Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Okay, I'm going to go ahead and call this meeting to order. This is the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors on Monday, April 13th. Our first order of business tonight is to take a vote on electronic participation for vice chair Steve Fijicowski. Section 2.2-3708.3 of the code of Virginia 1950 as amended permits members of the board of supervisors to participate in a meeting of the board through electronic communication means from a remote location in certain situations. Board member Steve Fijicowski has requested to participate remotely in the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors meeting scheduled for April 13, 2026 at 7 p.m. to be physically held at the government center in Christensburg. Uh members physically present shall vote to agree to allow participation by other board members requesting to report, excuse me, requesting to participate remotely. Is there a motion?

So move. Second. Any discussion? Madame clerk, if you'll call the role, please. Mr. Gravki, I. Miss Karan, I. Miss Biggs, I. Mr. King, I. Mr. Kits, hi. Chair Deontz, I. Six eyes. All right. Welcome, Steve. Are you still with us? Okay. All right. I am. Can you hear me? We certainly can.

All right. Next item is to go into closed meeting. Be it resolved the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors of Montgomery County, Virginia, hereby enters into closed meeting for the purpose of discussing the following. Section 2.2-3711. Discussion, consideration, or interviews of prospective candidates for employment, assignment, appointment, promotion, performance, demotion, salaries, disciplining, or resignation of specific officers, employees, or employees of any public body. One, planning commission. Is there a motion? Motion. Second. Any discussion? Madame clerk, if you'll call the role, please. Mr. Kitz, I. Mr. King,

I. Mr. Mr. Fizzowski, I. Miss Biggs, I. Mr. Gravski, I. Miss Karan, I cher I. Seven eyes. Right. We are in closed meeting.

Okay, we are back and now I need a motion to come out of closed meeting. Motion. Okay, we are back and now I uh Oh, might need to mute the volume. Steve just did it. Sorry. It was really weird to hear my own echo. All right. We have a motion and a second to come out of closed meeting. Madam clerk, if you'll call the role, please. Mr. King, I. Mr. Fukowski, I. Miss Bicks, I. Mr. Gravski, I. Miss Karan, I. Mr. Kits. I. Chair Demox. I. Seven eyes.

Next, we will certify the closed meeting. Whereas the board of supervisors of Montgomery County has convened a closed meeting on this date pursu pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and in accordance with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. And whereas section 2.2-3711 of the code of Virginia requires a certification by the board that such clo closed meeting was conducted in conformity with Virginia law. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Board of Supervisors of Montgomery County, Virginia, hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge, one, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the closed meeting to which this certification resolution applies. And two, only such public business matters as were identified in the motion conveying the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered by the board. Is there a motion?

Second. Okay, we have a motion in a second. Madame clerk, if you'll call the role, please. Mr. Fitchikowski, I. Miss Biggs, I. Mr. Gravki, I. Miss Karan. Hi. Mr. Kits. I. Mr. King. Hi. Chair Dematz. I. Seven eyes. Next on our agenda is a moment of silence and pledge of allegiance led by our county administrator, Miss Angie Hill. Angie,

please rise for a moment of silence and then join me as I lead us in the pledge. Let us pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Thank you, Angie. Next, we have some exciting presentations, recognitions, and awards. And I am having a technology complication here. Our first um item is recognition of our retired sheriff, Mr. Charles Hank Parton. Come on up, sir. And we're going to read this resolution to you. If I can get my computer to cooperate with me. Here we go. All right. Welcome. It's so good to see you. How's retirement so far?

Good to see you all. Thanks for having me. Um, it's an adjustment.

Two weeks in. Well, we are super happy to present you tonight with this resolution of commendation. This was on a motion by Mary Biggs and seconded by Steve Fijicowski and carried unanimously. Whereas CH Hank Parton has announced his retirement as Montgomery County Sheriff effective April 1st, 2026, concluding a distinguished career with over 39 years in law enforcement and public service. And whereas Hank Parton served as sheriff of Montgomery County from January 1st, 2016 through March 31st, 2026. He joined the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office in 1993 following earlier service with the Christensburg Police Department from 1998 to 1993. And whereas Hank Parton enlisted in the Virginia Army National Guard in 1983 and honorably served for more than two decades in the National Guard, the United States Army Reserve and on active dut duty during which he was deployed and served over two and a half years in support of Operation Desert Desert Shield, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. And whereas he retired in 20 2004 with the rank of sergeant major having earned two meritorious service medals, the army commenation medal and three army achievement medals over the course of his distinguished military career. And whereas Hank Parton worked to ensure the placement of school resource officers in all 19 of Montgomery County public schools, strengthening safety and positive relationships between law enforcement and students. And whereas during his tenure as sheriff, he strengthened public safety through initiatives including the school zone safety program using LAR technology to improve safety in school zones and a partnership with Montgomery County Public Schools through the bus patrol program, which uses cameras and

artificial intelligence on school buses to deter illegal passing and protect students. And whereas he expanded the capabilities of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office by establishing the unmanned aircraft systems drone team to assist in search and rescue operations, criminal investigations, and emergency response, and by facilitating the purchase of the AY's very first armored SWAT vehicle. And whereas the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office received the first Virginia Law Enforcement Professional Standards Commission accreditation in 1999 and Sheriff Parton has maintained accreditation for the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office during his tenure as sheriff, making it one of the longest agencies in the Commonwealth to be accredited. And whereas Hank Parton served on the Western Virginia Regional Jail Authority, the Lewis Gale Hospital Montgomery Board of Trustees, appointed to the Virginia Parole Board, and collaborated with community and regional partners through initiatives including the Citizens Support Group, the Help Save the Next Girl Partnership, the New River Valley CO 19 Task Force, and the Books to Badges program with New River Community College. And whereas Hank Parton's years of service reflect a distinguished leg legacy of dedication, sacrifice, and steadfast commitment to protecting the citizens of Montgomery County, and fostering strong partnerships between law enforcement and the community. Now therefore be it proclaimed by the board of supervisors of Montgomery County, Virginia, hereby commends and recognizes Ch Hank Parton for his outstanding service and congratulates him upon his retirement with deep appreciation for his lasting contributions to the safety and well-being of the community and with best wishes for continued success in all future endeavors. Be it further procla proclaimed that the original of this resolution be presented to Hank Parton

as a testimonial of the high esteem and appreciation in which he is regarded by the board of supervisors and that a copy be part of the official official minutes of Montgomery County Virginia. And we've put it up here for you and I would just love to hear you few say a few words. You've been such a great partner to this board during your entire service. We're going to miss you. Wow. Thank you all so much.

All of those achievements you just covered that they could never have happened without so many great people around me. And u I'm including this board right up top uh on that list. Uh, I can't believe I'm not standing here asking you for a police car or new radios or some money or something. I'm trying to come up with something I can ask you for. You guys have never ever let me down or let the sheriff's office down. and uh Supervisor Biggs uh top priority in 2015 for me was SRO's and just briefly we had four. That's all we had. And to date, we have every school in the county covered plus two in each town. That's just incredible. So much work on your part and everybody else's part. Uh couldn't could not have happened without you. And um I just glanced over and saw Marty. I can't leave you out all the all the questions I've asked you over the years and the trouble you've kept me out of. And um I I never got to see the inside of a jail cell, so we did something right. Um, it's been a fabulous trip and um, I've been so honored to to have this job and the the trust of the U citizens and the good Lord looking out after me the whole time and looking out after all of our deputies.

Um, I miss it terribly. I really do. Thank you all. Thank you. Would anybody like to add to that? I don't. Okay. Well, I would. Okay. It only took us 11 years, Hank. That's right.

To do that. And I think that maybe people, you know, didn't know that this had started 11 years ago and we couldn't just do everything at one time. So I want to express to you the appreciation because this is something I felt so strongly about having been a teacher in the elementary schools in a situation where things were not good um that were happening around us. So thank you so much for your support in getting this done and for the board supporting you in getting it done. And remember you can always toss your hat back in to run. I'm not uh I'm not sure where the uh the next fork in the road is is leading. Um maybe politics one day, maybe fishing, I don't know.

Well, you will be very very missed. You've done an absolutely remarkable job as sheriff. We've left a huge impact on the sheriff's department and created a legacy that the the new sheriff has big shoes to fill. So, we have been just absolutely blessed as a community for your service. Thank you. Could not have happened without so many great people. It just couldn't been blessed. Thank you. Hey, hey, wait a second. Wait a second. As Steve is calling. Hey.

Yeah, I'm I'm want to make a comment. I'm up above. Look up. Of course you are. Hey, I just want to say you look pretty good in civvies. I hear you.

And and Hank, um you have accomplished so much for this uh for this county. Um it I know that resolution doesn't include everything you've done because you've done way more than that and you have created an environment at the sheriff's office that I I've never seen before. It is people working together um pulling together and and and doing right by their citizens. And man, I'm going to really miss you um being on here. But don't forget, you're still one of my constituents. So, if you get a pothole in front of your house, you call me.

I will. I will. Thank you for so many kind words, and I'm going to miss you, too. Thank you, Hank. You all take care. Thank you. See you soon. Thank you so much. It's beautiful. All right. And we have one more presentation this evening to follow that. We have um I apologize. We always kind of do this to you. We give you a a you have to follow something really wonderful. But we have um Virginia Department of Transportation. We have Mr. Clark here to give us an update on road improvements. And then later in our agenda, we also have our public hearing for the six-year plan. Welcome, sir. Thank you for being here this evening.

Thanks. Um, I will agree with the board and everything and uh expressing VOTE's appreciation for uh sheriff. Thank you, Hank. Um, we've worked with him for a long time obviously and always had great work and relationships with the sheriff's office. Um, start off with just an update on our on our maintenance activities. Uh we've been full swing into the uh the spring season of stuff with not a few little touches of uh of snow still in March, but uh um not a whole lot. So now instead of snow, we're running around um chasing the potholes that you were um that Steve was mentioning. Um and uh just trying to keep up with them basically. Uh been doing a lot of pothole patching, um working on the gravel roads, um pipe replacements, which brings probably the biggest thing we got right now is is beginning here in just a few hours. We'll be uh um open cutting route 8 at Camp Carries Road to replace a very large pipe underneath Route 8 that's been needed for a while. Um we publicized that pretty well on message boards and on Facebook and um but they'll be doing that tonight and hope everything goes well. They'll have it uh in tonight and uh take a little break for rush hour traffic and then get some asphalt out there to patch over it. Um that's our big project going on right now. Um we're replacing other smaller pipes. We did some work out on Crab Creek Road near the uh um water treatment. Um working on some ditching on Yellow Sulfur and Oil Well Road. um brush cutting um out near Indian Meadow. Also did quite a bit of patching out in Indian Meadow. We're getting ready for the overlay uh season to start and it's starting here pretty soon. They've already started in Giles County. Uh so they'll be here pretty soon with both a plant mix overlay and some service

treatment and some slurry seal and all the various types of uh of overlays. Um, and really that's about it cuz the the potholes and the picking up deer pretty much kept us um busy the whole time. So that's all I have as far as maintenance uh updates. Okay. Well, let's see if we have any questions. I'm going to start with V vice chair Fijicowski. Do you have any questions?

Uh yes, I do. Um David, I ran into a very unusual situation on Mount Pleasant Road. the section that is unimproved that is still gravel. Um there was an electrical contractor there today putting in a uh a light pole. Uh I think the contractor was Elliot and um there was no warning signs prior to the the work area and they just basically closed the road. Um, now a school bus had to go through there and they I would think they would know that um a school bus travels up that road. Um, and there was no warning signs prior to it and you know that road is not that wide. So, it's very difficult to turn a vehicle around. Um it ended up uh being okay that they they got the the bus through the um the work area, but do they have to let you know because emergency services had no idea that a electrical contractor was closing the road?

No, they they absolutely are supposed to uh let us know. Uh any utility that was done any amount of work with VOTE knows the process. They have to get a permit um to work in the road and they have to have their traffic control plan approved by VOTE. I'll take a look into that.

Yeah, that um that was definitely a failure on their part cuz there was uh no way if uh an emergency vehicle had come down that road, they wouldn't be able to get through. They would have had to back up and um yeah, that could have been could have been bad. But uh it turned out okay. But yeah, definitely something I'd appreciate you looking into. The other thing was, and I think you touched on it, um the paving schedule, is it out? It is, and I I didn't bring a copy with me tonight. I can get one um sent to the county. I can I can email you one as well.

Okay, that'd be fine. Or or even um at the next meeting that you come to. I'm sure that would be fine. I was just curious as to where it stood. But that's all I got. Thank you very much for what you do. Supervisor King, do you have any questions this evening? No, I talked to him before the meeting. Okay, Supervisor Kids, I just want to say thank you for handling that uh those potholes that were pretty significant on Walton Road. um that and then you handle that pretty quick and I want to say how much I appreciate that because she was thanks. She was being a good sport about it, but she was they were pretty upset and they were pretty specific and it was uh but yeah, I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thank you,

Supervisor BigS. Um I told you I'm going to publicly thank you for getting that branch cutting out of the tree. Um because the gentleman that had been so concerned was so happy last Thursday when he told me. So, good job. Oh, well, I'm glad we got it done. I know you had to hire I guess a service and everything.

Yeah. And and with uh we were we wanted to take the whole tree down, but it's not on the base of the tree isn't on VOTE right away. We had a really hard time finding the uh the actual property owner. I think it's actually a property line tree. So, it's on two properties, but um if it's over the road, we have the ability to just go and cut that part. We did we cut it by the base. We didn't just cut it right on the property line. I think everyone's off is fine with it all. Well, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Supervisor Gravski.

I just have a quick question and it might be a two-parter here. Um, so as you're heading down Hightop off of Maine there behind the hospital and you go past Farm View, at at what point does that transition from town to county between there and uh I guess Marramac? Yeah. I I think it's just past Farm View. Just past Farm View. Okay. And then and when it comes to like litter along the side of the road, who where where does that responsibility fall?

Um VA, we try to do some litter pickup before we mow. Um I believe I spoke to a woman on that who lives on um Hightop about some of the litter issues out there at one time. Yeah, I' I've noticed it. And I don't know if that came, you know, she spoke to you as well, but I mean it's a it's a really tough uh battle to fight uh you know, all year long. Um we actually have a great group of adopt a highway people uh that come in. Okay. Um and you know we hand out bags and we you know get the signs up for their group and they really do help us a lot. Um we've used um

you know the sheriff's office before to get people out and and do it. Um there's certain rules that uh that they can mostly just work on the bypass and things like that. We can't use inmate labor for um secondary roads around neighborhoods and stuff. But uh um we try to do it as we mow. We mow only about twice a year on the secondaries though. Yeah. Okay. All right. I appreciate that. Thanks, Supervisor Kuran. No question. Thank you for being here. Thanks.

All right. So, we're done with that section of the meeting. Thank you for being here to provide us with maintenance updates. And our next item on our agenda, we'll just move smoothly over to the public hearings. So, the Virginia Department of Transportation and the Board of Supervisors of Montgomery County, Virginia, in accordance with section 3.3 or excuse me, section 33.1-70.01 01 of the code of Virginia are conducting a joint public hearing for the purpose of receiving public comments on the proposed sec secondary six-year plan for fiscal years 2627 through 2032 2033 in Montgomery County and on the secondary system construction bu budget for fiscal year 2627. Do you have information to add before we open the public hearing?

I'll give a little brief uh introduction and read a draft plan. Um, and thank you for reading that part so that I don't have to go through the code sections and all that. I messed it up for you.

No, you did great. Um, I'll present a draft plan that gives us something to work from. It's basically the plan that was passed last year. Um, and then the board can uh review that plan, listen to public comments, whether in person or if you get any more other comments uh through the mail or phone or whatever. uh in the next few weeks. Um we will be looking to have a resolution passed finalizing the uh priority list sometime next month. Uh the June one would would be acceptable. Also, we just have to have it before the end of the fiscal year. So, um I'll read the draft priority list, talk a little bit about the timing of it, and then we'll open it up for public comment. So, um our draft list sometimes the first thing we put down is countywide. um traffic services, engineering, rightway, um signs, uh guardrails, stuff like that. That's a countywide items like that have to be paid for through construction, not through maintenance because they're generally new items. Um unless guardrail is being damaged and being replaced, new guardrail, new signs, stuff like that is uh is from the construction budget. Um we put it on the construction budget. It's never enough to make a dent in uh the projects, but it we put it on there just because that is where it gets charged. The first actual project uh on there is Taylor Hollow Road. Uh this is a continuation of a project we finished two years ago. It'll do the last roughly half mile, third of a mile um that we had originally planned. We were able to actually start it early uh because we had some money to spend to get that little bit done. Now the money is there for the second section. So we'll be doing that this summer uh late summer, early fall. Um second project, second actual project on the list is Willis Hollow Road off Alageney Springs Road. That's another project that we had done

the first part of se many years ago. Let's just say it's been a while since we did that first section of Willis Hollow. Uh it's around 609. Um it goes off to the left up uh Alageney Springs and we'll be doing another um half mile to a mile. There's still another mile and a half of unpaved road on Willis Hollow. And there's houses all the way to the end of it. Um we'll get as far as we can uh with our uh ability to to work under the various permits, environmental permits that we have and uh calculating our land disturbance and things like that. Um, next project on the list is Poff School Road. Um, that was put on a couple years ago as well. Um, you may see a description that says we will start on Route 617, which is a Brush Creek Road and kind of near um, Pilot and go again that 75 is a is a bit of an estimate. We've been looking at that. We might change that to work beginning on the end closer to route 8. Um but that that can be made in uh in the next couple years as we get closer to that. Um we are looking at it doing starting to do survey and rideway in investigation. Next on the list is Bobcat Lane. Um little less than a half mile road off of Glade Road at uh um it goes up and uh and ends it's not Paul School Road is a through road. Um both Taylor Hollow and Willis Hollow also um end in a dead end section. So is Bobcat. Um that's fifth on the list, fourth in our regular projects. And the last one, I believe that was added last year, is Split Railroad. That's off Mount Pleasant Road. Um and that's a another unpaved road with with a good number of houses on there. So that's what was added. Uh those roads um the county gets in allocations.

Um this year's estimate is 788,485. Our construction budget is to um that that 788,000 is split between uh telecommunication fee allocation uh which is the fee that VOTE charges utilities to to work on the right of way all across the state. That fund is um distributed at the state level to the counties. Um I think it's strictly a population-based um allocation. So if you have 100th of the population of the state, you get a hundth of that fund. Um what's significant about that 213,000 of your 788 is from telecommunication fee. The difference of the two funds is that telecommunication fee can be used on any secondary road. Hard top road currently hardtop road. Um so we sometimes like to keep a little bit of that. we have to do some work on a non unpaved road, a hard surface road. Um the rest of the allocation 575,000 is uh is earmarked for unpaved road. It has to be used on an unpaved road. We generally just keep a little bit of the um the telecommunication fee in that first section of uh countywide stuff just in case we need something uh to do a little bit of construction. But in general, just to get through this list of unpaved roads we have, we put the bulk of it on an one of the projects, an unpaved road project, because the telecommunication fee isn't enough to keep saving enough to do a major project on an on hard service road anymore. So that would give us um like I said, Taylor Hollow this year. We can probably get to Willis Hollow um the year after that. It's a fairly flat road. It shouldn't take a whole lot of work. And possibly Poff School Road. Uh that would be in 28 I guess to full hollow is 27

pop school in 28. Um and then we'll just see where the money goes to see how long it might take to get to the last two on the current list. But basically you don't need to add a road right now. These will probably take us through for a while unless there's a burning desire. One possibly could be added uh to the end of the list if you wanted, but it's not necessary. I'll let you know when um we're starting to get panic about where to put money. Right now, we got plenty of places to spend the money over the next six years. Great. Um, does anybody have any questions? We'll start with Vice Chair Fijicowski. Do you have any questions about the six-year plan?

No, I don't. I think um I think what we've worked out on the six-year plan is pretty solid solid plan. And I know that costs of uh paving is uh going up and probably still going up. But uh um now the one thing I I do question is David when we talk about paving, you're talking about the tar and gravel.

Yes. Yes. All of these roads and that's another uh good point. um all of these roads. Um when we get close to doing it, I may just go ahead and ask that you do this at the same meeting where you pass the resolution for the priority list. They are going to be built under a um a design standard called rural rustic road. You may have heard of the term rural rustic roads before. A rural rustic road is a design standard that B do uses um and allows us to pave to to to construct a road, reconstruct a an unpaved road to a surface road or a gravel road. I mean a paved road um using a smaller design standard than you would see on, you know, a high volume secondary. All of these roads have less than probably 180 vehicles a day. We use a standard from the Federal Highway Administration that's approved for up to 400 vehicles a day. So, it's a it's a it's a good standard for for these kinds of roads because uh they're mostly local. That's when in the resolution that you'll pass and the board has to pass a resolution declaring them rural rustic roads before we can begin construction. Um the wording in that um resolution is that you don't expect a you know a ton of development or you don't expect a big boom in traffic amount. This is really what we're trying to do is, you know, get the residents of the road out of the dust and the mud. That's the purpose of the rural rustic road program. So, in keeping with that rural rustic road program, we don't put um you know, plant mix asphalt that you would see on the interstate to pave these roads because the speed tends to go up with with the uh with that kind of you know, smooth surface. Um we're paving them generally 16 ft wide. um more if we can get it. But generally 16 feet wide with one foot shoulders and you know when you get school buses and large pickups passing each other that's

uh that's about all you want. You don't want them going 45 miles an hour past each other on roads built like that because we don't take out a lot of the curves either. We try to widen some of the curves maybe um get a little bit we we can mostly it's to fix the drainage and get a hard surface on the road u to get people out of the mud and dust and that's the purpose of the rural rustic program. So you get a a tar and gravel service what we call a service treatment. Um it gets you know packed down and and hard uh pretty hard in just a a few months after. Um and you get a you get a good product. Um, but you can feel that you're not on, you know, a super highway.

Vice Chair Fijicowski, did you have any more questions? No. Uh but but thank you David for explaining that to everybody because I think sometimes people um when when you say paving roads they're they have a different idea in their head but they will love um what you're talking about because it will give them dustfree and no mud and and that's that's what they want. So thank you. Yellow Sula Road is like that right now. That's what that's what we did how we did Yellow Sula Road and it took us a long time. We did it in half month sections, but we finally got yellow sulfur road done all the way through. Does anybody else have any questions before we open the public hearing?

Okay, I'm seeing no questions. So, we're going to open the public hearing. I'm going to go ahead and read the guidelines for both the public hearings this evening and the public address this evening. So, the same guidelines do apply. A signup sheet was available outside of the meeting room. Speakers were requested to provide their name, where in the county they reside, and list their subject matter on the signup sheet. Following the names on the signup sheet, other speakers will be allowed. Each speaker has four minutes, whether speaking as an individual or a representative, and all comments must be directed to the chair and other supervisors from the speaker's lectern at the front of the room. Please begin by stating your name and address or where in the county you reside. Debate between speakers and members of the audience will not be allowed. Speakers may leave any written statements and/or comments to the supervisors with the board clerk and speakers will be judged out of order should they engage in personal attacks, use profanity or abusive language or debate with the audience and not address the supervisors. Accepted etiquette is to not applaud or make loud responses. We did have a signup sheet in the hallway for the public hearing on the six-year plan and we had one person sign up. Yos Bara and I apologize if I mispronounced your name.

Welcome. Thank you. It's Joseph for Joseph. Um, do I need to wait till or is my clock started?

It has not started yet. We can get everybody a copy of your materials and then start to Okay. Okay. I apologize for having it printed out. Uh I've been watching the minutes like a hawk, but the six-year plan did not show until today.

You'll need to start with your name and where in the

Oh, Joseph Bara off of uh Bobcat Lane in Montgomery County out Glade. Um, biggest question I have, there's only a few updates from last year's slides. Um, I saw last year y'all added Willis Hollow Road and it's already moved up to priority number two on the list, even though Bobcat Lane has been on the list for about 5 years. So, that's kind of disheartening. I've been the only person that has come up to these meetings about getting uh roads paved. There's been a couple people who've been asked to get roads added to the Royal Rustic, you know, uh, terminology and naming, but I've been the only one for the past three years that have been pushing um or, you know, having a public speak about paving. This past year was uh, as you all know, had we had major storms. If you look at the second to last page and the last page, uh, there was multiple cars abandoned. Uh, this black car was out there for a little over two weeks. Tried snow tires, everything. Couldn't get it unstuck. Um, so you can kind of flip through. Uh, there was a tree that was down in the middle of the road that stayed there for a couple days because they couldn't get, you know, people to get up there to get it out of the way. uh me and some other fellow neighbors, you know, at least got it cut and kind of spun halfway out of the way, but uh we did the best at our our abilities. And then I'll just keep adding more pages and more pages each year, but I I'm just I guess I'm confused. we have the highest ADT. Um other like if you look at it at 04 miles and you take Willis's 190 over the two miles, it actually brings it down to a 36 compared to our 120. So we're easily, you know, two to seven, you

know, two two and a half to five times um more vehicle loads per count. Um, I know of three new people that have moved in uh this past year, as well as, you know, properties that have been going up for sale. There's a guy clearing out and making a different driveway to add in another property. And then there's a 40 acre parcel that um is being worked on to be subdivided. So, we are going to have even more of a higher ADT count. Uh, and there's been, you know, a year that we got dropped off the list, then added back on, and then Willis Hollow gets added last year and it gets added as number two and it already has funds for it. Mr. Clark spoke last year. It's a million a mile and we're at 04. So that's under the, you know, the 500,000 that we get for allocation. But it it just seems that we're just keep getting pushed down to the bottom of the list each year, even though I'm the only one coming up and asking why and how. So,

okay, that's Thank you very much. Okay. Is there anybody else here to speak on the VOTE secondary road six-year plan? Seeing no one else come forward, we're going to close the public hearing on that matter and then the board will take a vote on the six-year plan on one of our agendas in May. Yes.

Okay. Um and then the next item that we have for public hearing tonight is um we actually have two portions to it. It's a request by JJB Properties LLC to amend Profer conditions of reszoning OARD-FY-20-02 originally approved on September 23rd, 2019. The applicant is proposing revisions to the site's approved master plan. same applicant um is also requesting to amend a special use permit originally approved on September 23rd, 2019 to allow many warehouses in the community business zoning district. Thank you, Bri.

Thank you. Going to apologize ahead of time. It is allergy season and my voice may show it in a minute, so we'll get through it. Um these are the vicinity maps for the property. As you stated, this is for an amendment to a reasonzoning and an amendment to a special use permit. Um, the property is located just outside the town of Blackburg off of Harding Road. A lot of people recognize this property um through the name of the business that's located on one of the properties and that's the Bug Shop. Um, that that tends to be a a cue and and everyone seems to recognize it that way. So, this is the aerial photo of the property. This is the bug shop property here. And then there's a site right here that was approved for a special use permit to allow many warehouses. And then this is all zoned residential R2. Um it was not reszoned back in 2019. Um it was already R2. So you can see the zoning here. The orange is general business. The light tannanish color here is community business with the special use permit for the many warehouses. And then this is R2 here. So, as you stated in September of 2019, there was an approved resoning with profers. Um, at that time, it involved the three parcels here at the front. We reszoned, this was splitzoned, general business and residential. We reszoned it totally to residential R2 to allow the single family dwelling to be in conformance with the zoning ordinance. Um, the bug shop also was splitzoned um general business and residential R2. that was reszoned to res to general business to allow the bug shop to then be in conformance. And then we reszoned this parcel here to community business with a special use permit to allow the miniature warehouses. This is the plan that was approved at that time. So, I'm going to start here with the special use permit for the mini warehouses because that's kind of what

started this whole request. um they wanted to come in and develop one of the future buildings as shown on the plan. Um the buildings that were shown as future and were parallel to Harding Road um had a condition that stated they had to come back to get an amendment to the SUP if they wanted to build one of those. Um, they also took that as an opportunity to revise some of the parking locations, add some additional parking specifically for like RV or boat storage because that seems to be a big driver now for storage areas. Um, and then to eliminate one of those access entrances. So, I put both plans up here. I zoomed in on the plan that they provided. This was the previously approved plan on the right. Um, so you can see they had this large future building area here, one here. Um, and this one was one that did not require them to come back. Um, this future building right here. So, they had a small parking area here and then they had two entrances so you could just kind of to go around. Um, they are proposing to close one of those entrances, have the furthest entrance um from the the Harding Road intersection, adding some parking here. construct the four buildings with a smaller 100 foot building here and then everything else pretty much remains the same. So for the reasonzoning they're requesting to amend their profered conditions. They wanted to add a property management office which is a byright use in the general business zoning district but because of the profered conditions they had to amend their master plan to show that on the master plan. Um, so that's the amendment to the profer. Um, they also made a minor change to the public street that will be constructed through there and instead of a temporary culde-sac, they're proposing a tea around because that also allows them future access. Um,

so I will show that here again on the right. This was the original approval. This is the bug shop here on the bottom. So they've added in the parking here. This is the proposed property management office. it will be on a separate parcel. Um, both will be accessed off of the new public street that is proposed. And then this is the T turnaround versus the culde-sac. And then this is the overall plan. So you can see it all put together without me cropping everything out. And then this is the overall development plan that they have. I mentioned earlier that the rear of the property was zoned residential R2. They are proposing to eventually do some single family dwellings back there as a subdivision. That would be a byite development as well. Um it does have to go through the major subdivision plat approval because it will require the construction and the extension of that public street. So these are pictures of the property. Um you're standing on the the mini warehouse site here. This is the bug shop. And then same, this is standing off Harding Road. This is the many warehouses. This is about where the proposed property management office would be. And then this is looking back on the site. They do have a current mass grading plan that was approved by the county. So they have been out there doing some grading. So there will be the installation of a public street. It will be taken over for maintenance by VOTE once they meet all of VOTE requirements. One of those, and you will see in the profers, is that there has to be at least three dwellings on the property or a certain number of of um cars per day. Sorry, totally blanked out there for a second. Um the access off that public street will be used for many warehouses, the property management office, the existing automotive service

shop. So, if you're familiar with this now, the bug shop currently comes right off of Harding. Um, and my understanding is it's just one long entrance. Um, so that will be made into a much better situation and then the future single family dwellings should those be constructed. VOTE has reviewed this. They took no exception. Um, they did not have an issue with the T turnaround revision and um, they actually preferred the single entrance to the mini warehouses. McGomery County Utilities does not have public water and sewer in the area. Um the many warehouses of course do not require water and sewer. The existing and proposed uses will be served by well and septic and that we will require approval from VDH before the new property management office can move forward with permitting. Um the property does not lie within an FEMA designated flood zone. The property does lie in an area of residential transition in the current McGomery County comprehensive plan. Non-residentidential uses are not discussed in the goals and objectives for this section. Um, but it does state that development should be compatible with adjacent neighborhoods and subdivisions. So, the proposed amendments to the SU are consistent with the one that you approved in 2019. Professional offices are a byight use in the general business zoning district. And besides the addition of that office, there are no major operational changes um proposed from the previously approved reasonzoning and special use permits. So the planning commission held their public hearings on March 11th. Um we did have two citizens speak. They were mainly regarding the commercial uses being allowed in the residential area. Um, one did speak regarding the office the operation hours for the mini warehouses, but it was noted that the conditions recommended and you'll see that on the next couple of slides um

they remain the same and there is a limitation on ours. The planning commission recommended approval 8 to0 and here are those conditions. The main changes are we revised the date for the master plan. These are all the same as in the previously approved special use permit. So conditions two, three, and four have not changed. Condition five just changed to add that new date in. If they do ever decide to come back and do any future buildings, they would still need to come back, but right now they've not shown any on that concept plan. Um, everything else six, seven, eight, and nine have remained unchanged from the original approval. And we do still have that hours of operation limited from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. That's for the special use permit for the mini warehouses. So, for the reasonzoning, they also recommended approval um with the amendment to the profers. That profer amendment is very basic. The only thing that changed is um the master plan date. The rest of those profers are the same. So, adjoining property owners were notified. We did place public hearings signs on the site. Um, legal ads were run not in the news messenger, but on Cardinal News. That needs to be updated. Um, staff has not received any comments from the public other than the two that did come to speak at the public hearing. There may be folks here that that have some comments. Um, I'll take any questions you have for me. Miss Merik, the agent is here as well as the owner, Mr. Bole. Um, they can answer any questions or provide any additional information you may need as well.

Okay, great. Supervisor Kuran, do you have any questions? No. Okay. I just asked first because it's in your district. Um, does anybody else have any questions for Bri or the applicants? I I attended the planning commission meeting and I actually visited the site, too. So, I'm I'm pretty fantastic. Awesome. Vice Chair Fijicowski, did you have any questions about this? I do not have any questions.

Great. Thank you. Okay. So, um then we will go ahead and open the public hearing. We did have a sheet available into this in the hallway for this public hearing as well. We did not have anybody sign up. If there is anybody in the room that would like to come forward and speak to the public hearing, seeing nobody come forward, I'm going to close that public hearing and we will move to public address. Um, we've already read the guidelines. There was a sheet in the hallway for public address. This is where uh speakers can address the board on any topic. We did have one sign up in advance for public address. That's Anna Vayan. And after she is done, if anybody else would like to come forward and speak, we will give time.

Oh, we have a presentation as well. Excuse me. I'm sorry. I did not know that there was a presentation. So, we'll get that loaded for you. That's Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Here we go. Time's a charm. Thank you, Jen. Welcome.

Thank you. Uh my name is Anna Vagan and I live in district A and today I'll give you some data on increasing needs within the schools and the new positions proposed to address those needs. This is VDOE fall membership data on students with disabilities for FY20 and FY26 along with the percent change over those six years. As you can see, there are just a couple of categories for which raw numbers of students went down. For most categories, the numbers of students went up by at least 20%. For example, the number of students with speech or language impairments or with specific learning disabilities went up by about 20 and 24%. The number of students with emotional disturbance went up by over 38%. The number of students with other impairments went up by 49%. The number with autism went up by 79%. And the number of students who are English, both English learning learners and disabled went up by over 100%. Overall, the number of disabled students went up by almost 28%. This is data on other student categories reported by the VDOE. uh Wells total student enrollment did go down by 8% over this time. You can see several categories went up. Hispanic and English language learner populations went up by about 45 and 43% and the homeless student population increased by about 53%. Many other student needs are also greater now than they were in FY20, though I don't have the data for you. There are increasing needs in the areas of student mental health, behavior and discipline and chronic absenteeism. And the numbers of newcomer students and

students with limited or interrupted formal education are also going up. Now, let's look at some of the new positions proposed for FY27. The addition of ESL teachers will help with the growing population of English English language learners and the addition of an interpreter and a bilingual liaison family engagement coordinator will assist with the growing Hispanic population. The family engagement coordinator will also help reduce absenteeism by meeting with families and helping students get to school consistently. The addition of a school counselor and behavioral specialists will help with growing student mental mental health needs and behavior. The alternative education positions will allow students who are given long-term suspension the opportunity to come back to school in an alternative setting before returning to their home home school. This is expected to reduce chronic absenteeism by getting students back to school faster and keeping them on track so they are not behind when they return to their home school. The speech therapists will help with the increasing number of students with speech or language impairments. And finally, since assistant principles are key for addressing behavior and discipline and are often present in IEP meetings where an administrator is required, the addition of APs will help with increasing behavioral issues and with the increasing number of students with disabilities. Um, these are a few additional positions that are not clearly linked with the rising student needs I've detailed. To summarize, student populations with greater needs are going up even though overall enrollment is going down and

nearly all the new positions proposed by MCPS are necessitated by these growing student needs. Thank you. Thank you. Would anybody else like to come forward to address the board during public address? Seeing nobody else come forward, I'm going to close public address. We do not have an addendum this evening. So, the next item on our agenda is to go into work session for a discussion on the fiscal year 2027 budget. Is there a motion? So, moved. Second.

Okay. Any discussion? Madame clerk, if you'll call the role, please. Miss Biggs, I. Mr. Graky, I. Miss Karan, I. Mr. Kits, hi. Mr. King, I. Mr. Fijicowski,

Mr. Fijicowski, I think he went to sleep. We'll check in with him and make sure he hasn't lost his internet connection. Okay. Are you trying to get me? Yes. Sorry, I had to get I had to get a bottle of water. Nobody is uh helping me out. I'm on my own. The vote is uh to go into work work session. My apologies. I chair demottz I. Seven eyes.

Thank you. Um, we do not have a formal presentation this evening. However, we do have several members of staff here that are able to answer questions um if any board members have any questions. And I'll um go ahead and start with Supervisor Kits because you're looking right at me. Nobody else was looking at me. So,

no, I don't really have any questions at this time. I know we're gonna we're gonna have some back and forth and some things are going to come up and I'll go from there. But generally, I've looked through everything and I I didn't have a problem with where we were putting things because I already knew certain items were already eliminated that I was trying to get pushed forth this year, especially during in code enforcement that we were not able to move forward. Um, so I'm okay right now. We'll see. Supervisor King, did you have any questions or anything to add? We can also just have points of discussion during this. This is just a discussion. We can just have discussion. Go right ahead. Do you have anything? We'll talk about budget.

Yeah.

I at not our public hearing, but at our last board meeting when we discussed the budget, it was brought up that if we don't raise taxes, we're going to have to cut services. What was that pertaining to? In the event that we do because we're only covering like for schools now for that portion of the budget it was only going to be for the covering cost of living roughly and inflation. the rest of the part was going to come from the county and minus a couple positions for supervisory roles that we were desperately in need of. That that was the baseline across the board and not an inflection of a of a massive amount of excessive positions. I'm trying to work my so much for my vocabulary today. Um, that's the way I understood it, that it was a baseline, that it wasn't excessive, that it was keeping it in line and keeping up with cost of living and inflation on the county side with a couple of supervisory positions that if we went below that in that portion, we either a had to eliminate from schools, which was the cost of living and inflation, or we were going to have to do some stuff and make some very hard decisions at the county level with services that we currently provide. because of the increases in certain areas. Am I off base on anything as I generalize?

I think um I think that's accurate. It was physicians pay cost of living, some adjustments for that. There's some uh mandatory increases in cost related to the landfill clo closure cost um the regional jail and then the funding that was provided for the schools. That's a general overview of the items that were added. So, I think that we wouldn't be able to add those things, but I don't know. I think your question was about cutting services.

That That's what I was asking about because I looked through his budget. Mainly things in there is hiring more staff. It's not cutting services that we already have. I think it's um hiring staff to um more efficiently and better deliver the services and then obviously cost of living um or uh I a better way to address that would be raises for employees. Um and so I think both of those are necessary ads. Of course, we had um many many more requests outside of what was actually proposed in the budget and what we're considering. So, I think it's a minimal addition to to enable us to better deliver services and then also to meet some of the needs of the schools. Just I'll say one more thing then I'll let someone else and then I'll come back or if you want to move on that's

you go right ahead.

A couple years ago you know we were sitting up here debating the same thing. People said oh just a penny it's just a couple dollars. Think about something. Two years ago it was five cents. Last year it was a penny. Now we're back up to five cents each one. That comes out to around $24 a month. People are struggling. It may not sound like much to some people, but a lot of people has their mortgages set on a fixed income. As I stated at our last meeting, people are living, some people are living off of credit cards just to make ends meet. If we go through with this tax increase, correct me if I'm wrong. The schools are looking at hiring 20.5 people. We're looking at 6.75.

That's correct. That those are in the uh proposals. Yes, I it it's been said right now we don't have the money to give a 3% pay increase the schools or us. So ain't that ain't that what we was told

that's accurate, right? So, how somebody needs to inform me on how it makes sense to hire more people when you don't have the funds to take care of the ones you have. We're going to be in the same shape again next year if the economy don't come up. I'll let somebody else speak now. Okay. Um, Supervisor Biggs, do you have anything that you wanted to add or ask? Not right now. Thank you. Supervisor Gravki.

Sure. I'll I'll ask one thing and I apologize I hadn't brought this up earlier. Um, but I had a question about just how the funding for the on-site health clinic or some some points of discussion uh around the funding for that. So, previously it was funded out of the self- insurance pool, right? So, the the monies that were going into that from either the employee contribution or the county's contribution or share of the costs. Um, and so now we are putting that which I mean I guess kind of technically is on the county's budget. It's not included in it's not included

the fund itself isn't in the general in the general fund. The health insurance fund is not but we have budgeted health insurance expenses that go into the fund and then we have a reserve in that fund to cover the claims that we anticipate and make sure that we have enough reserve to um cover payouts and that kind of thing.

It doesn't exactly. So, we moved them in the uh cost of the clinic into the human resources department because it doesn't really make sense to have both items in the same health insurance fund because the contracts renew at different times. They're with different people and the um health clinic is managed by the human resources department. That's the reason that we pulled it out. We did have to add funding to the health insurance reserve this year as well which we have included in special contingencies that so we shifted some of the dollars out of the some of the cost insurance fund out of the fund

right and then we also added some did some back filling into the fund so I mean even before we have the set aside for the fund itself health, our health care costs are kind of increasing by $300,000, right? Year-over-year. So, the total is the sum of the two about 500. Okay. Between Does that make sense?

Yeah. Yeah. And have we have we been eating most of those costs? We the county been eating most of those increases in health care costs over time or have premium have our staff faced premium increases or anything?

Our staff has not faced any premium increases. I don't Mark might remember how long it's been over 10 years since the staff has had to have a health insurance increase. Um there have been just two years that the county has absorbed an increase. I think this year for 27 and then I don't know if it was last year or the year before two years.

Um and I think there we can attribute that to a couple things. Being self-insured helps us definitely helps us keep the costs lower and the the health clinic really has provided a huge benefit to employees by proactively helping them have screenings and those kind of things that and also employees being able to get healthc care services there at the clinic. So I think that that combination has really paid off well. I know when we're when we switch to self- insurance, you always think, is this how's this gonna go? And we've been very fortunate as we've gone through that that transition.

And does does our well it's Anthem is is is the I guess kind of our liaison or you know that do they do they provide us any sort of information around you know like how we compare in terms of spend per uh employee and things like that. And they do provide that. And we also have a third-party consultant that provides those services as well and make sure that we're um getting the best value for our dollars and that our our coverages are remaining current and good for our employees. Okay.

So, and they also help help when the contracts are new, they help us evaluate the contracts as well. Gotcha. Okay. Yeah. I just I I saw that line and and I wanted to make sure that I understood that it it was in fact it wasn't being netted out somewhere else, you know, that we weren't pulling those funds or something like that. So, it it is a basically direct increase in cost of providing health health insurance or health care to the staff. That's right. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome,

Supervisor Kuran. All right. Um I think the county has been very conservative. If you look at the numbers since last time we had to tax um hike uh which was when the uh Blackburg High School roof collapse. So if you don't look at that part of the history since 2014 um nine straight years we kept the 89 cents. So we can keep the um keep the tax rate same. Obviously, it has been done in the past before, but then of course due to that uh four-year assessment and 30% spike in the properties, we had to lower 16 cents. That's a lot of lot of million dollars. And of course we absorbed it fine because the you know um property values you know didn't drain um our um money but obviously with the economy we can see that current projections requires the higher rate if we want to keep up with the rise in cost and keep up with the salary increases and um whether it is our employees on this side a salary increase or the school side salary increase and again with five cents we can only give half what the school system ask. So whether they can in fact can hire the 20 people or not that will be up to them after they give their salary increases they're going to see you know what's going to be left and where they're going to be used. So the whether they can hire 20 new people or not, this is um you

know to be determined. We can't we can't tell anything about it. So um really the necessity of going down 16 cents catching up with us down the road happening right now. That's why we're dealing with what we're dealing I think and part of the economy not being uh on our side. Um the other comment I wanted to make because um I think the last time around uh citizen comments was related the decreasing student population and why the costs are increasing. Of course, Anna's pre presentation was uh wonderful because uh uh student population with the need is growing and also the fact that um schools are designed to operate a certain scale. Whether you have a classroom full of 15 students versus 25, you can suddenly not have a teacher, you can suddenly not heating and cooling and electricity maintenance security. uh even though numbers are going down certain things still needs to be um uh provided. You still need a principal, you still need a secretary. So and all the not you know all the students are also not disappearing from a one particular grade level like se suddenly you don't have second grades enough to close the second grades. Uh it's all distributed. So it is not it's easy to say you know um maybe numbers are going down they may not need it much but it doesn't work that way. Um again I'm coming back if state pays their fair share and supports all the school personnel instead of 50%. You can imagine how much money we will have in our pockets to other things. And if with the same token, if the federal

government government pays us their 40% special education share instead of 12 and 15%, you can imagine how much money we can have in our pockets to do different things. And again, I think uh Dr. uh Nick Fischer's presentation about the return of investment, it's a it's true to the point. Uh for one cent, we're getting 9 cents back with supporting schools. So definitely support our employees. So we can give salary increase, support the school system at least they can give their employees salary increase and whatever left over what we can do with the whatever leftovers both side. Um we we are really depending on that five cents you know obviously not more at this time but definitely the five cents. So that's my two cents.

Thank you Vice Chair Fijicowski. Did you have any questions or anything to add?

Uh I don't I don't have any questions but um it was clear from u the presentation earlier that um inclusion costs are going way up. Um and we are one of the few counties in the area that provide that. Um I have asked um on several occasions whether at our meetings or liaison meetings as to why the millions upon millions of dollars of increased education spending doesn't result in test scores going up. And the only thing that I can conclude or have been um that's been implied to me that because of the inclusion program um or the way it's the way it's being operated um it's taking a of that those funds away. So, um I kind of look at return of investment and I look at what the state has done as far as tutoring and uh paying for tutoring for students. I really expected um test scores to go up and I don't think they have. Um and I'm not I am certainly not offering any solutions or answers to that but just observation that um this seems to be uh kind of holding everything back. School budget has ballooned into a huge number but yet uh and we're told that the most important thing are students but yet their test scores aren't going up. So I don't know what's going on. Um, I know we're going to get an update on the 21st

of the collective bargaining. Um, and I think you all have seen a chart that listed some of the costs up to December the 19th. Um, but that also lists um uh other disturbing numbers that are um kind of hard to understand, but um they're basically uh losses. And I don't have it in front of me, so I can't say what it is, but it's um um uh it it's it it's it's hurting. it it's like a a bottomless pit and I would love to see that worked out where the the increases that they are getting uh directly relates to test scores and bringing students up. And that's all I have to offer. Thank you.

Thank you. Does anybody else have anything they'd like to add? Supervisor Bixs? Well, my thought on the budget as it was prepared by county administrator and staff, I thought they did a really good job in trying to balance the school side, the county side with the limited funding that we expect to be coming in with the new growth only being $1 million. And so if you look at the whole picture, I'm in agreement with Supervisor Kits and Supervisor Karan in that what's presented is what needs to happen. Um, and as to Vice Chair Fidgetowsk's comments, you know, um, maybe what we could do is have the superintendent come here and address the test score issue if that's an issue that you feel that strongly about that you want to know, you know, how it all works. Um, I agree with the information that's being presented. just my knowledge of of what goes on in schools and the challenges that are faced um by the staff trying to trying to work with students and all the different issues that they come to school with. And I think if you get into a school system and you find out what some of these children are faced with, and this goes down to elementary school, and what these staff people are doing in the schools to help these students, i.e. students that aren't

able to have a parent wake them up to come to school. So, they have an alarm clock given to them by the school to wake them up to go to kindergarten. There are real stories out there and I think we're probably not aware of when we think, okay, we have less students and they have greater needs. Yes, they do have greater needs. Um, so I am happy with what um, Miss Hill has presented and staff has worked on. I think it's fair for both sides because we have needs on the county side too and we weren't able to meet all those needs and they were needs just like the school side has needs, not just wants, needs, and they're not going to be met this year. But we're doing the best we can. And the other thing that I always tell people when I talk to them about Montgomery County is we're in a situation where we can't tax a lot of our land. Okay? We can't do anything about Virginia Tech. We can't do anything about the foundation. We can't do anything about the Arsenal. We can't do anything about the national forest. We have two large towns and everyone knows where are the hotels, where the room tax and where the mill tax goes. So just looking at all the time I've been on this board, I think McGomery County has done an excellent job in physically managing the budget every year. And I think board members from before, during, and and at my time right now, we're all working hard to to make it happen for our citizens and to provide the services that are needed. And that's all I have to say.

And I'll add um I agree um with Supervisor Biggs. Um and then I also am glad that Supervisor Karan mentioned that um school population doesn't scale um based on facilities um and the requirements to not only maintain facilities but also staff classrooms. And I think um it's it's very easy to say the population is is decreasing, therefore the cost should be decreasing, but um it it's not realistic to assume that those two um items relate in the same way that they do um that that people assume that they might. And um I also wanted to just make the point and this is possibly a discussion for another time um but we do have items in our toolbox. We've heard that said at meetings in the past um taxation options in the toolbox that we are not currently exercising. So this year we had $1 million in new revenue growth, which is um an extremely minimal number. It's the smallest number I have seen in my 10 years in service on the board of supervisors. And um there are things that potentially this board needs to consider instituting or reinstituting. And I'm thinking specifically of the merchants capital tax. So, I don't want to get sidetracked in this work session discussing the merchants capital tax, but I will just put out there um that that is a revenue stream that we eliminated that was uh over a million dollars a year. Um, and so

while I'm sensitive to the um to the impacts on people's household budgets, at the same time I do feel like what has been presented and what this board is considering is fiscally responsible. It does not satisfy all of the needs of either the county or the public schools. In order to satisfy all of the needs, we would be looking at a 12 cent tax increase. And so this has already been trimmed significantly to get it to where it is. Does anybody else have any other comments?

Could I just add about the bus? I gave Miss Supervisor Karan this example that I've I've talked about before when we're talking about decrease in student. All right. I'm a bus driver. Okay. So let's say I have a certain number of students on my route and let's say five of them are no longer on my route. Does that mean that my route decreases? Does that mean my gas decreases? Does that mean my time decreases? No. So, I think that's a pretty easy way to look at it. It's like even if you have less, you still have to cover you still have to cover ground. That's all I add.

Anybody else? Supervisor King,

I still don't think this is the time to add staff. As I said, having trouble with the economy now. We got a little over a million dollars new money. You were used to having what, two or three million. This is not the time to add people because next year we're going to be sitting here debating how we're going to get them a raise next year. So I I had asked this a lot earlier because I was trying to equate this with Rono and Reno County and the size of population and one thing that was throwing us off per employee for services offered was because of the towns and there's some duplicate services that are offered within the towns. So I know staff's been working on this for a long time. So, I'm I'm encouraged by some of the things that I've heard because the big thing I talked about was called force projection. I know orangi had to look that up and figure that one out because I'm too much too institutionalized for the army thing, but that's be look that's the ability to be able to look forward and to be able to match your manning with the resources that are available for the services that are needed as you look forward and you're able to project forward. And that's something I've harped on since I got in here because I felt that the county was doing twice as much with half as many people. So, I'm interested to see how this comes back because I feel that some of the turnover we have and it's it's it's a lot lower than other things, but it's based on people getting burned out because they're having to do too much with the with what they have now. And I don't see that this is excessive. I see, in my opinion, that it's getting to the status quo. what we need to be able to offer the services that we're offering that we're working some people into the ground when we could offset

some of that. And I and I completely understand where Supervisor King's coming from because I voted against the first increase we had. I voted for the penny that we did last time and I'm not super comfortable with this because I know where we're going and how that this is going like this. But I also recognize that this is a difficult time and to be able to maintain our status and to be able to move forward with the services that we offer. There are some things that we're going to have to to to work with. It's not really accept because I'm I'm still willing to listen to other options, but I I think when we look at the Manning and everything else, I think it's going to tell us that we've been doing twice as much with half as many people for what we need to accomplish. So, I'm interested to see how this comes out. Can we change that to personing or peopleing instead of manning?

Man. Yes. Sorry. Apologize. Told you. Institutionalism. It's a general term, but yeah. Got it. Any other questions, comments, feedback related to the budget before we go out of work session? Hearing none. Is there a motion to come out of work session? Motion. Second. Any discussion? Madame clerk, if you'll call the role, please. Mr. Gravski, I. Miss Karan, I. Mr. Kits, I. Mr. King, I. Mr. Fijicowski, I. Miss Biggs, I chairs I. Seven eyes.

We're going to take a 10-minute break. It is 8:42. We will reconvene at 8:52.

We are all back. Vice Chair Fijicowski, are you back? I am back. Thank you. Great. Thank you. So, the next item on our agenda is the consent agenda. Is there a motion? Motion. Second. Any discussion on the consent agenda? Madame clerk, if you'll call the role, please. I Mr. Kitz. Hi, Mr. King. I Mr. Fijicowski. I Miss Biggs. I Mr. Gravy. I Chair Demottz. I Seven eyes.

Okay. The next item or the next thing on our agenda is our new business. The first is the resoning amendment. Uh this was the subject of the public hearing earlier today. We'll vote on this in two parts. So this is the revisions uh to the site approved master plan to allow the development of an additional site to be used as an administrative business or professional office. Is there a motion? So move second. Is there any discussion on this portion? Madame clerk if you'll call the role please. Mr. Kits I. Mr. King. I. Mr. Fikowski. I. Miss Bigs. I. Mr. Graky. I Miss Karan I chair dematz

I seven I's okay and then the second um portion is the special use permit amendment um is there a motion so move second any discussion madame clerk if you'll call the role please Mr. King I Mr. Fijicowski I Miss bigs I Mr. Kaskky I Mr. Kits. Hi, Miss Cron. I, Chair Demottz, I. Seven eyes.

Next item is an MCPS supplemental appropriation to the school operating fund. This is to allocate $62,700 uh from the Patron Endowment Fund to support a new golf simulator facility at Auburn High School. Is there a motion? So moved. Second. Any discussion? Madame Clerk, if you'll call the RO, please. Mr. Ficowski. I Miss Biggs. Hi, Mr. Grassy. Hi, Miss Karan. Hi, Mr. Kits. Hi, Mr. Keane. Hi, Cherats. I seven eyes.

Final item of new business is an arbitrage payment. This is a $30,000 um rebate or this is an appropriation to ensure that there is adequate funding to cover the next rebate FA payment related to arbitrage. Is there anything that we need to add about that? Do you want me to tell people what arbitrage is? Yes. Okay. Um, no.

Just as No, I'll give a just a brief summary. Derek, um, arbitrage occurs when bond proceeds are invested at a rate that's higher than we're paying on the tax exempt bonds. The reason that the um, it's a an IRS code. The reason it's required is because the purpose of issuing tax exempt bonds is for a public purpose, not to earn revenue on them. And while it's not a penalty, it does start being calculated when the as soon as the proceeds are issued. And then if the bonds are spent in a certain period of time, no rebate payment is required. But sometimes people think it's a penalty or that we're having to pay a fee. It's just returning a portion of the interest that we earn to um the IRS for the for the bond proceeds. Thank you. Is there a motion?

So moved. Second. Second. Let's give that one to Steve. Yeah, let's let him have it. Is there any thank you just and this comes back out of the capital fund where that interest was acrewing. Is this the same fund where we allocated money for the high school? For the high school. This is a county uh bond issuance. So it's a different fund. Different fund. Okay. Okay. Cool. Thanks. Any more discussion? Madame clerk, if you'll call the role, please. Miss Bicks, I. Mr. Grassy, I. Miss Karan, I. Mr. Kits, hi.

Mr. King, hi. Mr. Fijicowski, I. Chair Deamas, I. Seven eyes. And now we're into the report section of our agenda. Starting with our county attorney's report. Marty. Oh, no report. Madam Chair, I got so excited.

County administrator's report. I have two things to report on that were really good over the weekend. Um, one was we had brooming and blooming on Saturday the 11th and that was very successful. It's a volunteer. We coordinate volunteers to help pick up trash around the county. And then our career and volunteer fire and rescue and EMS providers worked together with the Red Cross on Saturday as well to distribute smoke detectors to mobile home communities on Pepper Ferry Road. I think they went to four mobile home communities and uh if people wanted them to drop off the smoke detector, they would do that. But if people wanted them to install them, they did that as well. So that was very

very good and successful project. They um hope to do that again in the Mary area. And then two upcoming dates. McGomery Matters Village meeting is on April 23rd in RER at Auburn Middle School from 5 to 7:30 and parks and wreck master plan is April 30th in multi-purpose room 2 from 4 to 7. That's all I have. Thank you. And now we have board members reports and we're going to start with Supervisor Gravski. Oh. All right.

Um I just have uh one thing to bring up. Um as you all know, one of my appointments is to the New River Valley Regional Commission. Um, and at our last meeting, uh, I was really excited to get an update from their executive director, uh, Kevin Bird, that construction has begun or renovations have begun on their new, um, offices in Christiansburg. Uh, so they're real excited about that. I know that that group is looking forward to, um, taking up uh, uh, occupancy in in that building once it's done. Um, and I drive by there a lot. So, I get to see uh as they're making progress and things. So, so that's really exciting for the regional commission and for the region because I mean, as you know, the the regional commission is just doing has their hands in so many things, so many things. Uh, and so to give them, you know, more space to be able to continue support projects and um is is going to be really great.

Thanks. Great. And we will move to supervisor kits next. No report. Thank you. Supervisor Karan. All right. I think the one and only big accomplishment is finishing budgeting module. So I'm moving on to land use uh beginning of May. So

fantastic. Supervisor King. don't have no report, but I would like to thank everybody for uh coming out to our oyster supper. We had a really good fundraiser that day and also our uh community Easter egg hunt. I think we hid something like 9 10,000 eggs. Them little kids had a good time out there and I do appreciate parks and wreck. They sent somebody out there. Thank you, Supervisor Biggs. No report. Vice Chair Fijicowski.

Um I I wanted to uh uh thank our um emergency services folks down in Ellison. um they had two very difficult calls in the past 7 days and uh I know that weighs heavily on them when there's a loss of life and uh I just uh I appreciate them and and what they do and what they have to face on a on a daily basis. Um on a lighter note, I am glad to hear uh from Supervisor Gravki that the that the regional commission is moving forward. That is something that um during my time on the regional commission uh was a big topic as to where to move the uh the organization because it was uh just outgrowing their facilities and uh I think it's great to have them here in McGomery County and uh look forward to uh meeting over in their new uh building. So um that's all I got. Thank you.

Thank you. And I just have a couple of brief things. Um, first I want to u mention and thank um Virginia Tech's students. Uh, this past weekend was the big event at Virginia Tech where hundreds of Virginia Tech students uh participated in service projects throughout the community. So, I know um in my home they did a very lovely job raking my yard, getting up all the sticks and helping me get my beds mulched. And that's the kind of work that they do kind of areawide. Um they do the big event in April and then Greeks Giving Back is in the fall. So, it's not exclusive to Blackburg citizens, it's the entire community. So they do send crews out to Christensburg, out to Rin or out to Ellison. So if you happen to see information about sign up for the big event, anybody is eligible. There is no pre-qualifications to be able to to get student volunteers to come to your home. And I was blessed to have the um a group of young ladies from Latino the Latino Engineering Society um come to my home and they did an absolutely fantastic job. They were there for several hours and worked really hard and I was very pleased to have them. Um continuing in the vein of Virginia Tech, this week um is the week of remembrance at Virginia Tech. on Thursday, April 16th will be the lighting of the ceremonial candle at the memorial on um the drill field. That occurs at 12:01 a.m. and it will be lit for 24 hours. Members of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets will stand and watch the entire time that that candle is lit. There is a brief wreath laying ceremony on April

16th at 9:43 a.m. Uh anybody is welcome to attend that as well. And then um on Saturday, April 18th, there will be a 3.2 mile run in remembrance. And there will also be a service at the War Memorial Chapel at 1:30 p.m. So just encouraging people to attend those events as they desire and are able. Um also in Virginia Tech news this weekend, there is spring family weekend and the football spring game. So, please prepare for additional traffic in the Blackburg community and getting um around the New River Valley. And seeing no, nobody's flagging me down to say anything else, this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you all. Good night.