Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Okay. I'm going to call to order this meeting of the Montgomery County board of supervisors this Monday, September 14th, 2026. The first item on our agenda this evening is to go into closed meeting. Be it resolved that the Montgomery County board of supervisors of Montgomery County, Virginia hereby enters into a closed meeting for the purpose of discussing the following. Section 2.2-3711, one, discussion, consideration, or interviews of prospective candidates for employment, assignment, appointment, promotion, performance, demotion, salaries, disciplining, or resignation of specific officers, appointees, or employees of any public body. One, Western Virginia Emergency Medical Services Council. Two, Board of Equalization. Three, County Attorney's Annual Review. Is there a motion?

Second.

Madam Clerk, if you'll call the roll, please.

Mr. Kitts.

Aye.

Mr. King.

Aye.

Mr. Fijikowski.

Aye.

Ms. Bix. Aye. Mr. Grafsky.

Aye.

Ms. Caron. Aye. Chair DeMont. Aye. Seven ayes. We are in closed session.

Okay, is there a motion to come out of closed session? So moved. Second. Madam Clerk, if you'll call the roll, please.

Mr. King?

Aye.

Mr. Fridzikowski?

Aye.

Ms. Bitts? Aye. Mr. Grafsky? Aye. Ms. Caron? Aye. Mr. Kitts? Aye. Chair DeMott?

Aye.

Seven ayes.

Okay, and next we need to take a motion certifying the closed meeting.

So moved.

I've got to say it first. Whereas the Board of Supervisors of Montgomery County has convened a closed meeting on this date 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 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?

So moved.

Second. Madam Clerk, if you'll call the roll, please.

Mr. Fitchikowski?

Aye.

Ms. Biggs? Aye. Mr. Grafsky? Aye. Ms. Caron? Aye. Mr. Kitts? Aye. Mr. King?

Aye.

Chair DeMott? Aye. Seven ayes. Okay.

Next on our agenda is a moment of silence and the Pledge of Allegiance, which will be led by our County Administrator, Ms. Angie Hill.

Please rise as you're able 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. Thank you for letting me borrow your computer as well. Our first item this evening is a presentation from the Virginia Department of Transportation. We have Mr. Clark here to give us updates on road projects and then answer any questions that we have. Welcome, sir. Thanks for being here.

Thank you. Good evening. I'm going to start off with a couple of items that aren't maintenance. We'll get to the maintenance items in a second. Six-year plan project that's going on from your secondary construction program. Taylor Hollow is well underway. That's down off of Lester's Gate Road. and should be done hopefully in the next month or so. The project at Pepper's Ferry and Price's Fork is getting ready to start. You may have seen a message board out there saying that construction will get started. It's gonna last a long time, but it's gonna be, you'll have some nice turn lanes there at that signal. Another construction project coming up is in Reiner, right through the center of Reiner. There's a little turn lane that's going to be added. The bids were received for that. That was at $4.1 million, and that, with the bids just now received, it'll still be a couple months before the contractor actually gets going on that, so that'll be a while. And we got a speed study back on Dry Valley Road, which was not approved for a speed limit, but there was a recommendation for quite a number of curve warning signs, advisory speed signs in the curves. And so there will be a lot of signs coming up in there, but they didn't want to actually lower the legal speed limit. But they did say there was quite a lack of signs in the curves that may have contributed to some of the accidents there. Um, and then over the last month for, as far as maintenance, we have been able to do some patching. Um, we did, uh, also a lot of, um, um, brush cutting, but we did, uh, we did get some, some major patching on, um, Mount Tabor road. Uh, got some out there, um, as well as on warm hearth, uh, McCoy road, um, switchback road. Um, And, um, we had to, I'm assuming most of the board members realize that the roads on campus at Virginia tech are route three 14 and that's a VDOT, uh, route. Um, we work really closely with Virginia tech on the actual maintenance and because they require such, um, immediate response when something's there. They take care of most of the stuff there. They push the snow on there because we just couldn't keep up. We can't treat it like a normal primary road, even though we're on the primaries constantly during snow until it stops. The 314 system is its own kind of special thing, as you all are aware. But patching does fall under ours. Patching and overlay on 314 A certain amount is just allocated during the overlay process, but when some major patching needs done, it's our crews that do it. And we've done a little bit out there. We did some on Kent Street over the summer while the students were gone. And just before classes started, we had to get out and get a small but pretty significant patch on Stanger Street right at Price's Fork Road at the stoplight. I guess all the buses that stopped there just had rented that spot out. We had to dig down pretty deep and get that, but fortunately it was just small. We'll keep an eye on that. But anyhow, other than that, it's been cleaning out pipes, mowing, tree trimming. We did have the mow trim out on Camp Carriesbrook Road and Poff School Road, Piney Woods Road. Like I said, we did some pothole patching in McCoy area. Also cutting brush and Camp Carries Brook. I mean on a mud pike, Crab Creek, and cleaning out pipe on Big Falls Road and Dry Run. So just kind of your normal maintenance, hit and try to hit all of the categories. Patching when we can, but mostly with school starting. We're in good contact with the transportation division at school and trying to get to the places that the buses seem to get that you don't notice during the summer. So that's all.

Great, thank you. Does anybody have any questions, comments, or concerns to share with Mr. Clark? Supervisor Kitts?

So when we talk a long time on the prices for Peppers Ferry, would you define a long time? It'll be a year. Okay. Yeah, no, it's not five years.

We got some projects around here. I won't say which ones. No, a long time, not in 81 terms. A long time in just...

Yeah, I think you said which one, so, uh, when you define a disruption, what are you thinking? Just a ballpark on that. Cause I know that intersection gets pretty heavy, right? Especially just past the school.

So, oh yeah. I mean, they know we had a big pre pre construction conference with the, with the contractor and, um, you know, they know that the school zone is right there, that they're going to have a lot of traffic, you know, early mornings, afternoons, uh, they're well aware of that. Uh, it's been written into the contract. when they can go. Hopefully they're not in, I mean, you know, it's been even brought up about, you know, certain Saturdays are going to be pretty heavy. I don't think they plan on work on Saturdays, but that's used quite a bit on Saturday football games too.

And the other thing that I haven't, I actually haven't brought it up in a while, but a little bit, but flashing light coming up the road.

I dug into that a little bit. I asked, they said the materials have been ordered, but I don't know if that's a classic contractor line or what. But I'm not going to let them forget about it. Okay. All right. Thank you. That's all I have.

Okay. Supervisor King, you shook your head no. Do we have any questions, comments? Supervisor Grafsky?

Thanks for being here today. Good to see you. Just a couple of things. So one, that was brought to my attention by the county administrator regarding concern at... The intersection of Magnolia Drive and Price's Fork. So Price's Fork is you're heading out towards or coming from Peppers Ferry. It's kind of on that far end. Just concerns about safety, vehicles turning into and out of Magnolia Lane. And so if there is... Any sort of signage or traffic study, speed study, anything that can be done for that stretch of Price's Fork there coming at Magnolia Lane.

Okay, I'll take a look at it. It might be a sight distance thing we can work on or a signage for the actual intersection, intersection head sign or something like that.

The resident sighted a handful of accidents over the last several years at that intersection.

Okay.

And then the second one is on Merrimack, which I think I've said it before, but I'll say it again. Merrimack looks amazing. But at the single lane bridge there where the fire and rescue training center is, we've had a request to see if again, signage or change in speed for kind of traversing that stretch of Merrimack. And I think when you're coming southbound on Merrimack, I think as you kind of come into that little switchback, I think there is like a slow curve sign at the top of that. But I can't off the top of my head think if you're coming the opposite direction towards that bridge, if there's any signage or...

But it's near the fire rescue station?

There's the training center. Training center. Yeah, the training center. It's that spot about halfway across Merrimack where it narrows down to the single lane to cross the creek, the bridge there.

Okay.

Yeah. Thank you.

Supervisor Bix. I just wanted to ask, On 81, when you all put in the cameras to slow the speeders down there, how is that working out, and have they gotten a lot of tickets?

I've just heard sort of anecdotal stories about quite a number of tickets written for that. I don't know how many of them, but it's also working as well. That's good. So the average speed is doing pretty well through those work zones. Um, that's something I think a lot of states had done that before we've done it. But, um, now I've seen it on 64 as well. And, um, um, I don't know if it's going to be in all of the 81 work zones, but it wouldn't surprise me.

Well, I think it, I personally just from traveling, I think it's helped because people aren't, you know, continually passing in the left lane. So yeah. And thank you again for prices fork. That's been a long time. I mean, it's been years since it was first brought up. So thank you.

Supervisor Caron. Thank you for the Mount Tabor fixing. Citizens are very appreciative. The other thing is I received a request of a guardrail by a citizen who lives in the Coal Bank Hollow Road, and the spot that she requested guardrail is a bad curve near Pierman Road. If you don't mind looking into that, that would be great.

Okay, I will.

Vice Chair Fischkowski.

Yay. Well, I'll start off on a positive note. I got a call from a citizen, was very, very pleased with the brush cutting that you did on Pilot Road. resulted from, uh, uh, or the, the request resulted from an accident that was there. And he says the visibility is way, way better. So he was very, very pleased. And I said, well, I will see Mr. Clark tonight and I will tell him. So that's the positive one. Now let's get to work. Um, I got another call and also got an email from, uh, delegate Franklin's office about me let me start the story there was an accident in on the interstate in Roanoke County around the 133 traffic backed up to the 128 so people will started getting off the 128 and you know taking 603 over to 460 like they normally do and the complaint was that trucks were just pulling out in front of people and, um, the citizen wanted to know if there was anything that could be done about that. If maybe even just some temporary message boards could be put up, um, While the backup is in place, I know how difficult that is because you would have to get men and equipment out there and then set it all up. And then by the time it's all set up, it's time to tear it all down. But it was a concern. Delegate Franklin's office said that they had received a lot of other complaints about that intersection. Now, I know we've always had the issue with trucks because when they pull up there, it doesn't matter which way they're going, north or south, they always seem to pull out very slowly, and I guess we should be grateful that they do it that way, but it's... And as you know, we've talked about the issues with Love's Truck Stop and people pulling out. I don't know what you could do there in that situation, especially something that relates to an accident, but I don't even know if there could be anything done. I mean, the stop signs are up. People are supposed to stop, look both ways before they go. So to me, it sounds more like an enforcement action, but they're talking traffic lights.

I think actually it's being considered as part of the next project to have at least a temporary signal there.

On both sides?

Well, it's at North Fork and Route 11.

Okay.

Because you might have some detours that way when blasting happens and stuff like that.

Was that contract awarded for that section?

I don't know if it was or not. I think it might have been advertised.

I had a list of the ones that were, but I don't have that with me. All right. Well, that's helpful. I'll tell them that.

I know we're looking at... No, they're still doing the risk analysis on that. I've attended a couple meetings. There's a whole other project scheduled that would just look at different kinds of traffic control, warning signs and stuff like that on the southern end of that. It wouldn't be in the project itself, but as you're coming from, say, exit 114 towards 118 and approaching the mountain, projects in there that would, you know, alert traffic to whatever problems there might be in the construction zone. So that's a separate project. But no, they're still doing some of the risk analysis on the part of the mountain. I know that has not been let, no. Okay.

All right, well, I'm still that you're considering.

But yeah, I've seen preliminary plans for showing a temporary signal at North Fork and Route 11.

And I haven't, I haven't, I don't think I've talked to you in a while about, about the loves truck stop. Was there any, um, anything worked out between, uh, VDOT? I don't know. I'll have to ask.

I don't know. I'll have to ask our land use engineer, Jesse Miller would, would know. And I haven't, I haven't talked to him about that.

Cause I think when you had it, that, that all the brush and that tall grass mode, I think that did help out some, but I, I got a complaint just two days ago that, that, a car had pulled out because a truck and obviously the truck was blocking the site distance or the site division of the road. And the car just pulled out right in front of a motorcycle. And, uh, I think it was an accident according to the person that told me. And, uh, and they suggested something just very simple. And I thought, you know what might be worth a try. Uh, we talked about them putting up a sign just to catch the truck driver's eyes so that they don't turn, uh, too early down that other road. Instead they come into the truck stop, but he suggested that loves put up a stop sign at the, at their entrance. Could, could you maybe if Jesse's talking to them, we can't require that.

No, no, I understand. But if we ever in discussions with them, yeah, they could.

Because, uh, one of the other complaints of course is the trucks as they pull up to the intersection, they don't want to come to stop. They just keep going.

So, um, yeah, if that could be looked into. Okay. Yeah. That's a good suggestion. Maybe they'll negotiate with us.

You mentioned the speed study. Is there any,

chance they might be getting to um i haven't seen spring i'll have to look and see if they sent that i don't know i know we had a section in there near the near that church yeah okay all right that's all i got thank you okay did that prompt any other questions all right i don't have anything for you either either thank you so much for being here this evening we'll see you again soon all right thank you all thanks thank you All right, next on our agenda is public address. I'm going to read the guidelines for public address and then we'll take citizens' comments during that section. So the Board of Supervisors allows citizens to present comments on issues during their attention, deserving their attention during public address at each meeting. If you wish to speak, please observe the policy regarding public address and the presentation of visuals. A public address sign-up sheet was available outside the meeting room. Following the names on the sign-up sheet, other speakers will be allowed. Each speaker has four minutes, whether speaking as an individual or a representative, and we ask that each speaker introduce themselves and state where in the county that they reside. all comments must be directed to the chair and other supervisors from the lectern at the front of the room and then debate between speakers and members of the audience will not be allowed speakers may leave any written statements 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 sign-up sheet in the hallway prior to the meeting, and we do have one person signed up, so they'll go first. And that is Jamie Slate, if you wanted to come forward. And then after Mr. Slate, if there's anybody else that wants to speak during public address, they'll be welcome to. Welcome, sir.

Thank you. Hello. My name is Jamie Slate. I appreciate y'all letting me speak today. I live on 3011 Fisher's View Road, which is in Montgomery County, Virginia. I have some major concerns and a couple questions on that road. Over the last 40, 50 years or so, there's some sections in that road that need widening. The school buses, it's impassable by two vehicles. The school buses are coming around curves and almost having... Head-on collections with some of the homeowners and stuff in that area. And I know that y'all can't do anything about the speeding on that dirt road. And so my, I guess, kind of concern and question, why over the years has anything not been done to kind of show a few improvements to that road as far as widening or fixing some of the culverts that are actually rusting and falling down into the creek underneath the know heavy equipment school buses trucks and stuff driving up through there on that road and that that was one of the questions that i had and the other question i had was vdot is concerning vdot grading the road when they grade the road and turn up the dust and stuff in the road Um, far as I understand under the standards under Virginia administrative code nine V a C five dash 40 dash 90, they are required to put some kind of dust control, preventive chemical down on the road before and after grading. And they are not doing that. So I was kind of wondering why that is not being done. Thank you.

Thank you, and thanks for your questions. We will take those into consideration. Okay. And then we have your contact information here as well. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you. Is there anybody else in the room that would like to come forward and address the board on any topic? Okay, seeing nobody else coming forward, I'm going to close public address. We do not have an addendum this evening, so our next item is to go into work session. Is there a motion to enter into work session? So moved.

Second.

Okay, do we have any discussion about that? Madam Clerk, if you'll call the roll, please.

Ms. Biggs? Aye. Mr. Grafsky?

Aye.

Ms. Caron? Aye. Mr. Kitts?

Aye.

Mr. King?

Aye.

Mr. Fijikowski?

Aye.

Chair DeMonts? Aye. Seven ayes.

So we have two items to discuss during work session this evening. We have two tax exemption requests that we're gonna talk about, and then we also wanna follow up on our previous work session where we discussed our legislative priorities. Angie, did you have anything to say to introduce these two tax exemption requests? And then I also wanted to note Vicki provided me the names of two people I think are probably here this evening. We have Joshua Eggleston with Haxburg and then Ron Brown with the Humane Society. So we do have people in the room while we're discussing the tax exemptions that are able to answer our questions.

Angie? Yes, you have information in your packet about these requests. I can answer any additional questions you might have. And the goal for this evening is for the board to discuss the request, ask the applicants if they have any questions. They're here to address those questions as well. and then hopefully there can be consensus from the board to add an item to your next meeting agenda to schedule a public hearing on these requests. The requests would both go into effect in January, so they would not have an impact on the budget until fiscal year 27. 28. Fiscal year 28.

28, we're in 27 now. Fiscal year 28. So my understanding is the Haxburg real estate tax exemption request is for taxes that they pay on a leasehold interest, and they've expanded their space, which has resulted in an expanded request for that tax exemption. And the Humane Society is related to the purchase of a transport vehicle for their work. That's correct. Okay. What kind of questions do we have either discussion points to talk about amongst ourselves or since we have people that have joined us this evening, do we have any questions for either organization about the request? Nobody is looking at me.

Just just one with with Humane Society Do we or do they have any other other than income tax exemptions? Do they have any other exemptions through the county?

They have property in Christiansburg and Blacksburg and both of those are their real estate They have exemptions when I believe was it from 1999 and the other was from 1992 Okay, they've been exempt since that time.

Okay, so

Do we have any other questions or items of discussion? So on both of these requests, is there consensus to move forward at our next meeting with scheduling a public hearing to hear these? Okay, so then for you guys, thank you all very much for coming. It might be nice that we didn't pepper you with a million questions, but we do very much appreciate your time. At our September 28th meeting, we'll be taking a procedural vote to schedule a public hearing, and I know our staff will be in touch with you to let you know when that public hearing is actually going to be on the agenda so you can come back. But thank you very much. So moving to our next work session topic, our legislative priorities. Angie, did you have anything that you wanted to say? Yes, a couple things.

We have a draft resolution that's included in the agenda. I wanted to make a couple changes or suggestions for changes. Under the first major heading, support for public education initiatives, really there only should be one bullet under that. The last two bullets in that section in my opinion have been addressed and might not be priorities for you any longer, you can decide that, but that would be my recommendation. And then the second item in unfunded mandates and fully fund state partnered services, I think those are addressed in the other topics. If you feel like that does need to be called out separately, we might have that as the third major category, and it might have a heading of its own that says, provide full funding for services or something of that nature, but I think it should not be under the support public education initiatives.

Okay. Um, and then the third bullet, the insurer, I think the provide additional state funding for DEQ doesn't belong in that category at all. And it might not even, I think that's been addressed. Okay. Um, I mean, I'm not saying that I'm saying it doesn't belong under public education.

Yes.

it also might not to be might not need to be a priority any longer okay and then ensure accurate community services board funding calculations i don't i'm looking to somebody who might be a better well angie and i talked about this earlier today i was questioning um the state always says that they want us to put so much money in and we can never put the amount of money that they want us to put in. So I asked Angie if we reworded that some way or did she feel like we didn't have to worry about that. And she was leaning towards not having to worry about that. So I'm sort of going with her lead and definitely I want to get the DEQ thing out of there.

Last year, the Community Services Board funding consideration addressed how the funding is calculated, and really the major concern is that the percentage that jurisdictions are technically required to supply, which is 10%, and I don't know of any jurisdictions that provide that level of funding.

Yeah, they can't. So that would be the only thing, like, do we want to address... the state not doing that or, you know.

Which could be rolled into the one about unfunded mandates and fully fund state public services.

Yeah, the unfunded mandates needs to be out of education, a separate thing.

And I think it should be third because public education and public safety are generally your top two priorities.

So Angie, do you feel like that, or do you feel okay not putting in the community services or do you feel like

I think we could list, I think it's up to the board. You could list it under the funding item. There's not a specific proposed legislation to change the funding calculation right now.

So you, we might be able to put it, um, with unfunded mandates. Is that what you're thinking?

Right. Because it's another major category related to unfunded mandates. Right. Okay. So how does everybody feel about the support public education initiatives piece in the discussion that we've just had, which would include ending and adding another major category related to unfunded mandates?

I was kind of thinking that we might actually be able to get it all on one page, but if you're going to add another category then.

But we're going to take two items off.

Yeah.

Well, I have a suggestion in another category too, but go ahead.

Let's finish education and then you can suggest. Does anybody else have anything related to the education major priority? Okay. Vice Chair Fijikowski, suggest away. Okay.

Uh, under a transportation initiatives, um, the second bullet fund interstate 81 improvements and support funding for localities providing emergency response on 81. I think we could eliminate half of it altogether and then move the support, the funding for emergency response up to the public safety under that second bullet under public safety, which is. pretty large and probably needs to lose a little weight.

We can do that. I like that.

Yeah, that's good.

Okay, does anybody else have any notes or suggestions under the fund transportation initiatives major category? Okay, I'm seeing none. Let's pop back up to fund public safety. Do we have any notes, suggestions, improvements?

So my thought process on that is that needs to be the very first bullet because, and yeah, it needs to be simplified down a little bit, but because it's such a complicated task and because, and through VACO, there's a lot of counties getting together now to back this. I think it gives us a little more oomph, but that should be a major priority, especially as it represents... And correct me if I'm wrong between 15 and 20% of our budget moving forward. And it's only getting bigger. Am I right? Am I a little bit high?

It's a little high, but it does, it is getting larger, but yeah, and it's getting larger each year.

So it's, we bring that one bullet up for local providing emergency responses and we move that up into that. I think we need to simplify the state support should recognize that fire and rescue is critical. I think they already do that. But that being said, just to, Emphasize that fund fire services at levels necessary And so and then the second part be the support emergency response on the interstate so Does everybody feel good about that change I know Staff will work the do some wordsmithing for us.

So you're saying you're saying take out the that second sentence and

And that's what I'm thinking because I mean state should support I should recognize No, I agree with you. It's it's if you're gonna try to simplify this down and we want to hammer points I think we need to make it bullets. We need to make it this specific item specific. This is it. This is what you can remember.

Yeah, I agree Did you mean to put fund public safety above the education priority in?

No, no, no, above, at the top of fun public safety, at the top of the fun public safety. Easy, easy.

I agree with that. I think that should be reordered as well. Okay.

Supervisor Biggs, breathe.

And I also think qualified immunity is important. Maybe the VRS hazardous duty would be the third.

Agreed.

Okay, so now we're finished with support public education. We're finished with fund public safety. Fund transportation initiatives, do you think we've covered all of that with Steve's comments? I didn't see any additional stuff coming forward. All right, so let's move on to support local taxing authority. Does anybody have any notes or comments on that major section? The county attorney, Mr. McMahon. Yes?

The last bullet says permit taxation of non-exempt leaseholders. They already permit it. They just don't permit it at 100% fair market value.

So do we want to edit it to say permit taxation at 100% fair market value of non-exempt leasehold interests?

That's what it sounds like.

Yeah. If you're going to keep it, let's do it.

Thank you, sir. Sorry. I gave you a hard time. Um, any, any other notes on support local taxing authority? Okay. Support local land use authority. We have a lot in here.

I think some of them can obviously be combined that say maintain local authority over. We can combine all those into a single item.

Three through seven or two through two through seven can be consolidated into three. Yeah. Yes Okay maintain and oppose Essentially like maintain limits or authority oppose limits, right?

Do we have any other notes on that major category? May I go back to school? No, we're done with that one. We're done. I'm kidding. Go right ahead, please.

That's right. Just thought about, do we want to say anything about the funding for school construction?

To either... not have the sunset moratorium or to allow it to cover previous debt service? Previous debt. Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah.

Okay, both?

That's really important, the previous debt, that would help us.

Right. I think that's a really great point to bring up because they did respond, the General Assembly, after years of everybody begging, they did respond in a very positive way, but there are some restrictions on that funding source that kind of handcuff us.

And FACO is going to be working for that too.

Okay, so I think we've covered all of the major categories. We've given enough notes for staff to do some work to put this back together. The structure of the legislative priorities is now at our next meeting. We will hopefully be voting to approve a legislative priority packet. That's correct, yes. And then I wanted to just have a very brief discussion about these two prototype pieces that were left at each of our desks. we had asked during our last work session to have something that is much, much smaller and easier to hand to legislators, something that could be referred to a little bit better than a multi-page document. And so these two prototypes that staff prepared just set here for us both of them have the major categories they also have a QR code on the back or the rear side that links to the more detailed legislative priority document I particularly like the small foldable card format because it'll fit in a pocket it'll fit in a suit jacket it kind of fits everywhere this one is a little too What did you say, they need to lose some weight? This one's still a little too wide. But I really do like this small business card format. What do people think about the direction of these? I'm looking at our printer who clearly has opinions.

supervisor kids I'm offended by the attitude that you looked at me with so um but I would just say this is more of a formatting thing because when you fold it it's gonna crease and you don't want to make sure because you're gonna have to space it and that is the printer in me coming out so she'd do it you're gonna have to space it to make sure that it doesn't crease but I think that's a good way to do it it's a good balance and you can put it on a heavy enough thing that that It's easy to hand out. So I'm okay with this as long as we make sure we space it because the back and the outside are good. The inside just needs to be adjusted.

That's a good note. Any other? Do we like this in general? Okay. So it is different. So I think that's good direction for staff. And I do super appreciate Supervisor Kitts' note so nothing creases right in the middle and gets messed up in the crease. All right. Angie, is there anything else that you needed us to provide during this work session? No, ma'am. That's all we need. Thank you. Okay. Anybody else have any questions, comments, or concerns before we leave work session? Can I get a motion to go out of work session?

So moved.

All right. Any discussion? Madam Clerk, if you'll call the roll, please.

Mr. Grasky?

Aye.

Ms. Caron? Aye. Mr. Kitts? Aye. Mr. King?

Aye.

Mr. Fijikowski?

Aye.

Ms. Figgs? Aye. Chair DeMonts? Aye. Seven ayes.

Okay, moving on to our consent agenda. Is there a motion?

So moved.

Second. Any discussion? Madam Clerk, if you'll call the roll, please.

Ms. Caron?

Aye.

Mr. Kitts? Aye. Mr. King?

Aye.

Mr. Fijikowski? Aye. Ms. Figgs? Aye. Mr. Grafsky? Aye. Chair DeMonts? Aye. Seven ayes.

Okay, next we're moving into new business. We just have two new business items tonight. The first is to schedule a public hearing, an amendment to the tax relief for the elderly and disabled program. We most recently talked about this at our very last meeting where we gave some good direction to staff on how we wanted to move forward. So this will set up the public hearing so we can continue that process. Is there a motion?

So moved. Second.

Is there any discussion? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, if you'll call the roll, please.

Mr. Kitts?

Aye.

Mr. King?

Aye.

Mr. Fitchikowski? Aye.

Aye.

Ms. Biggs? Aye. Mr. Grafske? Aye. Ms. Caron? Aye. Chair DeMott? Aye. Seven ayes.

Okay, and the next item is a resolution of support. This is related to a Department of Historic Resources, ESHPF, I had to say that really slow, grant application. Angie, do you have anything that you want to add before we get a motion on this?

I can just give you a very brief summary of the grant program that ESHPF, P-F stands for Emergency Supplemental Historic Preservation Fund. And this would impact communities that were impacted by Hurricane Helene, including projects to identify and document historic resources that may have been affected by the storm or remain vulnerable to future disasters. And the proposed project area includes Longshot, McCoy, Wake Forest, and White Thorn. This portion of the county has historically been underrepresented in previous historic resource survey efforts, and it would help fill the gap by identifying and documenting historic resources within that area. It would not result in additional regulations or historic district designations, and it does support the historic and cultural heritage goals of Montgomery Matters Comprehensive Plan. It does not require a local match. DHR would be responsible for the administration and grant management. County staff involvement would just basically be coordinating with DHR on the project area and scope, assist with property owner notification, community outreach, and providing available local information to support the survey. So staff is just asking for the board support to submit this application.

Great, thank you. Is there a motion?

So moved.

Second.

Okay.

Is there any discussion, or does anybody have any questions? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, if you'll call the roll, please.

Mr. King? Aye. Mr. Fijikowski? Aye. Ms. Biggs? Aye. Mr. Grafsky? Aye. Ms. Caron? Aye. Mr. Kitts? Aye. Chair DeMott? Aye. Seven ayes.

Okay. Next, we'll move into reports. County Attorney's Report.

No report, Madam Chair.

County Administrator's Report.

Thank you. This past Thursday on the 10th, there was an unveiling of Virginia is for Hokie Lovers, a launch. Chris attended that on behalf of the county. Samantha Livesey really... played a key role in that initiative and it's going to help strengthen our branding and I think if you see Samantha give her a shout out because it really was her idea in the beginning even though it grew into something much more she spearheaded that effort. Also On the 10th, the Parks and Rec Commission received a draft master plan. I know that Chris and Chair DeMont's attended that meeting. You might have some more things to say about that. It's an exciting plan, I think. Tomorrow, Chris and I will be attending the Town of Blacksburg work session. During the day, Mission CIT will be presenting the fire and rescue assessment to the Town of Blacksburg. staff is also going to share the staff the funding formula with the team and then on Wednesday from 2 to 4 here in the government center in multi-purpose room to the county will host the Vaco regions 11 and 12 meetings so hopefully Some of you will be able to attend that. I will attend that as well. And then Thursday evening, the Board of Supervisors will have the joint meeting with the Planning Commission also in multi-purpose room two with dinner at 6.30 and the meeting will begin at seven with the topic of information session and discussion regarding data center and land use policy. So this is gonna be an informational session provided by Hurt and Profit and then it'll give both Bodies an opportunity to discuss these topics. Of course, there won't be decisions made that night, but just an opportunity for some information to be shared.

And just to clarify, this is not in response to a potential data center. It's at the request of the board to understand data centers more and to talk with the planning commission about that.

Yes. If you recall, in December, the Board of Supervisors requested the Planning Commission look at data centers as a defined use, and there wasn't a lot of detail about that request, and so In the interim, staff has talked and we realized that we've attended some sessions, some of you have attended sessions as well to learn more about data centers and the land use policies that surround them. So we recognize there needs to be a little more direction for the Planning Commission and hopefully this session will provide an opportunity to give that.

Thank you. And thanks for your work in coordinating all of that. You're welcome. All right, board members' reports. Let's start with Supervisor Grafsky.

Hey. All right. Two weeks ago at our regional commission meeting, there's all... Well, every month there's an opportunity for the commissioners to just provide general updates, things going on in their communities, within their organizations, things like that. But there was one that jumped out at me that I thought I would share with the group is the president of New River Community College shared that due to just a great response and demand for the program. They're going to be adding a second cohort of basic and advanced EMT. and paramedics courses at New River Community College. And so they're looking at that for this next academic year. But then also, again, looking at either growing fields or high demand fields that also carry pretty substantial wages. either growing or expanding programs in health information technology and respiratory therapy as well. So I just wanted to share that, that we're going to have expanded programming available through New River Valley Community College for those career tracks. And then there's one thing that I wanted to ask of the board. I wanted to kind of resurface or resurrect something as it relates to the transient occupancy tax and take a second look at that. I was contacted by a constituent who has been in contact with our our representatives in Richmond and Richmond seems to think that there is a pathway for us to reassess that and those funds excess funds coming into the general fund so I wanted to see if there would be appetite for the board of revisiting transient occupancy taxes

Are you talking like maybe having a presentation and work session so we can discuss collection methods or the actual tax rate?

The actual rate itself, right? Because I think right now, if I remember correctly, we're at 5% now with everything above 2% going towards tourism, which is fantastic. But as I understand it, we can go above that 5% rate and that excess can flow into general funds. I just want to kind of confirm that.

Is our rate 5% or 3? I think our rate is 3%. Turn on your mic, Marty. Marty. Your mic's off.

We'll look at it. Or maybe it's above 2, up 2, 5, goes to tourism, and we're at 3. That's right.

Above 2 goes to tourism.

That is true. Okay. Yeah. Would you be comfortable with that maybe sometime in late October just to give staff time to prepare?

Yeah, absolutely, right? But I would think ahead of like budget season and things like that.

Yeah, okay. So maybe we can have that as a work session topic in late October.

I would love that.

Okay, great. Is everybody okay with that being a work session topic? I'm not seeing anybody objecting.

All right, you win.

Thank you. Congrats. Let's see, Supervisor King.

I don't have no report, but I just, I've been talking to a lot of people in District D about the school CIP plan. And I just want to let y'all know that some of you already know, but that side's not happy with the CIP plan. And I did inform them that this board is not allowed to add things to the school CIP plan. I just want y'all to know that in case you hear something.

Thank you. All right. Supervisor Caron.

All right. One thing, unfortunately, I couldn't attend, but Saturday, our Christiansburg Library celebrated their 40th anniversary. So I want to say congratulations to them, unfortunately, in there. AND TOMORROW I HAVE LIBRARY BOARD MEETING SO I WILL REPORT NEXT TIME AROUND AND I ENJOY MY PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING, LONG MEETING ATTENDING WITH SOME OTHER SUPERVISORS. JUST PAST WEEK I WENT TO SITES TO VISIT TOO AND EACH TIME I DRIVE AROUND I realize how big the county is. It took us two hours from one end to the other. But, you know, it's a learning curve for me. So I appreciate the opportunity and staff driving me around with other commissioners. So that will wrap up mine. Supervisor Kitts?

So I don't have a report, but I just want to make a couple of public service announcements on this one. One, don't pass school buses. OK, because there's cameras on it and I'm just reiterating this for the umpteenth time. The other way is don't speed through school zones because I honestly believe I think that I know Blacksburg just added, but we have them in the county and it's still a fairly prolific rate from where it should be. And the final thing is, and, uh, VDOT brought it up, but they are going to be working at the intersection. It's going to take a while for the intersection of Price's Fork and Pepper's Ferry. So if you have to go that way to go to work or go towards the Arsenal or go that way by the 1st of October, I think they've got up 28 September is when they start working on it. Just make sure you plan accordingly because that's going to get jammed up pretty quick. So make sure you raise the signs are up. So. Just letting everybody know it's coming.

Supervisor Biggs.

Well, I attended the Planning Commission meeting along with Supervisor Corrine and Vice Chair Fijikowski, and I just wanted to give a shout out to our planning department. Their presentations are so professional and so detailed. And I had not been to a plan commission meeting in a while. And I was just, I want to give a shout out to them for all the work that they do. It was really, really, it was good.

Thank you.

And let's see, I can just report to you, everything's going well with the New River Community Services and the airport. We had the planes coming in for the last two games. And hopefully, if we keep winning, maybe we'll have more planes, more planes, more fuel. And then some of us were able to attend sort of a wrap-up with Dr. Sands on the Partnership for Progress. It was a lot of work that went into that over almost two years. And so he just wanted to recognize folks that had been involved in it. So that was a nice sort of event. And then let's see. We all went to the dinner the other night. Yep. That was good too for onward and we missed Chair DeMott's because she had to go Parks and Recreation. But we were there, you were there in spirit, yeah.

I super appreciate you guys going. I hated being torn, but I definitely needed to be at the Parks and Rec meeting.

And you know what's nice about that event? They celebrate folks. And I think it's really important to celebrate folks. I think sometimes we forget to do that, but it was a really good event. But you were there in spirit. Thank you. And that's it.

Vice Chair Fijikowski?

but we didn't put your picture in an empty chair.

Did that to Angie one time.

I really don't have a report, but I'm looking forward to the joint meeting with the Planning Commission because the program they're going to see is pretty good. I think several of us saw it in Radford, the one that Hurt and Profit puts on. It's very informative, so... I look forward to that.

Okay, and then all that I have to report on is the master plan as was presented to the Parks and Rec Commission. It was the first kind of draft presentation, and it was very comprehensive. It includes a multi-step, multi-year plan, so it's not like drinking from a fire hose. It's actually broken out into achievable tasks over years. several years because the goal of the master plan obviously is to get to the point where we're able to adopt a master plan and then implement it and if we don't have achievable goals along the way then it's going to sit on a shelf and gather dust and nothing in the plan will ever come to fruition and so the Parks and Rec Commission was able to engage with the planners a little bit provide some feedback on the draft as it was presented everything from like maybe topics that that were missed or not explored as thoroughly as needed and you know getting into the details of you know this this picture really needs a legend or a key to show what it is that people are actually looking at so we went all the way from like the macro to the micro and trying to provide feedback so the team is going to come back to the Parks and Rec commission and present with some updates. We'll have that at a future parks and rec meeting. And then the goal is before the end of this calendar year for the parks and rec commission to move the master plan forward for presentation and approval by this board. And so it's really, really exciting to, one, be celebrating the completion of a master plan, our previous master plan, where we did achieve a lot of milestones, but be able to roll that into what does the future look like for Parks and Rec, what does the community envision, what does the Parks and Rec Commission envision. It's a great document. I think it's 140 some pages. And that's just, you know, thinking this one department, the master plan is, you know, 140 plus page document for us to consider. So just kind of keep that in mind that coming. probably our next parks and rec commission meeting and then we'll be recommending to this board the goal is to have it actually fully adopted before the end of 2026. and I did also want to make one other note I know that Angie and Chris will be at the town of Blacksburg's work session tomorrow I don't think the town council is recording those yet so if anybody wants to participate or listen not participate you can't participate in their work session but listen in on that work session you actually have to physically attend but town council has been in discussions and is moving in the direction of recording their work sessions to make those publicly available i just don't think tomorrow will be there yet because i know their last work session they had a discussion on it

I'm really glad to hear that because I've attended some of those and what is discussed there is really important for the citizens to hear because then when they go to the council meeting, they've already had that part. They've already had their work session and you know, like the way we do it here, everyone hears our work session and then discussion. And then when we go about our process of voting, but I think that's critical. So you think that's going to happen?

Oh, yeah, yeah, they've made the decision that it's going to happen. I know it's important to Blacksburg's mayor that that moves forward, and several of the town council people as well have made it a priority. So I just don't think the technology is there for tomorrow's meeting because they just, I think, kind of made the decision in their last work session. So they're working towards it, which is a huge improvement. I'm really happy to see it.

Transparency.

Yeah. Okay, anything else for the good of the cause? Then we are adjourned.