[0:00] Good evening.

[0:03] Good evening. Welcome to the January 20th, 2026 meeting of the Ashton Town Council. I appreciate you being here this evening. We just start out asking to join me in a moment of silence just to reflect on what you need to reflect on at this time of this day. Please join me.

[0:28] Thank you. Mr. Vice Mayor, would you lead us in the pledge? Please stand if you're able.

[0:32] So,

[0:35] a pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic of

[0:41] which it stands one nation under God in the visible with liberty and trust and sorrow.

[0:49] Thank you.

[0:54] We'll go ahead and take a look at our agenda for this evening.

[0:59] We have our consent agenda, which includes minutes from the January 6th, 2026 Council meeting.

[1:05] We have an item B, Catler, PUD, Text Amendment Referral.

[1:12] We have the Ashland Police Department window entryway project, then we have a presentation

[1:19] which will be fun.

[1:21] Administration of oath of office to our new cat police chief and our dog mayor.

[1:29] We have citizen input time, opportunity for an individual to come before council and bring

[1:33] an item that they would like to share with council. We have two public hearings. First

[1:40] when ordinance 2026-01 to extend the deadline for tax payments. We have ordinance 2025-12

[1:49] conditional rezoning amendment. We have one action item at this time, memorandum of understanding

[1:56] when homelessness outreach services. And we have reports from the planning department,

[2:01] finance department and police department.

[2:04] Now I understand council members we've had some discussion as individuals with one

[2:11] another and or with the town manager concerning one of the items in the

[2:17] consent agenda and so I'll just pause here for a minute and ask whether there's a

[2:20] motion to make a change to the consent agenda.

[2:24] Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion.

[2:26] Please, I'd like to motion to move the consent agenda item B to the action item B.

[2:33] A second.

[2:38] Ms. Barnhart.

[2:39] Aye.

[2:39] Ms. Soapal.

[2:40] Aye.

[2:41] Mr. Maloy.

[2:42] Aye.

[2:42] Dr. McGraw.

[2:43] Aye.

[2:43] Mr. Bet.

[2:44] Aye.

[2:45] Okay, so presented the agenda as printed and we've made an adjustment to take consent

[2:52] not consent agenda item B and move it to action item B. And so with that change is there

[2:59] consensus for the agenda as presented? Yes. Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you. All right.

[3:06] So now I'll ask whether or not there's any questions, comments or emotion for the consent agenda

[3:13] which includes item A and item C. Well, Mr. Mayor, I move to approve the consent agenda

[3:20] as amended. Is there a second? Second. All right. Thank you. Ms. Barnhart. Hi.

[3:28] Ms. Sopal. Hi. Mr. Malloye. Hi. Dr. McGraw. Hi. Mayor Trevette. Hi. All right. Thank

[3:35] you. And that brings us to our presentation. Administration of Oath of Office and Mr.

[3:39] Goodman. We're going to follow your leads and looking forward to this.

[3:47] Good evening, Council.

[3:48] I know I wasn't on the agenda, but Mr. Goodman asked me to just give a little background

[3:51] in context, so people are wondering why he's swearing a dog into an office.

[3:56] We held our first ever pet election this year as it means to do some fun community engagement

[4:02] get people excited and as you can imagine because of the community that we have, the outpouring

[4:06] was significant. We received over 20 nominations for each office. Those were narrowed down

[4:12] to five finalists that went into a public voting process and we received nearly 2,000 votes

[4:20] from the community to elect these two lovely pets to their term, they'll serve for one year and hopefully you can look forward to seeing them at community events and different things throughout the year.

[4:33] But we're just so grateful to their owners who have been such great sports, of course, bringing them out this evening.

[4:39] And I will just add a little plug, hopefully Dr. Hill does not mind me mentioning this.

[4:43] but he did mention today that he had recently been in contact with the recently sworn

[4:50] and lieutenant governor of Virginia and he mentioned Ashland and Randolph-Macon and she

[4:55] said, oh, you're your dog's the mayor, right?

[5:00] We are getting some positive notoriety. We'll take it. Center of the universe and home of the dog mayor and the cat police chief. So without further ado, I'll take Mr. Goodman and I believe trouble man is up first.

[5:15] Thank you. Mr. Mayor of the council. Trouble man, if you could come on up here and trouble man's mom. If

[5:25] you would just stand right here right up here and face that way and that camera is going to capture Mr. Trouble man.

[5:38] We have cameras facing both the right side, so however he wants to do it, so I am going

[5:43] to read the oath and then we'll just look for some sort of affirmation from the end of

[5:48] the understand.

[5:48] How about that?

[5:49] Very good.

[5:50] Most unique thing I've had to do in my service.

[5:53] Okay, so we're not going to forego the raising of the right hand because that might be a

[5:57] challenging. So the oath of office for the Cat Police Chief as I trouble man do solemnly

[6:02] swear to faithfully serve as the Cat Police Chief of the town of Ashland, Virginia. For

[6:07] a term of one year commencing, that's fine, January 20th, 2026. I promise to uphold peace

[6:15] and order to protect laps and porches and sunny windowsills to investigate suspicious noises

[6:21] and wrote red dots, and to enforce all laws governing treats,

[6:26] naps, and the proper chin scratches.

[6:29] I will serve with courage, courtesy, and a little bit of mischief,

[6:34] always in the best interest of the people of Ashland.

[6:38] And just wag your tail if you agree.

[6:42] I got it.

[6:43] Very good.

[6:44] All right.

[6:52] We have some official things up here for Kat.

[6:55] Chiefs?

[7:16] All right.

[7:28] Well done, Kitty.

[7:44] And now we would like to welcome up Wilbur and his dad, Dr. Hill.

[7:54] If we can stand in front of the podium here, that camera might catch him a little bit better.

[7:59] We're putting our AV guy, the odds behind the great Magical Curtain to work tonight.

[8:04] So, dawn, do your best, sir, best you can.

[8:07] So, again, we will read the oath, and we'll just look for an affirmation from Wilbur after the fact, if you don't mind Dr. Hill.

[8:13] The oath of office for dog mayor.

[8:15] I, Wilbur, do solemnly swear to faithfully serve as the dog mayor for

[8:21] the town of Ashland, Virginia, for a term of one year commencing January 20th, 2026.

[8:28] I promise to greet all residents with enthusiasm to listen carefully, even when distracted by squirrels, to promote unity, joy, and frequent outdoor walks.

[8:40] And to represent Ashland with loyalty, kindness, and tailwags for all. I will lead with heart, fetch when asked, and always be a good boy week.

[8:50] All

[8:55] right, there we go.

[8:57] So,

[9:10] that's

[9:19] a good job.

[9:41] Mayor Trevett, it's good to know you have backup now, sir.

[9:45] Well, when I get a hard case, we do it for all of us, so thank y'all, it's terrific.

[10:12] All right, thank you all for that presentation. We're going to stay on a theme here for sort of animal night and invite Sherry Burton, one of our town citizens who likes to write poetry, pertaining to the town, invite her to come and read a poem, and I think we'll understand who it's about.

[10:40] Okay.

[10:41] I'm

[10:45] up here.

[10:49] Okay, this one, you can see, it says,

[10:53] I'm happy now.

[10:56] Yes.

[10:57] Now.

[10:58] Whoa.

[10:59] This one.

[11:01] Raccoon.

[11:02] I remember trying this three years.

[11:05] You know, my motto has been Nangans.

[11:11] Now, this one, the water.

[11:14] The Virginia Plate says, stay dry.

[11:19] I'm okay.

[11:21] Stay.

[11:23] Now, this one, I swear I was just looking.

[11:35] Okay, and this is great.

[11:38] Check it out.

[11:39] Ashwin Virginia.

[11:41] Okay.

[11:43] Ashwin Virginia.

[11:45] or even our critters at a good time.

[11:50] This is in my poem.

[11:55] Actually, Virginia.

[11:57] It's not my lips penis.

[12:06] I work for the eye.

[12:10] Actually, Virginia 80s.

[12:14] This is one of my favorites.

[12:17] A museum, so bright home.

[12:24] That's good.

[12:28] Okay, and now for my poem.

[12:35] Ashwin Virginia, ABC store.

[12:38] A rascal raccoon got into too much holiday spirits.

[12:43] News flash.

[12:44] in Ashwin, Virginia, hangover, manhandover, ABC store, a very naughty raccoon bandit,

[12:55] preferred his liquor straight up, no ice, no mask, is definitely into the holiday spirits.

[13:05] Okay, here's my poem.

[13:07] I'm a rascul of a raccoon, fell through the ceiling of Ashwin's ABC, while happy hour

[13:16] was delicious, pure and brochure for me.

[13:20] Bottles knocked off broken pieces, spilled, couldn't help, made a mess, well, shucks, it's

[13:27] a holiday season, bottoms up toast, we all are blessed.

[13:32] Licked up classic cosmopolitan reserve bourbon was nodding up.

[13:39] Munchek holiday nod to tell vodka was made of the right stuff.

[13:45] Licked up patron silver tequila.

[13:48] That will do too.

[13:50] Next I tip see through the puddles and found my next clue.

[13:55] Snack my lips, peanut butter whiskey, high as a roller coaster ride.

[14:03] I passed out just short of the potty, foiled my escape, now stuck inside.

[14:12] Anybody heard of Drunk as a Skull?

[14:15] Well, here is trash coon in a bathroom.

[14:20] slurped it off an animal control shelter and nebriated me, woke up, released, I'm a wild

[14:28] one.

[14:29] Get out of jail car, I am free.

[14:33] When I saw a pack of sweet sippings, wagling and grinning, so bright, Ashland's my kind of

[14:42] town, holiday spirits, pure delight.

[14:53] All right, that may be hard to follow, but citizen input time is open if anyone

[15:00] I would like to come forward and speak to Council on a matter that is not one of our public hearings.

[15:08] Seeing that one, we'll go ahead and close our citizen input time and move on to our first public hearing. Ordinance 2026-01, extend deadline for tax payments. Mr. Goodman and Ms. Schugart.

[15:34] Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Ms. Schugart, and I will tag team this item if you don't mind. Would you have before you deny as staff requesting a public hearing and consideration of adoption of ordinance

[15:43] It's 2026-01, which is a companion to the resolution council pass of the first meeting in January.

[15:52] I'm sorry, yes, resolution.

[15:53] If you recall, we've just been struggling with our software vendor back in, with getting tax bills out.

[16:01] Historically, they've gone out in the first week of December.

[16:05] Ms. Schugart has been working day and night weekends, trying to get this back on one line.

[16:11] and her efforts have been actually incredible.

[16:14] Low history back in January 6th of 2026,

[16:17] town council adopted Resolution 2026-02 to provide staff

[16:21] to extend the deadline to accept taxes

[16:24] to the maximum of up to 90 days allowed by state code.

[16:28] That was more direction to staff.

[16:30] This ordinance codifies that,

[16:34] but also allows for pushing out any penalties

[16:38] and interest to that new due date as well, where the resolution didn't have the power to do that.

[16:43] So that's why this is a two-part process.

[16:45] So with that, I will turn it over to Ms. Schugart.

[16:48] Thank you.

[16:49] So Mr. Goodman covered most of what I was going to say.

[16:51] I will mention that real estate bills were mailed out January 2nd.

[16:55] We are receiving payments on those and folks are calling in with questions.

[16:58] If anyone has any questions, feel free to call town hall.

[17:02] We're still working on personal property bills.

[17:04] As of this afternoon, they have not been mailed out.

[17:06] that I was working with the vendor today.

[17:08] We're anticipating within the next two weeks

[17:10] they will be mailed out.

[17:11] They'll be mailed out from our prep vendor.

[17:13] So they do not get mailed out directly from town hall.

[17:17] So this ordinance, I'm not sure if Mr. Goodwin said

[17:19] it does repeal itself on January 1st, 2027.

[17:22] So this is just to extend the due date for this year.

[17:25] And we are requesting that after this public hearing

[17:28] at the conclusion that you approve the extension

[17:31] to March 5th, 2026.

[17:33] I'll be happy to answer any questions if you have any prior to the public hearing.

[17:38] All right. Any questions at this time for staff?

[17:42] Okay. All right. We'll do what we're officially going to do. And it's a public hearing.

[17:47] So we invite the public if anybody would like to come forward and make any comments about

[17:52] this ordinance on the deadline for tax payments. Come now if you've heard.

[18:01] Seeing no one,

[18:02] We will close the public hearing and bring it back to council for any further questions discussion if there is any or motion

[18:16] Mr. Mayor. Yes, I would move for approval of ordinance

[18:21] 2026 ash 01 as presented. I second motion made and seconded vice ma'am McGraw

[18:29] Hi, Ms. Barnhart. Hi. I'm so Paul. Hi, Mr. Molloy. Hi Mayor Trebat. Hi. All right. Thank y'all

[18:37] All right, our next public hearing ordinance 2025-12, conditional rezoning amendment, Mr. Lockert.

[19:23] All right, good evening, town council. It's good to see you guys again, presenting this evening, ordinance 2025-12 to the amendment to chapter 21, section 21, 4.6, or conditional zoning.

[19:37] This request covers that we have all the public hearing for in 2025-12, section 21-4-6 conditional

[19:46] zoning.

[19:48] And this is to allow, align the town's ordinance with Virginia State Code 15.2-2303 and

[19:58] and limit residential profits to...

[20:00] So those authorized under Virginia State Code 15.2-2303-4D. This request actually comes recommended

[20:09] by our town attorney, as the amendment is needed to correct Ashland zoning current, zoning

[20:13] framework and align it with current state law.

[20:17] Just to broadly cover what the amendment

[20:21] will do, so this will switch the legal authority from the prior State Code 15.2-2908 to 15.2-2303

[20:30] and this will give the town or town council

[20:33] a broader flexibility when accepting conditional

[20:35] proffers.

[20:38] The news, this would allow for the removal

[20:42] of several statutory limitations, so this currently

[20:46] includes our requirement to that proffers directly

[20:49] relate to any problems that would arise due

[20:53] to a rezoning and that any, the conditions

[20:57] would explicitly comply with the comprehensive plan.

[21:03] The new code amendment will also eliminate the capital improvement program requirement, so

[21:08] the any accepted proffers can now, or transportation cash, or property proffers could be accepted

[21:15] even if a project is not within the CIP.

[21:21] New code amendment also provides much more flexibility for transportation and road improvements.

[21:27] States Code 2303 does not restrict what types of permits can be accepted as part of conditional.

[21:34] Resoning, the new code amendment shifts residential proffers from 15.2-2303.4D, allowing the

[21:44] town to accept any constitutional proper voluntarily offered by the applicant.

[21:48] the previous state code that we were following 2303.4c and post-stricted rules on what

[22:00] counted as a reasonable profit and that post-potential challenges to any conditional

[22:07] will offer the town would accept.

[22:12] Town council is kind of also required, you will no longer be able to deny a rezoning

[22:22] application based on a lack of profits, but any other planning or concern that may

[22:29] come up can still be considered as part of a consideration.

[22:35] This was presented to planning commission,

[22:38] pretty last month, they had quite a few questions on the amendment,

[22:44] mostly on how they would evaluate the proffers,

[22:49] how this would impact their any potential denials to rezoning,

[22:54] and whether they could still evaluate proffers based off of the comprehensive plan.

[23:00] Again, it was clarified that any impacts planning considerations and overall application

[23:06] adequacy may continue to be evaluated under the amended ordinance, and then specific

[23:13] proffers may not be required as a condition of approval.

[23:18] Resonting applications can still be denied based on any planning considerations, impacts,

[23:22] or planning consistency, but again, they cannot be denied solely on a lack of proffers.

[23:29] Planning Commission voted unanimously to recognize approval of ordinance 2025-12.

[23:39] All right. Any questions or comments further on this?

[23:45] That last slide, if you go back to that just for a second, this is recommended by staff and it's nice that our Planning Commission unanimously approve this.

[23:59] and the statement they found the amendments improved clarity and maintain appropriate planning standards.

[24:05] So anyway, that sounds like a good work, a good result of this.

[24:10] Any questions, comments to staff?

[24:15] All right, at this time, we'll go ahead and officially open the public hearing.

[24:20] Just to see if anyone wants to make any statements, ask any questions about this and

[24:25] Thank you for this time.

[24:29] All right?

[24:29] Seeing no one, we will close the public hearing

[24:32] and bring it back to Council for either further discussion

[24:35] and if none, then for a motion.

[24:43] I'll be happy to.

[24:44] I move to approve ordinance 2025-12

[24:48] to amend Ashson Town Code Chapter 21 article one

[24:52] in general conditional zoning as presented.

[24:56] Second.

[24:57] Okay, good job.

[25:00] Mr. Lully. Aye. Dr. McGraw. Aye. It's Barnhart. Aye. So, Paul. Aye. Mayor Chimett. Aye. All right, motion passed. Thank you all. Thank you for this. And so we'll continue to move forward here to our first action item, action item, a memorandum of understanding with the homelessness outreach services. This move.

[25:35] Good evening again up here for a very different but also very important reason to you this evening.

[25:43] So, you have before you a memorandum of understanding for homelessness outreach services, and I know you all have looked over this in great detail, but for the sake of anyone watching or anyone looking in the minutes, I just want to take a minute and go through some of the kind of finer points for that kind of level of transparency.

[26:01] So this proposed MOU would establish a partnership between the town of Ashland, the Ashland Foundation, and the greater Richmond continuum of care, which is the coordinating entity for all homelessness outreach services in the Metro Richmond area, including Hanover County and the town of Ashland.

[26:20] So the purpose of this agreement is to ensure targeted coordinated services for our unhoused residents established clear roles, responsibilities and funding expectations to improve communication between the existing service providers, our local nonprofits,

[26:37] profits, Hanover County social services, the Ashland Police Department and the town of Ashland.

[26:42] And also to reduce duplication of services, making sure folks are not falling through the service gaps.

[26:48] If you may recall when the public camping ordinance came before, we did a kind of stakeholders meeting with a lot of our outreach providers.

[26:55] And they indicated there was a real need for flexible funding, kind of to fill in the gaps of really getting folks into that more stable housing situation.

[27:04] then to use for things that state and federal funding may not qualify for.

[27:10] And so this MOU is really designed to do that.

[27:13] To be clear, the GRCOC already provides outreach services to the town of Ashland.

[27:18] That service already exists, but our hope and intention with this MOU is to provide additional

[27:24] funding so that we can get even more targeted outreach, especially considering the demand of

[27:29] the surrounding localities compared to what the town of Ashland's needs are.

[27:33] So as you'll see under the funding commitments, by signing this MOU the town would be committing

[27:38] to provide $10,000 in support of these efforts.

[27:42] This is not new funding.

[27:44] This is money that had already been budgeted and allocated for homelessness outreach services

[27:48] in your FY26 budget.

[27:50] The Ashland Foundation will contribute as kind of a pass-through via that kindness that

[27:55] counts initiative, which is already ongoing and will continue to promote.

[27:59] And then you'll see here importantly I think criteria for use of the funds, it's used exclusively to support individuals and families within the town of Ashland who are working with those designated GRCOC agencies.

[28:15] And the idea is to really use the funds to help those individuals or families exit homelessness.

[28:21] So helping with first and last month's rent, helping them get funding for getting their IDs.

[28:28] So they can seek employment, secure a place to live.

[28:31] Those kinds of low hanging fruit things that can be a real barrier, depending on how much is involved in getting those things and how much outreach time is needed.

[28:41] You'll see under prohibited expenditures.

[28:44] The town is asking that the funds provided not be used to purchase tents or sleeping bags or

[28:50] equipments intended to facilitate outdoor habitation because this would go in conflict with the camping ordinance that was passed last year.

[28:57] and that any funding needs to make sure that it's going towards actions that are compliant with all town code.

[29:05] You'll see roles and responsibilities in here. Homeward is listed. They are the designated GRCOC administering agency,

[29:14] so the agreement is actually with Homeward, but it is part of the GRCOC, so that's why the difference in name there.

[29:20] You'll see some metrics and reporting requirements in there should council vote to adopt this MOU this evening.

[29:28] I have a planned call with the executive director of Homeward Kelly Kinghorn later this week to walk through exactly kind of what that

[29:35] reporting structure will look like in the cadence for that and then you'll see under item B there the Ashland Foundations

[29:42] requirements. Really they are your administering arm for the funding as well as the accountability partner.

[29:48] So, the board will be kind of regularly reviewing how the funds are used, examining the relationship

[29:54] and providing some feedback to Council should you be considering funding in the future.

[29:59] The founding-

[30:00] Nation met today. There was a board meeting earlier today and the board did unanimously vote to approve the MOU if town council also does as well. And then you'll see under the town of Ashlands to provide that baseline funding of $10,000, some supporting of outreach efforts and assisting with publication efforts, which are things that we are already doing. Under duration and renewal, I will suggest a change here that's not reflected in the staff report as discussed in the foundation board meeting today.

[30:28] This says an expiration of June 30th, 2026.

[30:32] We started working on this MLU quite some time ago.

[30:36] And with only six months left to go, Mr. Manager suggested in the Ashland Foundation

[30:41] board meeting that we go ahead and just make that expiration 2027, June 30th, 2027.

[30:46] So I would offer that as consideration as you consider adopting this.

[30:51] And then you'll see there's a lot of legal language that our lovely friends at St.

[30:55] Hans Anderson had us put in there, but pretty boiler plate stuff.

[31:01] So with that said, I will, if I can get out of this window, I

[31:10] think I'm frozen, but

[31:12] you have my staff report in front of you.

[31:14] And so you'll see in there that really I think the highlight of all of this and the big takeaway

[31:19] is that this is the third kind of prong to our approach towards really trying to wrap

[31:25] our arms around the kind of seemingly growing unhoused situation here in the town of Ashland

[31:31] and the first being the public camping ordinance which was done with a lot of stakeholder

[31:35] support, the second being the ongoing work of the homelessness task force which is meeting

[31:40] by monthly and I look forward to updating you on progress there in a coming meeting and

[31:46] then finally this funding component is kind of our three pronged approach to this issue and

[31:53] And this is not designed to duplicate or replace services provided by Hanover County, but to augment and amplify those that already exist.

[32:00] And with that, I'm happy to answer questions, and you have my staff recommendation there in front of you.

[32:06] All right, I have a question for you,

[32:11] but I didn't have a question this morning from Mr. Manager regarding this, wondering.

[32:18] you know, now word is out that the town of Ashland has this funding to assist these people.

[32:27] What if they are in the region in Henrico, Guigland, Richmond and everywhere else and they're like,

[32:36] hmm, I'm going to go and be homeless in Ashland because I'm going to get some help.

[32:40] So I was concerned that people might do that.

[32:43] And he assured me that the GRCOC does keep a database and they keep up with things like

[32:53] that so there will be no repetitions.

[32:57] So that was what I was concerned about.

[33:00] Yes.

[33:00] And part of that kind of reporting process, you'll see in the MOU there's a reference to

[33:04] the designated entry system.

[33:06] That's the system that they use to kind of manage their caseloads and that's all hip-up

[33:11] protected.

[33:11] So, you know, we can't have access to that information nor am I suggesting that we should.

[33:17] But part of that is kind of tracking progress of individuals they encounter regardless

[33:21] of where geographically they're encountered.

[33:24] And so through some of this case conferencing as part of this MOU, there will be discussion

[33:29] around progress of certain individuals.

[33:32] And if someone is kind of open to accepting what is being offered to them or if a little

[33:36] bit more work needs to be done.

[33:38] And so, again, it's making sure those lines of communication stay open, which there's already a system in place for them to do that.

[33:44] Thank you.

[33:45] The question I have, we have in here that it's going to be funds that are going to be used or for folks that are actually working with designated GRCOC.

[33:57] So, what length of time, if I'm a person and I see something, I'm on Facebook, I post something that I can't make read that month because we know we see that all the time.

[34:06] What late the time does someone have to be working with the GRCOC before they're able to get funding here in Ashley?

[34:14] I can't speak for the timeline. I would guess I'm looking back because we have two of our wonderful outreach workers here,

[34:22] but my feeling is there is no set. It's all very individualistic based. So my hunch is when this funding becomes available,

[34:30] they probably already have clients in mind that they've been working with who have had this funding gap

[34:35] that may be a quick and easy, let's get these folks into a better situation, or there may

[34:41] be much more complex situations, because if we're talking about, for example, someone needing

[34:45] an ID, we've heard stories in some of our homelessness task force meetings that getting a birth certificate

[34:50] from the state of Texas is a nightmare, right? It takes a really, really long time. And so that can add

[34:56] an overall huge amount of length of time depending on like

[35:00] Where they're from and what other agencies they have to work with to get those resources. So, I'm sorry, I don't have a more firm answer for you. When hearing you say is that if we see something like that, we should refer, somebody should be referring those people to the organization and they will take it from there because they're the experts and they would be able to. Yes, and I'm happy to share with you, there's actually a Google form that GRCSC uses and homework uses, that if you see someone on the street and you are concerned about them, that you can fill that out.

[35:29] and it will get dispatched to outreach workers who will go out and take care of that.

[35:33] Thank you.

[35:34] Mr. May, yes sir.

[35:37] And I apologize, I probably should have asked in my meetings this morning.

[35:42] The town has $10,000 in its budget for this.

[35:45] And then the foundation, if they get donations, can add to that.

[35:51] Have we received any donations to date?

[35:54] Yeah, through the kind of the counts which has only been active for about four months, we're

[35:57] We're just shy of $1,000 in donations, which for a newer campaign and initiative, we talked this morning in our foundation meeting about doing more public awareness around that campaign and potentially doing some signage as the weather starts to warm up because we will expect to see more potentially unhoused individuals back visible in our community as the weather warms up in the spring.

[36:21] And so working maybe with some of our businesses around publishing and

[36:25] publicizing that campaign to, again, the real goal of that is to encourage folks who are well intentioned by buying someone a Chick-fil-A sandwich to rather instead donate to this fund that could make some real impact.

[36:37] Okay, thank you.

[36:39] Anything else at this time?

[36:43] This isn't a public hearing, but because we do have service providers that we've worked with, we know of.

[36:49] I want to invite, if you all like to come forward saying a thing about what we're trying

[36:56] to do, and this MOU, I think, is about as good as you can get, but it's a lot of gray

[37:06] in it because I understand y'all's job, you don't move people from point A to point B exactly

[37:15] Actually, that's the goal, but it might be point eight to point C to point Z, but you're

[37:22] trying to work with an individual and I know that I think I'd ask a question of staff

[37:28] before someone may be in Ashland, y'all are initiating services to that individual in Ashland.

[37:35] They may be, they may need to go into a temporary shelter someone else or somewhere else, but if

[37:44] And that happens, we're not drawing a line through that name, we'll stay with that to

[37:50] try to carry someone and work with yours partners.

[37:54] So I guess what I'm saying is, I'm seeing y'all in the town as partners in this, to where

[38:01] we can't hold y'all to some firm, okay, here they are, fix it.

[38:06] And then y'all certainly don't hold us to a position of, all right, we're gonna tell everybody

[38:12] Why don't we know, you know, the Ashland is the place to go.

[38:15] But again, I want to invite, if you just want to make some comments,

[38:19] y'all have been faithful.

[38:20] What do you do?

[38:20] You want to be faithful?

[38:21] Give you an opportunity to say something if you'd like.

[38:24] Or at least I'm not in the head if you think this memorandum is,

[38:30] that you would support it.

[38:33] And sorry, but you would need to come forward.

[38:36] Then I want to tell you that first.

[38:38] And then identify yourself with name and address for the record.

[38:41] My name is Leah, I'm an average worker in Richmond.

[38:44] I'm also an Ashland resident off of Sneed Street.

[38:48] I can say that this money has already gone

[38:50] to help several individuals.

[38:52] Homeward kind of stood in in front of the money

[38:55] while you all were working on the MOU.

[38:58] We have diverted a family for, we diverted

[39:00] to other single individuals.

[39:03] And that means that we send them to live

[39:04] with a family member, a friend, two, three of them,

[39:09] All three, all of them were out of state, actually.

[39:12] And then there are two, there's a couple that I'm working with currently on, we call self-resolution.

[39:17] So, self-resolution, so they can afford to live on their own, they don't need like a housing intervention.

[39:23] They just need that first month's rent and deposit, so it's already helping several individuals in the town.

[39:30] Okay, thank you.

[39:34] Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. I just want to give you opportunity.

[39:41] These are two of our most committed Ashland advocates, but they also do not enjoy speaking

[39:46] in public as they've said to me, but they do wonderful work with people.

[39:49] Understood. Any other comments?

[39:53] I just want to say this is exactly what I hope was going to happen when we passed that ordinance

[39:57] last fall was at

[40:00] We would all start working together to start moving the ball forward. I'm happy to hear that and happy to see what's happening. Right. Is there a motion? Well, I just, it's a, it's a question comment. Where on our website is this form? Oh, it's not on, well, it's not on our website yet. So it's going to be linked from the kindness that counts information and everything that's going to come up. Okay, because I was on the how to side, which I really like, by the way. Yeah, it makes it really easy. I didn't see it.

[40:28] Yeah, I will add a quick link there for sure sorry every time I hear these things I always check real quick

[40:33] If I'm only one set of eyes, but I always appreciate people saying I only do that because when people say oh

[40:39] We have this there. I just want to know how easy is it and if I can do it without thinking very hard

[40:43] That's all I'll look forward to the link

[40:49] Can somebody designate if they're making a donation to the foundation to designate it to the homelessness?

[40:56] Yes.

[40:57] So they would donate through the kindness that counts campaign.

[41:00] All of that is just for homelessness outreach services.

[41:03] Okay.

[41:03] That goes straight to the GRCOC.

[41:05] That's the only thing that, on the foundation website, you'll see two different donation

[41:09] links.

[41:10] One goes to the community foundation site, which is like our grant portal, where we do the annual

[41:15] grants to community organizations in agreement with Council, and the other is to kindness that

[41:19] counts.

[41:20] That's for homelessness outreach services.

[41:21] And it says as much.

[41:22] If I wanted to make a donation, could I split it?

[41:24] Yeah, you can make a donation on both sides.

[41:27] You can do it however you would like.

[41:29] Okay.

[41:29] Thank you.

[41:32] Right?

[41:33] Nothing else?

[41:34] Is there a motion?

[41:39] Well, Mr. Mayor, I move for approval of the memorandum of understanding the Ashen Foundation

[41:44] and Homeward with the extension of the termination date being on June 30th, 2027.

[41:51] I second.

[41:52] No.

[41:53] Motion and seconded.

[41:55] Miss Opal.

[41:56] Aye.

[41:57] Mr. Malloy.

[41:57] Aye.

[41:58] All right.

[41:58] Dr. McGraw.

[41:59] Aye.

[41:59] Ms. Barnhart.

[42:00] Aye.

[42:00] Mayor Trevett.

[42:01] Aye.

[42:02] Thank you.

[42:06] I'll just close by saying thank you

[42:08] for the opportunity to see how this works in this pilot program.

[42:10] I think it's going to be interesting to see.

[42:12] Thank you.

[42:13] Thank you for the opportunity.

[42:14] Yes, indeed.

[42:16] What's happened?

[42:17] That brings us to action item B. My apologies for the wait.

[42:22] But Ketler, planned unit development, a tax amendment referral.

[42:27] So, right, and who is bringing this to his, Mr. Manager?

[42:33] Yes.

[42:33] I will do my best.

[42:35] As you all are aware, this being on the consent agenda, we typically do not have full presentations

[42:40] available for you, but for my understanding, Council, was hoping that we would talk a little

[42:46] bit about this from a transparency perspective just to let folks know what is actually

[42:50] happening, and so I have a very brief PowerPoint that really just touches on process.

[42:54] and what the process means and where we're going with it, and so if that is acceptable

[42:58] to counsel, I will attempt to run through that. All right. Great. And is this showing

[43:03] up on everyone's screens? Great. So the text amendment that you have in front of you,

[43:08] while we do have information in your packet that we're working with, the contract

[43:13] purchaser for the Holland tract, we also have our comprehensive plan, which very clearly

[43:18] told us, based on your actions, to go back and review this particular part of town,

[43:22] In the language is in front of you here, the town's comprehensive plan states the town should conduct a study

[43:27] determined and recommend the best uses for the area known as the Holland property mixed use development

[43:32] that creates opportunities to promote economic vitality while incorporating affordable housing.

[43:38] And so what essentially that means is the town needs to go through a process to create the appropriate zoning

[43:44] classification with appropriate regulations to allow for a mixed use type development.

[43:49] As we go through this, the reason that this is coming about, and this map may look familiar to you all of you.

[43:56] This is what's known as the Holland track, and pre 2024, all of this was gray, and as part of the comprehensive plan amendment, we decided to take a look at doing mixed use on the bottom portion of the property, but even with that said, at the time of proposing that we do that through the comprehensive plan, the town does not on the bat and already have a mixed-use zoning classification.

[44:18] And so the comprehensive plan was very forward-looking and said, hey, we know that this is the path we want to go down, staff, town council, community.

[44:27] This is the direction that the community would like to go in with the mixed use being here.

[44:31] Now you need to go do the work to actually make that possible.

[44:33] And so that's where we largely get to what we have in front of you tonight, which is a text amendment for the planned unit development zoning classification.

[44:45] That is an existing zoning classification that in talks with potential developer, with

[44:51] the former planning director, and over the years, PUD has been as close to mixed use as

[44:57] we've had in our zoning classifications.

[44:58] and so the...

[45:00] The exercise that you're essentially telling the planning commission to go through is go back, look at the PUD zoning classifications, and come back to us with recommendations on what would make that good for mixed use. And so that could be anything from building heights, open space, the types of uses that would be allowed in the mixed use area. And so they're really going to open it up and either do one of two things, and there's probably pros and cons to both, but we're still preliminary. Either we're going to try to use the PUD and

[45:29] And change it to an extent where someone could apply for a mixed use project using the

[45:36] PUD regulations, or you could take the PUD regulations and create an entirely new mixed

[45:41] use zoning category, but using that as the basis since it's the closest that we have.

[45:45] And so essentially that is the exercise that you'll be asking the planning commission to

[45:50] go through if you were to refer this text amendment to them.

[45:53] I know there's folks in the community who are very worried about the development and

[45:57] what's going to happen up there.

[45:58] We are still at an early enough stage that that's not quite what really what we're

[46:02] talking about, where we were at this moment talking about setting up our regulations

[46:07] to provide for a mixed use development that we would like to see, and then the potential

[46:13] contract purchaser would use those regulations to apply for a rezoning and apply for a comprehensive

[46:18] plan amendment.

[46:19] So this is really the first of kind of a three-step process that we would go through to get

[46:24] to an end product before you're really going to have to be able to do the fun part and see all the

[46:28] buildings, see where all the zoning classifications lay out. Interrupted just for a second.

[46:34] Did I understand you correctly that you said this can go if we pass a resolution. This

[46:41] is a good planning commission. Is it an either or as they look at this debate, either or mixed use

[46:49] All by itself or is it going to be planned to develop?

[46:53] They are reviewing the PUD regulations, and that's their first one.

[46:57] But I have a feeling that I'd like to leave the opportunity open that if they get in

[47:01] there and think that there is a need to create the new, that we allow that to be there.

[47:05] So at this moment, I would say you're asking them to look at PUD.

[47:08] That's the specific request, right?

[47:10] But I think what you get back may either be, here's the recommendation for a changes

[47:14] to PUD, or here's the recommendation for how to do mixed use.

[47:17] I just want to understand the full latitude of what we're asking them to do.

[47:22] Okay, thank you.

[47:24] And so as we go forward, let's assume that you were to do this referral tonight.

[47:29] That will move it to the Planning Commission.

[47:30] They will need to take some time to both under, you know, look at the request,

[47:34] understand the scope of the issue, and then do the appropriate review before they make a

[47:38] recommendation to you.

[47:40] That will occur largely in a parallel path that probably starts a little bit later.

[47:45] where we would also expect the contract purchaser to be in a position to submit both a conference

[47:52] of plan amendment and a rezoning request as we move forward.

[47:56] But the first step needs to be what you're doing tonight, which is getting those regulations

[48:00] set through this referral, okay, and I'll leave it at that.

[48:05] Okay. Any comments? We wanted to pull it off the consent agenda to have a discussion.

[48:15] Not so much specific, but at the same time, thought came to my mind as far as a condition

[48:25] of use permit. Maybe the having an attorney here helps. I guess the way I've maybe

[48:32] often viewed it, a conditional use permit is sort of a higher bar as far as somebody's

[48:38] applying for something. Obviously, if it's already approved, if it's by right, if it's

[48:47] even by right, as far as density, layout, you know, there's things we would look at, and

[48:56] it always kind of felt like an additional use permit sort of says, this is not going to

[49:00] be as easy as this one that doesn't have a condition to use permit.

[49:04] So I guess what I'm asking is, if we change our ordinance with greater flexibility, but

[49:13] don't use conditional use permits, does it make it, does that add any more difficulty

[49:19] for us in saying no, we don't like something?

[49:24] If you understand that my question, I think I do, Mr. Mayor, that if amendments are recommended

[49:30] and adopted by this council that incorporate more flexibility into the underlying

[49:35] PUD district, does that remove some legislative discretion that might exist?

[49:40] No, it was a conditional use permit, and that is correct.

[49:43] So, ultimately, any recommendations made by the Planning Commission up to this body

[49:49] could subsequently be amended by this body, or re-refer back to the Planning Commission

[49:53] if it was, you know, taking away some of that discretion.

[49:57] and, you know, to degree you all thought was.

[50:00] May be too much, but I concur with your, you know, initial thought that the conditional use permit does provide an additional level of flexibility and legislative discretion at the same time within a district regulation.

[50:16] Okay, all right, thank you.

[50:21] Well, I was just going to say, I really appreciate the opportunity for us just to have a conversation about this because our partnership with Kettler is extremely important.

[50:31] Also, just you use the words transparency, Mr. Manager, we know that our town and citizens really appreciate the transparency of this project because it is a massive project and important project certainly going to change the face of Ashland.

[50:45] And also, I certainly do not want our planning commission to think that we're undermining them in any way because we all know they're rock stars and take really good care of us.

[50:54] So I appreciate the opportunity to just have a discussion about this, not go into the weeds about this or something else, but I do appreciate having an opportunity just to let our citizens know what we're thinking about and that we are arm in arm with Kettler working on this and we'll move forward at a speed that we move forward as long as it's right and good and wonderful.

[51:18] I just want to go back to your comment a little bit, not for me, but for people who might be listening and might be a little confused on some of the things.

[51:27] But the planning commission, the way I understand it, could recommend that certain uses be a cup within that zoning.

[51:38] That doesn't mean we've zone this this way, and that's what it is, period.

[51:41] There could be certain things, I don't know, maybe a hotel.

[51:44] They say, yeah, maybe, but it's going to have to come back to the commission.

[51:47] Or maybe you could have higher density housing, but they'd have to come back to the commission.

[51:51] But other things we could do without necessarily coming back.

[51:55] And so I just wanted to clarify that.

[51:57] I don't appreciate that.

[51:57] Okay, it doesn't, it's not like an all, I think you asked support.

[52:01] Is this like one or two or all or none?

[52:04] Or I feel like as our manager said, it's just open.

[52:07] It's just open for our planning and any members of the community if you're concerned.

[52:12] I mean, yeah, we're looking at the Holland track right now, which is a major development in the future for us.

[52:17] But whatever comes out of this could potentially be anywhere in town.

[52:21] So that's just, it's a much bigger thing than just one track.

[52:26] So, exactly well said, we're looking at this as a review by our planning commission.

[52:37] and ultimately back the council on either or a mix of planned use, planned unit development

[52:49] or mixed use but one of the things I guess I wanted it pulled off the agenda. Sometimes

[52:57] you can start something and you set it in a certain format and we did, though we're looking

[53:06] of this regardless of whether it be the Holland track or any other potential plan unit development

[53:12] we could have in the future. But at the same time, we did get the request from Kettler

[53:19] or doing this. And so I didn't want to just do a referral without discussion, which might infer

[53:28] to some people that, yeah, you know, everything's fine. We don't have any concern about anything

[53:33] that's in this application, but at the same time, as Councilmember Barnard has said,

[53:41] we also, we don't want the Planning Commission to think that we don't have confidence

[53:47] in them.

[53:48] So we wanted to have a little bit of discussion, just to say that we take all these things

[53:52] to heart.

[53:53] We're going to pass it, if we pass this resolution, it will go to the Planning Commission

[53:57] who we likewise count on taking all this to heart.

[54:00] And eventually we have more conversations with Katler who we believe also will take things

[54:05] to heart.

[54:06] So invite anyone else with any further discussion on this, any specific questions or comments

[54:13] you may have.

[54:16] Did you say good?

[54:19] Good.

[54:20] Okay.

[54:20] All right.

[54:21] Mysopal.

[54:22] All good.

[54:23] Okay.

[54:24] All right.

[54:25] So is there a motion concerning the resolution which is an necessity for accomplishing what

[54:32] We're talking about accomplishing here.

[54:35] Mr. Mayor, I recommend approval of the resolution 2026-03.

[54:45] I mean, that's your motion.

[54:46] I'm not picking it at your language.

[54:48] You said I recommend, but you're moving that we would do-

[54:50] Oh, my apologies.

[54:51] Oh, that's not-

[54:52] I move for the approval.

[54:53] You're right.

[54:54] I did use the vocabulary incorrectly.

[54:56] Okay, I move for the approval of Resolution 2026, staff.

[55:00] passes, zero, three. Is there a second? All right. Dr. McGrool. Aye. it's Barnheart. Aye.

[55:08] All right, thank y'all and thank you for planning commission for receiving the ball. We're

[55:21] throwing their way. They have their work cut out for them? Yes indeed, and now we'll

[55:27] We'll move on to our report's planning department, Mr. Farrer.

[55:32] Oh, yes.

[55:33] Our senior planner is sort of like.

[55:37] Poor respect, Mr. Lockert.

[55:39] Thankfully, I have not had to initially put together a planning report.

[55:43] The staff does such a wonderful job that they put this together for us, but you have that in front of you.

[55:48] I will do much like I do for my town manager report and try to touch on a few things that may not be incorporated into the report itself.

[55:55] So a few exciting things going on around town, and I would point everyone in the community,

[56:02] especially council, to our community engagement platform that Ms. Miller mentioned earlier,

[56:08] engaged.ashlandva.gov.

[56:10] Right now, there is a rail crossing survey on there, and that is part of a very large grant

[56:16] that we received through the federal government.

[56:18] It does require a community engagement component of it, and so we are on there asking the community

[56:24] what they think about various options to essentially make our vehicular crossings safer throughout

[56:32] the community. So it's kind of getting you to rank things like grade-separated crossings.

[56:37] Obviously, a very effective solution, but a very costly solution as well, things like signage.

[56:45] So basically, a ranking of all the types of things that we could do at each crossing.

[56:48] It's going to be very important that the community help us with this and give their opinion on that

[56:52] because that is going to inform the study that will be done in the coming months.

[56:56] So please go there, and while you're there, and now we'll make a town manager plug,

[57:00] there's also going to be some budget input on there as well.

[57:04] So this is going to become our one stop shop for all our electronic engagement with the community.

[57:09] So go for the rail crossing elimination grant study and stay for the budget exercise.

[57:13] So please do that.

[57:15] Few new businesses have opened throughout town.

[57:18] I think you're all aware and have seen for some time now.

[57:20] flag stop is up and running, Lane's chicken on Route 54 has opened.

[57:25] And I won't necessarily be able to give a date, but hopefully opening soon, Thompson Street

[57:29] Tavern right next to us, I saw their sign one up today, a very nice monument sign,

[57:33] so that should be opening, I would hope in the next few weeks.

[57:37] In December, the Ashland and in Sweet's property, sole, that is the hotel along Route 54,

[57:42] that has the chain link, chain link fence around it.

[57:46] It was sold back to the lean holder and in a conversation with him, he did indicate that their plan was to flip it and put it back on the market for development.

[57:55] So I'll be working with Mr. Thomas and the economic development office to start basically shaking out the rugs and see who we can find to come together and make a deal and try to get a good property owner and a good project moving in that direction.

[58:08] cannot ask a question. I'm sorry others have questions. Of course, Mr. Fair doesn't mind the

[58:15] interruption. I asked for it. The site is almost completely cleaned up. It isn't quite yet, but

[58:25] does that fence have to stay there until somebody else buys it and starts or can that or who's

[58:33] Use a responsible answer tomorrow, but that should be able to come down once the entire structure has been demolished and cleaned up because that was largely up for the code violations and the safety issues were there if the demolition has remediated all those issues we should be able to take the fence down.

[58:49] Okay, and if the fence stays, I guess, to get it all upright and to put new cover, just it's kind of unsightly in the hands of it for some time.

[59:00] And then wrapping up pretty quickly, the Henry Clay Elementary School Project continues.

[59:06] The latest step in that, so it's moving through the Hanover County process.

[59:10] But town staff have submitted the, I'm going to get the word, it's not 100% correctly.

[59:15] But the historic preservation application for the property to the State Department of Historic Resources is my understanding.

[59:22] They do quarterly review of those projects.

[59:25] So our should be reviewed in March, and that should allow us a determination to understand whether the potential developer of that property would be eligible for those historic tax credits that are so important for him to make his finances work.

[59:38] So moving along on all the various parallel paths and recall elementary continues to move along as well.

[59:44] And then last, and I would say potentially most importantly, interviews are going well for the replacement planning director.

[59:51] I would hope to have an offer out in the relatively near future.

[59:55] Great.

[59:56] That sounds good.

[59:58] Okay.

[59:58] And I'll take any questions here.

[1:00:00] I just want to say I went on to engage dash dot ashlandba.gov and I did the rail crossing. Good, thank you. It was very, I enjoyed it. I learned a little bit and I thought the questions were easy to answer and it was easy to use. Excellent. Good to hear. All right. Anyone else? All right. Thank you all. Thank you, sir. And so we'll move to the finance department. Miss you guys.

[1:00:29] Good evening

[1:00:32] again.

[1:00:34] Thank

[1:00:38] you, sir.

[1:00:40] Okay, so tonight before you are the December Financial Reports.

[1:00:44] As we've talked about, Real Estate Bills were sent January 2nd.

[1:00:48] The online payment portal resident access is available to make payments by credit card or

[1:00:52] each check and personal property bills will be going out as soon as possible.

[1:00:58] For the major revenue sources for December, meals tax was just a little bit short of our

[1:01:04] projection but overall it is showing growth year-over-year of 7%.

[1:01:09] I will mention that a couple of these sources the percentage increase year-over-year is

[1:01:14] showing a little bit lower so we're seeing a little bit of less growth in these sources

[1:01:21] year-over-year.

[1:01:23] For lodging tax it has been consistent and like I said they are still so in growth this

[1:01:27] year.

[1:01:28] Over last year the same period we're showing growth at about 5% so last month I would have

[1:01:32] reported a growth of about 6%. Sales tax does remain strong. That's a strong revenue

[1:01:39] source for the town. We are seeing growth of about 12.6%. Last month I reported about

[1:01:46] 14.7%. So we're seeing a little bit of a decrease in that. But overall, all of these

[1:01:52] revenue sources are showing increases year over year. And real estate and personal property

[1:01:57] tax, not a lot to say on those. They were mail in January, so any amounts that you see

[1:02:02] in this report are going to be dealing with collections for both personal property

[1:02:06] and real estate. So in the next couple months, I'll be able to show some numbers for current

[1:02:11] collections on that. And then lastly, our LGIP collections for the calendar year are shown

[1:02:19] And for our withdrawal funds, I'm sorry that are invested.

[1:02:25] You will see it withdrawal on the LGIP Operations Fund.

[1:02:28] That usually happens about this time of year.

[1:02:31] It's for cash flow purposes, so we will draw money out of that to put into our checking

[1:02:35] account.

[1:02:35] And then once our tax collection cycle comes up in the next month or so, we will be able

[1:02:41] to invest those back into our LGIP fund.

[1:02:43] That's a very normal thing to do at this time of year, so I don't want to think there's

[1:02:47] being alarm on that.

[1:02:48] So that's all I have and I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have.

[1:02:52] Questions anyone?

[1:02:55] Just in the spirit of our former vice mayor, John Hodges there, the LGIP local government investment pool.

[1:03:05] Yes, sir, thank you.

[1:03:06] Thank you.

[1:03:07] We use acronyms all the time and we forget that not everyone knows what we're speaking about so I appreciate it.

[1:03:11] Sure thing.

[1:03:12] Thank you very much.

[1:03:14] All right.

[1:03:15] the chief.

[1:03:21] Sorry, your presentation had to become second to the other chief, but we're glad you're here.

[1:03:27] Okay, we added another person to our ranks. We'll be okay.

[1:03:31] In your fact this evening, you have your monthly report for the police department for the month of December.

[1:03:37] Also, container that is a preliminary annual report.

[1:03:41] So if you'll indulge me, I'll just give you some of the information on that and just give some broad strokes.

[1:03:45] For this year, we had a decrease overall in crime when compared with 2024, the total number

[1:03:54] was 146 Part 1 incidents.

[1:03:57] Those are major crimes, robberies, rape, homicide, petty larcenies, things of that nature.

[1:04:04] So the ones that we really track, and we had 146 incidents, which again was a 32.4% decrease.

[1:04:11] It's also the lowest number we've had in the past 15 years.

[1:04:15] And the lowest I know of since I've been employed with the police department.

[1:04:18] But I do say that with a caveat, it only takes one variable to come through and

[1:04:23] start picking on lifting up door handles and break into about 15 or 20 cars.

[1:04:28] Or a bunch of people shoplifting and those numbers go out the window.

[1:04:32] So we got great patrol techniques, but also we got very lucky this year.

[1:04:36] So I don't want to beat my chest just yet because the next year I mean.

[1:04:40] be telling you of a crime increase. Also we had 101 traffic collisions this year that

[1:04:47] represented a 22.3% decrease over 2024. I believe this year was a very successful year

[1:04:54] for the police department and I'm proud of the efforts that the police officers put forth.

[1:05:00] Some major events that happened this month. I've reported some of this last month, but we did have a major case involving credit card deaths and fraudulent use several of our gas stations. We were able to solve those and resulted in 24 total warrants being served. Also as an initiative, something we're trying to do. Last year, we bought some credit card skimming devices. I don't know if you're familiar with this, but what they'll do is they will basically place a device on

[1:05:30] transaction machines or they will place them at gas stations where you scan your credit card.

[1:05:36] That will then transmit your data and your information to somebody here nearby by Bluetooth

[1:05:40] or they will come back and get the information from the device itself.

[1:05:44] These guys are brazing with this.

[1:05:46] They'll even do it when a clerk is there and manage to get these devices on and sometimes

[1:05:49] you won't know they're there because they can literally just put it right over top of

[1:05:53] the machine and unless you pull on it, wiggle it or you can actually check on your phone

[1:05:58] and see if there's some unknowably two devices around.

[1:06:01] But most people aren't gonna take those steps.

[1:06:03] So then you skim it, you put your credit card in,

[1:06:06] you get skimmed in the next scene now,

[1:06:07] you're looking at your credit card balance,

[1:06:09] and your information's been stolen,

[1:06:11] you have some unauthorized transactions.

[1:06:13] So we did buy devices that actually allow us

[1:06:15] to go through the gas stations and see if those are there.

[1:06:18] And so we're starting to do that periodically

[1:06:20] to see if there's skimming devices or actual machines.

[1:06:23] Yes sir.

[1:06:24] Is there a way for a citizen to recognize something

[1:06:26] that look funky? The best thing I can tell you to do is if you're ending your pin is always to

[1:06:31] obscure it so they cannot see the numbers as they're being entered. That's the first thing.

[1:06:35] Second thing is to pull on any see if the door's open, wiggling. If it looks like it's been tampered

[1:06:40] with, a lot of businesses are now are putting stickers across it. If those stickers look like they've

[1:06:45] been tampered with, go to another machine to use it. A lot of times you're going to find these

[1:06:51] set yourself checkouts. So personally, I always go to a person's monitoring the machine

[1:06:57] because it's less likely, but if there's not a person monitoring them, for example,

[1:07:01] some places you'll have five or six or seven of these self checkouts, but you have one

[1:07:06] person watching it. And then they'll, you know, of course, there's people like me who don't

[1:07:10] know how to check out. I've always relied on other people to do it. And they're distracted.

[1:07:14] And then they start putting these, or some of you distracts them on purpose while they

[1:07:17] to divert you. So those are just some things that you can do. So that's why I'm seeing that little strip

[1:07:23] of paper. Okay and a certain retail establishment here. When mine got skimmed in the South Carolina,

[1:07:31] I scanned the credit card and then suddenly I looked and I saw that the door was flapping and I realized

[1:07:35] I was going to have a bad day so I could immediately call my bank to let them know that I felt like I was

[1:07:41] going to be skimmed and sure enough I had been. Do you know is this only with insert your cards or

[1:07:46] Do you want to swipe your cards?

[1:07:47] Does tap do anything to abate this in any way whatsoever?

[1:07:51] To be honest with you, I don't know, but I do think that if you transmit it in any way in that machine,

[1:07:57] they have a way that they can put in a Bluetooth inside.

[1:08:00] It may be a little harder for them.

[1:08:01] But right now, the technology and the criminals is superseding the technology we have.

[1:08:07] So we're doing the best we can with these devices to try to stop that.

[1:08:10] So investigations is taking the lead on trying to find those devices.

[1:08:14] and at least minimize the people who made the come victim victim to that crime.

[1:08:19] Some other events we had this month, we attended the Asian Gollum hosted by the Asian Chamber in December to support our Asian community.

[1:08:26] We did a crisis response active sheet or type drill at St. Anne's Church.

[1:08:32] We attended the Valor Awards and I'd like to thank you, Mr. Manager and all the members of town council who attended that with us.

[1:08:37] Thank you for the support.

[1:08:39] We hosted our annual shop of the cop program.

[1:08:42] I'm sorry that that happened at the second meeting,

[1:08:46] the count council was occurring,

[1:08:47] so it was impossible for all of us to be at two places

[1:08:49] at the same time, but I'd like to thank Ms. Amy Mines

[1:08:52] for her continued support with that event.

[1:08:54] She's done a great job.

[1:08:55] We were able to help out 24 families this year with that.

[1:08:58] Thank you to her.

[1:08:59] She's been instrumental in making this a great success for us.

[1:09:04] And finally, something else is we work with a manager

[1:09:07] to produce, to basically purchase new trainer NADs for the town.

[1:09:13] So, we're able to implement all those devices and get those put out.

[1:09:17] The great thing is, is that because the devices we have before,

[1:09:20] we're different than what the fire department's using,

[1:09:23] we would have to change out the pads, the electrodes, and then they'll say,

[1:09:26] you know, you're having a heart attack time as of the essence.

[1:09:29] So, now we can do that without having to have that extra time added

[1:09:33] by switching equipment.

[1:09:34] We just leave the pads on. They can put their device in and go. So that's great. Thank you, Mr. Manager for the support on that.

[1:09:45] Also, we accepted this purchase. We're going to purchase a new grant off some grant.

[1:09:51] Forgive me. We accepted a DCGS grant for a drone. We'll be working on purchasing that this month. It's 22-

[1:10:00] $2,000, it was awarded by the state. Our drone is Chinese-made so we're no longer allowed to fly that. So we'll be moving forward that in the next couple weeks. And on the hiring front, we have one vacancy with a process currently ongoing. We hope to fill that vacancy over the next couple weeks. But we will have a vacancy in the near future with retirement of Captain Shoevour, so we plan on moving forward with a process to go ahead and fill that as well. So we're ready to go. And also everyone's aware

[1:10:29] First snow is coming this weekend, so this is what's on my mind and why I made a couple of mistakes, so I want to make sure I got this in.

[1:10:36] This Saturday beginning at eight o'clock, we're asking for everyone to not park on the streets, especially in the areas of Henry Street, Thompson,

[1:10:45] Hanover, South Center, and Hill Carter Parkway around the truck stop both north and south, and the contiguous roadway as we go with it.

[1:10:52] With this amount of snowfall, it's going to be very difficult to move that snow out, so we have to make sure that we do not have park cars.

[1:10:59] because they're going to obstruct and it's going to hinder public work staff from getting their job done.

[1:11:04] So, if we have to enforce it, we'll have to remove cars in a roadway to make sure we can get the snow moved as far out of the roadways possible.

[1:11:11] I see our community engagement, individuals, steadily writing down so this will be publicized.

[1:11:19] It's already on channel 8 news as we speak. I just saw that and I was just reviewing it on my phone.

[1:11:23] And also, I've already spoken with our Randolph-Macon College.

[1:11:26] they forwarded out the students today and they will also forward it out again on Friday.

[1:11:31] Again, the goal is not to tell anyone's car if they don't have to,

[1:11:34] that's going to take my staff's time from doing their job to them,

[1:11:38] sitting and watching for the car's mirrored.

[1:11:40] But that'll be happy to answer any questions you may have.

[1:11:45] I go back to my old life.

[1:11:48] Just out of curiosity, I guess.

[1:11:50] Do you know how many individuals are on community-based supervision in town?

[1:11:55] I do not.

[1:11:57] In estimate, maybe, or too difficult to tell.

[1:12:00] I do not know.

[1:12:01] Okay.

[1:12:04] I'm sorry?

[1:12:05] No.

[1:12:06] Oh.

[1:12:07] Pre-trial, probation, or parole, supervision.

[1:12:10] I get easily fined out.

[1:12:11] I can we could ask the county as to how many people are.

[1:12:13] But I'll top my head.

[1:12:14] I do not know.

[1:12:15] Okay.

[1:12:15] I was just wondering.

[1:12:17] All right.

[1:12:18] Anything else?

[1:12:19] Thank you.

[1:12:20] You said you're proud of your team with the reduction in crime.

[1:12:25] Certainly we are too, very proud of the team and we thank you.

[1:12:30] Thank you so much for our appreciate.

[1:12:31] Thank you for the time, and I'll have those.

[1:12:32] I'll try to find those numbers out next meeting.

[1:12:35] It's not that great importance to Monk Buddha,

[1:12:39] right?

[1:12:40] Is there anything else to come before us to see?

[1:12:43] No, sir.

[1:12:43] All right, we're adjourned.

[1:12:45] Thank you all.

Town Council Meeting

Transcript