City Council - Regular Meeting

There's a lot right around there. Good evening and welcome. City Council is now in session. Please stand for the invocation by Council Member Butler Barlo, which will be followed by the pledge of allegiance to the flag.

Let us pray. In these challenging times, we do not ask for easier tasks, but for stronger aptitudes and greater talents to meet the many difficulties we face. Help us to help others so that their lives may be made better. Strengthen our confidence. Grant us wisdom. Open our eyes and hearts to the beauty of spring with all of its possibility and hope. Give us enthusiasm to inspire those around us, sympathy to help lighten the burdens of those who suffer, and a spirit of joy and hope to share with others. Amen. Amen.

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. The Freedom of Information Act certification is required at this time. Madame Clerk, will you please present the resolution for consideration?

A resolution certifying the closed meeting of April 15, 2026 pursuant to Virginia Code section 2.2-3712 is presented at this time. Now therefore, be it resolved that the city council of the city of Suffach hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements of Virginia law and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered by the city council of the city of Suffach in the closed meeting. Council motion has been presented for your consideration. Council member Johnson, move for approval. Go to a motion for approval from council member Johnson. Council member Williams.

Second that. Second from council member Williams. Is there any discussion of the motion? Hearing none. Council members prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madame clerk, please record the vote.

The motion is approved by a vote of 8 to zero. We now move to approval of the minutes from the January 7th, 2026 work session and regular meeting. And a motion would be order. Council. Council member Williams. Move for approval. Motion for approval from council member Williams. Council member Bennett. Second. Second from council member Bennett. Any discussion of the motion? Hearing none. Council members, prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madame clerk, please record the vote. Motions approved by vote of 8 to zero.

We now move to special presentations. We have four this evening. We have three proclamations. The first one being in recognition of National Crime Victims followed by National Library Week followed by Week of the Young Child. Those three proclamations will be followed up with an update from for our 2026 spring and summer events. Mr. Mayor,

mayor, vice mayor, members of council, your first special presentation is a proclamation in recognition of National Crime Victim Rights Week. Joining us this evening is the Commonwealth attorney uh as well as Katie Gardner, director of victim witness services and other members of the Commonwealth Attorney staff.

Madame clerk, will you please present the proclamation? Whereas since the passage of the crime of the victims of crime act of 1984 and through the dedicated work of advocates, lawmakers, and victim service providers, there is a growing array of assistance and resources available to victims and their loved ones. And whereas identifying, researching, and serving all victims of crime is essential, especially those from groups who often have less access to restorative services and fewer avenues to pursu pursue justice. And whereas National Crime Victim's Rights Week provides an opportunity to ensure that accessible and appropriate services are offered to all victims of crime. And whereas the Suffach Commonwealth Attorney's Office victim witness program is dedicated to supporting victims and survivors in the aftermath of crime. Now therefore, I, Michael D. Duman, mayor of the city of Suffach, do hereby proclaim the week of April 19th through April 25th, 2026 as National Crime Victims Rights Week in Suffach, Virginia, and call upon all residents to recognize this worthwhile observance. In witness whereof, I here unto set my hand, and cause the seal of the city of Suffach to be affixed this 15th day of April, in the year of our Lord, 2026.

We got the whole squad. Are we taking a photo? Okay. photo. I'll get your Yes, sir.

Good evening. I think we took the photo out of order, so I apologize. Um, good evening, city council members, and thank you for having us here this evening. My name is Katie Gardner and I'm the director of victim services at the Commonwealth Attorney's Office. National Crime Victim's Rights Week is a time to recognize the strength and resilience of survivors in our community and to reaffirm our commitment to supporting them. This year's theme, listen, act, advocate, reminds us that meaningful change begins with hearing victims voices, responding with compassion, and standing up for their rights. When we truly listen, we create space for healing. When we act, we provide safety and resources. And when we advocate, we ensure justice and dignity for all. I urge our community to continue working together to build a system where every victim is heard, supported, and empowered. Together, we can make a difference. I invite everyone to come out to our walk this Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to noon at Lake Me Park, where we will walk in honor and remember our crime victims here in our city. Thank you,

Mr. manager should provide an overview of our lifestyle. Mayor, vice mayor, members of council, your second proclamation is in recognition of National Library Week. Joining us this evening is Clint Rudy uh with our director of libraries as well as members of the library advisory committee.

Madam clerk, please read the proclamation. Whereas libraries spark creativity, fuel imagination, and inspire lifelong learning by offering welcoming spaces where individuals of all ages can explore ideas, access information, and discover new possibilities. And whereas libraries provide free and equitable access to books, technology, and innovative programming while fostering civic engagement, critical thinking, and meaningful connections. And whereas libraries strengthen communities and local economies by partnering with schools, businesses, and organizations, and by empowering job seekers, entrepreneurs, and lifelong learners with resources, training, and opportunities to succeed and thrive regardless of their background. And whereas libraries, librarians, and library workers across the country are joining together to celebrate National Library Week under the theme find your joy. And now, therefore, I, Michael D. Duman, mayor of the city of Suffach, do hereby proclaim the week of April the 19th through April 25th, 2026 as National Library Week in Suffach, Virginia, and encourage all residents to visit their library, explore its resources, and celebrate all the ways that the library draws us together as a community, a witness whereof, I've here to set my hand, and cause the seal of the city of Suffach to be affixed this 15th day of April, in the year of Our Lord 2026.

Congratulations. Now

we do a picture. Let me check. Make sure I read it. Uh, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Vice Mayor, honorable members of the city council and Mr. City Manager. I'm Sean Bilby and I'm the president of the Suffach Public Library Advisory Board and we are the board that you appointed. So, we're here to say thank you. Thank you for the support that you have given to all the residents of Suffach and all the readers. Now, usually I come and I talk about how Suffach Public Library is an awardwinning library, but this time I wanted to tell you what those awards were. And I counted and whittleled down to just like nine major state or national awards that Suffach Public Library has received in the last year. Bur Suffach Public Library is a finalist for the Clarabet Library Innovation Award for its open plus project up in Chuckatuck at that location. The technology and content team led by Kyle Vanaxis won the Virginia Public Library Directors Association award for impactful technologies for their creating circulating technology collections. The library experience team led by Kristen Winslow won the Virginia Public Library Directors Association award for innovative service delivery inside the library for expanding spaces that allow equitable access to privacy, teleconferencing, and health needs. That's just the first three. Then uh Director Clinton Rudy was elected president of Virginia Public Library Directors Association in March of last year. We also should point out that Clint won

the Library Journal Movers and Shakers Award for Change Agents. That's a national award by Library Journal. Kevin Ellis won the Virginia Library Association's Outstanding Professional Associate Award. Clint was also one of the recipients of the Libby Lewis Award which is from the Virginia Public Library Directors Association and Jane Gier won staff member of the year from the Virginia Public Library Directors Association. And lastly, number nine, Southern Public Libraryies adapted program bingo Boogie won the outstanding program for adults award from the same association. So before I conclude, I want to remind you that on May 2nd is the Suffach Children's Festival and there will be a live performance by Eric Litman, who is the author of the original Pete the Cat books. And that's why we have shown up with these groovy books, Pete the Cat, to remind you of that. And I do want to conclude with a we can't wait till that new downtown branch library opens. We're really looking forward to it soon. My bad.

They usually tell me everything. Mr. Manager. Yeah. Let's go ahead and move right along. All right. Moving along. Uh you have a third proclamation in recognition of Week of the Young Child. Uh this will be celebrated by the Early Childhood Development Commission which is housed in the library. You probably recognize their chairman, Mr. Mark Furlow with our parks and recreation department.

Well, I guess we've been going in this order for some reason this evening. So, we'll go ahead and read the proclamation first so we we stay kind of standardized here. Whereas all young children deserve quality early learning environments that nurture and support them as capable and competent lifelong learners. And whereas the SUFFK Early Childhood Development Commission, the Suffach Public Library, the Virginia Association for the Education of Young Children and other community organizations within the National Association for the Education of Young Children are celebrating the week of the young child. And whereas these organizations are working to improve equitable early learning opportunities, including literacy programs that can provide a foundation of learning for children. And whereas early childhood educators and public policies that support early learning for all young children's futures are important elements of education. Now, therefore, I, Michael D. Doom in the city of Suffach do hereby proclaim the week of April the 11th through April 17th, 2026 as week of the young child in Suffach, Virginia, and encourage all citizens to support sound investments in early childhood development. In witness whereof, I'm here to set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Suffach to be affixed this 15th day of April in the year of our Lord, 2026.

Good evening. How are we doing? I know. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, members of council. My name is Mark Furlow and I'm the chair of the Early Childhood Development Commission. Uh each April the National Association for the Education of Young Children or NAI invites educator educators, families and communities to come together for the week of the young child. A joyful celebration of early learning, young children, and the adults who support them through theme days like music Monday, tasty Tuesday, work together Wednesday, Artsy Thursday, and Family Friday. The week of the young child highlights the critical role of play, creativity, and collaboration in a child's development. We want to recognize the importance of highquality early childhood education and to advocate for the professionals who make it possible. This year is extra special because it marks the 100th anniversary of NAI and the 55th anniversary of the week of the young child. ECDC is celebrating each day from the from April 13th through April 17th with a special gift for the little ones at the Morgan Memorial Library and the North Suffach Library. ECDC will continue to promote quality early learning and care to support the cognitive, physical, emotional, and social growth of SUFFK's young children. Thank you,

Mr. Manager. Please, an overview of our last item. Mayor, vice member, mayor, mayor, vice mayor, members of council, to help get the word out, like we heard in work session, uh Teresa Earles, our tourism development manage manager, is going to walk you through the 2026 uh Suffuk spring and summer event calendar.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, Honorable Council. Mr. manager. I promise I won't make you take a picture with me. I am super excited as always because I get the wonderful job of telling you all the great things that we have going on in the city of Suffach. And like I remind you every single time, this is just a little bit. This is just a glimpse into the next few months. If you want to learn anything else about all the fun things that we have to do in Suffach, you can go to visits sufficva.com and you can follow us on social media because this is just a sampling. So, I'm going to kick it off with Friday the 17th of April. The outdoors at the center concert series returns to the Suffach Center for Cultural Arts. They have a lovely outdoor patio area for live music and refreshments behind the building. It is free and open to the public. It kicks off at 6 p.m. And this Friday will be the music of Steve Ambrose. Then this um on the 17th as well from 6:30 to 900 pm you can stop by the Suffic Art Gallery for the mini Mart fine art fundraiser. So that's art fine art that's no bigger than 8 by8 and every piece I believe will be $75 with a split for um the art gallery and the artist. It is a fundraiser. Then on Saturday the 18th you can join us for a revolutionary lecture. It's a hund sail from the mast head standing into the capes and that is part of our Virginia 250 campaign um events and that will be at the North Suffic Library from 10:30 to 11:30 and it is free and open to the public. On Saturday we also have the swap meet 757. This is by the Virginia Market Collective. This is a an open to the public event that is using the downtown festival park. It's going to have 40 plus local small business vendors, food trucks, live music, line dancing. There will be contests and all kinds of fun things. From 11 to 4, it's free and open to the public.

At New Round Brewing Company on Saturday the 18th from noon to 1000 p.m. They're going to have their very own Picklefest. Not to be confused with Pickle Palooa, but I'm sure the pickles will be great nonetheless. And that's at New Realm in Harborview. It is free and open to the public and is familyfriendly. Southside Ballet will present Cinderella on Saturday, April 18th at 3 PM at the Suffach Center for Cultural Arts. That is $25 per person. Pork and Pino is an annual event that Virginia Vintage Tavern hosts in the North Suffach area on Sunday, April 19th from 3 to 7. Tickets are $120 per person and include your food, your drinks, and of course all the fun and live music. And that is that requires advanced tickets. And then the precision a text expo two uh sorry tw 20 2026 will be hosted on Wednesday April 22nd 9 to3 at the Taiwater Agricultural Research and Extension Center. It's free but you need to register in advance. Now we're super excited because the Suffach Earth and Arts Festival is right around the corner and that has quickly become one of Suffach's signature events. So, Saturday, April 25th from 10 to 4, it's free and open to the public on North Main Street in downtown Suffach. We call this a celebration of art, culture, and environmental stewardship. It is brought to us by the Keep Suffach Beautiful Committee and the Suffach Art League. We have several local sponsors as well, and we couldn't do it without them. You will see the master gardener annual plant sale plus over 140 vendors that includes artisans, merchants, musicians, organizations, environmental and animal advocacy groups and we will have the Chrysler Museum of Art mobile glass blowing experience that does require advanced registration and a ticketed fee. We will have live music by Jonah Ross, Patrick Ryan Band, Kiz Carter, Rob Oliver, Amy Couse, and Robbie Bradshaw. New Realm is coming back with a fun event on Saturday the 25th from noon to

close. It's the Psychedelic Rabbit Fest. And they say, "Hop into a full day of swirling jams, vibrant vendors, and flavor packed eats at Psychedelic Rabbit Fest." Again, that's familyfriendly and open to the public. Then the D, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Constantia Chapter, is celebrating 100 years of the Constantia House on Sunday, April 26 from 2:00 to 5:00. It's free and open to the public. That particular historic building is located behind the Baker Funeral Home on West Washington Street. And they're just going to walk you through a hundred years of that particular house from its origin in Cedar Hill Cemetery and the replica that stands now behind Baker Funeral Home. On Thursday, April 30th, the SEC Center for Cultural Arts is welcoming WHRO Story Exchange. If you're familiar with the Moth Radio Hour on NPR, this is very similar to that. And there is a prompt if you'd like to write something and prepare. The prompt is describe a moment when a family member surprised you with their love. So if you're interested, you can contact the Suffach Center and go on their website, suffixcenter.org, and click on that information and sign up. It's at 7 p.m. and the ticket fee is $10 per person. Clean the bay day is for individuals with kayaks and canoes. You can get out there on the water and help clean up our waterways. And that's at Constantinf Park and Marina through our Keep Suffach beautiful commission on Saturday, May 2nd, 9:00 a.m. to noon. That of course is free and we appreciate all of your help. And that is going to be a really busy day in downtown because that's also our SUV farmers market kickoff day. While we do have a market year round, right now it's every other weekend. So this is when we kick off for every Saturday 9 to1 through November. And of course, it's at the visitor center pavilion located behind the visitor center at the corner of Main Street in Constants. And it is free and open to the public. It's very familyfriendly, and we encourage you to come and support our local growers and artisans along the way. The Suffach Children's Festival, we just heard about that a few minutes ago on Suffach, I'm sorry, Saturday, May

2nd, 10 to 4 at the downtown Festival Park. That is free and open to the public. And I'm super excited about the Pete the Cat author. I know I don't want to fan girl, but if you've had kids in the last 20 years, you've you've sung about Pete's groovy white shoes. So, definitely bring the kiddos out. And then on the same Saturday from noon to 3, tourism is going to be opening the Seabard Station Railroad Museum for what we're calling a sneak peek. So, we have been in a long process of renovating after some damage. And that has given us an opportunity to really redo a lot of things and reorganize our artifacts and really change the function of the museum as far as how we welcome people and how they come through and see what they would like to see. Um, all good things. And so we are in the process of finalizing all the details for the train station. So you're able to come in, catch a glimpse at what we're doing towards the end of the renovation process. and we get a chance to kind of treat everyone like guinea pigs and see what works and what we can improve upon before our grand opening. And again, that is on May 2nd from noon to 3. And if all goes well, knock on wood, we'll be doing it on May 9th as well. Suffic Parks and Wreck are hosting family camping May 2nd and 3rd from 9:00 a.m. to noon at Sleepy Whole Park. That is free. Please follow Parksandre.com for more details. UPUPAC is presenting Emily Mann's Having Our Say, the Delaney Sisters first 100 years, Sunday, May 3rd at the SUFFK Center for Cultural Arts. That is at 2 PM and is 30 $33 per person. And Miss Lily's Trading Post in Holland, they are hosting a 250 birthday party for America with their outdoor market on Saturday, May 9th from 8:30 to 5. And of course, that is free and open to the public, and there'll be refreshments and an opportunity to buy as much stuff as you want. Now, Suffic Parks and Recre is going to be hosting something new this year called adult recess. And they mean people over the ages of 18. And it says right here it's kickball, but like kids with recess, they changed their minds, too. So, it

says kickball, but we're going to do capture the flag at Bennett Creek Park. It is free and open to the public from 6:00 to 9:30. All ages are welcome, but only adults can play. And there will be adult beverages available for purchase for anyone over 21. And there'll be food trucks and lots of fun. It's a great opportunity to get out and pretend you're a kid again, but with fun drinks and food. Then we'll have afternoon conversations on Tuesday, May 12th at the Philips Dawson House. That's the headquarters for the Suffach Nanceman Historical Society. That is from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. and that is free and open to the public. Every so often they do these afternoon conversations where they bring in a local history expert to talk about various things that affect SUFFK. And this is an opportunity for you to do that as well. Then outdoors at the center comes back to the Suffach Center for Cultural Arts with a live music from Twin Beaks. And I did not accidentally say beaks instead of Peaks. I do believe it has something to do with a parrot band um and Jimmy Buffett. That is Friday, May 15th from 6 PM until I want to say 9. It is free and open to the public and again they will have refreshments available for purchase and that is located on the patio outside of the Suffach Center for Cultural Arts. Riddics Valley is going to be hosting the American Girl program featuring Samantha Parkington on Saturday, May 16th. They have two seedings, 10:00 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. And it's free and open to the public, but you really do need to register in advance. They have limited space, so that's why they have two different seedings. Again, that's at Riddick's Folly House Museum. And Parks and Rec is bringing back what was last year was our international fest. This year is getting a little bit of a rebrand as the cultural fest. So, you're going to see dancers, live music, international cuisine, educational activities, so much fun. Saturday, May 16th from 11 to 5:00 at the downtown festival park. And that, of course, is free and open to the public and familyfriendly. Vinyl radio, everybody's, you know, favorite 70s band, is going to be in concert at the Se for Cultural Arts on Saturday, May 23rd at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are in the range of 35 to 45. There are also additional experiences and VIP packages that you could add on to that

for an additional fee if you want to include dinner and drinks before the actual show. Um, Parks and Rec is hosting senior prom for our mature folks. I don't want you to think it's all the teenagers, but it's Thursday, May 28th from 11 to 1, and that is the best time to do prom um at the Bennis Creek Rec Center. And the 10th annual Iconicon will be held Saturday, May 30th, 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the North Suffic Library. It's a lot of fun and gets great attention. Whether you want to come dressed up in your favorite character or just come and have a great time with your family, it's wonderful. The Senior Fish Fry by Parks and Recck will be happening on Wednesday, June 3rd, 11 to 2 at the East Suffic Rec Center. And they will also be hosting out with a bang teen block party for the end of the school year. It will be Friday, June 5th from 2:00 to 5:00 at the Kings Fork Joint Youth Rec Center. And of course, that is free. And there will be a free fishing day on Sunday, June 7th from 10 to 2 at Sleepy Hole Park. And then we kick off our TGI summer concert series. We always love that program. And it will kick off in downtown Festival Park on Friday, June 13th at 6:30 p.m. with Island Boy. It's free and open to the public. Feel free to bring a chair, a blanket. There will be some there will be food trucks and drinks available. So, it really is just a fun family get get out and have fun and enjoy downtown Suffach. And then the following week, we'll have Raw Jazz, who is a wonderful 12piece band, and they play a little bit of everything, including your current day um dance hits and everything beyond. And they're very talented, and you'll enjoy it from 6:30 to 9:30 at the downtown Festival Park. Then parks and recre is offering kayaking at Lonear Lakes on June 20th from 10:00 a.m. till noon. And we have the Saratoga Dreamers are bringing back the Junth festival celebration which will be held in the downtown festival park on Saturday, June 20th from 3 to 8. And of course it is free and open to the public. While it doesn't cost anything,

they will accept donations in support of the event and future events. Then we go into the TGIF summer concert series featuring SlapNation on Friday, June 26 from 6:30 to 9:30. And of course that's free and open to the public at Downtown Festival Park. And then we have Saturday Cinema and we're showing Lilo and Stitch the liveaction version on Saturday, June 27th at Downtown Festival Park at 6:30. We open everything up and I believe the movie starts at 8. But definitely go to suffic parks andre.com to check on that. But I have heard that we are having a guest stitch. So your kids will love that. They'll get to meet Stitch and get photos taken and it will be a lot of fun. And then on Saturday 20 the 27th from 4:00 to 7:00 we will have parking lot pride at the North Suffach Library. That's an annual pride event and it gets great attention and is fun for the whole family and of course it is free. The Stars and Stripes Spectacular, our annual Independence Day celebration will be held at Constants Park and Marina on the 4th um from 6:30 to 9:30 and it is free and open to the public and includes food trucks and music and fun kids activities. Then we host our annual Suffix Suits Week. It's kind of like restaurant week, but it's all desserts. So, from the July 5th to the 12th at citywide eeries that are participating in sweets week, you can order off a dessert menu. Whether it's featuring their signature dessert or they're trying something new, there will be desserts at low prices and it to allow you to try a little bit of everything across the city. And then one of our VA250 events will be coming up on July 8th. It's a Wednesday. It's called Patriots in the Park. We are commemorating the 250th anniversary of the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence and that will be happening again on a Wednesday from 5:00 to 8:00 and it's free and open to the public. There will be a variety of exhibitors and living history reenactors and live music. You can paddle through Lonear Lakes at sunset on Friday, July 10th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. You will need to register in advance for that. TGIF summer concert

kicks back in on the 10th of July at Downtown Festival Park with BJ Griffin. The Amazing Peanut Chase will be happening on Saturday, July 11th, 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. It's free. It's by the Suffach Public Library and it's more like a scavenger hunt throughout the city. So, you definitely want to register in advance and you end up, I want to say, at the visitor center um for an end of chase celebration. And the second annual pickle palooa is going to be held Sunday, July 19th from 1 to 4:30 p.m. at the downtown festival park. It is free and open to the public. And actually, I believe we're opening a little bit earlier because we are thinking we have more space and more pickles. So, I would bet we're going to be there from 11:00 to 5:00. Um, but you can come anytime and enjoy everything. Dill, sweet, sour, spicy. We've got a lot of fun coming up. um in that includes pickle beer, pickle lemonade, pickle pizza. Anything pickle. If you can imagine it, we'll have it. And then everyone's favorite 80s cover band, the Deloreans, kicks off our TGI summer concert series as it continues at Bennett's Creek Park. If you haven't been to the Deloreans, you're really missing a treat. That is Friday, July 24th from 6:30 to 9:30. Again, it's at Bennett Creek Park in North SuffK and it's a mustsee. The American Girl program continues at Riddicks Valley House Museum featuring the doll Courtney Moore. That is Saturday, July 25th. And again, the two seedings at 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. It is free and open to the public, but you do need to register if you want to get your kiddo in to one of the seedings. See Parks and Recre is going to be back with adult recess on Saturday, July 25th from 6:00 to 9:30. It is free and we are doing line dancing and musical games in downtown Festival Park. Again, it is free and it is open to all ages, but the folks playing the games are 18 and up. And then the National Teen Library lockin will be happening on Friday, July 31st, 6:30 to

9:30. And that is free at the North Suffach Library. Spooky Summer 2026 artist and vendor market at the Suffic Art Gallery kicks off Friday, August 1st from 4 to 8. It's very similar um to a Gothic market where you have kind of spooky, creepy, crawly, fine arts and fun things. Um definitely go and see what these unique artists have to offer. TGIF summer concert series continues with the Steels Friday, August 1st from 6:30 to 9:30 and that again is at Venice Creek Park. And then August 7th, we have another TGIF, Anthony Rosano and the Conquerors at Bennis Creek. And then again on the 14th we have the band Monarch at Bennis Creek. Then we're following up with the 38th annual Nansman Indian Powow. That's August 15th and 16th from 10:00 to 6:00 on Saturday and 10:00 to 5:00 on Sunday. It is free and open to the public and at Matnock Town off of Pemrook Lane. And now we have upcoming exhibits. So right now you can catch Walk on the Wildside, Furry Friends at the Suffach Center for Cultural Arts. This is a really great exhibit that features fine art of man's best friend. So whatever your pet is, in the past they've done Walk on the Wild Side and it's definitely been more wild animals. These are def these are more domesticated critters and I encourage you to check it out. Of course, any exhibit at the Suffach Center is free and open to the public. They are also offering their art of wine series with artist Kenny King. That will be on exhibit from April 23rd until May 30th at the Suffach Center for Cultural Arts. There will be an open opening reception on Thursday, April 23rd from 5:30 to 7:00. And then there's a separate art of wine dinner where you get to dine with the artist and there's a lecture component and that is a a ticketed event on Friday May 29th from 6:00 to 8. So get your tickets in advance. Beyond the call art by military service members will be at the Suffach Art Gallery from April 28th through June 12th. And again that falls under our category of the Suffach VA250 campaign

that we are continuing throughout 2026. Suffic Art League's open member show kicks off July 20th through July 17th, I'm sorry, August 17th and we have the um at the Suffic Art Gallery and that's so any members that are regular members of the Suffach Art League, you can show your own art as long as you are an actual member. And so if you want more details, definitely look up sufficartleague.com. And then from July 25th to September 5th at the Seven Art Gallery, there's going to be a solo show by last year's winner of the 2025 Da Da exhibition. And I know I've said a lot, but if you're missing something, you can go to suffic library.com, visit sufficva.com, or sufficandre.com because we have enough to keep you busy from now through the end of the year. And that is all I have unless you have questions for me.

Thank you, Teresa. Council, questions or comments? I'll make my usually comment. People come to me. Anybody says there's nothing to do in Suffach just doesn't know where to look because we got plenty going on and I appreciate everything that you do. Thank you.

All right, we'll now move on to removal of the consent agenda items and adoption of the agenda. Uh removal of the item from the consent agenda is not necessary this evening since there is only one item. However, Manager Hughes has information regarding agenda item number 13. Mr. Manager, please provide an overview. Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, uh we have received a communication uh dated April 14th, yesterday from the applicant team uh on the Riverbend resoning request. Uh the team is requesting a deferral of the ordinance for the proposed Riverbend resoning to the May 20th city council meeting. uh they detail that they are continuing to work on their profers as it relates to the coordination and interaction with the US Fish and Wildlife Service regarding the Eagle's Nest uh located on the site. Before we move on, I previously disclosed that I do have a conflict of interest regarding agenda item number 13. Uh, the Virginia Conflict of Interest and Ethics Advisory Council has advised me that I may preside over procedural matters only related to this item, but I will not participate in the discussion or vote. That being said, uh, motion to amend the agenda to continue consideration of item number 13 to the May 20th, 2026 city council meeting would be in order. Council member Recctor.

So moved. Got a motion for approval from council member Recctor. Council member Bennett. Uh I would not agenda as presented and keep item 13 on the agenda.

Um Mr. City Attorney, could you clarify exactly what that's going to entail? So, so we had a motion to remove an item. We had a second for that motion. We now have a an amendment to keep item 13 on tonight's agenda. So, that's what's if there's a second, that will be what's before city council first. So, the substitute motion would be to move forward with a vote on that particular item this evening. It would be to move forward with the agenda as it is written and present it to city council which would result in a vote on item 13 this evening. It would result in item 13 being discussed

being discussed. So you have a myriad of options if item 13 comes up. You can um vote to approve it. You can vote to deny it. You can still vote to postpone it. But you would at that point have a discussion about that item. Okay. Okay. So, we had a motion on the floor to approve the agenda, removing it in a second. Now, we have a substitute motion on the floor from council member Bennett. It still needs a second though, which does not have a second yet. We have a council member Johnson. Second, and a second from Council Member Johnson. So, the motion on the floor. And excuse me, before we go forward, can we get Can I get clarity on the second for the primary motion because I didn't hear it. I believe it was the vice mayor.

Vice Mayor Ward. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah, you're welcome. I didn't have a chance mention. No worries. Thank you.

Okay. We got a substitute motion on the floor and that is to move forward uh with the agenda as presented this evening. So, we would not be tableabling this item any. And with that being said, I think since we're discussing that that is the topic at this time, I'm going to recluse myself, hand the gavl to the vice mayor for him to preside over this motion. So, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? So, if we vote for it is yes. Am I right? Voting yes um continues the agenda as it is written now with all items.

If if you vote yes, you are voting to to adopt this agenda with all items on it for discussion. So that means that we that's not that's not on the agenda. Is that it is it's item number 13.

Okay. Any discussion? Pay the vote. The motion is approved by a vote of 4 to three with council members Recctor and Williams and Vice Mayor Ward voting in opposition. Excuse me. Oh, Mr. City Attorney, you bring me up to speed here.

So, the agenda was approved as written. So, we'll continue to the next item, which is the consent agenda. So, all items are before city council tonight. Okay. All right. So, that's staying on the agenda. So, now we're going to move to the consent agenda. Madame clerk, will you please present the consent agenda items for consideration? Item number seven, an ordinance to accept and appropriate additional state funds for Suffach Public Schools.

Mr. Manager, please provide an overview. Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, uh your one consent agenda item is an ordinance to accept and appropriate 1,573,87 in additional state funds for Suffach Public Schools. The additional state funding has been approved by the Virginia General Assembly in support of $1,500 bonuses to school employees and requires a match that will be provided by the school's current appropriation. Adoption of the ordinance will increase the fiscical year 2526 schools operating fund budget by 1,573,87.

Okay, that is the only consent agenda item. Uh, council members, uh, questions, comments, or motion? Council member Wright. Motion to approve. Get a motion for approval from council member Wright. Council member Williams. Second it, ma'am. Second from council member Williams. Any discussion? the motion hearing. None. Council members, prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madame clerk, please record the vote.

The motion is approved by vote of 8 to zero. Okay. We'll now move to public hearings. Our first public hearing is to receive public comment on the proposed operating and capital budget for fiscal year 2627 and its related ordinances. Mr. manager, please provide an overview. Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, Stephanie Wells, director of finance and budget, will provide the presentation.

Thank you. Good evening. Tonight, I'm going to go back through our proposed operating capital budget presentation for the public hearing. However, it is slightly shortened, but not greatly. So if there's any information you thought you remembered hearing at the last presentation, please feel free to watch that video again online. So for the proposed budget, I am going to recap a little bit about uh what manager Hughes said. He started with discussing our priorities, the city's priorities. Obviously constituents are our biggest priority. Their concerns are affordability, strengthening infrastructure, and improving quality of life. The quality of life, some of the things that we'll see during the current or next budget year is downtown library opening, six new park projects, and public safety investments. We're also focusing on service excellence and investment in public education. One big item for public education. This is the final four SRO positions in the FY27 budget that will provide a school resource officer for every school. Operational changes. We did include departmental operational sacrifice. We'll discuss that a little bit more shortly. Uh the refu and recycling sepsis sort program is starting this year. You'll see support for the Godwin courthouse renovations and then uh I will talk a little bit about the investment in public safety staffing as well. On the horizon, we're going to see the future compensation come up later this year. Um we are considering whether or not we're going to see economic economic slowing um significant reduction in the taxable real estate and personal property tax

base from the disabled veteran exemptions. We also have new facilities coming online. Uh fire station 11, the burn building, Commonwealth Attorney and Police will be on Main Street at the pilot building. And then we are also watching some general assemb general assembly activity. Revenue impacts are one big revenue impact. We are going to have a tax rate property tax rate decrease proposed 1 cent tax rate cut. Other other service cost increases are limited. We have an increase in the hotel room tax rate from $1 to $2 per night. Storm water and refuge fees are remaining flat this year and I'll touch on those briefly later in the presentation. And our public utilities, we will be including the annual programmed increase for the um public utilities fees. We are seeing still the declining annual reassessment revenue increases. We saw quite a large bump uh 23 22 um but we are not seeing those now 24 25 26 and moving on into 27. I've already mentioned the increasing disabled veterans exemptions. We're looking at approximately 18 million for FY27 revenue loss. And then the last two bullets here discuss uncertainty surrounding federal funding and the future tariffs, inflation, and unemployment. Moving on to expenditure impacts. Continuing with service excellence, we are including additional staffing to improve public safety and court services. As mentioned, we have increases in operating costs for some of the new buildings and facilities. We have proposed five million increase in

school funding with a potential to increase to 7 million and I'll discuss that a little more during the education portion. Technology maintenance contracts is seeing a continual increase year-over-year. We're seeing increases for those contracts. We are also going to be seeing the beginning of the refu and recycling sips sort alternative waste disposal program. So, we're transitioning from curbside to co-mingled recycling and that will end our recycling contract. The change to the moving to the sips of sort recycling process will also reduce the need to expand landfill capacity in the future. So, there's a potential savings there into the future. Even though at the beginning we are going to see an increase in cost. We are going to try to leave refugees flat by ending the recycling contract. the pending salary study efficiency review. Um, that's part of the concern we have with regional compensation pressure and I'll discuss that as well. This is our FY27 proposed budget by fund and this is our total budget here under the FY27 column next to the last column on the right compared to the FY26 budget and then the final column is a change. So I have highlighted the uh larger changes here and I will discuss those some more in detail. So moving on to some other budget priorities or our main budget priorities maintaining service excellence. Um so we're minimizing uh the service delivery increases to allow for a 1 cent tax decrease. Our proposed real estate tax rate is going to a$16 reduced from a$17. In 2022, our tax rate was a $111. In 23, you can see here that it was dropped to

a $19 with a twocent tax cut. In 24, we provided a twocent tax credit. And then in 25, we went to a permanent twocent tax cut to $17. Now again, in FY27, FY25, sorry. Now in FY27 we are going to have another 1 cent tax cut. This$16 is lower than the precoid rate of A17 and it's also lower than the dollar7 rate that we had 10 years ago. Continuing to discuss our tax rates. The top left bar chart here shows our tax rate for real estate compared to the seven cities the seven cities in our region here. So we are the third lowest tax rate for real estate. The bottom right is personal property. We are the third lowest for personal property as well. Um that's general purp personal property. It does not include im uh machinery and tools, boats, RV, airplanes or mobile homes. So this slide provides more specifics about how we cut taxes for this year's budget. First, for expenditure cuts, we did cut capital outlay this year to zero from 1.4 million in the year prior. That's one of the operational impacts that we that I mentioned at the beginning. Travel and training was also reduced. Most lines saw a 10% reduction from current year budget and the overall budget reduction was 6%. There is a leadership um program that has been included. So the overall decrease is 6%. New positions were also reduced to 24. Um we had 46 approved in 40 46 last year and 44 the year before. So we have significantly reduced the number of new

positions that have been approved for the FY27 budget. Under minimize major expenditure growth schools increases maintained at 5 million. Again, I'll go into more about school budget shortly. The funding of local and regional partnerships have been maintained. And if you'd like to see an outline of the detail by item uh by organization, that's available online. The last bullet here, programming use of capital reserve fund balance. Using the capital reserve surplus funds will definitely be instrumental in limiting a tax increase over the next five years as we are uh having the uh capital projects for schools and transportation. Maintaining competitive compensation. We are recommending only a 3% cost of living this year for employees. Uh we are also including a 1% adjustment to make progress toward matching the other local cities increases employee salaries. I've mentioned already that we're reducing the staff request to only 24. You will see in the list here that 15 of those 24 approved safety uh approved positions are for public safety. Four in fire and 11 in police. There's three other positions here for the courts and uh commonwealth attorney's office. So most of these positions are for public safety. Moving on to the discussion of the school's budget request. This table here provides a five-year overview of the local request for school funding in the f uh first column right after the fiscal year here. The second column is what we actually funded. And then the difference between their request and what we funded is in that third column but well technically fourth. The final increase column, you can see that over the last

five years, we have increased the annual school budget by almost $21 million. This year, there's a request by the schools for a $14 million local funding increase. Uh that's what the school board adopted. The original $7 million that is included in this proposal that is talked about throughout this proposal was from a proposal by the superintendent. During the budget adoption by the school board, they have increased that request another $7 million for maintenance. As mentioned, there's a $5 million operating increase proposed in the city budget. We are expecting some additional funding presented in the House and Senate budget bills. And so when the uh general assembly reconvenes beginning next week, there will be some additional state funding included to increase teacher compensation. Uh there will also be a higher sales tax distribution to schools. So since some of that additional funding can be used to cover the increased cost of additional teacher compensation that is being proposed, the final true-up amount that will be needed is unknown right now. the true up amount from local contribution. So, we believe that this is the correct process for making the most of the additional state funding because as it sits right now, if we were to put the full $7 million in, we wouldn't know how much of the additional state funding would be um we could use to cover I'm getting that mixed up. Sorry. So, we need that extra $2 million so that we can be a little more um have a little more leeway to match the additional funding for teacher raises. Um so, since there's going to be a review of additional school funding needs that will take place after the state budget process is completed, we are only recommending the $5 million for now and

we will come back and do a budget amendment request. So our total investment in public education for FY27 is $105 million. We are the third highest per people expenditures in the seven city region. We are seeing a $22 million increase in annual local funding over the last five years. Our public education investment is 30% of the city operating budget and local funding exceeds the state required contribution by over $20 million. A somewhat itemized list of what is included in this $105 million. 86 million in local funding for school operations which includes the $5 million increase. $7.7 million capital funding increasing to 36 million next fiscal year, 800,000 for school administration operations, building leases, and 11 million for schools related debt service. Uh some examples of other educational investments that's not included in this number is the 20 SRO's to cover every school, public safety committee requests, and before and after school programs. Moving on to general fund. You can see here these are our major revenue sources. Our general property tax uh the assessor discussed that we are seeing somewhere around a 4% increase for real estate and you can see that reflected in that top right uh 4% number. The total increase we're seeing this year for general fund is 5%. And to see what our operating expenditures are going to be, this is the list by function. So we have general government, judicial, public safety, all the way down to non-EP departmental. Our

biggest increase is there in public safety at $6.6 million and education is second at $5 million. Moving on to other fund highlights, the refuge fund is 14.8 8 million which is a 5% increase or $820,000. As mentioned, the recycling service transition to the SIPA sort process is included. There will be two new positions for the SIPA recycling process and no rate adjustment. The storm water fund is seeing a 2% increase. No change to the $7.50 50 cent monthly storm water fee and the rate adjustment may still be necessary as uh into FY28 to provide for long-term storm water drainage and capital project financing. Um for we are not issuing any debt for storm water. We are going to continue to use the capital funding that we have on hand to fund those projects and so we are not expecting to need a storm water increase in FY27. Moving on to these other three funds here. Risk management being the first. There's a 19% increase in the workers comp and load coverage. Load being uh line of duty for public safety. 12% increase in property and casualty coverage and a million dollar increase for claims payments for recent catastrophic losses. The transit system is seeing a 31% increase to $3.6 6 million. Um that's $850 total. $375 is coming from federal revenue and the balance is general fund transfer. An information technology fund has a $3.5 million total budget increase. The largest increase is $3.1 million in

maintenance contracts mostly for public safety. We are doing an efficiency study uh and an IT asset inventory mapping so that we can determine if we have any duplication in our IT assets and possibly uh move on to an ERP system transition public utilities. There's a 13% increase in public utilities $10 million. The largest increase of that is 7 million for CIP funded by fund balance. CIP being capital projects. The total increase programs for FY27 is 5%. An average bill will see an increase of $5.90 per month. Capital projects fund. We're seeing a 27% decrease. The reason it's a large decrease is because we don't have any new transportation projects that need to be have that need to have funding approved for the first year of the CIP. Uh we do have $87 million budgeted in total capital funds projects and 61.4 in general government. Uh we are keeping the $35 million program bond issuance and we have $18 million in PIGO and reserve transfer from general fund. So for those who would like to see this uh the detail of the budget that both the proposed budget and last week's or last the first of the month presentation has been posted to the city's website at this web address and the red uh squares there will help you get to where you need to go. We also have access on the city's homepage at this website address. you scroll to the scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on tracking the budget and that will get you to that same screen that you saw on the previous slide.

Some additional public access repeated here is the URLs for the website. You can also get a full document available for review not only at the city website but at the municipal municipal building at the city clerk's office, city libraries and then the four Suffach recreation centers mentioned here. You can call the budget division at this phone number or send an email to budget officer sufficva. us if you have questions. One important item to note is the public hearing notice does need a correction and we will be providing this publishing this correction in the newspaper. Uh the error shown here is that the ordinance for levying tangible personal property showed mobile homes at a $19 per $100. However, the correction should be mobile homes at $16 per $100. So we do typically tax mobile homes even though they're considered personal property the same as we tax real estate at the same rate. So only change here is to the personal property tax rate 1 cent reduction for mobile homes. The correction does not affect tonight's public hearing and the personal property tax rate hearing um will be May 6th. Showing that here on the calendar we had the presentation April 1st on the budget originally. Tonight we're having um or April 7th we had held a public information meeting. Forgot that. Sorry. And then April 15th being tonight is the public hearing. May 6th we'll have the public hearing on both the effective rate increase for the reassessment and the personal property tax rate that I just mentioned and then budget adoption as well.

Do are there any questions? Thank you Stephan. Before we open the public hearing, madam clerk, will you please explain the timing system? This is a public hearing and each speaker is asked to provide their name and their address and will receive three minutes to offer their comments. We have our first speaker, please.

Good evening. Dwight James, 211 Lynon Avenue, Suffach, Virginia 23434. Good evening, mayor, members of the city council. I keep hearing that this budget is about affordability, but when I talk to the families in this city, that word seems like it's starting to feel like a lip service. We are one of the strongest fiscal positions some of us have ever had. We've ended last year with $50 million in surplus and we're sitting with $570 million in cash. So, I have to ask, if we're doing well, why are why are our citizens still feeling the pressure? On paper, a 1 cent reduction in real estate tax sounds good. But in reality, it's a shell game. That one cent that 1 cents gets completely eaten up by the 4.43% increase in assessments. Then you add water and sewer increases and now that average household isn't saving anything. They're actually paying more. That's about $150 more in real estate taxes and another $85 in utility bills. So again, I ask, where is the relief? We've been told for years that commercial growth would take the pressure off our residents. So I'm asking you plainly now, when is that time? If we can't provide relief with $50 million surplus, was that ever really the plan? Now, let's talk about the spending. We're adding $3 million for IT upgrades and close to another million dollars for SUVs for a fleet of vehicles. We've all seen the the fleet of vehicles in the back of the building sitting there not moving for days. The average car in America lasts 14 years. So I ask this, how many of those vehicles out back are actually close to that? I would say none. Why are we buying more vehicles instead of cutting costs and eliminate the vehicle license fee? That would be real relief. something people could feel today. Then we look at utilities. SuffK already has the highest water bills in the state and

now we're talking about another 8% increase. At that same time, we're planning to cash fund over $20 million in projects. And I get it. Paying as you go sounds responsible, but what it really does is it force today's residents to carry the full burden. Why not spread some of that money out over time by financing over 30 years? And here's the biggest question. Why are we expanding systems that aren't fully aren't fully being used right now? According to the budget proposal, less than 65% of the available capacity is being used. We need to stop overbuilding and start being smarter what we already have right now. That's exactly what suffer looks like. If anybody knows what the Parkinson law is, basically the more money you have, the more money you spend. So, it seems like that's what we're doing. Five years ago, the project was budgeted, the projected budget for this year was $281 million. Now, it's $356 million. That's a $75 million increase. That's over 1,700 per household in the city. That money should be on kitchens tables, gas, and people's cars, and birthdays and Christmases for their kids. And during the same time, our population only grew about 5%, but our budget grew about 50%. That math does not make sense to taxpayers. In real world, people are being asked to do more with less every day. It's time that our city government does the same. Last year, we heard about a lot of uncertainties, reasons why we couldn't get relief. But when we look at the numbers, those uncertainties turned into more money than expected. Millions more came in from the Commonwealth. We got millions more. The funding came in, the opportunity was there, but the action wasn't.

I'm sorry, sir. Your time is up. All right, that's fine. Thank you. We have our next speaker, please.

Hello. Good evening. I'm Ashley Green. Uh, reside at 4525 Prudin Boulevard here in Suffukk and I am here on behalf of Western Tower Free Clinic as executive director located at 2019 Me Parkway. Um, mayor, vice mayor, council members, and city administration staff, thank you for allowing us to come before you tonight. I'll be brief with respect to your time. I'll try and cut it even shorter than my two and a half that's left. Um, thank you for what you've done for the clinic in the past. Our partnership goes deep, long, wide. Just a few things to note as you consider this final budget proposal. 60% of our patients at the clinic are Suffach residents. That equates to 1,072 residents. In addition, we have a few other numbers. Our annual cost of care is $1600. Every 96 cents invested in the clinic goes straight to patient care services. In addition, 75% of our patients do not utilize the emergency department once they're in our care. That helps you, your families, and our community by um our services that we provide. And in the past two years, we've experienced a total of 10% in expense increases while also serving the largest numbers of patients we've ever served. With that being said, we respectfully request that you consider. I know there's a lot to do and again agree with the statement more to do and less to do it with. We do consider we do ask that you consider our full request this year as we are stretched and we are running right now with a budget deficit and we feel that what we can do in our

partnership is to continue to serve the residents here in Suffach who need our services. In addition, our uninsured patient population is growing and that's only going to continue with the healthc care landscape. So, we stand before you. I stand before you tonight on behalf of the clinic to ask that you consider us as a resource to the community and that you consider our full request. And we thank you for what you've done for us in the past and for your partnership.

Thank you. We have our next speaker, please. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and City Council. My name is Linda Johnson. I work at the Independence Center at 6300 East Virginia Beach Boulevard in Norfick, and we serve SuffK residents. Um, I'm here to tonight to thank you for your continued support of the Independent Center. Through this funding, we've been able to make meaningful impact within the Safic community. with for people with disabilities. With your support, the independent center has provided information and referral services to 132 suffic residents with disabilities. In addition, we deliver 160 hours of direct services, including assistance with home modifications, housing support, employment support, benefits counseling, and independent living skills trainings. We are very proud to provide pre-employment transition services priets to students with disabilities. We are currently serving 40 students across all three of the Suffach high schools and have provided 379 hours of transition services to date. Our staff work closely with school transition counselors to ensure coordinated and effective services for students. Through these services, students have gained essential skills in self advocacy, learning how to speak up, express their goals, and communicate what they want for their future rather than having decisions made for them. They also have increased their understanding of transition from school to work and what that process look like for them individually. So, we're just here to thank you for your continued support. Um, with the support, this makes all of this possible. and um we um truly appreciate um

everything that you do to help us to um get our mission out into the community especially in our suffix area with the students especially and I appreciate your time tonight. Thank you. Thank you. We have our next speaker please.

Good evening, Mayor Dumman and members of city council. First and foremost, I want to say thank you for this opportunity. Um, I will not provide my address at this moment because I'm a law enforcement personnel and I'm a protective voter, but I can give it to um, the clerk um, at a later time. Can we get your name, sir? Tyron Riddick. Thank you.

Yes, sir. I'm Tyrron Riddick and I am the senior board member for Suffach City Public Schools and I'm here today to urge you all for your support to fully fund Suffach public schools asked. Um there's a lot of misinformation that is going on in regards to exactly what the Senate proposed budget will include or what it may not include. So I just want to hit on some of those points. So I stand before you today uh to strongly urge you to fully fund Sufffort Public Schools 2627 schoolboard budget. This budget is not about extras. It is about meeting real pressing needs. It ensures that all staff, teachers, uh, support personnel, bus drivers, and custodians receive raises they have earned and deserve. These are individuals who show up every day to make our school system flow in a harmonious fashion. Furthermore, I want to go into for the sake of time what the Senate bill does, the Senate proposed budget does not include. Uh, when the Senate give us additional money, it is restricted funds. So, if it's funds for food, we can't use it anywhere else. of his funds for special education. We can't use it anywhere else. The state required us to do a cost of living adjustment, but it was not fully funded. So, with that being said, the Senate version also excludes any funds for bonuses. Um, this information was also clarified. The Senate also did not include any funds for the special education department that they was asking for. And what we're faced with now, as you know, to fund Northern Shores, we deferred our preventative maintenance for a series of years to finance that project. Now, the bill is due for us. The longer we kick the can down the road far as doing u infrastructure maintenance at our school system, we're going to fall further behind and the cost will continue to drive and go up and up and up. And what we're asking you is for your hand in support as you all have always done, but

we're asking even more so now that you would support us at Suffach City Public Schools by helping us address the maintenance issues that we have. The longer we wait, everything is going up. And we just wanted to echo that sentiment to you. We need your help to move forward in the right direction. Without your support in this budget, we can't do it. And when we come back again, the cost numbers will change. As you remember, John F. Kennedy started as a $42 million project, but by the time we finished the John F. Kennedy mil um middle school project, it was 74 million. The longer we wait to address our maintenance issues, the more cost our taxpayers will have to pay. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Do we have anyone present who would like to speak at this time? Is there anyone present that would like to speak? Hearing none, this public hearing is now closed. Council, we don't have any action necessary this evening, but if you have any questions and comments, now would be the time hearing. None. We'll move on to our next public hearing, which is a resolution to adopt the fiscal year 2026 27 annual action plan for the city of SuffK Community Development Block Grant Program, also known as CDBG, and the Western Tidewater Home Consortium Home Investment Partnership Grant Program, known as HOME. Mr. Manager, please provide an overview. Mayor, vice mayor, members of council, uh Dedra Garrett, our community development and housing grant administrator, will provide the presentation.

Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, and members of council. Uh as you know, it's that time of year again to adopt our fiscal year 2026 27 annual action plan. Uh the annual action plan is our strategic implementation document uh on our one-year funding horizon. It identifies specific uses for the community development block grant known as CDBG and our home investment partnership grant known as home. It's coordinated with preparation of the operating and capital budgets and it's developed in accordance to federal regulations in the city of Suffach citizen participation plan. Um the CDBG and home programs are there to benefit the low to moderate income families and support uh SUFFK our city administers both programs. It is specific to the city of Suffukk, our CDBG funds, uh, and they focus on developing viable urban communities and provide funding and support of a wide range of community development activities. Our home program we administer on behalf of the Western Tidewater Home Consortium uh, which is comprised of the city of Suffach, the city of Franklin, is of White County and Southampton County. Uh it focuses on housing and home ownership and homeowner occupied rehabilitation. So uh this number we had approximate numbers but we just received our actual allocation. Um so our CDBG funding is actually going to be 515935. Uh and our home allocation is going to be 389723. So we just got that. Um these are the subreients uh for our CDBG programs. Our public services are capped at 15% but we assist the Western Tidewater Free Clinic for Kids, the Geneive Shelter, Boys and Girls Club of Southeastern Virginia, Children's Harbor, uh the Hillpoint

Trace Project happening here in our city, uh and our homeowner occupied rehab program. the home members or the consortium members again uh those four cities or localities we split up the allocation equally between them and our community housing development organization otherwise known as CHTO gets 15% of our total allocation as well. Uh so our public comment period is still open until April 29th. Uh today we are having the public hearing. Uh we hope to adopt the plan May 6th and then submit to HUD on June 15. I will be here for any questions. Okay. Thank you, ma'am.

Before we open the public hearing, madam clerk, will you please explain the timing system? This is a public hearing and each speaker is asked to provide their name and address and will receive three minutes to offer their comments.

We have our first speaker, please. Do we have anyone present who would like to speak to this resolution? hearing none. This public hearing is now closed. Uh there is no action necessary tonight regarding this item. If anyone has any questions or comments now would be the time. Hearing none, we'll move to our next public hearing which is an ordinance to amend section 31-416.2 of the unified development ordinance of the city of Suffach, Virginia. This is OTAA 20263. Mr. manager, please provide an overview.

Mayor, vice members, mayor, mayor, vice mayor, members of council. Uh, presenting at the public hearing is Meg Pittinger, our assistant director of planning. Uh, this should look very familiar as, uh, she went through this during the work session.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council. Again, um, I'm going to walk you through some changes uh, that are upcoming to our flood maps and our flood regulations. Um, FEMA has produced new flood insurance rate maps for Suffach and the city's flood maps were last updated on August 3rd, 2015. So, it's been been about a time about, you know, that amount of time and and this is the typical schedule that that FEMA does to to update blood maps. Um, we did receive our letter of final determination from FEMA on January 7th. This was delayed due to the federal shutdown. We originally anticipated it back in the fall. Um, and the LFD does set the effective date of the firms for July 7th, 2026. Um, as a participant of the NFIP, which is a national flood insurance program, the city has to ensure that our flood management regulation and enforcement meets the NFIP standards that are in the code of federal regulations, and that includes amending our ordinance to adopt the new maps. Um so FEMA again is responsible for mapping the country's flood risk. They do this with their technical partners um and they make the firms um which also are referred to as the flood maps. They produce a number of other products afterwards um called the the flood risk report and the flood risk map. Um these help property owners and regulators and developers in mitigating and minimizing flood risk to properties. Um, and again, these tools will be produced by FEMA and their partners after the maps are adopted. Uh, so the schedule, and I'll go over the schedule at the end, um, where that we're following. Um, we submitted our draft ordinance to DCR back in the fall. Again, we were anticipating that we

would get our letter back then, but but that didn't happen. But we went ahead and submitted it to DCR, and they reviewed it. Um, they had very minimal changes that we incorporated. Um we had our planning commission public hearing uh last month and we're here tonight for you all to consider these changes to adopt uh changes to the ordinance and adopt the new maps. Um after this we will submit we're required to submit the signed and adopted ordinance to the department of conservation recreation that is the state agency that regulates flood mapping and dam regulation um no later than 30 days prior to the effective date. So no later than June 5th. Um, FEMA will DCR will review it. They'll submit it to FEMA. FEMA will review it and then they'll update their records. And again, the new firms and the updated ordinance will be effective on July 7th. A lot of times when we update ordinances, they're effective immediately. This has a delayed effective date. Um, so people can can get their get their permits in line and be aware of the changes. Uh, so floods can floods occur naturally. Um they can occur almost anywhere. Anywhere that it rains, it can flood. Anywhere that's near body of water is likely, you know, going to be subjected to flood at some point. Um the national standard that FEMA has adopted um is the one what they call the 1% annual chance flood. Sometimes it's called the 100red-year flood. And that is a standard op adopted by FEMA nationwide um for the flood plane management purposes. We also have what's called the two the 0 2% which is the sometimes called the 500year flood zone. Um and again those are additional areas that we don't regulate but it tell gives people an idea that these areas might be at risk. You might want to take additional precautions. Um the flood maps show how likely it is for an area to experience flood. But it's worth noting that the that river and coastal

flooding are the basis for the maps. um flash flooding and and rainfall, heavy rainfall are not incorporated into the maps. These are about river coastal inundation from from water bodies, not from urban urban situations. So FEMA does use letter codes on the maps and I'll show you some examples of that um in the upcoming slides to denote where the flood zones are. The Vzones, that is the velocity zones, that's where there are wave actions, waves higher than three feet. That's how the modeling works. When the models come through and show that there's going to be waves in an area higher than three feet, three feet, those areas are designated with a V um to again denote velocity, that extra energy. We have the coastal um a zone, which is an area that has waves between three feet and a foot and a half. So, kind of a moderate wave action. That's where you've got we've got that what we call the limit of moderate wave action line shown on the maps. Um we have the regular Azones which are that 1% annual chance flood areas. Some of those have base flood elevations, some do not. Um in in some of the areas along some of the riverine areas, there's no base flood elevation. So people would have to calculate that. And then the other areas are the X zones that are outside of the regulated zones. Worth noting that the base flood elevations are relative to mean sea level. So in Suffach there are also what we call regulatory floodways. These are primarily along Shingle Creek and the Blackwater River. Regulatory floodways are areas where there's water flowing versus the tidal inundation of the Nansman River areas. So um regulatory floodway is basically the where there's a channel of a river. Um we have to regulate that to make sure that there's no um rise in the flood level one foot across that entire flood plane. Most of the areas that have floodway are not developable areas in Suffach because

again they are that river channel. I'll show you on the next slide kind of what that looks like a little bit. Um so in the coastal areas we have the the flood zones start out at the water. You have Vzones where you have waves. You'll have the AE zones that are that are inland from that often. Um then you have the Azones without the coastal a the limo without additional waves. And then the X areas which again are the areas of minimal risk. In a riverine situation again you've got that channel. So you regulate from the middle of the channel outward and the flood zones are kind of laid out similarly but they follow that channel of the river. So in addition to the flood maps, FEMA produces what's called a flood insurance study. The FIS has all the technical data. So, this is where developers and engineers as they're as they're looking at flood zone areas will look to find the technical data that went into producing the maps so that they can make sure that when they're doing their modeling that they have that technical data. So, the way that FEMA produces the maps is is the entire city is covered in in a grid. This is the firm panel index. Um, and you'll see this when you get your staff reports or your public hearing items that it'll show, hey, this property is located within flood zone X located on this certain panel and, you know, with the date. So, that's where this data comes from. It's related to this panel index and it it lets us know, it lets property owners know, lets you all know, lets the regulators know where the panel where the the property is located within that panel index within the locality. It's easier in Suffach in an area we have addresses, but you get out into rural areas where like properties are on the corner of County Road X and County Road Y and you don't know where it is. So, these panel indexes help localize a pro a property. So, FEMA still does produce printed

maps. This is what they look like when they're when they're printed out. Um, but and and all of this data is available. It's publicly available on the FEMA website, the map services center. That's what that MSE stands for. Go to mSE.fema.gov. and you can download all of this data publicly available. Um they also have map viewers that you can view it digitally which is a lot of time easier. And that's what this looks like. When you zoom in you can see on that flood map you've got all the various elevations listed here with your Vzone. It shows the number of feet. It shows the AE zone with the number of feet and then you show your Xshaded area there that that doesn't have any any flood elevation there. And the unshaded areas are those are the non-regulated areas. So when we're looking at a flood map to determine if a property is in a flood zone, that's what we're going to be looking at is whether or not that structure, that property touches, you know, these areas. I always tell people when you're looking at the flood maps, think of the blue areas that think of water. So if you see a blue area, that's an area that is in a regulated flood zone. The riverine areas look a little bit differently because again as I mentioned they have that that channel in the center. So you see this red and blue striped area down the center of Shingle Creek here. Um and that is that floodway area. Um and the base flood elevations on the floodways are shown a little bit differently. Rather than having those areas that have the AE9, AE10, VE1, they actually have the numbers. The specific numbers are actually listed on here. 17.1 17.3 and that is how you determine the base flood elevation in a floodway area. Thankfully, most of these floodway areas are not buildable. Again, it's the center of the creek and the creek is pretty small as opposed to a big, you know, like the upper James is is a larger floodway. This is actually a relatively small area, most of which is

not buildable. So the changes that we are seeing from FEMA are relatively small. They're they're minor they're small strips of land um along some of the areas that you know that are either water bodies or or along the creek um small strips of land most of which again is is not developable area. There are some areas also on the maps where there are decreases areas that will be what we call mapped out of the flood zone. Um so these are just some examples. Again, you can kind of see a lot of this is not developed or or won't be developed. Um, and so that's what we're seeing in the flood map changes that most of these changes are are just small strips that they're just increasing very small. Some of these properties may actually already be in the flood zone. They're just going into the flood zone a little bit more. And again, you see some areas where it's actually decreasing those purple magenta areas. Um, some additional areas here. And again, mostly just small little strips along vegetated areas along the creek. So, in addition to the maps, we are proposing some changes to the flood regulations ordinance themselves. Um, the flood regulations are contained in chapter 31-416.2 of the UDO. Um, in order for our flood ordinance to meet the NFIP requirements, we have to adopt the minimum standards. But by adopting higher standards, we can protect residents um and their properties from flood damage. Um it's important to note that homeowners insurance does not cover flood damage. So um you know, people need to have property owners need to have flood insurance specifically to cover any damage from flooding. Um and by having higher standards, again, all of this is about protecting properties. Having damage to properties is not is not a good thing for the community. It's not a good thing for the property owner. So

the flood insurance regulations are all about protecting property. Um so some of the things that we that are being proposed is a a slightly wider wider definition of development in the flood plane. Some additional freeboard and I'll walk through what that means. Um limits on the side of enclosure size of enclosures and accessory structures which gets us in line with the FEMA region three and the state model ordinance uh and requirement for a non-conversion agreement for accessory structures. Um these proposed higher standards will help better protect people on their property from flooding um and flood damage. So freeboard that we talk about in the flood world is the is a margin of safety. The minimum requirements are that you have to elevate to the base flood elevation. But but by elevating slightly higher you can protect against some unknown factors. you know, as cities get developed, you can have, you know, more development in locality. Um, and that can create higher flood levels than what the MA mapping shows. You can have, you know, high tide, full moon, wind, a storm, some of those things that can be higher than what the modeling showed. And so by having a little bit of freeboard, you provide a little extra safety to those properties. And that's what that looks like here. You got your base flood elevation and that blue line on the picture. And then again the the top of the bottom floor there in the house is slightly above that. So what we are proposing is um 12 in a foot above the base flood elevation um for both residential and non-residential construction. Um the 12 in are aligns with what is already required in the building code. So that shouldn't be an additional burden on on builders that are in the flood zones. It's worth noting that Suffach has fewer properties in the flood zone than some of our neighboring communities. Suffach's got a fair amount of elevation. You go a

little bit closer east and some of those those localities have much lower elevations. Much more of their cities are in the flood zones. Uh Suffach is actually pretty fortunate that not a lot not as much of the city is actually in the regulated flood zones. Um, in the coastal areas where you've got those waves that I talked about earlier, we're proposing an 18inch freeboard. So, an extra 6 in. When you have those waves, it's always advisable to provide a little bit extra elevation because, as you know, we've all probably seen on the news, you know, waves come in, they can be higher than what you expected. So, by having a little bit extra elevation, um, you provide, again, a little bit more of a margin of safety. There are not a lot of Vzone areas in the city that are actually buildable. Some of the Vzones, if you, you know, if you remember the map that I showed of some Vzones, it's kind of right on the edge. Some of that is not buildable anyway. It's a slope or there's Chesapeake Bay regulations. So, this should be a minimal impact, but for those areas that um that have a Vzone that somebody wants to build in, again, it gets them a little bit higher. And what that kind of looks like is, you know, you've got your still water elevation. That's that regular base flood elevation you'd have in an Azone. Then you have what they have the wave elevation which is above that. And then the proposal is for Vzones to have to be higher than than that wave by again that 18 inches that protects them from those wet that wave and all that wave energy coming in and potentially damaging the structure which can be pretty catastrophic. Like I said, I think we've all seen that on the news. Um, we're proposing some amendments for accessory structures in the flood zones. This gets us in line with the state model ordinance. About 10 or 15 years ago, I think FEMA region 3 came through the area and was concerned about the number of accessory structures, large accessory structures that were getting built and getting damaged in flood

zones. Um, and so they implemented some standards for FEMA region 3, which is which we are in. um that 600 square feet is the maximum size that is permitted for accessory structures. And you can see the definition here. It's a non-residential structure um on the same parcel. So again, a shed or a garage, that sort of thing. Um not to exceed 600 square feet unless you prohibited prohibit them completely, which we are not proposing to do. Um but again, not not used for human habitation. Um parking storage, flood resistant materials, that's a standard, you know, regular standard you're going to have in a flood zone anyway. Um you know, anchored for flotation. You don't want your shed getting picked up in in the flood and then, you know, ending up in your house or in your neighbor's house or out in the street or somewhere else. Um have to have flood vents. Again, that's a standard in any in the flood regulations. If you have an enclosed space, whether that's a crawl space or a structure like like an accessory structure, you have to have flood vents. Lets the it it provides a relief so that the water when it hits the side of the wall of the structure doesn't push against the wall. It lets the water go in and relief that pressure. Um and then again the non-conversion agreement so that um they can't then create a habitable structure so that we're not putting people's lives in danger when they're living in a structure that's in a flood zone. some definitions updates that are being proposed. Um again that accessory structure definition to come in in line with the state model ordinance. Um adding some some things to the definition of development to include temporary structures and temporary storage, permanent and temporary storage of materials and equipment again to protect those items being in a flood zone. Uh and then just a minor update to the floodway definition that gets us in line with with the FEMA regulations. It's worth noting that these definitions are contained within this section. Most

of the definitions in the UDO are in appendix A, but because these are specific to this section, they are contained within this section. So, recap on the steps. Like I said, we've already submitted to DCR. We had the public hearing with planning commission last month. Uh we're here with you all tonight for your consideration of the ordinance. Um we will we are required to submit the assigned and adopted ordinance to DCR no later than 30 days before the effective date and then the maps will become and the ordinance will become effective on July 7th, 2026. Planning commission at their meeting on March 17th voted 7 to one to approve a resolution recommending approval of the proposed amendments. And that is all I have for you. I will stand by for any questions you may have at the conclusion of the public hearing. Thank you, Miss Bener. Before we open a public hearing, madam clerk, please explain the timing system.

This is a public hearing and each speaker is asked to provide their name and address and will receive three minutes to offer their comment. This is a public hearing. Will the first speaker please come forward and provide their name and address? Do we have anyone present who would like to speak to this ordinance? Hearing no speakers. Public hearing is now closed. Council, an ordinance has been presented for your consideration. What is your pleasure? Council member Johnson. Move for approval. Got a motion for approval from council member Johnson. Council member Recctor. Second that motion.

Second from council member Recctor. Is there any discussion of the motion? Hearing none. Council members, prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madame clerk, please record the vote. The motion is approved by a vote of 8 to zero.

Our next public hearing is an ordinance to grant a conditional use permit to establish aggra business use on property located at 21101 Holland Corner Road, zoning map 52, parcel 13A. This is account number 153900800 CU 20252. Mr. Manager, please provide an overview. Mayor, vice mayor, members of council, Kevin Weine, director of planning, community development will provide the presentation.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. Mayor, vice mayor, members of council, this is a conditional use permit uh as it relates to the establishment of an aggra business use for property located at 21101 Holland Corner Road further identified as zoning map 52 partial 13A. Uh the operation is known as trailer works and the property is located within our rural agricultural land use designation within the 2045 comp plan. Uh here you can see the property there just off of Holland Corner Road. Um does not have any direct road frontage itself. Was created uh previously as a family transfer parcel. The property is 1 and a half acres in size and currently consists of a,450 square ft detached single family home on the property. Oh, sorry. Um you can see there's um quite the distance between uh it and any other adjacent single family residential structures as well as an existing vegetated buffer on both sides. All right. So the proposal uh is to establish an aggra business horse livestock utility trailer repair and maintenance on uh the property. Work would occur within an expanded detached garage to the rear. Uh this would be uh to the rear of the applicant's residence. Uh customers would only be allowed on site by appointment only.

Uh here you can see uh existing survey of the property. Uh you can see the twotory frame home uh there at the center. Towards the rear uh you have an existing garage uh that would be utilized when accompanied by a 32x 32 foot addition. uh that would help accommodate the utility trailer repair business. So as it relates to the scale and size uh it is compatible given the distance and the location particularly from other residential structures in the vicinity. uh it will provide services to the agricultural community and the property is zoned agricultural. Uh there would be limited uh traffic and noise impacts um most uh really as it relates to uh the proximity to those existing uh residential structures in the area. uh particularly when you the proposed conditions as recommended by staff uh would um limit the outdoor work to certain hours and uh make sure that customers only visit by appointment only. So, as such, staff is recommending approval of this conditional use permit uh with the conditions as noted in staff's report. And the planning commission at their meeting on March 17th uh by a vote of 8 to zero um have approved a resolution recommending approval of this application to you all this evening. Uh that concludes my report on this item. I'll be happy to stand by for any questions at the conclusion of the public hearing. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Wine. Before we open a public hearing, Madam Clerk, please explain the timing system.

This is a public hearing, and each speaker is asked to provide their name and their address. We have a 10-minute period for the proponents, a 15minute period for those in opposition, and then an additional 5 minutes for rebuttal.

This is a public hearing where the first speaker please come forward and provide their name and address. Good evening, Mayor uh vice mayor and members of city council. My name is Michael Mlan. I and my wife Audrey are the owners of 21101 Holland Corner Road and are the ones putting up the proposal. I am here to respectfully ask for your approval of the conditional use permit for Trailer Works. Trailer Works is proposed as a small appointment-only trailer repair business focused on horse trailers, livestock trailers, and util utility trailers. The kinds of trailers commonly used by people in the rural areas for agricultural, equestrian, and personal use. It is important for me to make clear that this business is not intended for tractor trailers, rigs, or commercial uh trucking size trailers. The focus is on smaller trailers that are commonly used by our local residents in our area. My goal is to provide a practical local service in a way that remains responsible, orderly, and compatible with the surrounding area. This is not intended to be a large commercial operation or a hightraic business. It is intended to remain small in scale, controlled by appointment, and operated in a way that minimizes impact on our neighboring properties. I understand the importance of preserving the rural character of the area and that is important to me as well because I live there too. I have been a resident here in Suffach my wife and I for this year will be 26 years. Um I also want to excuse me this business is meant to meet a practical need in the rural communities. People rely on horse trailers, livestock trailers and utility trailers to move animals, equipment and materials. Having a local option for maintenance and repair can be a benefit to those residents provided it is done responsibly and that is exactly how I

intend to operate trailer works. I appreciate the time that the staff, the planning commission and the council have given to this request and I respectfully ask for your support. Thank you. You have our next speaker to speak in favor of this ordinance. Do we have anyone else present who would like to speak in a favor? Hearing none. Do we have anyone present who would like to speak in opposition to this ordinance? Once again, is there anyone here who would like to speak in opposition to this ordinance? Hearing none, this public hearing is now closed. Council, question, comments, or motion? Council member Williams? I reserve the spot from Mr. Johnson. You go ahead first. for our small business. And so I'd like to to recommend approval.

Can I get a motion for approval from council member Johnson? Do we have a second? Second. Got a second from council member Williams. Do we have any discussion of the motion? Hearing none. Council members prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madam clerk, please record the vote. The motion is approved by a vote of 8 to zero. Our next ordinance is an ordinance authorizing the acquisition of permanent and/or temporary easements either by agreement or condemnation for the North Sixth Street roadway drainage design project. Mr. Manager, please provide an overview.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, Greg Benton, director of public works, will provide the presentation. Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council, Mr. Manager. This item advances the North Sixth Street drainage improvement project. We're addressing a known drainage deficiency by installing approximately 1,200 linear feet of storm water piping along with curb and inlet improvements to mitigate reoccurring flooding along Sixth Street. This location functions as a primary collection point. Most of the upstream drainage flows downhill into this area. Importantly, this project represents the final segment needed to connect the water flow of Lloyd's Place subdivision to the Shingle Creek outfall, allowing the system to function as designed. An easement is required as shown in blue to install new storm water piping and connect to the existing piping at Seventh Street that leads to Shingle Creek Outfall. Shingle Creek Outfall is in the U top right of the screen just further down. The CDS rideway as shown in red along Sixth Street and the existing pipe as shown in yellow cannot be accessed currently for maintenance. Completion will improve system performance, reduce flooding impacts, and provide necessary long-term maintenance access. Pending any questions? That concludes my brief.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Bon. Before we open the public hearing, Madam Clerk, please explain the timing system.

This is a public hearing, and each speaker is asked to provide their name and their address. We will have a 10-minute period for the proponents, a 15-minute period for those in opposition, and then an additional five minutes for rebuttal. This is a public hearing where the first speaker please come forward and provide their name and address to speak in favor of this ordinance. Do we have anyone present who would like to speak in favor? Hearing none. Do we have anyone who would like to speak in opposition to this ordinance? Once again, do we have anyone present who would like to speak in opposition to this ordinance? Hearing no additional speakers, this public hearing is now closed. Council questions, comments, or a motion. Council member Williams.

Move to approve. A motion for approval from Council Member Williams. Council member Wright. Second. Second from Council Member Wright. Is there any discussion of the motion? Hearing none. Council members, prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madam clerk, kindly record the vote. The motion is approved by a vote of 8 to zero. Before we move to item number 13, we're going to have a brief fivem minute recess and we will reconvene in about 5 minutes.

City Council is now back in session. As I've mentioned before, I do have a conflict of interest in regards to item number 13. So, Vice Mayor Ward will be presiding over this issue. Madame clerk,

ordinance number 13, an ordinance to reszone and amend the official zoning map of the city of Suffach to change the zoning from B2 general commercial zoning district to RU18, residential urban 18 conditional zoning district to apply profer conditions to property zoned mixeduse development overlay district, MUD, and to apply proper conditions to property zone B2, General Commercial Zoning District, for property located at 1700 and 1802, North Main Street, zoning map number 25, parcels 45A and 45E, zoning map 26E, parcel F, aster G, aster PT, asterric J, account number 2530,662000, 2530 6710 and 254001810 RZN 20225-00004 conditional and this item was continued from the March 18th 2026 city council meeting.

Mayor, vice mayor, members of council, Kevin Weine, director of planning and community development will provide the overview. Mayor, members of council, um as you are aware, uh the applicant provided us with a request, uh to defer, uh this item for an additional, uh 30 days to your second meeting in May. That'd be your May 20th meeting. um largely due to the president uh presence of um a bald eagle on the property and they're working with the US Fish and Wildlife on that issue. Um so with that said, what I'm presenting to you tonight is the application in the form that we have as it relates to the profers that we have executed um on the application at this time and and not much has changed since our last presentation on this item. Uh the applicant is seeking to reszone uh 89 acre parcel uh located along God um North Main Street, excuse me, um from B2 uh to RU18 for a large portion of it and they would uh retain uh some B2 along the frontage and uh they would place some profers on um that portion of the property. So, as it relates to the application uh that we have to present to you this evening, uh the site consists of 89 acres. Like I said, it's along North Main Street, immediately south of the OBC Place development. Uh the site currently zoned B2, a small portion uh owned by the EDA is zoned MUD. Uh the applicant um as proposing with those December profers that we have in hand and executed uh are looking to reszone 72 acres of the site to RU18. Uh this would accommodate the construction

of 497 uh residential units to include 329 town homes and 168 age restricted multif family units. Uh 17 acres would be preserved as B2 to allow for commercial and office use along North Main Street and a waterfront arena, marina, clubhouse, and potential restaurant on the southeast corner of the Nansman River. Um architectural elevations have been provided by the applicant. uh road improvements as outlined in the TIA um have been profered an execution of a road maintenance agreement um with the EDA uh for the uh 6.6 acres of um u basically a road maintenance um and some common open space along North Main Street. Uh we were provided a draft profer as it relates to some phasing um at this point uh that that's not uh part of this application because it's not uh included within um that profer and December. Uh here we have that reszoning exhibit. It really breaks down what portions of the property would be zoned what um should it be approved. The orange there uh would be the balance of the um RU18 zoning. uh the portion of the property that would change uh they would maintain a 6.6 acre uh portion of B2 at the that would technically be the uh south uh eastern port uh portion of the property and another portion along North Main Street as conceptualized. Uh this is what a development of that many units would look like uh in that configuration. A key point of this application relates to uh the schools and how the applicant is uh profering advancement of capacity

um for the schools impacted by this development. They profered the conveyance of a 2.3 acre parcel or uh site and office building uh valued at $6.27 million for the future use of the SUFFK public schools administration building. Uh the property would be conveyed in lie of advancing capacity uh for the schools impacted by the development proposal. Specifically those impacts to Hillpoint Elementary and Kings Fork High School uh would be offset through the advancement of capacity at a total cost of $4.7 million. So the value of the site and building exceeds this amount. Uh the CIP does include uh a project um well at the time of original application um there was a CIP project um for the uh new school admin that has since uh been amended um in in an amount. Um so we do have some elevations on uh this development as provided by the applicant uh to show the multif family product as well as the town homes. And as a reminder, the planning commission at their meeting on October 21st by a vote of 7 to1 approved a resolution recommending of approval of uh this application uh with the profers as offered. Um I wanted uh to note that um as it relates to the request presented by the applicant yesterday, the deferral request um they are working to address some issues that have arisen and we do anticipate that that would impact the development proposal. um specifically addressing the issue that they referenced in their letter yesterday may impact the development footprint uh the development schedule

phasing and uh potentially the number of units. Um additionally, a draft profer statement provided in February indicates that the developer does plan to develop a portion of the site as affordable housing. uh that is not in the proposal um as currently presented uh because we do not have an executed profer uh for that February profer that was provided in draft form. Uh so it's uh for these reasons uh reasons and understanding that the proposal is likely to uh reduce intensity and in impact uh versus what is currently presented uh that we as staff are recommending you defer your consideration of this request at this time. Um, there's not a public hearing on this item this evening. It's uh presented as an ordinance. I will stand by for any questions you may have.

All right. Thank you.

Okay. Our ordinance has been presented for council consideration. A motion is in order. What is the pleasure of city council? Thank you, Vice Mayor. Um, I want to take a minute here. Um, this proposal has been before us for many months. And I want to say first of all that I appreciate the efforts of staff, of the planning commission, of our citizens, and of the applicant to try to make this an excellent project. And I will tell you honestly there are elements of it that I think are really positive. There are also elements of it that um I do not agree with. Um, and from the very beginning in all the conversations that I've had from the very first time any of this uh was brought before us, what I wanted to see was that that we put this very unique and particular parcel to its very best use as possible because it is a unique parcel. It is in our downtown and uh you know we don't have anything we don't have a land mass like that anywhere else. So I I was very committed to the idea that we figure out what the best use of this particular parcel would be. Um the whole process honestly has been complicated and fraught with problems. Um it we've been de we we've delayed it. the uh applicant has delayed it and uh we come to tonight where we're looking at yet another delay and there needs to be a decision on whether the good elements of this particular decision uh or the negative elements um are are what we you know what's the balance of those two things and I think at this point um there are many

questions and many um concerns so I want to say this um this is not just about eagles. I like eagles, but this is not just about eagles. This is not just about environmental concerns. This is not just about traffic concerns. This is not just about our school system and our capacity at our schools. This is not just about the school administration offices. This is not about open space in the city of Suffuk. is not just about affordable housing. It's about all of those things making it extremely complicated and something that we have to deliberate and consider and make sure that we are making the very best use of this very unique pro property. And that being said, I would like to make a motion to deny Mr. Johnson.

Thank you, M. Barlo. This this project, I mean, it's been going forward since October 1st. Since I've been on council, I've never We've had controversial projects before, but we've never recognized a project that has gone on this long. I don't even remember some of it anymore. And my my list could go on and on and on. As well as what Miss Barlo said, I agree with everything she said. But what I'd just like to make a couple of comments for her. Traffic is not what it's about. For me, traffic is part of what it's about. I am not in favor of putting any more congestion on Main Street to fight the fact that it's coming. I mean, we're all going to have congestion, but now is not the time. This project is is not today, and it shouldn't go forward today because of traffic. In my opinion, the school profits are inappropriate. Taking that building the way we are and allowing them to overstock our kids with more I mean schools with more kids, it's inappropriate. I don't agree with the concept. I don't weary with the way this is going forward. Um my overwhelming objection, however, is I want to read something and I'm I'm out of line. Okay, just know that this is from February 16th, 2016. This is back after the OBC deal when we were told eventually we would have the VOTE site and we could do something really cool with it. We make a park out of it. We'd have something the people of the city would forever be proud of. Wait, just don't it's not to be applauded because I'm not I'm not appropriate doing this, but I'm doing it because I can't stand it. I I have been against this project from day one. Not against the developer. You guys are just trying to do what you do. But I'm against where we as a city have failed our citizens. So, what I'd like to what please please please don't all I want to say this letter was sent by the Isaac Walton League to to the Nancy Rodriguez, Secretary of Administration of Virginia. And what she asked was,

um, you recommend that the city commonwealth implement a policy which would require evaluation of open space, recreation, and water access potential of state-owned surplus properties, which this site was about to become a part of. You argue that such a policy would enhance Virginia's conservation and recreation efforts. I apologize for this late response, but where does the state stand on that? And the letter goes on to say in this case they didn't view this property was good for that. And I somebody missed it. Missed it so badly because that property despite the problems we've got with it. We know there are problems there. There's all kinds of things in the ground that are going to have to be dealt with. Um there's all kinds of future there. We missed it as a city. Now, this development's got first rights on it, of course, and he should have if he can take it and and do something with the present zoning, but I'm just not of the I don't want to reszone it so that we can go there and do something like what he's asking. I think it's just wrong. I And I thought it was wrong from day one. I'm sorry. And I'm I'm sorry it took us this long to do this. Our reaction tonight is that fortunately we have enough members of the group here that are tired of it and we if it comes back in a year, oh so be it. If these folks want to go ahead with it, we'll deal with it as we go forward. But come on, we can do better than this. And this is not the way these projects should go. That's all I'm saying. It's not the way they should go. So for that reason, I would like to second it. We got a motion. We got to approve at a second. There any discussions?

Yes, Mr. Right. Council, right?

Yes, sir. So, from the onset, my focus has been on ensuring that I'm making a well-informed decision that fully considers the impact to our infrastructure, our schools, and the surrounding community. In December, I advocated to defer this project so that council and staff could take a deeper look at those impacts and determine whether we had done everything within our power to mitigate them. During that time, progress was made. We engaged in discussions with the school board to better understand student enrollment projections and capacity across the area including Hillpoint Elementary and the broader planning for Elephants Fork Elementary. I also supported the Kimberly Bridge project being added back into the capital improvements program which is important for positioning the city to pursue future funding and address long-term transportation needs. develop. The developer did come forward with proposed additional profiters including affordable housing. Prior profers also included the school administrative office and a phase roll out of homes aligned with the anticipated buildout of Elephant Forks Elementary. And although Elephant Fork is not the servicing school, it's in the area. So, we had a conversation with the school board to discuss different ways we can mitigate the pipeline going into that service area. I do want to take a moment to commend the developer throughout this process. They have remained engaged and responsive. This is the type of relationship I believe we should continue to build moving forward while where developers engage in the process early on in the process, work collaboratively and address key concerns as part of the

process. That is how we move forward together as a city. While I do not believe we are fully where I would like us to be in terms of developers investing more into our community through profers, I do believe we are moving in the right direction. We did not get here overnight and we will not change that culture overnight. But we are headed in the right direction. So to Ryan Holmes, I do say thank you for listening. Thank you for considering the voices of the people and entering those uh recommendations into the profers. At the same time, there are still outstanding concerns that I do not believe have fully been resolved. Main Street is a major corridor and when I consider its proximity to Route 58 and the continued growth along Godwin Boulevard area, I believe we still have work to do adequately to adequately address traffic and infrastructure impacts. While steps have been taken, I do not feel that we have reached a point where those impacts have mitigated to a level that supports moving forward at this time. Additionally, while we had meaningful discussions regarding school capacity, there are still key variables that remain unresolved, and that uncertainty makes it difficult to fully understand and plan for long-term impacts in that area. I also want to address the school administration building as that was a significant factor for me. There were so many promises made to the school board that if they turn over certain properties to the city that they will be guaranteed a school administration office. I remember sitting through and listening to several city council meetings and several schoolboard meetings where that took place. Where our school board is, they are in horrible conditions. But I still

don't know at this point that where we are with the project and delaying it, whether now the current setback can even get us across the finish line with the schools. And because of that, it is no long no longer able to serve the purpose it was originally intended to support, which limits its value in my overall consideration. I do want to briefly address the concerns that have been raised regarding the eagle's nest. During the 30-day deferral period that I requested, I made multiple visits to the site with constituents to address their concerns. During one visit on January 31st, I personally observed an eagle's nest and shared my findings through the appropriate channels. Now, we're not here tonight and the eagle's nest is not within our purview and I'm not minimizing the importance of the eagle's nest, but there is a separation of duties. The role of this council and my decision tonight is based on a land use decision and it is within the federal agency's authorities and federal law that governs what needs to be done with the eagles. That is to be worked out with VOTE and whomever um gains this property after today. While I understand this concern, that matter doesn't fall under our jurisdiction. So my role here is to make that land use decision. So in general, I do want to say this because it's important to me how I govern and how I show up. In general, I follow a consistent approach in my decision- making. When staff and planning commission are aligned, that carries significant weight for me as it reflects a thorough review of the comprehensive plan. the UDO and the full planning process. I review the staff report closely and I look back to the UDO and our comprehensive plan to ensure alignment with our guiding documents. I

also want to be clear that I believe our staff does an excellent job and this approach that I do to you know trust but verify is not a reflection or any concern of the work that they do but it's just a matter of me making sure on behalf of the city citizens that I review their report and then I verify it against those governing documents. However, I've always said that when there are compelling concerns or when I believe we have not fully addressed the impacts of a project, I will take a closer look. That is what led me to defer this project in December and that is what continues to guide my decision today. I carry the voice of my constituents to this DAS and that responsibility is central to how I approach decisions like this. This is really long because this is complicated. There are a lot of things that we have to balance here when we look for decisions like this. When I took the seat of this dasis, we were already behind in infrastructure. There's no magic wand that you wave to get us ahead. So, it is a delicate balancing act to ensure that I make decisions that do not increase the gap. But I also don't think it's fair to place the entire burden of one street or one road or one project on one developer. I believe we strategically get there over time. So we did not get here overnight and we will not close that gap overnight. And my goal is to move forward in a way that is thoughtful and strategic so that we are not continuing to widen the gap. That includes using our capital improvement program effectively and continuing to build strong collaborative relationships with our developers so that they are willing to invest more into our community through voluntary profiters. This has been a thorough process and I appreciate the efforts that have been

made. However, my responsibility is to ensure that I'm making the best possible decision for the long-term interests of our community. And for those reasons, I will be voting no on this project.

Anybody else? Any discussion? I have to say something and I'm not going to take 45 minutes like I did the last time. I'mma be short and coming behind Councilman Wright. I I regret it. I don't have to have a a whole paper or sheet or written down. I'm going say it from my heart and that's the way I feel. I listen to both all three councilman's. And one thing about it, you can't have both one to the other. You call a developer, they communicate, which they did. They bend over backwards, which they did. You talk about the roads. You talk about the place. All is here. You talk about 58. Now look at 58. You did talk about the traffic. You talked about the traffic. Then you said traffic wasn't the problem. We we have discussed this three to four time. They pushed it off. And what bothered me the most and I didn't want to sit here because a lot of time when I get to this point I just don't say things I really should be saying but the fact is these this developer did everything was asked upon them and they they done that. The other fact is we already had one time a meeting and they pushed it back. Now we talking about another time. They not even here. I don't even know. Do they know what was the decision we made tonight because they feel that they already wrote they wrote in and we've been doing it forever. So I I don't know. I mean, like I said,

I understand how you feel, but when you said up here that you hear the governing and that's what you supposed to do, I know most y'all might be against me. That's fine. That is fine with me. But my heart says different and I listen to the developers and I listen to my council people. Yes, I do. But when are when we going to stop picking and choosing what's best for this section? and we ain't choosing for the other section. Everything they done said, then they say, "But they did a great job." Which one is it? They didn't do a great job. They did a great job. So, I I I'm just like I said, I'm I'm going to respect my council people, but I just don't feel that this these developers was treated fairly. I You can laugh all you want. I I it don't make me no difference, but I'm gonna say what I feel because you don't sit behind the desk or when we have conversations. We go I go to people and talk ask them the same thing. But I'm just sharing with you is that I feel that they did all they could do. They went down to price. They went for this elder. They did everything we asked upon them to do. And that's not a good picture as far as I'm concerned. So maybe if you move here for suffering suffer that's fine that's great too but suffers is not going to say the same they're not going to say the same and you talk about the traffic you ain't going to stop the traffic I got traffic of 17 been in 30 years I ain't seen traffic like that whatever but guess what happened we trying to get some old path or something it going to take time all it's going to take time it can't happen tomorrow we might can't see the changes what y'all want to see and suffer I don't know that Any other discussions? Council prepared a vote.

Let me ask you. Uh, yes is voting for it. Am I right? Yes is for denial. So yes is a no. Excuse me. Yes is for denial.

I got it. I got it. Okay. Vice Mayor, can you cast your vote, please? Thank you. The motion is approved by a vote of seven to zero. That's the motion to deny.

To deny.

I don't want to. I'm not deny. So, what happens? What's happen now? What's happen? What happened now? That's why I'm I don't know. All righty. We are now going to move to resolutions, which we have none this evening, nor do we have any staff reports, nor do we have any motions. Uh, we will now move to non-aggenda speakers. Madam clerk, do we have any non-aggenda speakers? And if so, please explain the guidelines.

Yes, Mayor Dum, we do have non-aggenda speakers registered this evening. Each person participating under the item of business entitled non agenda speakers shall limit their remarks to the services, policies, and affairs of city government and shall be permitted five minutes for the purpose of presenting his or her matter. Speakers appearing before city council will not be permitted to participate in the following activities to campaign for public office, engage in personal attacks, promote private business ventures, or use profanity. Speakers who violate these rules will be declared out of order by the presiding officer and will immediately yield the floor and be seated. Our first non-aggenda speaker this evening is Aaron Clemau, 113 Pitch Kettle Point representing self regarding environmental concerns.

Good evening. My name is Aaron Clemo. I live at 113 Pitch Pitch Kettle Point Drive in Suffach, Virginia. Mayor Duman, council members, this is outstanding news. SUFFK citizens, I have incredible news from Brian Watts, director at the Center of Conservation Biology, sent an email after an aerial assessment of the nest on March 18th. After which he stated, "I did check the nest and he it is marked that that was marked and they were still in incubation. So, I want everybody to know we're probably going to have eagles in those nests. Let's work together with the proper authorities to install an eagle cam for our eagles so residents across Hampton Roads, not just SuffK, can continue to enjoy and learn about these birds. I am more than willing to assist in any way. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, ma'am.

Our next speaker is uh Barbara Coder. Barbara Coder 5040 Bay Circle representing self regarding short-term home rentals. Good evening again. Barbara Coder 5040 Bay Circle in SuffK 23435. Good evening. I'm here to discuss uh short-term rentals. I frame this discussion from experience of living in Northern Virginia for 13 years that are in the 2000s, early 2000s where boarding houses and Airbnbs exploded as problems for my Springfield community which was a bedroom community of uh Washington DC. My experience in Fairfax County was the policy makers there were reactive vice proactive in dealing with these problems. policies only followed public outrage to parking, garbage, noise concerns, as well as crime. So, why am I here tonight talking about short-term rentals in Suffix? According to city officials, they're not permitted in the city. So, end of discussion, but like alcohol consumption during prohibition, short-term rentals exist in Suffach. All one has to do is Google Airbnb and Suffach and you'll find a myriad of Airbnb choices from single family houses, guest houses, tiny houses, and room rentals. One of these so-called Airbnbs has been operating in my neighborhood for two years. I've reported it about two years ago, and most recently, I reported about two months ago. It's still advertised as an Airbnb Airbnb and it is a guest favorite with 30 reviews. So, it's been occupied.

I've yet to see any action from the city. So, I don't know if city the city of Suffach has an enforcement issue or if they're just apathetic towards short-term rentals and their own policies. I asked how I would receive feedback about my complaint and I was told all complaints are anonymous and that there would be someone to go investigate the property and I thought this approach was somewhat odd because short-term rentals are generally not occupied by the owner. There are strong indicators that I'm going to have a second Airbnb in my small neighborhood, residential neighborhood of about 90 homes. An investor group purchased a home in December for 725K and is in the process of making home improvements to turn this into a commercial Airbnb venture. Interesting enough, the home in question sold for about 275K above the city's current tax assessment. At this price, it's doubtful that the home could be rented as a traditional rental in my neighborhood. One of the investors let cat out of the bag and said, "Yeah, the plan was to make it a future Airbnb." My neighborhood in Respus Beach is one of the oldest in North North Suffach. It's quiet, familyowned, operated community with waterfront access. My neighborhood has real character and history. Many home owners are related and many of them grew up together. I'm kind of the outsider, but I feel honored to have found this community. We don't have a HOA. We don't have a neighborhood watch. We don't need them. We have a strong civic involvement and civic league. People know each other. They they go walk their dogs daily. They talk to each other. They help each other out with projects. We hold a Fourth of July

parade. We have Halloween hay rides. It's truly quaint and idealic. Many of my neighbors are concerned, as I am, about the potential negative effects of short-term rentals to our neighborhood. We want to preserve our neighborhood character and stability. We fear short-term rentals may disrupt our community cohesion by attracting unscreened transient visitors rather than fostering long-term relationships. The presence of short-term guests can lead to excessive noise, trash, security risk for our nearby family members. All these things will have a negative impact on the quality of life for the permanent residents. We've already had one incident centered on parking at the existing AirB Airbnb, which was also involving a racial aspect when one of the neighbors took offense to the skin color of the short-term rental guest. This ultimately related um resulted in a physical altercation between two permanent residents and property damage to one of the long-term um residents property. This should have been reported to the police, but unfortunately it wasn't. My community also has a community boat ramp and fishing area that is located to the uh so-called second planned Airbnb. Many residents are concerned that this may disrupt the peaceful enjoyment of that um community amenity uh and that short-term rental guests may not observe known courtesies already already established for that property. Short-term rentals could also impact the affordability of our residential neighborhood as greedy investors overpay for homes seeking to make high bank on weekly rates. This can impact city assessments, tax assessments, when these sales are used as comps by city assessors in

leving higher taxes throughout the neighborhood. I'm not going to deny there are positives about short-term rentals. They can stimulate economies. They provide lodging alternatives. They can increase city revenues with application and licensing and tax fees. But the potential economic benefits must be weighed against the potential costs such as increased demand on local infrastructure services and enforcement staff. For me, the most important impact is the identity and quality of life of established residential communities. As a retired naval officer, I'm trained not to bring a problem without a solution. But in the eyes of this city, we don't have a problem. I disagree. As a resident in a non-hoa neighborhood, the only alternative I have to address violations of city properties or policies is to report them to the city. I will continue to do this, but my expectation is that the city will enforce its own policies.

I'm sorry, ma'am. I'm going to conclude your time. Thank you very much. Our next speaker is Wayne Boyce 5121 Indian Trail representing self regarding for the good of the city. Hello, my name is Wayne Boyce. I live at 5121 Indian Trail. Good evening, Mayor Duman, Vice Mayor Ward, and council. Y'all see me smiling, so I'm I'm happy. Uh I'm have to change everything I was going to say, but anyway, I'm I'mma wing it. Uh, first off, I would like to thank u uh Erin Clemo and the careful Suffach staff and also the citizens of Suffukk that spoke on this and uh uh T WTKR channel 3, WVC channel 13 and WAVTV10 for their effort to bring so much attention to the protection of our suff for eagles and to save this 87 acres. Uh I want to also speak basically I'm going speak kind of like I am the piece of property and I just want to I want to reiterate on balo about it's all about different things. It's not about you know whatever different things. Uh just to let and and I'm not I when I went to school I didn't like history and but This piece of land has a lot of history to it and I I want to let everybody know about it. Might be the last time that you you hear about it. I don't know. Uh this piece of this piece of land

uh at 1700 North Main Street was part of the siege of Suffukk. So I guess this vote tonight we we duplicated the siege of Suffukk. So we we I guess we're keeping the land. Of course, the the Virginia Department uh or state owns the property, and we'll have to deal with uh what they want to do with it. Hopefully, we can work out something where we can save it for us and save it for our generations to come, which will save uh Suffach's history. Uh y'all know that within a rock throw of that piece of property, the city of Suffach was bowling right at Constance W. Uh, I've told numerous people and what I've looked at, uh, John, Captain John Smith came down to Nasman River and traded with the Nasman Indians for food to keep the James Town settlement people fed. If that hadn't happened, and it's because of right here at Suffos that they would have perished. So, I mean, you know, all of that, this piece of property means so much. And like I said, I I didn't like history, but I've dug into this thing, and this piece of land is probably one of the prettiest pieces of property that we have this close to downtown Suffach where Suffach was born. Uh I want to touch base on Ebony uh about the school and about using the building for the school board administration, the the uh VOTE building. That building, if you look at it when it was built to today, is 76 years old. The school school administration right now is downtown Suffach in the professional building.

When the professional building was gifted to a nonprofit organization, that building was 76. that nonprofit organization gifted it to Suffuk. It was 76 years old and that building was in bad shape then. So where I'm going with this is so now if we did if we had have gone through with that. So looking at the school school administration, we we would have been putting them in a 76 year old building just like the building that they're in. So my thoughts on that is and and we'll we'll cross that bridge is yes, they do need another place to go. No question. So we need to build them a new building or we need to find them a better building and I'm not so sure that maybe the city of Suffach might own a piece of property that's got a better building to put them in without having to build a building. That's something needs to be looked into. So, this is some of the stuff I just, you know, I kind of changed everything I was going going to say. Uh, but here again, I am thankful that we got it right and I'm thankful for y'all looking into this. Excuse me. And I guess the last thing that I want to say is thank God for the American Eagle. And as as I always say, I got 19 seconds left. Mr. Duman, Suffach, Virginia. This is our dirt. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Brandon Randleman, 149 West Washington Street, regarding the uh Department of Homeland Security and ICE coming to SUFFK. Good evening everyone. Uh to the mayor, vice mayor, to the city council. I stand before you this evening um in full and complete opposition towards the possibility of a ICE facility or ICE office uh coming into um our uh wonderful city, the city of Suffuk. Uh let me be clear right now. There's a partial government shutdown because the Congress has come to the conclusion that the Department of Homeland Security needs some proper oversight before we continue to fund them. The fact that the city is even in talks with this particular uh individual by the name of Mr. Garcia that owns the current facility on Wilroy Road about the potential uh ICE facility coming over there is disturbing because if Congress is saying let's shut the government down for almost what we're 6 weeks 8 weeks because we have to change DHS why is Suffach even considering having conversations with someone about bringing DHS here until the federal government can get DH DHS right why would suffer Um there are many reasons why we should not consider it. For one, he stated in the uh he stated that he's going to use it as an office facility. From talking to various Hispanic organizations today, many have said that many of these individuals that have turned these uh facilities into administrative facilities, once they get in there, none of us have access to them and we don't

know actually what is occurring at these facilities. Um, also there was something in the article that stated that it needed some type of security fencing. Now, help me understand something. There are two federal buildings in Norolk that house the uh, US attorney's office, US senator's office, and the FBI headquarters, and they don't have security fencing around. And why does this building in Suffuk that served as a subcontracting for a DHS ICE facility needs a fence? And often we know why we need a fence. It's not to let people out or not let people in. Let's just call it what it is. Um, where is located? Well, it's located in the Cypress Burrow and it's joining the Suffuk Burrow. Suffer Burough suburbs. Cypress Burrow is as well. And I'm pretty sure uh for the two elected officials that um represent that area, you do not want a facility of this sort here. The gentleman that owns the facility, Mr. Garcia, he says that it's just business as usual for him. uh that it does not matter uh because he says it's zoned for administrative purposes and that someone from the city of Suffuk says that is okay. That's what Mr. Garcia quoted in the article that it was okay because it's zoned for administrative uh uh purposes. This city council has to come out strongly against this. Let me be very clear. This city council has to come out strongly against this. We understand you all sent the letter. He acknowledged that he received your letter and he's still in talks with the DHS about bringing ICE here. So clearly he didn't respect your letter. So therefore, you have to show him uh that you all demand a certain level of respect as our elected representatives because we demand from you all that you listen to us that we do not want ICE in any form administrative detention center in here in the city of Suffukk. We don't want them here. They have caused so much ruckets in this United States. They have pulled people uh children from their family members and mothers from their children. They've been in schools.

They've been uh outside of churches. We don't want ICE here in Suffuk whatsoever. And even if your hands are tied, we ask that you use all legal authority possible to stop this. But if your hands are tied because of zoning conditions, we ask that you send a letter to this uh real estate uh agent or uh and state to him that we don't want this facility here. It wasn't zoned for ICE and DHS. Why does DHS as a satellite uh site need 9,000 square foot of office space? 9,000 square foot of office space. We know what some of that space is going to be used for and we should call it for what it is. We've seen what the DHS has done to uh cities all over this country. We've seen what ICE has done to cities all over this country. We know that that department needs great reform. We know that Congress hasn't even acted on funding the department. But yet Suffach, someone in Suffuk, let Mr. Garcia tell it, is having conversations with this gentleman about bringing ICE in some form or another here at our city. We don't want it. We don't need it. For those of us that work tirelessly to get you all elected, we understand that election season is upon us. And those that stand with us, we will continue to work for you and get you elected. And those don't, well, you know how it goes on election day. So with that said, I asked you all to strongly condemn this. Actually you sent a letter saying we don't want it. And if he continues to move forward with it, I hope that you let him know that you will strongly reconsider doing business with him going forward. We don't need ICE here. They're not welcome here in the city of Suffuk. We have better things we can do for our city. Thank you.

Our final speaker this evening is John Lezo, 1329 River Road, representing SL regarding the Riverbend application. I had a lot uh different choice words that I was going to say tonight, but um instead of that, uh just like Wayne uh boy said, um I just want to say thank you guys. Um I live right across the street from the bald eagles nests. I see them every single day. My daughter, my wife, and I absolutely love watching these bald eagles fly over the Nansman River. Um, we we moved to Suffach about four years ago and uh just the amount of wildlife we see over there, it's absolutely stunning. If you guys lived on the river, I don't know if you do or not. Um, it's a magical place. Now that we've gotten this far, um, I never thought it would go this far. It started off with a Facebook post from me um, on everything Suffach. Thank you to Everything Suffach. Thank you to Wavy TV. W Thank you to WTKR. Thank you to all Care for Suffach people as well. I know some of you guys don't like them, but um we've we've done something very important tonight. We've shown that a community that sticks together can fight off big developers. And I think that is the most important thing. The second thing I want to bring up is now that we are at a point where we can decide what happens with the taxpayers's property, um is Let's look forward to a green space. That would be fantastic. Um the Nansman River, we have we have one of the most beautiful resources running right through our city. And the only access really to it is up uh Bennett's Creek or uh uh I guess it's called Sagi Ba or um whatever and then down by the Hilton. That's really the only access to this absolutely amazing and beautiful resource that we have running through

Suffach. I believe that Suffach should put more attention on our beautiful natural resource we have, on our wildlife, on sporting, on fishing, on getting people out on the river. So many residents in Suffach could benefit so much from using the river for recreational reasons, kayaking, fishing, so on and so forth. So I propose that we consider it a green space. I really I think that is the next the smartest thing to do. Um, and I think the entire community, the entire city of Suffach will come out in droves to use it. I really do. I know you can't tax a park, but um, that's what's best for this city. So, again, I will thank everyone, please. Thank you so much for for for saving not only the bald eagles on our 250th anniversary of this country but also listening to the people because there have been thousands I have talked to thousands and thousands of people over the last couple months. I never thought that one post I put up turn into this but it gives me faith. It gives me faith in city council. It gives me faith that things can work. that when a community gets together with a common bond that we can fight big developers and as you all know our infrastructure cannot handle more. There are days that my daughter my daughter goes to Nansman Parkway Elementary there are days that her bus won't even come and pick her up every time we call transportation. Oh sorry it's on a double route today but if we go to try to pick her up we can't even get in the building. So, you know, just the fact that my we took our we took our own son out of King's Fork because of some I won't talk about it tonight, but because of some very serious things that were happening at Kings Fork High

School. Um, and the fact that our our schools have a two out of 10 rating on betterschools.com. These are the things that this $5 million that we have um should should go towards. Now, I understand, you know, Ryan Holmes offered to turn that one building into to a new um um administrative building for the school. Cool. But, um there's other places. And as Wayne said, this is our dirt and this place matters. In the four years I've lived here, I've never loved a place so much to where I get to look out of my window and see absolutely absolute beauty and see our country's icon flying above my head. So, I'll end on that and just thank everyone who voted against it tonight. Thank you very much and um I'll end with that. Thank you guys.

That concludes the speakers, mayor. Okay. Thank you, madam clerk. Uh we'll now move to new business. Madam clerk, do we have any new business for this evening? We have one item under new business this evening. The nomination uh of Dr. Justin Conurs for a position on the Early Childhood Development Commission as the parent representative number two. Council motion would be in order. Council member Wright. Motion to approve. Get a motion for approval from council member Wright. Council member Bennett. Second. Second from council member Bennett. Any discussion of the motion hearing? None. Council members prepare to vote. Please cast your vote.

We're going to roll call. Council member Bennett. Council member Buttler Barlo. Council member Johnson. Council member Recctor. Council member Williams. Council member Wright. Vice Mayor Ward. Yes. Mayor Duman. Yes, the motion is approved by vote of 8 to zero. Okay, we now move on to council. Do you have any new business that needs to come up this evening?

Hearing none, we will move to announcements and comments. And at this time, I'll ask communications department if they have any announcements for us. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, members of council, Mr. City Manager. I'll start the announcements off tonight with exciting news from the public works department. City of Suffach director of public works Greg Benton is pleased to announce the selection of Aaron Roundtree as the assistant director of public works. Roundtree brings more than 18 years of experience in environmental programs, regulatory compliance, and public infrastructure management. She has been with the city of Suffach since July 2008, where she has played a key role in advancing the city's storm, water, and environmental initiatives. She's earned a bachelor's of science and environmental sciences degree from Christopher Newport University and began her career with the Virginia Marine Resources Commission before joining the city of SuffK. Congratulations. Oh, excuse me. In her new role as assistant director, Roundtree will oversee key operational areas including storm water permit, mosquito control, and development. She will also support the leadership of the organization with a focus on strategic direction, operational efficiencies, and maintaining a strong presence in the field. Congratulations, Aaron. The city would like to remind residents that it's budget that it is budget season and you can track the city of Suffach budget process online by visiting the city's homepage. This online resource provides transparency and allows citizens to stay informed every step of the way. The next step on May 6, there will be a public hearing to receive public comment on the proposed 2627 citywide effective real estate tax increase due to reassessment and city council will

consider the adoption of the FY2627 operating and capital budget. For more information, visit suffva. us/budget. Suffach Parks and Wreck is excited to introduce a new series called Adult Recess designed to give residents a fun and relaxing way to unwind and reconnect with their inner kid. The first event will be held on May 9th at the Bennett Creek Park and will feature Capture the Flag and a special bike ride in celebration of National Bike Month. The series continues on July 25th at Downtown Festival Park with line dancing, Zumba, and musical games, followed by a kickball night on September 26 at Wellins Park, where teams will be formed on site. Each event will also include yard games such as cornhole, Giant Connect 4, and Gaga Ball, along with food and concessions available for purchase, and alcohol will also be available for those 21 and over with an ID. Attendees are encouraged to bring a chair or blanket for seating. For more information, visit suffk parksandrec.com. And mosquito season is here and the Suffach mosquito control department is offering free mosquito dunks to Suffach residents aged 18 or older. Mosquito dunks are an easy, safe, and effective way to treat standing water around your home and are not harmful to pets. To receive your free dunks, bring a valid photo ID with a SUFFK address to any SUFFK fire station, rec center, library branch, the SUFFK visitor center, city hall, or the mosquito control office at 800 Carolina Road. For more information, visit suffk va. us/mosquito control and the SUFFK Workforce Development Department in partnership with the Veterans Employment Center, Retail Alliance, and the SUFFK Center for Cultural Arts will host a salute to the military spouse event in downtown Suffach on May 7th. This event is designed to celebrate and support

military spouses by providing opportunities to connect with local businesses, access workforce and community resources, and engage with the Hampton Roads community. The day will include a networking breakfast, an empower hour with expert insights, and a resource marketplace focused on career education and family support services. Attendees will also have the opportunity to participate in a shop and shuttle experience throughout downtown Suffach, encouraging support of local retailers, retailers, and restaurants while highlighting the vibrancy of our downtown district. This event is free for military spouses with advanced registration required due to the limited capacity and the first 20 attendees will receive a $25 gift card. For more information or to register, contact the SUFFK Workforce Development Center at 757-5147730. And the Keep Suffach Beautiful recently hosted the Great Suffach Cleanup on March 27th and 28th, bringing together volunteers from all seven burrows to take pride in their community. This two-day initiative encouraged individuals, families, businesses, and organizations to help remove litter from neighborhoods, roadways, and public spaces across the city. While common items included fast food containers and beverage waste, this year volunteers also encountered some unusual finds, including a moped, a microwave, and even a broken drone. The Great Suffet Cleanup continues to grow as a community tradition, and we'll now take a look back at some of the highlights from this year's events and review the numbers.

Great stuff. All right. Hey And finally on your screen are the many ways that residents can stay connected to the city of SUFFK. Thank you and have a good night.

Okay. Thank you, Miss Moore. I will now move on to announcements from city council and we are going to start with council member Wright.

Good evening. Um I'd like to take uh this opportunity to thank those who attended uh my design and chat event on Saturday. Um we had a really good turnout. We had a really good opportunity. We designed flowers and we talked about issues facing our city. So, thank you for everyone who participated. On Saturday, I attended the Saratoga Dreamers um spring break festival at Festival Park and it was a really good event and while I was there, it reminded me of the vision of the festival park and how we should really utilize that um that park for more events such as that. I also want to thank everyone who completed my budget review survey. I asked you all to identify your top priorities as I review the budget um to make sure I'm capturing all the priorities of the constituents. Um so I appreciate your input. I want to thank the residents of Bennett's Harbor for welcoming me on Sunday. Um and a special thank you to Mr. Jernigan for organizing a relaxed and engaging community event. I went out engaged with the constituents. They had a food truck. Um it was a really nice event and a nice opportunity to hear from those whom I serve. We have an upcoming meeting on uh June 24th um to discuss the Driver Elementary School site. And so I just want to let the residents know that we would like for you to come out and give your input because that is going to be important for us as we move forward and what to do with that site. I also want to take the time to thank all of those who participated in today's meeting um including those who spoke during our public hearings um uh to agenda items and even the non-aggenda

speakers. Um, thank you for being a part of the process and for showing up and participating. I was debating whether I was going to address this, but I I think I am going to address this. So, in response to the vice mayor about your comment about me writing things down, perhaps you should try writing things down. writing down your thoughts to ensure they are accurate and concise, particularly when discussing what a yes vote or a no vote represents. My closing quote for the evening is, "A strong community is built when people choose collaboration over division and solutions over noise." And with that, I'll say good night,

council member Recctor, get you here. There you go, sir.

There you go. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I also want to thank all the people that came out and spoke tonight. U, it was obviously a very impactful night. Just want to point out a couple of things though. The, you know, the battle over the VOTE property, uh, in its future is not over. Um, Riot Home still has a purchase agreement in place uh to buy the property and they could continue to exercise that right to buy the property. Um, the property is still zoned B2. Um, so that may present some issues. uh you know I don't think anybody up on this dis wished certainly we didn't wish the eagles any harm and we would do everything that we could to protect the eagles. I live within walking distance of this building over in Lakeside and we have hawks that fly around our neighborhood. Um at night I hear the owls um speaking to each other. it um you know it just goes to show you that u animals are fairly adaptable and if they're treated with respect and given a little bit of space to do what they need to do um they can survive just about anywhere. It always reminds me a little bit of when my parents um before they went on to their greater reward lived down in Virginia Beach off of Oceanana Boulevard. And it always used to amaze me to go down Oceanana Boulevard and have the jets screeching at about 200 feet um over top of the horses and the horse pastures. And you know, to be honest with you, the horses got so used to it, they didn't even look up. Um, of course they may all have been deaf at that point from the jets flying overhead, but anyhow, there there still some challenges that uh are left with the VOTE property. Um, as we all know,

that property has been basically offered for sale one or two times since 2017. And to quote um Mr. Donahghue, who is the secretary of transportation for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Um, in that time, the city of Suffach, neither the city of Suffach nor the Suffach EDA ever expressed an interest in purchasing that property. Um, so maybe we could go back and perhaps revisit that thought in some manner. And but you know because of that because past councils elected not to exercise any right to purchase the property from VOTE. That's sort of how we got where we are uh tonight. So I just want to let everybody know that you know potentially the battle is it is not over with that piece of property. And then going back to just a couple of things that we done. And I think most of us attended the uh SIPA event over there where they introduced that AMP um sorting mechanism for garbage so that the if it gets implemented fully, which I fully expect it will, um the amount of trash that does not go to the landfill is going to be significantly increased. It's going to increase the recycle successful recycle rate. Um, and I think that's going to be good good for everybody. I also attended the event uh Saturday at the festival park um of the Saratoga Saratoga Dreamers. Uh, there was a lot going on, food, trucks, music, um, a lot of people. Looked like everybody was having a great time. I didn't get to spend as much time there as I wanted to because um the mayor was going to be out of town and a constituent from my burrow's son was uh made Eagle Scout. Um so they asked me to come to the ceremony and present a little bit of a certificate of uh

recognition from the mayor in honor of that. And you know to see those Eagle Scouts and what they have done and what they do um it really makes you feel good about where the youth of today is. And despite what anybody might say, I think the future um of su of s the future of Suffach is in very good hands um with those kind of people. And then the going back to the Suffach cleanup um I'm sure we all saw briefly the picture of Al Moore. Um he came back, he was, you know, a big driver of that event and he came back and took his position out there on Wilroy Road uh by Shingle Creek and um I stopped and said hi to him. Unfortunately, I was going from one event to another, so I didn't get to stop and help him, but it was great to see him out here participating um in in an event that was very near and dear to his heart. And then lastly, when we were talking about all the things that um are coming up that are available for folks to do in the city of SUFFK, I really want to stress, you know, some of the free events that are out there at the Cultural Arts Center. It's a beautiful venue. Um this Friday night, they've got the uh music out in the little courtyard area. They do that three or four times a year. And then to go along with the music, I think there's also a whiskey and a wing um food event that you can participate in. But it's it's very relaxing. You take your chair, you sit out there, you listen to your music, and uh if you want to buy some food, it it's a cheap date. Um so anyhow, I would just encourage everybody to to take advantage of what the city has to offer because they're only going to be successful if we participate with it. So anyway, with that, I will say good night.

Council member Williams.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, first and foremost, I'd like to thank the speakers that came out and spoke tonight. Um, the decision on the VOTE billing is is one that we've um been dealing with for a while and now we've moved forward and we made the hard decision, that decision that was needed to take place tonight. and just like to wish everyone well as we move forward with other endeavors that come before us. Uh Mr. City Manager, if you would um give me an update or check into um what the citizens in Hollywood community has some concerns regarding the road conditions at East Washington Street entrance to the Hollywood um neighborhood as well as Hollywood Avenue. There's a few other streets um that the HRSD tore up a few months ago um but they haven't been back. So the citizens over there are really concerned as to when the roads will be taken care of. I would greatly appreciate if I can get an update so I can take back to my constituents. And with that, I'll say good night.

Council member Butler Barlo.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, first of all, I would like to be the first one to say congratulations to Aaron Roundtree on her promotion. That's excellent news and um, she's always done a great job and she's got even more great things to do. So, congratulations Erin. Um, look forward to see what you do in your new position. Um, secondly, I've talked a lot tonight, uh, but I want to talk a little more, um, about our citizens and their engagement and the process that we go through up here. Um there's a lot of decisions that we make that that are hard to understand. There are a lot of facts that we have to consider that if you're not as involved as all of us are in this position, maybe you you know aren't clear or you don't understand or um are I I know everyone is capable of trying to understand it, but we're kind of up to our our necks in it. And um we are charged with making difficult decisions and tonight was one of those times. I acknowledge the fact that this is not a done deal. We we have a long way to go on this. Um we've opened up some other options and um some other considerations and we will continue to have conversations about this. But I want to say I appreciate everyone that came out tonight whether that was your issue or not. Um, it it means a lot to me as a council member that our citizens be involved and engaged. Um, it's important to me to hear what you're thinking. It's important for me to understand um what uh what what direction that you want the city to go whether or not you know several people have said we can't wave a magic wand and make everything better in a day but we can um make careful decisions and um and weigh in when there are tough decisions to be made. I want to thank the folks that came out

tonight. Um, all the staff that did presentations tonight. Um, the our area civic leagues and HOAs and our individual citizens that reach out and contact us or allow us to come and speak to them. Um, I specifically was at the Suffach Peninsula Community Partnership on Monday and I'll always en enjoy engaging with that group. to all of our citizens groups or individuals. Um we appreciate that you're concerned about what goes on in your city and we take that to heart. Um in my invocation uh earlier I said uh these are challenging times and we are not asking for easier tasks but stronger aptitudes and greater talents to meet the difficulties and the decisions that we have to make. So um I hopefully we did that tonight and um we'll see what comes next. Um, I I heard a really great quote tonight and sadly I can't remember. It was a ra from a rabbi. I don't remember his name and I'm going to look it up and get it better. But one of the things he said was after a a long life of of thinking about it and working at it and trying very hard, he came to the conclusion that he was never going to improve his past. And I really love that quote because we can't go back and change things that we've already decided and that we've already done. But we can make good decisions and the best decisions that we can as we uh are in the present and into the future. So I hope we will all embrace that. And um because I have to at the end of whatever I'm going to say, I'm going to remind you that it's planting season. There's a lot of big equipment on the road. Um uh corn planting is either underway or finished and now we have to wait for it to rain. Um, on a really great note, uh, our local strawberry patches are opening for picking. So, if you're a person who likes to go pick fresh strawberries, I think a couple of them are opening this week and, um, that's always a favorite time of the year and it's a little bit early. Um, so um, shout out to all of my

friends in agriculture and everybody who um, eats and drinks and wear clothes, wears clothes because you need all of us. And with that, I'll say good night. Council member Bennett.

Thank you. We missed the mayor about about two hours said by 8:00 will be missing by a long shot but uh I would like to also thank everyone that came out tonight I think uh all the speakers and the uh discussion that was given so I think uh we heard what you were saying so we do appreciate it but while I'm talking about that I uh the speaker came up and talked about the eyes uh office there on wheel road Mr. manager. I I think we need to get a little bit more information on that. I saw it in the paper as well and um that's right down the street for me. So, I'm sure I'll be getting some more calls about it. So, I'd like to get more information on that. So, I'll be able to share what is taking place, what we can or can't do, what the law allows us. I know we have certain things we can and can't do. So there are some restriction when it come to the government, right, Mr. Attorney? So therefore, give us what legally we can do. I'd appreciate that. Uh, also, uh, I'd like to say that I was talking to some people at the Civic League and they were talking about tires being thrown out on Hoya Road and um, I don't know what I know it's not probably anything we could do about it unless we catch them doing it, but I hope that we can um, if they pick them if they pile them up, we pick them up um, doing the clean up cuz they said they pick picked some up and pile them up did it didn't pick them up on the road. I appreciate it. Take a look at that and see whether or not uh tires have been picked up. Also uh

I would like to say that uh we have had a great meeting tonight. I I know the VOT profit has been something that has been on our agenda for a long time. We've been kicking it down the road, kicking, keep kicking it down the road. And I think it was time to bring it to conclusion. And I think we did the right thing tonight. And as other council members have said, the profit is still there. The options are still there for the developer do what he can do with it with way zone. Then he can u by right, he can do certain things. So, we have to be faithful with whatever come back that they want to do with the property the way it's zoned. So, again, I I do appreciate everyone that had a lot of concerns and um I had more calls in the last week about that than I have the whole time I think we've been talking about this. So, it was a tough decision, but I think it was the right decision to make to go ahead and uh did what we did tonight. So, I see. And that's it. I'm unless that's uh Yeah, that's all.

Council member Johnson,

I'll be quick. Um I want to congratulate Aaron Roundtree. You were very fortunate to have such a wonderful woman in your department. She's worked with us for so many years and thank you. I think she is the right one for the jobs and she's going to do a super job for the city. She already has. So, excellent. Um, I'm going to be very very brief again. I I appreciate I think I've spoke to every citizen that was out there at some point in the last 20 days, 30 days because our citizens are nothing but involved and and I appreciate that. I'm like that's what helps us is to know what our citizens want and now they know that that it makes a difference and we we we listen to them and I'd like to think that in the future we're going to continue to listen to them. I'd also like to think that they've selected eight people up here that can be visionaries for our city. I appreciate what council did tonight in support of of moving this project forward because you got to have a vision and you got to know the past and you got to love your city and I think that's what we are up here. So hopefully we can do something. Maybe we can't do what what I'd like to do, but maybe we can do something to to help these people develop this property into something that we can all be proud of. or um maybe we could even look at it. But at any rate, um I I appreciate what happened tonight. I think it was the right decision for the city and I think um the next next development that comes along might be the right development. We just got to make sure that we we take control and do what's in the best interest of all of us in our city. So, thank you. That's it. Vice Mayor Ward,

I just want to mention that uh I have a town hall meeting August 28th at the fire station 11 uh possibility Huntersville College Square Qil and also Burgers Grant and part of Harvard View. But I'm going have another one in a month. a month from there that I didn't uh I don't have the date yet and I have a new community that vote in my burrow now. So I'm going to try to have someone out there close where they're at. Uh I want to mention a young man named Jonathan McBride. Uh Chesapeake had a affordable home for around the city and I just want to make sure all seven cities. I want to make sure um what is affordable each city have different economics. So I just wanted to make sure and I got a good information and I didn't know Mr. McBride, but he came over and saw talked to me especially who he was and he was very uh very kind and when he had a chance to speak and I think and I thank him for that. Um it was good to see him there cuz I have never seen him but city manager knew I wanted to attend that. Um, to get where I'm at, it took work. Uh,

I'm measured by what I do. Most of the time, it's not what I say. Don't underestimate me. because what I say measure me what I do. So I'mma leave it like that because sometimes you got to hold back on things and statements don't mean nothing to me because I have a relationship with God and I know what he done took me for 71 years. So, I'm good. And I'm not going to entertain things what people want to see. I'm going to do what I think the best thing to to do. You don't have to like what I say, but I say it from my heart and you can talk to me again a year from now. I'm say the same thing I said, but I had I don't have to write it down. That's not my forte. That's fine. But like I said, I'mma leave it like that, but I'll say God bless. Okay, I'll go ahead and wrap it up. It's been a little longer than I thought it would be. I told my wife I'd probably be home by 8:00, so she's um not going to be happy, but after all these years, she'll probably get over it again. So, let me just start with I want to thank everyone who participated in the great Suffet Cleanup. Sorry I couldn't make it but that was a great initiative that uh our prior city manager Mr. more did start and uh he was dedicated to it, excited about it, came up again, participated. So, it's it's uh really a feather in our cap to our citizens when you look at the number of people that uh took the time

to participate in the results. So, hopefully we'll we'll keep that up every year. U just went to a few things. Nothing earthshattering. MSIS uh surfaces on Manny Bridge Road. Council member Recctor was there too. They opened up a showroom and I would try to to try to describe it to you, but I really can't give it justice. I mean, it's it's off the chain. It's so it's building building supplies, tile, quartz, countertops. I mean, like you've never seen before. All the stuff is imported. Uh they supply almost every other retailer in the country. They've got stuff going as far out as Michigan, and it's right here in our little city of Suffach. uh if if you get a chance um I would swing by there for the most part. They do some retail but I think it's by appointment and a lot of it is contractors but the material and just the facility itself is is really off the chain. Uh SUFFK Center for the Cultural Arts I stopped by they had an art exhibit which was mentioned Walk on the Wildside. They also partnered with the Suffach Humane Society. I mean it was a great turnout. I thought there were I was talking to Thomas and man you had a good turnout 80 or 90 people. He said man we had 150. So there were 150 folks at our at the cultural arts center and I just spoke briefly with the welcome and I asked how many of the individuals are there was this their first trip trip trip to Suffk and you know quite a few of them raised their hand 15 or 20. And then I said, "How many of you suffocians that are here? Is this your first time you've been to the cultural arts center?" And some more people raised their hand. So the SuffK Center for the Cultural Arts is still an entity that is not really known by a lot of citizens outside our city, but inside our city as well. And I think they're doing an

outstanding job reaching out to the entire city uh with the partnership that they've had with the school, the free things that they do. So, just kind of pass the word. U the more folks that we can get to patronize it, the better. Uh just the other day, the 14th, I stopped by um the Pinter House, the Nansman River Garden Club uh was having their meeting and I was fortunate enough I provided a certificate of recognition for the work that they've done uh supplying well besides what they do around town and all the organizations that they support. Uh they also provided the majority of the flowers and what have you for our last gubber gubernatorial inauguration and several before that. I think four or five before that. So they're representing Suffach up in uh Richmond. It's an organization that's been around since 1928. So two years from now I think I'll still be here. Lord willing and the creek don't rise. We'll have our 100th anniversary uh celebration uh hooked up for him as well. Uh there's a gentleman came up and talked about water access and and I kind of hear that a lot but people have to remember that we have Brady's Marina that you know we're we've got funded this year in the capital improvement plan right off of Route 10 which is going to provide deep water access to Ensman River as well as some additional space park moving out as we continue to develop that property. So, we do have deep water access that should be available maybe by next Friday. I don't know. What do you think, city manager? No, maybe a few days after that, but in the very near future, you know, I'm looking at the next 12 18 months we have some at least we get a boat boat launch out and uh start working on that. U I want to

speak to and I believe it's Miss Coder. Is that correct? Cater. Uh to her point, we also had a gentleman here at our last meeting. I think his name is Bill Andrews. You may know he's also a neighbor there in Respus Beach. And actually, my general manager's father's lived there like for hundred years. And everything she said about that neighborhood is exactly right. I've mentioned it before, but we seriously need to take a look at what we have in place to address this issue to see one or two things. Do we have an enough ordinances in line to enforce what needs to be done. And just as she mentioned, is it a lack of enforcement or do we need to take a look at what we've got on the books? This is something that's going to continue uh to go on and continue to proliferate. You know, with the economy like it is, it's the same issue is is been addressed in other cities. So, we need to get on it. I'm g put it on my to-do list before I depart. We come up with uh some way to take a look at it, a way to report it, and a way to enforce it. So, with that being said, uh that's all I got for tonight. I do have a quote from the night from Gareth Southgate. I tried to look up a little bit what it was. I think he coached soccer and something else, but with a name like Gareth, G- A R T, I guess we could assume he's British. And it's, you know, some of some of you up on the D tonight have kind of alluded to it and that quote is, "It's impossible to please everybody all of the time. But you just have to believe that you're making decisions for the right reasons. And as long as you're doing your homework, as long as you're making them for the right reasons, then I think we

can all sleep at night regardless of what the outcome is." So, with that being said, I will I won't ask for a motion to adjurnn. I will beg for a motion to adjurnn. Uh, we have uh, let me see. Let me get here. Council member Wright. Motion to adjurnn. We get a motion from council member right to join. Council member Butler Barlo and a second. Any discussion of the motion? Hearing none. Council members prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madame clerk, kindly record the vote. Motion is is approved by a vote of 8 to zero. This meeting stands adjourned.