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Good evening.

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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.

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

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So,

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a pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic of

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which it stands one nation under God in the visible with liberty and trust and sorrow.

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Thank you.

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We'll go ahead and take a look at our agenda for this evening.

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We have our consent agenda, which includes minutes from the January 6th, 2026 Council meeting.

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We have an item B, Catler, PUD, Text Amendment Referral.

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We have the Ashland Police Department window entryway project, then we have a presentation

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which will be fun.

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Administration of oath of office to our new cat police chief and our dog mayor.

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We have citizen input time, opportunity for an individual to come before council and bring

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an item that they would like to share with council. We have two public hearings. First

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when ordinance 2026-01 to extend the deadline for tax payments. We have ordinance 2025-12

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conditional rezoning amendment. We have one action item at this time, memorandum of understanding

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when homelessness outreach services. And we have reports from the planning department,

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finance department and police department.

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Now I understand council members we've had some discussion as individuals with one

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another and or with the town manager concerning one of the items in the

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consent agenda and so I'll just pause here for a minute and ask whether there's a

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motion to make a change to the consent agenda.

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Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion.

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Please, I'd like to motion to move the consent agenda item B to the action item B.

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A second.

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Ms. Barnhart.

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Aye.

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Ms. Soapal.

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Aye.

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Mr. Maloy.

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Aye.

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Dr. McGraw.

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Aye.

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Mr. Bet.

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Aye.

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Okay, so presented the agenda as printed and we've made an adjustment to take consent

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not consent agenda item B and move it to action item B. And so with that change is there

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consensus for the agenda as presented? Yes. Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you. All right.

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

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which includes item A and item C. Well, Mr. Mayor, I move to approve the consent agenda

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as amended. Is there a second? Second. All right. Thank you. Ms. Barnhart. Hi.

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Ms. Sopal. Hi. Mr. Malloye. Hi. Dr. McGraw. Hi. Mayor Trevette. Hi. All right. Thank

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you. And that brings us to our presentation. Administration of Oath of Office and Mr.

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Goodman. We're going to follow your leads and looking forward to this.

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Good evening, Council.

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

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in context, so people are wondering why he's swearing a dog into an office.

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We held our first ever pet election this year as it means to do some fun community engagement

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get people excited and as you can imagine because of the community that we have, the outpouring

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was significant. We received over 20 nominations for each office. Those were narrowed down

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to five finalists that went into a public voting process and we received nearly 2,000 votes

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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.

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

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And I will just add a little plug, hopefully Dr. Hill does not mind me mentioning this.

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but he did mention today that he had recently been in contact with the recently sworn

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and lieutenant governor of Virginia and he mentioned Ashland and Randolph-Macon and she

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said, oh, you're your dog's the mayor, right?

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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.

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

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

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We have cameras facing both the right side, so however he wants to do it, so I am going

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to read the oath and then we'll just look for some sort of affirmation from the end of

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the understand.

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How about that?

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Very good.

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Most unique thing I've had to do in my service.

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

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challenging. So the oath of office for the Cat Police Chief as I trouble man do solemnly

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swear to faithfully serve as the Cat Police Chief of the town of Ashland, Virginia. For

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

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and order to protect laps and porches and sunny windowsills to investigate suspicious noises

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and wrote red dots, and to enforce all laws governing treats,

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naps, and the proper chin scratches.

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I will serve with courage, courtesy, and a little bit of mischief,

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always in the best interest of the people of Ashland.

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And just wag your tail if you agree.

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I got it.

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Very good.

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All right.

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We have some official things up here for Kat.

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Chiefs?

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All right.

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Well done, Kitty.

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And now we would like to welcome up Wilbur and his dad, Dr. Hill.

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

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We're putting our AV guy, the odds behind the great Magical Curtain to work tonight.

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So, dawn, do your best, sir, best you can.

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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.

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The oath of office for dog mayor.

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I, Wilbur, do solemnly swear to faithfully serve as the dog mayor for

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the town of Ashland, Virginia, for a term of one year commencing January 20th, 2026.

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

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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.

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All

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right, there we go.

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So,

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that's

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a good job.

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Mayor Trevett, it's good to know you have backup now, sir.

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

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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.

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Okay.

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I'm

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up here.

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Okay, this one, you can see, it says,

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I'm happy now.

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Yes.

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Now.

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Whoa.

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This one.

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Raccoon.

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I remember trying this three years.

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You know, my motto has been Nangans.

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Now, this one, the water.

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The Virginia Plate says, stay dry.

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I'm okay.

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Stay.

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Now, this one, I swear I was just looking.

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Okay, and this is great.

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Check it out.

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Ashwin Virginia.

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Okay.

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Ashwin Virginia.

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or even our critters at a good time.

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This is in my poem.

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Actually, Virginia.

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It's not my lips penis.

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I work for the eye.

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Actually, Virginia 80s.

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This is one of my favorites.

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A museum, so bright home.

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That's good.

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Okay, and now for my poem.

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Ashwin Virginia, ABC store.

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A rascal raccoon got into too much holiday spirits.

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News flash.

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in Ashwin, Virginia, hangover, manhandover, ABC store, a very naughty raccoon bandit,

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preferred his liquor straight up, no ice, no mask, is definitely into the holiday spirits.

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Okay, here's my poem.

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I'm a rascul of a raccoon, fell through the ceiling of Ashwin's ABC, while happy hour

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was delicious, pure and brochure for me.

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Bottles knocked off broken pieces, spilled, couldn't help, made a mess, well, shucks, it's

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a holiday season, bottoms up toast, we all are blessed.

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Licked up classic cosmopolitan reserve bourbon was nodding up.

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Munchek holiday nod to tell vodka was made of the right stuff.

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Licked up patron silver tequila.

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That will do too.

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Next I tip see through the puddles and found my next clue.

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Snack my lips, peanut butter whiskey, high as a roller coaster ride.

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I passed out just short of the potty, foiled my escape, now stuck inside.

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Anybody heard of Drunk as a Skull?

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Well, here is trash coon in a bathroom.

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slurped it off an animal control shelter and nebriated me, woke up, released, I'm a wild

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one.

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Get out of jail car, I am free.

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When I saw a pack of sweet sippings, wagling and grinning, so bright, Ashland's my kind of

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town, holiday spirits, pure delight.

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All right, that may be hard to follow, but citizen input time is open if anyone

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

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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.

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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

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

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I'm sorry, yes, resolution.

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

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Historically, they've gone out in the first week of December.

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Ms. Schugart has been working day and night weekends, trying to get this back on one line.

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and her efforts have been actually incredible.

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Low history back in January 6th of 2026,

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town council adopted Resolution 2026-02 to provide staff

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to extend the deadline to accept taxes

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to the maximum of up to 90 days allowed by state code.

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That was more direction to staff.

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This ordinance codifies that,

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but also allows for pushing out any penalties

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

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So that's why this is a two-part process.

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So with that, I will turn it over to Ms. Schugart.

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Thank you.

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So Mr. Goodman covered most of what I was going to say.

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I will mention that real estate bills were mailed out January 2nd.

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We are receiving payments on those and folks are calling in with questions.

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If anyone has any questions, feel free to call town hall.

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We're still working on personal property bills.

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As of this afternoon, they have not been mailed out.

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that I was working with the vendor today.

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We're anticipating within the next two weeks

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they will be mailed out.

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They'll be mailed out from our prep vendor.

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So they do not get mailed out directly from town hall.

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So this ordinance, I'm not sure if Mr. Goodwin said

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it does repeal itself on January 1st, 2027.

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So this is just to extend the due date for this year.

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And we are requesting that after this public hearing

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at the conclusion that you approve the extension

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to March 5th, 2026.

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I'll be happy to answer any questions if you have any prior to the public hearing.

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All right. Any questions at this time for staff?

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

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So we invite the public if anybody would like to come forward and make any comments about

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this ordinance on the deadline for tax payments. Come now if you've heard.

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Seeing no one,

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

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Mr. Mayor. Yes, I would move for approval of ordinance

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2026 ash 01 as presented. I second motion made and seconded vice ma'am McGraw

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Hi, Ms. Barnhart. Hi. I'm so Paul. Hi, Mr. Molloy. Hi Mayor Trebat. Hi. All right. Thank y'all

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All right, our next public hearing ordinance 2025-12, conditional rezoning amendment, Mr. Lockert.

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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.

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

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zoning.

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

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and limit residential profits to...

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So those authorized under Virginia State Code 15.2-2303-4D. This request actually comes recommended

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by our town attorney, as the amendment is needed to correct Ashland zoning current, zoning

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framework and align it with current state law.

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Just to broadly cover what the amendment

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will do, so this will switch the legal authority from the prior State Code 15.2-2908 to 15.2-2303

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and this will give the town or town council

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a broader flexibility when accepting conditional

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proffers.

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The news, this would allow for the removal

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of several statutory limitations, so this currently

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includes our requirement to that proffers directly

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relate to any problems that would arise due

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to a rezoning and that any, the conditions

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would explicitly comply with the comprehensive plan.

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The new code amendment will also eliminate the capital improvement program requirement, so

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the any accepted proffers can now, or transportation cash, or property proffers could be accepted

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even if a project is not within the CIP.

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New code amendment also provides much more flexibility for transportation and road improvements.

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States Code 2303 does not restrict what types of permits can be accepted as part of conditional.

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Resoning, the new code amendment shifts residential proffers from 15.2-2303.4D, allowing the

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town to accept any constitutional proper voluntarily offered by the applicant.

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the previous state code that we were following 2303.4c and post-stricted rules on what

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counted as a reasonable profit and that post-potential challenges to any conditional

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will offer the town would accept.

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Town council is kind of also required, you will no longer be able to deny a rezoning

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

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come up can still be considered as part of a consideration.

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This was presented to planning commission,

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pretty last month, they had quite a few questions on the amendment,

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mostly on how they would evaluate the proffers,

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how this would impact their any potential denials to rezoning,

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and whether they could still evaluate proffers based off of the comprehensive plan.

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Again, it was clarified that any impacts planning considerations and overall application

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adequacy may continue to be evaluated under the amended ordinance, and then specific

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proffers may not be required as a condition of approval.

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Resonting applications can still be denied based on any planning considerations, impacts,

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or planning consistency, but again, they cannot be denied solely on a lack of proffers.

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Planning Commission voted unanimously to recognize approval of ordinance 2025-12.

251
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All right. Any questions or comments further on this?

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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.

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and the statement they found the amendments improved clarity and maintain appropriate planning standards.

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So anyway, that sounds like a good work, a good result of this.

255
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Any questions, comments to staff?

256
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All right, at this time, we'll go ahead and officially open the public hearing.

257
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Just to see if anyone wants to make any statements, ask any questions about this and

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Thank you for this time.

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All right?

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Seeing no one, we will close the public hearing

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and bring it back to Council for either further discussion

262
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and if none, then for a motion.

263
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I'll be happy to.

264
00:24:44,820 --> 00:24:48,180
I move to approve ordinance 2025-12

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00:24:48,180 --> 00:24:52,620
to amend Ashson Town Code Chapter 21 article one

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in general conditional zoning as presented.

267
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Second.

268
00:24:57,840 --> 00:24:58,900
Okay, good job.

269
00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:21,940
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.

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Good evening again up here for a very different but also very important reason to you this evening.

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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.

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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.

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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,

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profits, Hanover County social services, the Ashland Police Department and the town of Ashland.

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And also to reduce duplication of services, making sure folks are not falling through the service gaps.

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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.

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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.

278
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then to use for things that state and federal funding may not qualify for.

279
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And so this MOU is really designed to do that.

280
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To be clear, the GRCOC already provides outreach services to the town of Ashland.

281
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That service already exists, but our hope and intention with this MOU is to provide additional

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funding so that we can get even more targeted outreach, especially considering the demand of

283
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the surrounding localities compared to what the town of Ashland's needs are.

284
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So as you'll see under the funding commitments, by signing this MOU the town would be committing

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to provide $10,000 in support of these efforts.

286
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This is not new funding.

287
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This is money that had already been budgeted and allocated for homelessness outreach services

288
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in your FY26 budget.

289
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The Ashland Foundation will contribute as kind of a pass-through via that kindness that

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counts initiative, which is already ongoing and will continue to promote.

291
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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.

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And the idea is to really use the funds to help those individuals or families exit homelessness.

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So helping with first and last month's rent, helping them get funding for getting their IDs.

294
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So they can seek employment, secure a place to live.

295
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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.

296
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You'll see under prohibited expenditures.

297
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The town is asking that the funds provided not be used to purchase tents or sleeping bags or

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

299
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and that any funding needs to make sure that it's going towards actions that are compliant with all town code.

300
00:29:05,030 --> 00:29:14,550
You'll see roles and responsibilities in here. Homeward is listed. They are the designated GRCOC administering agency,

301
00:29:14,890 --> 00:29:20,490
so the agreement is actually with Homeward, but it is part of the GRCOC, so that's why the difference in name there.

302
00:29:20,490 --> 00:29:28,110
You'll see some metrics and reporting requirements in there should council vote to adopt this MOU this evening.

303
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I have a planned call with the executive director of Homeward Kelly Kinghorn later this week to walk through exactly kind of what that

304
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reporting structure will look like in the cadence for that and then you'll see under item B there the Ashland Foundations

305
00:29:42,370 --> 00:29:48,750
requirements. Really they are your administering arm for the funding as well as the accountability partner.

306
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So, the board will be kind of regularly reviewing how the funds are used, examining the relationship

307
00:29:54,850 --> 00:29:58,730
and providing some feedback to Council should you be considering funding in the future.

308
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The founding-

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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.

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This says an expiration of June 30th, 2026.

311
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We started working on this MLU quite some time ago.

312
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And with only six months left to go, Mr. Manager suggested in the Ashland Foundation

313
00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:46,240
board meeting that we go ahead and just make that expiration 2027, June 30th, 2027.

314
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So I would offer that as consideration as you consider adopting this.

315
00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:55,000
And then you'll see there's a lot of legal language that our lovely friends at St.

316
00:30:55,000 --> 00:31:00,660
Hans Anderson had us put in there, but pretty boiler plate stuff.

317
00:31:01,380 --> 00:31:07,100
So with that said, I will, if I can get out of this window, I

318
00:31:10,270 --> 00:31:12,310
think I'm frozen, but

319
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you have my staff report in front of you.

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

321
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is that this is the third kind of prong to our approach towards really trying to wrap

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our arms around the kind of seemingly growing unhoused situation here in the town of Ashland

323
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and the first being the public camping ordinance which was done with a lot of stakeholder

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support, the second being the ongoing work of the homelessness task force which is meeting

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by monthly and I look forward to updating you on progress there in a coming meeting and

326
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then finally this funding component is kind of our three pronged approach to this issue and

327
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And this is not designed to duplicate or replace services provided by Hanover County, but to augment and amplify those that already exist.

328
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And with that, I'm happy to answer questions, and you have my staff recommendation there in front of you.

329
00:32:06,050 --> 00:32:08,690
All right, I have a question for you,

330
00:32:11,950 --> 00:32:17,790
but I didn't have a question this morning from Mr. Manager regarding this, wondering.

331
00:32:18,470 --> 00:32:26,010
you know, now word is out that the town of Ashland has this funding to assist these people.

332
00:32:27,910 --> 00:32:35,810
What if they are in the region in Henrico, Guigland, Richmond and everywhere else and they're like,

333
00:32:36,010 --> 00:32:39,990
hmm, I'm going to go and be homeless in Ashland because I'm going to get some help.

334
00:32:40,730 --> 00:32:43,750
So I was concerned that people might do that.

335
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And he assured me that the GRCOC does keep a database and they keep up with things like

336
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that so there will be no repetitions.

337
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So that was what I was concerned about.

338
00:33:00,050 --> 00:33:00,230
Yes.

339
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And part of that kind of reporting process, you'll see in the MOU there's a reference to

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the designated entry system.

341
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That's the system that they use to kind of manage their caseloads and that's all hip-up

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protected.

343
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So, you know, we can't have access to that information nor am I suggesting that we should.

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But part of that is kind of tracking progress of individuals they encounter regardless

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of where geographically they're encountered.

346
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And so through some of this case conferencing as part of this MOU, there will be discussion

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around progress of certain individuals.

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And if someone is kind of open to accepting what is being offered to them or if a little

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00:33:36,830 --> 00:33:38,210
bit more work needs to be done.

350
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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.

351
00:33:44,290 --> 00:33:44,630
Thank you.

352
00:33:45,330 --> 00:33:57,090
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.

353
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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.

354
00:34:06,490 --> 00:34:14,490
What late the time does someone have to be working with the GRCOC before they're able to get funding here in Ashley?

355
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I can't speak for the timeline. I would guess I'm looking back because we have two of our wonderful outreach workers here,

356
00:34:22,010 --> 00:34:30,130
but my feeling is there is no set. It's all very individualistic based. So my hunch is when this funding becomes available,

357
00:34:30,370 --> 00:34:35,830
they probably already have clients in mind that they've been working with who have had this funding gap

358
00:34:35,830 --> 00:34:41,190
that may be a quick and easy, let's get these folks into a better situation, or there may

359
00:34:41,190 --> 00:34:45,070
be much more complex situations, because if we're talking about, for example, someone needing

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

361
00:34:50,910 --> 00:34:56,690
from the state of Texas is a nightmare, right? It takes a really, really long time. And so that can add

362
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an overall huge amount of length of time depending on like

363
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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.

364
00:35:29,680 --> 00:35:32,940
and it will get dispatched to outreach workers who will go out and take care of that.

365
00:35:33,120 --> 00:35:34,240
Thank you.

366
00:35:34,580 --> 00:35:36,420
Mr. May, yes sir.

367
00:35:37,340 --> 00:35:40,980
And I apologize, I probably should have asked in my meetings this morning.

368
00:35:42,640 --> 00:35:45,460
The town has $10,000 in its budget for this.

369
00:35:45,780 --> 00:35:50,320
And then the foundation, if they get donations, can add to that.

370
00:35:51,400 --> 00:35:53,900
Have we received any donations to date?

371
00:35:54,420 --> 00:35:57,680
Yeah, through the kind of the counts which has only been active for about four months, we're

372
00:35:57,680 --> 00:36:21,800
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.

373
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And so working maybe with some of our businesses around publishing and

374
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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.

375
00:36:37,440 --> 00:36:38,340
Okay, thank you.

376
00:36:39,860 --> 00:36:41,140
Anything else at this time?

377
00:36:43,020 --> 00:36:49,140
This isn't a public hearing, but because we do have service providers that we've worked with, we know of.

378
00:36:49,140 --> 00:36:56,600
I want to invite, if you all like to come forward saying a thing about what we're trying

379
00:36:56,600 --> 00:37:06,880
to do, and this MOU, I think, is about as good as you can get, but it's a lot of gray

380
00:37:06,880 --> 00:37:15,480
in it because I understand y'all's job, you don't move people from point A to point B exactly

381
00:37:15,480 --> 00:37:22,920
Actually, that's the goal, but it might be point eight to point C to point Z, but you're

382
00:37:22,920 --> 00:37:28,200
trying to work with an individual and I know that I think I'd ask a question of staff

383
00:37:28,200 --> 00:37:35,440
before someone may be in Ashland, y'all are initiating services to that individual in Ashland.

384
00:37:35,920 --> 00:37:44,280
They may be, they may need to go into a temporary shelter someone else or somewhere else, but if

385
00:37:44,280 --> 00:37:50,960
And that happens, we're not drawing a line through that name, we'll stay with that to

386
00:37:50,960 --> 00:37:53,980
try to carry someone and work with yours partners.

387
00:37:54,280 --> 00:38:00,600
So I guess what I'm saying is, I'm seeing y'all in the town as partners in this, to where

388
00:38:01,320 --> 00:38:06,020
we can't hold y'all to some firm, okay, here they are, fix it.

389
00:38:06,860 --> 00:38:12,960
And then y'all certainly don't hold us to a position of, all right, we're gonna tell everybody

390
00:38:12,960 --> 00:38:15,160
Why don't we know, you know, the Ashland is the place to go.

391
00:38:15,400 --> 00:38:18,720
But again, I want to invite, if you just want to make some comments,

392
00:38:19,200 --> 00:38:20,000
y'all have been faithful.

393
00:38:20,020 --> 00:38:20,620
What do you do?

394
00:38:20,780 --> 00:38:21,440
You want to be faithful?

395
00:38:21,760 --> 00:38:23,540
Give you an opportunity to say something if you'd like.

396
00:38:24,120 --> 00:38:29,040
Or at least I'm not in the head if you think this memorandum is,

397
00:38:30,200 --> 00:38:31,300
that you would support it.

398
00:38:33,200 --> 00:38:35,820
And sorry, but you would need to come forward.

399
00:38:36,580 --> 00:38:37,840
Then I want to tell you that first.

400
00:38:38,720 --> 00:38:41,340
And then identify yourself with name and address for the record.

401
00:38:41,340 --> 00:38:44,080
My name is Leah, I'm an average worker in Richmond.

402
00:38:44,340 --> 00:38:47,400
I'm also an Ashland resident off of Sneed Street.

403
00:38:48,120 --> 00:38:50,760
I can say that this money has already gone

404
00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:52,240
to help several individuals.

405
00:38:52,940 --> 00:38:55,660
Homeward kind of stood in in front of the money

406
00:38:55,660 --> 00:38:57,480
while you all were working on the MOU.

407
00:38:58,060 --> 00:39:00,940
We have diverted a family for, we diverted

408
00:39:00,940 --> 00:39:02,580
to other single individuals.

409
00:39:03,160 --> 00:39:04,960
And that means that we send them to live

410
00:39:04,960 --> 00:39:09,360
with a family member, a friend, two, three of them,

411
00:39:09,360 --> 00:39:11,820
All three, all of them were out of state, actually.

412
00:39:12,480 --> 00:39:16,800
And then there are two, there's a couple that I'm working with currently on, we call self-resolution.

413
00:39:17,460 --> 00:39:22,740
So, self-resolution, so they can afford to live on their own, they don't need like a housing intervention.

414
00:39:23,220 --> 00:39:29,180
They just need that first month's rent and deposit, so it's already helping several individuals in the town.

415
00:39:30,040 --> 00:39:31,200
Okay, thank you.

416
00:39:34,940 --> 00:39:40,640
Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. I just want to give you opportunity.

417
00:39:41,300 --> 00:39:46,480
These are two of our most committed Ashland advocates, but they also do not enjoy speaking

418
00:39:46,480 --> 00:39:49,400
in public as they've said to me, but they do wonderful work with people.

419
00:39:49,540 --> 00:39:52,540
Understood. Any other comments?

420
00:39:53,020 --> 00:39:57,680
I just want to say this is exactly what I hope was going to happen when we passed that ordinance

421
00:39:57,680 --> 00:39:59,560
last fall was at

422
00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:28,700
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.

423
00:40:28,700 --> 00:40:33,740
Yeah, I will add a quick link there for sure sorry every time I hear these things I always check real quick

424
00:40:33,740 --> 00:40:39,220
If I'm only one set of eyes, but I always appreciate people saying I only do that because when people say oh

425
00:40:39,220 --> 00:40:43,180
We have this there. I just want to know how easy is it and if I can do it without thinking very hard

426
00:40:43,880 --> 00:40:46,320
That's all I'll look forward to the link

427
00:40:49,880 --> 00:40:56,240
Can somebody designate if they're making a donation to the foundation to designate it to the homelessness?

428
00:40:56,240 --> 00:40:56,420
Yes.

429
00:40:57,300 --> 00:41:00,140
So they would donate through the kindness that counts campaign.

430
00:41:00,760 --> 00:41:03,340
All of that is just for homelessness outreach services.

431
00:41:03,400 --> 00:41:03,420
Okay.

432
00:41:03,520 --> 00:41:05,140
That goes straight to the GRCOC.

433
00:41:05,300 --> 00:41:09,420
That's the only thing that, on the foundation website, you'll see two different donation

434
00:41:09,420 --> 00:41:09,880
links.

435
00:41:10,300 --> 00:41:15,340
One goes to the community foundation site, which is like our grant portal, where we do the annual

436
00:41:15,340 --> 00:41:19,800
grants to community organizations in agreement with Council, and the other is to kindness that

437
00:41:19,800 --> 00:41:20,020
counts.

438
00:41:20,020 --> 00:41:21,780
That's for homelessness outreach services.

439
00:41:21,800 --> 00:41:22,600
And it says as much.

440
00:41:22,840 --> 00:41:24,800
If I wanted to make a donation, could I split it?

441
00:41:24,800 --> 00:41:27,580
Yeah, you can make a donation on both sides.

442
00:41:27,760 --> 00:41:28,880
You can do it however you would like.

443
00:41:29,080 --> 00:41:29,420
Okay.

444
00:41:29,800 --> 00:41:31,220
Thank you.

445
00:41:32,500 --> 00:41:32,800
Right?

446
00:41:33,040 --> 00:41:33,700
Nothing else?

447
00:41:34,360 --> 00:41:35,260
Is there a motion?

448
00:41:39,480 --> 00:41:44,300
Well, Mr. Mayor, I move for approval of the memorandum of understanding the Ashen Foundation

449
00:41:44,300 --> 00:41:50,060
and Homeward with the extension of the termination date being on June 30th, 2027.

450
00:41:51,720 --> 00:41:52,520
I second.

451
00:41:52,820 --> 00:41:52,900
No.

452
00:41:53,460 --> 00:41:54,680
Motion and seconded.

453
00:41:55,200 --> 00:41:55,780
Miss Opal.

454
00:41:56,120 --> 00:41:56,640
Aye.

455
00:41:57,020 --> 00:41:57,420
Mr. Malloy.

456
00:41:57,840 --> 00:41:58,100
Aye.

457
00:41:58,100 --> 00:41:58,140
All right.

458
00:41:58,340 --> 00:41:58,780
Dr. McGraw.

459
00:41:59,060 --> 00:41:59,260
Aye.

460
00:41:59,700 --> 00:42:00,260
Ms. Barnhart.

461
00:42:00,500 --> 00:42:00,660
Aye.

462
00:42:00,900 --> 00:42:01,500
Mayor Trevett.

463
00:42:01,780 --> 00:42:02,000
Aye.

464
00:42:02,620 --> 00:42:03,160
Thank you.

465
00:42:06,250 --> 00:42:08,010
I'll just close by saying thank you

466
00:42:08,010 --> 00:42:10,930
for the opportunity to see how this works in this pilot program.

467
00:42:10,930 --> 00:42:12,790
I think it's going to be interesting to see.

468
00:42:12,930 --> 00:42:13,430
Thank you.

469
00:42:13,530 --> 00:42:14,370
Thank you for the opportunity.

470
00:42:14,830 --> 00:42:15,230
Yes, indeed.

471
00:42:16,330 --> 00:42:16,950
What's happened?

472
00:42:17,490 --> 00:42:21,990
That brings us to action item B. My apologies for the wait.

473
00:42:22,630 --> 00:42:27,010
But Ketler, planned unit development, a tax amendment referral.

474
00:42:27,550 --> 00:42:33,030
So, right, and who is bringing this to his, Mr. Manager?

475
00:42:33,370 --> 00:42:33,490
Yes.

476
00:42:33,810 --> 00:42:34,910
I will do my best.

477
00:42:35,730 --> 00:42:40,770
As you all are aware, this being on the consent agenda, we typically do not have full presentations

478
00:42:40,770 --> 00:42:46,350
available for you, but for my understanding, Council, was hoping that we would talk a little

479
00:42:46,350 --> 00:42:50,550
bit about this from a transparency perspective just to let folks know what is actually

480
00:42:50,550 --> 00:42:54,710
happening, and so I have a very brief PowerPoint that really just touches on process.

481
00:42:54,710 --> 00:42:58,690
and what the process means and where we're going with it, and so if that is acceptable

482
00:42:58,690 --> 00:43:03,250
to counsel, I will attempt to run through that. All right. Great. And is this showing

483
00:43:03,250 --> 00:43:07,970
up on everyone's screens? Great. So the text amendment that you have in front of you,

484
00:43:08,470 --> 00:43:13,190
while we do have information in your packet that we're working with, the contract

485
00:43:13,190 --> 00:43:17,630
purchaser for the Holland tract, we also have our comprehensive plan, which very clearly

486
00:43:18,290 --> 00:43:22,530
told us, based on your actions, to go back and review this particular part of town,

487
00:43:22,530 --> 00:43:27,830
In the language is in front of you here, the town's comprehensive plan states the town should conduct a study

488
00:43:27,830 --> 00:43:32,810
determined and recommend the best uses for the area known as the Holland property mixed use development

489
00:43:32,810 --> 00:43:37,990
that creates opportunities to promote economic vitality while incorporating affordable housing.

490
00:43:38,510 --> 00:43:44,690
And so what essentially that means is the town needs to go through a process to create the appropriate zoning

491
00:43:44,690 --> 00:43:49,470
classification with appropriate regulations to allow for a mixed use type development.

492
00:43:49,470 --> 00:43:56,230
As we go through this, the reason that this is coming about, and this map may look familiar to you all of you.

493
00:43:56,270 --> 00:44:18,070
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.

494
00:44:18,070 --> 00:44:26,910
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.

495
00:44:27,590 --> 00:44:30,950
This is the direction that the community would like to go in with the mixed use being here.

496
00:44:31,190 --> 00:44:33,650
Now you need to go do the work to actually make that possible.

497
00:44:33,890 --> 00:44:44,390
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.

498
00:44:45,890 --> 00:44:51,710
That is an existing zoning classification that in talks with potential developer, with

499
00:44:51,710 --> 00:44:57,030
the former planning director, and over the years, PUD has been as close to mixed use as

500
00:44:57,030 --> 00:44:58,990
we've had in our zoning classifications.

501
00:44:58,990 --> 00:44:59,970
and so the...

502
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:29,920
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

503
00:45:29,920 --> 00:45:36,200
And change it to an extent where someone could apply for a mixed use project using the

504
00:45:36,200 --> 00:45:41,520
PUD regulations, or you could take the PUD regulations and create an entirely new mixed

505
00:45:41,520 --> 00:45:45,420
use zoning category, but using that as the basis since it's the closest that we have.

506
00:45:45,960 --> 00:45:50,280
And so essentially that is the exercise that you'll be asking the planning commission to

507
00:45:50,280 --> 00:45:53,160
go through if you were to refer this text amendment to them.

508
00:45:53,620 --> 00:45:57,140
I know there's folks in the community who are very worried about the development and

509
00:45:57,140 --> 00:45:58,260
what's going to happen up there.

510
00:45:58,260 --> 00:46:02,060
We are still at an early enough stage that that's not quite what really what we're

511
00:46:02,060 --> 00:46:07,000
talking about, where we were at this moment talking about setting up our regulations

512
00:46:07,000 --> 00:46:13,370
to provide for a mixed use development that we would like to see, and then the potential

513
00:46:13,900 --> 00:46:18,560
contract purchaser would use those regulations to apply for a rezoning and apply for a comprehensive

514
00:46:18,560 --> 00:46:19,160
plan amendment.

515
00:46:19,380 --> 00:46:24,460
So this is really the first of kind of a three-step process that we would go through to get

516
00:46:24,460 --> 00:46:28,720
to an end product before you're really going to have to be able to do the fun part and see all the

517
00:46:28,720 --> 00:46:33,840
buildings, see where all the zoning classifications lay out. Interrupted just for a second.

518
00:46:34,320 --> 00:46:41,060
Did I understand you correctly that you said this can go if we pass a resolution. This

519
00:46:41,060 --> 00:46:48,620
is a good planning commission. Is it an either or as they look at this debate, either or mixed use

520
00:46:49,280 --> 00:46:53,720
All by itself or is it going to be planned to develop?

521
00:46:53,920 --> 00:46:57,340
They are reviewing the PUD regulations, and that's their first one.

522
00:46:57,340 --> 00:47:01,040
But I have a feeling that I'd like to leave the opportunity open that if they get in

523
00:47:01,040 --> 00:47:05,300
there and think that there is a need to create the new, that we allow that to be there.

524
00:47:05,380 --> 00:47:08,580
So at this moment, I would say you're asking them to look at PUD.

525
00:47:08,660 --> 00:47:10,160
That's the specific request, right?

526
00:47:10,540 --> 00:47:14,580
But I think what you get back may either be, here's the recommendation for a changes

527
00:47:14,580 --> 00:47:17,540
to PUD, or here's the recommendation for how to do mixed use.

528
00:47:17,540 --> 00:47:21,880
I just want to understand the full latitude of what we're asking them to do.

529
00:47:22,440 --> 00:47:23,460
Okay, thank you.

530
00:47:24,500 --> 00:47:28,900
And so as we go forward, let's assume that you were to do this referral tonight.

531
00:47:29,120 --> 00:47:30,620
That will move it to the Planning Commission.

532
00:47:30,980 --> 00:47:33,940
They will need to take some time to both under, you know, look at the request,

533
00:47:34,100 --> 00:47:38,840
understand the scope of the issue, and then do the appropriate review before they make a

534
00:47:38,840 --> 00:47:39,960
recommendation to you.

535
00:47:40,520 --> 00:47:45,560
That will occur largely in a parallel path that probably starts a little bit later.

536
00:47:45,560 --> 00:47:52,140
where we would also expect the contract purchaser to be in a position to submit both a conference

537
00:47:52,140 --> 00:47:56,580
of plan amendment and a rezoning request as we move forward.

538
00:47:56,780 --> 00:48:00,680
But the first step needs to be what you're doing tonight, which is getting those regulations

539
00:48:00,680 --> 00:48:05,420
set through this referral, okay, and I'll leave it at that.

540
00:48:05,420 --> 00:48:13,860
Okay. Any comments? We wanted to pull it off the consent agenda to have a discussion.

541
00:48:15,140 --> 00:48:25,200
Not so much specific, but at the same time, thought came to my mind as far as a condition

542
00:48:25,200 --> 00:48:32,020
of use permit. Maybe the having an attorney here helps. I guess the way I've maybe

543
00:48:32,020 --> 00:48:38,440
often viewed it, a conditional use permit is sort of a higher bar as far as somebody's

544
00:48:38,440 --> 00:48:46,600
applying for something. Obviously, if it's already approved, if it's by right, if it's

545
00:48:47,260 --> 00:48:56,840
even by right, as far as density, layout, you know, there's things we would look at, and

546
00:48:56,840 --> 00:49:00,680
it always kind of felt like an additional use permit sort of says, this is not going to

547
00:49:00,680 --> 00:49:03,520
be as easy as this one that doesn't have a condition to use permit.

548
00:49:04,280 --> 00:49:13,820
So I guess what I'm asking is, if we change our ordinance with greater flexibility, but

549
00:49:13,820 --> 00:49:19,640
don't use conditional use permits, does it make it, does that add any more difficulty

550
00:49:19,640 --> 00:49:22,920
for us in saying no, we don't like something?

551
00:49:24,440 --> 00:49:30,540
If you understand that my question, I think I do, Mr. Mayor, that if amendments are recommended

552
00:49:30,540 --> 00:49:35,520
and adopted by this council that incorporate more flexibility into the underlying

553
00:49:35,520 --> 00:49:40,560
PUD district, does that remove some legislative discretion that might exist?

554
00:49:40,660 --> 00:49:43,280
No, it was a conditional use permit, and that is correct.

555
00:49:43,720 --> 00:49:49,300
So, ultimately, any recommendations made by the Planning Commission up to this body

556
00:49:49,300 --> 00:49:53,900
could subsequently be amended by this body, or re-refer back to the Planning Commission

557
00:49:53,900 --> 00:49:57,240
if it was, you know, taking away some of that discretion.

558
00:49:57,240 --> 00:49:59,620
and, you know, to degree you all thought was.

559
00:50:00,000 --> 00:50:16,820
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.

560
00:50:16,820 --> 00:50:19,360
Okay, all right, thank you.

561
00:50:21,220 --> 00:50:30,700
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.

562
00:50:31,840 --> 00:50:45,960
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.

563
00:50:45,960 --> 00:50:54,840
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.

564
00:50:54,980 --> 00:51:13,960
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.

565
00:51:18,620 --> 00:51:26,960
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.

566
00:51:27,140 --> 00:51:38,500
But the planning commission, the way I understand it, could recommend that certain uses be a cup within that zoning.

567
00:51:38,660 --> 00:51:41,760
That doesn't mean we've zone this this way, and that's what it is, period.

568
00:51:41,760 --> 00:51:44,460
There could be certain things, I don't know, maybe a hotel.

569
00:51:44,760 --> 00:51:47,320
They say, yeah, maybe, but it's going to have to come back to the commission.

570
00:51:47,540 --> 00:51:51,100
Or maybe you could have higher density housing, but they'd have to come back to the commission.

571
00:51:51,660 --> 00:51:55,100
But other things we could do without necessarily coming back.

572
00:51:55,460 --> 00:51:57,120
And so I just wanted to clarify that.

573
00:51:57,200 --> 00:51:57,840
I don't appreciate that.

574
00:51:57,920 --> 00:52:01,460
Okay, it doesn't, it's not like an all, I think you asked support.

575
00:52:01,600 --> 00:52:03,840
Is this like one or two or all or none?

576
00:52:04,040 --> 00:52:07,940
Or I feel like as our manager said, it's just open.

577
00:52:07,940 --> 00:52:12,360
It's just open for our planning and any members of the community if you're concerned.

578
00:52:12,560 --> 00:52:17,060
I mean, yeah, we're looking at the Holland track right now, which is a major development in the future for us.

579
00:52:17,060 --> 00:52:21,000
But whatever comes out of this could potentially be anywhere in town.

580
00:52:21,580 --> 00:52:24,920
So that's just, it's a much bigger thing than just one track.

581
00:52:26,600 --> 00:52:37,750
So, exactly well said, we're looking at this as a review by our planning commission.

582
00:52:37,750 --> 00:52:49,990
and ultimately back the council on either or a mix of planned use, planned unit development

583
00:52:49,990 --> 00:52:57,910
or mixed use but one of the things I guess I wanted it pulled off the agenda. Sometimes

584
00:52:57,910 --> 00:53:06,670
you can start something and you set it in a certain format and we did, though we're looking

585
00:53:06,670 --> 00:53:12,870
of this regardless of whether it be the Holland track or any other potential plan unit development

586
00:53:12,870 --> 00:53:19,550
we could have in the future. But at the same time, we did get the request from Kettler

587
00:53:19,550 --> 00:53:28,510
or doing this. And so I didn't want to just do a referral without discussion, which might infer

588
00:53:28,510 --> 00:53:33,850
to some people that, yeah, you know, everything's fine. We don't have any concern about anything

589
00:53:33,850 --> 00:53:41,370
that's in this application, but at the same time, as Councilmember Barnard has said,

590
00:53:41,970 --> 00:53:47,090
we also, we don't want the Planning Commission to think that we don't have confidence

591
00:53:47,090 --> 00:53:47,630
in them.

592
00:53:48,110 --> 00:53:52,110
So we wanted to have a little bit of discussion, just to say that we take all these things

593
00:53:52,110 --> 00:53:52,590
to heart.

594
00:53:53,270 --> 00:53:57,330
We're going to pass it, if we pass this resolution, it will go to the Planning Commission

595
00:53:57,330 --> 00:54:00,710
who we likewise count on taking all this to heart.

596
00:54:00,710 --> 00:54:05,770
And eventually we have more conversations with Katler who we believe also will take things

597
00:54:05,770 --> 00:54:06,110
to heart.

598
00:54:06,390 --> 00:54:13,110
So invite anyone else with any further discussion on this, any specific questions or comments

599
00:54:13,110 --> 00:54:13,790
you may have.

600
00:54:16,230 --> 00:54:18,950
Did you say good?

601
00:54:19,410 --> 00:54:19,570
Good.

602
00:54:20,250 --> 00:54:20,410
Okay.

603
00:54:20,870 --> 00:54:21,010
All right.

604
00:54:21,450 --> 00:54:22,050
Mysopal.

605
00:54:22,150 --> 00:54:22,450
All good.

606
00:54:23,230 --> 00:54:23,590
Okay.

607
00:54:24,190 --> 00:54:24,410
All right.

608
00:54:25,450 --> 00:54:32,650
So is there a motion concerning the resolution which is an necessity for accomplishing what

609
00:54:32,650 --> 00:54:33,930
We're talking about accomplishing here.

610
00:54:35,570 --> 00:54:44,390
Mr. Mayor, I recommend approval of the resolution 2026-03.

611
00:54:45,210 --> 00:54:45,970
I mean, that's your motion.

612
00:54:46,970 --> 00:54:48,330
I'm not picking it at your language.

613
00:54:48,470 --> 00:54:50,830
You said I recommend, but you're moving that we would do-

614
00:54:50,830 --> 00:54:51,650
Oh, my apologies.

615
00:54:51,890 --> 00:54:52,170
Oh, that's not-

616
00:54:52,170 --> 00:54:53,570
I move for the approval.

617
00:54:53,890 --> 00:54:54,430
You're right.

618
00:54:54,590 --> 00:54:56,530
I did use the vocabulary incorrectly.

619
00:54:56,530 --> 00:54:59,870
Okay, I move for the approval of Resolution 2026, staff.

620
00:55:00,000 --> 00:55:08,500
passes, zero, three. Is there a second? All right. Dr. McGrool. Aye. it's Barnheart. Aye.

621
00:55:08,920 --> 00:55:21,720
All right, thank y'all and thank you for planning commission for receiving the ball. We're

622
00:55:21,720 --> 00:55:27,280
throwing their way. They have their work cut out for them? Yes indeed, and now we'll

623
00:55:27,280 --> 00:55:31,360
We'll move on to our report's planning department, Mr. Farrer.

624
00:55:32,060 --> 00:55:32,700
Oh, yes.

625
00:55:33,140 --> 00:55:34,740
Our senior planner is sort of like.

626
00:55:37,020 --> 00:55:38,340
Poor respect, Mr. Lockert.

627
00:55:39,000 --> 00:55:42,840
Thankfully, I have not had to initially put together a planning report.

628
00:55:43,100 --> 00:55:47,700
The staff does such a wonderful job that they put this together for us, but you have that in front of you.

629
00:55:48,160 --> 00:55:55,880
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.

630
00:55:55,880 --> 00:56:02,260
So a few exciting things going on around town, and I would point everyone in the community,

631
00:56:02,260 --> 00:56:07,700
especially council, to our community engagement platform that Ms. Miller mentioned earlier,

632
00:56:08,080 --> 00:56:10,520
engaged.ashlandva.gov.

633
00:56:10,720 --> 00:56:16,900
Right now, there is a rail crossing survey on there, and that is part of a very large grant

634
00:56:16,900 --> 00:56:18,620
that we received through the federal government.

635
00:56:18,920 --> 00:56:24,740
It does require a community engagement component of it, and so we are on there asking the community

636
00:56:24,740 --> 00:56:32,300
what they think about various options to essentially make our vehicular crossings safer throughout

637
00:56:32,300 --> 00:56:37,240
the community. So it's kind of getting you to rank things like grade-separated crossings.

638
00:56:37,660 --> 00:56:44,780
Obviously, a very effective solution, but a very costly solution as well, things like signage.

639
00:56:45,160 --> 00:56:48,360
So basically, a ranking of all the types of things that we could do at each crossing.

640
00:56:48,660 --> 00:56:52,440
It's going to be very important that the community help us with this and give their opinion on that

641
00:56:52,440 --> 00:56:56,600
because that is going to inform the study that will be done in the coming months.

642
00:56:56,840 --> 00:57:00,560
So please go there, and while you're there, and now we'll make a town manager plug,

643
00:57:00,860 --> 00:57:03,920
there's also going to be some budget input on there as well.

644
00:57:04,140 --> 00:57:09,120
So this is going to become our one stop shop for all our electronic engagement with the community.

645
00:57:09,120 --> 00:57:13,400
So go for the rail crossing elimination grant study and stay for the budget exercise.

646
00:57:13,820 --> 00:57:14,540
So please do that.

647
00:57:15,820 --> 00:57:18,400
Few new businesses have opened throughout town.

648
00:57:18,660 --> 00:57:20,620
I think you're all aware and have seen for some time now.

649
00:57:20,620 --> 00:57:25,100
flag stop is up and running, Lane's chicken on Route 54 has opened.

650
00:57:25,700 --> 00:57:29,560
And I won't necessarily be able to give a date, but hopefully opening soon, Thompson Street

651
00:57:29,560 --> 00:57:33,880
Tavern right next to us, I saw their sign one up today, a very nice monument sign,

652
00:57:33,980 --> 00:57:36,220
so that should be opening, I would hope in the next few weeks.

653
00:57:37,600 --> 00:57:42,880
In December, the Ashland and in Sweet's property, sole, that is the hotel along Route 54,

654
00:57:42,980 --> 00:57:46,280
that has the chain link, chain link fence around it.

655
00:57:46,280 --> 00:57:55,060
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.

656
00:57:55,420 --> 00:58:08,120
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.

657
00:58:08,120 --> 00:58:15,020
cannot ask a question. I'm sorry others have questions. Of course, Mr. Fair doesn't mind the

658
00:58:15,020 --> 00:58:24,340
interruption. I asked for it. The site is almost completely cleaned up. It isn't quite yet, but

659
00:58:25,140 --> 00:58:33,520
does that fence have to stay there until somebody else buys it and starts or can that or who's

660
00:58:33,520 --> 00:58:49,140
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.

661
00:58:49,160 --> 00:58:58,220
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.

662
00:59:00,000 --> 00:59:05,920
And then wrapping up pretty quickly, the Henry Clay Elementary School Project continues.

663
00:59:06,420 --> 00:59:10,220
The latest step in that, so it's moving through the Hanover County process.

664
00:59:10,520 --> 00:59:15,600
But town staff have submitted the, I'm going to get the word, it's not 100% correctly.

665
00:59:15,720 --> 00:59:22,700
But the historic preservation application for the property to the State Department of Historic Resources is my understanding.

666
00:59:22,860 --> 00:59:25,220
They do quarterly review of those projects.

667
00:59:25,220 --> 00:59:38,300
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.

668
00:59:38,500 --> 00:59:43,700
So moving along on all the various parallel paths and recall elementary continues to move along as well.

669
00:59:44,460 --> 00:59:51,300
And then last, and I would say potentially most importantly, interviews are going well for the replacement planning director.

670
00:59:51,920 --> 00:59:55,820
I would hope to have an offer out in the relatively near future.

671
00:59:55,840 --> 00:59:56,360
Great.

672
00:59:56,780 --> 00:59:57,360
That sounds good.

673
00:59:58,040 --> 00:59:58,080
Okay.

674
00:59:58,880 --> 00:59:59,980
And I'll take any questions here.

675
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:29,180
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.

676
01:00:29,180 --> 01:00:30,280
Good evening

677
01:00:32,900 --> 01:00:33,480
again.

678
01:00:34,880 --> 01:00:35,440
Thank

679
01:00:38,450 --> 01:00:39,150
you, sir.

680
01:00:40,070 --> 01:00:43,510
Okay, so tonight before you are the December Financial Reports.

681
01:00:44,750 --> 01:00:48,070
As we've talked about, Real Estate Bills were sent January 2nd.

682
01:00:48,130 --> 01:00:52,590
The online payment portal resident access is available to make payments by credit card or

683
01:00:52,590 --> 01:00:57,310
each check and personal property bills will be going out as soon as possible.

684
01:00:58,570 --> 01:01:04,050
For the major revenue sources for December, meals tax was just a little bit short of our

685
01:01:04,050 --> 01:01:09,310
projection but overall it is showing growth year-over-year of 7%.

686
01:01:09,930 --> 01:01:14,550
I will mention that a couple of these sources the percentage increase year-over-year is

687
01:01:14,550 --> 01:01:21,410
showing a little bit lower so we're seeing a little bit of less growth in these sources

688
01:01:21,410 --> 01:01:22,550
year-over-year.

689
01:01:23,210 --> 01:01:27,970
For lodging tax it has been consistent and like I said they are still so in growth this

690
01:01:27,970 --> 01:01:28,350
year.

691
01:01:28,850 --> 01:01:32,950
Over last year the same period we're showing growth at about 5% so last month I would have

692
01:01:32,950 --> 01:01:39,970
reported a growth of about 6%. Sales tax does remain strong. That's a strong revenue

693
01:01:39,970 --> 01:01:46,250
source for the town. We are seeing growth of about 12.6%. Last month I reported about

694
01:01:46,250 --> 01:01:52,450
14.7%. So we're seeing a little bit of a decrease in that. But overall, all of these

695
01:01:52,450 --> 01:01:57,790
revenue sources are showing increases year over year. And real estate and personal property

696
01:01:57,790 --> 01:02:02,850
tax, not a lot to say on those. They were mail in January, so any amounts that you see

697
01:02:02,850 --> 01:02:06,650
in this report are going to be dealing with collections for both personal property

698
01:02:06,650 --> 01:02:11,030
and real estate. So in the next couple months, I'll be able to show some numbers for current

699
01:02:11,030 --> 01:02:19,890
collections on that. And then lastly, our LGIP collections for the calendar year are shown

700
01:02:19,890 --> 01:02:24,610
And for our withdrawal funds, I'm sorry that are invested.

701
01:02:25,010 --> 01:02:28,310
You will see it withdrawal on the LGIP Operations Fund.

702
01:02:28,770 --> 01:02:31,070
That usually happens about this time of year.

703
01:02:31,290 --> 01:02:35,550
It's for cash flow purposes, so we will draw money out of that to put into our checking

704
01:02:35,550 --> 01:02:35,870
account.

705
01:02:35,990 --> 01:02:41,070
And then once our tax collection cycle comes up in the next month or so, we will be able

706
01:02:41,070 --> 01:02:43,470
to invest those back into our LGIP fund.

707
01:02:43,470 --> 01:02:47,650
That's a very normal thing to do at this time of year, so I don't want to think there's

708
01:02:47,650 --> 01:02:48,430
being alarm on that.

709
01:02:48,430 --> 01:02:51,850
So that's all I have and I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have.

710
01:02:52,350 --> 01:02:53,170
Questions anyone?

711
01:02:55,810 --> 01:03:04,590
Just in the spirit of our former vice mayor, John Hodges there, the LGIP local government investment pool.

712
01:03:05,250 --> 01:03:06,590
Yes, sir, thank you.

713
01:03:06,810 --> 01:03:07,130
Thank you.

714
01:03:07,190 --> 01:03:11,550
We use acronyms all the time and we forget that not everyone knows what we're speaking about so I appreciate it.

715
01:03:11,650 --> 01:03:12,070
Sure thing.

716
01:03:12,270 --> 01:03:13,170
Thank you very much.

717
01:03:14,530 --> 01:03:15,130
All right.

718
01:03:15,130 --> 01:03:16,130
the chief.

719
01:03:21,780 --> 01:03:27,440
Sorry, your presentation had to become second to the other chief, but we're glad you're here.

720
01:03:27,520 --> 01:03:30,100
Okay, we added another person to our ranks. We'll be okay.

721
01:03:31,680 --> 01:03:36,620
In your fact this evening, you have your monthly report for the police department for the month of December.

722
01:03:37,460 --> 01:03:40,880
Also, container that is a preliminary annual report.

723
01:03:41,320 --> 01:03:45,620
So if you'll indulge me, I'll just give you some of the information on that and just give some broad strokes.

724
01:03:45,620 --> 01:03:54,800
For this year, we had a decrease overall in crime when compared with 2024, the total number

725
01:03:54,800 --> 01:03:57,060
was 146 Part 1 incidents.

726
01:03:57,800 --> 01:04:04,320
Those are major crimes, robberies, rape, homicide, petty larcenies, things of that nature.

727
01:04:04,580 --> 01:04:11,780
So the ones that we really track, and we had 146 incidents, which again was a 32.4% decrease.

728
01:04:11,780 --> 01:04:15,240
It's also the lowest number we've had in the past 15 years.

729
01:04:15,980 --> 01:04:18,720
And the lowest I know of since I've been employed with the police department.

730
01:04:18,920 --> 01:04:23,280
But I do say that with a caveat, it only takes one variable to come through and

731
01:04:23,280 --> 01:04:28,020
start picking on lifting up door handles and break into about 15 or 20 cars.

732
01:04:28,840 --> 01:04:31,920
Or a bunch of people shoplifting and those numbers go out the window.

733
01:04:32,060 --> 01:04:35,900
So we got great patrol techniques, but also we got very lucky this year.

734
01:04:36,100 --> 01:04:40,940
So I don't want to beat my chest just yet because the next year I mean.

735
01:04:40,940 --> 01:04:47,840
be telling you of a crime increase. Also we had 101 traffic collisions this year that

736
01:04:47,840 --> 01:04:54,660
represented a 22.3% decrease over 2024. I believe this year was a very successful year

737
01:04:54,660 --> 01:04:58,940
for the police department and I'm proud of the efforts that the police officers put forth.

738
01:05:00,270 --> 01:05:29,650
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

739
01:05:30,950 --> 01:05:35,670
transaction machines or they will place them at gas stations where you scan your credit card.

740
01:05:36,090 --> 01:05:40,470
That will then transmit your data and your information to somebody here nearby by Bluetooth

741
01:05:40,470 --> 01:05:43,830
or they will come back and get the information from the device itself.

742
01:05:44,450 --> 01:05:45,870
These guys are brazing with this.

743
01:05:46,010 --> 01:05:49,970
They'll even do it when a clerk is there and manage to get these devices on and sometimes

744
01:05:49,970 --> 01:05:53,430
you won't know they're there because they can literally just put it right over top of

745
01:05:53,430 --> 01:05:58,410
the machine and unless you pull on it, wiggle it or you can actually check on your phone

746
01:05:58,410 --> 01:06:01,450
and see if there's some unknowably two devices around.

747
01:06:01,850 --> 01:06:03,590
But most people aren't gonna take those steps.

748
01:06:03,990 --> 01:06:06,210
So then you skim it, you put your credit card in,

749
01:06:06,310 --> 01:06:07,550
you get skimmed in the next scene now,

750
01:06:07,570 --> 01:06:08,870
you're looking at your credit card balance,

751
01:06:09,150 --> 01:06:10,970
and your information's been stolen,

752
01:06:11,110 --> 01:06:12,990
you have some unauthorized transactions.

753
01:06:13,670 --> 01:06:15,990
So we did buy devices that actually allow us

754
01:06:15,990 --> 01:06:18,350
to go through the gas stations and see if those are there.

755
01:06:18,730 --> 01:06:20,750
And so we're starting to do that periodically

756
01:06:20,750 --> 01:06:23,270
to see if there's skimming devices or actual machines.

757
01:06:23,530 --> 01:06:23,710
Yes sir.

758
01:06:24,050 --> 01:06:26,590
Is there a way for a citizen to recognize something

759
01:06:26,590 --> 01:06:31,270
that look funky? The best thing I can tell you to do is if you're ending your pin is always to

760
01:06:31,270 --> 01:06:34,950
obscure it so they cannot see the numbers as they're being entered. That's the first thing.

761
01:06:35,130 --> 01:06:40,070
Second thing is to pull on any see if the door's open, wiggling. If it looks like it's been tampered

762
01:06:40,070 --> 01:06:45,450
with, a lot of businesses are now are putting stickers across it. If those stickers look like they've

763
01:06:45,450 --> 01:06:51,810
been tampered with, go to another machine to use it. A lot of times you're going to find these

764
01:06:51,810 --> 01:06:57,510
set yourself checkouts. So personally, I always go to a person's monitoring the machine

765
01:06:57,510 --> 01:07:01,730
because it's less likely, but if there's not a person monitoring them, for example,

766
01:07:01,810 --> 01:07:06,910
some places you'll have five or six or seven of these self checkouts, but you have one

767
01:07:06,910 --> 01:07:10,630
person watching it. And then they'll, you know, of course, there's people like me who don't

768
01:07:10,630 --> 01:07:14,250
know how to check out. I've always relied on other people to do it. And they're distracted.

769
01:07:14,830 --> 01:07:17,770
And then they start putting these, or some of you distracts them on purpose while they

770
01:07:17,770 --> 01:07:23,590
to divert you. So those are just some things that you can do. So that's why I'm seeing that little strip

771
01:07:23,590 --> 01:07:30,970
of paper. Okay and a certain retail establishment here. When mine got skimmed in the South Carolina,

772
01:07:31,350 --> 01:07:35,650
I scanned the credit card and then suddenly I looked and I saw that the door was flapping and I realized

773
01:07:35,650 --> 01:07:41,070
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

774
01:07:41,070 --> 01:07:46,870
going to be skimmed and sure enough I had been. Do you know is this only with insert your cards or

775
01:07:46,870 --> 01:07:47,470
Do you want to swipe your cards?

776
01:07:47,650 --> 01:07:50,990
Does tap do anything to abate this in any way whatsoever?

777
01:07:51,290 --> 01:07:57,490
To be honest with you, I don't know, but I do think that if you transmit it in any way in that machine,

778
01:07:57,710 --> 01:07:59,870
they have a way that they can put in a Bluetooth inside.

779
01:08:00,030 --> 01:08:01,310
It may be a little harder for them.

780
01:08:01,950 --> 01:08:06,830
But right now, the technology and the criminals is superseding the technology we have.

781
01:08:07,030 --> 01:08:10,010
So we're doing the best we can with these devices to try to stop that.

782
01:08:10,690 --> 01:08:14,510
So investigations is taking the lead on trying to find those devices.

783
01:08:14,510 --> 01:08:17,790
and at least minimize the people who made the come victim victim to that crime.

784
01:08:19,290 --> 01:08:26,590
Some other events we had this month, we attended the Asian Gollum hosted by the Asian Chamber in December to support our Asian community.

785
01:08:26,990 --> 01:08:31,850
We did a crisis response active sheet or type drill at St. Anne's Church.

786
01:08:32,810 --> 01:08:37,890
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.

787
01:08:37,970 --> 01:08:38,730
Thank you for the support.

788
01:08:39,590 --> 01:08:42,050
We hosted our annual shop of the cop program.

789
01:08:42,310 --> 01:08:45,590
I'm sorry that that happened at the second meeting,

790
01:08:46,070 --> 01:08:47,290
the count council was occurring,

791
01:08:47,290 --> 01:08:49,230
so it was impossible for all of us to be at two places

792
01:08:49,230 --> 01:08:52,490
at the same time, but I'd like to thank Ms. Amy Mines

793
01:08:52,490 --> 01:08:54,190
for her continued support with that event.

794
01:08:54,590 --> 01:08:55,610
She's done a great job.

795
01:08:55,790 --> 01:08:58,050
We were able to help out 24 families this year with that.

796
01:08:58,650 --> 01:08:59,290
Thank you to her.

797
01:08:59,490 --> 01:09:03,050
She's been instrumental in making this a great success for us.

798
01:09:04,130 --> 01:09:07,130
And finally, something else is we work with a manager

799
01:09:07,130 --> 01:09:12,830
to produce, to basically purchase new trainer NADs for the town.

800
01:09:13,170 --> 01:09:17,230
So, we're able to implement all those devices and get those put out.

801
01:09:17,410 --> 01:09:20,510
The great thing is, is that because the devices we have before,

802
01:09:20,730 --> 01:09:23,150
we're different than what the fire department's using,

803
01:09:23,310 --> 01:09:26,710
we would have to change out the pads, the electrodes, and then they'll say,

804
01:09:26,870 --> 01:09:29,090
you know, you're having a heart attack time as of the essence.

805
01:09:29,330 --> 01:09:33,450
So, now we can do that without having to have that extra time added

806
01:09:33,450 --> 01:09:34,690
by switching equipment.

807
01:09:34,690 --> 01:09:42,350
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.

808
01:09:45,400 --> 01:09:51,160
Also, we accepted this purchase. We're going to purchase a new grant off some grant.

809
01:09:51,740 --> 01:09:59,980
Forgive me. We accepted a DCGS grant for a drone. We'll be working on purchasing that this month. It's 22-

810
01:10:00,000 --> 01:10:29,940
$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

811
01:10:29,940 --> 01:10:35,200
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.

812
01:10:36,160 --> 01:10:44,940
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,

813
01:10:45,500 --> 01:10:52,100
Hanover, South Center, and Hill Carter Parkway around the truck stop both north and south, and the contiguous roadway as we go with it.

814
01:10:52,840 --> 01:10:59,540
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.

815
01:10:59,540 --> 01:11:03,820
because they're going to obstruct and it's going to hinder public work staff from getting their job done.

816
01:11:04,140 --> 01:11:11,200
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.

817
01:11:11,580 --> 01:11:18,720
I see our community engagement, individuals, steadily writing down so this will be publicized.

818
01:11:19,300 --> 01:11:23,460
It's already on channel 8 news as we speak. I just saw that and I was just reviewing it on my phone.

819
01:11:23,680 --> 01:11:26,060
And also, I've already spoken with our Randolph-Macon College.

820
01:11:26,060 --> 01:11:30,440
they forwarded out the students today and they will also forward it out again on Friday.

821
01:11:31,120 --> 01:11:34,100
Again, the goal is not to tell anyone's car if they don't have to,

822
01:11:34,140 --> 01:11:37,660
that's going to take my staff's time from doing their job to them,

823
01:11:38,080 --> 01:11:39,820
sitting and watching for the car's mirrored.

824
01:11:40,280 --> 01:11:42,940
But that'll be happy to answer any questions you may have.

825
01:11:45,100 --> 01:11:47,060
I go back to my old life.

826
01:11:48,960 --> 01:11:50,640
Just out of curiosity, I guess.

827
01:11:50,980 --> 01:11:54,560
Do you know how many individuals are on community-based supervision in town?

828
01:11:55,180 --> 01:11:56,060
I do not.

829
01:11:57,180 --> 01:12:00,280
In estimate, maybe, or too difficult to tell.

830
01:12:00,460 --> 01:12:01,140
I do not know.

831
01:12:01,560 --> 01:12:01,780
Okay.

832
01:12:04,700 --> 01:12:05,240
I'm sorry?

833
01:12:05,480 --> 01:12:05,580
No.

834
01:12:06,500 --> 01:12:06,980
Oh.

835
01:12:07,960 --> 01:12:10,380
Pre-trial, probation, or parole, supervision.

836
01:12:10,640 --> 01:12:11,740
I get easily fined out.

837
01:12:11,900 --> 01:12:13,880
I can we could ask the county as to how many people are.

838
01:12:13,980 --> 01:12:14,760
But I'll top my head.

839
01:12:14,880 --> 01:12:15,300
I do not know.

840
01:12:15,340 --> 01:12:15,560
Okay.

841
01:12:15,920 --> 01:12:16,440
I was just wondering.

842
01:12:17,320 --> 01:12:17,620
All right.

843
01:12:18,060 --> 01:12:18,680
Anything else?

844
01:12:19,800 --> 01:12:20,340
Thank you.

845
01:12:20,500 --> 01:12:25,060
You said you're proud of your team with the reduction in crime.

846
01:12:25,900 --> 01:12:29,840
Certainly we are too, very proud of the team and we thank you.

847
01:12:30,040 --> 01:12:30,980
Thank you so much for our appreciate.

848
01:12:31,260 --> 01:12:32,620
Thank you for the time, and I'll have those.

849
01:12:32,820 --> 01:12:34,260
I'll try to find those numbers out next meeting.

850
01:12:35,380 --> 01:12:37,660
It's not that great importance to Monk Buddha,

851
01:12:39,840 --> 01:12:40,140
right?

852
01:12:40,740 --> 01:12:42,460
Is there anything else to come before us to see?

853
01:12:43,060 --> 01:12:43,400
No, sir.

854
01:12:43,920 --> 01:12:44,960
All right, we're adjourned.

855
01:12:45,260 --> 01:12:45,940
Thank you all.