I'll call the August 25th, 20126 3 p.m.
session of the Henry County Board of
Supervisors to order. Like to welcome
all of our visitors. Remind you if you
want to address the board, you must sign
up 7 days in advance of any of our
regular meetings to be put on the
agenda. The county administrator is the
contact person for the board. However,
the public may address the board under
the agenda item matters presented by the
public that will take up uh later in
this evening's meeting is agenda item
number 16. Again, welcome everyone.
Thank you for coming out and
participating in your county government.
Our first business item of consideration
uh is agenda item number five, the items
of consent. What is the pleasure of the
board?
>> Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to approve
the items of consent.
>> Second.
>> We have a motion and a second. Any
discussion?
All in favor? It is uh 6. Jennifer.
Agenda item number six. We'll have a
report on delinquent tax collection
efforts. And I Okay, I see her now. Uh
we have with us uh Miss Tiffany C.
Haristen of the treasur's office.
Tiffany, welcome.
>> Thank you. Good afternoon. For
delinquent taxes personal property
collection, as of July 31st, 2026, we
collected 89.82%
of the 2025 personal property taxes. We
collected $235
235818
in a month. For real estate, as of July
31st, 2026, we collected 95.45% 45% of
the 2025 real estate taxes. We collected
$83,238.66
in a month. Since July 31st, 2026, TAC
has collected 828,11.17.
Debt set off we collected $3,6620
on August the 14th. For the year we the
total collected was $244,491.79
and total stops was $557.
» How could does anyone have any questions
of Miss Haristen at this time?
>> I'll just sometimes like to say hey we
don't have a whole lot of discussion. Uh
but I know you've had this job just a
short time. How do you how is it going
and how do you feel about the the 89% of
tax collection at this time since we've
gone since everything we've gone through
to this point?
>> I think um once we added our own DMV
stops that help bring in collection of
personal property taxes more. So I feel
like it's going to go well.
>> Okay. Thank you.
>> Okay. Anything else board members? Thank
you.
>> Thank you.
That takes us to agenda item number
seven. We'll have an update from Pedmont
Community Services. We have with us Greg
Preston and some of his staff members.
Greg is the executive director of
Pedmont Community Services. Welcome,
Greg.
» Mr. Chairman,
to the board,
Mr. Wag, Mr. Uh again, thank you for
allowing Petemont to be present today.
Um we wanted to take an opportunity as
we do annually to give an update about
Pete my community services um data um
some of the information that um is vital
to the county. Um likewise to talk about
some new services that we're we're
bringing to the county.
So for today's uh presentation, we'll
have an overview about the community
services board. We'll talk some about
2025, the impact. Um we won't do an
overview of services due to time
constraints. Um but we will talk about
um again some new services coming to the
area and what's coming up next.
So again, as a reminder, um Petemont
Community Services, we were formed from
a partnership between local government
and um and the general assembly back in
1968.
Um Pedmont was actually formed in 1972.
Um statewide there are 40 community
services boards. Peakman is one of 40.
So if you go to Danville, there's a
Danville Community Services Board. If
you go to Rono, there's a Blue Ridge.
and we're spread out throughout the
state of Virginia.
So again, Pedmont was formed in 1972. We
serve Henry County, Martinsville,
Franklin County, and Patrick County. Um,
currently we serve right around 7,400
individuals annually. Um, although uh
the slide says we have 475 staff, we are
moving towards about 500 staff currently
due to new services that we're
providing.
wanted to introduce our board of
directors. So, Mr. Garrett Dillard is
our board chair. I'm really really
excited. Um Mr. Dillard, as you you all
know, really motivated, um really um in
tune about what's happening in our
community. Our past chair is Mr. Gil
Carter. Um the other Henry County
representatives is Mr. Bill Atkins, Mr.
Eric Haristen, Miss Bonnie Martin, and
also that completes all five of the
board members. So, for our board of
directors, we have 14 board members. We
have five board members from Henry
County, five from Franklin County, um
two from Patrick, and also two from
Martinsville. So, we do currently have
two vacancies.
Wanted to briefly introduce our
director's team. Um, got Miss Caroline
Pilson who's our CFO and Sharon Buckman
who's our chief human resources officer,
Sam Petty, IT, Jeriah Morris. We're
really excited. Geriah has joined the
team. She's our PR liaison
[clears throat] and public information
officer. Kelly Cobalt, director of
behavior health. Regina Clark, director
of prevention. Miss Shannon Clark,
director of community support, and also
Miss Lynn Fleming, the assistant to the
CEO.
Wanted to just give you a quick overview
about the facilities we operate.
Currently operate over 30 facilities in
the in the four localities
[snorts] and 15 facilities in in
Martinsville and Henry County. And we
will introduce our latest um purchase
which is located on Michael Road and
Miss Shannon Clark will give you an
update on that shortly.
Um, just wanted to uh remind definitely
the board of directors, but you know,
more importantly the community that we
do have a partnership with Genoa
Pharmacy. They're actually located at at
our Clay Street office, 24 Clay Street.
They both serve clients and also staff.
I'm going to yield to Miss Gerard
Morris. She's going to come up and talk
some about the 2025 annual report.
Good afternoon everyone. Very briefly, I
just wanted to talk about our annual
report for 2025. Um we're going to talk
about both our program growth and the
local impact that we've made uh in this
past year.
So in 2025 and in Henry County alone, we
were able to serve 10,048 community
members and that's including in our
mental health, our substance use, our
IDD, our housing case management, and
our prevention services.
So our major program highlights include
expanding our crisis support through our
23-hour services.
We continue to um provide services in
our recovery housing and our warmline
support services.
We've expanded waiver access and support
coordination
in our developmental services. And our
prevention program continues to work
with our youth, students, and community
partners in um Henry County and our
other localities.
Financially, we continue to prioritize
our direct service. So, as you see on
the chart, 89% of our expenses are
reinvested into our people and our
operations, uh, with a lot of our
funding coming from Medicaid, state, and
federal partnerships.
And lastly, we just want to give a shout
out to our staff. This is a photo from
our 50th anniversary. Um,
[clears throat] we cannot do the
services that we do without our
dedicated staff, and so we want to
recognize the people who show up in our
community every day. Thank you guys.
[clears throat]
» So I too would like to reiterate um just
the importance of having dedicated staff
and we are really excited to have
dedicated motivated staff that serve the
individuals in our community um with professionalism. Um real quickly
I'll drive through these um quickly just
an example of how to access services. um
mental health services. I won't go over
those. Just wanted to share the variety
of services we provide through mental
health. Substance use disorder services,
everything from case management to
medication, um intensive outpatient.
On the developmental side of the house,
we provide supported living, group
homes, case management services. We have
an intermediate care facility on 26
Poker Road and also residential
services.
And with our recovery supports, we
provide um again a vast variety of
services including peer services,
recovery services. We um have a program
that that helps individuals in recovery
get get employment. So just really
excited about the the um services we
provide with recovery
with prevention um provide um
educational awareness, parenting
classes, health fairs, school-based
services, mental health first aid
training, nlloxxone training, community
coalitions,
and with early childhood again parenting
skills, child development, healthy
families, part C, early intervention
um and education.
Um from here wanted to invite Miss
Shannon Clark to come up and talk some
about the new additions at Henry County.
» Good afternoon. First off, I want to say
thank you um thank you to Henry County
for taking the lead in regards for us to
being able to secure the OA opioid
abatement funds as far as to secure
Micro Road. That is going to be at the
end of the day, we appreciate that
partnership. Again, thank you. Want to
say thank you. Give you a hand for that.
Want to let you know first off the
programs that will be at the mood site
that will of course increase our ability
to serve the community. We will have of
course a Marcus alert which is that
co-response. Um we'll have crisis
stabilization services. We also will
have permanent supportive housing. The
case managers will be located out of
this property. We'll also have a crisis
receiving center and also we'll have a
psychosocial um day services which is
slashclub house that will be operating
out of this um property as well. We're
excited to be able to have all of these
options expand our footprint because
again it will keep us to be able to
serve individuals in the community
especially with crisis at the end of the
day we u oftentimes have to um outsource
and send individuals out especially for
uh extended crisis services. So this
facility and this this micro road
project will be able to keep them here
for as far as for support. So we're
excited. So again, thank you.
» Good afternoon. I'm Aaron Mley. I'm the
assistant clinical director of crisis
services for Pedmont. And so I wanted to
talk a little bit about the extension of
crisis services. So some of you may be
familiar with the lighthouse over on
Commonwealth. Um that is our crisis
receiving center where we assess
individuals for inpatient
hospitalization and we also assess for
um crisis stabilization services up to
23 hours. So they come they stay with us
up to 23 hours. They see a nurse
practitioner, they see clinicians and we
link them to long-term outpatient
services. Try to keep them out of the
hospital and in the community. Um so
this crisis receiving center will move
to Micah Road. We also are launching
Marcus Alert which is a co-response
program with law enforcement and
clinicians where clinicians and law
enforcement will respond to calls in the
community through dispatch together um
to try to provide a better source of
right help right now. So if it's a
mental health call and clinicians can
step in and deescalate and determine
what services might be best for them,
then the clinician will help advocate
and transition them to the right place
for mental health services. Um we are
also opening a crisis stabilization unit
for adults at the micro road location.
So this will be a 12 bed facility and
four of those beds will be medical
detox. So we can do medical detox for
adults um from substance use and this is
a more long-term stay so up to 14 days.
So this helps us to avoid possible
inpatient hospitalization which could be
an hour or more away. Um a lot of times
our individuals are going two to three
four hours away to get inpatient
treatment. So this is a little bit
lesser restrictive [clears throat]
service but it is still in patient and
it's here in the community so we can
keep them home, keep them local. We
don't have to worry about transportation
resources. We don't have to worry about
how do we get good discharge planning
care and linked back to services
provided in the community because we're
already here. We know our local
providers and we can help link them much
easier and more efficiently I believe
than hospitals outside of our catchment.
Um, so those are some of the main crisis
services that will be at Micro Road and
we're really excited to move
[clears throat] over there and get
things going. Um, but thank you all so
much for your support and your help in
our project with Micro Road.
>> So, so Dale, I think I got two more
minutes. Um,
if I could, I wanted to invite Regina
Clark. She's a director of prevention
services. We got a really exciting new
program for for our youth. Close our
prom Thursday. Thank you.
>> Good afternoon. I'm Regina Clark,
director of youth and prevention
services. Um, and like Greg mentioned,
we've got one particular thing that I
really cannot brag enough about, and
that is um a new collaborative that has
really uh taken off over the last year,
and that's called the height
collaborative, helping youth thrive. Uh
this came about as kind of an initiative
to how do we support our youth more. So
um just a couple things out of that. Uh
Harvest has supported us with some
funding to collect some data. We spent
the last year and a half uh to two years
doing that and then we got the ideas and
the information from the youth to what
they wanted. Um and so a team center was
one of the things that came out of that.
So we have started um last summer we did
it in one location. This year it
expanded to two. Um we have the ground
floor and um factory roast uh partnered
with us for that. Um and it's all
youthled. We had over 86 students,
individual students uh participate in
that. And excuse me, over the summer we
did it two nights a week. Uh we plan to
continue that over the course of the
school year offering monthly teen center
events. Um but we hope to see that
growing and we're looking at additional
locations. Um we also one of the
challenges that we've been tackled with
is transportation and so uh we all know
that is a barrier. So we have been
working uh very closely with uh the
radar uh to figure out how we can work
together on that transportation effort.
So there will be more to come with that
but we are actively involved with that
um and trying to find solutions. So
that's a little teaser of the of the
things we have going on. But again,
thank you.
>> Hey, thank you.
>> So So in closing, I I would be remiss
not to also mention we we're proud of a
program we have um in Franklin County.
It's called the Pearl Program. We
provide residential services for
pregnant and postpartum um women. Um in
partnership in Franklin County, we were
able to expand that program. So we
purchased another house that those
services are open to Henry County. Um,
so Shannon Clark provides oversight
there. So just excited. I know 30
seconds there. Um, so um, so for for
Petemont, we're working on rebranding.
We want to make sure that Henry County,
Franklin County, Patrick and Martin, you
guys are proud of us, proud of the
services that we provide, have
confidence in us. Um, and we want to be
able to provide as many services we can
at home. And that's why you see us
constantly growing, constantly
expanding. Dale just wanted to Mr. Wag.
Um, I call him Dale. Um, thank you for
the partnership. Um, it's not a phone
call he doesn't answer. You know, he
just sits down, talks to me, and and has
Pete M's best interest in hand. So, to
the board, to Mr. Diller, thank you for
your leadership. Thank you'all for
allowing us to be here today.
>> Thank you, Mr. Preston. uh it's obvious
that you're proud of what uh has been
accomplished and looking forward into
the future and certainly the same thing
can be said of the county as you're
saying about your staff, your best
resources, the people that are serving
and
I appreciate hearing that. I'm going to
ask uh Supervisor Dillard if he would
add anything to this uh to wrap this up.
>> Yes, I I will. um been working I guess
on the Petemont board for quite a while
and it's amazing to see the growth the
number of people the number of
facilities the number of uh resources
the number of programs the energy that
you know that the staff brings and I
think that's what we need to combat some
of the problems that we have in our
community folk who are energetic folk
who are looking for new ways and I also
think that you have to try everything.
You know, if it doesn't work, you know
what? No big deal. We'll do something
different. But you you can't judge
everything based off of, you know, one
particular uh resource or one particular
program because that's the goal. Let's
put it in place. And like I said, if it
doesn't work, we'll try something
different. I think that's what, you
know, under uh Mr. Preston's leadership,
Petemont, is doing. This is a problem.
Let's get a solution. Let's try it.
Let's, you know, put the right people in
place. If it works, great. if it
doesn't, you know, we'll try something
different. So, want to commend, you
know, the whole staff and Mr. Preston
for, you know, working to make Henry
County the best place that it can be.
>> Great. Thank you.
>> That's a QR code just in case somebody's
looking for a job.
» All right. Great. Thank you. That takes
us to agenda item uh number eight. We'll
have an update
uh from the Blue Ridge uh Regional
Library System. We have with us uh
director Melissa Chapman. Melissa,
» thank you. I'll just go ahead and dive
right in. Um so quick introduction. My
name is Melissa Chapman. I'm the
director of Blige Regional Library. And
the mission of the Blige Regional
Library is to provide free friendly
service and access to timely materials
that educate, enrich, and entertain the
entire community. But for the purposes
of this presentation and since we are on
limited time, I'm just going to focus on
the Basset branch and do a little bit of
a dive into it. Um, so the Basset
Library offers a variety of programs
that are geared to users of all ages,
toddlers all the way up to 100. The
programs encourage literacy and critical
thinking, particularly among children
and teens. And our craft programs allow
users to engage in their creativity and
provides an opportunity for
socialization, which is vital.
And we they offer quite a wide variety
of sto of programs. Some of them are the
ones we all know about story time, but
we also have Lego club. A new one that
launched um within the past year is a
teen stream. They also have chess club
which is relatively new. And of course
the crafty creations and our other craft
classes that are wildly popular.
And here's some pictures. I'm going to
go through some pictures of some of the
children's programming. They have
[clears throat] a very popular and very
vibrant children's programming.
And they also have a very vibrant teen
program based in Basset, too.
And some of the things that they do, I'm
so jealous. They look like fun. Um, and
of course they have a very vibrant adult
programming. The chair exercise is very
popular. A lot of these classes fill up.
If anybody's interested, call parent at
bass. She'll be [clears throat] happy to
talk about it.
So, Basset also offers all of the
resources that you guys think about with
the library, books, DVDs, but they also
offer some things that you can check out
that you won't necessarily think about.
We offer nature backpacks that you can
get uh park pass to go to any park in
the state of Virginia. Basset also has
literacy backpacks and developmental
backpacks that are very useful to new
parents.
And you can see the literacy backpack on
the left and in the middle is the
developmental backpack. And we also have
puzzles that people can check out.
And here are just a few stats. Um, from
January 1st to June 30th, in that
six-month period, Basset had over 11,000
[snorts]
visitors with nearly 11,000 items
checked out and almost 4500 children's
items checked out.
And this gives you an idea of how
popular and how much the community
really likes their programs with
attendance sitting over nearly a [cough]
thousand attendees. [clears throat]
So it is a very actively used library.
And I'd like to close just to highlight
the impact that Basset has had on the
community. Teresa Wall says, "I love the
library. It has great resources and a
friendly staff who are so helpful. Thank
you for how you serve our community. So,
this illustrates the library provides a
variety of resources to the community
all without a payw wall.
I love to read. I love the programs that
are offered to me. Teen Stream, Chess
[cough] Club, and Lego Club are awesome.
So, the library also provides programs
for all ages from children and teens and
adults and senior citizens. All are
welcome at the library.
And I want to say thank you to Dale
Wagner and the board of supervisors for
your continued support for our Henry
County branches, Basset, Collinsville,
and Ridgeway. [snorts]
Thank you to everybody in Henry County.
We appreciate your support and we do
what we do for you. And I also want to
take a moment to [clears throat] thank
Karen and [cough] excellent staff at
Basset who are having a little too much
fun dressed up as crowns.
And um our board members Monica,
Christopher, Lorie, Twi, Datada, and
Shereice for their continued support and
service. Thank you very much.
>> All right. Thank you, Miss Chapman. Our
next agenda item, agenda item number
nine, uh we'll have an update from the
West Pedmont Higher Education Center. We
have with us Eric Jones who's chairman
of the board of [snorts] directors and I
know that there are some other board
members uh present with you along with
the executive director.
>> Yes. Thank you all. So, Chairman Adams,
thank you for the time to the board of
supervisors. Thank you so much. Um,
being a native of Henry County is is
truly uh I'm proud to be back home. Um,
I could not come back home. Uh, I was
always taught by manners to bring gifts.
So, if you may, Mr. Chairman Adams, we
do have gifts for the board to to get
this start.
>> All right. Thank you.
>> Thank you.
Now, I do have something in common with
one of the board of supervisors members.
I am a 1997 graduate of Ballpark High
School. So, uh, one of the things that I
wanted to, uh, go over today as the
chair, there is a brand and a
recognition change with the West
Petemont Higher Education Center. Uh,
Erin O. Rubbert created the Rubik's cube
in 1974.
He did it so his students could
understand objects and the spatial
relationships between them better. And
that's what I intend to do here. The
West Pedmont Higher Education Center in
the brand name formerly known as the New
College Institute is not one thing. It's
not one bridge. We bring together
multiple services in the higher
education realm in the state of
Virginia. And we're a part of that
system that divides the system in three
parts. You have higher higher education
systems, community colleges, and your
four institutions. So before I get
started, I wanted to say uh thank you to
uh former chair uh Richard Hall who's
here with us today. Uh honorable Randy
Rollins, who was new member to the
board, uh executive director uh Joe
Sumner, and our director of advancement,
Olivia Garrett.
So this year was a monumental year for
the West Pedmont Higher Education
Center, formerly known as the New
College Institute. Under the code of
Virginia, titled 23.1, Chapter 31,
Article 4, a new law was signed into
establishment and went into in action on
July 1st, 2026.
The 2026 legislation renamed the former
new college institute and revise the
government structure, and I'll go over
that shortly. and the public educational
institutions serving the West Pete
region. We wanted to make sure that you
knew that this is to serve Franklin
County, Patrick County, Henry County, uh
the surrounding areas, the city of
Martinsville, and we wanted to make sure
that it was clear that we were part of
the higher education system, being a
higher education center that could
partner with community colleges and
four-year institutions.
So our core mission is the center unites
universities, communities, colleges,
employers and government entities to
enhance regional education, economic
development. Now I read that from the
slide for a very specific reason because
it brings together multiple different
capacities to form programs that we can
engage with workers in the community. We
can engage with students. We can engage
with
multiple organizations that you heard
here today. But what sandwiches that
together is the key directives. And one
of the things I want to hit on too is
that first one, diversify and transform
regional economy. Uh when I moved and
went to college in 1997, the economy has
been a constant discussion in the Henry
County region and the bolstering of
that. And I remember a time when there
was a boling bustling economy with
multiple different things here that has
transformed over time. So this was put
into place to help bring together those
entities and provide avenues for access
to those entities through a very
transformational
uh center concept through the higher
education centers. We have partnered
with multiple higher education centers
across Virginia. There is a higher
education center in Abington uh
southwest. There's a higher education
center in South Boston. There's a higher
education center in Bueno. We have also
another higher education center in
Danville and then we have us. So that
breaks out the multiple bottom layer of
the tier of the higher education system
[snorts]
that supports the community college and
fouryear institutions in the common
board of Virginia.
The board composition is one of the
major things that the law changed this
year. We went from a 15 member structure
to a 20 member structure. And one of the
things that we wanted to do was to bring
access to higher education and other key
figures in the Commonwealth to this
region. So the West Pedmont Higher
Education Center is a place where you
can get access to three House of
Delegate members appointed by the
speaker, two senators appointed by the
rules committee. We have seven uh
citizen members. All of us that are
citizen members, to include myself, are
appointed by the governor and confirmed
by the general assembly. We have five
educational or business leaders for West
Pemmont region. One superintendent, one
teacher, three business leaders. That
was very intentional. We wanted to make
sure that we were hearing from the
community about what we wanted. We
wanted those people to have a seat at
the table. From a higher education
perspective, this is what I'm one of the
[clears throat] things I'm most excited
about. We will have the presidents or
their designates from George Mason,
Longwood, Rafford, Virginia Tech, and
Virginia State University as a part of
our board. That means when members of
the public come to our board members,
you get to interface and engage through
public comment with presidents of
universities across the state. It's a
big jump for us to connect to Northern
Virginia and George Mason. I would like
to thank Senator Shren Vosman who was a
part of our committee to help make that
happen. Um, we already have programs
with Longwood, but we also wanted to
make sure that we was covering down on
the Virginia Community College system.
So, you'll see the chancellor of the
Virginia Community College system as a
part of our board. You will also see
SHM, which is the organization that
brings together and ties together the
metrics for the higher education
systems, a part of our board. And also
we wanted to make sure that we were
partnering with in a real way the
Patrick Herman community college uh Mr.
Greg Hajes has an exhibitional seat at
the table with all of us coming together
to create programs that can integrate
within this community and keep moving
forward.
This is a complete list of all of our
current uh ginatorial members, our
legislative members, a higher education.
I pointed out the honorable Randy
Rollins uh seated behind us uh who has
been added to the board, but you see
some of the local names that are there.
Uh Valerie uh Kumi, uh Kevin Lane,
Michael Lungsgard, uh Marcus Stone, Lee
Pryin, I talked about Randy Rollins, and
Teddy Martin. I talked about our
legislative members and I've talked
about our higher education members.
together. We want to make sure that when
ideas come up at the table, we can take
action from those meetings and then we
can put things into interaction through
our executive director, Joe uh Suffer.
One of the things I want to cover also
is how our decision making gets made and
the update to our decision-m process. I
remember last year there might have been
a little bit of confusion in the
community about uh a proposal that was
brought about to merge with Patrick and
Henry Community College and I want to
address that uh directly. Um that was a
proposal that was brought together as an
idea. Uh one of the things that we
wanted to make sure though was that idea
went through this three-step process and
that three-step process covers one a
committee review. So we have committee
reviews that cover everything from
academic programs to IT to governance
rules and an executive committee. Those
committees review proposals and make
recommendations on specific matters and
ideas. Once it comes out of committee,
then it goes to board for vote. So one
of the things about the idea about the
Patrick Community College, we sent it
back to committee. It went through
committee, but it didn't survive board
vote, but it gave us a lot of helpful
information for us to inform where we
wanted to go in the future. So, I just
wanted to make sure that we made that
clear. Another reason why we set this up
this way is we want to educate our
students as they watch us do board
actions. This mimics how the general
assembly makes decisions through
committee bringing things to the floor
and then once we get a board vote
through through a majority vote then
programs are approved decisions and are
implemented within the framework
established by Virginia law. The next
thing that we're going to make sure that
we do is be sure to come back to the
board of supervisors on a regular basis
to give you updates on how we're doing
the metrics that we're going about and
Joe Sum will talk about that a little
bit later in the plan we have moving
forward.
So why the center matters? We we want to
expand opportunities, strengthen the
workforce, drive economic growth, and
build partnerships in this community. We
see across the state that strong
communities that have start to emerge
build partnerships both with industry,
academia,
government, and those three work
together to serve the citizens of those
municipalities. We want to do the same
thing here. We want to be a part of the
discussion. We want to be a part of that
conversation. We did think though that
it was necessary to put it to the test.
put an idea to the test where the where
the general assembly could actually vote
on the on the relevance of the West
Pedmont Higher Education Center, the
change we wanted to make and pretty
unanimously both the House of uh
delegates and the Senate voted that West
Pedmont Higher Education Center is here
to stay. Uh we have a direction and when
I go to the next slide, um the call to
action for the community will be brought
to you by Mr. S.
Thank you ladies and gentlemen. I would
like to just say that over the next
couple of months you all will be hearing
from our team uh in various capacities.
We have been tasked with developing a
report that outlines the direction of
West Bmont Higher Education Center. Uh
that is not a report that is developed
behind closed doors. That is not a plan
or proposal uh that is dreamed up
internally by staff and West Bmont board
members only. That is a community and
region-driven plan. Uh so there will be
times where we will include focus
groups, roundts and we'll ask you or
your designates to join us. It is
important that we hear from you. It is
important that we know what it is that
we can do to serve you, your
organization, our community, and our
region. Things that you can look forward
to. [clears throat]
I had a former board chair once tell me,
you don't have to do everything. You
pick a few things and you do those few
things very well. And that's what we
will do. So we are expanding our degree
offerings and to do that uh you might
have seen the announcement recently. We
have brought on Dr. Pam Randall who has
joined our team. Dr. Randall uh led the
Longwood program at NCI for many years
and has retired from Longwood and has
now joined the West Vmont Higher
Education Center. We're incredibly
excited to welcome her as our chief
program officer and she has been tasked
with identifying growth for new degrees
within that area. We know that there is
a need. the data and the community tells
us preliminarily that there's a need
within the business sector something of
a launch pad if you will at a bachelor
level degree whether that is going to be
a business technology business
administration business management
something of that nature uh also we know
that within the cyber security and AI
sector there's a real need whether that
is at a degree level or more of a
professional development has yet to be
determined but we are exploring that as
well and of course healthcare we know
that there's a need in healthcare that
was a much larger initiative to take due
to all the credentiing and accreditation
that is needed in that sector. But we do
know that that need exists. So
preliminarily we've examined the data.
We've looked at um those prior resource
that are available to us and identify
general areas. But we need to hear from
you all and this community in order to
be able to refine that to specifically
address those needs through program
delivery. You'll also see development
announcements coming within workforce
development. Now when I say workforce
development, I want to specify you saw
very intentionally that Dr. Greg Hodgees
is included on our board of directors.
Uh we work we work hand inand with Pat
Community College. I have lunch and
coffee regularly with Dr. Hodgeges with
Dr. Wstrom as we identify how do we work
together? How do we not compete? How do
we not duplicate? Uh Dr. Wram has a
saying that I've borrowed from him. Our
population is too finite to continuously
subdivide. And so recognizing that we
are working together. We're working
together on the two plus two model. The
degrees I mentioned earlier will be done
intentionally based on the two plus two
model every time that opportunity is
available because we do not look to
bring competition to our area. We look
to bring support. We look to bring
collaboration and opportunity. Uh you
will also see as I mentioned within
workforce development you'll see some
expansion and some exciting news coming
as we continue to support public safety,
law enforcement uh with trainings with
workforce development and specialized
opportunities for them. We are expanding
our K12 operations as well. Uh we are
working in coordination with our sister
agency over in Danville, the Institute
of Advanced Learning and Research. Uh as
well as Henry County Schools. We are
working to support them through K12 STEM
whether that is through supporting the
Goate Tech program or providing
extracurriculars or providing Saturday
school or summer school or gifted
opportunities. And lastly, community. Uh
we are growing within the community
sector. Obviously, we have always tried
to be of service to the community. uh
there's always that fine line of
ensuring that how are we a service to
community while still making sure we
cover the overhead of our operations. Uh
so we're looking to refine that as well
and that will require input from the
entirety of our region. So as we move
forward there is a plan that is in
place. There's a timeline that's being
developed that again will include
multiple um engagements with the public,
multiple engagements with specialized
localized groups uh to get those sets of
information that we need to ensure that
we have created the plan that addresses
the needs in our region that creates
sustainability for our organization and
ensures that we are all clear on the
vision moving forward on how West
Pedmont Harry Education Center can be a
true asset and a value ad to this
region.
And I'll close with uh again looking at
your Rubik's cube. Now if we show up and
that Rubik's cube is exactly the way we
gave it to you, that means we haven't
turned things. We haven't looked at
things from a different way. And I
assure you, the next time we come back,
there will be differences in what that
looks like. But it will still at its
core be what we are code of Virginia
says we are there to do is to serve the
community and empower and bring a
transformational educational resource to
the community. So I challenge you maybe
you take out your Rubik's cube today and
bring some ideas to us. Mix it up and
see if we can get it back together. Uh
because one of the things that we're
trying to do with this community is
bring it back together. Uh show that the
West Peak Higher Education Center is
moving forward. I thank you for your
time and I thank you for uh support and
services you provide for our community
as well.
>> Thank you, Mr. Jones.
» So, I've been introduced several times
as the honorable Randy Rollins
[laughter] better than [clears throat]
the dishonorable Randy Rollins.
But anyway, I'm a new member of the
board of West Pedmont Higher Education
Center and I just wanted to share you
with you an experience I had with the
orientation. On August 4, they invited
me to come up and take an orientation of
their program. So, I went up there and
first thing I found out was I could not
find a parking place in the parking lot.
It was totally filled. I had to park on
the street. I went into the building,
was greeted by an individual who took me
up to Joe Simmer's office. As I walked
through the building, every I can say
almost every building, every classroom
was filled with something going on. I
don't know what was going on in all
those cases, but something was going on.
It was an educational day. The building
was fully occupied and utilized. So,
that was a good impression. Then I had a
presentation about the overview of the institution from Olivia Garrett
and Joe Sar who were very forthright in
answering all the questions including
the ones that maybe I had because I
didn't know what I was talking about or
didn't have the background to get to it.
They were very forthright. Then Joe took
me on a tour. He took me to the criminal
justice simulation lab which in which
they can present on a film to a an
officer who's being tested a variety of
scenarios so they know how to react to
the situation when it's presented to
them in real life. Then I went down to
advanced manufacturing center which they
they're building a tower which is 40
feet tall in which people who are train
being trained in the wind energy
business to services towers that are out
all over the state on how to maneuver
how to deal with the situations and
emergencies and make repairs. I came
away very impressed with both the
competence, the innovation, and the
forward-looking nature of that
presentation.
Um, I did my homework as far as
understanding where this institution
stands in the hierarchy of Virginia's
educational institutions.
First of all, if I want to get a
bachelor's degree,
I could go to UVA or Virginia Tech or a
number of other institutions that you
are fully aware of and be a resident on campus and get a degree in four
years. Secondly, I could go to a
satellite campus such as UVA and WISE
which the state has established around
in different places to provide higher
education opportunities all the way
through the graduate level. Or third, I
could come to a higher education center
which in a sense is a way of taking the
campus to the students as opposed to the
students going to the campus. So that
here in Martinsville
they provide Longwood degrees and you
may have seen a picture in the newspaper
of some individuals who graduated
recently from that program with it with
a regular degree. So they are bringing
that to here as opposed to them the
students having to go other places out
of town to get there have either having
to give up their giving up their jobs so
they can take the courses in a different
location or commute on a continuous
basis. So it's a great asset that I'm
delighted that the decision makers in
Richmond have decided to keep. I think
is a huge asset for this area and we
just need to develop it so it's seen by
everybody as an opportunity for higher
education all the way through the
bachelor's degree. So that's my
impression. It was a great impression.
I'm delighted to be working with them
and I look forward to it. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
» Right. Thank you all. That takes us to
uh agenda item number 10. will take up
financial matters beginning with uh 10A
an additional appropriation referencing
a return to locality funds for public
safety. Mr. Wagner,
>> public safety director Tim Duff is
asking the board to appropriate $54,672
received from the Virginia Department of
Health's return to locality funds. The
return to locality funds is derived from
a fee for each vehicle registered in
Henry County. authorized expenditures of
the funds for items such as emergency
medical services, training supplies, and
equipment. Mr. Duffish stated that funds
will use to purchase standardized
medical supplies and to maintain the EMS
pharmacy for all EMS agencies. This
centralized purchasing model will ensure
EMS agencies have access to authorized
supplies and will support the
operational readiness of the countywide
EMS system, including the volunteer
departments. And public safety director
Mr. Duffer is here.
There's been an indication uh that there
might be some uh clarification or
questions on this. Um um I'll start with
Mr. Puit. Uh do you have uh some
comments on this?
>> Yeah, I'm just got a couple questions
for the director.
Um, I guess the most important one is
this is obviously a change from what has
normally been done with these funds and
um, has this been approved by ESAC and
is there a true policy or plan in place
of how this $54,000
will be um, separated between the groups
or what's eligible to be bought and
processes thereof. Uh yes, we did talk
about it in the last ESAC meeting. Um
the only real change is going to be that
most of the purchasing will be purchased
through the county purchasing uh machine
versus each individual agency have to
buy send us a receipt and we send them a
check. Uh we also added oxygen
um supply to this as well because that's
considered a supply. Um and we do have a
policy. Um the policy is still in a
draft. We talked about it in ESAC in the
last meeting that uh the meeting coming
up. I will give them the policy and even
when I emailed you um on the 7th you
asked some questions of there and those
uh changes were made to that policy but
that policy has not been given to ESAC
yet.
But that that is the um the gist of it.
the the biggest change was the question
on uh special events
um and any community based special
events that's considered part of our job
uh and part of the agencies
but each agency will continue to get
funding uh as requested. Um, it's mainly
geared towards soft supplies. Uh,
capital. If you do have a capital item
that you need need to put in there, that
is acceptable as well. That's part of
the policy. [clears throat]
U just send a request to my office and
we'll approve it through that.
No real major changes, just policy
procedural changes on how we distribute
the money.
>> Mr. Duffer, I had a question. Is this a
first come first serve uh type thing? Uh
whereas before it was somewhat split
equally. Um in other words, if there's
one agency
capping do they cap out on expenditures
or or
>> we are tracking what each agency spends.
Um and when an agency gets to kind of
that level that it was in the past then
we'll call and kind of you know see what
there is because we don't want to take
away from the other agencies if they
need it. So, uh, I will call the
individual agencies and that's kind of
why I put the large capital um, because
we do have capital projects sometimes
that are eligible. Uh, and that may be
where we need to come for the ESAC
committee again and say, "Hey, we've got
this much money left." Um, I can kind of
hold each of the agencies and see what
they need. Um and if that money is
available that we can uh use that money
for that capital project. Um if we have
any carryover money.
>> Is there still a uh expiration timeline?
Used to be like February.
>> So yes, that was last year, you know,
that was new to me coming into the
office. This year I do have that part of
the policy that I need expenditures in
uh by a certain date. uh and kind of
following along with what what y'all
have done in the past. So, uh we also
use for life for our pharmacy. Um that's
where public safety is using a lot. The
pharmacy uh that's new for um
where it used to be handled by the
hospital. Now the county has taken on
that role for all of the agencies. Uh
and that's u
last year Mr. Ragner asked me what the
cost was. Last year we spent um a little
over $38,000 on the pharmacy alone and
that's not counting the manh hours um
that we had in investing trying to
maintain it. So pharmacy is proven to be
very expensive.
>> Any other questions or clarification
needed?
just I just say definitely put you know
some definitence in there about dollar
amounts and deadlines and things of that
nature just so that it doesn't create a
situation uh where I guess becomes
inequitable where one um group gets more
funds than the others so I you know at
least put some kind of exacts in there
so people know off top because that may
help them prioritize if they only have a
certain amount of money what's more
important as opposed to thinking they
can just keep coming back um you know
time after time.
» Anything else?
Okay. Uh board's received background
material on this as well as um uh had
questions answered. What is the action
the board would like to take in regard
to this additional appropriation?
>> Uh Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion, but
um to approve, but I would like to
before any funds are spent out of this
that a policy be approved by ESAC.
» Would you repeat the motion because I I think I got a a few questionable
looks, not questionable, but uh maybe
not understanding looks. And I
>> just there's no draft. There's a draft
policy in place of how these funds might
be spent, but there's nothing um that's
been approved by ESAC and um that's way
ESAC was built for a reason was to get
approval for uh these items and major
changes to fire and EMS. So um I'm fine
with appropriating the funds, but until
a a true policy is approved by ESAC, um
I would prefer not to spend any of those
out.
>> Okay.
So, are you asking that we delay until
we get that vote by that motion or
approve only uh with the condition that
ESAC approve it?
>> Approve with the condition of ESAC um
approving a policy.
>> Okay, that's a motion. Is there a
second?
>> I'll second.
>> Okay, we have a motion second. Any
questions or discussion at this time?
Okay. All in favor? It is uh 6. Uh
Jennifer. Thank you, Tam.
Uh agenda item 10B, an additional
appropriation referencing Virginia
Department of Criminal Justices Services
Grant. And this is for the sheriff's
office. Mr. Wagner. Sheriff Wayne Davis
is asking the board app to approve an
additional appropriation of $15,958
received from the Virginia Department of
Criminal Justice Services through its
Edwards Burn Memorial Justice Assistant
Grant Program. Sheriff Davis has
indicated that funds will cover overtime
pay to provide high impact law
enforcement activities and area
expansion [snorts] increases in crime.
The grant does not require a local match
and Lieutenant Colonel Harston is here
should you have questions.
>> Okay. The board has background material
on this as well. Uh what is the desire
of the board in um
regards to this additional
appropriation?
>> Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to approve
the additional appropriation of $15,958
uh received from the Virginia Department
of Criminal Justice Services as it was
presented to us.
>> Second. We have a motion and a second.
Any discussion? Just want to always
congratulate the sheriff's department on
the great job they do with their grant
writing and receiving the the grants
brought into Henry County for the great
work that you do.
Great, good comment. Thank you. Any
other uh questions or comments? All in
favor? It is uh 6. Uh, Jennifer.
Agenda item 10 C, an award of contract
referencing custodial services for
building and grounds. Mr. Wagner,
>> staff is asking the board to award a
contract of $111,600
to SAR cleaning services to provide
custodial cleaning services at the Henry
County Courthouse for fiscal year 2027.
A purchasing department has authorized
the use of the existing contract and
staff recommends the board authorize
subsequent renewals in accordance with
the terms of the existing contract and
funding for this project is included in
the fiscal year 2027 courthouse
maintenance letter
>> in regard to awarding of this contract.
What action would the board like to
take?
>> Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion to
approve the contract of $111,600
to Sarver Cleaning Services for
custodial cleaning at the courthouse
[clears throat] and authorize the
subsequent renewals.
>> Second.
>> We have a motion and a second. Any
discussion?
All in favor? It is 6. Jennifer 10D, an
additional appropriation referencing
fresh fruit and vegetable program for
the school board. Mr. Wagner,
>> school board is requesting additional
appropriation of $235,425
to the school's nutrition budget for the
fresh fruit and vegetable program in the
elementary schools. The funds are
provided by the Virginia Department of
Education for the United States
Department of Agricultural Allocation
and Assistant Superintendent Ben is
here. Should you have any questions
>> in regard to uh this additional
appropriation? What is the desire of the
board?
>> Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to approve
the additional appropriation of 235,425
to the public schools nutrition budget
for the fresh fruit and vegetable
program.
>> Second.
>> We have a motion and a second. Any
discussion?
All in favor? Is uh 6. Jennifer, that
takes us to agenda item number 11.
uhformational items. I will start uh
with uh taking comments from the board
starting with uh Dr. Cobbler.
>> Okay. Surprisingly, Mr. Chairman, I have
six points, but I'm not going to
elaborate. I'm just going to go through
them quickly. Okay.
>> Want to recognize the GBAC for the the
cruise in work that they do every month
that is in our in our district and the
rhythms rhythms by the river. They work
hard on those two events. We have the
Basset Heritage Festival come festival
coming up on September the 5th. We ask
everybody to come out and and support
that event. The fourth point is want to
shout out and commend the dream center
who has partnered with the sheriff's
department the great work that they're
doing starting started with the trash
pandas and Chris big trash uh uh
initiative there and we are picking up
for Reed Creek and beyond the the dream
center guys are doing a tremendous job.
I'll just say that they have their signs
but they are saying that traffic a lot
of traffic uh so just kind of watch for
their safety out there. Point five is
that with the calls and emails, what I'm
asking people to do as a supervisor, um
can't vet all the calls that are coming
in every day or even every week. So,
what I'm asking people now publicly is
just to send me an email. That is
starting to work very very well. My
email is on the and my cell phone number
is on the uh the Henry County website
and the six point I didn't write down.
So, but those are five.
>> All right.
>> Thank you.
>> All right. Thank you, Mr. approve.
>> Um, just a couple things. We had a great
um July 4th event, the town of Ridgeway.
Um, it was heavily attended, worked out
great. Um, we're still cons continuing
to see um heavy heavy use of the pickle
ball courts. Um, any night that you ride
by there, it's people playing pickle
ball and basketball. And the good thing
is they're all getting along there um in
the area. So, um, and officially today
we're four months from Christmas. So the
town has started the planning of the
Christmas parade.
>> That's all I have.
>> Thank you, Mr. Dylan.
>> Yes, sir. Just to continue with the
positive energy. You know, I [laughter]
that's that's how I vibe off of positive
energy and it's just always good to hear
the great things that are going on. I
think if we could focus more on that, we
would actually realize that the world is
not as bad as it seems. But anyway, um
the Smith River Fest was great. It was
just great to see all the people
working. Um, you know, Roger and his
staff did a great job putting that
together. The National Night Out,
there's got to be some video somewhere.
These guys playing uh whiffle ball. So,
we can find that video. We're going to,
you know, use that to hold it against
them sometimes. Height, you know, some
of the great things that they're doing
that was mentioned earlier. And then
just also a report came out today that
uh as far as the school system, Henry
County is one of nine school divisions
that grew in math and reading. And I
think anytime we get a win in our
community, it's a win for all of us
because it takes all of us to make those
things happen. And with that being said,
just love the thought of, you know, the
partnerships that are in this room and
the possibility of partnerships and just
encourage everybody to let's work
together because, you know, if I do
better, you do better. You know, the
whole community is doing better. So,
let's continue that, you know, positive
vibe and that spirit of partnership.
>> All right. Thank you, Miss Buchanan. Um
the only thing that I have and uh Mr.
Adams you uh reminded me of this is the
um Fielddale festival that will be
coming up on Labor Day, Monday, Labor
Day from 2 until 700 p.m. So they'll
have music and uh come out and have a
good time.
>> All right, Mr. Lawless.
[clears throat]
>> Um first of all, I want to say as
always, thanks for the board for
accepting me. um you're going to find
out I am a real individual and as you go
out into the public I'm probably going
to do some things I'm not always happy
about but I'm always going to do what I
think is best for the community and
always put that first. Um I'm learning
every day so I want everybody to
understand that. But I think all of us
in life make mistakes and we learn from
those mistakes and try to be better
individuals. Um I'm growing into this
role. Um this role hasn't always, you
know, been something I've always tried
to go for, but I wanted to make a change
in my community. So that's why I'm up
here. Um, as I've as Miss Cobbler said
earlier, Dr. Cobbler said, um, I started
the trash and grass and drugs. And the
reason I did that is I care about this
community. I don't want to see my
children leave this area. At the end of
the day, whether you love me or not, I'm
still my heart's in the right place and
I'm going to do what I think's right.
And I'm going to stand up on that. And
one of the things that we're doing is
we're actually going through and uh with
the help of the Henry County officials
and stuff, we actually been able to um
start the cleaning process of
Collinsville 220. Um we're actually
mowing down the sides of that. A lot of
people say to me, "Well, people should
take pride in their own stuff." And I'm
going to totally agree with you, but I
feel like we need an initiative to step
it up and show people that look, we're
interested in our community as well. Um,
and that was hard for me to go around to
businesses and stuff like that and ask
for them to do their part if we're not
doing our part as a state. Um, so
instead of relying on government all the
time, we said, "Hey, as a county, let's
do what we have to do." So, I want
everybody to understand that. With that
being said, um, I'm going to ask that
some of my district impact funds, um,
which is a total of for the first time
mowing. I just want everybody to know we
put out eight bids out there. We only
got one back and we had to beg that one
just so everybody understands. and we
negotiated him down really low because I
want everybody to understand these
individuals are taking shovels. They're
out there digging the mud off sides of
the road. If you look down the curb
lines and stuff like that, they've been
edged. The grass is already growing
again. So, it's going to be a constant
battle, but they're looking at doing
this one time a year and at the end of
the mowing season. At the first part of
the mowing season, I'm allocating I'm
asking for $6,000 to come out of my
district impact funds to be able to do
that. And then the second end of the
year mowing will be about $4,000. And
what we're trying to do is deviate
because VOTE only does it three times a
year. I really honestly don't think
that's acceptable in my own opinion. Um,
as you go down the road, you'll see cuts
and stuff like that growing around. Um,
and I'm hoping to make enough racket
that we get some change. Um, and I hope
we keep doing that. And like I said, um,
I guess I put it in a motion that I
asked for $6,000 to come to the district
impact funds to go to A&J lawn care,
which was the only people that we could
con into doing it. I want everybody to
understand that we did try and that's
what we got. But they're doing a great
job. So if you see me out there like
give them some major props because this
is their calling card. They're taking
pride. They're doing things that we
really shouldn't have to do but we're
doing them because as my as the
individual said earlier, we want to make
this community better and and that's
what we're trying to do. And that's one
thing I want to say. So I would I if I
can make a motion Yeah. I would like to
make a motion that $6,000 be alloc
allocated to A&J for the cutting of
business 220 from the eyesight to
Walmart so everybody understands I can't
do everybody's road but we're going to
focus on our business road right now and
go from there
>> second
>> we have a motion and a second any
discussion
all in favor is 6 Jennifer anything else
Mr. lost.
>> No sir. Thank you guys. Appreciate it.
>> I don't know if I can add anything to
what's already been said. So, I'm going
to turn it to Mr. Wagner.
>> Just a couple items. Uh just to add on
what Deborah said, the Fieldell Festival
celebration is also the 80th anniversary
of Fielddale Fire. So, we're proud of
the legacy that they hold there. It's
one of the oldest fire departments in
our county. They're real close with
Baxton. I don't know exactly which one,
but they're right there at town. Uh as you know that will also be a county
and PSA holidays. Our offices will be
closed. However, our convenience centers
for recycling and garbage disposal are
open on that Monday. Um over the next uh
30 days and you're aware of this staff
will finalize the legislative agenda. So
if you have any other suggestions you
would like to include in that please let
me know. We'll have those back to you
for your approval at the next next
meeting. And then uh for many years now,
economic development has been a priority
in this board and uh we've had some
successes recently that will materialize
over the next 12, 24, 48 months. But I
wanted to give you a report on one where
we just closed out their performance
agreement, two years ahead of schedule
because they're doing so well. In 2022,
Crown Holdings announced that they were
going to, you know, build a plant here,
manufacture 8 million aluminum cans a
day. and we filed the final report with
the Commonwealth and with us uh this
past month and they met every one of
their performance metrics that was asked
of them to get all their incentive
money. So, it was money well invested. I
want to show you how great they're
doing. Uh they exceeded their capital
investment goals by 133%.
They exceeded their job goals by 132%.
And the average pay is 170% higher than
what they promised. So, uh, uh, that's
the results we like to hear. They're not
always like that, but our incentive
money is always based on performance.
So, in this case, they're getting all of
their incentive money. We're proud to
have them as a a good corporate citizen
in our community. So, I want to share
that with you today.
>> Aren't they making more cans than they
had proposed earlier?
>> I do. Eight 8 million is the minimum.
>> The minimum, right?
>> Yes.
>> Wow.
>> Mr. the second most productive plant in
the world for them.
>> For that company,
>> Mr. Adams, I remembered I wrote down my six point. Go ahead. And you've heard
it. The board's heard it a lot. Just
since we have some executives, uh,
number of executives more than usual at
one board meeting. Just to remind
everybody publicly that if you want to
see our board agenda, uh, Mr. Wagner and Mr. pal put it out on a Tuesday and
once we see it then it goes out to the
public. So everything that we're seeing
up here you have access to everything
that we're seeing on the website once
it's released to us and we have a chance
to look at it. I think it's important
and I have realized I keep repeating
that a lot. People are actually going on
and looking at the agenda and seeing the
items and things that are on there prior
to the meeting. I think that's really
great and you can see what we're seeing.
So, just wanted to
>> thank you
>> make that public again. Thank you.
>> Anything else, Mr.
>> All right, that takes us to agenda item
number 12. If someone will cite uh the
uh items as allowed by the Freedom of
Information Act and Code of Virginia to
allow the board to go into a closed
meeting.
>> Mr. Chairman, I make a motion the board
convenes in a closed meeting as
permitted under the following sections
of the Virginia Freedom of Information
Act 2.23711A1 22 3711A1 for discussion
of appointees to community policy and
management team and other personnel
matters. 2.23711
A7 for discussion of pending legal
matters. 2.2 3711 A3 for discussion of
the acquisition disposal of real estate
and 2.23711
A5 for discussion of as yet unannounced
industries.
>> Second.
>> We have a motion and a second. All in
favor is 6 Jennifer. I'll see board
members upstairs for 5 minutes.
>> Meeting on a motion by Mr. B. Kennan,
second by Mr. P.
Mr. Pow. Will you hold the board,
please?
>> Yes, sir. Board members, to the best of
your knowledge, only public business
matters law.
Meet the requirements of the code
Virginia section 2.2-3711
were heard and discussed or considered
in close meeting. Can you vote for Mr.
Uh, yes sir.
>> Mr. Laws.
>> Yes sir.
>> Mr. Buchanan.
>> Yes sir.
>> Mr.
>> Yes sir.
>> Dr.
>> Yes sir.
>> Mr.
>> Yes sir.
>> Uh Mr. Wagner. Uh were there any items
coming out of closed meeting that we
need to consider prior to starting the
evening session?
>> I'm not aware of any.
>> Board members. Are you aware of any?
>> No.
sir.
>> Okay. Um
in about one minute we will start the
evening session.
I'll call the 6 p.m. session of the
Henry County Board of uh Supervisors uh
to order. Uh I'd like to welcome all of
our visitors. Remind you uh if you want
to address the board, you must sign up 7
days in advance of any of our regular
meetings to be put on the agenda. The
county administrator is the contact
person for the board. However, the
public may address the board under the
agenda item matters presented by the
public that will take up uh as agenda
item number 16 tonight. Again, welcome
everyone. Thank you for coming out and
participating in your county government.
Our first business item this evening uh
for consideration is agenda item uh 13,
general highway matters. We have with us
uh Robin Keela and Dave Kaiser from uh
VA. Robin, welcome.
>> Thank you very much for having us
tonight. Um I only have a few things I
want to touch base on. Dogwood Road uh
is finishing up. They're going to do the
punch list walkthrough tomorrow and
hopefully that means a few days or maybe
a week or two after that. We should be
completely done with that. Um as you all
know, we have a pipe that washed down on
Route 58 business and we are working
actively on that on the westbound lanes.
when we get done with the westbound, we
will have to switch over to the
eastbound lanes and do those that that
pipe under that road also. So, it's
going to be ongoing for a little while.
So, but we're working hard to get it
done. Uh we are actively working on
mowing. I know we're getting a lot of
mowing complaints and and requests, but
we're trying to do the site distance uh
problems that we have first and then we
but we are working every day trying to
get everything mowed. It's this Johnson
grass is growing so fast. Um we should
have tree trimming starting in a couple
weeks in Henry County. I know that's
important to you down there on Axton
Road. Yes, ma'am.
>> That's that's coming very quickly. We
talked to them the other day. So, that's something that you can look
forward to. And Deer Haven uh down in
Carile area has opened back up. That
road that pipe's been completed. Um and
other than that, we're just working on
regular routine maintenance
questions.
>> Board members, do you have any items uh
that um we need to ask Miss Kayla at
this time?
>> I do. Um they are on 58 East coming from
um Stewart
>> um right before you get to the Family
Dollar uh the Old Country store. There's
a speed limit sign that says 55 miles an
hour. Would you be able to take a look
at that and see if we might be able to
reduce that in order u because as you
top that hill they're going at 60 65
miles an hour and people pulling out of
Dollar General. I'm hoping that that
will help ease some of the the problems
that we have there. So, if you could
take a look at that from maybe from that
location, even as far up as Carver Road,
because there is a uh some problems
through there with people going fast. I
would definitely appreciate it. Thank
you.
>> Thank you.
>> Um [clears throat] I have a couple
questions actually. So, one of the
things I've seen is going through
business 220 and Collinsville through
there, some of the sidewalks I'm seeing
cones. Was that you guys cones and y'all
aware that the sidewalk's been broken or messed up or I'm just wondering who
put those safety cones out there and why
it hasn't been addressed.
>> I don't know.
>> I know one spot was
>> there's one in front of the Dutch end
and then there's one in front of the old
Casey's body shop um that I seen that
had the cones there on the sidewalks.
And then the other thing that I guess
you know I have to say is
[clears throat] we got cuts taking over
a lot of our stuff. Is there somebody
spraying? like what's what's what's
happening with that? Cuz I know we
talked about the grass, but where are we
at with the cut through spraying?
>> We don't do a lot of cutthrough spraying
anymore. We need to do more than what we
do. Um, but we don't typically spray a
lot off the rightway. So, if it's on the
rightway, we we typically try to spray
it, but if it's off the rightway, we
don't.
>> So, what if it's covering like guard
rails and signages and stuff like that?
>> We do try to do that particular
location.
>> BC Drive is one that I think of that
comes off the top of my head. Okay. Um,
I think those are the two that's was the
two thing I was trying to think was that
one. And then here's my next question,
you know, and I asked this gentleman
before when he was here before. Who is
responsible for the power lines of
getting the cuts through off of it? I've
heard two different things from two
different ways. And I'm trying to figure
out which way we go about that.
>> We typically do not get involved with
power lines only because of the, you
know, the possibility of the
electricity. Sure. You know, so we don't
do that. And it's of course usually AAP
has a um utility easements. So they're
responsible for their their own
easements. Uh if it's you know on our
signs or things like that of course we
would be responsible for it all.
>> So D who do we call to get do we call
AP? Do we have a representative for
that? Like who do we take care of our
folks?
>> Okay. We do.
>> Yes. Just let me know where you
>> I have one other question.
>> I don't want to take is anybody else. Uh
I just uh thought about it and I didn't
come that way this morning, but uh the
clover leaf there coming from, you know,
horse pasture into the city. Um they had
mowed about two strips in that clover
leaf, but they left the rest of it and I
was wondering if they were going to mow
that also.
>> I'm sure they are. I don't know why they
didn't while they were there. Maybe
something happened, but uh yeah, it'll
be
>> Thank you. Yes, ma'am.
>> Yeah. I just did just want to thank you
for, you know, the work with the Dogwood
um improvements and I know I've spoken
to a couple bus drivers and they are
said everything's going well and uh you
know, Mr. I think that's the idea that
Mr. Ben Grabley brought up years and
years ago. So, it took a while for that
to, you know, get approved and go into
motion, but you know, definitely see the
improvements um in that area. And I'm
sure it's making the school traffic a
lot better exiting and entering Laurel
Park. I'm glad.
>> Yes, ma'am.
>> That is great. Good feedback.
>> In the clover leaf at Stanley Town in
that Basset area, I noticed you had was
it Department of Corrections? I called
about that. Could could you just uh kind
of explain that process briefly what
happens when you utilize the Department
of Corrections because that has been uh
a lot of people have brought to our
attention how much trash there there has
been there. So, I did see the guys and I
didn't see any gals, but I saw the guys
over there. So, how does that work?
>> So, typically we have a crew every day
from Department of Corrections and
sometimes two crews every day. We rotate
them throughout the county doing various
jobs, whether it's trash pickup, we
eating, you know, they they do some work
around our facilities for us, sometimes
some cleanup and and that sort of thing.
So, we we use them quite a bit and it's
very good for them and for us, of
course. Um, but they can do about
anything. We just have to be careful
where we use them. We can't use them
around schools at various places that
are some businesses and that type of
thing. So, we have to be careful with
that. But other than that, we use them
very regularly. Um sometimes two of the
weeks.
>> I didn't know if you had if there was
some kind of system to that or you're
just saying that we utilize who you can
every day at some of the most egregious
spots.
>> Yes. Some of the things that you know
take a lot of um physical labor hand you
know hand work that we've got that big
crew that can take care of that for us
where we concentrate on some of the more
equipmentoriented type work.
I don't think they're allowed to go in
residential either, right? Mr. Sheriff
Dave told me that.
>> Yeah, that's a really trashy spot. So,
can we put in a request, multiple
requests for for that? Now, I mean, I've
traveling the roads and I'm looking to
see who's doing what. When I saw them
there, I thought, "Oh, yay."
>> But I but I didn't know they were going
to be there. Not that you have to tell
me everything there, but every every
time you're going to do something, but
is there a time that we can call you and
request specifically Department of
Corrections to come out and do that?
>> Sure. If you want to send me an email
with some list of places or things, we
can certainly look.
>> Thank you. Okay. Thank you.
» Okay. Do we have other items?
>> Thank you.
Agenda item number 14, um, proposed
zoning ordinance, uh, referencing data
centers. I'm going to ask, uh, our
county attorney if he will, uh, give us
background on this, please.
>> I will. I have a PowerPoint. Mr. Martin,
help me prepare.
All right.
What have I done, Brand? There we go.
Okay. A little background. April 15th,
planning commission had a public hearing
on zoning ordinance amendments,
including a new data center ordinance.
We had we have no existing data center
ordinance standards. No public comments
were offered at that public hearing. Uh
they made a recommendation uh
recommended ordinance uh to the board of
supervisors. July 28th, board of
supervisors had a public hearing. Uh
many residents spoke in opposition to
data centers requesting moratorium,
stricter regulations. Um uh no comments
in favor of uh data centers. Uh the
board uh at that time uh approved u many
zoning ordinance amendments but pulled
out the data center and asked for a more
rigorous ordinance.
So under the previous ordinance data
center the previous proposed ordinance
data centers were allowed only by
special use permit and only in
industrially zoned property. Uh and
there was um required water impact study
uh cooling technology, water demand,
downstream cumulative impacts, required
screening of generators, mechanical
equipment, uh required evidence of
approval by the utility company about
the consumption of data and how that
would be met. Uh set a 50 decel noise
limit at the property line with testing
before operation and every 5 years and a
48 hour window to remedy violations
before operations would cease. at some
of the highlights of the proposed data
ordinance, the new the new um amended
ordinance as proposed by staff. And so
the planning department uh county
administration, myself met um so we are
creating we're recommending this
ordinance creates the data center zone.
So so data centers could only be
constructed with a special use permit in
a z in a data center zone. Uh the DC
district is not anywhere on the current
zoning map. Um any future location would
require a resoning and a special use
permit. The entire process would require
three public hearings. There'd be a
public hearing before the planning
commission. So if a land owner in Henry
County wants to develop a data center,
he would uh apply for a reasonzoning,
which means going to the planning
commission uh public hearing before the
planning commission. planning commission
would make a recommendation to the board
of supervisors and the board of
supervisors would hold a uh public
hearing and decide if they were going to
reszone land in Henry County for to make
it uh to data center zone from whatever
it was previously zoned. If the board
said no, uh we're not going to reszone
the land, that would be the end of the
case. There would be no additional
public hearings, no additional action,
and a data center could not be
constructed. If uh the board of
supervisors did reszone the land and say
well this is an appropriate location
then there would still be another public
hearing and to go the person would have
to apply for a special use permit and
there would be another public hearing
before the board of zoning appeals um
would consider the matter
uh DC district standard. So, uh, front
setback, um, in if if something is
reszoned for DC, this is some of the
requirements. It' be a front setback
minimum of 100 ft from any right ofway
street. Side and rear setbacks would be
a,000 ft um, when adjoining a
non-industrial zone, 500 ft if it was in
an industrial zone or um, adjoined an
industrial zone. Maximum building height
would be 75 ft from grade. Taller
structure would be allowed only with a
special use permit from the BCA.
expanded application requirements. The
items here in red were uh
suggestions that were made at the public
hearing that were then incorporated into
the previously proposed ordinance. So,
we have uh a detailed project narrative
identifying the applicant, owner,
operator, describing proposed data
center location, comprehensive site plan
showing property lines, setback lines,
buildings, access roads, parking
entrances. uh make sure they meet all
the VOTE requirements. Third-party water
supply impact study with expanded
content including demand uh cooling
technology sources, groundwater
analysis, cumulative impacts, drought
modeling, recycling and release of
water, wastewater treatment and storage.
Uh an electrical infrastructure impact
analysis covering demand redundancy
impacts on existing infrastructure
necessary upgrades um and documentation
of utility capacity approval.
Photometric lighting plan meeting new
lighting standards. Acoustical impact
analysis by professional engineer
modeling sound levels tonal
characteristics mitigation measures and
demonstrating compliance with county
noise ordinances. evaluation of an
emergency power technologies to identify
systems with the lowest practical
environmental impact.
Um documentation of the right to use the
property in a detailed decommissioning
plan with required financial security
operational noise uh would be limited to
50 dB at an exterior property line. And
then it this new part with mechanical
equipment prohibited from producing
clearly audible pure tone at or beyond
residentially zoned property lines. Um
emergency backup generator testing that
was in the the white items were in the
originally uh suggested from the
planning commission. So down to another
newer one. Exterior lighting must be
downward directed, full cut off, and
fully shielded to minimize glare, light
trespass, and sky glow with color
temperature of 3000K or less, and height
limits on poles unless uh greater height
is approved by the board of zoning
appeals.
Um, some other new ones, and I think
this is one that was of a lot of
discussion, cooling technology is
restricted to a closed loop system. So
evaporative cooling techniques and
cooling towers are not permitted and
this is an effort to greatly reduce
water consumption. Uh decommissioning
must begin within 12 months after
permanent cessation of operations or a
year of inactivity and be completed
within 24 months unless BCAA uh grants
an extension. And the county may draw on
financial asurances to complete
decommissioning if the owner fails to
meet the approved plan with cost reviews
at least every three years to adjust the
security amount.
We go um post construction reporting. So
within 90 days of full operations or
another approved time, the owner must
submit a post construction acoustical
study demonstrating compliance with
noise standards with similar
verification required after completion
of each phase. Annual noise testing must
be conducted and submitted to the
administrator by July 1 and a 48 hour
period to remedy violations before
operations would cease. There's
emergency planning requirements. An
emergency response plan must be prepared
in consultation with um Department of
Public Safety identifying hazards,
emergency contacts, access procedures,
utility shut offs, fire suppression,
hazards, material, hazardous materials,
and emergency power systems. The plan
must be updated at least every few years
and after material facility
modifications and an orientation session
for public safety must be provided prior
to issuance of a certificate of
occupancy.
Um, and here's some of the summary of
the changes. Um, you know, where it's
allowed. Previously, the proposal was to
allow it in any industrial zone with a
special use permit. That would just be
one public hearing and front of the
board of zoning appeals. Um, but under
this, it's it creates a new district.
So, there there's no place you can build
it in Henry County at this time unless
this board reszoneed property. Um, uh,
the zoning map. Yeah. No new district
uses. So, we're keeping all the zoning
map remains just as it is at this time.
Setbacks um 100 foot setbacks for ground
equipment 100
foot front 500 to,000 ft on side and
rear. Um application studies, water
study, noise test, utility approval. the
new that's under the original one the
old the new draft is water study
electrical analysis acoustical acoustic
analysis lighting emergency power
decommissioning the noise testing is uh
greatly more rigorous 50 dBA plus pure
tone limits yearly testing uh and it has
this post construction study cooling
technology um uh we're requiring a
closed loop only no evaporative cooling
and or water tower or cooling towers. So
that's that's a greatly enhanced
feature. Um decommissioning was not
detailed in the original proposal and
here there's a full decommissioning plan
with um bonding requirements.
So the planning commission and board of
supervisors have already had public
hearings on this. Um the board may
proceed to adopt the data center uh
ordinance and regula data center
districts and regulations um without
public hearings. Uh the staff recommends
adopting the data the proposed ordinance
as amended.
» Okay. As stated earlier uh to have
nothing as far as an ordinance is
concerned. What is your uh your take on
having nothing at all?
>> Well, we we do not want to have nothing.
I I think this is greatly I think this
is a more transparent process. There are
more public hearings. I think it's a
more rigorous ordinance. There's more
requirements to even apply. I think that
um it is uh unlike I mean to to have
it's the only district that we have
created that is not on the map in Henry
County which means that the elected body
must uh have a re have have a two public
hearings before considering resoning.
Well, there'll be a public hearing by
the planning commission and one by this
board. like that there would have to be
a reasonzoning before anyone could even
apply to build a data center uh and and
go get try to get a special use permit
from the board of zoning officials. I
mean, I think it's a fair process to a
land owner who wants to try to do this,
but it it's going to require a serious
commitment of resources, a serious
commitment of time and expertise to be
able to apply for the reasonzoning and
to be able to apply for a special use
permit and try to go forward with
developing a center. But I think it's
fair um for land owners in Henry County.
I think it's fair to the public.
There'll be a lot of transparency, a lot
of opportunity for public input if and
when someone ever tries to reszone their
land and then apply for a special use
permit to do this.
>> Would you consider this in simplest term
protective measures?
>> Yes. I mean I think Yeah. I think it's
very rigorous, very protective. I mean
the and beyond what's listed in there. I
mean when the board of zoning appeals
considers a special use permit there's
many other conditions there'll be sight
specific if this ever came up and
someone proposed this development. There
may be sightsp specific issues or things
in the future that we aren't even
contemplating today that the board of
zoning appeals could add additional
conditions to a special use permit that
you know that would make it even more
rigorous and more protective of land
owners.
>> And speaking on that, that could be
construction access, staging of
construction equipment, maintaining the
roadway, all of that is in that specific
site. That's a very good example because
on large construction projects now, one
of the considerations of the board of
zoning appeals is staging areas. There's
there is often or there is is sometimes
a requirement for staging areas because
when you're building, you know, data
centers are extremely large and when
you're building something that big, you
can't just deliver building materials
like you would for your home. there's a
lot more logistics and involved to avoid
impeding traffic and impacting your
neighbors. So, they do put those type of
restrictions on large construction
projects now and and that's the type of
thing that would be I would anticipate
would be in the special use permit.
>> One other question uh in regard to
multiple public hearings and it comes to
the board of supervisors
and uh we take input from the public and
we deny one. What is the strength of
that from a legal standpoint?
>> So a resoning is a legislative matter
and the board of supervisors I mean
courts are going to give on a
legislative matter like a resoning
they're going to give great deference to
the elected body. The the decision of
the board will be considered you know
given great weight. Um and it's and the
standard I think that's used in these
cases is fairly debatable. So is is the
you know is it fairly debatable like
they could have they they approved it or
they didn't approve it and if you if so
they reject it and the developer wants
to challenge that in court I I think
it'll be a difficult decision to
overturn. Um it it it's all fact
specific what you know is said at public
hearings and what the board says in
making their decision. But I I think
that you know when you consider resoning
you look at things like the comp plan,
the future of the county, the character
of the surrounding neighborhood. um the
general health and welfare of the
citizens near the resoning. Um there
there's a lot of subjective things that
are considered by an elected body when
they reszone land. Um and so I I think
it would, you know, it's all fact
specific to the case that would come and
the decision the board makes, but I I I
think it's a the board's decision will
be given great weight by any court that
it's challenged in.
>> Board members, do you have any
additional questions of Miss Lau? Can
you speak on a moratorum and the
downside of those?
>> I I mean I I think I said this at the
last meeting. I think a moratorum is a risky proposition. Um just because
it sounds so what what a board with an
elected body doesn't want to do is make
an arbitrary and capriccious decision.
That's the kind of decision that courts
will overturn an elected body and say
well that that doesn't that that's
there's no facts to support why they did
that. There's no good reasoning to
support that. So, um, and to a lawyer,
you know, when you put a moratorium, you
say, "Well, we have an ordinance and you
can develop a data center on you. You
can by going through this ordinance, you
got to get a resoning. You got to get a
special use permit. We have this
ordinance." But then you say, "We're
going to do a more. We're not even going
to let anyone apply to do that." That doesn't sound like a fair process
to the land owners. It doesn't sound
like a fair process to people on
property in this county who might want
to do a lawful activity. I don't deny
that it has a great impact on the
community, but to say you're not even
going to be allowed to apply to try to
go through the process. Um, you know, I would defend that decision if I had to
go to court, but that's not something I
think is a great position to be in. I I
think the ordinance is enough. I think
it's fair, transparent, rigorous. I
think it's enough that this that we can
protect the community and still allow a
fair process to take place. I think a
moratorum to me at first blush is just sounds like something that's harder
to defend in court if someone challenges
it and and [clears throat] it's an
expensive thing to defend. I mean, you
know, if someone comes into the planning
and say, "We're not even going to take
your application." I mean, you know, a
judge is going to look down and say,
"Why not, Mr. W?" The way the way it
stands right now, if we don't do
anything tonight, I want to make sure
everybody understands this. What we do,
we get ready to do. What I want to say
is is if for whatever reason, if we go
I'm trying to remember where I was
trying to go with that. Um, all right. I
remember what I was going to say to as
if we don't put anything in tonight.
Somebody could come in the industrial
park, get a warehouse, and create their
own data center today. Like if we don't
do anything tonight, they could go in
tomorrow by the building and put in a
data center without anything we can do.
Is that not correct?
>> It that might be an overstatement, but
it we do not specifically regulate it
and it would we'd have to, you know,
someone would apply to do it. We'd have
to categorize that building as something
and we don't have a data center in our
ordinance now. So I don't know what Mr.
Clark would categorize it as, but they
might be able to do it without us. We we
certainly would have much much much less
say than we do now. But but we we
probably couldn't stop it. That's true.
We probably couldn't stop it because
it'd probably be treated like some kind
of computer warehouse or something. I
mean, because we you know, these are
this ordinance. I we just I just we
really should have an ordinance because
this is a a very important topic that's
being you know, all over Virginia. These
data centers are occurring and um we we want to have an [clears throat]
ordinance.
>> And you're saying that we could adopt
this tonight and add on to it, correct?
Oh, you can always the zoning. Yes, the the zoning um ordinance can always
be amended by this board. The the
process is that when just like this one
came to us, we saw a need to there were
other things we amended too, but one of
them were like, "Oh, well, we have no
data center ordinance and this is a very
um fastmoving target in Virginia." So we
the planning commission held a public
hearing and they made a recommendation
after and and we had a public hearing
and made these amendments and
enhancements and after we if the board
passes it tonight the process would have
to start over. If you wanted to make
amendments to it we we this board
[clears throat] could come up with a
list of things. Hey, we want to add to
it. We want to do this. Send it to the
planning commission. They would do a
public hearing and then it come back as
amendments to the ordinance. But this
would be on the books as of its adoption
tonight. And so if someone came in and
applied tomorrow, this is what would
apply.
But if someone came in and applied
tomorrow, if it isn't adopted, someone
came in and applied tomorrow, this
wouldn't apply. And it's not clear what
would
any other questions or clarification.
All right. With that, what is the um
desire of the board in regarding uh
consideration of the proposed zoning
ordinance?
>> Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to approve
the zoning ordinance as presented.
>> Second.
>> We have a motion and a second. Any
discussion?
>> Just
>> Yes, sir.
>> Which again, can you just reiterate
>> um Well, I guess I can just reiterate,
you know, this is not approving a data
center. This is approving an ordinance
so that if anyone was to request a data
center, this is a process they would
have to go through. And to my knowledge,
to my understanding, as of now, no one
has requested a data center uh to be
built in Henry County.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for
bringing that out. And
>> uh
as part of the discussion, thank you,
Mr. Ly. This is uh I think staff took
back what we heard from 37 people uh
last month and tried to put the most
protective measures and make it rigorous
for uh anyone uh to step in here. That's
all I was going to say is that after the
meeting last month and our our
extraordinary hesitation to move for the
data center ordinance uh then and then I
thought that and I see quite a few folks
here who also gave really very
informative and educated and uh
exceptional presentations.
I'm satisfied that we took that
information and that we have made the
changes and thankful for the
administration for the county
administration office for Lee and his
groups that they came together and have
brought us a much better
uh option and a much better um
ordinance.
>> Can I add to that? Thank you. I think we
have the public to thank for as as well.
Mhm.
>> I have some comments, too. Yes, sir.
>> And and I agree with Miss Cobbler. U
I appreciate the planning commission um
and the uh county's hard work in putting
this ordinance together and also the
information that was provided to us at
the public hearing last month. uh they
took into consideration
uh a lot of what was proposed or what
was suggested and I think that um you
know without an ordinance in place we're
opening up we are vulnerable so we need
something in place um guidelines and I
think we understand that um it's not
about politics it's about our people
it's about uh our natural resources and
we need to ensure that uh Henry County
is protected
And that's what this ordinance will do.
And I think as the county administrator
um the county attorney said, if we find
that there are some problems with that,
we can certainly go back and revisit it
again. But we do need something in place
that protects Henry County and also uh
our citizens um at this stage because um
data centers are taking over and you
know we might not realize everything
that we do centers around them. So it's
fast moving and if we don't move quickly
in order to put something in place then
uh I think we're opening ourselves up
for a lot of heartache and um legal
problems. [clears throat] Um so that was
my I had also uh researched the fact of
a moratorum you know 180day or one-year
moratorum but I find that in Virginia um
legally that's going to be very hard to
defend in court. Uh, so, um,
but I do appreciate everything because
it shows me that the people here in
Henry County are concerned about where
they live and they brought us some very
good suggestions that we have tried to
incorporate in what's presented here
tonight. It might not be perfect, but
certainly it is uh something that's
needed.
>> Any other discussion? We have a motion
and a second. Any other discussion?
All in favor?
It is 6. Jennifer.
» Um, agenda item number 15. We'll have a
public hearing referencing uh the FY2026
2027 budget amendment. Mr. Wagner.
>> As board's last meeting, staff presented
as recommended amendments to the fiscal
year 2026 27 budget to address the
common adopted budget which included
additional funding for public education
and other states services. The
Commonwealth budget included an
additional $2,152,791
for public education, resulting in
increase of $615,361
of the required local matching funds to
balance the fiscal 2627
budget. Staff suggested using $532,239
from the fiscal year 2025
local carryover funds to help meet the
local requirements for public education.
In addition, it was suggested that the
county delay hiring for several
positions and utilize vacancy savings in
order to cover the budget gap. With the
recommended amendment exceeding 1% of
the total county budget, a public
hearing is required and that public
hearing has been properly advertised and
scheduled for this meeting.
>> Okay. I'll open the public hearing to
take input on the uh budget uh
amendments uh as described by Mr. Wagner
at 6:33
p.m. Is there anyone desiring to address
the board on the budget
um amendment public hearing?
I see one hand. I see a couple hands.
Let me read a brief policy statement and
then I saw Miss Martin's hand first. Uh
this is time for public comment. We
welcome your participation in tonight's
meeting. We're here to listen to you.
Um, if you care to address the board,
come to the podium, state your name,
your subject matter, and the district in
which you live. We know the subject
matter is a public hearing. By coming to
the podium, you've agreed that you will
exhibit respect for the board and its
members and the staff. You will receive
the same consideration from the board.
Please try to keep your uh presentation
to no more than five minutes. Miss
Martin, I saw your hand first.
Thank you for allowing us this
opportunity to have our freedom of
speech.
My name is Mary Martin. I live in the
Ridgeway District. Chad Party is my
school board representative and Travis
is my supervisor.
And first of all, the $532,239
in carryover funds that should have been
to return to the school. It is not
intended to plug your budget holes this
year. And if you will check the reading
of the law on that, you'll see that the
school was correct in asking that that
not be used for that.
This is the second time that this board
has misappropriated
legally binding school money.
And that was when we had the 1%.
>> Did you say the schools misappropriated?
>> No, I said this board.
>> Oh, this board. this. Sorry, I didn't
mean that.
>> They misappropriated the first round of
the 1% tax that the citizens of Henry
County voted on for the schools
and applied it for a use that it was not
legally allowed to be used for.
We had to bring they had to bring the
attorney general in to explain the law.
And once they had to return 2 million
that they kept, they misappropriated,
then they cut the budget by 2 million.
This is not a way to educate our
children.
This is not a way to keep up good
schools.
Now, I had a conversation with one of
the board members. I won't say who.
And we talked about this
and this board member told me that
in their opinion, they didn't approve of
what we were going to do with the money
and if we would agree
to use the money as on something else
that they might would give it to us.
Now, I don't think that board member
spoke for the board, but that was the
feedback I got. Kind of like, we'll give
it to you as long as you spend it on
what we want you to, and you have no
authority to do that either.
And then we had the uh
I think it was at the last meeting they
talked about 123,000 in discretionary
funds being available to the school
division. Well, it's already on money.
of how does it part of discretionary
funds?
This has got to be addressed. This is
the second time this has happened. And I
know everybody up there is well educated
and can read
and know how to apply the law.
So, I'm at the point that I hate to say
this, but
either this gets worked out between the
administration and the school board and
the board of supervisors and the
attorney for the county and the attorney
for the school system. Either it gets
worked out peacefully the way it legally
should be or I think the school board
should just go ahead and file a lawsuit
and we'll take it all in front of a
judge and let him explain the law to you
because apparently it's not being
explained right. You don't understand it
or you just disregard it. And that's
something that has to stop to the
betterment of all of our children in
Henry County. We talk to data centers
and we talk about economic development.
Education and what it is in this county
is a huge factor in your economic
development.
When businesses look to come here, they
look at the schools
and we have and this it's just got to
stop. We got to go by what the law says
we have to go by. That's what you're
sworn to do. That's what the school
board sworn to do. That's what
legislators in Richmond set forth. And
if anybody's got a big problem with it,
you need to be lobbying down in Richmond
in January because that's where the
rules come from. Thank you for your time
and y'all have a good evening.
>> Okay.
[applause]
I saw uh Miss Blake Lewis.
» Good evening. I'm Amy Blake Lewis and I
reside in the Reed Creek District. I'm
here today as superintendent of Henry
County Public Schools to speak
specifically about the proposed budget
and the importance of a strong financial
partnership between Henry County and its
public schools. I recognize that both
the school board and the board of
supervisors have significant
responsibilities to the citizens of
Henry County. We will not always agree,
but our students and taxpayers deserve a
relationship grounded in mutual respect,
transparency, and a shared commitment to
the future of this community. Today, I
am asking this board to consider whether
its current approach to school funding
is helping us accomplish that. Henry
County Public Schools takes its
responsibility as a steward of taxpayer
dollars seriously. Ending a fiscal year
with unspent funds should not
automatically be viewed as evidence that
a school division was overfunded. It is
evidence of careful management. We have
previously requested that unexpended
funds be reappropriated for identified
school needs, including significant
capital needs. Virginia code
specifically contemplates unexpended
local school funds and even provides a
mechanism for those funds to be placed
in a capital reserve for specific school
capital projects. Yet, our repeated
experience has been that carry forward
requests are not supported. I have heard
questions in the past suggesting that as
a fiscal closeout approaches, the school
division is simply quote finding
something to spend money on end quote. I
want to address that directly. We do not
spend money simply for the sake of
spending it. We work hard to be
responsible stewards of public funds.
But when a school division knows that
dollars responsibly saved at year end
are unlikely to be reappropriated for
legitimate school needs, the system is
unintentionally creating an incentive to
spend rather than to save. That is not
good public policy. It is not the
behavior we should be encouraging from
any publicly funded organization.
Fiscal responsibility should be
rewarded, not penalized.
If we save taxpayer dollars in one year
and can identify legitimate educational
or capital needs for those funds in the
next, there should be a reasonable
mechanism for their return to the
schools. We experienced another example
of this tension at the close of fiscal
year 26 when school division purchase
requests submitted on June 30th were not
processed because they did not meet an
earlier internal county deadline.
Virginia law establishes June 30th as
the final day of the fiscal year for
every locality and school division in
the Commonwealth. I certainly recognize
the county's need for internal processes
and orderly fiscal closeout. However, an
internal administrative deadline should
not become an unnecessary barrier to a
school division responsibly utilizing
appropriated funds before the statutory
end of the fiscal year. And perhaps the
most important context for this budget
conversation is what Henry County Public
Schools is accomplishing. Our students
and educators are producing results.
Preliminary school performance and
support framework data shows improvement
at every Henry County Public School.
Earlier today, Henry County Public
Schools was recognized as only one of
nine schools in the Commonwealth to
receive at least three percentage points
of growth in both reading and math. One
of only nine. We are achieving these
results despite the financial
uncertainty and conflict that have too
often characterized the relationship
between our two boards, not because of a
strong local funding partnership. I ask
you to imagine what more we could
accomplish if the energy currently spent
navigating disagreements over
appropriated funds could instead be
directed towards working together for
our students. The board of supervisors
has an important responsibility to
appropriate local funding. The school
board has an equally important
responsibility to govern the school
division and manage the resources
entrusted to it. Both boards should
respect those distinct responsibilities.
[clears throat] Oversight is
appropriate. Accountability is
appropriate. Questions are appropriate.
But effective governance also requires
allowing each elected body to fulfill
the responsibilities assigned to it. I
am not asking this board for a blank
check. I am asking for partnership. I am
asking that responsible fiscal
management not be penalized. that
legitimate carry forward request be
honored and that the school board be
trusted to manage the resources
appropriated for the education of Henry
Countyy's children. Our students are
demonstrating what is possible. Our
teachers are demonstrating what is
possible. Our principles are
demonstrating what is possible. Imagine
what Henry County Public Schools could
accomplish if the two governing bodies
responsible for supporting them were
pulling in the same direction. Our
students deserve that from all of us.
Thank you.
[applause]
» Is there anyone else wishing to uh speak
in this public hearing on the budget
amendment?
Anyone else?
Seeing and hearing no indication uh that
anyone else, I will close the public
hearing at 6:44.
Um,
Mr. Wagner, any comments to add to this?
>> Board members, um, you've have the board
packet before you and the
recommendation. What is the desire of
the board?
Okay, I'll ask again. Is there an action
that the board would like to take at
this time? We've conducted the uh public
hearing.
» Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that we
approve the 2026 2027 budget amendments
as presented.
We have a motion. Is there a second?
>> I'll second.
>> We have a motion and a second. Is there
any discussion or clarification needed?
>> I would like to clarify one thing.
>> Yes, sir. [clears throat]
>> I'll be the one that said I told Miss
Martin what I did and I want to say why
I said it. Because I am about the
trades. I'm going to keep pushing for
the trades. It's because it's what I
stand in. I believe that's what this
place is based on. So when somebody
asked for it, it was me. and I asked for
it because I wanted trades back in this
community and work ethic and some of the
stuff that we're lacking.
That's why I did it. So, I just want to
say that I'm the one. Other than that,
we can carry on.
>> I I appreciate you u sharing that. Mr.
Dylan, did your vindicate you would like
something to say?
>> Yes, sir. And I always like to preface
it with I do work for the schools, but
I'm not here as a school representative.
I've had no conversations with Dr. Blake
Lewis, Dr. Boone, Mr. Martin, or anyone.
You know, my comments, my questions are,
you know, for me personally. And I
always like to make sure these same type
of questions that I ask, you know,
anytime we're in whether it's close
session or whatever, is the move to keep
the carryover funds, is that legal?
Because that was one of the things that
came up in Dr. Blake Lewis's
conversation. And if we're going to make
a vote, I think that's one thing, you
know, first, you know, on public record
that that is a legal move. Um, so I'd
like to ask that question first and
foremost.
So, to my knowledge, from reading from
reading the audit, all the money that
was unex unencumbered, unexpended
um at the end of last fiscal year, there
was some grant funds, but aside of the other money was all local money.
That's what the independent auditor said
and my understanding is uh this same
question came up maybe in at the end of
the 2024 budget year and and the
independent auditor made the same
conclusion when they prepared this
budget. They specifically asked the
school board for documentation of
unexpended
state funds and there was some grants
that are carried over. Uh but they found
that the the money in question at the
end of the 20 the June 1 June 30th 2025
that all that money was local funds
that's what the independent audience
>> and explain when you say local funds so
that everybody understands what you mean
>> that the money from the taxpayers of
this guy so the the schools are funded
by federal state
>> but I mean as far as like if it's local
funds does that mean
>> if it's local funds then this board has
discretion to reappropriate it to them. But in in
recent years and I I assume this is one
of those years I haven't looked at the
state budget but in recent years as part
of the budget bill the state I said that
so traditionally all all the money that
was unexpended has always been the
auditors have always marked it as local
and because this this money if it was
unexpended state funds it would have to
be returned to the state but in recent
years I think in part of the budget bill
the state has said if there'sex expended
state education money, the school boards
can keep it
and and they and it I guess I think it
still has to be reappropriated by this
board, but you don't have to send it
back to Richmond.
So, but if you don't reappropriate it, would get sent back to Richmond, I
guess. But, um, so that came up in 24.
They said, "Well, some of this money
that the schools said, we think some of
the money is state money." The auditor
did not agree with that. it came up
again. You know, they again the auditor
has said all the money is from the local
tax dollars and so this board can still
reappropriate that that's you could um
and in years past, you know, we've had
agreements where we we had a split
agreement. They would present projects
and the board would fund it. Sometimes
not, but you always have the discretion
to appro reappropriate it. Um but um
there is according to the auditor there
is no unexpended state funds outside of
some grant situations okay to be carried
over specifically for school use.
>> So so it's totally discretionary to this
body
>> to reappropriate the money.
>> Okay. Thank you. And I guess a second
question would be as we, you know, your
team went through the budgeting process
other than using the uh carryover money
to, you know, cover once the state got
their budget, what other options were
looked at to make up for that $600 and
whatever thousand
uh $615,000
that was needed to uh meet our local
mandate. Were there other options uh
considered besides taking the uh
carryover money and using that to um
make sure we met those budgetary request
mandates?
So you may recall when we went through
the budget discussion uh this tax rate
of 50 cent that was actually higher than
the original recommendation by staff. Um
that 50 cent is based on projected tax
revenue generation for the next calendar
year.
without changing that tax rate, money
would have to come from somewhere. So
the other consideration is to change
that number where we cut from uh
[clears throat] without coming back and
raising the taxes. Uh so we made the you
know looking at the budgets and all the
different categories where that money
would come from. Uh you know on the
county side we're delaying hiring
several positions. We're using vacancy
savings to fill the gaps on the county
side and uh it was staff's
recommendation to use these funds to
meet that budget gap without changing
the tax rate or dipping into the savings
account because we've done that in the
last couple years
continue to dip into the savings.
» Okay. Yes, ma'am. You go ahead.
>> Um I heard Dr. Lewis uh comment about u
communication and certainly we should be
working together. We're not adversaries.
We should be communicating with each
other whether it's personally one-on-one
or through email for documentation. But
um
I I think a lot of this can be resolved
if there was communication
between the two. And and don't get me
wrong when I say that because I don't
put fault on either one, but what I'm
saying is that you have a job to do uh
as a school superintendent and Mr.
Wagner has a job to do as our county
administrator. So, um, when you when you
come together, it looks to me like there
could be a a resolution of some sort.
Uh, but, you know, when I when I hear
talk about uh it when I hear a lawsuit
or something like that, I'm thinking,
why does it come to this? Because it
should be that two entities can sit down
and figure it out because all that money
is coming when we talk about local
funds, it's coming from the taxpayer.
Educating our children is coming from
the taxpayer. Uh the bills that um you
pay to uh Henry County. I mean, it's
taxpayer money. So, um we don't need to
rob Peter to pay Paul. We just need to
be able to figure it out. So, that's
just my opinion.
I guess one question, one thought. Um,
if we approve the budget tonight and you
know, as you mentioned, if there's
conversation and somehow we get
everybody on the same page, is there the
possibility option that you know that um
carryover funds that the school system
had from the previous budget? Is there
the possibility that, you know, we could
say, okay, we want to return those funds
to the school. I know it wouldn't be
those exact funds, but in that amount of
money, is that an option?
>> Not committing to doing that, but would
that be an option for us to consider uh
at a future date?
>> So, the board the board at any time can
appropriate money as the only caveat to
that is if it's greater than 1% of the
total county budget, you have to have a
public hearing before you appropriate
that money. So at any point in the
future, you wish to give the schools or
any other department additional money
for very additional money. All it is
required is a majority vote by this
board. The real question is where does
the money come from? Do you take it from
another department or do you take it
from the general fund savings? But the
board has that authority to do at any
meeting at any point with the 1% cap.
>> And what is our general uh funds
account? Now
>> I will defer that question to our chief.
Okay. That's okay. I don't know if he
knows that.
>> Well, we don't have June 30th, 2026
because the audit is way too early in in
the adjustment phase. But based on 25
discretionary money, I think was in the
12 to 13 million range of discretionary
funds that wasn't committed or set aside
for specific purpose.
I was expecting to say that when he join
very
far from that.
Okay. And then last thing is I I do
believe like um Miss McCann said, we
need to get together, have some
conversations. Um, you know, our county
depends on us and you know, if we
fighting back and forth and they're
saying this, we're saying that, we're
not doing the county any good and it's
not beneficial and you know, we're all
adults, we're all professionals, we're
all elected for the people. And I think
that we have to be able to sit down and
that's whether that's county
administrator and superintendent
um supervisors and uh school board
members in the same district. But we
should be able to have these
conversations and it's much easier when
we can do it over dinner or you know in
a meeting room or something of that
nature as to in a public setting like
this because you know there anything
that we say and do it here. I mean it is
public record. It's audio. It's video
but we can have the knockdown dragouts
and you know still love each other
afterwards. But I would love to see us
somebody take the initiative to organize
and coordinate that so that when we get
back to this point next year, we've had
the conversations and we feel better
about the budgetary process. We feel
better about the decisions that were
made as opposed to all of the tension
that is um you know in the air. And I
think most things when you sit down and
talk you find out the he say she say
stuff never happened. It's just other
folk have said it or it didn't happen
quite that way or if I did say it, I
didn't mean it that way. And I commend,
you know, Mr. Lawless for, you know,
owning up. Hey, yep, I did it. I said
it. And I think we all have to be able
to do that. But when you disagree with
people, sometimes you do say some things
that um you know, you meet him in that
moment because I'm upset with you. I'm
mad with you. Uh but if we could sit
down and work through that, you know, an
apology, um let's get an understanding.
This is why I felt that way. Um you
know, goes a long ways. And I think
that, you know, we need to take that
initiative to make that happen. Mr.
Martin, Mr. Adams, you know, you guys
lead both of those boards. And I think,
you know, that's where a great
conversation would would start. Um and
lastly, I'll say that, um you know, a
budget has to be approved. I mean, we
can't operate without a budget. So
whether I agree, disagree with, you
know, some of the things about how, you
know, the school system will get the
additional funding, you know, do need to
vote to approve that budget so we can
move forward. But I do think we need to
have some conversations so that we're
not back here next year. And if the
school system, you know, does find a way
to, you know, cuz sometimes people quit
mid mid year, sometimes you don't hire
folk. um you just don't expect that
money to be available and then when that
money becomes available I'm sure they
get excited about hey we've got some
other projects that we would love to
work on but then when those things are
taken away from you I mean that makes
you pretty upset you know you know your
parents give you $100 to go out on a a
trip or whatever and you save 50 of it
and you get home and they say give me
that money back you know you should have
went ahead and bought the cotton candy
and whatever else you could have got
that night so we do have to think about
things you know that way and the
emotions that are created by our actions
and sometimes we just see the reaction
but we have to understand the action
that caused the reaction. So just you
know my spiel um you know like I said
whether agree or disagree we need to get
a budget passed make sure everybody has
money to operate so that we can move
forward but I do recommend that we find
a way to have the necessary
conversations
>> and and a lot of what I was going to say
has already been said but I will say uh
to the school board also and to our
board we are definitely public school
advocates. I think you know that and I
know a lot of people on the third floor
and a lot of people in the buildings as
a supervisor for Reed Creek two days ago
someone was talking to me about a
totally different issue and before I
left this individual who is a
significant I would consider a
significant business owner in our
community he pointed at me before I was
leaving and he said you need to get that
school budget under control. That's what
he said. And what is from my position as
an elected official for Re Creek on the
board of supervisors, it's my feeling,
it's understanding that public opinion
feels that the school board is very
generously funded based on the 1% and I
know that that is that is uh directed
funding and and everything but what I
hear is that there is a lot of public
support for Henry County Public Schools
and that you have a lot of money. So
what is Darl? What is a percentage of
the full county budget? How much of that
money out of our 220 221 million budget?
How much of that goes to Henry County
Public Schools?
>> For our total budget, I think the school
budget is around 125
million.
I think yeah I mean my niece works for
the schools. I think that the schools I
think you should have what what you
need. I think that you should have more
than you need. I feel like that all the
children, all the teachers should should
have what you need and and get what you
ask for mainly. But I'm just
communicating to you to also part of
that communication that Garrett was
talking about is that we have to
continue to prove to our taxpayers and
to our citizens that we are doing the
best with what they are giving us to
manage. And that was just two days ago
and it came out of nowhere. We were not
talking about the budget. We weren't
talking about the schools. We were
talking about something totally
different. And that's what this
individual said to me and it kind I was
like, "Oh, okay." So, it's appropriate
just to mention that. That came from a
voter in Reed Creek said that to me. So,
that's just food for thought and I do
100% agree on the relationship and the
communication moving forward because I
believe that this board of supervisors
supports Henry County Public Schools and
public education very much. So
>> any other comments?
I think that uh uh I agree with the
comments of professional behavior
communication. As I recall the whole
issue of June 30th. Uh I recall uh some
correspondence in the form of email more
than once from county administrator to
the school system, but I did not see a
reply as to an agreed date
uh on that. And I think that at the very
least from a professional standpoint, uh
we can we can take care of this stuff
immediately. There's not that big a
separation between the third floor and
the fourth floor that the elevator can't
make up the difference to get folks to
together to do this without attorneys.
This this whole thing that ended in the
11th hour, so to speak, or close
business day on June 30th could be
resolved tomorrow easily. So with that,
that's my comment. We have a motion and
a second. Any further discussion? Yes,
but I'll hold off on it. All right.
Thank all in favor.
It is 6. Jennifer,
that takes us to agenda item number 16,
matters presented by the public. The
same thing applies as far as a timeline.
We had uh one person that asked to be on
the agenda um uh and uh contacted county
administrator's office as Mr. Daryl
Holland.
Good evening, folks.
I'm here tonight uh with uh some of my
fellow Farm Bureau members here. Some
are in uniform, some are out. Most of
them are over here. They're in support
of hopefully some of these things I'm
going to say. This is the uh third time
I've addressed you. I don't want to bore
you by uh reiterating what I've already
said, but there's some of these people
that maybe not have heard this before.
Uh first of all, again, publicly, I'd
like to thank the board for rescending
the tax on livestock. We appreciate
that. Um
you've got you have handouts available
that I that I've made available. Some of
you I've spoken to uh individually,
others I found out yesterday that I've
been sending text messages to your
landlines.
So,
you probably don't get those. But, uh
anyway, uh the topic of what I want to
talk about is the personal property tax
on farm equipment. And uh I'll just talk
about farm equipment since you've
already taken care of the livestock. Uh
in Henry County, I'm sure you have this
uh
chart from Tiffany Harrison, our
commissioner of revenue. Uh out of $20
million
that the county derives from taxes on
business equipment.
out of $20 million, uh, only $44,000 of
that uh, come from taxes on, uh, farm
equipment. And, uh, Richmond and the
code of Virginia recognize that there's
a distinction between agricultural
equipment and business equipment. Uh
that's a conversation that has been uh
made with the uh uh the legis
legislators in Richmond and they know
the importance of agriculture to the
state economy and uh there that's a
distinction made and I'd like to read
this. It says that's defined in section
581-3505
in the code of Virginia. It says farm
machinery and farm implements are
classified as separate items of taxation
for the p purposes of tangible personal
property tax. Virginia localities that
would be Henry County have the authority
to exempt these items from the tangible
uh personal property tax or tax them at
a different rate. Local interpretations
of these uh exemptions uh do vary.
Uh 80 of 100 localities
in Virginia are able to balance their
budget without taxing farm equipment. I
think that number is is significant. Uh,
I'd uh like to ask uh that the board
would phase out local the local tax on
farm equipment just as you have uh
rescended the tax on livestock. And um I know by talking I've been educated by
talking to people too. Uh this may not
be possible during this budget year, but
at least if it's on the table for
discussion, I'd like you to sincerely
consider it. I think it's not
unreasonable and I thank you for your
time.
>> Thank you, Mr. Paul.
[applause]
» Okay. Um, others wishing to speak on
their matters presented by the public.
Uh, we did have some sign up, but I
think that some may have signed up for
um different reasons. I'll call names as
they're wring written here. Uh it looks
like Michelle Foley.
Do you wish to speak? And not seeing any
indication. I'll call the next name.
Uh looks like William Turner.
>> Lillian.
» It's Lillian
>> or Lillian Turner. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
I thought that was a W.
>> It's okay.
My name is Lillian. I'm from Basset. I
just wanted to say a few things. I want
to bring up the ordinance for the data
centers. What you were presented was we
had a meeting with Brandon and we gave
him a list of things that we wanted the
community the community wanted you guys
to consider. I'm assuming zoning didn't
like very much of that, but there is
more that we want to put on that list.
quite a bit more. Actually,
I have a list. I won't bore you with it,
but if you want to see it, I'll show you
afterwards. Um, and I also want to bring
back the conversation of the ordinance
for the battery energy storage systems.
I know they were voted on the last board
meeting. Um, and I don't think many
people were aware of what they were,
that they were being talked about, that
the ordinance was even being made. So, I
think that that should be brought back
up.
Most of the people fighting data centers
don't realize that battery energy
storage systems and solar farms are just
as bad. They destroy our planet just the
same.
And that's all I had. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Thank you,
Melody Cartright.
Hello um H County Board of Supervisors
and Chairman Adams. I am Melody
Cartwright.
I am a city of Martinsville native
and a committed candidate for district
48.
I want to go on record that I did I was
one of the people that requested the
moratorum.
I even really wanted to go farther and
do with the the ban which I felt like I
was really pushing that one. Um but my
question would be is the reason why the
lawyer feels that we cannot legally do
the moratorum which is just a pause.
It's not a ban. It's a pause. Is the
reason why we can't do it
because other localities are doing it.
Is it because of the Dylan rule? Is it
the Dylan rule that's preventing us from
doing that? And could we get our current
delegate to take it to the state
to ask for the moratorum
if he would be willing to do it? If he's
not willing to do it, I guess
we have the wrong delegate in place.
>> Please address the board
>> because I would be willing to do it. Um,
also I want to say that I'm here to
represent in part the Henry County,
Virginia Coalition against data centers.
We do not consent.
We the citizens of Henry County, some of
them not all,
and the city of Martinsville, which is
in the middle of Henry County,
we do not consent,
nor do we wish to compromise.
There will be, however, consequences to
anyone who votes for a data center. Now,
y'all done ordinances. That's different
from voting for a data setting or a
center or allowing them in. But the
ordin ordinance is the first step to
allowing them in.
So I feel um a little defeated. I
understand your reasoning
to protect us, but who's going to
protect the land? Who's going to protect
the children? Who's going to protect our
water and air, our wildlife,
our pets?
Mainly the children. That's that's who
I'm concerned. And the noise. And
there's a whole I mean, we went through
this all already. And I appreciate your
detailing adding that to the proposed
store ordinances, but it's really not
going to be enough. It's not going to be
enough.
We will not consent
to the raping of our land.
We will not consent
to obliterating [clears throat] our
wildlife, farm an animals and sounds of
nature.
And perhaps more importantly,
we do not consent to raising our utility
bills, which is a real concern. And we
have we have politicians involved with
dominion and appalachin power and it's a
vicious circle and it is going to come
around
to we the people.
I appreciate your time.
» Next thing is uh Linda Smith. Linda
Smith.
» [snorts]
» Hello, Barn. Um, I just wanted to say
that I do appreciate the ordinance that
you've put in place. I do think that it
would be wonderful if at some point you
could add uh before any entity even
applies for coming to this county if
they had to come before this board and
before these citizens and before the
press and answer questions um to
whatever we have to ask. I think it's um
it's a little bit harder for them to
face the citizens that they're screwed
over than it is to just try and grease
palms. Um so, and I think there I didn't
really see a whole lot in there about
medical issues like the potential for
miscarriages, the potential for birth
defects, the potential for anything um
medically going wrong with those. So
that's all and I appreciate your time.
[applause]
» Um I had Daryl Holland's name on this
but uh I had your name on this list as
well.
Uh and if you need to pass on that's
fine.
>> Said all I had to say.
>> Thank you. Uh Gordon Mets.
I'm Gordon Mets. I live in the Fixboro
area. I I guess what I'm doing is not I
just want to have a little information
here. I know a lot of people think beef
prices are very high and they are. It's
hard for people to afford it. Uh what
I'm speaking to is the fact that in
agriculture, I don't know if any of you
that you might be in farming or not. It
might hardly farm, but uh grain prices
today and corn about the same were in
1990.
Very little difference. wheat goes back
to 1980 something within a half a dollar of the same price on the on the
tax on equipment. You got to understand
that a lot of farmers use a
combines and stuff two or three times a
year for a few weeks and they pay that
tax on it. So it's not like you paying
tax on something you use every day like
you do an industrial thing. The cattle
prices and I'll give you a few figures
that I got a few months ago going to be
close. Cal price has gone up 380
something% in the last since 1990
I think it was John Deere tractors gone
up 1300% fertilizers 11200%.
Everything we do including taxes even
though we get a break and we appreciate
it our land if we want to expand is
almost impossible to pay for it through
agriculture.
Several years ago, I was on a
bang down in Williamsburg. We had people
from European Union there talking about
agriculture. And I asked him, I said,
"Why can a wheat farm in Europe make a
living on 300 acres and we can't make a
living on 3,000 acres of wheat?" He
said, "Because we remembered that World
War II, we had depend on other countries
for wheat." He says, "We will never
depend on anybody else for agriculture
products." Of course, those that
generation's gone and a lot of the folks
don't remember that. As we put solar
farms in, as we put all the other things
in, takes up agriculture as well as
houses and whatnot. Somebody somewhere
has got to think how does agriculture
survive. Even though beef prices are up,
grain and other things are not, and our
expenses are way up, as you consider
this tax, I'd ask you to consider that.
And we appreciate everything you do.
Thank you.
>> THANK YOU.
I will probably mess up this next name
and I apologize. It's signed in versus
uh written in. It looks like the last
name is either Mortyn or Martin and I'm
not sure which one from Ridgeway area.
>> That was me.
>> No, I I can see yours very clearly. Mary
Morton, but uh there there's actually
I would need help with this first name.
It looks like the first initial uh the
first name is an R and the last name
looks like either Martin or Morton.
>> Norton.
>> Or I signed the wrong place to fight for
something.
>> Okay.
All right. So, you're passing. All
right.
>> And uh Miss Martin, Mary Martin, uh uh
you don't wish to speak again?
» All right. Okay.
Um, I had next Dr. Amy Blake Lewis, and
I see that she's left.
Uh, and then I have Sher Mitchell.
Good evening, Board of Supervisors. My
name is Sheri Mitchell and I'm a
lifelong resident of Henry County. I'm
back here tonight because I'm not
convinced our voices are being heard.
The last meeting, countless citizens
express the concern over weak battery
energy storage site protections and
transient toxic waste sites.
The board [clears throat] hastily passed
the language anyway. A 50-foot setback
is a massive fire and safety hazard to
neighboring properties. Now that AAP has
expressed interest in a battery site on
their 12,200 acre property, we may have
blown our chance to protect our
citizens. While I'm grateful the data
center language was paused, the new
proposal remains riddled with loopholes.
Under no circumstances
should it have passed tonight as
written. The citizens of Henry County do
not consent to a hypers scale data
center.
Data centers in general, much less
hypers scale, do not align with the
comprehensive plan of Henry County, nor
do they protect our agricultural land or
historical heritage. If this board
intends to move forward at all, you must
protect our resources. We demand the
zoning ordinance include these four
ironclad protections pertaining to zero
groundwater usage, zero municipal water
usage.
This is a big one. Capped electricity
consumption
really shouldn't go over 10 megawatts.
That hypers scale deal is is really
serious, y'all.
Rate payer and infrastructure bonds.
The developer alone should secure bond
to cover 100% of these increased costs.
You still have a critical opportunity
tonight to write a wrong.
I came here tonight to urge you to vote
no on the proposal as written.
Now, if you really want to protect us,
you will do so because you have the
authority to do so.
When I first started researching this, I
noticed that the planning committee
mentioned trends a lot and a lot of the
ordinance was based on trends. Well, the
trends have shifted. Okay. You can place
an immediate pause on accepting any
applications for data centers or battery energy storage centers until
these independent water power,
environmental, and grid protect
protections are fully secured. I repeat,
you can tonight
place an immediate pause on accepting
any applications for data centers or
best facilities. You can continue with
what the ordinance is, but you can place
a pause on accepting
any permits.
Please also consider requiring the
proposed developers to prove that their
facilities are safe before any permits
are granted. That's kind of the opposite
of what we do.
Make them
prove that their facilities are safe.
» Thank you for your time.
>> Thank you.
» [applause]
>> That is all that have signed in to speak
on matters presented by the public. I
will now offer the opportunity for
anyone to speak on the matters presented
by the public that did not sign in
uh on any subject. Is there anyone
wishing to address the board on matters
presented by the public?
Could I just ask a question?
>> Oh, I'm sorry.
>> I just want to one, thank you for
listening to the last time that we were
here. My name is Naomi Holly Muse. I
live in the [cough]
horrors that other localities have faced
in Georgia, in Lorden County,
these are for real. And I think you try
to listen and put these put some stop
gaps in and I appreciate that. So, thank
you. However, I want you to really, really listen to the angst and
the anxiety. You know, Henry County has
a 16% property rate. Martinsville has
23% property rate. If you can imagine
your electrical bill going up $100, what
that will do to families,
I I really really want you to just be
the centuries that I know that you can
be.
And that's to stand guard and to make
sure because anybody can promise you
anything, but look what they did to
Georgia. Milliondoll homes with mud for
water. They [cough]
mud and water noise that are killing
cows killing killing livestock a mile
away because of the noise is coming
still going cattle just as far.
This is so dangerous that you just
really cannot think that okay we've got
it covered. So be the centuries that
you're supposed to be. be be extremely I
love the fact that you've got to come
through the planning committee again and
again. You've got public meetings. Maybe
that'll help, but please take it so
serious. And thank you for what you've
done. Please keep keep your ears open
and know that you've got to protect us
because we really cannot afford to have
a data center that will kill livestock,
take all our water, and just ruin this
beautiful. Thank you so very much.
[applause]
Ben Grley. I live in the Irishwood
district.
I live by a mantra and there's a quote
from Dr. King
and it states
there comes a time when silence is
betrayal.
Now I know we've passed or you have
passed the budget
uh for the schools.
Um, and I listen to the comments.
Uh,
and I listen to what everybody had to
say about the working relationships. I
don't have a pro. I know all of you
guys. I don't have a problem. Uh, but at
the same time too, I've always prided
myself
to be a voice for the voiceless.
And some of the comments made
uh was somewhat upsetting to me because
the implication is is that we are not
good stewards over county money. And I
take offense to that.
We are and we
have very
competent financial
directors
that advises us.
I look at information myself. I research
information because when I make a
decision, I want to make sure that I'm
making the best decision with the
information that I have. And I think I
can speak that of our entire board, you
know, and so
I hope that we can and we have ex I know
I'll use Mr. Martin for an example. He
and I and we have a legislative liaison
that we work with as well have suggested
that why can't we
two of us two of you guys district sit
down and have some conversations
and we proposed that.
So, I'm not opposed to that at all. And
I think in doing so, we will get a
better understanding as to what we're
trying to do as a school division. I
understand I know you got a tough job.
We have a tough job as well. You know, I
it's it's tough, but at the same time
too,
uh
it's it's for our kids. I proposed the
question about a year or so ago and most
of my questions are proposed as such.
Help me understand why is it such a
difficult task
to provide for our students in Henry
County. And I will
I'm here with that. I just had to say
something because I I just didn't feel
as I felt as though
Um
I didn't want people thinking that we
are misappropriating
funds and we aren't and we can uh easily
validate that. Thank you.
[applause]
Are there others wishing to speak under
matters presented by the public?
I just have a question. The
>> come to the podium.
>> The independent audit that Mr. Ly
mentioned, is that available for a copy
to the public or do I need to
>> I'm sorry. Would you repeat that again,
please? I can
>> independent audit that made the
determination about the carryover money.
Is that audit available for the public
to see?
Okay, this is a time for public comment,
but when you uh when you take I will get
that clarified when you take a seat.
>> Okay.
>> As far as audits, uh Mr. Jones,
>> is that public information, independent
audits?
>> The county audits are on the county
website. If you're specifically looking
for a statement in there, uh it's you
know like a 200page document uh and you
unless you're probably a financial whiz
and a CPA and even those you may not be
able to interpret exactly um that
extract that from it but the independent
author made a independent determination
on the carryable funds uh at the request
of county administrators
school superintendent for fiscal year
24.
And uh who should [clears throat]
basically
state her conclusions and their
conclusions?
>> And who signs off on that? What parties
sign off on that?
>> On which part?
>> On the audits. Well, they they come to
the board of supervisors annually
present the audit report to the board of
supervisors and and board of supervisors
accepts it and then it's sent to the
state of Virginia and it's also posted
on county website and sent to basically
all our funding agencies.
>> Okay.
>> All funding. Okay.
>> And I guess
another question or response is there a
way to pull out that statement. I guess
that's what Miss Martin is actually
asking. the statement that clarifies
that um what Mr. Ly said about it being
um local funds and not state funds.
>> I happen to have a copy right here.
>> Okay.
Are there others?
>> He has a copy right here.
>> Are there others wishing to speak on
matters presented by the public?
Anyone else?
With that, uh, that takes us to, um,
item 17. Uh, I'll entertain a motion for
adjournment.
>> I'll make a motion.
>> Second.
>> Have a motion. Second. All in favor?
6. Everyone, have a good evening.