[Music]
you
October 8th City Council meeting please
join me in a moment of silence
please stand for the Pledge of
Allegiance all righty well thank you
everybody for coming out and we've got a couple of proclamations on the
agenda and a couple of agenda items that
we'll need to discuss I'm glad everyone
was able to show up for it does anyone
have any comments they want to talk
about city manager's comments I think I
said enough yesterday you good
all right matters to be presented by the
public non agenda items we got a couple
of people Jack Johnson
my name's Jeff Johnson I live it - over
on Sunrise Street man my neighbors were
wanting to know how to get a new city
ordinance or code on the books if
somebody could tell us how we'll do the
legwork and get it done
let's need to do that and also the
neighborhood told me to make sure that
we said Chad Osman it's done a great job
y'all need to support him and help him
in every way he is doing a good job I
agree with he certainly is do you want
to address the coordinates sure I mean
really I think we talked about this
today I was out riding with you we
warned I need to know exactly what you
proposed to change the ordinances and
then depending on what that change is it
may have to go through the Planning
Commission or through zoning as well so
we'll just have to take a look and see
exactly what you want change forward
again well I mean and there's also state
code that we have to follow through
because there may be some something that
you want to have in a force in effect
that the state doesn't allow us to
regulate so there are things that we
just have to look at as a whole to
determine whether or not that would be
an appropriate ordinance I thought I've
gotta say tonight no but like I said the
people owned the place cleaned up I'm
like I said Chad is doing him good job
it is
I take Mike Martin I mean at the
landfill saying you got a problem he's
right there
well he's doing a great job it's not
often they get good compliments so we
appreciate you coming down and saying
that thank you thank you alright next
for non-agenda is Miss Marni
mr. mayor members of council my name is
Nancy Marnie I'm a resident of the city
of Bristol Virginia I am a property
owner the city of Bristol Virginia is in
crisis the city of Bristol Virginia is
in a financial crisis this crisis has
been acknowledged and validated by the
state of Virginia by Moody's investment
in New York City who was prepared to
demote us to junk bond status and also
by the most prestigious oldest bonding
company in Richmond in the state of
Virginia which is in Richmond and it's
the city's bonding company I have some
figures here that were correct as of
October the 4th 2019 they came from the
chief financial officers office in
Bristol Virginia number one the total
bonded debt in the general fund is 72
million three hundred eight thousand two
hundred and ten dollars that's the total
bonded debt in the general fund the
payoff is twenty forty three that's
twenty four years from from now the
solid waste disposal fund is thirty four
million four hundred sixty one thousand
seven hundred ninety dollars the payoff
is twenty forty three when you add those
two figures together as of October four
2019 the bonded debt of the city of
Bristol Virginia is 106 million seven
hundred seventy thousand dollars now
there are other items that can enter
into that figure but that's the two
biggest figures that we have now this
means gentlemen if we do not borrow
anything not one
any from October 4 for the next 24 years
we owe a hundred and six million dollars
that has to be paid back during that
time that is not very comforting to me
we are in a crisis and we must stay the
course now the previous council set up a
very very good course well thought
through intelligent depth it was good
your responsibility is to be the
stewards of what they set up the reason
we have gotten one step forward no more
than that mayor please to you no more
than that is because the previous
council put a property tax that we all
hated I'm included in that but it was
that property tax that saved the day
with Moody's and the state of Virginia issued a report
very recently saying that we are doing
better they didn't say we were doing
well or we're over the hump they just
said we're doing a little bit better
that's all no more now crisis spending
is what we are gonna have to deal with
the jail in the the fire hall down there
has serious structural problems that is
a crisis the jail itself is a crisis a
new school is not a crisis it is a won't
it is a want it is not a crisis that can
come at another time the council was
very generous with the school board they
gave money for raises for the teachers
and rightfully so and then came back
with another two hundred thousand
dollars they were very generous but that
new school is not a crisis situation
period one word will solve it no come
back next year in the
session we'll see what happens then
we're in a state of flux
there are items that have been there
items that have been figured into this
budget right now that you are going to
be dealing with tonight as a matter of
fact but gentlemen let me urge you I
urge you as a citizen as a resident as
the most knowledgeable person you know I
urge you to stay the course stay the
course Thank You mayor thank you all
right
regular agenda items item 1 proclamation
recognizing adverse childhood
experiences Awareness Month
staff report council this is a joint
proclamation with Bristol Tennessee that
recognizes the impact of adverse
childhood experiences that these
experiences have on childhood
development and growth alright item 2
his reading of the proclamation I know I
read the last proclamation we did and
judging by how long this is I'm gonna
let you go ahead and take this one chief
thanks proclamation recognizing adverse
childhood experience Awareness Month
October 2019 whereas Bristol Tennessee
and Virginia recognize that a strong
community depends on supporting the
development of strong brain architecture
and supporting the health and well-being
of our children
Jake create a foundation for lifelong
health and responsible citizenship and
whereas adverse childhood experiences or
aces or stressful or traumatic
experiences including abuse neglect
family dysfunction and community
violence in which can disrupt the safe
stable nurturing environments children
need to thrive and whereas aces can
cause toxic stress which can affect
brain development and lead to a lifetime
of physical mental economic educational
and social challenges and have been
linked to public health problems such as
obesity addiction heart disease and
hypertension and whereas the economic
burden of aces in Tennessee and Virginia
is seen in direct medical costs and loss
employee productivity and bristles
continued prosperity relies on our
current action to prevent these adverse
experiences whenever possible and to
mitigate their impact when they cannot
be prevented
and whereas trauma-informed care is not
a therapy or intervention but a
principle driven cultural change process
aimed at shifting communities mental
model to be more empathetic and
resiliency focused and whereas adopting
innovative collaborative trauma-informed
approaches and workplaces schools
communities and governments can prevent
or mitigate mental emotional physical
and/or social issues among those
impacted by toxic stress and whereas
numerous professionals in the Bristol
Tennessee Virginia area have received
trauma-informed care training and in
2019 through bristles promis launched a
trauma-informed care community as best
practice following recommendations to do
so by the substance abuse mental health
services administration and now
therefore be it resolved at market fire
Robbin mayor Bristol Tennessee and
nillas were mayor Bristol Virginia do
hereby recognize the month of October
2019 as adverse childhood experiences
awareness month in Bristol to where A's
awareness and encourage all residents to
become informed about the impact of aces
and toxic stress learning about
trauma-informed approaches that promote
prevention healing and resilience and in
children adults and communities to build
a stronger and healthier Bristol the
Bristol Tennessee and Bristol Virginia
City Council members along with partners
the Bristol promise trauma-informed care
community Tennessee Department of
Children's Services ballot health
Tennessee Commission on children and
youth United Way of Bristol Tennessee
and Virginia and others encourage
community leaders business owners
pastors educators coaches and the public
to participate in upcoming educational
opportunities by attending the events
and trainings during the month of
October for aces Awareness Month
together a city leaders and community
partners this Proclamation indicates
their commitment to exploring ways to
make Bristol a resilient community for
all of its citizens all right thank you
so we're looking for a council motion in
a second on this I would make a motion
that we adopt the proclamation second
all right
motion is made by the vice mayor and
second by mr. Farnum and if there's no
discussion we'll go ahead and call the
roll Farnum yes
wyngarde yes yes yes so I'm just like to
recognize
everyone who's in attendance for this
Melissa Roberts mayor fire Robin from
Bristol Tennessee and maybe Becky Haase
with ballot health Aesir among others if
you all want to come up and get a
picture and get your Proclamation
[Applause]
first of all thank you all for
recognizing the importance of adverse
childhood experiences and how they have
lifelong effects on people the study
that was done in the mid 90s shows that
once you get to an ace score of six you
have a possibility of taking twenty
years off of your life so you all
through mr. E's office have signed up to
do a longer presentation a little bit
later this month and that'll be done
here in the council chambers during one
of your sessions I'd like to invite each
of you and the community to several
events that we have going on throughout
this month this coming Thursday in
conjunction with the push Film Festival
we're going to be showing paper tigers
this is a movie that is about a school
out of rural washington state that went
to a trauma-informed care event and came
back and used those within their schools
and saw an increase in graduation rates
saw a decrease in substance abuse a
decrease in absenteeism and really
turned the school around so we'll be
doing that this Thursday at noon at
Theatre Bristol and also is showing at 6
p.m. following the 6:00 p.m. we're going
to be doing a panel discussion so we'll
have members of the Bristol Virginia
School Board or the Bristol Virginia
schools Bristol Tennessee schools to
talk about what they're doing so it's a
great way to come out and kind of hear
what the schools are doing for trauma
responsive care on October 24th we're
gonna be doing a training with Miss
Becky Haase who is kind of the queen of
trauma responsive care in our region she
started this with the Johnson City
Police Department and then moved it into
the community she's been invited by the
first lady of Delaware to help them with
their trauma response she's been invited
to train the entire Oklahoma City Police
Department so she's going to be doing a
training at the summit companies out on
volunteer Parkway on the 24th from 2:00
p.m. until 5:00 p.m. all of these are
open to the public and they're free and
I hope that you and everybody in this
room will join us to get a jump start on
adverse childhood experiences and
becoming trauma responsive community
thank you thank you
I just wanted to take a second to
compliment the Bristol Virginia city
school system they are way ahead of all
of us with working on this we really
admire what they're doing they have
fully embraced and trained and
recognized that and also I know that
city manager EADS and the council are
concerned about children and the future
of our community and are also interested
in what can be done with helping folks
have jobs and good livings etc and this
is part of that so really appreciate it
also we'll say there's several folks
here the folks pre here from Mount
Rogers are part of our trauma-informed
care community so we're excited we're
here at the same time and also Jackie
Nolan in the back is part of it too so
we're really excited about what what's
happening here and we feel like we're
helping it to really grow and spread
across our whole region so appreciate
you all a lot thanks thank you thank you
alright item 2 is a proclamation
recognizing good passion motor companies
for their 100th anniversary staff report
Council this is a proclamation to
recognize good Mac Goodpasture Motor
Company they will celebrate their 100th
anniversary later this month and this
proclamation recognizes and thanks to
them for their commitment to the city of
Bristol it's not very often that we get
to recognize a business that has been in
business for a hundred years not only in
this locality but just about anywhere
else in the United States so that's a
tremendous honor and a pleasure for you
all to be here in Bristol thank you all
right thank you since you read the last
one I'll take this one which sure by no
coincidence is much shorter whereas the
City Council of Bristol Virginia
recognizes the Goodpaster Motor Company
has been a customer oriented
organization since its founding by Frank
Goodpaster senior and his father-in-law
st koppenhaver senior in August of 1919
in Bristol Virginia and whereas in the
five state region surrounding the
tri-cities Goodpaster has been
synonymous with trucks truck parts and
truck service with a customer list that
reads like a who's who in the southern
Appalachian spanning
the greater part of the 20th century and
we're as good pastor Motor Company start
a business truck transportation was just
getting established paved roads with the
exception it was not until 1926 that a
fully-loaded two-ton truck was driven
from New York to San Francisco and
Goodpasture had been in business meeting
the transportation needs of the area for
many years already and whereas the
owners of Goodpasture Motor Company past
and present have been deeply involved
with service to the city of Bristol
Virginia to participation in borås
committees and the chamber of commerce
and therefore be resolved that Neal
Osbourne mayor and the City Council of
the city of Bristol Virginia do hereby
recognize the contributions of good
passenger Motor Company to our community
and congratulate them for their 100 200
100th year in business in the city of
Bristol Virginia looking for a motion
and a second again I would make a motion
that we adopt the proclamation second so
motion from the vice mayor and second
from mr. Farnum is there any discussion
on this I just this is a city manager
said it is rare to have a business a
hundred years in operation anywhere
especially here in the city and just
think good passengers for what they have
done over the years and continued to do
they they're really good business
partners in our community in a lot of
different ways and I appreciate it all
right if the clerk will call the roll
please
Farnum yes Winegard yes Hartley yes yes
so I just want to recognize the good
pastor family that's here and if you all
come up and get a picture also we'll do
this
[Applause]
I'd like to thank the city of Bristol
for this Proclamation and I'd have to
say that it's rare for a company to be
this old in this town or this country
particularly when it's in the same
family but we stand on the shoulders of
the founder Frank goodpasture's senior
and Frank at Pasteur jr. and Archie's
dad
Archie Hubbard jr. plus a legion of
dedicated employees over the years of
course the customers pay our bills and
since our founding in August of 1919
customers have been recognized as the
lifeblood of our business our commitment
is to deal honestly treat people with
respect and bring value to the
transaction our law in corporate life is
testimony to that commitment thank you
alright item 3 is a presentation from
the mount Rogers Health District I don't
believe it's dr. shell alright
thank you
mayor council mysteries thank you all
for having us this evening we wanted to
bring some education to the city about
the problems of substance abuse that are
in our population and in the region and
want to focus somewhat on the problem
but more so on the solutions of what we
can do together as a community to help
with this
so Bristol is not alone in battling a
substance use crisis that has hit our
nation and the United States 115 people
die every day from an opioid overdose
that's almost five per hour
Virginia almost 3.5 people die every day
from an opioid overview' overdose and in
Tennessee the same nationally a baby is
born every 25 minutes withdrawing from
an opioid a condition called neonatal
abstinence syndrome so the problem that
we have is a problem of addiction is a very powerful problem
that is recognized as a chronic disease
and we want to talk a little bit about
some of the effects of this addiction in
our community most people think about
opioids they think about overdose deaths
and in Virginia that has risen over the
last three years substantially
regionally when we talk about addiction
we talk about overdose deaths we talk
about the rates per 100,000 of the
population most of the deaths in our
region currently are from prescription
opioids but we are seeing a rise in what
we call the synthetic opioids which are
heroin and fentanyl from 2007 to 2017 in
the mount Rogers Health District which
spans eight localities we see about
sixteen to thirty deaths per year in
most localities such as Bristol we seen
anywhere from one to three deaths per
year just from prescription opioids as
you can as you can see in Virginia and
then the mount Rogers district and in
Bristol compared again prescription
opioids and synthetic opioids are
somewhat close to the state rates in
Bristol over the last seven years we've
had approximately 17 deaths due to both
prescription and synthetic opioids we
look as another marker about opioid use
with narcan Administration narcan
a substance that counteracts the effect
so when we look at we don't focus only
on the opioid deaths which are very
tragic by nature but we focus on some of
the other harms they come to the
community narcan is a administration is
a sign of opioid use in the community
and you can see that Bristol has higher
than state rates for narcan
administration over the last seven eight
years we look at fentanyl overdose
deaths we don't have as many of those
but when we do have them they are in the
category about age a little higher than
then state rates and also our
prescription opioids deaths also do pop
higher than state rates in some of the
age groups naloxone is a medication also
known as narcan that can block the
effect of the opioid so the reason that
people die from opioids is because an
opioid is a central nervous system
depressant it makes your body slow down
all over but specifically your brain and
specifically your respiratory center so
people die from opioids literally
because they stop breathing so when you
have Anna Locke's own it binds it
stronger than the opioid to the receptor
and it binds and it actually will knock
the opioid off the receptor and allow
people literally to start breathing
again so it's a very much life-saving
medication just a quick look at some of
the overdose deaths for the state of
Virginia and you'll see regionally where
our concerns are when we look at all
deaths total unnatural deaths for the
state of Virginia over the last 10 years
a natural death by drug overdose have
now risen to be higher than either gun
related fatalities or motor vehicle
fatalities all drugs in general we've
had a two-fold increase in all drug
deaths over the last 10 years in the
state going from around 700 per year to
over 1400 per year and you can see that
the state has affected all over dark
colors being worse worse rates all over
the state there is some effect of fatal
drug overdoses when we look at
prescription opioids which is more the
drug of choice in Southwest Virginia we
can see that the actual numbers of
overdose deaths have not risen
significantly over the last 10 years we
still see about 400 to 500 deaths per
year from prescription opioids but
Southwest Virginia has a higher rate of
deaths from
Crypton opioids we look at other
substances such as heroin we see a
logarithmic increase over the last three
to four years and the number of heroin
deaths across the state thankfully
Southwest Virginia not is quite as
hard-hit by this
likewise fentanyl again a logarithmic
rise over the last three to four years
in infant nil deaths also there are
things called fentanyl analogues which
are being synthesized and the the
fentanyl is generally coming out of
Mexico in China especially the analogues
they are making fentanyl analogues
faster than we can make a drug test to
discover them to test them in people and
you can see that fentanyl is a great
source of opioid death across the state
we do have some in South West Virginia
not as much as some of the rest of the
state benzodiazepines are something that
are used for generally anxiety and we
have a lot of anxiety prescriptions in
our area thankfully generally
benzodiazepines are not considered a
drug of death they are more deadly when prescribed with prescription
opioids which has been a habit for many
years by physicians so Southwest
Virginia does see a greater risk of
benzodiazepine deaths but we've had some
great education over the last few years
and we are seeing less of these cocaine
traditionally has not been slated as a
drug of death we do think when we think
about cocaine's associated with death
more of a stimulant type activity like
heart attacks or strokes or something of
that nature but we have seen a rise in
the last few years for cocaine deaths
and these are generally because these
have been cut with fentanyl so they're
putting fentanyl and to the cocaine and
people are dying as a result of the
fentanyl exposure again Southwest
Virginia not quite as hard-hit as some
of the rest of the state from cocaine
methamphetamine though you're probably
more aware of traditionally
methamphetamine again being a stimulant
has not been a drug of death but usually
less than 10 deaths per year when people
made methamphetamine in their backyard
toxic as it was at least they knew what
they were getting now that most of the
meth is coming out of Mexico we're
seeing much pure meth and stronger meth
but they're also getting at cut in with
the fentanyl and we've had a logarithmic
rise of methamphetamine deaths in the
state of Virginia over 120 last year and
Southwest Virginia is particularly hard
hit by the
methamphetamine deaths when people buy
drugs off the street they don't know
what they're getting and so they're more
likely to die from those drugs so we
look at not only deaths in our region
which are very tragic but we look at
some of the other harms that come as a
result of this neonatal abstinence
syndrome is when babies are born who
have been exposed to opioids during
their the mother's pregnancy and then
they go into withdrawal when they're
born Bristol has higher than state rates
over double than in the state of
Virginia I will tell you though that
these numbers are low these numbers are
just the babies born in Virginia most of
the babies in Bristol are born in
Tennessee the latest numbers that I have
are quadruple that for the number of the
rate of Naas babies from Bristol so we
are very significantly hit by this when
you talk to your school system you'll
hear it as well so na s first then
Bristol are generally higher than the
state rates and you can see that
Southwest Virginia has been in
particularly hit by na s births we also
look at things like HIV HIV rates are
higher in substance users thankfully in
South West Virginia and specifically in
Bristol we have not seen a rise in HIV
attributable to substance use at this
point but it will often follow the
lifetime cost of treating someone with
HIV if they get contracted at age 35 is
over $300,000 for lifetime cost if you
do look at the ages of new HIV cases
though we do tend to have stock higher
than state rates in some of those age
groups generally in the 25 to 45 range
we also look at hepatitis C and this is
where we do hit much higher than state
rates for our hepatitis C nationally
hepatitis C is recognized as an
indicator of substance use in a
community our rates are quadruple + over
state rates for hepatitis C and Bristol
and this is a regional effect as well a
few you can see again Bristol rates are
higher than state rates a few fun facts
about hepatitis C are actually not so
fun but 25% of people who inject rub
draw drugs will become positive for
hepatitis C within two years hepatitis C
will actually linger on surfaces for
over 3 weeks which means it's very
transmittable and there is no vaccine
for hepatitis C we do have back teens
for hepatitis A and hepatitis B but not
for hepatitis C yet
and if someone gets hepatitis C the good
news is they can be cured from their
hepatitis C average cost of treatment is
a hundred thousand to almost three
hundred thousand dollars for treatment
and if they get treated and don't go
into recovery they can contract
hepatitis C again in Virginia you do not
have to be sober to get treated for your
hepatitis C so you can still be using
and still be treated when we look at
hepatitis C regionally and across the
state we can see that in 2011 it was
mostly confined to Southwest Virginia
but there has been a growth of this
across the state over the last several
years and again darker zwarst and
Southwest Virginia has higher hepatitis
C rates the CDC did a study in 2016 that
looked at 220 counties that looked at
the every county across the United
States the top five counties the top
five percent of counties which was 220
across the state were selected for those
that greatest risk for HIV and hepatitis
C Virginia had eight states at risk for
HIV and hepatitis C outbreak the closest
one to us is with County but the rest
are in South West Virginia Lee wise
Dickinson Buckhannon Russell and
Tazewell there's also Patrick County so
we had only 5% of counties across
Virginia where on this list 50 percent
of counties in Tennessee were on this
list 45 percent of counties in Kentucky
and West Virginia are on this list we
are inundated with hepatitis C around us
hepatitis A is something you may have
heard a little bit more about recently
this is also has high risk groups
including the substance using community
but others can get it as well especially
once it becomes once it gets into a
community hepatitis A is not a substance
using like a blood-borne pathogen like B
and C it is more of the fecal-oral
transmission route so this is something
that if you have shared food or eating
this food that has been prepared by
someone with hepatitis A you can get
hepatitis A it's quite contagious
unfortunately at Matt Rogers district
has the distinction of having the
highest number of hepatitis A cases in
the state right now we know that this is
attributable to our proportion of
substance users we also were concerned
about food handlers and underwent an
extensive restaurant education campaign
most of the cases of hepatitis A in our
district have been in Bristol Washington
and Smith
counties through the efforts of this
educational campaign as well as
vaccination campaign we have thankfully
seen a decline knock on wood of
hepatitis A cases in the last few weeks
and we're happy about that
but we are still vigilant and on the
lookout for how we can help can help
with hepatitis A when we look at opioid
burden across the state of Virginia
again Southwest Virginia is higher hit
than that and it has a lot to do with
the harms we've already talked about na
s burst hepatitis C rates opioid deaths
rates we know that there is across to
every locality in Southwest Virginia and
especially in Bristol as well as the
others there is a cost of business a lot
of businesses if you talk with them have
difficulty finding people who will
employees to pass drug screens when we
look at the healthcare effects we look
at the number of overdose responses EMS
response times emergency room care we
look at some of the harms just
associated with the physical injecting
of the drugs including cellulitis
abscesses and bacterial endocarditis and
the cost to our health system for that
if you think about the cost of treatment
for hepatitis C at 40 plus cases per
year newly diagnosed Justin Bristol that
would be a cost of four to 12 million
dollars per year just to treat the
number of hepatitis C cases that are
positive every year
additionally jail costs and I was hoping
the article from the paper would come
out with all the costs from the jail but
you can read about it probably tomorrow
I know they've been looking at cell at
Sullivan County Jail and the effect of
substance use and the overcrowding
issues and I know that the Bristol jails
had a difficult time with this as well
but you know as a council in a city how
much you've spent on jail cost how much
your costs have increased over the last
five years resulting from substance use
we look at DSS over 500 cases of abuse
and neglect per year currently up from
years past they relate that 90 to 95% of
these have some sort of substance use in
the home even if that's what not what
they were initially presented for and if
you look at therapeutic foster care its
46,000 dollars just for a six-month
stint of therapeutic foster child care
per child we look at our schools we look
at the impact in the schools we look at
referrals less than 20 15 years ago and
now they're getting
fifty to sixty per year I will tell you
with our rates of Naas when you think
about how a child with na s who has no
behavioral regulation how that looks in
a classroom full of children when you
have you know in years past a couple of
troublemakers and now you have a whole
classroom full of children who cannot
regulate themselves it impacts the
education of every single one of our
students so the problem as we as I've
alluded to is addiction
so addiction is the state of being
enslaved to a habit or practice or
something that is psychologically or
physically habit-forming to such an
extent that it's cessation causes severe
trauma we think about characteristics of
an addiction being inability to abstain
impairment of behavioral control
cravings for the drugs or word
experiences diminish recognition that
you even have a problem and a
dysfunctional emotional response
addiction affects approximately 10% of
our population is classified as a
chronic disease much like depression
because being a kind of an illness of
the mind that sometimes Harbor to wrap
your hands around as far as how do you
treat that but we also diabetes affects
approximately 10% of our population as
well
how does addiction start it's a little
bit different for everyone sometimes
it's just bad circumstances and bad
timing you're in your environment you
have an opportunity kids out partying that sort of a thing
part of it is genetic why is it that
some people will have a surgery and get
a bottle of pain pills to go home from
their surgery and by the end of them may
actually be addicted to opioids versus
some people take the whole bottle and
stop them without any withdrawal
symptoms whatsoever what's the
difference genetically there we need to
do further research and looking into
this as far as how we can better treat
our patients as physicians we have a lot
of work to do as well we think about
traumatic experiences and this goes back
to the aces people are looking for a way
out they've had a hard childhood I just
want to be numb they don't want to think
about it anymore how can we address that
problem better so again coming back to
the aces and I didn't know Becky and the
team would be here tonight but we think
about adverse childhood experiences and
how is this affecting our all of our
children and the generations that are
coming up we know now that there are
many grandparents raising children right
now
and what effect is that having on our
society so we talk about abuse neglect
and household dysfunction
if 64% of adults have at least one ace
and 12% have four or more if you have
increased risk if you have increasing
aces you have do have increased risks
for smoking addiction obesity depression
diabetes suicide addiction and other
health related abnormalities the higher
your score the increase your risk if you
have an ace score of six or more you
have a life that span that can be
shortened by twenty years we talk about
the resiliency and hopefully this is
aces Proclamation month you'll have an
opportunity to learn a lot more about
this but we look about what can we do as
a community to provide resilience for
our children and for our young parents
suffering and we and we'll talk about
and you'll hear more about that from the
resiliency team but we talk about
competence building confidence in them
having to make social connections having
mentors that will help them with their
character coping skills how do they
control their behavioral regulation okay
so again we know there's a problem what
can we do for solutions thankfully there
are a lot of great solutions on going
out there and I want to highlight on
those and then talk about what we can do
as a community otherwise so one of our
primary things is what we're doing right
now education making people aware that
there's a problem a lot of people if you
talk to them they have been affected
personally by substance use in their
family or in a co-worker or a co-workers
family so we like people to know that
they're not alone when we talk about
substance use or addiction and we need
our community to know that it can
decrease the stigma how people talk
about it help them have them get into
help there's also a big push to get a
new unneeded medication out of our homes
out of our medicine boxes and into
proper disposal there is a drug
take-back day and you have one of these
in your pot in your packets they happen
every April in October we have one
coming up October the 26th at the Food
City and any medications that are not
needed in the house and we want everyone
in the community to do this is to take
all your unneeded medications and
dispose of them properly environmentally
soundly we don't want you flushing them
we don't want to putting them in your
garbage we don't want them in the water
we don't want them in our
Phil we want them to be disposed of
properly there are additionally drug
drop boxes and there's one for sherek
office here in Bristol and every
locality in South West Virginia where if
you don't happen to make the drug drop
date there are locations all over
Southwest Virginia where we want people
to dispose of environmentally friendly
their medications
additionally there are packets
manufacture it's called Tutera which
people can put unused medication in you
can there's a little substance in here
and you can put a little warm water and
swish it around and it will completely
environmentally safe Lee just eliminate
that product such that no one can draw
anything out of it we have packets that
we'll put at the back of the room today
if anybody wants these packets for drug
disposal we would encourage you to take
them we have them available to all of
our health departments right down here
in the street anytime anybody needs them
so we really want to advocate for proper
drug disposal in our community
additionally our health care providers
as I mentioned physicians we there are
ongoing campaigns across Virginia
Tennessee and many other states about
how do we prescribe more smartly as more
smartly is probably not a good term how
do we prescribe better as far as our
drug use and what about research for
alternative pain medication treatments
we don't want people to be in pain we
want to treat them better but we want to
treat them such that they don't have a
form an addiction or have other problems
from that we also want to educate our
youth we have programs in our schools we
actually have a grant going on right now
that Bristol is participating in which
is actually a to Tina to decrease our
teenage pregnancy rates but it actually
focuses on risk reduction and as such it
speaks to substance use and how can we
make an intervention even in the middle
school to have these young students
thinking about their futures and what
will substance use do for that or take
away we also have some after-school
programming so when we think about
prevention that would be what we would
like to do we would like to prevent as
many people from entering into addiction
as we can but for those who are already
in addiction there is hope and there's
promise treatment for addiction is very
hard-fought but it can be successful we
have to have community support we have
to have family support we have to have
community programs for them and the
individual has to want that as well for
themselves but we think about treatment
for addiction just like we think about
diabetes depression we don't Excel is
somebody with diabetes well you can't
ever eat
again just go you know make smart
choices that doesn't work we we want
them to make smart choices but we also
want them to exercise and take their
medication same thing for depression we
use counseling exercise and medication
assisted treatment so for addiction
there is counseling support groups as
well as medication assisted treatment
and the state has gone a long way to
increase reimbursements for physicians
to do proper counseling and medication
assisted treatment so we're seeing an
increase in these in our community and
we do want to see an increase in the
right kind of medication to treat
assisted treatment services revived is a
program I mentioned the medication
naloxone which can bring back a life we
have revived programs that we can teach
in a community and we would love to
teach more here in Bristol we've already
done some but this is something where we
show people how to recognize an overdose
to addiction excuse me an overdose to an
opioid and then we can actually give
them narcan so that they could
administer this to a loved one there are
other things that we can do to reduce
some of the harms in our community
recovery court is a wonderful thing that
Bristol does participate in this is a
thing that can help to decrease some of
the overcrowding in your jails as far as
you're trying to win or out those who
are have substance arrest is because
they're dealing in substances versus
those who just really have addiction and
need to have help for their addiction
and get them into treatment we also need
many more support groups in our in our
area and we work with the faith-based
community and the ministerial
associations to increase our number of
naaa meetings and there are other
celebrate life and other kinds of
recovery meetings in the community we
would like to advocate for Naas we have
regional we have work groups that we
work with our agencies about plans for
Naas helping to build support groups for
substance using pregnant women and then
the families after they're born to get
them into supportive services we also
have a school work group and a new
research opportunity that we'll be
working with an NIH grant to look at
this more closely we want to provide
birth control so that substance using
pregnant women don't get pregnant and
have babies until they're ready and in a
good place for that HIV we refer to
treatment there is pre exposure
prophylaxis hepatitis C we want to be
able to refer people for treatment and
also reduce to use needles there are
many good community things going on
right now we've been working as a
community on a her serger
for planning grant and we have many
agencies from across Southwest Virginia
and Upper East Tennessee working
collaboratively for community programs
we also had a US Chamber of event
Chamber of Commerce event back in the
spring about sharing solutions and in
getting a lot of this workforce into
better employment because a lot of the
reason they go back to their substance
using is because they don't have any
hope for a job or for a future so we've
been working quite a bit on that angle
as far as getting them gainfully
employed so that they have something to hope for we also did receive an
implementation grant to go forward and
do though we more much more Street
strategic planning regionally about how
we can have better programs for those
with substance use and again as I
mentioned an NIH grant to help with our
na s population to study them how do we
help them learn achieve what can we do
for them to have better positive
long-term impacts comprehensive harm
reduction is another public health
strategy to reduce some of the negative
health outcomes for people whose
behaviors put them and others at risk
for disease as well as injury it helps
to improve outcomes for the substance
user but also for first responders and
for the community what you need to do
for a comprehensive harm reduction
program is to create a point of contact
where people in substance use want to
come whether or not they're quite ready
for a recovery so you create a place
where they want to come you actually do
have needles for them which are clean
which you can exchange for their dirty
needles but it's more than the needles
you have a program that brings them into
healthcare you get them interested in
their own health you get them into
medical services you get them into
behavioral health services because
there's a great percentage of
co-occurring but behavioral health
problems and those with addiction we
also want to get them tested and treated
for their HIV and hepatitis C decrease
our na Esper's provide vaccination so
it's a program rarely where people can
come in to begin the process of thinking
about recovery there has been great
concern about comprehensive harm
reduction programs and whether or not
they may increase crime in Baltimore the
studies showed that they actually had a
decrease of violent crime arrests do
they encourage drug use no
people who enter into comprehensive harm
reduction programs are about five times
more likely to go into recovery there is
it a safe needle disposal system and
nationally over 90 percent of syringes
are returned Virginia does have a policy
for this that's a one-to-one exchange
and regionally the programs have had
more syringes returned than they
actually gave out hepatitis C can be
decreased as much as 50 percent in a
community by these programs so this is a
very tangible step forward hepatitis C
reduction in DC they did an analysis
where they would say 44 million over two
years but if you looked at Bristol and
at over forty cases of hepatitis C per
year if you present prevented half of
those you would still save two to six
million dollars per year just in
hepatitis C treatments in Scott County
Indiana they had a similar number of
cases a few more than we do as far as
five to ten cases of HIV per year and
hepatitis C about forty to sixty cases
per year in 2015 that had an outbreak
this kind of allude to that study that I
showed you earlier about the risk for
hepatitis C and HIV outbreak but they
had 183 new cases of HIV and 243 new
cases of hepatitis C that year they
instituted a syringe services program
and were able to decrease their syringe
sharing and by two years later they only
had nine new cases back to the baseline
of HIV and ninety two cases of hepatitis
C so it did show it to be an effective
program for reducing the burden of
hepatitis C North Carolina has a syringe
exchange program as does Tennessee the
city has said CDC has said that if you
want to prevent an a hepatitis C
outbreak in your community there are
four things you need to do number one is
test everyone who will be tested number
two is to get them into treatment number
three is to have medication assistant
programs for people to begin getting
treatment for their addiction and number
four is to have a syringe services
program Smith County decided last year
that they had a large burden of
substance use in their community and
many other harms associated and they
decided as one of their solutions that
they wanted to have a comprehensive harm
reduction program in the county they're
the first participant started in January
of this year we have over 74
participants this far it is a very
structured program
identification card the community has to
be an on board law enforcement city
council the citizens have to be on board
with this we do have a trauma-informed
program coordinator and a peer recovery
specialist
would have been able to link people to
the programs we discussed as far as
getting their vaccinations their
hepatitis C treatments getting them on
to birth control but also social
supports housing food banks and even
into recovery services in that program
we have had three people go into into
enter into recovery we've had one person
who has finished their hepatitis C
treatment one person awaiting test
results there has been one overdose
reversal with naloxone they had been
connected to medical services and to
mental health services so for Bristol
where we would like to start is with a
community health assessment and this is
when we gather our community
stakeholders and the agencies of the
community and say what are your concerns
for this community and what is agencies
can we do to help our community how what
kind of solutions can we provide to
Bristol when it comes to the problem of
substance abuse and other problems that
this council decides are of significance
we would like to plan a kickoff meeting
begin collecting data have people decide
on what are their top priorities as well
as begin implementing strategies thank
you very much for your time if anyone
has any questions I'd be happy to
entertain them you have any questions no
questions but just to thank you for
coming and presenting tonight welcome
thank you for a living and I'd like to
say I agree with you this is a major
problem from from whichever perspective
you look at it whether it be quality
live economic development public health
I was actually at a conference this
morning with Steve Williams who's the
mayor of Huntington West Virginia
I see you've probably read up on him
they had I think New York Times
classified them as the epicenter of the
opioid epidemic and they went and did
some some really forward-thinking
proactive things to kind of deal with it
so I appreciate y'all bringing this to
us and given this information and will work
with you however we can do thank you for
working with the community thank you we
are going to take a five-minute recess
for again to the next thing we are back
so next item we have got on the agenda
is a public hearing regarding three
scheduled residential demolitions we'll
go ahead and open the hearing staff
comments counsel these are targeted
properties which are vacant abandoned
and neglected by the owners and they've
been determined to be beyond repair the
city building inspector concurred with
this assessment they are deemed unsafe
and hazardous to the public they also
contribute to blight within the city
neighborhoods and gateways and may lead
to decrease surrounding property values
additionally these structures can be
hazardous tear your children and provide
havens for vagrants and drug use
attempts to locate the property owners
have proven unsuccessful due diligence
has been performed and recorded in order
to identify and contact all property
owners all property owners have been
contacted by mail and given sufficient
response time to either correct property
issues or initiate demolition themselves
CDBG funding is being used to perform
demolitions those properties demolished
by the city will have liens filed for
the cost of the demo activities the
properties to be to be demolished are
804 Madison Street 808 Buckner Street
and 105 East Mary Street the demolition
of these properties has been advertised
in the Bristol Herald cougar and
licensed and insured contractors have
been solicited through a competitive bid
process to perform the perform the
demolitions the city manager and city
attorney and the council have been
informed of these demolitions through
the consent agenda proved by City
Council on August the 13th 2019 at a
regularly scheduled City Council meeting
a public notice for bids and the
scheduled public hearing ran in the
Bristol heroku on September 9th 2019 and
a notice of demolition in the scheduled
public hearing ran in the Bristol heroku
year on September 17th 2019 no actions
required tonight this is only a public
hearing all right thank you it looks
like no one has signed up to comment at
the hearing so I'll go ahead and close
the hearing
so item five as a public hearing on the
issuance of general obligation notes for
the purchase of real property hearing is
open staff comments counsel this is a
for the financing of what used to be the
Virginia Employment Commission building
it's an amount not to exceed six hundred
and fifty thousand dollars we anticipate
the note to be for no more than six
hundred eleven thousand dollars or
within about that private or within that
range this will be used for the
acquisition of the property which will
now the future in the future houses the
Department of Social Services and the
property is located at 192 Bristol Road
a public hearing was advertised on
September the 23rd and September 30th in
the Bristol Hill Collier Council has
discussed the building purchase and
purchase options at the August 27th
September 10th and September 24th
meetings all right thank you so we do
have one person signed up for public
comment and that is mr. Pollard Thank
You members of the council my name is
michael potter i live at 101 ashley
drive what's the total APR of the dead
including expenses I think it's three
point three nine percent if I'm not
mistaken I saw that was the interest
rate I didn't know if there were other
expenses beyond I think the other
expenses we'll be paying cash for okay
but that still goes to the total expense
total cost of a debt right I'm also
talking my head I can't tell you what
they BR is I know the rates 3.39 what's
the rate do you know of the that we're
currently generating on investments
through the trial roughly two to two and
a half percent depending on today okay
so this would be costing as ruff roughly
one a quarter percent more than what
would be generated laughlin okay
considering the city has the wherewithal
to pay cash I would recommend making the
best financial decision with a little
lowest total cost including opportunity
cost in this case it does seem that it
will would cost a little bit less to the
city to pay cash
rather than to get debt because you
little cost us about one half percent
and I've heard no persuasive argument I
heard I've heard arguments but not what
I would consider the persuasive
arguments not to pay cash I would rather
do what will cost the city less thank
you all right thank you very much so we
will close the hearing and item six is
resolution authorizing the issuance and
sale of general obligation notes of the
city of Bristol Virginia staff report I
counsel this is the resolution that you
have before you in regards to allowing
us to borrow the funds for the purchase
of the building as of the previously
stated interest rates three point three
nine percent it's a 10-year note and we
have the ability to pay that note off
early as well all right thank you very
much so no one has signed up for public
comment on item six so reading of the
resolution I council ought to ask that
the motion be made that read this by
caption only it's been posted for
sufficient time and sufficient copies
have been made available to the public
so do we have a motion to read this by
caption only I would make that motion to
read the resolution by caption only
given the length of the resolution as
well as its availability second all
right so we have a motion by the vice
mayor and a second by mr. Farnum do we
need to take a roll call on this on this
as well yes okay
clerk call the roll please Ferno yes
Winegard
no currently yes yes all right if you
would read by caption only the
resolution please
aye resolution authorizing the issuance
in the sale of general obligation note
of the city of Bristol Virginia and
providing for the forum details and
payment thereof all right so we're now
looking for a motion in a second on the
resolution
I move that we approve the resolution
adopt the resolution second okay so we
have a motion by mr. Farnum in a second
by mr. Hartley Council discussion I
don't think his City needs to be going
into any more debt we have the means to
pay cash for this building and get it
behind us and move on and to go into
more debt right now it's just mm-hmm
it's not what this city needs everybody
knows our financial situation it was
spoke up tonight by Miss morning and we
don't know the future everybody's
thinking there's one big apple gonna
drop them on this city and cure our
problems we don't know that that's gonna
happen we need to be diligent and we
need to not go in any more debt when we
have the month say where we can just
write a check for this
well we just we have discussed this
previously but you know to me again part
of that is not knowing the future and I
think right now it's important for us to
keep cash on hand because there's a lot
of other things for example with this
building we talked about we don't know
what the total costs for DSS to move
there is my understanding is the state
will reimburse us for some of that we've
talked about potentially renovating the
building therein we have no idea what
the cost of that is or if we don't
whether it demolish it so there's other
expenses outside of just purchasing this
building that we need cash on hand there
are things that are continually coming
up to this council that haven't been
budgeted for that we need cash on hand
for I can think of several of those for
example you know we need to do something
to the baseball stadium that's not been
budgeted for and all these things that
come up I mean there is a city manager
contingency but that's nowhere near
enough plus we need to be setting money
aside to deal with are coming debt and
other emergencies rainy day whatever we
want to call it
the thing I like about this it's a
10-year note but it's an early pay off
in the first payment if I'm not mistaken
mysteries isn't due until next year so
we can budget we should pay early and
pay this off if if we found ourselves in
I want to correct that right before this
meeting started we had some late
breaking news from bond council and
actually the first payment is going to
be due 30 days after closing we'll do it
on a monthly basis and that's simply
because it's going to be a call as it
cost the city less to pay it on a
monthly basis and it will on a yearly
basis okay well it's but still yet if we
fund ourselves in a position at the end
of the year I mean there's nothing
preventing us from paying this off
earlier so you know buying them that the
building up there you know is it needed
yes but I mean it came totally out of the blue it
wasn't budgeted for this gives us time
to budget for that in the future and
like I say if it looks like at some
point we're ahead we can do that but I
think right now that this would be the
best way I feel moving forward I
definitely agree with what what both of
you all are saying I see both sides of
it and I've kind of been on both sides
of this for a little bit at first I was
on the side of okay we do have the cash
let's just write a check and buy it and
then I got to thinking more about well
when I got here I learned quickly about
how much little cash the city had just a
few years ago and how we've done a good
job of building that up and mr. Hartley
mentioned things like the baseball
stadium and we've been talking a lot
about the schools and we can use a lot
of cash for things needed at the schools
we've also talked about the jail and the
upcoming debt payments associated with
the falls so you know I'm I'm not in
favor of borrowing you know 50 million
dollars to start up some kind of new
development but with this it's you know
six hundred and some thousand dollars we
know roughly what our payment is going
to be we can always pay it off early and
we've talked about some other ways we
can try to save in some other areas to
offset that yearly payment that we'll
have going forward so I'm on the side of
the fence now you know we keep our cash
you know we hold on to it for
emergencies and for other things that
are coming up that we know about and we
just we get this building because it's
definitely an upgrade for the offices
that these folks are currently in you
know I understand the allure of wanting
to pay cash for it but but kind of like
mr. Farnum and mr. Hartley have said you
know you've got we have a finite amount
of money set aside for whether it be the
baseball field whether it be the jail
whether it be inmate housing costs
increases or you know just the other day
we all of a sudden had 86,000 dollars
more we had to get into the school
system for for maintenance people that
we weren't expecting so there they're
always unexpected things that cannot be
financed in in this case we have the
flexibility to be able to finance this
and it's it
not a large amount of money compared to
what we've what other councils have done
in the past so so it makes the most
sense to me to be able to finance it and
must be able to keep this money on hand
for projects in the future that we might
have that we cannot finance so so that's
where I'm at and you know I had had some
concerns about buying the building to
start with but you know it was a good
opportunity for us to have it to upgrade
a city office that certainly needed and
we've had some discussions about moving
a different City office to the social
services building so hopefully we'll be
able to kill two birds with one stone
with this so so I I think it's gonna be
good opportunity for us to move the
office up there and I think we should go
ahead and do the do the financing on it
is there any other discussion I just
once again I'm say it's a mistake adding
to the debt we're already paying how
many millions a year right now just in
interest just in interest no principle
it's over two million dollars am I
correct on that yes and we are going to
add to that now if we was a physically
responsible responsible City what could
we be doing with two additional million
dollars that we are just squandering on
interest because of bad decisions and
we're going to add to that tonight it's
not the right thing
it's not right but I would you know none
of us up here got us into that extra two
million dollars I'd say that first
what's the interest going to cost us
additional what are we going to be
paying additional with interest here to
finance this as opposed to buying it do
run that by me again so with the
interest that you know we're financing
we're paying the three point three nine
percent interest group how much
additional are we paying for this
building over two but we just wrote a
check for $600 it's ten years at three
would three point three nine three point
three nine
the building's going to cost us seven
hundred and sixty seven thousand two
hundred ninety six dollars and that is
total interest of another hundred and
seventeen thousand two hundred and
ninety six dollars and ninety-six cents
over the course of the life and the odds
of us paying it off early
it's slimmed and then localities do not
work like that let's say give it to you
so six eleven and there was three point
three million well I was gonna say you
know if we finance it now and we hold on
to our cash you know if it's a case
where it's a 10-year note we possibly
revisit at the end of this fiscal year
in the next fiscal year depending on if
we have a good year or a bad year we
have good years we could look at making
additional principal payments to it and
we don't have to take ten years to pay
it off and pay all that interest maybe
we pay it off in three years or four
years or something like that plan to be
more physically responsible we wouldn't
be financing the whole entire dollar
amount we would be setting aside X
dollar to pay down on it and then
finance a number with a plan to pay it
off in three to five years but to go
into this one hundred percent financing
it is not gonna be paid off anytime soon
but we there are still gonna be
additional cost around this whole
project this whole project just come up
out of the blue it wasn't discussed
during any of the budget it just come up
out of the blue I'm not saying it's it's
bad that it's not needed but I mean
there if you want to be responsible you
talk about these things in budget form
there
the budget process that's all these
things that are popping up is what while
we need this extra cash on hand because
there are things that haven't been
accounted for and you can't account for
everything you said that yourself just
if you meant to game so that's why we
need this it I think you know we can
look back at this later and see but you
know I mean I first starts thinking yeah
maybe put down a little bit of money but
if you're going to go in and try to
renovate that for other offices
what's that cost you can't borrow that
money that you've got to pay for that in
cash so where's that coming from
I mean I think when this opportunity
came up to buy the building in all five
of us I think we agreed that the
building was a good deal and it's
definitely an upgrade for those offices
and but the one thing I just keep
thinking about as far as how to pay for
it is I keep because we've been talking
about it a lot I think about the schools
and upcoming expenses with what needs to
be done in our current school buildings
and we've been talking about the
elementary schools but also the middle
school in the high school so that's kind
of why I'm on the side of the fence of
hanging onto our cash just because of
some of those unknowns coming up soon
there's any other discussion all right I
call the roll please
Farnum yes Winegard hartley yes I was
born yes all right
item seven release from performance
agreement contractual obligations for
studio brew staff report a counsel
before I even get into the staff report
I want to address performance agreements
in general first and foremost
performance agreements do have a place
for localities to use and be able to
leverage certain advantages maybe over
another locality to get a business to
your own City as compared to going to a
neighboring city we have discussed
performance agreements at length with ID
a we've discussed it internally with
Council I'm discussing internally with
staff performance agreements should be
used when we can have an attraction of
regional impact and when I say regional
impact I don't mean the Falls and but we
have to use these performance agreements
sparingly and wisely
none of us sitting here tonight were a
part of the performance agreement
procedures back and when this took place
and because this performance agreement
that was entered into on June the 27th
2014 I think that was prior to mr.
Hartley's term here as well so from this
point forward and I've been looking at
them differently for years now we have
positioned ourselves in previous
performance agreements live in here
specifically with American merchants off
the top of my head that we've protected
the city and the various means either to
do deeds of trust or through performance
bonds that the entity has to obtain in
order to protect the city
this performance agreement that's before
you tonight is for studio bird studio
brew has been an integral part in the
revitalization of downtown Bristol
they've took a building that was and I
won't say disrepair but was in pretty
bad shape and they've turned it into a
very nice building very nice
business something that city of Bristol
can be proud of and tonight they are
asking that this council release them
from the performance agreement this
performance agreement as a stated
earlier was signed on June 2 27 to 2014
however the term did not commence until
November the 20th of 2015 when they
opened their doors for business
the term was for five years which will
expire on November the 20th of 2015 with
this release of the performance
agreement they have an opportunity to
diversify their business model to be
more competitive within the craft beer
and soda industry in order to get the
necessary funds to diversify their
business they have requested to be
released from this agreement with the
city bvu authority has agreed to release
them contingent upon the city and the
ITA releasing them from the agreement BB
you voted for o to release them the ITA
voted 5-1 to release them what's
important to note here in your packet
I've included several conditions that we
have asked the studio brew a crow spire
and Pam and Eric Allen to agree to in
order for that release we met late this
afternoon once again to try to nail down
some points in regards to this
obligation that they would now acquire
for the remainder of the performance
agreement one thing that they're
concerned about was whether or not the
city wanted to have any say-so in the
daily operations the management or any
say-so over any type of transaction that
they may have I assured them that this
city has done a bad enough job getting
into businesses that we should have
never been involved with to begin with
and the last thing that we want to do is
be involved with a brewery or soda
manufacturer so you have a list of
obligations that Miss Allen and mr.
Allen have agreed to the only change is
items see gallons must allow the city to
review any documentation of the outside
investment transaction we had an
internal discussion today basically they
have provided me already with the
necessary information that I need that I
feel comfortable with at this point and
we would also add that the city does not
intend
to have any authority or decision-making
capability for studio bird alright thank
you very much so no one has signed up
for public comment so I'm looking for a
motion and a second
would your motion be to release the
performance agreement with adding the
contractual obligations in this addendum
with the change you just mentioned in
item 3c that's great okay I make a
motion for that I'll second that
okay so motion for that is for mr.
Farnum and second is for mr. Hartley and
council discussion
well I've mentioned this before the side
of the fence I'm on is since I've been
here and not just with this situation
but with everything you know I just
wanted to say you know what what can we
hear what can we do to help weather that
sometimes getting involved with
something or sometimes it's stepping out
of the way for something what can we do
to help and in this case it's a local
business you know the goal is to and I
read the you know the quote in the paper
how the markets kind of changed a little
bit and they have some ideas of what
they can do to continue to grow and I
think us this is not really us you know
stepping in but in a way for us stepping
out and giving them some more
flexibility to do what they need to do
so if that's in a way helping I think it
could be viewed as a good thing where
we're also still protecting the
interests of the city with with some of
the language we've added in here and is
that something the city wants to get
into involved with a agreement like this
with every business no but but we're already in it here and you know
there's a certain certain
benefit it's kind of hard to measure but
this particular business is a business
that provides something in downtown and
Bristol food drink nightlife you know
we've worked really hard to revitalize
our downtown area so it's definitely
hard to to measure what that's worth but
it's definitely something that if we can
help them grow and you know I see this
is a good thing hopefully this is
helping and we can all enjoy what this
business provides for many years to come
also when they clear that maybe it's
probably made clear to the public but
part of this agreement would require a
Crow's fire studio back respire LLC
studio Barilla C and Pam and Eric Allen
to repay if certain things happen within
the business or the business fails to
operate through November 20th of 2020 it
would require them to pay back 20% of
what the tax assessed value of the
building was and when they received it
back in 2014 which was one hundred
ninety eight thousand three hundred
dollars and twenty percent of the
$80,000 in cash that the city provided
to them that's a total of about fifty
five thousand dollars that would be that
they're on the hook for and the reason I
came to that conclusion was they
performed 80% roughly other performance
agreement so far they've got roughly 20
percent less left and so that's 20
percent of what was initially given unto
him by the city yeah and and to me you
know one I first appreciate Allen's that
what they've done with that business it
was building its that there for a very
long time in and really done a great job
renovating it and restoring it and
moving kind of the downtown activity
more away from State Street back that
way so I appreciate that
I would say to their concern only speak
for myself but you know we we don't want
to get involved in fact we want to kind
of get out of the way to let you do what
you
doing but is mysteries pointed out we do
want to kind of still maintain that and
I think that's a fair compromise you
know for other than time you've met the everything in the agreement so to
kind of prorate it I know a lot of if
you get money from federal money from
the a or C or different places like that
there they have those clawback
provisions but they prorated them over
time so I think that's there and
hopefully this will allow you all to
continue to grow and expand in a
different direction here in downtown
I want to thank I think the city
manager's office for their work on this
and think they think the Allens for
their investment in Bristol I know I ran
into you the other day in the hall and I
wouldn't shut up about the mystery pizza
y'all have on your menu which is
fantastic and all I'll keep coming and
getting it you know even though we're
not involved now yeah I think this is I
think this just makes sense you know for us to be kind of backing off from
being involved in these type of
agreements as much as we can and it
makes sense for you all obviously from
business standpoint to be able to
hopefully diversify what you do and and
you know further your business so so I
look forward to us passing this here in
just a moment other discussion I was
just gonna say I was excited too about
well first of all you know what's
happened like you said they've taken an
old building and they fixed it up and
they are open for business so they
provide jobs and they also produce tax
revenue to the city so for all of that
thank you thank you for believing in
Bristol Virginia and and I was excited
about hearing about you know kind of
what the next steps are this my
understanding is it's the products of
the root beer and the cream soda and
distribution and I'd love to be able to
have people all over the place pick up
and see that label it says Made in
Bristol Virginia so I think that's a
good thing for us
alrighty very good if the clerk would
call the roll please
Farnum yes Winegard no partly yes I was
born
yes onto the consent agenda
need a motion in a second to take action
on this I would move that we approve the
consent agenda with one minor change on
the meeting of the minutes from the
meeting of September 10th item number
four that should be Kathy Simpson who's
the CFO for Hollins community service
instead of Kathy Johnson all right so we
have a motion to approve with the change
that mr. Hartley mentioned so I need a
second second
all right so emotion mr. Hartley and
second for mr. Farnum is there any
discussion please call the roll
Farnum yes wyngarde yes yes yes we stand
adjourned
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