City Council - Regular Meeting

Sustained, and I looked up the definition. It's basically to keep in existence, maintain, continue, or prolong. So I got the feeling that are we cratering here? I mean, is there an abyss that the city is about to fall into? That's why I contacted you. And you said it was all your fault. So I said, OK, I'll let you accept the blame. But I don't know if we're on the edge of the cliff about ready to fall off or what. Yes, things have to be done, always have to be done. As Bud just pointed out, we can't necessarily live the way we are. And all the towns I passed by and went through, Last three weeks, most of them were little ones, a few big ones, but I wouldn't want to live in St. Louis. The little ones, I was wondering, I wonder how much these guys pay for taxes. I wonder where they get their revenue. Of course, every one of them was on an interstate virtually, except for through the middle of nowhere in Oklahoma for about 200 miles. of fun everything's as i think i pointed out one time before that where i grew up everything is north south east west and that's oklahoma we went north about 10 miles turned left went west about eight miles north and just like that going through the state roads are nice and wide a lot of farmers waving at you um just everything was getting by but i always wondered where they got their revenue from um unlike this and i started thinking you know pocosin is Even in our little corner of Virginia is kind of unique in that, we said before, we're at the end of two roads, 171, 172. Nobody else at the end are looking at this thing you want to sign or the meeting that talks about economic development and things like that. Even the towns like Franklin, Smithfield, and stuff like that, they kind of have some stuff that's on the way. They have a highway structure. either goes through it or goes near it, that a bunch of stuff has built up over the last 32 years that I've been here that generates revenue for them that we don't have. Do we admit that we don't have that? That there's one thing, the only thing we have going for us is the people that make up the city. And One of the fun things once we got back on the road was Kathy was reading me stuff because I don't listen to the Internet and don't watch social media. But she was reading some of the stuff. say what you will, say what you want, say who cares. And it was just, we had a good laugh, so thank you out there for the people that were putting those things in there that don't seem to understand, the people that were correcting them and the people that were correcting them, that made it enjoyable for us to wind a couple thousand miles on our little trip. But again, back to the ocean is, we are unique in that, you know, We haven't brought in 50 years, 51. We've got a whole lot of business here. It's because that's kind of the way Pecoso is. If there's anything out there that people don't want, and when they say that it wasn't the way it was, it's a quiet, sleepy town to a degree with a fairly good football team, high school, and that's about where they want it. Kids can play safely. I don't have to worry about a whole lot of things. Are they willing to pony up what only income we have as far as city revenue, which is personal property taxes or not? I haven't noticed a flood of allied van lines leaving Pocosin. I have seen many coming into Pocosin. Houses that go on the market here, maybe they just don't know that we have problems. sell within days, not weeks, not months, really asking too much money for them. So sustaining, we want to progress. We don't want to sustain. But what do we want? What does that progress mean? It means changing. Yeah, everybody wants little things. We want a bigger food line. We want something. We're going to be talking about some of the properties in town. We'd like to have businesses on the... properties that we've already labeled as business properties versus housing because it doesn't do any good to have affordable housing and put people in it if the affordable housing is still miles away from where they go shop. It would be nice to have some kind of shops that would supplement them here. On the other hand, how do we attract businesses? Well, we give them tax breaks. Well, the whole idea behind bringing them in is so we can tax them and get the money from their sales. So it's kind of like, can we do? Can we not? So that's my opening salvo.

Thank you.

Thank you, Keith.

You're welcome. So I really appreciate sitting on the back end of that conversation this time, because usually I queue myself up. I'm ready. But I've done a lot of thinking about this myself and a lot of organizing around my thoughts, trying to make sure I'm answering the questions and not doing it. Um, so I think first, uh, what is the working definition of sustainability from my perspective? Um, I think it means building a city or a Pocosin that can reliably deliver services that our citizens expect, not just this year, but for decades without relying on continual crisis deferred maintenance or the extra ordinary, not extraordinary, the extra ordinary effort from our staff. Um, the problems I think that we're trying to solve. workforce sustainability because we can't sustain operate a city if we continually lose experienced employees to neighboring localities organizational sustainability what key functions and I always pull up the example economic development that get absorbed in already over full workloads because organizational sustainability is going to It needs to be addressed because what we're doing right now demonstrates dedication by staff and the amazing skill set that our staff has and their vast resumes that they have. But is that the right organizational model for sustainability? And I don't think it is. Fiscal sustainability. Residents already feel the tax burden. Sustainability can't mean raising taxes whenever costs increase. We should understand whether existing growth is actually producing the expected revenue and whether our operating model is efficient for that revenue. For example, in the middle of June, I sent out an ask saying, hey, do we know how much revenue we have received from the people living in Legacy? real estate tax and personal property tax. And the response came back very reasonable, understood, got two different levels of response. But we don't have a system in place to calculate that. It can be done manually. But we don't have the systems in place to report that kind of information. And I think that maybe moving forward to solve the problem, that might be something that we look at is providing that kind of tool so that we can see if past efforts are addressing the revenue in ways that we can then support the services that are now in place because of those additional bodies. Was the juice worth the squeeze? Then we can decide if doing another development would be something that would make sense or whatever the situation might be. Do we have past experience to base whether or not this is a good idea? Community sustainability. And that's not a choice between development and preservation. The goal is to find the level and type of growth that preserves Pocosn's character while supporting the services we expect. Operating model. I really want to be careful to distinguish between our operating model and the way our staff executes within that model because I think this is probably, and I can't say this is the best step I've ever worked with because I'm the new guy here. I don't know. But you guys are amazing. Your entire staff is incredible and you know that. And yeah, right? You guys are really good and you should be patting yourself on the back because you've built and incredible staff. But we've seen a lot of them go pretty quickly this year. And that's the issue of sustainability that we've got to go back to so that those roles are not burdened on the shoulders of people already doing an extraordinary job with what we have. I'm definitely not saying that anyone's managed that poorly. I'm talking about things that I've read online and things that we've heard thrown at us. We don't think that. We think it's quite the opposite. We've got talented people who have compensated for structural challenges based on real life hitting us in the face, and that's other people leaving. That doesn't mean that the system was bad. It does mean that we know that there's a compensation issue. here, and we have to try to figure that out. So if our goal is to find sustainability, I want us to identify what information council should routinely have so that we can make informed decisions. So if I could have gotten answers to that question, I was like, don't calculate anything manually. We don't have time for that in this particular . But if that's something we need to address moving forward, figuring out how a certain effort, when do we get our return on investment, what is our You know, when do we start seeing value realized? That would be helpful so that we can make informed decisions. Things like what is the net fiscal impact of major developments? Revenue compared to service costs. How has growth in our tax base compared with growth in operating expenses over the past decade since they first signed on the dotted line for that to break ground? Are we retaining employees or continually replacing experienced staff? Oh, I got an answer for that one. Which functions rely on employees routinely absorbing responsibilities beyond their intended roles? What indicators should council, that be us, monitor annually part of this budget process to know whether or not we're becoming more or less sustainable? And are we measuring whether growth is paying for itself? So for me, sustainability isn't a destination or a political philosophy. It's a discipline of making decisions today that leave the next council, the next city manager, the next generation of residents with a community that's sound financially, organizationally, and still recognizable in person. And I hope that the discussion is going to be rooted in that evidence so that people understand that. I know that you guys will be. I'm thinking about people who are watching that aren't here. are watching and listening for us I try and everything that I do to be transparent you know much my own detriment sometimes but I want you guys to know where I'm coming from and everything that I'm doing and being transparent that way is because I want to be a good steward of pocosin we can provide improved information and for us to make decisions, I think that that'll help us make better decisions.

That's it.

Thank you, Janie. May I make a comment? Yes, sir. You brought some very good points in there. There's some data that we don't have that we need Because one thing that you insinuated, and no one has said it, right now we have people who have a job and a job description, but, oh, by the way, there's no one over here to do this. So all of a sudden that becomes their job too. It's their job plus other duties as assigned. And we need a staff to do the things that need to be done, not have everybody have – their duties, but other duties as assigned. And I think you've tried to make that point well. But there is data there that we don't have, at least I'm not aware of it, that when a development comes in, like Legacy or any other one, when you build so many structures that'll house so many people, what kind of impact does that have on the growth of Pocosin? Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Is it better to have fewer houses developed in Pocosin and not have high impact or high density housing instead of regular residential neighborhoods. We need to look at that information. So maybe we want to change some properties that are now residential to business. And maybe that will impact the way we zone. And so we need to look at that. I mean, my son just built a home to be near his boat in Monchies. And we drove past the fire department. It's a volunteer fire department. We don't have a volunteer fire department. We have the staff that staffs the fire department. But what people don't realize is we have fire requirements that we have to be ready to handle. And it takes the staff to do that. And when they live in Pocosun, their fire insurances may well be a lot cheaper than they were if they were living in another area, because we do have a fire department that's capable of doing what they're doing. We've graded some property and raised some houses to come up with better standards for FEMA to reduce flood insurance. If they live down in another area where they don't do what we're doing here in Pocosun, they may well pay a lot more for flood insurance. I have a friend who lives on the eastern shore who had to sell their house because they were being charged $10,000 a year for flood insurance. because they didn't have some of the capabilities we have in Precocian. And when it comes to building new structures, be they business or homes, there are utility services, sewage, water, electrical, that have to be addressed. And a lot of the roads in Precocian were built a long time ago, not to the standards we have today. People want things that are kind of standard in other places today, like sidewalks. But they're next to impossible to do on the roads that were already developed in Pocotien when their grandparents were kids. And so those are the kinds of things that we have to address. Having the information as to what kind of decisions we make relative to whether we should own this business or whether we should own this residential. Or maybe we're going to say we're not going to have any high-density housing here because it costs the city more money than we get revenue to have a high-density housing area. We don't know that. That's good information to have.

I'd like to touch base on some of the things in particular that you talked about, Bud. And I believe one of the requests from you, David, was not come up with a solution today but maybe some actionable paths forward to proceed. So I have a little sticky note for economic development on that, and these are not answers, but they are, hey, these are some things that I feel that council can look at, and this is something actionable that we can start investigating now or soon. One of the things is for the EDA, I don't know if we have given the EDA guidance for a long time. I don't think since I've been on council we've necessarily given EDA guidance. I don't know if that's our purview. If they're looking for guidance, what do we want? What vision do we have? What actions do we want the EDA to do? Do we want them to meet more often and focus on some particular things? That's a question. that we can start looking at. Another one is for the general commercial looking at the buy right uses and what requires a conditional use permit. You know, we need a conditional use permit for a drug store and a pharmacy. And I hear often We should have another pharmacy. We should have another drugstore. Well, drugstores and pharmacies take a conditional use permit. They can't come in by right in general commercial. Department stores cannot. Shopping centers, grocery stores cannot come in by right. Those are conditional use permits. So that's just one more hurdle for those particular zones. So looking at that, looking at the B2 and general commercial and just... taken a look at that I think that would be something actionable that that ourselves and the Planning Commission can do I did see in here we have a technology zone overlay district and that particular technology zone overlay district can go over village commercial R&D general commercial b1 b2 and it is a incentive to for for companies to come in from what I understand to come in and hey you're going to set up establish these businesses that are technology related and hey there's the potential to have some incentive there up to 30% of your property tax think property tax for up to three years up to and up to that's for technology specific Do we want to explore incentives, not just the technology district, overlay district? Do we want to explore those, broaden them? Maybe we do, maybe we don't, but something again to look at. And then the last thing is we have several landlocked parcels with the EDA with very slim chances of them being just because of where they are. Um, you know, do we keep them as conservation? Maybe that's an answer. Do we want to look at, and I don't know the logistics of the EDA versus transferring them or the city taking ownership of them for, you know, a passive recreation or. bicycle pump park park pump track or you know just things like that I don't know that's maybe not even legal to over but just things like that for the economic development and I think that we can start and the Planning Commission can start by looking at these definitions of by right uses what and what is prohibited

I want to pick up on that also, if I may, because I know that there are people listening and not enough people listening, but of the people who are listening, many of them are social media type people. The things you said are very good, but they might take some of those and say, yeah, why don't you just simply do that? You mentioned that we have Certain things they aren't able to do because they're not by right in certain precincts. People who have been paying attention to what we do, and we, because we did some of those things, know why we did some of those things, because we did some of those things because we knew that there would be businesses there that people wouldn't like. And so we wanted to look at every one of them that went there, and that's the reason that the cup was required. Because we wanted to make certain we developed it the way the citizens say in their development plan how they would like Pocosna to look. And so a lot of those got put there for those reasons. The other thing is just because you maybe remove those doesn't mean that they'll come because I already talked to about a couple of medical facilities to come in here. They have to spend their money and we can't spend those business monies for them. We'd love to see another grocery store, I think. Citizen Procursor would love to have it, but we've got to get somebody else to spend their money to do that. And the other thing is, they might say, well, yeah, why don't you just get the EDA to do those things? Well, I want everybody to understand that our EDA consists of a few volunteers. There's no one who has a paid job working for the EDA that says, this is your job, go do it. The people who have been doing it have been picking up as, oh yeah, these are also other duties as assigned. And so we just don't have a paid EDA to go out and do this. We can't afford them. We can't hire them. And so those are volunteers. And I noticed that we didn't get many volunteers to get on the ballot to get into Eastern Precinct this year. And so... When people say, well, yeah, just go do those things, stop and think about those issues.

Good point there, because I had it written down. Maybe we're just not talking about going and thinking about it. No one's running in the eastern precinct. Based on what you had told me today, it's the first time in a long time, maybe forever, that we don't have a candidate, not even one, run in one of our three precincts. I mean, is the personnel problems of the city spilling over to the personnel problems of the city council? I don't know.

Why? Maybe we're overpaid. Yeah, that's true.

That led me to another question. I wrote this down. I've written it down a couple times and never said it, but I'll ask it now for Randy. A guidebook that tells you, oh, we have a city of 12,500 people. This is the size of a police force we should have. This is the size of a fire department we should have. And the equipment is associated with it. And the personnel with the certain specialties and stuff like that. Is there a city staff type thing?

If there is such a guidebook, I've not seen it in my fort. Just as... Councilmembers are pointed out every community is different. There are cities up size that Well, there are counties bigger than us with the same population that Fire and and maybe don't have their own police department. We we are accumulation of our cities Needs over time and we're unique to us. I don't know transportable or easily transported to anywhere else. Sorry, I don't have the name of that book.

But if I find it, I'll absolutely share it. It would be concerning as many universities in this country, 3,800 last count. that probably teach civics and community development and all that kind of stuff that somebody somewhere would have a textbook that would kind of be a guide. I realize every community is going to be different. I mean, we stick ourselves out into the water of the Chesapeake Bay. Franklin doesn't. But, you know, as far as size goes and stuff like that, hey, we want to have a fire department, we want to have a police department, this is the kind of thing we would have. I mean, a court system, which you borrow or make use of next door, all that kind of stuff, somebody somewhere. I'm not saying we have to take the book, read it, and, ah, there we are, that's the number right there. But it would be nice having some kind of textbook or guidebook to answer some of these questions, and it may not make the New York Times best-selling list, but it might be helpful.

And that's one reason why I thought that using legacy is a real-world case study, understand what revenue it's generated, what additional service demands it's created, and what that tells us about our long-term financial model. Because when we signed on, and I say we, the global we, signed on the dotted line, what was it, 2015? When that happened, our budget wasn't $42 million. And this year, it's $42 million and change. So what has changed for our budget in that time frame, and how much more revenue are we pulling in now than we were then, and how much of it's attributable to legacy, right? Because I don't want to paint legacy with a bad brush at all. One, that's not a useful brush to even hold. And two, I think we can learn so much from it and learn how we can move forward with it. Revenue generated, cost of additional services, impact on staffing, infrastructure demands, and then lessons learned for evaluating future CUPs. Thinking about the economic development. uh... role used to have it and again beating horses saying you know we've got staff holding that mantle you guys are draining the swamp how can you focus on growth if you're trying to balance the books and the things that the rest of your job description is supported by you know volunteers who aren't getting direction from us so What's something we can focus on? I think that that's something that needs a dedicated organizational capacity. I think that's important. I think that when we're trying to balance books and deal with budget constraints by saying, let's not hire for this role now, what are we losing? And I think we're seeing what we lost.

Any other comments from council members right now? All came prepared, so that is much appreciated. And as intended, this will be the opening initial discussion. And we'll proceed accordingly based on the conclusion of the speech tonight. And if now is a good time, I have some thoughts to share as well. But I wanted to wait until last night to give everybody else a chance to talk. And if you go back to May 11th, put out a character for me. I spoke for about 40 minutes that night. sharing some thoughts about my individual perspectives so certainly won't work all those things but I'll reinforce some of them if if I could so far as what sustainability means to me and some of thoughts I've said before from the diet that my number one priority in my role see it is to facilitate the long-term fiscal viability and sustainability of the independent city of Pocosin and best I can tell we are a one-off city done some research on the internet take it for what it's worth but that was the tool they'll ask for cities that were founded and existed and exist because of their school system. And I changed the words a little bit different just to see if that would change the end result. And the results were consistent, none found. There are no cities that exist because of their school system. I got that repeatedly. So we're very much unique. As we said in our vision and mission statement, and listening to y'all share your thoughts tonight, provides me with a sense of satisfaction. I'm thankful for it that our mission and vision state pretty accurate based on everybody from January 4th of last year when we had our first ever strategic planning retreat. What we're doing tonight is strategic in nature. I see it as The elected leader, this is exactly what we're supposed to be doing. We're certainly not going to have all the answers tonight, but listening to each other talk, staff having the opportunity to listen to us talk, supports their ability to apply their expertise and experience that we don't necessarily have as volunteers. We're not professional public administrators by design like they are. But this is part of what we do to help them do their job, and it goes right around in a circle and benefits the city. But as we said in our vision, we are a distinctive and cherished community. I believe that our school system is the engine that drives the city forward. believe is the main reason followed very closely by public safety quality quantity of city services but the main reason that we hear that people come to Pocosin and stay in Pocosin is because of the prioritize that while still trying to maintain healthy balance with with with public safety city services as well believe that everything we do supports one two or all three of the pillars of strength have in the community schools public safety city services small town environment everything we do supports one two or all three of those things simultaneously but also Understand that sustainability is not only fiscal but it's also a graphic sustainability and Preparing for tonight wanted to add a segment of my comments based on a conversation I had with a friend of mine that I grew up with football with that sort of thing his family goes back many generations on his father's side and mother's side and he's even a our Pocosa City employee but conversation with him and listening to earns made me realize we also, as complicated as what we're doing is, we also need to include this geographic sustainability with regard to sea level rise. The reasons why are debatable. Not being an expert, but I am a student of his. I tend to believe that what we're seeing is based on the cyclical nature of life in general and if you look at history over the millennia that'll be supportive but I mean I know from when I was a kid some of the ditches that ran alongside various roads and pocos and drainage ditches now those same ditches are tidal ditches where the tide ebbs and flows twice in 24 hours So it's without a doubt, you can see all the so-called ghost forest right up down the creeks, right up down the roads. You can see the dead pine trees, dead cedar trees in particular. So there's no question that it's real. So we need to factor in geographic sustainability as well. That'll just further complicate what we're up against. I'd like to reinforce some of the comments from my fellow council members. It's all been good. I appreciate the preparation y'all have done. Keith asked the open-ended question, are we on the brink? I don't think so. I don't think we're getting ready to fall off the edge. One of the reasons that supports my belief on that, and I've said this in these words, statically, we are rock solid, granite rock solid. If we were not, we wouldn't have a triple-A bond rate. We're just kind of like a leprechaun riding a unicorn. It's rare to unique. That's how special it is. We have to, like Debbie said earlier, we have to face the facts and anticipate what we're up against. And we cannot underestimate the impact of those three factors beyond our control that I talked so much about on May 11th. I won't go into all the detail, but I will remind everybody that this year, those three factors totally beyond our control equal $4 million. So that was the hole in the budget that we had to fill this year. We don't know what the future holds on that. These three factors, the impact may increase. They may decrease. We don't know. But we have to be prepared. That $4 million results in 16 pennies our tax rate 16 pennies we're at a dollar 15 this year we could drop it all the way back to 99 cent and not impact the quality or quantity services so if we could get help from the state to help offset one of those factors that would be huge for us we had that four million dollars this year most likely uh we'd be starting the regular session about six minutes we wouldn't even be having this work session because that four million dollars would put us in a high level of comfort for the dynamic process of covering the operating expenses from one year to the next which is our challenge But we certainly are a premium community. If you look at any of the positive statistics across the state, such as the schools, public safety, we are always at or near the top. If you look at the negative statistics, such as poverty and crime, we're always at or near the bottom. So it's no question we are a premium community. The fact that we're on a peninsula with two ways in and two ways out, that contributes to what makes us so special as a bedroom community. But it's a double-edged sword because it makes it so hard to attract businesses. And a statistic that Randy shared with me that really helps put it in perspective. And I'm going to share this not meaning to be a wet blanket, but it's just a fact that we're faced with and have to live with and try to overcome. While I support, as it says in our mission statement, complementary, balanced growth and development. Put it in perspective. The food line shopping center and all the businesses therein this year produced $515,000 in tax revenue for the city. That's a good figure, but in spite of that, It was still that $4 million gap in the budget. So to fill that $4 million gap, without any outside help to offset some of those three factors, we would need eight more food line shopping centers in the city, eight of them, and the ability to support all those businesses in those eight additional food line shopping centers. That would cause increased traffic. increase people, all those sorts of things. So that's just out there. That's a real fact, not intended to scare anybody. But part of what we're supposed to be doing is talk about the uncomfortable, difficult subjects. That's our responsibility to do that. We are already highly lean and highly efficient. as indicated by our AAA bond rate, the clean audits that we get every year, the fact that our financial staff has received the highest level award that the state presents for the last 34 years or so, I believe. So there's lots of supporting evidence. But because we're already so lean and efficient, There's not a whole lot of room to cut back spending without compromising the quality and quantity of city services, which would negatively impact our quality of life. So again, it's that great big, it goes right around in a circle. Mr. Moore reminded us not too long ago, Randy and I, that Basic economics is as simple as money in, money out. About the only way that we can reliably control money in is tax revenue. And like we did this year with the one penny increase, that can't, to Ms. Southall's point, and other council members made this point too, there's limitations on what we can do with that as well. So that can't always be the case. finding that happy medium. Now, and this is another unpleasant comment to make, and I don't like it, but it's reality. And this comes down to maintaining a premium community. If we collectively as a community would be satisfied with being an adequate community, mediocre community, that can be done at a reduced cost. We can do that as a . I don't believe that the consensus would be to pursue that. I don't support that. I like the premium community that makes us special. But I also know that a fact of life is we get what we pay for. And with the factors ahead of us, Those are cold facts that we may be faced with, although we're here to consider alternatives. That's why we're meeting tonight. I recently attended a change of command ceremony over at Langley Air Force Base, and I got to hear input from three full colonels. that are highly trained and experienced in leadership, all three of them spoke at length about the value of taking care of people. They harped on it. Take care of your people, take care of your people. And I mean, I have training and experience when it comes to that too, just not at their level, especially when it comes to being the commander of Joint Base Langley-Eustis. These are pretty powerful professionals. that I have great respect for. But it's so true that we must take care of our people. We have to focus on employee well being, which translates to employee family well being, which goes right back to employee well being. which supports high morale, which translates to high job satisfaction and high productivity. One point I wanted to make is the order I just spoke to them. I didn't talk about productivity and morale and employee well-being. I talked about employee well-being, family well-being, morale, productivity in that order. So that certainly has to be a priority for us. So those are the comments that I wanted to share tonight without going on too long. But really appreciate everybody's input. Y'all obviously came prepared. A good initial discussion. And I'll be working with Randy and Tanya and staff. And we'll sit down and we'll share thoughts on what we heard tonight. We'll follow up with council members.

arrangements to take the next step so any further comments from from councilmember will we adjourn a work session have lots of sticky notes here with lots of things on them so I look forward to further discussions this is really beneficial and I appreciate everybody for setting this up thank you

I think it'll generate food for thought. I think it'll feed on itself. Hopefully those in attendance tonight, which is always appreciated, those watching from home, will provide some input as well. And we'll go from there. But thank you, Debbie. Thank you, Angie. Thank you, Keith. Thank you, Jeannie. Thank you, Ms. Southall, Tanya, and Randy. so we really really appreciate that uh we've run just a little bit over but i think we've stayed pretty much on target so with that we will adjourn our session and move on to the regular session thank y'all Good evening. Welcome to all. This is the Coastal City Council regular session meeting is called to order. It's good to be back together after a five-week break, which was welcomed and appreciated, but we're back focused on the business of the city tonight. If we could please rise for the invocation and pledge of allegiance. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our country, we're here to acknowledge you and express our gratitude for our many blessings, not the least of which are our right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, as defined in our Constitution, which was written with divine inspiration. Thank you for the freedom and liberty that you've blessed us with. And even at the local level, please lead us to do our duty, serve, protect, and defend our Constitution, and help us to always remember, honor, and thank those that have served our country and sacrificed and even given their lives for the liberty and freedoms that we enjoy. In Him we pray. Amen. Moving on to item C on our agenda is a proclamation for National Night Out, which will be August 4th of 2026. And I will read the proclamation and then I'll present that to Police Chief Stephen Cates, who's here with us tonight. Whereas, The National Association of Town Watch sponsors a national community building campaign on Tuesday, August 4th, 2026, entitled National Night Out. Whereas the National Night Out campaign provides an opportunity for neighbors in the city of Pocosin to join over 38 million neighbors across 16,000 communities in all 50 states, U.S. territories, and military bases worldwide. And whereas National Night Out is an annual community building campaign that promotes strong police community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make our neighborhoods safer, more caring places to live and work. And whereas neighbors in the city of Pocosin assist the Pocosin Police Department through joint community building efforts and support National Night Out 2026. Whereas, it is essential that all neighbors of the City of Pocosin come together with police and work together to build a safer, more caring community. Whereas, now, therefore, we, the Council of the City of Pocosin, Virginia, do hereby call upon all neighbors of the City of Pocosin to join the Pocosin Police Department and National Association of Town Watch in support for National Night Out on Tuesday, August 4th, 2026. Further, let it be resolved that we, the Council of the City of Pocosin, Virginia, do hereby proclaim Tuesday, August 4th, 2026 as National Night Out in the City of Pocosin. Chief Case, if you could please approach the dais.

Yes, sir.

Please do. The entire community's welcome.

It's no cost to anybody that shows up.

Everything's free.

hot dogs, ices, water, chips. We have games at Dunk Tank with some special guests that will be appearing there. Some mystery guests. I'm not going to release who all is involved with that just yet, but come on out and have a good time with us. And I would just like to say thank you very much, not only to the council for your support, but also to all of our civic organizations and businesses that make this event possible. They support us financially and participate in the event with us, and it's what makes us a community, and we appreciate it very much.

Thank you, Chief. And just to further reinforce what you said, that partnership, community spirit, relationships makes us special. So thank you so much for everybody's contributions. Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you. Item D on our agenda is a special presentation. We have two tonight. The first is related to Pocos and Little E, and we're very pleased to have with us Mr. Taylor Sherrill and Ms. Allison Dye. So if y'all could please come forward to the podium. Welcome, Mr. Sherrill. Welcome, Ms. Dice. Good to have you all with us. Thank you for having us. You're welcome. Looking forward to your presentation. So the floor is yours.

Good evening. My name is Taylor. Like I mentioned, I'm the president of Coach Little League. This is my eighth year as a president and 19th year as a board member. And this is Allison. She's been on the board for a few years now and served in 800 different capacities. So we're here to provide a proposal for an improvement project at the complex that we have down by the middle school for an indoor batting facility. A little bit about the Cozen Little League. We were established in 1959. Obviously, I wasn't here in 1959, but we were established in 1959, and it's strictly 100% volunteers. So everybody that is part of our board members, our coaching managers, umpires, and all that are volunteer-driven. We provide an opportunity for baseball and softball for 4- to 16-year-olds. And we almost had about 400 kids this year in the last couple years since COVID. We've been able to get back into it, and we've seen our numbers rise every single year. And we are very... I'm very happy to have a very strong young core with a lot of t-ball coach pitch and minors and we have a lot of returning players when I want to play and all that stuff. So we do a lot of partnerships and working with the city of Pocosin and Public Works. So the project overview that we're doing is we're looking to have an indoor facility that could provide for batting practice, pitching practice, maybe some coaches meetings or something like that. Just because you see that we have 400 kids, which means we have over 35 teams when we only have three fields at the complex plus a municipal that we have to work with. So we see a lot of opportunities to be able to have a different style of practice, that way we can have more teams have more practices and be able to develop our kids year in and year out. So the proposed option is along the third base dugout of the Diamond II, which will be along the fence line. So like I said, we're talking about doing for batting practice and pitching practice, as well as a storage facility for pitching machines and other equipment that we can have for that, portable mounds. We do have the opportunity, we can work with our high school teams, because a lot of those players have started in Little League, and they're growing into the high school. I want to say over 95% of the kids that are on both baseball and basketball SOFTBALL TEAMS ALL STARTED IN LITTLE LEAGUE. SO THAT'S A GREAT THING THAT WE CAN SEE FROM KIDS STARTING VERY YOUNG AND GROWING, AND WE SEE THEM ON OUR HIGH SCHOOL FIELDS AND POTENTIALLY EVEN FURTHER GOING TO COLLEGE AND PROFESSIONALS. YOU KNOW, I THINK IT GIVES AN OPPORTUNITY TO IMPROVE WHAT WE HAVE AT THE COMPLEX, SINCE THERE'S NOT MUCH MORE WE COULD ADD WITH FIELDWISE. And it's strictly 100% financially driven by us. We did a lot of work on fundraising. Allison did a lot of work on the fundraising aspect of it, and we had a lot of donations. So it would be 100% financially driven by us. The only thing that we would be looking for the city is your blessing. And obviously maybe down the road, some assistance in providing some opportunities for growth or if there's any ideas that we can help from you guys. We host state tournaments and district tournaments, so we have people that are coming from outside of Pocosin coming into the complex and this gives an opportunity that we can show off how great Pocosin is and how inclusive we are in providing different opportunities. Like I mentioned, it's fully funded by sponsorship and donations. $60,000 is our goal and I think we can click that. We have the opportunity to even add any more to that and Actually, this is all 100%, not 95, though.

Overall. Overall, yeah. Last year was 100%. For our 2026 JV and varsity teams, softball and baseball. Every single one of them played for Coastal New Orleans.

So a little bit about the building. It's a triple garage building. It's metal. It's about 30 to 75. It's 14 feet high. Late down the road, we'd like to be able to see if we can have the opportunity to have electricity. So that way we can operate more at night and during winter hours and all that stuff. And the why is the kids, obviously we are volunteer driven, so we do it all for the kids. And it's really a rewarding experience. I've coached, I've also coached a part of my 19 years and I see all those players now playing college and even then now they're starting their own families, they're getting married and all that stuff. And it's just really cool to have that experience and see them grow on and off the baseball field, working with their, not only the baseball and softball skills, but as well as their human, you know, working with responsibility and accountability and all that stuff. And there's any questions?

Oh, sorry, questions.

I have a few questions, okay? And first off, thank you for all the work you do, okay? The road league and promotion is alive and well, and y'all are doing a great job, okay? Thank you. My question is, all the batting cages I know I've seen are open air, okay? And they have a big net over here, so when you get a foul ball, it goes into the net, and you got... Can you do that in the building with the roof and stuff until balls are not going to bounce around and come back and hit somebody?

No, they would have nets as well. So we would have that. It would basically just be a metal building and all that stuff. But we would still have nets in there to basically provide the same thing. So when it's a rainy weather day, we can put those up.

Our inspiration kind of came from CMU's, I think it's Zoda, indoor facility that they have. And the pilots actually have one too. And the nets are strong enough that they can keep it so that there's less injury.

Okay. I'm unaware of those. It's good information to know. The other thing is I know of some friends who use the metal buildings, and in the summertime they're hotter than blue blazes. How are you going to address that?

The drawing didn't have garage doors, but we're hoping to have at least two on each side, one or two on each side so you can open them up. The one at CNU, which is, I want to say, 8 million square feet. But they don't have air conditioning in there, and they just open the sides, and the air can easily flow through.

Thank you.

But electricity would help with fans and other things that we could put in there, too.

Thank you.

Thank you. Do you just have in one? Yes.

sorry I don't like the microphone yeah any other teams you know like travel teams letting them use the facility or it's just because said okay info means more maintenance and more eyes on it for sure so so I understand where it is right now so like on the first field as you're going into the complex and this is the third baseline where the netted batting cage is right now it's kind of like behind the dugout so that's the same plan for the backfield

It's right where I usually set sometimes? Yeah. Okay. So it's actually the other field.

Right. It is the other field, but here's the dugout, the third base dugout. So it's actually right behind that. It's not over to the high school field fence. It's right there on that third base line.

It'll be butted up right to that existing fence and then come out, what, 15, 14 feet from there? No, 30 feet from there. So that way we could have two batting lanes. But it might take your spot. But you can have the other one.

Just schedule all my games at the front field. We'll just put you on D1. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome.

Yeah, you know I got a question. I have to email you something last June when I was treasurer of the Lions Club. Asked about this. But when you said it, you said focus on constructing a much-needed covered practice area for our complex. Talk about the covered facility. When did it become an indoor facility from a cover?

So talking with the city, we talked with Mr. Wheeler and everything. It was, well, why don't we have it more enclosed so that it can be in all weather as opposed to just more of a fair weather? So it changed from that. And it's actually... less expensive to get the metal building than it is just to do like a pavilion open air thing. So we figured we could use it more throughout the seasons.

Because I'm looking at it from an aesthetics place. Is there any other place it might go other than right there?

We've looked and not really. Since it's going to be 30 feet wide, there's not any way. Because we can't go in between the fields because the city will use that access road to drive around. So that's really the really only big open area. We wanted it behind D3, but that's a watershed area. So we can't put it there.

Wetlands issue. Right corner.

That's where I was thinking at one point, too. Yeah.

That was our original thought for all the drainage.

Because I'm looking at it from a neighborhood perspective for families that live in homes. They get to look at basically a barn.

Well, we do have a bullpen right there, too. And that's about 14 feet off the ground. So it's not going to be any taller than that, what's already there where that big arrow is.

I walked it yesterday to get a feel for where it would be and how big it would be.

Our goal is to have, we wanted it that big because the juniors and seniors pitching is 60 feet 6 inches, so we need a place where they can practice indoors as well so it can be inclusive to all of our 4 to 16 year old kids. So that's why we wanted it that big.

it that they and I'm not I'm not familiar with the complex so you know just measuring it out on Google Maps it looks like it would take up most of that non grassy air I don't know if it's paved or dirt it would take out most of that is does that lead to anything is it a thoroughfare would with the building be blocking any sort of

access to the area or um no there should still be like that area should still be able to be there the majority of it yeah we got to be 15 feet off all property lines i know how far the fence goes you know in field back there so is it pretty much going to be the length of that pretty much the whole fence it is just a dead end yes at the at the end there as you come in I'm sorry, the kind of path that you see, it's not really a path. It's more of a, it's a grassy area. It kind of makes it look like it leads to something, but it's a grassy area behind the fences.

As you come in the complex, there's a building on the left. What is that?

That's our equipment shed. So we have back where those trees are was another equipment shed. Two buildings back there. Yeah, so one of them is the city, and one of them was our equipment shed, but it was a product of arson at one point.

Yeah, that was like 20 years ago.

Yeah, and it wasn't really fixed well, so there's holes in it in our equipment shed, like mayors came out and they said, you've got to get something new. So we were able to go to Leonard's and get a small shed that we can keep the equipment in, keep it clean, keep it safe, keep it dry so that we can reuse it year after year.

Are both those sheds yours?

Yeah. Yeah, the one, well, the really nice shed over here in the area, that's the city's. And then the one next to it is ours. And then there's the new shed. Right there at the opening.

That other one come down then on the side of the city?

The plan is to probably demolish that.

I noticed that the one from 15 years ago.

Yeah, that's our concession shed. That used to be our concession building.

Is it going away?

Probably not. If it gets in the way, it might. But that one's still in pretty decent shape.

Not according to the article from 2011. Hopes to replace this concession shed.

Oh, that's when they were building the big building, Converse. I know.

I was really surprised when I went back there yesterday. I thought that was being replaced. But it wasn't replaced. It was superseded.

So we have the coolers in there and tables and trash cans that we use for cabinets.

You'd have...

four buildings they're now and you want to add a fifth okay thank you thank you uh any other questions from council members uh while y'all are here just just a shout out to pocosa little league uh going all the way back to 1959 i know it's been uh a right of passage for so many of us growing up in this community. I was a player back in the the mid and late 70s and early 80s but but so many of us has come up through that program I know that it predates the youth football and cheerleading by seven years I believe I think football and cheerleading started in 1966 which I played in that too but y'all certainly been a cornerstone and have contributed vitally to the small town about the quality of life that we appreciate in the city of Pocosin. I had the opportunity to serve in similar capacity as y'all with the youth football cheerleading so I have a pretty good idea of all the effort that the time that goes into it or every day is a new adventure there's there's no doubt and Allison's here I'll I'll give a shout out to Alice's grandmother that was the principal of Pocosin elementary school when I was there and I know that some of my fellow council members were there as well when miss Frances Grafe was a principal with elementary school she recently had her picture in 411 or Pocosin history buffs or yes very good so you're continuing in the spirit of community service following your grandmother's footsteps and I really appreciate your longevity that's pretty impressive to stick with it that amount of time but the fruits of your efforts certainly are there and forward to the next generation and one day y'all be able to look back at the people that are in y'all's roles now and know that if it wasn't for what y'all did, they wouldn't be able to do what they were doing at that time. So thank you so much for being here. Thank you. We'll be in touch. Thank you very much. Yes, ma'am. moving on to our second presentation we were pleased to have with us tonight our director of public works mr. John Anderson so John welcome thank you for being with us and yes sir and John's gonna give us a presentation on the bulk waste collection program so John

I just want to give you an update on the bulk waste collection program. So just to highlight a few things, just by way of reminder, everyone has 12 free bulk or landscape pickups from the roadside once per month. And that's designated based on the precinct location. And they also have a once per month drop-off of bulk waste at the York County Transfer Station. And that's open Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. People are able to drop off landscape waste at VIPSA at no cost, unlimited. And the bulk and landscape piles can still be scheduled for a pickup outside of your precinct week for a fee, $63 for bulk, $60 for landscape. And again, as a reminder, this is just a map of the precinct locations in the city, western, central, and eastern. And this program was created as a part of the city council mission statement for effective government services and making purposeful investments in the community's quality of life. This is the solid waste calendar. So you can see on the solid waste calendar from now until the end of the year, the days are highlighted in yellow. for debris pickup, W, C, and E, for western, central, and eastern, and that indicates your week four pickup, depending on where you live. And this is just another reminder for placement, so the items can't be in a pile any larger than six cubic yards, and it has to be out by 7 a.m. on the collection day, and can't be blocking any drainage. And in terms of enforcement, so if there are piles of unacceptable items, people will get a 10-day tag, which is basically a notice to have it corrected within 10 days. Otherwise, we use an outside contractor to pick up the piles, and then the homeowners charge that rate. And for any piles that are acceptable but outside of the designated week, Public Works picks them up and the homeowners charge either 63 for bulk or 60 for landscape debris. And that's what was in the postcard that was recently sent out. So in terms of operations, Western Precinct is the first Tuesday of the month. Central Precinct's the second Tuesday. Eastern is the third Tuesday. And scheduled bulk and landscape pickups occur on Thursdays and Fridays of each week. Some of these precincts can take longer than one day. Sometimes they take two full days, Tuesday and Wednesday, especially Western Precinct. This is accomplished with our staff, and we use two debris trucks for bulk debris and two for landscape. Sometimes we need a fifth truck to handle all the piles that are out there. And each truck has two members of staff, a CDL driver, and a worker to assist in spotting the debris piles and raking everything up. So this is just some data. The Western Precinct averages over 400 piles per month. Central's 286, Eastern 237, that's just the average number of piles per month. And then we have about 10 per month that are scheduled. So we're in western for two full days usually. Sometimes it spills into a third day. Central and eastern usually takes a day and a half to get taken care of. And then the York transfer station data. This is where residents can take their bulk debris to the Pocostin designated dumpsters. We average about a little over 51 tons per month that's bulk waste dropped off here. which is $4,749 per month for this service. And the VIPSA site landscape material. This has increased compared to the last program. So we average 89 tons of landscape debris that our debris trucks take to VIPSA. Previously it was 36 tons per month. So that's an increase of 53 tons additionally taken there. And Previously, a lot of that landscape debris got mixed in with bulk at the old convenience site. So a lot of it ended up going to Bethel, but that's not happening anymore. And so the Bethel landfill data is here We take an average of 54 tons of bulk debris to Bethel each month. Previously it was 149 tons each month. So the new programs reduce the amount of bulk debris taken to landfill by the debris trucks. An average of 95 tons a month less bulk debris taken to Bethel landfill. And that's likely due to proper sorting of bulk and landscape debris. And the fact that people are able to go to VIPSA on their own and get rid of their landscape material, but also have it easily put by the roadside for us to pick up as well. So here's a cost breakdown. So the current program, the Bethel landfill costs, these are averages per month. It's a little over $2,000. And in the past it was $5,490. And now the York Transfer Station, It's a little over $4,700 a month. And the previous cost of the old convenience site was more than that. It was $4,900. However, the VIPSA landscape debris is higher now than it used to be. It's $8,100 per month, or it used to be $3,500 per month. So when you average everything out, it is a little more costly than it used to be overall. But the overall cost of all solid waste processing and collection has gone up. As well. So just to provide a little bit of an explanation on the VIPSA compost facility. So PCOSA in York County and Hampton each pay monthly fees for the facility. And the fee is set in the VIPSA budget every year for that facility. And right now it's $118,820 per month. And so now we're averaging about 7% of the degree that goes there. So because we average that percent, we pay the percentage of that 118,820. And so I have an example there. So if we brought in 70 tons of the 1,000 total tons, we'd pay 8,317 dollars for that month. And then York County would pay over 65,000. and Hampton would pay $45,000. So that's how the fees work out. So previously we were probably averaging about 3% instead of 7%, which is what we average now. So the summary here in terms of tonnage, the bulk tonnage has gone down 451 tons. And that bulk tonnage includes what's taken to York Transfer Station and what our debris trucks take to Bethel. So that's down 451 tons. And the landscape tonnage has increased 640 tons. So that includes everyone that drives their own landscape debris to VIPSA and our debris trucks that take it to VIPSA. So it's just a matter of the fact that it's easier to set your items out roadside and also take your own items to VIPSA. That's increased that landscape amount. So I just want to thank the Public Works staff for all their hard work in picking up these piles every month because it's a lot to keep up with and it's very popular, as you can see, with all the piles that we have to collect. If you have any questions, be free to... Yeah, I have a question.

Well, first I want to mention that this is a topic that is very popular on the socials and it would be lovely to see perhaps you work with our PR folk to do a video that would go out and give a brief on or just give the information. But if you give information, it depends on people reading it. People like to see your face. But I think that this is the type of information that they want to see because it directly counters the misperceptions that might be out there about the success of this program. At one point, you mentioned that costs have gone up for how much it costs to dispose of the same amounts of tonnage. At the same time, you did say that the landscape is more than doubled. And I think that that's a tremendous success statement. And you didn't mention this, and I'm just wondering. I think one of the reasons we talked about introducing this program as opposed to the drop-off site was that there were folks who were dropping off things that weren't allowed to be dropped off, and it's hard to confront that at the site when you have people backed up in line. and people who were not citizens of Pocosin having their things dropped in our drop-off. So the city was incurring fees for things that were not rightly citizen leftovers, downsizing, whatever. So it seems to me that part of that story is probably there as well. So that also is a success story. I think it's fascinating to see that Western Precinct which is not as dense but has double what other precincts have. That to me is kind of fascinating too. I do think it would be helpful to let Western precincters know that it might take up to three days to get your stuff. So be patient guys. That would be really helpful. I live in Western. It would be super helpful I think to those of us who wonder when are they gonna pick it up right they've been very understanding because when it started people were confused you know the Tuesday would roll by and we hadn't been there yet but now we remind them whenever they call in and they're very understanding to wait great yeah I think that you know if you're calling you asking you guys just tell them I think that things get cleared up very easily and that's that's great you know your staff is amazing I love Bodina we graduated And she's just awesome. But this is a great program, and I'm thrilled with the numbers that you showed.

Thank you. One of the things that was causing a problem that we made the switch was your personnel were being tasked to work two Saturdays a month from like 6 o'clock until whenever the last truck got done, which was like 4 or 4.30, something like that, which puts a burden on you all for manpower and stuff like that. Those numbers aren't factored into these things here. This is just the cost to drop the stuff off at the...

Well, the only numbers where I factored that in where the overtime costs, I can go back to that, see where it says public works, overtime, temp, labor, et cetera.

Okay. That's per month.

Yes, that is per month. I just tried to make it per month average. So it's a little easier to digest. And so I, I compared that to your transfer station because it's kind of a similar situation where you come and drop things off, but your transfer station is open Monday through Saturday. And they manage a database of our solid waste customers and cross them off where they get one drop off per month.

But of course what doesn't figure in while your people are doing that, they're not doing other things for the city.

Right, right. It was burning them out before. So yeah, big difference.

Also, have you had calls regarding people who live off of private lanes that aren't able to bring their stuff all the way out to a road? Flag lots.

Yes. So a little bit of an adjustment we made is we allowed them to have two drop-offs at York Transfer if they're down a long private lane just to help them out or work with their neighbors and put it out front. by the roadside, the public road, to get it taken care of, where they can share a pile. And as long as they let us know, then we're fine with it. If it's a little bit bigger, that's okay.

And, John, one thing that hasn't been mentioned is the letter that went out. I think it was a very well-written letter, very informative, and I think that was well done. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Yes, that slide right there. With the current program cost per year versus the past program cost per year, is that adjusted? Those past program values, are those in 2026 dollars or are they back a few years ago?

It was just last year. I just compared the last year we did the old program to this current year. I didn't factor in inflation or anything like that, just raw numbers.

I know, like you said, everything has gone up. So in reality, the past program, that might be a little bit higher in 2026.

Yeah, and the big difference, the only major increase is the landscape debris. And other than that, the bulk debris was reduced. So that cost went down.

Another question that I have and some feedback that I that I had the postcard that went out said you have to set it out the day before pick up 24 hour or the day before. And I know when we had our initial discussion that that particular question was asked like hey can they set it out the weekend before a lot of people do it on Saturdays, Sundays?

They can. Yeah, the 24 hours just meant Monday is the beginning of our week. So if you have it out there Saturday, Sunday, we're not out until Monday. And that's when the 24 hours begin. And then we start picking up on Tuesday. Is it postcard made it sound like you might get fined if you were going to do that?

Yeah, I have it right here. It says do not place items at the curb or your scheduled pickup. That's the feedback that I've gotten as well. So just wanted that clarified.

Let me clarify one thing. The code does not allow for it. So therefore, the postcard indicates based on our ordinance. So the postcard speaks to the ordinance. You're not allowed for 24 hours. So it is true. Do not set it out. However, if you do set it out Saturday and Sunday, we're not enforcing. As John says, they don't start work till 7 o'clock on Monday. But again, the postcard does reflect the current ordinance of the code.

On this picture, which is like slide five or something like that, when it talks about unacceptable piles, is that because that pile's too big or because of what's in it?

That is both. So that is, we consider that construction debris because it's carpeting and all that.

Is that picture from here?

Yeah, you know, it is. It's from, I think it's from over a year ago, though. It's in the picture. Still. Yeah.

I see a lot of, like, I guess for landscape debris, a lot of the bags of leaves still going out.

Yes.

In the clear plastic. Are they acceptable?

It goes into bulk waste. It's into bulk. Oh, okay. As long as it's clear and we can tell it's not something that's unacceptable inside it, then we take it. Yeah. So you can put it in those clear bags. Yeah.

Any other questions for John? John, that was a great presentation. Thank you, Tanya. Thank you for coming up and offering some clarification as well. While you're here, just if I could provide some context. The convenience site that we used earlier, very successful, very positive, very popular in the community. It became untenable. In so many ways, it was a victim of its own success. John Bodine, I know Tonya was involved. Staff took the initiative. They took it upon themselves to develop this program from scratch, I believe, was how it started. And like any other program, it takes a while to get everybody familiar, get things up and running. But the information John has provided tonight is a whole lot of evidence of the success of the program. And I think we're a lot better off with this program than we were before. But as the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. But what y'all invented seems to be serving the community very well. So thank you for that.

Thank you.

Appreciate you being with us, John.

Thank you.

That concludes both of our presentations. We'll move on to item E, audience for visitors. At this time we will open the floor for public comment related to the city. Seeing none, we will close the floor and move on to item F, approval of the minutes of the regular session of June 8th, 2026. Do we have a motion and a second?

Mr. Moore, I move, Mr. Mayor, I move that we approve the minutes of the council meeting held on June 8th.

Second. Thank you. Any questions or comments? Christy, call for vote, please.

Councilwoman Hubbard? Aye. Councilman Southall?

Aye.

Councilwoman Emmett? Aye. Vice Mayor Bunting?

Aye.

Councilman Fye? Aye. Mayor Hux? Aye. Mr. Mayor, the motion carries by a vote of 6-0.

Thank you, Christy. Item G, new business. We have six topics tonight, and thanks to our staff, all six of them are pretty efficient and straightforward. I think we can move through them in pretty short order. Tanya's here to... As a subject matter expert, she'll share some comments with us and answer any questions that might come up. I also know that Chief Mike Bryant and Chief Steven Kates are here as well, if we have follow-up questions. So the first topic is an ordinance to amend Article 6, Sections 1, 2, and 3, Schools of the City Code of Pocosna, Virginia. Christy?

This is just an ordinance to amend the request that was sent to the state legislator to make changes to the Civil War Charter and they have passed that so we need to in our code.

Very good. Thank you, Christy. Do we have a motion and a second? I move that we adopt an ordinance to amend article 6 sections 1 2 & 3 schools of the city code of Buccosin, Virginia Second, thank you any questions or comments I Do have some comments I'd like to share Would like to express appreciation to senator Danny Diggs for patronizing I'm sorry for patroning my mistake for patroning a bill and want to express appreciation to delegate Virgil Thornton for Co patroning the bill it passed the General Assembly and was signed by the governor earlier this year. And the main benefit of that is it gives us the ability to appoint all school board members at large. And we've already benefited from it this year. As recently as last month for a term that started July the 1st, We were able to appoint Mr. Joe Cacciamello, who is a retired Pocosin educator after decades of service, and he is also a former two-term commissioner of the revenue. So we appoint lots of great people, but This new charter change has already offered the benefit immediately by being able to appoint Joe. We would not have been able to do that unless we could appoint at-large because the opening was in a different precinct than Joe lives in. So at-large appointments gave us the ability to do that. I'm thankful to get Joe appointed, his willingness to serve, and just want to give a shout-out to Senator Danny Diggs, and delegate virgil thornton so thank you very much for that so we have a motion and a second on the floor so christy call for the please councilman fai aye vice mayor bunty aye councilwoman emmett aye councilman southall aye councilwoman hubbard aye mayor hucks aye mr mayor the motion carried by a vote of six to zero thank you christy Topic number two is an ordinance making additional appropriations and transfers for fiscal year 26 and the general fund for various departments. Tanya?

Mayor, council members, vice mayor, city manager, just want to point out we have one cleanup aisle left for fiscal year 2026. And it's just some additional items that we need to appropriate. $1,000 goes to the fire department for the Dominion Resource REPP grant. $300 were received by the police department for community engagement through a donation. And of course, we received $8,938 from the Commonwealth for the special districting election that we had here in the city. So a total of $10,238 needs to be appropriated one last time for 26 so we can close that year out.

Thank you, Tonya. Any questions or comments for Tonya?

Did the $89.38 cover our actual expenses?

It was actually covering our full expenses that we incurred. Separate from TMEs, this is just the additional expenses that we incurred outside of budget.

If there are no further questions for Tonya, do we have a motion and a second?

Mr. Mayor, I move that we approve an ordinance making additional appropriations and transfers for fiscal year 2026 in the general fund for the following various departments, the fire department, the police department, and voter registrar for the amount $10,238. Second. Thank you. Christy? Councilman Southall?

Councilwoman Hubbard. Aye. Vice Mayor Bunting. Aye. Councilman Fai. Aye. Councilwoman Hubbard of Emmett. Aye. Mayor Hooks. Aye. We have a motion by a vote of six to zero.

Thank you, Christy. Topic number three. There's an ordinance making additional appropriations for fiscal year 27 for capital improvements fund, undesignated bond, principal, and interest. And Tanya is back with us again.

Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council Members, City Manager. With this year's budget, we had to do something different. In the past, we had funded for two police vehicles each year, therefore giving the police department the capability of getting some of the old vehicles off the fleets. With this 2027, that capacity went away. So looking through our capital project and looking at resources, we still have $46,066 available for bond principal that we can attribute towards police vehicles, as well as interest that we have accrued through 23 bond issuance, 25 and 26. 104 265 that can be applied for that as well the remaining difference will come from capital project fund balance if approved tonight so I'm asking for y'all's approval to give the police department two vehicles so they can get two other vehicles off the fleet and replaced these the two vehicles for FY 26 Correct. We always have two vehicles each year for the police department. In fact, we had one vehicle that was in a car accident. It can barely take out the side and they will total it right away. So therefore, we do need to have the police department capability to replace aging ones and potentially ones that are damaged.

Are the vehicles that's like on the road every day driving?

I think we got all rid of the Crown Vicks. Correct, Chief?

Yes. And just to clarify what Keith had pointed out, these are in the capital improvements plan, and it looks like for, it's a cycle, so that every year, two in, two out. And that's just an ongoing thing.

Sustainability. It is.

Investment in the future.

And we have a five-year limitation on our bond principles, so I would be coming forth with a project to you for $46,000. There's not a whole lot I can do here in the city or schools.

Any other questions or comments for Tonya? Tonya, thank you.

So with that, do we have a motion and a second? Mr. Mayor, I propose an ordinance to make an additional appropriation for fiscal year 2027 for capital projects fund, undesignated bond principal and interest.

Second.

Thank you. Kristi?

Councilwoman Emmett? Aye. Councilwoman Hubbard? Aye. Councilman Fye?

Aye.

Councilman Southall?

Aye.

Mayor Bunting? Aye. Mayor Hux?

Aye.

Mr. Mayor, the motion carries by a vote of six to zero.

Thank you. Moving on to topic number four. This is an ordinance making appropriations for fiscal year 2027 for Capital Projects Fund Undesignated Fund Bouts. Tanya?

Mayor, vice mayor, council members, city manager, thank you again. We have a unique opportunity with Creek widening doing by VDOT currently. The fire department reached out to them with the request of a new fire hydrant. If we look at east to west, I know Councilman Five looked at directional. So the west side houses Surf's Up and Vector and the dentist. East side houses the quick queue and some businesses and residents on that side. Currently the fire hydrant resides on the west side. The fire department has aspired to always put one on the east side. This opportunity affords us to do so. Since it is a betterment, we would have to pay for it. But it would provide a fire hydrant to provide service for the fire department for protection of life, And with the ability of not shutting down with Creek Road, maybe only having one lane, but not shutting it down completely. So for a cost of $33,000, we'll put a brand new fire hydrant on the east side. Therefore, the fire department can service those residents and the businesses on that side.

Tanya, logistically, is it easier with a VDOT widening project because they're already doing construction and digging or... Is it the VDOT crew who will put in the infrastructure and we just pay for the enhancements? Or how is it beneficial to kind of utilize the VDOT widening project for this?

So for the VDOT project, again, think of the east and west side. The west side, they're putting a new water system through that side. They'll provide a T-cut, basically, to provide an expansion underneath the road to provide water service to the east side in order to basically service the fire hydrant. So there is a cost savings, because while we do not have to dig up the road in the future, they already have that done and committed during this project. Think back to when we did with HRSD and the sewer project, because HRSD was already currently in the process of doing it. We benefited by putting new sewer lines for our systems.

Absolutely no hydrants on the other side, like Quick Mart or anything?

I believe further up on Hunts Landing, Chief, that is correct. So further up, there is one on the east side, but it's so far up, it doesn't benefit those closer to the west side hydrant that we're speaking of. Trust me, I believe Michael and even the former fire chief had aspired to put a fire hydrant in that location.

A lot of people live down there. Okay, thank you.

It'll be good for their insurance. Yeah.

Any other questions or comments for Tanya? I did have one comment I'd like to make. This is another example of staff's foresight and proactivity. Tanya Randy and Chief Mike Bryant, appreciate that. It's all about the timing and with the work going on already with VDOT and the widening of Wythe Creek, We're able to do this at a discount price. And I'm certainly not a subject matter expert, but I would have guessed a whole lot more than $33,000. In a previous conversation with Randy, he said under normal circumstances, it probably would have been at least twice as much. Just by the proactivity of staff, thank you very much. We're able to do this to enhance public safety. which is consistent with our statement that we talked about earlier tonight. So thank you all very much for that. Do we have a motion and a second?

Mr. Mayor, I move that we adopt an ordinance making appropriation for fiscal year 2027 for capital project fund on designated fund balance for a transfer in $33,000 for the expenditure of a fire hydrant.

Second. Thank you. Christy?

Councilman Fai? Aye. Councilman Southall? Aye. Councilwoman Hubbard? Aye. Councilwoman Emmitt? Aye. Mayor Hooks?

Aye.

Mayor, the motion carried by a vote of six to zero.

Thank you, Christy. Topic number five is a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute the amended charter agreement of the Hampton Roads Workforce Council. Randy, did you have some comments on that?

Only to note for the public, what this does, it removes Gloucester from our particular Workforce Council and adds the counties of Acomac and Northampton. So they're shifting the state around a little bit.

Thank you, Randy. Any questions or comments for Randy?

Yeah, will we see that for the other boards and commissions that we're on? Will Gloucester...

it shouldn't have any impact on me at all okay thank y'all do we have a motion in a second please mr. mayor I move that we adopt a resolution authorizing to execute the amended charter work force council second Thank You Christy

Councilwoman Emmett? Aye. Councilman Southall?

Aye.

Councilman Fye? Aye. Councilwoman Hubbard? Aye. Vice Mayor Huggins? Aye. Mayor Hooks?

Aye.

Mr. Mayor, the motion carries.

Thank you. The last topic under new business number six is a resolution to accept the donation of a 2026 seven foot by 14 foot intrepid homestead or trailer and a We're very pleased to have with us tonight Mr. Buster Inslee, the volunteer fire chief. He's going to share some comments with us. Buster, welcome back. Good to see you. The floor is yours, my friend.

Mr. Mayor, we got together, the fire company, rescue squad, and ladies and gentlemen, and a generous donation from the Pocosin Art Fellows. Some of the citizens might not know, Pocosin has their own investigators thing. We don't have to rely on the state police. And we did get together in four groups, and we bought the trailer, purchased the trailer, so we can put tools in, and if they have to, put evidence in it, lock it up. This trailer was no cost to the city, no cost to the citizens. We purchased by donations and fundraising that we did.

Buster, thank you for your efforts for how many decades now? I know you and Mike started about the same time, I believe.

I think it's 52, 53 years now I've been a volunteer.

Go way back, and I have some other members of the Precosa Volunteer Fire Company, so thank you all for being with us.

and also your lovely wife

Thank you all for being with us for your contributions. This is another shining example of the professional volunteer partnership that citizens benefit from to a very large extent. Thank you all so much.

I'd like to personally thank these three fine people. I appreciate it. Thank you, Eric, and thank you, John, for your generous donation. We really appreciate it.

Appreciate your comments, Chief Mike, Chief Buster, as well. We'll see you all before long. Council members, did you all have any questions or comments? No. Okay. Do we have a motion and a second?

Mr. Mayor, I move that we adopt a resolution to accept the donation of a 2026 7x14 Rapid Homesteader Trailer.

Thank you. Christie?

Councilwoman Hubbard?

Aye.

Councilman Southall?

Aye.

Councilwoman Emmett? Aye. Vice Mayor Bunting? Aye. Councilman Fye?

Aye.

Mayor Hooks?

Aye.

Mr. Mayor, the motion carried by a vote of six to zero.

Thank you, Christy. That concludes all six topics under new business. And while we're on the subject, I'd like to thank my fellow council members for working so well together, sharing the responsibilities for making the motions and the seconds. So thank you all for that. Item H, comments of the city manager. Randy?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Only one thing this evening, and I just want to tell you a short story if I could. So last Friday at about 425, so about five minutes before we're supposed to break, we got a phone call, and Ashley's like, there's a lady on the phone that wants to talk to you. Very seldom does good news come at 425 on Friday. But it was Judy McCormick. And a lot of you know Judy and her contributions to the community. And what she called to do, she said, I passed it. And I just wanted to tell you. And I forgot. So I just pulled over in the first parking lot I found to just tell you how much work that everyone did at the corner there, what I call the Wells Fargo sign, which hasn't been that for a year. But what it is is the Pocosin sign. And it's just a combination of our work Some volunteers, community groups, and the last addition came from a private sector company. It all came together, and it just looks fantastic. And so if your way in and out of the city doesn't take you by it, I would encourage you to make a special visit. Those flags that are sitting out there, you may not recognize it from driving by it, but, you know, get out, park over by Dr. Taylor's and walk over to see them. Each one of those flags is a unique flag from the history of our country, and there's a little bit of information on each one that tells you what it is. And it's worth going to see. And that's all. I just wanted to share that.

Thank you, Randy, for sharing, and thank you for Ms. Judy McCormick for making that call. It's always appreciated for positive comments like that. It's just another example of how fortunate we are in this community. We are so richly blessed and have so many things to be thankful for. And thank the good Lord for all those many blessings. nothing's ever perfect I'm constantly reminded that deposit things in this community far above how way than the negatives it's just no comparison there's just so much positivity that we enjoy andy thanks again for sharing that with us and move on to council director mean

thank you you know we had a great working session here tonight and I appreciate those who were able to come out before hello Paul and and and everyone else who works so hard to make this happen for us so that we can do these sessions that help us queue up this next year and what we hope to do in the future really appreciate and David I don't know if you and Randy sat together and said how should we approach these tough nuts to crack and starting off by saying well let's just dedicate that entire first session to are we all on the same page on what we mean when we say sustainability because when we talked about voting for the one the increase and not for the three penny increase the word that was shared a lot by everyone in the room was that's not sustainable that's not sustainable that it neither and and so it was very important for us to come to the same page I don't know that we're there yet but I think you're gonna be able to a find a synergy to use a corporate jargon term. And then to talk about the problems that we think we want to focus our energies on, I think that it's really been a beneficial, and I don't want to say exercise, but it's been a beneficial meeting for us to queue up the next meeting that we have so that this council moves together to finding those solutions for those very tough nuts to crack. do want to thank all y'all from far coming out tonight thank you so much it wasn't necessary for all y'all to come but yet you did because it was important to you important to the community and you represent so many facets of that in this room Donna whatever your last name is right exactly so yeah that speaks volumes and the the folks who are here earlier from the little league you know that's generational participation which shows just how important this community is to all of us and I hope that I hope that more generations even those who are starting their lives here as those young people who get married from little league and and go forth, I hope that it becomes generations for their families, too, and that we're creating a community that will help that happen for them.

Thank you, Jeannie. And to your point, Vice Mayor, I don't think you'll mind me telling you on this.

Sure not. Tell whatever.

To your point, Vice Mayor Bunton's son and daughter-in-law got married as a result of playing together in Pocosa Little League, and their son, Vice Mayor Bunton's grandson, came up through the program and I believe was All-State third baseman this year? Second.

And just named first team all-title order. That's pretty cool.

So Trace is back to Pocosa Little League. So to your point, there's a real-life example. Very good. Thank you for teeing that up.

Keith? I have a special thanks to the American Legion that came out last week at the mobile food pantry on Thursday at MS Baptist Church. Their adults were fed 70 families, 34 of which had children, 36 more seniors. A grand total of 217 people provided food at that pantry.

Thank you, Keith. And just to give credit where credit's due, in addition to Councilman Fye's duties and responsibilities as a council member, he also volunteers to head up... the food pantry, which is no small task. That goes on constantly. I'm sure that's just about a daily effort. So I wanted to recognize your efforts, your contributions, and the results that come from that.

I'll recognize. We have one good volunteer that comes every month, and I couldn't replace her. Probably you not either because it was your wife, Teresa.

Thank you. I give thanks for her daily. That's it. Keith. David?

I don't have anything additional. Thank you. Very good.

Angie? Again, thank you to everyone that's here. Thank you to everyone who is watching this or listening online. And if those who are watching or listening online want to come in person next time, we'd love to have you.

Thank you for the reminder. Angie? Mr. Sallow?

Just a few. First off, I want to thank everyone who came out here tonight and everyone at home who paid attention to their city government. Invite your friends to do the same thing. During our work session, a couple comments came up, and I want to reinforce them. We're not at a crossroads. We're not ready to be totally unsustainable. And I think that's evidence because this room's got just a few people in it. We have 12,500 people in this city. Most people, when they get upset, complain. If we weren't doing the real job that we should be doing, this room would be crammed full. As a matter of fact, the parking lot would be full. The only negative comments we get are often a few squeaky wheels who really don't pay attention or who are uninformed. And to some of them, I would say, you just missed a great opportunity to help make things better. You could have been a candidate for the Eastern Precinct. There are none. And that's a shame. Talk about that on Facebook. The other thing is I would like to thank the people who did participate in the government and volunteered to vote. We did have one from Central Precinct. I talked to several who said they would. One did. And so if you don't like the way we do things, participate and help us. Other than that, pay attention to what we're doing and be informed. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Southall. And I want to give a shout-out to Councilman Cary Freeman. He was a longtime school board member, council member, former vice mayor, probably the longest-serving vice mayor. I think he was vice mayor for four years or something like that, a long time. But him and Ms. Freeman are enjoying a vacation there, away spending time with family. So, Mr. Freeman, if you're watching tonight, I miss having you, and I look forward to having you back with us next month. And I would also like to thank Mr. Jonah Easley. and his mother, Ms. Kim Montalvo, who was here earlier. Really appreciate what y'all do for us with the audio, visual, and IT support. So those are all the comments that I have. And with that, I'll ask for a motion and a second for adjournment.

So moved.

Second.

Thank you. Christy?

Councilman Fai?

Aye.

Vice Mayor Bunting? Aye. Councilman Emmett? Aye. Councilman Southall? Aye. Councilwoman Huck? Aye. Mayor Hux? Aye. Mr. Mayor, the motion carried by a vote of 6-0.

Thank you. We are adjourned.