked at it and that's that's

if you have water and sewer available, it's a 10,000 square foot. Right. Right. That's That's correct. He would have to have on-site uh he would have to have the uh on-site uh central sewer system and the on-site water. Well, he has water. Yeah. Water. Water's available. Yes. But this helps is this is a positive for what he's trying to do though. It works in a right direction for what he's trying to do. What's uh Yeah. It would it would send it him It would send him closer to being able to do it. Correct. Okay. Okay. Yes.

Yeah. it may not have the, you know, the density is something this board has to talk about. You know, that he could get down to 10,000 square feet, which is rough, roughly a quarter acre lot. So, um,

um, from a density standpoint, would that require a application to go to the planning commission or straight to us? if okay this gets installed in the zoning ordinance u this is by right that just think of this as we we'll take the the the subdivision development suppose somebody picks a lot and one of our subdivisions it's zone residential that used to not we didn't allow manufactured housing in residential we have to allow that construction of that you know that manufactured home in that subdivision. What he's doing is would be a subdivision, right? And if you remember the the past, you know, legislative session took the ability for the board and the planning commission to review subdivisions. So, this would be completely, you know, any as if it were any subdivision would be completely in-house. It would be a administrative process and that's what the general assembly has dictated. It's taken the the board and the planning commission out of out of that. Now, if he had to do some reszoning involved in it, if there's a portion he wanted to reszone for some reason, then you do you know the board still maintains that ability to they they take care of the reszoning.

Would that need to go to the planning commission? Correct. First, correct? as typically we have resonings and special exceptions still go to the board the planning commission and board of supervisors just like they always have. Okay. And if you had to take a guess on all this new legislation uh how much that's going to reduce the planning commission's decision process. Would you want to guess on that? It it certainly takes a some Now, they haven't had a lot of major subdivisions that they've dealt with in the past. I mean, the last big one they did was about 10 to 15 years ago, and it never got built

was up in Deltaville, right? I forget what the name of it was, I think Mr. Woodson was developing it, but um it I'm not sure it even made final approval. They may have I think they planning commission may have reviewed it preliminarily, but it it certainly has taken the site plans off their plate. You know, the the the dollar generals and the you know, the tractor supplies and that kind of thing that they they don't review those anymore. Um they used to and they used to have some input into them but

the general assembly has removed that ability I guess in response to developers saying hey we don't know how you know we got the extra time for you have advertising and then you know if you know conditions that are placed you have to go back and change anyway I think all it did was reduce time and maybe a little money for the developer to take that off off their plate off the plate. Uh, I just had a couple questions. One, maybe I should be more astute on this, but uh, manufactured housing, does that is that include like um, double wides or Yes. What about a like a trailer beyond trailer? Single Well, when you say a trailer, single wide trailer, single wide is a is a manufactured home.

Okay. Yeah, it's it's a single wide or a double wide. These are manufactured homes with a a federal what they call HUD or HUD standard. So, so, so what would I mean, let's say somebody bought a a um a lot that's available, and there are several other for sale at the golf course. They could put a trailer on that. I mean, a single wide um do you want me to help with that, Dave? Well, the answer to that is there's two answers. Yeah. Well, yeah. The first answer is technically we would have to approve it under that scenario. more than likely their board their um their restrictive covenences are going to deny it. So I was gonna say, but I want to be careful there because we're we're not by no means are we making a legal interpretation,

but what we would say is that the county would approve it from a zoning perspective because we don't have a choice. This is what the law says. If you have a restrictive covenant or HOA, um, I want to manage expectations because this is already coming up amongst, uh, HOA attorneys and whatnot, your HOA or your deed restrictions may address it and may be successful in determining whether or not it can be allowed. How about a new someone wants to put in a new subdivision, say 50 houses, they can't, you know, I mean, because their covenants haven't been done yet, right? I mean, obviously I wouldn't speak to that. I would their attorney would have to look into that. I would say that um

I would say there's a zoning answer and then there's a litigation answer. And it's kind of like the Airbnb situation where zoning had an answer, right? It was approved, right? It's a use. And then neighborhoods, not in our county, but throughout the state, litigated that because their HOA said you couldn't do it. Courts have said nope, they can. So, I guess what I I I just want to manage that expectation that as staff we can only say from zoning, we'd say yes.

Um, and unfortunately, I think that's something the HOAs and uh the communities are going to have to go to the courts about for clarification. And if I was to speculate, I suspect the outcome is going to be similar to Airbnbs, but um it's just not it's just it's been a lot. It's been a lot coming from uh Richmond. And I think that rural localities need to really be aware especially in regards to solar. Yeah. Um have consequences.

Well, you know what? That's right, Mr. Kitten. Elections do have consequences. Uh but it's very frustrating for rural localities. I think it's it's unfair sometimes the way they um my perception of how Richmond treats our viewpoints on something like that. Well, it's for sure that the rural community doesn't have much pull as it's associated with the state and some of the guidelines and changes that uh they're making. In fact, I don't see any in here that that benefit us.

Similar is a concerning and I will say I know Veo and um multiple localities did try to fight that. But I mean we as Mr. rat said, we've been saying for years now, we knew I mean solar has literally we have sat at the table with their lobbyists and they have said you can tell me no, but I'm just going to read that to the legislature uh next week when I go up. That's always a fun conversation and make contributions to whoever. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. So, um it's it's definitely been frustrating. Um, just so you know, so the state corporation commission is going to keep a website and maintain all your reasons for denying solar facilities. They're making it very clear that this is the first step.

Yes. Basically, if you get on the naughty list, then you're going to, you know, this is just the first step. Their perception of a naughty list. Yeah. I'm sure next year the I don't know what p where the power will be vested, but it probably won't be with the locality. It'll go somewhere else. I don't bet much, but I'd bet that I take that bet that it won't be to our advantage. Right. Continue on. Thank you. So, that's that's I've just gone over I think I don't think there's anything legislatively that um there's the battery storage.

Um there just is that's probably the part that has them as permitted as accessory use. I mean that's you know once you have a solar facility what's a few battery storage facil you know I you once you got it that far what's what's a little bit more you know I think our ordinance actually you know the newer ordinance actually has them as accessory structures so but obviously you would want to look at it holistically when it comes in because you'd have storm water management and that type of thing so right

I mean if we if we got it say hey we want to put 50 on this one that we had permitted, we would probably uh you know, you would have to go through a site plan process and storm water management if it was an extra impervious surface. So, you know, we would we would vet it through the through the proper channels as it came in, but it's um it's changing quite a bit. It's you know that there's there's changes and I think have to do an audit and just see how do how do these things impact our ordinance and where do we have to go from there. So, so anyway, I'm I'm up here if you have any other questions from Mr. Cretz. [laughter]

This is this is your last chat. So, I guess I'll be here tonight, but uh Right. So, if you have any other questions, I'm here. So, anyway, thank you all for everything. I appreciate it. Yes, sir. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you all. Moving right along. Unless we need a break. Does anybody need a break? Huh? I just add one. Okay. We're gonna we're going to take a recess of five minutes, please. Yeah, I will.

Okay, if I could get everybody to get back where they need to be, we're going to continue on. That all right, Mr. All right. So far. Okay. Okay. Um, I'd like to resume, uh, the board of supervisors meeting. Uh, and with that, uh, Mr. Lewis, you have the floor for the airport, please.

Thank you, sir. As you can see right here, the tie I turned it on. the tie down area is looks like they've just almost completed doing that. Uh the paving is pretty well well underway on this. Uh Mr. Barber says he plans on having all the paving done by Thursday and in the next two weeks he should have he should be complete. Good news is we are in the new terminal building. The furniture is in there. If we go off of that and go back to the picture, go back to the agenda. Oh, I was just going to say, so Richard, is that um AI? What am I just watching? Like I'm watching a live picture from the airport.

No, I know. I I just wanted to tease. Yeah. Is that just like a AI screen saver there?

Yeah. So that's a picture we I took the other day. Uh we flew up last the fourth and that's picture of the airport. Picture of what it looks like looked like on the fourth. Uh that big black area you see on the left hand side that is the tie down area. They have just finished paving. They did two days to pave all that. Uh there's the sitting area in there. Two couches and uh three tables that you can that you can have and a table behind you. Uh you can see the attendance area. A nice little nook over there. We've already had people over there coming in to sit there and eat their lunch over there and watch like Mr. Barber coming in to eat his lunch and watch the construction going on. Conference room. The conference room right there. That I think is the crown jewel of that entire facility right now. That's really impressive. Those tables break apart. You can have the long drawn out table like that or you can break them into six tables and arrange them in a any any way you want. You can do classes in there. I really see this as a community asset. Uh pilot lounge. Unfortunately, some of the material in the pilot lounge has not shown up yet. Uh I'm expecting in June for the last two pieces of furniture to show up and we'll be have all the furniture delivered by then. Okay. Uh I want to talk about grant closeouts. Uh we have closed out.

Before you do that, can I ask you a quick question? You certainly can. Maybe you'll elaborate on um when we decided to do the um the terminal building uh upgrade certainly from what you had. There was a lot of reasons why

and most of that was under the uh grant application that we had. So the cost of the county was very limited. Um but the overall scope of that building uh was to provide um not only for the airport committee but for other um organizations including the [clears throat] board that might want to have particular meetings there. Uh would you like to speak on that briefly?

Yes sir. Uh I welcome other organizations to come in and utilize the facility. Like I said, I view that as a community asset. Uh it's up to the board to decide how that wants to be, you know, whether we want reimbursement for any of that. I'm I will do whatever the board decides they want to do on that. But that's a very it's a large space. It's it's definitely conducive to other organizations coming in. And I welcome, like I said, I welcome other organizations to come in and use that as a community asset. And I don't know that we have a defined process at this point for that. But how would you foresee that request being made? Made to the airport committee and the airport committee makes that request to us or that request would go directly to the county?

I think the the request would go directly to the county via me probably because the airport committee only meets every other month. Okay. And I don't think that would be conducive to something like that where I'm available usually seven days a week at some point or another. Okay. All right. Wonderful. Continue.

Okay. Uh grant closeouts. We've closed out the tax the parking area had been clos grant has been closed out and we've gotten a closeout letter for that. We've got the three-phase power uh installation has been closed out and we've gotten we've gotten our final payment on that. Uh the fuel dispenser replacement status, I've talked to the company we've contracted with. Those parts are still on order. They have not arrived yet, but he will give me a call when they are ready to come in. Furniture delivery, like I said, we've gotten 99% of the furniture in. We have two recliners that we had ordered for the Palace Lounge have not shown up yet. We knew they would not show up until the second week in June. Uh we had three pieces of damaged furniture that came in. They took pictures of that and they are going to either replace it or repair it. I've gotten the final bill from them. I sent the final bill back to them because I said, "I'm not paying for things that we haven't gotten yet. Please recalculate your bill and I'll pay for what we got.

Good business. Go ahead.

And I think and like you said, you've seen the camera pictures. I've sent the camera pictures. We had a request from the National Weather Service at Wakefield to have the feed from the north looking north and looking south looking over towards the river and looking towards the other side to to show it to them. If you want to get the other tab up, uh, Emry, if you can see the other tab. Yeah, that picture right there that shows it looks out over the river. They said they did not have ground truth on what they could see as far as the river and that is going to help their forecast immensely. We we Kevin and I discussed that back at the last Wings, Wheels, and Keels when we they were here and we figured we could make that happen for them. So, they they've got that feed. Now, speaking of Wings, Wheels, and Keels, I would be remiss if I did not sit there and thank the friends of Hummel. They donated [clears throat] a refrigerator, a full-size refrigerator from Herds, and that has come in brand new refrigerator. So, that's part of our the payback from, you know, a organization we support as a as a board and the county supports from Wings Wheels and Keys. With that, that is all my prepared remarks. If y'all have any questions, I'm welcome. I welcome them.

Any questions? Uh, yeah, just a couple. Um, when this doesn't have anything to do with the current construction, but when do any any idea when Mr. Barber wants to start working on his hangers over there? I understand that he will as soon as he finishes this probably in the next couple weeks. He's already he's already put in uh the aggregate for the uh road work he has to go in there. I don't think he's going to pave it quite yet. He's waiting for a sewer or waiting [clears throat] for water to come in, getting some other utilities put under there. He doesn't want to have to cut through his roads that he puts in after he puts them in. He wants to get the underground utilities in first and then pave over top of that. Okay.

But he is he is working on those already. What about taxi way? Taxi way should be complete by the end of the week, I think. Oh, great. And if you notice, uh, the state was only paying for just up ba basically past the our hangers. Mr. Barbara has decided that he really needs the taxi way to go all the way down. So, he's putting in the taxi way all the way down, threequarters of the way down, probably another couple couple hundred yards. Good man. Really?

That's on his on his dime. Well, and that was discussed when this whole airport project started to be put together that what the county would do and what the county wouldn't do. He tenatively said at that time that he was going to extend the the taxi way himself. I mean, we all know that it benefits him to do that and it would be it would be hard for him to sell those hangers, right, and sell those lots in the subdivision without that. So, it was a good business decision. Again, thank you for all you do. the project uh seems to be going great and it hadn't been uh really any hiccups to to what we had all negotiated earlier on that. So, thank you for that.

Thank you. All right. Okay, moving right along. Um, however, before I get to um, uh, regular agenda items, uh, under agency and staff reports, I'd like, uh, Mr. England to come forward if he would. I have a specific question, but I'll give you the opportunity first to talk about anything you may want to talk about. Um, not necessarily anything I particularly had in mind to talk about. Mr. Mr. Chair, if you have any questions,

I do. That's why I asked you to come up. Um, and I I'm not looking because from your staff report, it said that you under the process of the rce building and looking at that and what the potential costs would be um for that. Um, I I don't know if you guys I'd just be curious when that all comes to us at some point later. Um, is there going to be any projection on what the renovated building might cost versus a new building?

We can certainly ask them to look at that as we're working through this process. Mr. Chair,

yeah, they're they're currently working through their assessment. They do need to make another visit to the site. They've made an initial visit to the site. They need to come back to kind of flush out some of the electrical and where it's going and things like that because uh there are some feeds through that building that go back to the kid building. And my only question, and I don't even know, I'm not trying to get down in the sand saying and rustle about it now, but it'd be nice to know, would a new building because my in looking at the project because of wiring need to be changed, assortment of all kinds of things. I'd be curious to know how that reflects to what a projected cost of a new building might be.

Yes, sir. I'm sure they can help us uh evaluate what a certain square footage type building would cost new. Okay. As as part of this exercise. Cool. Any other questions for Mr. England? Thank you, sir. [clears throat] Regular agenda items. Uh JDR uh reallocation request for shredder. and Marie

um several weeks ago I received an email from Diana McKinnon. She's the clerk to the juvenile and domestic relations court. She was she had been researching to get a new shredder and she discovered that the shredder that she wanted was going to cost $1,649. She then pulled up all of her accounts um her general ledger accounts and found that she had about $950 remaining and she said she would like to get she says would the county be able to and you can see right here would the county be willing to cover the difference between my remaining budget and the cost of the shredder approximately $700. I said I would for forward this question to the board and rather than go through an appropriation as [clears throat] you recall earlier this year in fact Chip will recall this because I think this was one of your good projects uh he managed the JDR office renovation project there's about a $2,700 remaining in that budget um where we had we had $50,000 in capital money for that. I thought, well, if the board wishes to reallocate money for this purpose instead of reappropriating anything new, um you could make up the $700 difference between what's the balance in her line item budget, which was $950, and the cost of this um shredder. So, she wanted to be here. She suggested she could be here. Unfortunately, she has today t Tuesday, right? Regardless, she said she was in her Gloucester office and wouldn't be able to make it back till late tonight. So, I said, "Well, I can at least bring it forth to the board and see what they say." Um, how I wrote it was considering allowing the JDR to use up to $1,200 of their balance because she said, "We've got $950 remaining in her budget right now." All it's going to take is some broken pencils or whatever, and she's going to have to get more supplies and she may not have enough to fund this. So, I said, "Well, let's see if the board will fund up to a certain amount

to get the balance to to enable her to get this shredder." So again, I I can't sell any more than that. I just know that the um that Deanna has she's never been pushy, you know, never been saying, "Oh, I need something when I don't need something." If she said she needed a shredder, she's got a little bitty shredder like the one in my office right now, which as you know, that gets jam. Well, you wouldn't know this, but if you've got one at home, it gets jammed more than it's used. Um I've got one that I have to walk over to. I use that one instead of my own because the little shredders are pretty unreason I don't know pretty unusable. Um especially for the quantity of work that she's doing. So anyway, that's all I'm asking for right now is whether or not the board wishes to consider to allow the JDR, you'll notice there's not a budget amendment because we'll simply be using the funds already appropriated up to $1,200 of the balance from the JDR renovation project along with the money remaining her 26 budget to fund a shredder. So

questions. Is this strictly all Middle Sex or are some other counties involved with this as well or Well, she's over in that she's over in our building. So I don't know who all would use that. Um I guess where do they get their funding from? We provide um we provide a portion of their funding. Yes. And who are the other who are the other partners that apply that um supply the other portion of funding? They're over in Gloucester. Glouster. So it's Middle Sex and Gloucester. Yeah. Well, she's got her own set of offices over there. So she works part-time over in Gloucester and parttime over here. Okay. We're not conducting Gloucester business over here. Middle Sex Middle Sex business over in Glster. This is just specific for Middle Sex.

That's correct. That's why um Chip did excuse Mr. England did that renovation of their offices because their expansion of their offices here so much. Any other questions? So, you're looking for us to approve [clears throat] a consent to Yes. a consent to allow them to use the balance. Again, a limited amount. I'm not going to give away I don't want to give away the farm, but up to $1,200 of the balance from the or whatever you want. I'm going to say $1,000 for a shredder. Um, what she's saying is the one she got is bad and she won't get another one.

She wants one. Yep. No, no, not want another one. The one she have is bad and she want to replace it because we got the money left in the budget. Yes. But she ain't saying nothing but being bad. She just says she want to replace it, right? She said that the one that she has is incapable of doing what she needs. So it is obsolete. Let's use the word obsolete because it's probably not bad. I mean, you could probably take it home and use it. Okay.

Yeah. I don't think it's particularly bad, but the size and the amount of paper that they want to put through it, this one isn't adequate for that. I'm guessing it takes more time or whatever to do that or whatever. So the question to us is she's got most of it from her budget that she has and we would be looking at some amount $700 to to $1,200 for her to um to use for that project. And we've already allocated some for that project. She's got $2,700 left.

She's got 2,700 left in her uh in her budget. I I can't tell you whether that included a new uh I would guess it did not include um her general business that she

Right. So there's two different portions of her budget. She had a $50,000 project this year u managed by Chip uh Mr. England for renovating and that included a whole set of office filing systems. Um, it was about 10 thou $10,000 worth of office filing system. Sound about right? So, it was a $40,000 project plus $10,000 worth of there was data something that helps her control all of the filing related to the um juvenile and domestic relations courts. And along that lines, she has now determined, again, this has been a growth in her office down here in Middle Sex. She's asked for supplementally this shredder to help her manage her department. Can I make a a technical point of order? Emory, you're coming in 5x5, but these directional mics, if you're away from the mic, it's hard to hear, especially with the air conditioner on. I don't want to turn them up too much, but if everybody can kind of move a little bit closer, people are having a hard

Yeah, hearing it on the recording. Okay. I was going to say mine's pin right at my face. So, you're almost too loud. Just kidding. [laughter] Am I? No, you're perfect. I'm good. I'm giving our hearts off. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. What's your pleasure, Board? Way I understand it. They got $2,700 left over from the um office renovation, and they want us to appropriate 1,200 of that so she can use it towards the shredder, right?

I I will authorize the JDR to use up to $1,200 of the balance from the JDR renovation project for shredder. So move motions made by Mr. uh Bill Harris. Second. Second by Mr. Fredman. Any further discussion? Seeing none, roll call, please. Right. Mr. Jesse. Yes. Mr. Williams. Yes. Mr. Bill Harris. Yes. Mr. Kittinden. Yes. Mr. Don Harris.

Yes. Motion's approved. Okay. Okay. Chilla compressor replacement request. Amarie.

Okay. This is more complicated. That I thought that one was hard. This one's more complicated. Um several weeks ago we had a problem over at the uh new courthouse. Dwayne uh Mr. Thomas who was in who was responsible for it called in our uh Johnson Controls. Johnson Controls reviewed all the equipment and said you need two comp you need a new compressor on chiller one. It had shorted to ground and it needs to be replaced. One chiller is half of that amount. Say $16,000 because the systems have two chillers. System chiller one and chiller two. The compressors have to be the same. And you know what? In the great scheme of things, they're the same age. If one went, the second went, you might as well replace them both at the same time. and they're probably 22 24 years old. Um anyway, they've suggested at the time and they almost demanded at the time, you all need to replace this if you want to have HVAC working um with you need these I'm sorry and I've got to read the words because I'm not a good HVAC person. You've got to you need a new two new compressors total of $32,000. I was uncomfortable with that, but I know that I also don't want the HVAC over here at the new courthouse to be out this summer. So, what we did, we've had um Raymond Global, they're reviewing our entire HVAC system over there. As you recall, you were on I think um Mr. Harris was on the committee. I think Mr. Williams was on the committee. That was one of the things we talked about them doing was reviewing the HVAC over at the new courthouse. And I sent them in addition to everything else, I sent them this information. and then they were supposed to get back to us ASAP whether or not they believed this was a necessary um item to keep that system running. In the meantime, I went ahead and put this on the agenda because as soon as I get the go from them that it's that it's a needed item, I'd like to pull the trigger, go ahead and purchase the

$32,000 chiller compressors. In the meantime, today we got an email. I mean, literally it was this afternoon, wasn't it? Um Mr. Gentry went we got the email from Raymond Global saying we needed to buy it. They said that's one of many things you're going to have to buy, but we need to get that. So point of that is at this point what I'm asking for the board is to appropriate $32,000 from fund balance. Hold on. Do I have this here? Yeah. From $32,000 from fund balance for potential chiller compressor replacement at the new courthouse pending confirmation recommendation from the county's engineering consultant. So, that is what I'm asking for right now.

Did they say what it would cost to put new chillers in? Yes. $150,000. Is it? Hold on. I can look it up. I I literally just looked at this what they said. $140,000. 140,000. And is it 32,000? That's under the um level where we have to get quotes. Well, it's under and it's under contract with Johnson Controls. So, it's under our contract with them. Okay. So you're asking about 32. What's the one 32 or whatever that amount is? What is that for? The 140,000 that he just mentioned. That was chiller replacements. If we wanted to replace everything instead of the You got a unit at your house. Inside there is a compressor. Yeah, I know.

That's all they going to change versus replacing the whole unit would be $140,000. Okay. All right. I'm with you. So you're ask we're asking for or y'all are asking for 32,000 for the replacement of two chillers, two compressors, two compressor, 24 year old stuff, right? Okay.

Okay. And in fact, this is what he said. He says, "Your mechanical system is at service life now, but replacement compressors now seems like the best option. You will need a mechanical system renovated, but and need to start budgeting for it now." So, again, we got this this afternoon. Um, so that means to me that it's time to purchase them. Um, because not only did we get it from Dwayne and then Johnson Controls, but now the independent contractor as well. I I feel like I've I don't know enough about it to say that they're wrong. I I got a question with changing the two uh tillers out for 32,000. How much warranty come?

I'd have to versus the new one. How much warranty? We change everything up. So, no. Let's see.

You say it's 30 years old. 22. I think 24 years old. I don't know if it says what the new shredder. You will get everything new. Um, one year one year warranty. One year warranty on this. And if you get it new, how much warranty you have? Well, these would be new. I'm talking about the whole system that I can't answer. Or that is probably was it we're still in that process. One year as well because one year as well probably it's industrial stuff. So you don't get the type of warranty.

I changed mine at home. I changed everything. I don't tell you. And this will not this will [clears throat] not go in the um this will be a special allocation not a budget item. Correct. I would I'm asking to appropriate fund balance for it. So it is a budgeted item for current year like right now. Um, I would guess that as soon as you all could approve it, if you approved it either this month or next, I'd be requesting Johnson Controls to go ahead and replace it.

I just ask if we approve it that somehow another I know it's not a whole unit, but we can enter into our asset management program when so forth and so on. Is that possible? Even though it's not a whole unit,

he's the he is the asset management pro. Mr. Harris, I think we did bounce this over global because they're looking at it holistically for us. Um, and they basically it said when they came back that um their general assessment of those of the mechanical systems are they're reaching the end if if some of those components have not already, they're reaching the end of their their life, but they realize they're big budget items. A whole chill is $140,000. So their recommendation is now yes, you've got a failing compressor, replace that major component of the chiller at this time is probably our best financial means right now until we can plan for the eventual replacement of the whole chiller.

So we're looking at this as a shortterm fix. Well, short term, but hopefully it could be years. Yeah, it could be years, right? Could be years. But we do need to start planning for and budgeting on the capital side replacement ultimately replacement of the whole chiller. Um this might extend that life of that chiller another five years, another seven years. It's hard to tell. But the other components of that chiller are now 20 what? 25 years old, 26 years old, right? So we're behind, but the asset management system should help us begin to track these things better and better as time goes forward. Thank you. That's what we want to hear. That's what I want the owners to be able to try to be more proactive. Yes. Yes. We're working in the right direction.

Yes, sir. Thank you. Okay. And um so payment for these two items, the 32 that we're talking about, that's going to show up as an expense in the 26 27th budget. No sir, that's going to occur this year. Current year 2526 budget. So, you're going to see it in whatever month this is, May 2026. Current year budget. Will they accept payment for it after uh June 30th? No. Uh-uh. No. But I think it's better to I mean, you do want to get it done this year before the summer, of course, if you're going to do it. Yeah, I get it.

Um and and that could change. What? No. Amory, would it be helpful to tell the board where the money would be coming from? Like is there like a is there a line item or something?

No, I was I was expecting fund balance out of no other place. And I will tell you why. Because we have had So normally I would be able to say yes, this is expensive. I still need board approval, but I'd be able to use funds from the facilities um grounds grounds and facilities maintenance budget. But this year they have had so many expenditures that were unb unbudgeted, unplanned, such as I had to replace a um we had to replace a roof over at the it was an emergency replacement of a roof over at the dispatch center. Um I had about $50,000 worth of cleaning over at the um new courthouse as well as non-stop testing. I've had testing. I've had people in there. So that $70,000 used up my 70 thou it's not even my money, but the $70,000 that I had for major projects like this. So yeah, we we're delving past what we normally expect to spend in the facilities management budget.

So a motion would be a motion would be in order to um approve the 32,000. Right. Right. Right. It's a to approve 2026 012. Correct. Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I I'll make the motion. Thank you, sir. Mr. Jesse made the motion to approve it. Second by Mr. Bill Harris. Any further discussion? Seeing none, roll call, please. Mr. Williams,

you know, before I vote on this thing, I gonna tell you I prefer changing everything. I I used to be honest with you because everything's 24 years old and if I was doing something at home uh myself and I would change it out. So in that way we know something else is going to happen just a matter of time of when and so 32 sounds good. We end up taking out the fund balance everything else and we start looking at balances and we seeing what they got left in the budget just like it's their money and they spend it all up. I I just don't care about things like that. I'm sorry. So, uh, they're recommending us to go ahead and change the chiller. What? The chiller. Okay. Compressor. Compressor.

And leave everything else like it is. And you got electrical components in there, too. I guess you got some electric work in that thing somewhere to make sure this stuff work right. So, we're not looking at anything right now. For 24 years, we already had it. And another thing that when it said ground out, it said it grounded out. I don't I really don't like the sound of that, you know. Not saying it can't. I don't know what somebody kind of that's electrical term, but some reason some reason that happened because you can do something and stuff will ground out on you and you shorten the whole thing out. You end up doing something that you didn't have to do. So, uh, I'm gonna go ahead and don't agree with it, but I'm going go ahead and vote for us. I would agree. I would do it. I'm gonna say yes. Thank you for your, uh, comments. Uh, Mr. Williams, uh, the motion's on the floor to approve the 32 for the compressors. Motion's been made on it. Uh,

it was Mr. Williams. Was it? Yes. Yeah. Mr. Bill Harris. I just like to say with the asset management program, we are working in the right direction with this. Yes. Yes, sir. Mr. Kittinden. Yes. Mr. Jesse. Yes. Mr. Don Harris. Yes. Uh motion for 2026-012 for the 32,000 has been approved. Thank you. All righty. Um citizens appointments. Hold on, Miss Ricardi.

I'm pulling it up. See if I have anything. Oh, as you can see, and thank you um Mrs. Lewis for um noticing when everybody was here announcing all of our vacancies. Um but right now we don't have based on this, I don't have any applications received. I did put it on Facebook as requested previously. I think that was for the wetlands. I announced it and people are not pounding down my door for these yet. I just want to clarify what Mr. Even though the public can hear you. It's with the computer screen in front of me. I can't hear you. [laughter] Anyway, um I gave you credit for announcing to the world. I Right. I just I just wanted to clarify. You put it on social media and they didn't respond. Is that what I heard?

Yes. I I just wanted to Okay. I was just double checking. I [laughter] was just double checking. Is that information also on the uh website? Yes, sir. and it's been on the paper and we've put it in a couple of other publications and I know that I've sent it out in emails too when I've had requests but I just I just wanted to make sure that we are putting it out there as well because it's important. We really need our community to participate. I agree. Personally, I would try to work harder. I know we got like a board board of zoning appeals Jamaica district. I talked to somebody earlier that's out there in the in the in the public but I hope uh I can get somebody else in. I got two in wetland board, but I'll work a little harder and find somebody. Thank you.

Okay. Um, anything else, Mr. Ricardi? No, thank you. All right. Thank you. Uh, administrative updates. Uh, cigarette tax is a report only. Staff reports uh is also report only. and uh discussion. We're going to move down to item uh C 6 C discussion of Heritage Trail directional sign and Marie. Yes. Yes. Um let me show you what I've done here. Um I am I'm not asking for any money right now. Good. [laughter] Continue on.

However, the board asked me they said why can nobody find the Heritage Trail Park? and they said, you know, that the VOTE has a program where VOTE will provide signage along you on along Route 33 that points to Heritage Trail. After many weeks of arguing back and forth with them because they said, "We don't do it for a trail." They said, "We do it for a park." I said, "Well, it's technically Heritage Trail Park, Middle Sex County Heritage Trail Park, because it's got um seating and garbage cans and a picnic table." [snorts] Picnic table. um is eligible for those large brown signs um through VOTE's directional signing program which I thought yay until they said oh wait you have to pay for them. So I did not know that we had to pay for these signs. Um so anyway I put this on the agenda because I want the board to know if you want me to proceed I can. not in this year's budget, but next year budget. Excuse me. Next year, we do have a little bit of money that we always put aside. Just like for other special projects, we put aside money for signs. Meantime, I did I don't know whether it was I keep looking at Mr. Harris because I feel like it was Mr. Harris that suggested this. What if we went with a smaller sign number one and this I think it was Mr. Don Harris that said it must say Middle Sex County Heritage Trail. So to

I would prefer that.

To that end, you're not wrong. They agreed with you and I got an email again today. Y'all, life is just a it's like a moving target with me right now. But um what did they say? Because the price went down and I it's important because if you all are going to make a decision and recommend that I go ahead and do this, I want you to know the best pricing. Let me see if I've got it here. Huh. each instead of being you can see these were 25 or 3,000 to $4,000. What they're recommending now instead of this 7 by 2 and 1/2 is 5 1/2 by 1 and 1/2 which is a smaller sign makes more sense at 2,000 to 2500. So that means it would be 4,000 to um $5,000 for these two signs. They still get to determine where they go on eastbound, westbound 33, but then you'd have something that points more or less to where your um to where your park is.

Who determines that? BDOT. Yes, sir. Okay.

And they know where the park is. So, I mean, it seems to me it seems kind of obvious where they should go, but Right. Um anyway, so like I said, you don't have to make a decision, but I think that I would like some nods to say next year we'd like because this is falls within my normal purview of operations, but it's also a lot of money, way more than I've ever spent on signs. So, if the board wants me to proceed, I I'd just like some direction on that. In my travels around our area and other local areas right around us, I see those brown signs at times. It's like it really catches my attention to something. I mean, I think it's normal and customary if you wherever we go around our area, we see those and I kind of think it's a thing to do.

Any other comments? I saw one I believe this weekend. I don't know where I seen it. It had to be somewhere between here and Philadelphia, I guess. Um, [laughter] but it did had a trail, but it had a nice size. It was something that you could see without, you know, kind of like looking at it. So, I'm I'm saying, you know, you I want a sign that you can see without looking for it, right? You all know the sign that I had installed and I put that at the driveway was just because y'all wanted something. It's about this big. But for some reason, these just kind of say state to you when you're traveling around like it's got the state attention or something. just seem to elevate it to me. That that's just me. And and these quotes are from VD do

um a VDO's contractor which is called whoever directional signing program.

Okay. And and not to make any undue work on anybody including you. Um is um is that price comparative to us getting it done somewhere else? I Well, after I got this, I I actually thought maybe it was you. Anyway, after I saw this at $3,000 for a sign, I reached out to our local VDOT. Is it Andrew? Drew? It's Drew. I reached out to Drew and I said, "Drew, he seems really high." And he quickly within a moment. He says, "That's about right for a sign." He says, "You're paying for this. You're not just paying for the sign. You're paying for the post that hold it up and the installation." He says, "In the end, that's about what it's going to cost you." And again, that was these bigger signs. So,

yeah. And you have to think that when you're driving past the sign, you're going 45 miles an hour. So, if it's not attention getting like our little sign, which we tried, but I tried. Yeah. This is this will be an attention getter hopefully. Kevin, while we're talking about signs. Yes. The previous county administrator wrote a letter to the state about a sign that they put in right after we had the had the wake boat landing dredge. Have we ever gotten any response back from that? You know, let you know. I don't know. I have to get more read up on that. I'm not I'm not familiar, but I'll I'll certainly follow. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. I remember the letter though. So, we need a consensus.

We need a consensus to proceed next fiscal year. This won't happen right away. Even once I get it approved, it'll be probably, I'm guessing, eight weeks, 12 weeks before we get it. Okay. Yeah. because it definitely needs to go in to the uh next uh and next budget cycle for sure. Okay. I I can definitely say that I've got enough consensus to proceed. And again, I expected that, but I wanted to make sure. Thank you.

Okay. So, before we proceed, before I get off Heritage Trail Park, I want to make sure that you all know, and I put this on your calendar, that on May 16th at 10:00 a.m. there, and that's a Saturday, there is going to be a I'm going to call it a ribbon cutting and trail sign unveiling. That's because we have all those amazing kiosks put together funded by Middle Sex County, um, funded by Middle Sex County, but assembled by the Fairfield Foundation and the Heritage Committee, and they gathered all the data. They've spent the past two years coming up with these really niceformational signs. They're going to have an unveiling um, and laah, whatever. They want you all there for the part of the ribbon cutting. When is it?

This is May 16th. It's a Saturday at 10:00 a.m.

and it should be on your I think I sent it to y'all's calendars already. Anyway, that's all I had on that. Thank you. May 16th. That would be next Saturday. Not this coming Saturday, but next Saturday, following Saturday. Let's see. At 10:00 a.m., right? This Saturday is the 9th. It's going to be the next Saturday. Okay, great. All right. Do we Do we need a motion on this or not? I I don't need it. No, I think I've got my just my recommendation. That's all. Thank you so much. We're going to try to have Middle Sex County on the sign and then Heritage Trail Park after that.

Yes, it says sorry. Yes, it definitely says Middle Sex County Heritage Trail Park is the revised version and I'd be happy to share that with you so you can see it. But yes, that was y'all. Somebody gave me that direction. I'm not sure whether it was you, Mr. Harris, or you, Mr. Harris, but somebody said it must say Middle Sex County on it. Good. Wonderful. Okay, let's move on. Uh, county attorney update. No, sir. I think I've said enough. Thank you, though. Thank you. Wayne says he agrees with me, so I'll keep moving.

Uh, item eight, unfinished and new business. Any unfinished business we need to talk about? Seeing none, any new business. Okay. Uh manners presented by the board. Mr. Jesse, I attended the middle peninsula planning district. Um, I would let you know that u a banner, let's see the yeah on here awarded $450,000 of funding for the federal rural and tribal assistant pilot program for the town of Abana with the bridge to that marina. This was funded for primarily engineering design and environmental uh review activities. This was the only awarded application in Virginia. So they did they're getting money for the planning stage of that bridge that they want that goes down to the marina and uh also with the middle peninsula planning district uh I'm going have to be on the um the executive committee um I mean executive director we're going to be interviewing for the director the executive director Thursday because they got to get a new director over there and they got I a lot of things a lot of moving parts over there place.

No, Louis Bird place. We had uh Rachel Peabody was there one time and then she gone. She's gone. [laughter] Yeah. Yeah, she's gone. Yep. She's gone. So now we got to interview for somebody else now. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. It's a lot lot lot of moving part things going on that need to be straightened out. But uh I think we will we will find out what's what and try to get find out where the problem is because I really don't know where it's at. Tell you the truth. And um that was about that was it for the my committee meeting. Mr. Crennan uh just a couple things. Uh I attended last week the uh middle peninsula. Thank you.

Uh last uh week I attended the middle peninsula judicial uh juvenile detention center uh committee meeting over in Williamsburg. And um one of the things that I'm going to I'm going to start working on I I've had the suggestion made um that we might want to consider a harbor master position in the county and after seeing what what Richard's doing over at the airport, it's it's incredible what a motivated person can do. Uh this is a person that would be essentially uh coordinate uh marine activities in the marinas and the creeks such as uh the need for dredging. What creeks need to be dredged when they need to be done. Um also uh would probably have something to do with our boat ramps, our new boat ramps down in Deltaville. Uh the county dock would be this would be the guy that would say this is what we need to do. we we need to fix this dock and let us know ahead of time before it falls in the water. Um, and considering that that the water that the the marine industry is such a big thing in this county, it's such a such an asset that we have. It just seems that if if we can do it at the airport, then we could do it outside. we could do it for for something as important as the marinas and as important as the the waterways are here. And so, uh, I think it's I think that this is something that we should consider. And I'm going to start working on it. And I know I got everybody in trouble about the noise. So, maybe [laughter] maybe we'll get you maybe maybe I'll just light up something else here. But no, I think that I think it's something that that could be a real asset to the county and and could actually I think

maybe in the not only attract uh better marine businesses but can uh could really be a financial asset to the county as well. Thank you both of you. Uh my comments uh on matters presented by the board. Um I myself um uh I continue to meet with the Middle Sex High School renovation committee. Uh Wayne, you meet on that too. We both meet on that.

Uh so we're still looking at uh what's the best options to continue on with that. We haven't come to a consensus yet, but we're still working on it. Um, also, um, we haven't had an official meeting. I think that's going to be this week, maybe. Uh, the Middle Sex County, uh, complex, uh, committee. Um, we're talking about, uh, some of the continued improvements that we're going to be doing at the complex. Again, I encourage you if you've not ridden down there recently, you probably need needed to go down there and see how nice the complex looks and all the improvements that's been done on it. It's pretty impressive. and a majority. The county helped out with some lights on that, but there's been a heck of a lot more improvements that's been funded by the committee uh which which are pretty um uh really good from and we getting a lot of comments from people that come by there of how well it looks uh and how well it's kept and the improvements that we've done on it. Uh we have new playground equipment on it. The most recent that we did and at least all the kids say they like it. So uh if you get a chance and go down there, walk the track and and check it out for sure. Uh and that's all I have. Mr. Harris, I just make a note about what Randy said about the harbor master. um the places north of us. That's kind of a common occurrence in the where they have harbors at and stuff. But there's one other element to it and that's the fact that the harbor master will be making sure that the boats that are here are registered and are paying that is where the harbor master comes in to pay their salary. There's also I haven't looked into it but now I'm glad to see Randy you are. It's my understanding that if you have a have a harbor master that that can open up some

grant money to do some stuff on the water because you are now a professional harbor. You have a manager so for so on. So for the portity. So I'm interested to see how it comes out. Maybe another um way the middle sites can can make sure that they're getting the revenue that comes when boats just come here and stay so long and then they leave. So thank you. That's all I have. Mr. Williams.

Well, I went over to the meeting with me and Jesse went over there together and I guess more confused confusion [laughter] at some of these meeting you go to. All you got to do all I tell them is follow the money. You wonder how come how come people leave? But the harbor master thing is pretty interesting. But you know most of y'all that know me I'm always looking at the bottom line and the bottom line is you know is the taxpayers going to benefit from it. Now harbor master will it will benefit but justify justification of the job will show you revenue and something uh brother Mickey said today I don't know if he was slacking at me or not but I loved it what he was saying that he used the word do more with less he don't know that's what he said and he was showing how he was moving around his force to make sure these jobs are covered now I don't know if you're listening there but Mickey I'm right on your back man you finally doing you're doing something that we need to do. And and and and the uh second thing is I also think that uh we got to watch our cost. I don't believe because you got it in the budget, you should spend it. You spend what you need to uh what you need for it and you turn the rest back over to the county goes in your fund balance. I can't say it met I can't I can't say met fund balance no more. I guess I'm going to call it gentry, [laughter] you know, but but uh and and and that's about it. But I and I did see the Heres trail sign when I was traveling within the last four or five days and it was a nice sign, you know, to uh people pay attention to that sign.

And I guess we finished the bridge by now. Yes, I've seen it physically. I'm sorry. I should have mentioned that. You are correct. [clears throat] And Mr. Mike Longest, who spoke earlier, he's the one that did it.

Okay. I saw it was broke down. I go down and take pictures of it, you know, and put it on my phone. But other than that, you know, everything's a learning process. Uh, and and another interesting story, we was talking about dogs making do noise and bargaining and chickens and birds flying. But let me tell you something. We got to do some things. Do they love for pets? You ride down the road, you see people got them in the cars, they got them in a lab, they're almost driving a vehicle. But, but, you know, we do need to address something about uh dogs. Now, I'm going tell you what I mean. Uh we can talk about whether we in a rural area or wherever we at. We talk about hunting dogs. Guy got a hunting dugs down the road from me. I don't see no problem, you know, he keep them in house and he take care of because hunting dogs can be quiet. They don't have to be noisy all the time. So if you take care of, you know, you don't bother. But but the thing I I would like to see, you know, dress and I'm I'm not going to change and y'all heard me say it at the last meeting. You got to be responsible for your animals, your dogs. You got to be responsible. And I feel that if you're not responsible, then you going to have to do that because at this time, you know, we we we have dogs. We just get them our kids, lock them, they pat them, and and then after they get six years old and let the dog go, you know, so somebody got to be accountable. And I said that because I know you'all heard me say last time some of y'all a doug came on our property. Two pet bulls and I let the dog outside and they they they they took care of me. I mean little small Doug. They took care of him. Kill a Doug and heard him the other day. Well, let me tell you what happened. The deputy came and said, "I don't see no blood and did you witness it?" And the first thing went off my head. I said, "You try to tell the truth all the time. You try to be honest." So I didn't tell him that I witness it. So you don't have no case because they didn't see the

blood and he didn't witness him. So you don't go to the uh the attorney. But I went to the attorney and I asked him uh you know you got a case you know uh what can you do about this? Well I didn't get recommended by the sheriff's department to investigate what happened. So I said oh that's how you do it. You just like to win all your cases. Y'all watch what I'm saying there. When you go, I don't like to lose no cases. We hide hide them in anyway. You don't like to lose no case. I make a story short. I swear. Look, man. My wife is upset and she upset. I'm upset. If y'all married and they upset, I'm telling you, you definitely upset. All right. And then he said, "What are we going to do?" I said, "Well, okay. What you want to do?" And make a long story short, we had to go to civil court. All right. by taking my civil court and I broke down the time that I seen the dog to the time the thing happened to the time the deputy got there and the judge look at it when you know you come out and witness and they say oh my Doug is friendly my doug won't do any harm and you bring a couple witness up and oh you can pat him you know how you do and you know you're wrong your doug judge say hey you got everything yeah I said yeah but the only thing that I think in my head try to keep shadow whatever kept my mouth shut and I said the only thing I'm saying I didn't take time to listen at the investigation of it and see if it was reasonable and and I said that to say this we need some type I don't know what you call it what you call it bill

not leash law the other one we was trying resolution or whatever what do you call that thing we were trying to do today

we need an audience to address this now beans we looking around everywhere. Then guess what Reggie do? He started looking around see if it was with Milsacks and y'all heard me say over and over again. We not everywhere else. But I looked at some of them at other places. I looked at the one in Chesfield cuz a guy was talking to me that cut my hair. You know, he was talking about Chesape. No, I think it was a couple that stayed in Chesville and told a lie on in front of the judge. They didn't know. So I Google my phone. Dang. You were staying in Chesape walking your dogs around? Guess what they got? You about to keep your dog on your property. You got one acre and you're not down the street playing with your dog. So all of a sudden, yeah, we go down and play with all the neighborhood dogs. So how could you do that in Chesapefield? You got a lease law. Other words, that and guess what else you got if you don't take care of got $2,500 fine. Keep it simple. I've been saying over and over again. But people got to know just like everything else that you're responsible for your animal because I throw in the thing like Gishia. It could have been a it could have been your granddaughter. It could have been your baby or or anything else. And and what I'm saying do happens. This do happen. So it's not it's not a mystery. And uh yeah, we need some kind of to pay attention to get along with your neighbors like a a couple to say, you know. And I always look at say you put a fence up around your law and you don't have a dog. You don't want to see your neighbor. See, cuz I've been in country all my life. I ain't never had a fence up. I don't want no one there. And I know what brother Bo was saying this afternoon. He was in plain view. I remember too. He said, I heard them fussing up there. I used to go about 16 years old. Don, we go up and say they fuss about the ugly side on one side and the smooth side on the other side. You go to court because the one got the smooth side that don't want to see you,

he won't put the ugly side on you. Well, worse than that. You go right down Providence Road and I'm looking with that school bus. I look on my left hand left hand side. The guy put a fence up and he made the fence and then made it right straight up to the door of the other house. Then you build it in the neighborhood. He made the fence and he don't want to see them when they come out the door. The door went up about 8 ft. So he don't see the ones next door. What I'm telling you is real now. I'm not making this stuff up because I look all the time. When I'm on the road, I look all the time. Getting old now. ble to keep my eyes on the road before I run off the road. But uh I'm I'm I'm still learning and I I glad that I can learn and I think Mil 6 is special. We might disagree, right? Get on things that we go along with. I kind of let go along with a disagreement about them, but because I know I ain't got much brother said 32 vote. I God have mercy. Don't you take my vote away. But uh I I I do I learn a lot and I go learn a lot. I learn a lot from uh uh Jesse. I don't agree with him a whole lot, but I learn a lot from him [laughter] because we we go to the commission for instance. I'm going say it like this. I said, "Man, look, you see you see them numbers. I'm going say this and let it go." Hey, these numbers ain't right. How you know cuz you looked at them one time. I said, "Well, too many of them." [laughter]

Thank you all. Um, I'd like to now uh open for the floor for public comment. Anybody would like to speak? Seeing none, I'm going to close public comment. And uh Miss Lewis, you want to help us with a motion for going into close session, please? Yes, Mr. Chairman. It's my understanding Amarie, we're downstairs.

Okay. So, the board will be going downstairs for close session. I I'm not anticipating action when we come out, but if that should change, no worries. We have a public hearing starting at 7 p.m. So with that, Mr. Chairman, it would be appropriate for the board to make a motion to convene in close session pursuant to Virginia Code sections 2.2-3711, A3, and A8. This is so the board can meet to discuss the acquisition of real property for a public purpose and to discuss the disposition of publicly held property where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect your bargaining position and your negotiating strategy. And so that you may consult with legal counsel regarding specific legal legal matters involving oh sorry that should say involving the the purchase and the sale of said properties.

So move so moved by Mr. Jesse. Thank you. And second by Mr. Bill Harris. Thank you. Any further discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Bill Harris. Yes. Mr. Kittinden. Yes. Mr. Jesse? Yes. Mr. Williams? Yes. Mr. Don Harris. Yes. We are now going to move downstairs for the close session.