[7:22] [Music]
The April 7th meeting of the Marian Town
[7:26] Council is now in
session. We will be led with the
[7:31] invocation by Chief Claire followed by
the pledge of allegiance.
[7:37] And I would like to ask Mark if he would
be kind enough to lead the pledge of
[7:42] allegiance with us today. Um, and let us
begin. Yeah. Please join me in prayer.
[7:48] Most holy and glorious Lord God, Father,
as we come before you this evening,
[7:51] we're first and foremost thankful for
redemption in your word. We'd ask that
[7:55] uh everything we do this evening, we
tend to your glory and to the to the
[7:59] good of the people in Marian. and board.
We'd ask you to watch over uh all of our
[8:04] public servants this evening, nurses and
doctors and teachers and firefighters
[8:07] and sanitation workers, police officers,
all those who use their time and talent
[8:12] for the common good. We ask all that in
Christ's name. Amen. Amen.
[8:20] [Music]
I pledge algiance to the flag of the
[8:25] United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands. One nation
[8:32] under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.
[8:55] Yes, we'll begin with the roll call. I
see that all members are
[9:04] present. We'll need a motion to approve
of the minutes of March 17, 2025.
[9:11] I'll make a motion to approve those
minutes. Second. Have a motion and a
[9:15] second. Is there any discussion?
[9:20] None being heard, we will vote. All in
[9:25] favor. It's unanimous. Motion
carries. We'll need to approve the
[9:31] agenda for
tonight. Do I have a motion to approve
[9:34] the agenda? I'll make that motion.
Second. Motion and second. Are there any
[9:40] items that need to be changed, added,
deleted? Um, I will be moving Mr.
[9:48] Charles Harrington up in the agenda just
a little bit if that needs to be
[9:53] addressed, but I'm going to put him a
little bit ahead so that he can
[9:59] uh take care of other
[10:03] matters. We have the approval of the
agenda. We will begin with public
[10:10] presentations. We have Mark
Cheney.
[10:14] Pardon? Did Oh, we did not vote. Okay,
we need to vote then for the approval of
[10:20] the agenda. Thank you, doctor. All in
favor?
[10:28] Now we'll move on with public
presentations from the American Legion
[10:33] Post 18, Mark Cheney and National Poppy
Day
[10:47] Resolution. Members may come forward.
[11:05] It's like hurting cats.
Mark, would you like to read the
[11:09] resolution or will you have me do it?
Uh, why don't you do it, mayor?
[11:14] Okay. resolution declaring the Friday
before Memorial Day as National Poppy
[11:20] Day in the town of Marian,
Virginia. Whereas the American Legion
[11:25] family brought National Poppy Day to the
United States by asking Congress to
[11:31] designate the Friday before Memorial Day
as National Poppy Day. And whereas after
[11:39] World War I, the poppy flourished in
Europe, scientists attributed the growth
[11:44] to soils in France and Belgium becoming
enriched with lime from the rubble left
[11:50] by the war. From the dirt and mud grew a
beautiful red poppy. The red poppy came
[11:57] to symbolize the blood shed during
battle following the publication of
[12:02] wartime poem in Flanders Fields. And
whereas on September 27th, 1920, the
[12:12] poppy became the official flower of the
American Legion family to memorialize
[12:18] the soldiers who fought and died during
the war. And whereas in
[12:24] 1924, the distribution of poppies became
a national program of the American
[12:30] Legion. And whereas led by the American
Legion Auxiliary, each year members of
[12:38] the American Legion family distribute
poppies with a request that the person
[12:44] receiving the flower make a donation to
support the future of veterans, active
[12:50] duty military personnel, and their
families with medical and financial
[12:55] needs.
Now therefore, be it resolved by the
[13:00] Town Council of Marian, Virginia, that
Friday, before Memorial Day, be hereby
[13:07] officially designated as National Poppy
Day. And on that day, all citizens are
[13:14] urged to wear a red poppy to honor the
fallen and support the living who have
[13:20] worn our nation's uniform. resolved the
7th day of April, 2025.
[13:35] Thank you.
[13:44] Okay, we have a public present.
Oh, I thought we Yes. Okay. I'll make a
[13:51] motion we approve the resolution.
Second.
[13:56] We have a motion and second. Any
discussion necessary?
[14:00] None being heard, we will vote. Everyone
in favor? All in favor? It's unanimous.
[14:06] I'm sorry. I thought we voted for that
the last time. The adopted direct to be
[14:11] drafted. Oh, okay. Well, you you let me
know if we need to do anything. Um Okay.
[14:17] So, uh, thank you very much the, uh,
members of the American Legion Post for
[14:21] showing up tonight and for everything
that you do for the community. Um, we
[14:25] will continue with Clean Virginia Clean
Cities EV charger grant with Tara
[14:33] Keterson. Hi, Tara. Hi. Good evening.
How are you? Very good. How are you?
[14:37] Good. I brought a presentation
today. Let me know if I need
[14:43] to set that up.
[14:50] is do do we have your uh drive? We do.
Okay. Yes, we do. Apologies. While they
[14:58] get that started, my name is Tara
Casterson. I'm with Virginia Clean
[15:01] Cities. Um I'm new to Southwest Virginia
program. I've been here for 20 years
[15:06] working. I grew up in Tazwell County.
Graduated from Monker High School, went
[15:10] to Embry and Henry and stuck around for
a little while. Worked in local news for
[15:13] a decade. It's been a decade with
Virginia Department of Energy. And uh
[15:17] just a disclaimer before I start my
presentation, I've been with Virginia
[15:20] Clean Cities for three and a half
months. So, um if there are questions
[15:24] that come up that I cannot answer for
you tonight, I'll be sure to talk to the
[15:28] technical experts on my team and get
back to you on those. Um I live in
[15:33] Bristol right now. My husband's a small
business owner. We have a nine-year-old
[15:36] daughter. So, um, I'm really excited to
bring these programs to Southwest
[15:41] Virginia and to meet with communities
like yours to talk about opportunities,
[15:45] um, especially through economic
development and to help the economy
[15:50] thrive a little.
Which one? Um, it's the Marian Town
[15:55] Council.
[15:59] You know, there are some blasting videos
that are also exciting to
[16:05] watch. And if you want to go ahead and
move to that slide number two, that
[16:09] would be great. Slide number two.
Just a little bit about clean cities.
[16:15] Um, it is a national program and the
goals are really economic prosperity,
[16:20] um, energy security and we look to do
those both through domestic supply in
[16:26] transportation. That's our focus is in
transportation. When you hear clean
[16:29] cities, I often get asked to bring solar
panels to town. and I don't have access
[16:33] to that, but I can get you somebody that
can help you with that if that is your
[16:36] goal. Um, but also by combining those
goals, uh, we can reduce emissions
[16:42] through both. That's just a bonus. And
you probably know that transportation is
[16:46] the greatest contributor to emissions
across the United States. So
[16:50] decarbonizing transportation would make
a big impact. If you can go to the next
[16:55] slide,
please. And this is just a look at some
[16:59] of the accomplishments across the nation
since the clean cities and communities
[17:02] was created. Actually, um in 1992 was
when the national program was created.
[17:09] And then the next slide is just a look
at where we are across the nation and
[17:14] Virginia is really unique as most states
have regional offices. So East Tennessee
[17:18] has its own office compared to West
Tennessee, but Virginia covers the
[17:23] entire state. Um, so we have a good
collaboration especially when it comes
[17:28] to stakeholders and these are people
that supply these domestic fuels. So we
[17:32] have a good network there as well. Um,
on the next slide just a little bit more
[17:36] about Virginia clean cities. Of course
we're based at James Madison University.
[17:41] Um, and we're also under the US
Department of Energy's vehicle
[17:44] technologies office. So we do receive
some federal funding. So that's good
[17:48] news for you guys. We have some
opportunities for you um, through that
[17:51] funding. And we also have a nonprofit
side of operations and that's to be able
[17:55] to collect donations through
stakeholders. Uh we have nine people,
[17:59] three interns running all the programs
that we offer. And I just want to point
[18:04] out that uh Virginia Clean Cities is
fuel neutral. We get the most questions
[18:09] about electric vehicles these days, but
um any of the alternative fuels we're
[18:13] excited to talk to communities and
police about.
[18:19] So this is just how the region is
divided among our staff. And I'm that
[18:23] lovely lemon yellow color there in the
west. And I was hired as part of the
[18:27] clean cities expansion. Uh they were
doing it across the nation. And really
[18:31] they just wanted to get their programs
here in Southwest Virginia since I'm a
[18:35] native and know a lot of these fine
people that live here and love this
[18:38] community. Um I got the job. So here I
am sharing um all these programs and
[18:44] great opportunities with you guys. But
tonight, if you can go to the next
[18:48] slide, I want to talk to you about the
royal rural re-imagine program. Uh, this
[18:54] is specific to Appalachin communities.
So, it would be a great opportunity for
[18:59] Marion. Um, we do have demonstration
vehicles. So, we have two electric
[19:04] vehicles that are available for you to
check out and try if you're thinking
[19:08] about maybe electrifying one of your
fleet cars or something like that to see
[19:11] how it works in your community and if it
works for you. So, you can check that
[19:15] out for a month if you want. Uh, the
program also offers free level two
[19:20] charging stations, and that's something
we'd like to put here in Marion. And
[19:24] those stations come with up to $2,000 in
reimbursement fees for the installation.
[19:30] Um, that can get pricey depending on how
far you are to access to electricity.
[19:35] Uh, this program does end in October, so
decisions have to be made a little
[19:40] quicker than probably others. Uh but
level two chargers, they can be placed
[19:45] in areas where EV users can spend just a
few hours to
[19:49] charge. And then a study from MIT
actually showed that chargers near
[19:54] points of interest such as your
restaurants, your downtown, your hotels,
[19:58] they can increase spending up to about
3.2% annually because you're bringing in
[20:03] new guests, new attractions, um new
people maybe you haven't targeted
[20:08] before. Uh this program is open to
private and public entities both. So the
[20:13] top photo is a sire that just signed up
to get a charger at their spot and the
[20:19] bottom is at Virginia who just submitted
their site agreements for three
[20:23] different spots with that
city. Um this photo is from your
[20:30] neighbors not too far away down in
Saltville. They participated in the RO
[20:33] reimagine program. So if you have a
connection there and want some insight,
[20:37] they may be able to offer some advice.
Um if you do agree to be a site host, uh
[20:43] there are a few requirements. Of course,
you will have to prepare the site. Um
[20:48] installation is going to be up to you
and we can recommend installers or
[20:52] electricians if you don't have one in
mind to help you get that charger
[20:56] installed and working. Um we ask that it
has public access and that you share a
[21:02] summary of the data collected. We're not
looking hard numbers, but if you can
[21:05] say, you know, we think five people use
this or maybe 45 people use this this
[21:10] month. Um, that's just some information
that we like to collect to make sure
[21:13] that what we're doing is working. And
the commitment is for about 5 years or
[21:19] it is five years and then after that it
belongs to the town. Um, if you don't
[21:24] have success with it, you can get rid of
it. But if it serves you well, then
[21:28] definitely keep it and it's yours to do
what you would want to with. After that,
[21:33] of course, you have to operate and
maintain the charger once you sign that
[21:37] agreement. Next slide,
please. And this is just a look at some
[21:42] of the sample chargers. Um, you can get
wall-mounted chargers. We, you know,
[21:46] drove around looking for great sites.
The parking garage was clearly one
[21:50] that's wonderful. If you put a wall
mounted charger there, it' be a very low
[21:54] installation fee. Um, and then we also
have the pedestal chargers. whatever
[21:58] works best for the location that you
think would be best for these charging
[22:03] stations. You can choose to network
them, which means you get on a system
[22:07] where you accept a credit card and
whoever's charging pays for that
[22:11] electricity and you can, you know, up a
little bit to actually make a profit off
[22:16] of it. Now, the cery I mentioned,
they're just going to put a VMO code on
[22:20] theirs and say, you know, if you charge
it's $10 or $20. That's really up to you
[22:26] if you want to deal with the networking
issues that I'm sure you are familiar
[22:31] with if you've used any kind of credit
card system. Um, we do currently just
[22:36] have two fast charging stations left in
this program which are also free for a
[22:42] site post. Um, they charge a lot faster
than the level two. The level two
[22:47] chargers usually people want at least
two to four hours downtown to charge
[22:52] those and get a few miles on their car.
And the fast chargers is about 45
[22:56] minutes. Um I have a Ford Lightning that
I've been using through this program and
[23:00] it takes about 45 minutes 0 to 200 miles
um at the Pinnacle fast charging station
[23:06] in Bristol. So if that's something you
are interested in, the site needs to
[23:10] have that threephase power. Just
consider that um if you'd like to
[23:15] install PC fast charger and there's only
two left for the program. the
[23:18] installation reimbursements a little
extra
[23:22] $7,000 just because it usually takes
more to get those
[23:26] installed. Next slide,
please. So, the process is really very
[23:32] simple. Um, we get the site assessment
and that serves as your NEPA approval.
[23:38] If you're familiar with NEPA, that's
usually anytime you move dirt, you have
[23:42] to get that kind of approval from the US
Department of Energy. Um, so this is EV
[23:47] charging stations are a categorical
exclusion. So your site host assessment
[23:52] form takes care of that. And once that
is approved, the site host agreement is
[23:57] submitted and we're partners with
Tennessee Tech. Um, and so they are over
[24:01] the program and they handle all that
paperwork for us and we'll work directly
[24:06] with you too. Of course, we would be
here to advise you the entire way um
[24:10] throughout the process. chargers would
would be shipped after that site host
[24:14] agreement is signed to you here in
Marian. And then once you install it,
[24:18] you will send your reimbursement to
Tennessee Tech and they'll get you that
[24:22] 2,000 back or if you do the fast charge
of that
[24:28] 7,000. And one other program I wanted to
mention to you guys tonight is the
[24:32] Mid-Atlantic Electrification Partnership
that also provides free chargers to
[24:37] communities, public, private, very
similar. It just doesn't come with
[24:41] installation reimbursement fees, but it
also um works directly with Virginia
[24:46] Clean Cities. You don't have to go
through Tennessee Tech, so it's a little
[24:50] bit of a faster pace in getting your
chargers and getting your approvals and
[24:54] things like that. If you are in a hurry
to get those installed, the site
[24:58] assessments, we're looking for these to
be in by May 30th. We'll order all the
[25:03] chargers in June and then we'll deliver
them on site and we ask that the
[25:07] installation be completed by September
30th. So, just so you know, we are
[25:13] tracking the data and a lot of people
are choosing to buy and use EVs. In
[25:19] fact, we're seeing a steady 40% growth
every year on EV purchases. Um, there's
[25:25] over a 100,000 registered EV users in
the state of Virginia. So, plenty of
[25:30] chances to have someone stop in Marion
and charge their vehicle, eat downtown,
[25:34] go to the General
Francis. Next slide, please. And this is
[25:39] just a map of where the charging
stations exist right now. So, we want to
[25:44] put another green dot on that map. Uh,
my goal is to get a great little network
[25:49] throughout Southwest Virginia. So, I'm
working from Road Oak to Lee County to
[25:54] try and get these chargers installed.
But once you do install them, they'll
[25:58] show up on these tools that EV users
have in their cars when they plan their
[26:02] trips and they'll know, oh, I can stop
in Marion and grab lunch and they get a
[26:06] charge on my
car. One, please. I just want to throw
[26:10] this little nugget out here. Um, because
we are fuel neutral. If you are
[26:16] considering saving money on your fleet,
that's something else that we assist
[26:19] with. um technical look at it. We can
run um an audit report kind of and look
[26:25] at how much money you could save if you
switch to propane or compressed natural
[26:29] gas or something like that. But because
we do serve all of these um just wanted
[26:33] to make sure you knew that was an
opportunity as
[26:37] well. Um and of course you don't have to
take my word for it. There's a lot of
[26:41] great um sites that I hope you'll take
the time to check out as to why EV
[26:45] charging can boost your economy, your
community, and other opportunities for
[26:52] clean fuels if you choose to do so
within the town and what it can do for
[26:56] you. Next
slide. Um also part of the clean
[27:00] communities expansion, we need to
complete a transportation needs
[27:04] assessment for one community and I
thought Marian would be a great
[27:08] community to do that with.
already talked with Mountain Links about
[27:12] this because we're looking at public
transportation and just other things
[27:15] within the town that we could just
really assess. Um, this is something
[27:21] conducted by Virginia Clean Cities.
It'll be presented to the town at the
[27:24] end of uh when we're done to just inform
you about where the community stands on
[27:30] domestic fuels and access to things like
charging stations that we're talking
[27:33] about tonight. Of course, our overall
overall goal is to reduce carbon
[27:38] emissions, but really that goes hand
inhand with cost savings for communities
[27:44] and also economic drivers to bring more
people into your downtown or to boost
[27:48] your economy and spend their money here.
Uh, basically what we do was just
[27:52] schedule a few public meetings with
transportation leaders, community
[27:56] groups, businesses, the town, and we may
do a few one-on- ons just with, you
[28:01] know, the the transportation leaders in
your region or anyone that you recommend
[28:05] that you think may have a great impact
and, you know, what the plan should be.
[28:10] Uh, we would like to do some community
surveys and town hall type meetings just
[28:15] to gather information and then of course
we'll produce that report and present it
[28:19] to a town. It's about a year-long
process. Um, if that's something you
[28:23] guys would like to
support. So, I am happy to take any
[28:28] questions or you can take down my
information and email me after tonight
[28:32] if that works better for you
guys. But I do thank you for the
[28:36] opportunity to talk about this with you
and hopefully we'll be in touch soon
[28:39] about getting in charge. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
[28:44] Very nice presentation. Is there any
action required by councelor? What is
[28:49] your pleasure?
I believe in
[28:53] 20 uh 23 we addressed a uh program with
Kendra Hayden and some county and Mr.
[29:04] Heath's office took point on that.
Don't want to put him on the spot, but
[29:10] do you have anything to say in response?
For over 30 years, should be having
[29:20] All right. Just wanted to make sure we
touched all bases.
[29:26] Is there anything that we go need to go
ahead and set a motion forward to do?
[29:30] What is council's pleasure? I I do not
know. Ken, is this the same one that we
[29:34] spoke about a while back that we were
already approved for?
[29:37] So, it's it's already been in the
motion. I mean, do you think that it
[29:42] would be ideal to go ahead and
to adopt it or would you guys like to
[29:47] wait? Which committee should we give it
to or do we need to just have her start
[29:51] the assessment? I believe that Ken's
office has been working with it just
[29:56] assessment. So, we'll just continue to
let Ken take point on it if that's I
[30:00] don't believe we need a motion for that.
[30:06] the next council very specific locations
and cost and that kind of thing. Yeah, I
[30:10] think we gauge council's interest and
see if we want to go further before the
[30:14] next Yeah, I'd say I'd say it's a good
idea to go ahead and proceed. Thank you.
[30:18] Thank you. Okay, Tara, thank you very
much. Just want to make sure. Okay,
[30:23] we're going to proceed now and we're
going to move Charles Harrington up into
[30:27] this spot so that he can continue with
what he needs to do. He's from the
[30:32] Marian Housing Authority and he promised
me he doesn't need more than two
[30:36] minutes. Thank you, Mr.
Mayor. Pleasure to be with you tonight.
[30:41] I actually have two commissioners up for
the appointment. As you are aware, the
[30:45] commissioners appointed by council
rather interesting the way that it's
[30:49] done because when the housing is
established by code, the
[30:54] council commissioners after that
basically commissioners allowed to stay
[30:58] for as long as they want. But in in
town, a lot of the towns they got set
[31:03] terms and our terms of four years. We
have Brian Reed who has been an
[31:08] absolute anchor of the housing and Gina
Roberts who has contributed a great deal
[31:13] to our housing community. They're both
up for appointment. I would like to ask
[31:18] their appointment for I'd like to make
the motion to approve both of those
[31:23] individuals. Second. I believe we need
to appoint them separately. Yes. I'll
[31:29] make a motion to reappoint Brian Reed
first.
[31:33] Second.
Any
[31:36] discussion? All in
favor? Unanimous. Motion carries.
[31:42] So we got Regina. Okay. I'll make the
motion to reappoint Regina Roberts to
[31:48] the housing authority. Second. Second.
Motion and second. Any discussion? All
[31:54] in favor?
Unanimous motion carries. Thank you very
[31:58] much. Just for a little bit of
information, uh, as u you're aware, one
[32:03] of the primary things that we're
interested in in our properties is
[32:06] safety and security. We've just bought
for another quarter million dollar grant
[32:10] for additional cameras, uh, lighting,
and security for all of our properties,
[32:14] which we may be very valuable. It's been
great with the police department because
[32:18] we've been able to find things and solve
things rather quickly with the cameras
[32:23] that we have. So, we do have that in the
works. The other thing I would tell you
[32:27] is there's some programs going on right
now uh that don't they do and don't have
[32:32] an effect. They can have some financial
effect, but we're looking at the
[32:35] possibility of what they call an asset
repositioning uh position which is
[32:40] slightly changes some of the funding
streams. It doesn't affect the community
[32:43] whatsoever, but of course that's on our
federal funding. And the last thing I'll
[32:48] tell you is that we did finish an audit
give Billy a copy of that financial a
[32:53] house of authority to be in
exceptionally good financial condition
[32:57] and again we've come three years in a
row has been recognized as being one of
[33:01] the highest performing housing
authorities in the area.
[33:05] Thank you. Thank you very much all your
information. And now we will move ahead
[33:12] with public comment time.
And the first person that we have on the
[33:16] list is Chad Armstrong. And if you would
please, Chad, approach the podium, give
[33:21] us your name and address, and then the
floor is
[33:26] yours. Chad Armstrong, uh, 190 Prairie
Lane in
[33:31] Atkins. And even though I don't live in
town limits, I travel into the town
[33:37] limits every day. So, as I get off exit
45, come down 16, my really my first uh
[33:48] visible sign is the welcome to the town
of Marion sign. In its current state, it
[33:55] is not inviting at all. So, I would like
to make some
[34:01] suggestions and ideas that I have to
improve the looks of that sign. The
[34:07] first thing you need to do or that I
would do is you need to remove both of
[34:12] those shrubs on each end. Just take them
out. Then you need to pressure wash the
[34:17] brick sign and brighten it
up. And the next thing I would do is to
[34:25] get some concrete sealer uh and seal
those brick. If you seal the brick, then
[34:33] you have less trouble with the uh
blackness of the sign in its current
[34:38] state now and the mold that gets on it
and things like that. It'll kind of shed
[34:43] that
off. And then the lighting on the
[34:47] ground, uh it looks to me like it it's
been kind of broken a little bit. I'm
[34:54] not sure that it even functions, but I
would like to see the town move the
[35:00] lighting to the top of the sign. Center
your light, make you an arm that comes
[35:07] get you a light that has an arm that
comes out. And I think you would have a
[35:12] more appealing uh sign that way. And
then uh you could build I would like to
[35:19] see you build a new flower bed, raised
flower bed using some edggers and plant
[35:25] some flowers that are annuals that bloom
every year. They come back each year.
[35:32] And I have an example for me would be
some dillies. Dillies are very hearty.
[35:40] They love the sun and they are very
hearty when it comes to winter weather
[35:45] as we experienced this past
year. Then my next thing would be to the
[35:52] uh streetscapes where the flower boxes
are at. Um basically take all that
[35:59] monkey grass out of
those and plant flowers in there. You
[36:05] can use a variety. You don't have to do
all day lillies, but get something that
[36:10] blooms and has some color so it's more
inviting when you come into
[36:16] town. And then uh Ken may be able to
help me on this one. I've talked to
[36:22] Avery about it is I didn't know if there
was any facade grants available still.
[36:28] Um, I know that down here, I'll use this
as an example. Down here at the Yummy
[36:34] Yummy restaurant, uh, their roof, it
it's not in real good shape. Don't know
[36:40] who owns the building, but I was
wondering if Ken could still work on
[36:46] some facade grants available and maybe
do something with the roof of that
[36:50] building. As you're come in, actually,
it's the second red light. You're
[36:55] turning on Main Street. you see that it
sort of jumps out at you and along the
[37:01] uh Route 16 corridor as you're coming in
before you approach the town of Marian
[37:06] sign. Um I think it'd be a great idea if
you could do some like some uh dogwood
[37:13] trees. I don't know how much property
that we could work with there. Uh you
[37:19] could do some pink and white and kind of
alternate it. I think it would look
[37:23] great. I think it would improve that
little stretch of highway there or an
[37:29] eastern red bud which blooms really
bright in the springtime as well. So
[37:35] that's kind of my ideas for uh some
things there as you're coming in off of
[37:39] that main thorough affair off the
interstate, get off 45, you're coming in
[37:44] on 16 there into the town limits. Any
questions for me or anything?
[37:52] Thank you.
We
[37:56] and I think several of the things that
you mentioned the streets committee is
[37:59] already um looking at. So we'll take
your suggestions into account and um if
[38:06] we can incorporate you into this
somehow, we definitely will. I'll be in
[38:10] touch. Thank you for coming in and we
appreciate your attention and even if
[38:16] you don't live in Marian, we still serve
you. That's right. Thanks so much. I
[38:20] appreciate it. Thank you very
much. Next, um, we do have Gail
[38:31] Atkins, Bill Atkins, 531
Cather. Got a few things going about
[38:37] transparency in this town council. Last
meeting, it blowing out the window. I
[38:44] made a
proposal with the camera system and
[38:48] everything I was asked to do. And one
thing I'd like to know if the one you
[38:53] got now, was there a proposal done for
it?
[38:58] Guess not. We never sent out an RFP. No,
we didn't. So they just, you know, and
[39:03] then you say Todd Long was here waiting.
Y'all went into a closed session, then
[39:08] adjournment. There was no nothing on the
paper saying you going to come back in
[39:13] open session. You have to return to open
session after paper. Well, we always do
[39:18] that. That's that's our well you need to
know let the people know because
[39:21] everybody leaves if you don't put it on
there that's something needs to be
[39:24] changed needs to be on that paper saying
you're going to come back another
[39:28] concession everybody's got my number or
most everybody they can call me I didn't
[39:33] get the chance to discuss my system or
anything which you know you just like
[39:38] that should have been brought to this
meeting today to vote on it so everybody
[39:44] can be there
for I've been in business for 26 years
[39:49] in this town and nothing has been bought
from me except one thing. Chief Blair,
[39:56] would you hand these out for me,
please? This was in 2009. Is it all the
[40:01] same?
Yeah. 2009,
[40:06] $13.95.
Thank you. spent
[40:12] and that by April for the town police
department for a SD card
[40:19] for I put in six proposals out of my 26
years nothing has been bought nothing at
[40:27] all except they right there and it
wasn't proposal that was just her coming
[40:32] in
deep and if Todd was here afterwards why
[40:36] wouldn't I ask you
Hunter, we went outside. I said, "Holler
[40:40] at me the next day and we'll go over to
this. I'll explain to you because you're
[40:43] on the IT
committee." Yeah, that's what I was
[40:46] expecting. Not to be blindsided and do
under the
[40:50] bus. Transparency is gone. Y'all need to
get it back cuz this is a fullblown case
[41:00] of just appalling, you know, for me to
be in business 26 years. And I'm going
[41:04] to tell you, if I do get elected
tomorrow, there's going to be some
[41:07] change because I tell you, I'm not a yes
or no person. If I don't understand it,
[41:11] I'm going to read it. I don't care if it
take you three months to vote. I'm going
[41:14] to know what I'm voting on before
voting. Not just throw it out there and
[41:18] say, "Oh, we're going to vote and
everybody votes yes or no or whatever."
[41:22] That's one reason I am
running. There's got to be something
[41:26] done. As far as Todd not uh, you know,
telling me and blindsided me, I asked
[41:31] for his
resignation because gets back to Bill
[41:34] Rushes, you know, the same thing he did.
You know, blindside put people out
[41:39] there. That's it. Thank you.
[41:45] We we thank you for your time and your
comments and um
[41:51] we're sorry that uh the process wasn't
uh to
[41:57] your advantage but we will take that
under consideration and we will
[42:04] um we go forward. Thank you for your
time. Next we have Kayla.
[42:12] I'm sorry. I can't I have a holds. Yeah.
Um, may I be moved to the to last? You
[42:19] wish to be moved to last? Yes, you may
be moved. Help me pronounce your last
[42:24] name, Kayla. You're Pastor Kayla to me.
Uh, Kyle Wols. That's why I can't say
[42:29] it. I have some trouble with it, too.
Okay. So, we have Charles Hayden next.
[42:49] My name is Charles 76 out of church.
I really don't
[42:56] know where to begin with what's going on
here,
[43:03] but I'd like to point out that under the
deal rule freedom of information, a
[43:10] government body does not have broad
general authority to adopt whatever
[43:16] ordinance it deems
appropriate or desirable.
[43:21] This is a
decision that would make the Virginia
[43:26] court
quoted with approval from the dealer
[43:31] rule as a result the rule a government
body does not have broad general
[43:38] authority. Now, my opinion under code
[43:44] 18241, this appears to be a conspiracy
against
[43:49] rights and our rights under Virginia
Constitution has been denied by the town
[43:54] cent. One of
[44:01] them storage and many other changes of
town codes for changes in the zoning.
[44:08] wish to get
passed. Now what freedom information
[44:13] says about chain
charges subsection L of
[44:20] 2.23704 prior to conducting a search for
records. The public body shall notify
[44:26] the
requesty in
[44:29] writing that the
public may make reasonable charges.
[44:36] that was not stated when given to me at
the time I made my
[44:41] request, but sent an email with an
invoice stating the charge of
[44:49] $75. An email is not putting something
in right. Then the email invoice was
[44:57] mailed after I was given the
information stating the
[45:03] charge under code 2.2-3700
2-3700 of the forer tax all public
[45:12] bodies and their officials and employees
shall make reasonable
[45:19] effort reason reach an agreement with
the requesttor concerning the production
[45:25] of records
requested. Never had that
[45:30] conversation. I do not believe getting
on a computer, pulling up a file,
[45:36] hitting a key to copy a file on a zip
drive would take the amount of time to
[45:42] justify a $75
charge. This is, in my opinion, a way to
[45:48] discourage the public from asking for
rent.
[45:52] Now, the Freedom Information Act rights
and responsibility says as of July 2023,
[46:01] the right and
responsibility statements must include a
[46:06] written policy, explaining how the
public body assesses charges for
[46:13] obsessing and searching for request
record, and noting the current
[46:18] fee to be charged, if
in I don't think y'all have that policy
[46:26] that state law and freedom of
information says you must
[46:31] have each public body may set its own
policy within the cost limit allowed
[46:40] under freedom information act not your
own amount you wish to have but under
[46:47] the freedom information
[46:51] Then in 2.2-3704.2
[46:56] Two public bodies are to designate
border request offer under part L the
[47:04] name contact information of a foreign
request offer trained by legal counsel
[47:12] of the public
body in plain English writing as the law
[47:18] says these laws are supposed to be that
does not say the lawyer can be the forer
[47:26] request. He is to be the legal counsel
training the person. So there again,
[47:34] you're violating your own codes. You're
violating the state law. You're
[47:39] violating Freedom of Information Act.
But it seems to be okay with this
[47:43] council. No way to add no transparency
to what y'all are doing.
[47:52] Now, with that being
[47:55] said, this is my opinion about what I've
[48:01] read. And I like any one of them or all
of them to look at the same codes, same
[48:08] laws I did. I'm not going to take the
time to read them today because I think
[48:11] it's y'all's responsibility to read them
and find them.
[48:17] Now, I've lived here at my present
address for 28 years
[48:24] plus. I have never never in all that
time from the time I bought my
[48:36] house, our
transparency, our overbearing
[48:43] zoning
laws,
[48:48] our roadblocks put in when we ask for
information has completely
[48:55] disguigated to where it almost takes the
acts of Congress to get the town to
[49:01] actually work with
us. And another statement before I'm
[49:07] done, it's been put in the Smith County
news that I am a frequent critic of the
[49:16] town. Well, I got news for you people.
[49:22] I love this town. I hate to move, but
it's getting to the point it looks like
[49:27] I'm going to have
to because I do not like what's
[49:31] happening in this town. But I am not a
critic of the town. I'm a critic of the
[49:39] council. I'm for the people of this
town. That's for one reason I'm speaking
[49:44] up. But right now, every move that y'all
making is to shut us up.
[49:53] Now, from there, I'm about done, but I
would like Chief Clair to give this to
[49:59] the mayor.
[50:03] Huh? Just him. Just
him. He's the head of the
[50:09] council. Now, I will read
it from town, Virginia. My name is
[50:17] Charles Andrew Hayden. My address is 726
South Church. This statement is to
[50:23] inform the town that my property is
posted. I am formally requesting that no
[50:29] town employee, police, town official, or
council person enter my property without
[50:36] my invitation or have a court order or a
court warrant to be delivered in person
[50:44] on enter dated April 7,
2025. Thank you.
[50:58] We uh appreciate your comments and um
that brings to mind that I do time these
[51:05] comments and we we gave you latitude
because I know that you had a lot to
[51:09] say. I hope that we'll take all of these
things into consideration as we move
[51:14] forward. And Mr. Finnick, um is there
anything that you wish to address there?
[51:19] Well, again, 2.2-3702
2-3702, excuse me,
[51:25] 3704.2. I've stated what it says in the
past. The code hasn't changed from the
[51:30] last time that I read it. When you look
at paragraph E, you can't just
[51:38] read particular words. You have to read
the whole paragraph. And it doesn't
[51:46] limit who can serve as a FOYA officer.
With regards to the
[51:53] charges in this
case, an email was sent by Flave
[52:01] um to Mr. Hayden
and he afterwards came
[52:08] and spoke with Flave. Flave informed him
and he came up and picked up his uh
[52:16] disc. It was not a simple process. the
system that the town uses is it's a new
[52:23] system. So, it wasn't just an easy
matter of going and and finding it was a
[52:29] process that um Todd Long was the one
that had to take spend a little time to
[52:38] discover. When Leave relayed the
information to me that there was a
[52:43] request, I came and spoke to him and
asked him, "Are you able to get this
[52:49] information?" He said, "No." I spoke
with Samantha White. She said no. And
[52:56] she wasn't aware of anyone on the town
staff that could get it. But for Todd
[53:02] Long, Todd Long was on vacation. He was
contacted. Uh there was a meeting
[53:09] between the four of us um to find out if
he could walk us through it or play
[53:18] through it and he he said no. So when he
came got back from vacation,
[53:24] um he and I did get onto the system and
he was able to eventually get it. That
[53:33] with regards to a recording, that's not
going to be a problem. Now the town has
[53:39] a YouTube page and has submitting it. So
if someone were to ask and a easy
[53:48] response would be hey get on YouTube I'm
a sub
[53:54] subscriber the town
has a form to file that form does come
[54:03] to myself and to Cindy Stanley so that
if one of us happened to be gone there's
[54:10] going to be another person that would
know something had come in.
[54:17] Um, but the town is doing what it's
supposed to be doing. Thank you. Okay.
[54:25] And as far as the uh posting of Mr.
Hayden's property um that impact um
[54:33] emergency services, that does not impact
police. that does not impact the reading
[54:40] of his water meter. If he's concerned
about that, the town
[54:45] can disconnect the meter and he doesn't
have to worry about the town coming to
[54:49] look at the meter.
Okay. But, uh, we will respect
[54:55] your privacy otherwise. And thank you
for your comments. U, it's time to move
[55:00] on. And, uh, we have Tom Hower. Tom
Hower would like to speak with us.
[55:07] Um let's let's not um let's not proceed
with civil discourse. Um I I would like
[55:14] to go ahead and follow this. I I can
give some latitude, but I'm interested
[55:18] in what you have to say, sir. Okay.
Well,
[55:23] um I had planned on mentioning this, but
I I I was interested in what uh what was
[55:29] the lady's name? First of all, my name
is Tom Hower. I live 218 North Church
[55:33] Street. and Tara here with Clean
Virginia.
[55:39] I had a conversation with Eric Ken Heath
about a couple weeks ago about the what
[55:44] she was proposing in terms of the level
of the charging station and for somebody
[55:49] who has an EV and and travels a little
bit, you know, trying to figure out
[55:54] where to spend the night. Um, if that
hotel has an EV
[55:59] charging, that is a big plus and I think
it would be a benefit to our community
[56:06] uh to have that
[56:15] available difference on the large scale
but it'll be different for owners who
[56:18] are traveling u using ease. Okay. Second
reason I'm here,
[56:27] uh I guess I've heard through the grape
vine that there was some controversy uh
[56:33] about uh some unhoused folk who are
living um on some property down by the
[56:39] river. And I was just um anticipating
some comments that were going to be made
[56:45] today, but uh haven't had the
opportunity to hear them. And um I live
[56:51] in
Marion and um I live
[56:57] downtown as some of you know and one of
the things I really like about where I
[57:02] lived is the diversity of the people
walking up and down the street in front
[57:06] of my home. Okay. And I also walk the
river walk uh two or three occasions uh
[57:13] every every week. doctor's orders and uh
there is an encampment across from the
[57:21] river rock well across the river and I'm
glad they're there to be honest with you
[57:26] the property owner doesn't have a
problem with it I think it's a it's a
[57:30] good location for those people to be in
and uh if some people are opposed to
[57:36] that they have their own opinion to that
but I think we should be compassionate
[57:40] and we should be tolerant and in this
community embrace folk that uh are
[57:47] having a hard tough time and help them
out whenever we can. And I have one
[57:51] other comment too. I sure would like to
see a threeminut limit on public
[57:56] comments. I think would make the
meetings much more efficient. So, thank
[58:00] you very much.
Well, I appreciate your comments. Um I
[58:05] have elected to use the five minute
limit and five is any any limit is good
[58:10] as long as Thank you. Thank you.
[58:17] [Music]
Thank you, Tom. Um, and now we have Lynn
[58:22] White. Lynn White would like to address
us. Hi, Lynn. If you'll please approach
[58:27] the podium and give us your name and
address.
[58:35] I'm Lyn White, 501 Virginia
Avenue, and thank you for letting me
[58:41] speak tonight.
I've lived in the town of Marian for
[58:45] over 40 years and never attended a town
council meeting. So, this is my first
[58:53] one.
I'm sorry. And so, I'm a little nervous
[58:59] and I have my notes here in front of me
um so I don't forget anything. And the
[59:07] time limit, I'm used to it because Mr.
Cornet and I were cut off at 3 minutes.
[59:14] That's why I give you five. That's why I
give you five. I I don't need five. Um
[59:20] I've over the past few months, I've seen
appreciation months for various groups,
[59:27] uh teacher
appreciation, law enforcement
[59:31] appreciation, but I didn't know if there
was a town appreciation month.
[59:37] So um over the past few months there
have been many people in the town
[59:43] capacity that has me several things and
I just wanted to
[59:54] come Miss Spencer gave me the correct
terminology but I call them the
[1:00:00] sanitation crew. I appreciate the town
sanitation people that come by my house,
[1:00:08] especially
um they were very kind and helpful to me
[1:00:13] during inclement weather and I really
appreciate that and all the help that
[1:00:20] each
person has given me. And I also want to
[1:00:25] thank all the candidates that are
running for town council tomorrow. I
[1:00:30] know firsthand how very challenging
uh this can be. So, thank you to you
[1:00:37] town council members. Thank you
candidates that are running and I wish
[1:00:43] you the best of luck.
And thank you for letting me speak. And
[1:00:48] if you'll excuse me, I have another
commitment to get to. Ben, thank you
[1:00:53] very much for your kind comments. It's
nice to hear that uh somebody likes us.
[1:01:00] And uh now we're going to move on with
JS Stalin. I saw JS
[1:01:06] earlier there. Okay, JS, if you'll
please the podium. Thank you, ma'am.
[1:01:15] I'm JS Daily. I live at 337 West Main
Street in the long time of the town. I
[1:01:24] uh simply am here to inquire what's
going on with the
[1:01:30] vacancy. Uh I thought we had a little
issue last fall
[1:01:36] winter and I thought it was resolved and
now find out that they're two separate
[1:01:42] encampments on the river bank without
sanitation without public policy input.
[1:01:51] Uh certainly a health issue. I thought
that uh I had to have a sewer line
[1:01:56] hooked up. They got a river that they
can use.
[1:02:00] So I'm just asking a question. What's
going on with the vacancy issue in town?
[1:02:06] I heard
Mr.
[1:02:11] Howard's appreciative comments. I don't
fall in the same camp. Very good. I want
[1:02:17] us to have a clean, neat
society for everybody involved. I
[1:02:25] thought that the investment of a million
dollars to upgrade some substandard
[1:02:30] housing was to take care of some of the
[1:02:38] problem more
public. So I just I don't have any idea
[1:02:44] what's going on with the vagrant issue
and I'd like to know what's going on or
[1:02:51] direct me to somebody to talk to to find
out. That's all I've got.
[1:02:59] Mr. Saley, thank you. U we will
definitely take your words into
[1:03:04] consideration and moving forward we have
uh Charles Wom. Dr. Wasome if you would.
[1:03:13] Thank you. Charles
Woma Marian
[1:03:21] Next year will be the 250th anniversary
of the signing of the Declaration of
[1:03:27] Independence. And I
think it' be a very good idea for all
[1:03:34] citizens
to read it well enough, study it well
[1:03:39] enough so that they
understand what follows were trying to
[1:03:45] do.
[1:03:55] and focus on that for just a minute or
so. We hope to be men are
[1:04:07] creator
God with certain unalable rights. Among
[1:04:13] these are life, liberty of
[1:04:21] happiness, right? go to Virginia
Constitution and before they ever formed
[1:04:28] a government with the constitution, they
put the rights of the people up there up
[1:04:32] front. That was the first thing they
did, the rights of the people and then
[1:04:36] they form the
government. Uh that to secure these
[1:04:41] rights, governments are instituted among
men. So what is the purpose of
[1:04:47] government? To secure the rights of
individual
[1:04:57] people that to secure these rights
governments. Who is the
[1:05:04] government? I understand that the town
council governs
[1:05:12] Marion, not the staff, but the town
council. Governments are instituted
[1:05:19] among men driving their just powers from
the consent of the governed. Who is the
[1:05:27] governed? Us out
[1:05:32] here. According to the Declaration of
Independence and the
[1:05:39] Constitution, governments get
powers. They don't get rights.
[1:05:45] Governments are to
secure the rights of the
[1:05:53] people. To secure these rights,
governments are instituted among men
[1:05:57] deriving their just powers from the
consent of the
[1:06:02] government. If you read the
constitution, what's the first in the US
[1:06:08] constitution? It's also all this is in
the Virginia constitution too. But
[1:06:12] article 1 section
one reinforces that it's governments
[1:06:16] that have powers. Article 1 section one
all legislative powers herein
[1:06:23] granted the people have
granted to the government the
[1:06:29] power to secure the rights of the
people. This is the way I read it. I
[1:06:35] think this is the historical
uh way it was meant. Article two. What's
[1:06:41] article
[1:06:44] two? Article two of the constitution
says the uh executive power shall be
[1:06:54] vested in a
president. Executive doesn't have any
[1:06:59] rights by the constitution. They have
powers. the executive power in the third
[1:07:03] amendment I mean the third
uh article in the
[1:07:09] constitution the judicial power of the
United States shall be vested in one
[1:07:14] supreme
court.
[1:07:17] So I hope in the state of Virginia calls
it 250 Virginia meaning the 250th
[1:07:24] anniversary of the declaration of
independence. But my interest
[1:07:27] particularly now is on July the 17th,
[1:07:34] 2023. Four people
agreed that the town has
[1:07:42] rights. Two people said no, the town
doesn't have
[1:07:47] rights. And I've talked to people about
this. It just seems to be a lack of
[1:07:53] understanding for what's written in the
foundational documents in
[1:07:59] America. People, individuals have
rights. They give power to governments
[1:08:08] to secure those rights. To me, that is
the most important job that governments
[1:08:15] have that you all have is to be sure
that our rights are secure.
[1:08:20] So, uh, I hope we'll just study that
over the next year and we'll be able to
[1:08:27] celebrate, uh, 250th anniversary, the
Declaration of Independence,
[1:08:32] understanding a lot better what our
roles are. Uh, people have rights,
[1:08:38] governments has powers. So section 3087
of the town code needs to be adjusted so
[1:08:46] it
reflects the truth as it stands
[1:08:52] now. It
[1:08:55] uh turns upside down and throughout the
country throughout the world people's
[1:09:00] rights are being overturned.
It's getting to the point where it's a
[1:09:06] they're
shifting where the people had rights.
[1:09:10] Now it's the government that has the
rights and they dish them out to the
[1:09:14] people. That's that's the
agenda worldwide for evil people. So I
[1:09:20] hope you'll think about that. I like
that evil people.
[1:09:26] Doctor, thank you very much for your
order. Order please everyone. Let's keep
[1:09:33] order and we'll move forward and we'll
move forward with Pastor Kayla who I'm
[1:09:39] sure has
something wonderful for us today. No
[1:09:44] pressure. No pressure at all.
Um I am Kayla Copp and I am the pastor
[1:09:52] of Ebenezer Lutheran Church. Um I live
at 102 Sprinkle Avenue. Um, and I wanted
[1:10:00] to talk as well about um, the unhoused.
Um, I agree with both the gentleman who
[1:10:07] spoke before um, in that, you know,
there are some people who aren't ever
[1:10:12] going to be able to live in homes. Um,
whether that is because of mental issues
[1:10:17] or whatever else. Um, and they will want
to continue to live outdoors and we
[1:10:23] should try to make that as safe and
clean as possible. Um, I can also
[1:10:28] understand the fear for, you know,
health and cleanliness and all of these
[1:10:33] things. Um, and we want to make sure
that the people who are unhoused, um,
[1:10:38] have access to all the things that they
need in order to live, um, fulfilled
[1:10:44] lives even outside of being housed.
Um, I do want to try and shift the
[1:10:51] perception um in our town and for the um
wording of the council when speaking
[1:10:58] about this um to move towards speaking
of them as the unhoused instead of as
[1:11:05] homeless or as vagrants. um vagrancy
laws were enacted um to um kind of point
[1:11:13] towards people who were poor and
unhoused and a lot of times people who
[1:11:19] had um nowhere else to go that they were
um perceived as idle or as undesirabs.
[1:11:26] Um, if you have questions about vagrancy
laws, um, I encourage you to speak to
[1:11:32] Chief Player, who knows more of the
history than I do about it, um, and why
[1:11:37] it's not something that is really
enacted anymore. Um, but I want to
[1:11:42] encourage us to look towards solutions
for the unhoused community. um and what
[1:11:49] those solutions can look like of all of
us working together to help those who do
[1:11:55] want to be housed again. um myself, um
Pastor Barbara Doyle, Pastor Emily
[1:12:02] Edmonson of the Episcopal Church, Pastor
Barbara Doyle is of the Methodist
[1:12:05] Church, um and chaplain, um Patty
McAndrews, also of the Episcopal Church,
[1:12:10] have been working with a homeless
couple, Michael and Samantha Mitchell,
[1:12:15] um for a little over a year now. Um, and
it's taken all four of us to really help
[1:12:22] and promote um, them moving forward and
trying to get back their housing. Um, I
[1:12:29] just recently took Samantha to get
cataract surgery. Um, and her cataracts
[1:12:34] were so bad you could see the white in
her p her pupil. That's how bad it was.
[1:12:39] And that prevented her from any sort of
work. um she couldn't get a job doing
[1:12:43] fast food or working with people because
the space is too tight. She wasn't able
[1:12:48] to see out of her lap eye. She has since
gotten that um surgery and has been
[1:12:55] vigorously looking for work. It is not
because of lack of trying that she is
[1:13:02] unhoused and without work. Um, she is
looking and she is trying, but it is
[1:13:07] very hard to receive work, when you
don't have access to showers, um, when
[1:13:13] you don't have access to being able to
sleep well at night. Um, if you are
[1:13:19] hungry, these are all things that people
need in order to survive and to thrive
[1:13:26] because it shouldn't just be about
surviving. Um, and I thought my watch go
[1:13:30] off. I set up it for three minutes, so
I'm going to end here. Um, but I just I
[1:13:34] I would like to encourage us all to look
for a solution together to help our
[1:13:41] unhoused neighbors thrive and not just
survive and not treat them as
[1:13:46] undesirabs. Thank you. Thank you, Kevin.
Thank you. Yeah, thank you very much.
[1:13:50] Appreciate your commentary. Avery, would
it be unappropriate if we could ask
[1:13:57] social services to directly engage with
this issue?
[1:14:02] Um
I bet I don't know I if we have uh we we
[1:14:09] can discuss it's okay. Um council can
discuss this presently if you wish to. I
[1:14:15] think pastor Kayla has tried that
haven't you? Well it's um social
[1:14:20] services is very overwhelmed and I'm
sure chief cla can speak to this as
[1:14:24] well. Um, and it's also building up
trust with um, those who are are
[1:14:31] unhoused. Like I said, we have been in
relationship with Michael and Samantha
[1:14:35] for well over a year. Um, and it's not
just I don't want people to think that
[1:14:40] we're just like handing them money. Um,
we are actively working with them. Um,
[1:14:46] and there have been times where we have
had to put up boundaries and kind of
[1:14:51] almost been the the bad guy, as it were,
to say, "Hey, you guys need to do these
[1:14:57] things if you want to push forward." Um,
and so it's not just that we're being
[1:15:02] taken advantage of or because we're in
the church that we're naive to this. Um,
[1:15:06] it has been hard conversations, but very
fruitful and wonderful conversations and
[1:15:11] wonderful relationship in this. But it
is something that will take all of us to
[1:15:18] do. Um because yes, there are the core
four of us who are working with Michael
[1:15:23] and Samantha. Um but they are working
with Mount Rogers. Um Michael suffers
[1:15:29] from schizophrenia. Um so he has he
works with Mount Rogers. Um there are
[1:15:34] members of our congregations who have
searched out work for them, who have
[1:15:38] bought them food, bought them tents,
like all these different things. um in
[1:15:43] order to just help them keep going.
It sounds like social um department of
[1:15:50] social services needs a little bit of
pressure though to do a little bit more
[1:15:54] and to be more proactive and I think a
letter from the town council would be
[1:16:00] definitely a start and also to the
Marian Housing Authority. And I'm sorry
[1:16:04] Charlie left here because I wanted to
ask him some questions as well. I mean,
[1:16:08] I hear constantly that we have um
nowhere for people to live. I mean,
[1:16:14] that's people wanting to pay rent
without assistance. Um people that need
[1:16:20] assistance can't even find somewhere to
live. So, I think we need to have a
[1:16:24] conversation. What are these people
doing to create more housing? You know,
[1:16:29] if you don't have anywhere to go, you
have no choice, right? Um you know,
[1:16:34] neither do I want to be honest with you.
I don't really want to walk the river
[1:16:38] walk and you know that people are using
the bathroom in the river and there's
[1:16:45] trash everywhere. It's it's it's
it's sad. It's sad. So I think the first
[1:16:52] start is to get these people together
and see you know with the chief and
[1:16:57] because he works with them you know they
work very close with the home the
[1:17:02] unhoused sorry the unhoused people also
and you know they're working on the side
[1:17:07] but town of Maring doesn't have funding
for these programs social services does
[1:17:13] Marian Housing Authority does you just
heard him say how financial shape that
[1:17:18] they're in this is a perfect time to get
these people together and we've got to
[1:17:24] put pressure on their backs to do
something more proactive.
[1:17:28] So, I I would like a letter sent from
the town council if possible. You want
[1:17:32] to put that in a motion? I would like to
put that in a motion. I'll second that.
[1:17:36] Yes, absolutely. So, we have a motion
and a second. Um, I don't think it hurts
[1:17:42] to um state that we would like to find a
solution and to help people um because I
[1:17:49] believe that's our motivation. Yes. So,
um is there any further discussion
[1:17:54] needed? I don't think so. I believe we'd
have to have someone draft said letter
[1:18:00] and um then we would have to approve it.
declared. So, uh, we we would we would
[1:18:07] need to go a little bit further than,
um, the current motion. Can I make a
[1:18:12] suggestion of who we should recommend
write that letter? You absolutely may.
[1:18:17] As long as it's not me. Suggest Mr.
Claire.
[1:18:21] [Music]
I agree wholeheartedly.
[1:18:25] So, we have a motion for Chief Claire to
draft a letter that would be kind and
[1:18:31] state our concerns. I I think the way to
do that, sir, and just to kind of jump
[1:18:36] into the whole question. So, the the
current question at the Riverwalk, uh
[1:18:41] those folks are on private
property by invitation of the property
[1:18:46] owner.
And so the the first step I if action
[1:18:50] were to be taken would be a zoning
action which is notably
[1:18:56] unpopular. I'm not wrong. Notably
unpopular. Okay. So so then the next
[1:19:03] reasonable step would be engagement by
the folks who have the
[1:19:09] tools like social services. Right? when
when the police are in, you know, from
[1:19:14] the police perspective, the laws
applicable are very narrowly crafted and
[1:19:20] apply whether you live in a house or
whether you don't, right? Doesn't
[1:19:23] matter. And so when we're doing it, it's
more of a mission of mercy, right?
[1:19:28] Trying to apply solutions, you know,
that these are the only tools the police
[1:19:33] have.
we we don't have housing or anything
[1:19:38] else, right? Kayla and and and other
public servants, you know, or people
[1:19:42] trying to serve the public have those
things. So, I haven't had a ton of time
[1:19:47] to think about it. But if you wanted me
to draft letter on your behalf that
[1:19:51] might ask
for a presentation of strategic goals,
[1:19:57] right? Like what what's the plan and and
maybe get some kind of engagement like
[1:20:02] that. But but I really appreciate the
work that the community itself does.
[1:20:07] Right. The only solution to the unhoused
crisis is
[1:20:13] housing. Housing. Everything else is a a
tradeoff or a band-aid or something like
[1:20:20] that. And you heard Kayla, they've been
working with Mike and Samantha for a
[1:20:25] year. The lift is huge. And frankly,
you're naive if you don't realize that,
[1:20:31] right? Like it it's just a huge lift.
But how much closer are you? Right.
[1:20:37] Yeah. I mean, you're somewhere, right?
Eventually, you're going to win that
[1:20:39] one. We're much much closer than the
world. You're going to win that one.
[1:20:43] Right. Yeah. One. Right. Right. And so
there's no such thing as
[1:20:49] like homelessness as a
problem. It's just a collection of
[1:20:55] people all in some different stage of
housing insecurity.
[1:20:59] So, I'll type something up and and have
it to the mayor in the
[1:21:06] next 48 hours. That'll be great. I'll
make sure that council is completely
[1:21:11] involved in every step of that. Then we
will approve that. We have a motion by
[1:21:16] Councilman Atwell. Can I Can I ask one
more question? Would it be would it be
[1:21:22] more appropriate to do this letter in
conjunction with Billy that it's on
[1:21:27] behalf of Oh, I think it should be on
behalf of the town council. Really? It's
[1:21:30] a it's a political question. I'm not so
sure that all of you shouldn't sign this
[1:21:34] letter. Right. Yeah. I would like to
sign it.
[1:21:40] The town council doesn't have the tools.
We're not tasked with that. Right. But
[1:21:46] we'd like to be part of the solution.
Solution. I think if you ask for some
[1:21:51] direct engagement, I'm working I mean
I'm wondering if the county should also
[1:21:57] be involved in a
solution for housing and would I mean
[1:22:06] well that that's that's we're getting
too far off of our task and our subject
[1:22:11] and we need to return to the motion
that's at hand. Uh did someone second
[1:22:16] that motion? I think I did and form. So,
we have a motion and second. The motion
[1:22:22] is that Chief Claire draft something.
Get it to me. I will get it to you. We
[1:22:27] will all work on this. We'll look at
solutions for everyone's suggestions in
[1:22:33] this. All in favor in the
affirmative unanimous vote. Chief
[1:22:39] Claire, you have your work cut out for
you.
[1:22:44] And that Thank you everyone. Your honor,
if I may, I know no one's going to back
[1:22:51] the room. I think if there's anybody
here close to an expert on business,
[1:22:53] it's no, if you don't mind, I I would so
much like to be recognized. I have some
[1:22:58] information.
Um uh yes, by all means, Nolan. Um it is
[1:23:05] usually our custom that you sign this
public comment form, but you're a very
[1:23:09] busy man and you are an authority in
this. I was so I just wanted to listen
[1:23:13] but as you got to talking I have some of
the answers uh for some of the questions
[1:23:18] that have come to I
have um since Thanksgiving
[1:23:25] 2023 brought these persons that we're
talking about into our church and I have
[1:23:31] lived with them 24 hours a day. I go
home to shower every day and I'm right
[1:23:38] back. I'm going to give you some numbers
because I'm a numbers person and this is
[1:23:42] just this year from December the 2nd
till
[1:23:47] today. I've had 80 women and 150 men
sleep at least one or multiple nights in
[1:23:55] our church. Only 20 of them return from
last year. It's a new group. I've had
[1:24:01] over 700 people come through our church
for hot meals that we provide every
[1:24:07] single night. different churches,
different clubs, different families get
[1:24:11] together, cook the meals, and bring them
in. We've helped over 40 people recover
[1:24:17] documents. There's a lot of them who
won't have jobs because they don't have
[1:24:22] identification. They don't have birth
certificate. They don't have driver's
[1:24:25] license, don't have an ID. So, have to
start with document
[1:24:29] recovery with a staff of me, my wife,
and my mother. And you heard Pastor
[1:24:35] Taylor talking about how hard it's been,
the four of them working with one
[1:24:38] couple. We've been doing this with 300
people. I have begged across this
[1:24:44] community for people to come and help. I
will make another plea tonight. Come and
[1:24:50] see. We have a meal every night at 7:00.
If we're going to make decisions about
[1:24:55] them, let's move them. Because, you
know, I'm hearing, you know, as we call
[1:25:00] them unsheltered, I call them Kim and
David and Tyler and Rose, and I know
[1:25:05] their stories and where they are from.
And it's a very complex issue. There's a
[1:25:09] mental health component. Um, I believe
it was Miss Spencer who was talking
[1:25:14] about um asking Mr. Harrington about the
housing program. One of the problems is
[1:25:20] because it is a federally mandated
program. If any of them have a felony
[1:25:25] anywhere in their history, automatic
denial and there's nothing they can do.
[1:25:30] I've already approached it. We we talked
about this. When they put it in the
[1:25:34] computer, if they have a felony, they're
not going to get anywhere with the
[1:25:37] housing program. So, I thought that was
information you guys needed to know
[1:25:42] since you were you were asking about
that.
[1:25:45] Now many of them we have reconnected
with family. It is not an outside of
[1:25:53] this area problem. Out of the 80 women
and 150 men who we have served this
[1:25:58] year, 10 of them have been outside of
Smith County. The majority of them are
[1:26:04] marrying. There are a few from Chowi and
a few from Sugar Grove. This is not an
[1:26:10] outside problem. Out of the 10 people
who were from out of this area that came
[1:26:16] through, five of them were in a car from
Arkansas that broke down and they were
[1:26:21] here in town for a month trying to get
their transportation, their car fixed
[1:26:25] and they were there with us. It is not,
I repeat, it is not an outside problem.
[1:26:31] These are our citizens, our brothers and
sisters from this community.
[1:26:37] We also did a giveaway and uh we had 200
uh excuse me 480 cars come through um
[1:26:45] and over 2,000 people that got food and
supplies. I'm seeing an increase this
[1:26:51] year of elderly women. Some are
handicapped and
[1:26:57] um I'm my program goes through Sunday.
My overnight program goes through
[1:27:03] Sunday. And when I shut down, you're
going to see an increase of people
[1:27:07] sleeping. And I'm telling you, if it had
not been for that warming center that
[1:27:11] was there, we would have picked people
up off the street. Many of them came
[1:27:16] through that door in hypothermia. We've
dealt with frostbite. We've had people
[1:27:21] with limbs being amputated all this
year, and they're right here. We have a
[1:27:28] very serious problem uh here in Marian,
Virginia, and it's going to take us all.
[1:27:34] My wife and I have invested $100,000 of
our savings. We have depleted our
[1:27:39] savings account trying to feed these
people the documents that they have
[1:27:43] recovered. And I'm going to sit down cuz
I'm about five. Um, we pay out of our
[1:27:48] own pockets for all the fees that have
to be paid to get the birth certificate,
[1:27:52] birth certificate, driver's license,
social security cards. We're running
[1:27:56] around doing all of that. F. And my
final two things I want to say. Number
[1:28:00] one, you want to know where they're
using the bathroom app? They're coming
[1:28:03] to my church because I put a porta potty
on the side of my church. I know every
[1:28:08] one of those people that are living in
those encampments. They've been sleeping
[1:28:11] in my floor in the winter. Now that it's
warm, they want to be out on their own.
[1:28:16] Because they they feel bad about
sleeping on the floor. They said, "We've
[1:28:20] been here 3 months. We've been here."
Some of them uh were returned from last
[1:28:25] year. They said, "I've been here with
you over a year and a half now." And so
[1:28:29] they've gotten tents and they're they're
they're trying really hard. They come,
[1:28:33] how do I know that they're showering?
The reason why I know they're showering,
[1:28:37] I um didn't have a shower facility at my
church. I begged across Facebook for
[1:28:42] somebody to come and help me with that.
I don't have a lot of money to do
[1:28:45] everything, but somebody could put a
shower in and we had an electrician came
[1:28:50] and and a plumber and got halfway
through it and it still isn't done. So,
[1:28:54] I begged and I begged if any churches uh
anybody had shower facilities if they
[1:28:59] would open them to us. Nobody came
forward but a church in Abington,
[1:29:04] Virginia, Rosedale Baptist Church. Three
days a week they send their church van
[1:29:09] from Abington to Marion. And those
people um that we are now learning to
[1:29:16] call unsheltered unhome get on that van,
drive all the way to Abington, get their
[1:29:21] showers, drive all the way back to
Marian, and then he in turn has to drive
[1:29:25] the van back to Abington because he
lives in Chill Howie. He has to drive
[1:29:29] back. There is a lot of work going on.
If you have questions, I promise you I I
[1:29:36] will know a lot of the answers because
I've been there since Thanksgiving 2023
[1:29:43] and it's getting worse and we it's going
to take every last one of us. So, I beg
[1:29:49] and plead for all of us to help. And if
you're going to be making decisions, I'm
[1:29:55] invite you again, come and see. My
overnight sheltering ends this Sunday
[1:30:00] and I'm going to do a cookout all day
long for them on this Sunday. Come any
[1:30:05] night this week between 7 and 8:00 and
you will watch them eat their meal and
[1:30:10] you will see they are happy. You will
see um just come and meet them because
[1:30:15] it will shift when they go from being
them and unsheltered to knowing who they
[1:30:19] are personally. Thank you for allowing
you. Thank you. Thank you.
[1:30:27] [Applause]
Absolutely
[1:30:31] inspiring. Okay. Um we will uh continue
now with uh council members reports and
[1:30:40] we'll start with council member Gates.
Yes. the uh uh the makeshift or
[1:30:48] temporary ordinance committee met and we
still have some questions to finalize
[1:30:53] the solid waste ordinance. Uh and uh we
do not need to set that for a public
[1:30:59] hearing and I'll make a motion that we
continue that and we will have another
[1:31:03] report back at the next meeting. I'll
make that motion. Second. Motion second.
[1:31:09] Discussion. None being heard. We'll
vote. All in
[1:31:14] favor? Thank you, doctor. Nothing else.
Council member Spencer. Yes. The
[1:31:20] community development committee met
Friday on the tree commission and the
[1:31:26] tree planting
proposal. We have um asked for you to
[1:31:31] approve
um a planting of the trees. Of course,
[1:31:36] no trees at exit 45 and not to exceed
$4,000. Is that a motion? Yes. Second.
[1:31:45] Motion and second. Discussion.
[1:31:53] None being
heard. We will vote. All in
[1:31:57] favor? It is again unanimous. That good.
That okay.
[1:32:07] Anything further? No. No. Thank you.
Council member Jennings. I just have uh
[1:32:12] the Lincoln Theater April newsletter and
with the events and I've given everyone
[1:32:17] a copy and I have extra copies if anyone
in the audience would like one. I'll put
[1:32:23] them up
here and that's all. Wonderful. Thank
[1:32:28] you,
Council Member Apple. I have nothing to
[1:32:32] report on, but back on Mr. Atkins
presentation earlier, I wanted to ask
[1:32:38] would it be an issue any time that we
have a close session on the agenda that
[1:32:43] we distinctly mark a line item that we
will return to open session after we've
[1:32:49] already corrected. Okay. Thank you.
Thanks. Anything further?
[1:32:55] Anything further? No. No, that's
all. Council member May, I attended the
[1:33:01] District 3 meeting uh two weeks ago and
um I have a survey if anyone would like
[1:33:07] to take one and it helps them get
funding and currently they're working on
[1:33:12] budget. So that's all I
[1:33:18] have. Thank you very much. I appreciate
that. Um I uh will continue with the
[1:33:25] mayor's report.
Um, I'm going to get you to check this
[1:33:31] uh as the vice mayor to make sure that I
have addressed everyone that is on that
[1:33:36] list while I make my report. Do you
mind, sir?
[1:33:43] I'll add. Okay, Nolan.
Oh, okay. Thank you very much. Okay. Uh,
[1:33:49] mayor's report.
Um I have been uh very busy um in the
[1:33:56] last uh little while. Uh we've had a
three-week break in between. Um been
[1:34:02] meeting with the BFW. I've had several
meetings uh caring for our community. Uh
[1:34:08] participated in student government day,
particip uh went to the Chamber of
[1:34:12] Commerce job fair. Um I wanted to say
congratulations to Jordan Propost. Um,
[1:34:20] did I get that right? Hunter proped.
Proped I'm bad with the last names. Um,
[1:34:27] as being uh officer of the year for
Marian and and welld deserved and um
[1:34:34] quite quite an asset to our PD um and
and just a whole lot of other things
[1:34:40] going on in Marian. Uh but the bright
spot was I saw a group of uh trail
[1:34:46] maintenance people out walking. They
were beside the Lincoln Theater trying
[1:34:50] to take their picture by the love sign
and I took their picture and sent them
[1:34:54] up to the Henderson where they had the
luier class going on and I had told them
[1:34:59] about it and then guess what? They had
the class going on. They got to tour. It
[1:35:04] was wonderful. They had a great time and
uh we just have a whole lot of good
[1:35:08] things going on in Marion and it is a
good place to come, a good place to be.
[1:35:14] uh want to welcome all of our viewers
that are not here with us that are on
[1:35:20] the internet. I would suggest that um
anybody that uh can't make it to our
[1:35:27] meetings, check us out on YouTube. We're
doing the best we can to uh accommodate
[1:35:33] the new technology as we've spoke. And
that's all I will have to say tonight.
[1:35:39] Thank you all for being here. We are
going to move on with the attorney's
[1:35:43] report. No report.
No report. We will move on to staff
[1:35:50] reports.
[1:35:55] Uh Cindy, no report. I'm sorry. Um no
report. Okay. Chief Claire is
[1:36:02] missing. We'll just put him off for a
couple minutes and see if Chief Ham
[1:36:07] would like to address. Absolutely. You
just did.
[1:36:11] Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, ladies and
gentlemen, council. Um, let's talk about
[1:36:14] some staff updates u since we were last
here. Uh, a couple of our full-time
[1:36:20] members, uh, Miss Sal and Mr. Widner
have completed their firefighter one and
[1:36:24] have tested out for that. Um, they
successfully passed all of their skills
[1:36:28] and are waiting results of the written
test. I'm I feel very very confident
[1:36:32] that we're going to have uh those
certifications locked in by the next
[1:36:36] time I come back. Um, Saturday, let me
tell you about this past Saturday, we
[1:36:40] had our candidate testing day. Um, as
you were aware, we had a full-time
[1:36:44] opening. We had about 10 applications
that came in and uh we invited seven
[1:36:49] folks uh to come for candidate day. Uh,
two of those folks dropped out prior to
[1:36:55] the day uh for a couple of different
reasons. uh we had one person that
[1:36:58] didn't show um and then we actually um
tested out uh four individuals and we
[1:37:06] were all very highly impressed with all
four of these individuals. Um I think
[1:37:11] you know I stand before you and say if I
had four openings I'd hire all four of
[1:37:14] them full time.
Um that was one really good part of
[1:37:19] Saturday. The other really good part of
Saturday is the men and women of Mary
[1:37:22] Fire EMS coming together to pull this
day off. Um just to give you a brief
[1:37:27] overview, what we did was we did a
written test in the morning and that
[1:37:31] took a little less than two hours. Uh we
gave the candidates the opportunity to
[1:37:36] change. We went down to the track at the
high school and did a physical agility
[1:37:40] day uh where they had to do a mile and a
half. Uh they had to do some tool
[1:37:45] carries. They had to climb the 75 ft
quintup ladder at a 60° angle. And when
[1:37:50] you get up there, that ladder is doing
this right here.
[1:37:53] Um, and I asked for extra help from our
team members that day and they came out
[1:37:59] and drove and we were able and later
after we did that we came back and did
[1:38:03] the panel interviews all day. Um, our
station was busy uh was buzzing, the sun
[1:38:09] was out, the doors were open. I had a
gentleman uh who was coming to a show at
[1:38:13] the Lincoln who came and sat in our
station and talked for 30 minutes about
[1:38:17] our 9/11 steel out front. Uh I had when
I came back into the station, there was
[1:38:21] a man holding a little girl who didn't
want to leave because all she wanted to
[1:38:24] do was look at the ambulances and fire
trucks. Um and and our team was
[1:38:28] surrounding those people and and these
candidates and it was just a testament
[1:38:32] again to the men and women that you that
you had marrying
[1:38:36] fire. Um as far as station updates go,
um you may have saw on our social media
[1:38:42] that we completed host testing um this
past week or last week. Uh we did have
[1:38:48] some failures in that, but it was mainly
in the 5- in supply lines. Um I'll be
[1:38:52] I'll probably email you guys out a
report on that a little bit later. Um
[1:38:57] fingers crossed that new ambulance
that's been put off and put off for
[1:39:01] various reasons is going to roll in this
town tomorrow morning. Um so we're super
[1:39:06] excited about that. It will take us a
couple of weeks to get that thing
[1:39:09] licensed and get it on the road. Um, and
that'll probably what I drive the next
[1:39:13] council meeting. So, we all go out and
take a look at it. Um, as far as call
[1:39:19] totals go, uh, my in-house statician,
Mr. Tally, informs me that in the month
[1:39:25] of March, we had 232 responses. Um, year
to date, we're at
[1:39:31] 636.
Um, and that's about 3.7% lower than the
[1:39:37] previous year.
Um, it goes without saying, you guys,
[1:39:42] you guys know, you hear, you see.
There's some days that we have two to
[1:39:45] four calls and there's some days that we
have 15 to 20 calls. You just never
[1:39:50] know. So, that's all I have for today.
And, uh, hello to everybody at home on
[1:39:55] YouTube. Uh, I'm glad to see that get
some more interaction in. So, uh, does
[1:40:01] anybody have any questions? You're a
star. That's right. Thank you all. Thank
[1:40:06] you. Let's move back to Chief Claire. Uh
yes, sir. Just a few things to mention.
[1:40:12] One, it seems I'll be drafting a letter
to deliver to you and uh in in in the
[1:40:18] name of the council uh talking about
addressing the helping out our unhoused
[1:40:23] residents here in Marion. Uh we had our
BFW officer of the year awards. Thank
[1:40:29] you so much for coming. And we we
understand if you couldn't make it. You
[1:40:32] know, our officer was Jordan Propes.
Jordan Probes was at the other end of
[1:40:35] the road from a firefighter who um went
into a rushing river to pull out a boy
[1:40:41] and he was given critical services and
survived. And so uh thank thank the Lord
[1:40:48] we we had no to my knowledge no loss of
life during during that event. Um, and
[1:40:55] that's officer ProS. And we'll we'll
bring him to a future council meeting.
[1:40:59] And and then in August, we're going to
have our officers who were on the scene
[1:41:04] of the death of Hunter Reedi will
receive valor awards in Williamsburg on
[1:41:09] behalf of the
BACP. On May the 3, we have a fishing
[1:41:14] event at the park. This is where police
officers, firefighters, EMS personnel,
[1:41:20] uh the uh river is stocked specifically
for the event. we go down and kind of
[1:41:24] teach the kids how to fish. It's a
really really good time. I don't teach
[1:41:28] at Rick and Bill and people like that
teach. And then uh on May 17th, we have
[1:41:32] a 5K here in Mary, the blue uh a blue
line 5K and the proceeds of that uh go
[1:41:39] to benefit um critical incident stress
management programs that are here in the
[1:41:44] area. And one of the other things that
has come up recently is, and I can't
[1:41:48] remember the name, I wish Kel was still
here. The Lutheran retreat at Hungry
[1:41:52] Mother Park has been offered at no cost
to Adam Levensw with the Virginia law
[1:41:58] enforcement action partnership to offer
a retreat for officers like who were
[1:42:03] involved in the murder of Hunter Hunter
Reed to receive critical services. So
[1:42:07] that's that's going to be kind of a
marquee program. Right now they have to
[1:42:10] drive to kind of Virginia Beach to do
that. We're going to offer some of that
[1:42:13] here for folks in our region. So, unless
there are any questions, that's all I
[1:42:19] got.
Could you explain real quick the cameras
[1:42:24] on the lights downtown main street?
Which one? So, I think there was a thing
[1:42:32] on social media going around, Hunter, I
think you knew more about it than I do,
[1:42:35] that it's um I think they're questioning
exactly what those cameras are for and
[1:42:41] if they're monitored. So, there's two,
to my knowledge, two sets of camera.
[1:42:47] Well, I I don't even know if that's
true. Let me start again. In
[1:42:52] 2020, we were told that V DOT was going
to make changes to our traffic light
[1:42:58] system
downtown. We assumed that would happen
[1:43:02] in somewhat timely way.
So, we installed traffic monitoring
[1:43:07] cameras on behalf of the town
um for a couple of reasons. One, for for
[1:43:14] that. Two,
um for the public events that we have.
[1:43:18] So, we've got good situational
awareness. Remember, this was also
[1:43:22] during uh the social unrest that we had
in 2020. We were looking for some
[1:43:26] cleanings there. And those have been in
place for about four years. the most
[1:43:31] recent install. So now they finally I
guess decided to do what they said they
[1:43:36] were going to do then four years later.
Most recent install I don't have a ton
[1:43:42] of details on. I think one piece is the
light override system for
[1:43:48] fire where where they have a device in
the cab that will change the lights. I
[1:43:54] think another piece is a light override
system for VOD to help keep Route 11
[1:44:03] clear during traffic shutdowns. And I
well beyond my technical basically when
[1:44:08] when 81 is closed for a for an accident,
you reroute your traffic. Most of you
[1:44:15] seen bumper to bumper tractor trailers
for two or three hours at a time coming
[1:44:20] through town. Uh, this signal upgrade
will allow them to put put the signals
[1:44:27] on flash to keep traffic flowing. Um,
[1:44:34] there's some kind of camera component to
that, but I have no idea what it is.
[1:44:38] That that's I mean they can monitor
traffic flowing uh and things like that.
[1:44:43] Uh, my understanding is we're getting
some phase upgrades also in our
[1:44:48] cabinets. Um the phases is uh that's
your that's your time differential
[1:44:56] between each intersection and
um I think they've already installed
[1:45:01] some flashing yellow arrows so we didn't
have them before. Uh so we're getting
[1:45:07] some signal upgrades as they go along
but uh but the cameras and all that is
[1:45:12] strictly
uh VOP. Okay. doing that and and and our
[1:45:16] iss and I know I hope Dr. Wson would
appreciate it. So I feel like I'm pretty
[1:45:21] sensitive to civil liberties. They have
no LPR capabilities, no facial
[1:45:26] recognition capabilities, no sound
capabilities, no object tracking
[1:45:30] capabilities. They've been deliberately
positioned so you can't see traffic
[1:45:34] signals. They've been deliberately
positioned so that you do not have views
[1:45:37] of areas commonly not not commonly
observable. It's they're only retained
[1:45:43] for about the footage is not
consistently monitored and it's only
[1:45:47] retained for about seven days. The the
times of most usage would be like during
[1:45:52] the chili cookoff. We put that up in the
incident command. We have some
[1:45:55] situational awareness views. We feel
like that's important for active shooter
[1:45:59] threats, vehicle border threats. Um I
think some of our defense attorneys wish
[1:46:04] that it was held longer because we get
requests for well for like traffic
[1:46:09] accidents especially. You know, it's
like you you get in an accident and you
[1:46:12] work out a deal with someone like, "Oh,
it's all fine." And then a week later
[1:46:16] they decide that they didn't do it like
they said they did it and then they
[1:46:20] request the footage and again it's been
overridden. Um it it has been useful in
[1:46:25] some some crimes. We recently had uh a
town citizen who was defrauded of uh
[1:46:33] several thousand dollars. We were able
to identify the vehicle that left her
[1:46:38] home. Uh there was a I think an RV that
ripped the drive-thru off the
[1:46:43] McDonald's. We were able to identify
that vehicle. Uh there was an accident
[1:46:49] recently where the parties disputed kind
of what happened and kind of just barely
[1:46:53] able to catch that. But one of our town
residents just lied flat out about what
[1:46:58] they did and tried to turn that that
poor woman into a offender when she was
[1:47:03] in the city. And so those are just a few
examples. It's it's not overly useful
[1:47:09] for evidence stuff because again it's
just kind of a passive monitoring, but
[1:47:13] it's really useful for for a situational
awareness tool and and I think that
[1:47:18] we've got restrictions in place that
recognize the the need for certain
[1:47:24] technology, but also my own personal uh
you know you know that things like
[1:47:27] license plate readers are very prolific.
If you saw the article in Cardinal News,
[1:47:32] they we don't have um and and I think
that's important because I think a lot
[1:47:37] of folks in the region here are very
concerned about privacy. So I I sent
[1:47:43] Billy a couple a couple of views. I
don't know if you want to pull it up.
[1:47:46] one of them. Let me try to find just to
give you a sense of what it looks like
[1:47:52] and and in terms of monitoring if listen
if the town council wants to provide a
[1:47:57] monitoring link I'm going
[1:48:02] to keep. Oh, it's right here.
[1:48:12] That's not
it. That's not it. That's not it. Nope.
[1:48:17] Oh, that's what I see you right there.
Camera, right? Yeah.
[1:48:29] Yeah.
[1:48:33] So, this is an
[1:48:36] image that's an example of what we see.
Okay. Uh they have no pan, tilt, zoom.
[1:48:44] Uh there is some electronic zooming but
you know it gets so pixelated by that
[1:48:48] time it's hard it's hard to tell but
that's just one one example. Uh and then
[1:48:54] there's a video do you guys remember a
while back we had a citizen come in. He
[1:49:00] was concerned we were chasing a
motorcycle absolutely certain about what
[1:49:06] he saw. Well, we invited that citizen to
then observe the camera footage
[1:49:11] and that's not what we
saw what we saw was something else. So,
[1:49:16] here's an example of the moving the
moving footage
[1:49:19] downtown. And again, if if citizens have
a desire, I guess, for some kind of
[1:49:24] access to it. To me, that's an IT
question. I
[1:49:30] don't if I if I may for a moment. Um,
when I was at the police department, I
[1:49:35] actually helped write this grant. This
was all grant funding. And, um, I will
[1:49:41] say as far as the open link to view it,
um, the system itself is somewhat
[1:49:47] unreliable because it's based off of
cell
[1:49:50] phone service.
So that's why instead of seeing cars
[1:49:56] that look like they're just going,
that's why you see a car every every few
[1:50:01] seconds, every few frames. So if we
attempted to do a link, which I'm open
[1:50:05] to as well, but I just want everyone to
be aware that if that ever occurred, the
[1:50:10] overload to the system that may occur
may
[1:50:15] How many users do you have? How many
users? Anybody in this room tuned in?
[1:50:21] Well, I can say uh that at on my
computer on my laptop um when I run the
[1:50:27] program to watch it, I have to turn an
extra fan on my laptop computer because
[1:50:31] it spins so much and get so get so hot
you can smell start smelling my laptop
[1:50:36] computer. Um and if when I was at BD and
let's say Sergeant or Wes Thomas was in
[1:50:42] his office and he was doing it, uh there
was often times that only one of us
[1:50:45] could watch a video at a time.
So just be aware of that before we start
[1:50:50] throwing out links and promises that I
don't
[1:50:54] think so. So So again, I know there are
concerns about things like cameras and I
[1:51:00] feel
like I feel like my instincts are to
[1:51:03] guard civil
liberties. Maybe not everybody would
[1:51:07] agree with the compromise that I feel
like we have, but I don't feel like it's
[1:51:12] a bad one. And I think it avoids
certainly some of the most problematic
[1:51:17] data collection. No, no license plates,
no no, no, no anything. And I I don't
[1:51:23] have any problem at all with
transparency steps. If we want to create
[1:51:26] some kind of IT base, it's way outside
of my knowledge base. That that's fine.
[1:51:32] But uh it has had some use for us and
and it continues to some of them are
[1:51:37] reaching their service life. There's
trouble
[1:51:40] with about the cabinet. the cabinet that
kind of holds it overheats and so
[1:51:45] there's some trouble with stuff like
that. But if anybody has questions on
[1:51:49] that, please let me know. Well, thanks
for answering the question. Yeah, thank
[1:51:53] you very much, Chief. Anything else?
Anything else? Oh, I didn't start that
[1:51:57] one. I know you didn't. That's why I'm
just kindly moving on. Uh, and next we
[1:52:04] have Ken Heath with economic
development. You don't mind if you want
[1:52:07] to stay seated for another month or so,
then after that I'll be able to get up.
[1:52:10] Absolutely. Election day A is tomorrow.
Three precincts are open. Wherever you
[1:52:14] normally vote, the town of Marian, East
Park at Marian Recre, Wona, Marian
[1:52:18] Senior Hospital, and Royal Oak East at
the Marian Police Station. So, make sure
[1:52:22] you go out and vote. Town council. Uh,
April 9th, ADA meeting. This Wednesday
[1:52:27] at noon, Marian Police Department. April
14th is an update on the Steel Park
[1:52:33] program. We're going to have another
meeting at Mount Pleasant at 6 p.m. Uh
[1:52:37] we've received some renderings uh that
Greg uh and his group have put together
[1:52:42] what they'd like to see and I've asked
them to put together. Uh I've also asked
[1:52:47] Tony and the group to go out there and
kind of take some paint mark off those
[1:52:51] areas. I think that once folks been out
there and you see the space and you
[1:52:55] start feeling how big a basketball court
is on that space, it's like trying to
[1:52:59] put on your bridges. It ain't fit. So
that's what we're going to be. I think
[1:53:02] in in a lot of this. So I think once we
see things out there, it'll change and
[1:53:07] the the design that Greg provided that
get in seems pretty reasonable. Seems
[1:53:13] like hopefully we'll be able to go for
it and Dr. Gates has helped us get the
[1:53:17] ground in. So I think we'll be a nice
park out of that. April 15th, Senator
[1:53:22] Mark War will be at the Lincoln 11:30 to
12:30 for meeting just like this for you
[1:53:26] to come and express your views. Uh and
then April 19th hazardous material day
[1:53:30] at the trade school one. So any
hazardous material issues taken down.
[1:53:35] When was that again? April
19th Saturday. The other thing we're
[1:53:40] going to be doing is starting next
Friday. We received a grant from
[1:53:44] Virginia Main Street to do a community
visioning. It'll do three things. It'll
[1:53:47] do a market analysis to show us where
the markets are headed. Uh and that's
[1:53:54] anybody's guess at this point
internationally, nationally. but at
[1:53:57] least be able to look at our markets
here. Uh our businesses, how they can be
[1:54:01] better and and solidify their business
and hopefully help us recruit new
[1:54:05] businesses to come in as well. Uh
they'll be looking at the physical plant
[1:54:08] of downtown, the downtown district, our
trees, our streets, and everything else.
[1:54:12] Chad, that's why I was asking for your
notes on that because I want to include
[1:54:15] that. The biggest part of that, we're
going to have a series of meetings at
[1:54:18] the Lincoln Theater inviting public
comment. What do you want to see Marian
[1:54:23] look like in the next 10 to 20 years?
and I'll be down there just to the point
[1:54:28] to open up the meeting and I'm going to
leave not because I don't want to be
[1:54:31] there to hear what you have to say, but
I don't want folks looking and saying,
[1:54:34] "Kim, what do you think?" Because I've
done this for 30 years. I want this to
[1:54:37] be a communitydriven project where at
the end of it, we'll have a market
[1:54:41] analysis, show how businesses can be
successful and how we can make our
[1:54:44] current business successful and also new
businesses to recruit. We'll have the
[1:54:49] tools to make downtown more accessible,
more traffic uh worthy for parking. We
[1:54:54] talk about parking lot, talking about
lighting, we talk about signage. Uh and
[1:54:58] then also we'll have what this community
wants to see and the priorities and then
[1:55:02] we'll hopefully come up with some goals
one year, 5 year, 10 year game changers
[1:55:06] that we can work on as a community as
those of us that are out of solar that
[1:55:11] are ready to retire and move on in a
couple years. Uh we want to be able to
[1:55:16] clean the the rocks out of the path so
that the people that come after us can
[1:55:20] make this bigger and better than we can
ever dream it can be sitting in this
[1:55:23] room here tonight. And the way for us to
do that is to use the knowledge we have
[1:55:27] gathered since the time we've been here
and let's people come up with you bigger
[1:55:33] pick that up. So as those are announced
they'll be later this fall. I appreciate
[1:55:37] all the comments you do. We'll probably
do some surveys of the events in
[1:55:40] downtown as well. And the more opinions
that you guys come and express, the
[1:55:45] better this product. The last thing I
want to do, your honor, is congratulate
[1:55:49] Tony on being named assistant manager. I
know
[1:55:52] that Lyn White was in here thinking to
the public works crew and we've got
[1:55:57] we've got a heck of a team here with the
town of Maring. All the snow that was
[1:56:01] removed. I this winter was I I dare say
that anybody any better than your We
[1:56:09] appreciate Thank you. We We have a heck
of a heck of a staff. Public works,
[1:56:16] everybody all the way around. Super
duper. And speaking of them, Todd
[1:56:23] Long, I'm sorry. Um, you're out of
order.
[1:56:28] I'm sorry you're out of
[1:56:31] order. There's There's no comments right
now.
[1:56:35] Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to
give everybody a quick update. Um,
[1:56:40] Friday we had 50 subscribers to our new
YouTube channel. I just looked before I
[1:56:45] walked up here. We got 105 as of right
now. Um, the the uh video that was
[1:56:51] uploaded on Friday with with the mayor's
welcome has been viewed
[1:56:57] 766 times. As you said in that message,
I mean, there's going to be some
[1:57:02] hiccups. There's going to be some things
that that humps and bumps in the road.
[1:57:05] We're going to work through that. Um,
I'd like to apologize to M Mr. Atkins.
[1:57:10] I, you know, we didn't certainly didn't
mean to burn any bridges. We certainly
[1:57:13] didn't mean to uh step on anybody's toes
by doing this. It was a council's
[1:57:18] decision and and we went the council
route. We may have to revisit it
[1:57:22] sometime. And uh, you know, don't
certainly don't mean to burn any bridge
[1:57:25] with Mr. Atkins.
Um, some planning commission updates. Uh
[1:57:31] this coming up next Monday, we're going
to be talking about some stuff that the
[1:57:35] plan that the council has referred to uh
planning commission with the uh
[1:57:39] livestock regulations and the fence
height in the front yard. Uh after that
[1:57:44] meeting, we'll report back to you all on
that. Um they was talking about
[1:57:49] streaming some of the uh intersection uh
cameras. I think that would require
[1:57:54] opening up a port. The biggest part with
that is some of the latency is the
[1:57:59] upload speeds on the on the Comcast
modems that we have at each of the uh
[1:58:04] traffic signals. You know, you can get a
lot of download, but it's it's hard to
[1:58:08] get a lot of upload. And uh the size of
the videos that that we try to upload.
[1:58:14] That's why when you seen it look jumpy
the system upload speeds from the from
[1:58:19] that intersection was just it just it
can't handle the traffic that it that it
[1:58:24] push has to push through to get back to
here then out to there. But if that's
[1:58:28] something council wants to entertain,
we'll find a way to do it. We always do.
[1:58:33] Um I just appreciate y'all support. I
want to congratulate Tony as well,
[1:58:37] assistant town manager. you got a good
one and we're all going to work
[1:58:41] together. Nothing's going to change here
and I just appreciate that all support.
[1:58:45] Any questions you got, I'll be happy to
answer. Todd, I have one. Can you go
[1:58:49] over the camping ordinance with us
again? Refresh us. Sure. Um, so I think
[1:58:56] the camping ordinance said u you had to
be related to the property owner. And
[1:59:01] I'm doing this from memory, so it's been
a minute. I think you had to be related
[1:59:05] to the property owner. you could camp
for 72 consecutive hours. You had to
[1:59:10] have a sanitation facility available
24/7. Um, and there were some other
[1:59:17] things in there, Trish. I can I can
certainly look back at that and and and
[1:59:21] report more to you for the next meeting.
Um, I don't have my phone on me. I'm
[1:59:28] sorry. I'd have to go back and look at
it. Uh but there were some things in
[1:59:33] there that really related to family
camping and stuff like that. Uh but the
[1:59:37] biggest thing was the sanitation
facilities and and of course you know uh
[1:59:41] the trash and and and the debris and
other stuff that comes along with
[1:59:45] camping in some cases. And are we
enforcing that? No, we're not. And how
[1:59:51] come?
Well, as you've heard from some of the
[1:59:55] citizens here tonight, it's it's it's
zoning is an issue right now. You know,
[2:00:00] whenever we propose this stuff, we
propose for what we feel like is the
[2:00:04] highest and best use for everybody in
town. Let's make Mar a better place for
[2:00:09] both women to play. That's been our
motto for three years
[2:00:12] now. I hate that I got to come and ask
council every time we get ready to
[2:00:17] enforce saying is this okay? It
shouldn't be like that, but with today's
[2:00:21] environment, we almost feel like we have
to. It's almost like we we got to have
[2:00:25] your blessing for everything. I wish it
wasn't like that, but that's where it's
[2:00:29] at now. But if you all would like for me
to enforce that at your discretion, I
[2:00:33] certainly will. Well, why did we do it
if if we're not going to enforce it? I'm
[2:00:38] just
curious. I mean, with all of our
[2:00:41] ordinance, we've had other people
complain about signs and
[2:00:47] I'm just
curious how we pick and choose. Well,
[2:00:51] that's I I don't like picking and
choosing. I either like to do it or I
[2:00:54] don't. I I I I would I'd like to have
your blessing to enforce it all. Just
[2:00:58] like the last meeting that came and I
addressed the the uh solid waste. I
[2:01:02] think Dr. Gates said, "Let's look at it
before we do that." You know, I want to
[2:01:07] get out in front of that to keep birds,
cats, dogs, animals from tearing up
[2:01:11] bags. It's not in trash cans open
without going all over the neighborhood.
[2:01:15] I can tell
you prior to the last council meeting, I
[2:01:19] don't remember the exact date, I
probably
[2:01:22] had two or three calls where people were
animals had gotten into just bag trash
[2:01:28] that tore open and blow blown all over
their their yards. We get that every
[2:01:33] month. Every week. Every week. But, you
know, all you got to do is give me the
[2:01:40] go ahead and and you know, I'm very
proactive and I'll be happy to enforce
[2:01:45] everything as we interpret it. Um, if I
if I can mention something and someone
[2:01:53] spoke this to me at one point in time,
the speed limit is
[2:01:57] 25, but we don't give people tickets
until they hit 32, something like that.
[2:02:04] laws are made to be
enforced, but some of them apply to what
[2:02:12] I want to call egregious
circumstances. Um, discretion is the
[2:02:18] greater part of
valor. Just my opinion, and I'm only one
[2:02:23] person, but applying the letter of the
law to every citizen seems a bit
[2:02:31] excessive to me.
I don't think you should have to ask
[2:02:36] every time you apply the law either. I
believe we're all reasonable people and
[2:02:41] we know when a situation needs to be
corrected.
[2:02:46] My opinion, does the one at Riverbend
need to be corrected? That's not my
[2:02:50] question to be answered.
We need to be consistent with everybody
[2:02:55] and that's what we are doing, right? I
mean, that's that's that's really why
[2:02:59] I've not gone out. Now, I can tell you
I've had complaints, not so much of of
[2:03:04] the camping, but the trash that they're
making. Uh the debris that they're
[2:03:08] putting down over toward the and I'm not
even talking about this area here. I'm
[2:03:11] talking about another area.
[2:03:15] Uh it's it's a lot of trash that they're
putting down over at the riverbank. And
[2:03:23] u I've not addressed that yet, but it is
on my radar. I just I just if you give
[2:03:28] me permission, I'll certainly go do it.
Well, have you So, I understand the
[2:03:34] unhoused are not the ones you're going
after. You'd be going after the property
[2:03:38] owner, correct? He's the one responsible
by law. I have to go after the property
[2:03:43] owner. So, have you addressed the
property owner about the trash? So, the
[2:03:47] the police department did some
engagement down there and spoke with the
[2:03:51] property owner.
He wants he wants those residents there
[2:03:58] because he knows they have nowhere else
to go and he won't tell them to
[2:04:03] leave. He he's very adamant that he
wants them there. Well then what don't
[2:04:10] we have ordinance in place if you have a
camp ground?
[2:04:15] Don't we have things you have to have
for a campground? Commercial campground.
[2:04:19] Yes. So isn't that considered a camp
ground? Would that would he not need to
[2:04:25] go about getting making that a
campground area? My in my opinion it
[2:04:30] would not be considered a commercial a
commercial campground trash. Why?
[2:04:35] Because commercial is is transfer of
money and I think the state code
[2:04:40] actually does mention up to number of I
want to say more than two which it is
[2:04:46] down there but there's still no money
change at hand no value there.
[2:04:51] Well, what provision has he made for a
restroom
[2:04:55] for or picking up the trash? Yeah, I
can't answer that. I have not made
[2:04:59] contact with the property owner yet.
Folks, um if if you want to u refer this
[2:05:05] to a committee, um I I think that would
be the appropriate action.
[2:05:16] What committee would it be? Um that what
is council's pleasure.
[2:05:23] Would that be more recreation with the
park or I mean it wouldn't really be
[2:05:28] streets but it does involve sanitation.
[2:05:33] Do you have a suggestion, Billy?
Community improvement.
[2:05:40] We don't have a committee for community
improvement. What's your committee? Um
[2:05:45] economic development. That's under
I'm I am not currently allowing uh
[2:05:52] comments from um you have to understand
take it to I'll be happy to take it to
[2:05:58] my committee and your committee which
one
[2:06:02] I'm on the police committee and the
economic
[2:06:06] committee and if you want to take it
into your wheelhouse absolutely
[2:06:13] this isn't contradictory to what we said
about you writing the better in us
[2:06:17] wanting to be part of the solution. Is
it? No, I don't think so. I think I
[2:06:22] think there's an certainly an immediate
discussion to be had on the enforcement
[2:06:27] of the camping ordinance or not. I'm not
sure I'm leaving this meeting with a
[2:06:34] clear
understanding unless I'm missing
[2:06:37] something. It sounds like something we
need to talk about that. But that's, you
[2:06:41] know, that's a solution that's this far.
So if if if the property owner was
[2:06:47] notified that he was violating the
zoning ordinance willfully because he
[2:06:51] actually wants that there right then
what action is there to take? He would
[2:06:56] get the ordinance he would get the
zoning violation. He would maybe appeal
[2:07:00] that to the board of zoning appeals to
the board of zoning appeals and then
[2:07:05] some discussion would go on there. None
of the folks who are staying there
[2:07:09] committing any any offense whatsoever.
And then if he refuses
[2:07:14] Then what happens if he refuses after I
think it's 15 days it just goes through
[2:07:20] the same process all the other zoning uh
non-compliance does it go to court so I
[2:07:25] guess it would end up in court but but
that solution well first of all that's
[2:07:30] not a solution that
process is just those steps so I think
[2:07:37] if we're going to get something closer
to a
[2:07:40] solution certainly engaging with social
services is the only answer, right? As
[2:07:46] illquipped or underfunded as they may
be, that's the only answer. What about
[2:07:51] Mount Rogers? Um, did I know they have
So, they're doing a lot of engagement. I
[2:07:57] think it's more of a question of
vision. Who in the social service field
[2:08:02] has the vision to do the engagement and
to actually move the needle? We see that
[2:08:07] Kayla had vision, right? She's working
with one group of people. I think I
[2:08:12] think Nolan's got some vision. I think
there are people in the community with
[2:08:14] the vision for it, but maybe we need to
find those same people in the social
[2:08:20] service that have the vision and the
drive to to do something.
[2:08:28] And and I think by by enforcing the
zoning helps push this needle slightly.
[2:08:36] Maybe it's
temporary, but I mean, unless we do
[2:08:42] something, nothing's nothing is ever
gonna get done. I mean, they'll have to
[2:08:48] go somewhere.
They'll have to go somewhere. Um, if
[2:08:53] these sidewalks, if if I may uh mention
that Mr. Finnick may have information
[2:09:01] regarding
um the the disposition of moving these
[2:09:07] people.
Well, your town manager has just told
[2:09:11] you that if you move them, if you cause
the property
[2:09:18] owner an expense that that property
owner doesn't want to bear, then that
[2:09:25] property owner will say you can't you
can't be here. You're trespassing. So,
[2:09:30] they will go to another
area. Whether that's they don't have a
[2:09:35] choice, right? I mean, they're humans
again.
[2:09:38] So, they they're going to go somewhere.
They're going to go in behind
[2:09:41] businesses. I've had them behind my
business with their clothing. And I'm I
[2:09:47] really am trying to enforce the rule of
not engaging with the public at this
[2:09:54] point in time. I'm very sorry. I I don't
want to This is a discussion with
[2:10:00] council and staff.
um more than welcome to
[2:10:07] uh comment at a later date.
So uh Miss Spencer,
[2:10:17] yes. What is your question? We we have
left this as you wanting to take this
[2:10:22] into your committee. Do you have a
second or is that a motion?
[2:10:26] Um, I'll be happy to make a motion to
take it to a committee, but I think I
[2:10:32] don't think it's necessary to be honest
with you. I think it almost needs to be
[2:10:37] decided now whether we want to enforce
these camping laws or not.
[2:10:47] [Music]
I hear no second to your motion. Was
[2:10:52] that a motion? Yes, that's a motion to
enforce the camping laws. You need to
[2:10:59] have a motion on the floor already with
no second. Do you want to resend that
[2:11:02] motion to refer it to a committee? Sure.
Yes.
[2:11:06] Motion rescended. I make a motion that
we enforce the camping laws.
[2:11:14] I'll second.
[2:11:19] We have a motion. We have a second.
Do we need discussion?
[2:11:25] Probably. Yeah. Then please discuss. I I
I agree with what Miss Spencer has said.
[2:11:34] But then on the other hand, what do we
do with these uh humans once they are
[2:11:45] told to
leave? Is there any responsibility? But
[2:11:49] Chief Claire, maybe you can answer this
question. Do we have any responsibility
[2:11:54] there? Uh I mean I don't know the answer
to it. It's a it's a tough tough
[2:12:00] decision. There's there's not an answer.
There are only trade-offs. The only
[2:12:04] solution to people not having homes is
people having homes. There's no other
[2:12:09] solution. Everything else is a tradeoff.
It would seem the current tradeoff is a
[2:12:16] piece of property at Riverbend. So that
means if that's eliminated, there will
[2:12:20] be a trade-off somewhere else, perhaps
behind
[2:12:23] businesses.
Um the the reality is is that they they
[2:12:29] can't be teleported into a different
dimension. They're human beings who do
[2:12:33] human being things. They sleep and eat
and go to the bathroom and they can't
[2:12:39] they can't stop doing that. And
so perhaps
[2:12:45] if we were to inform Smith County Social
Services that this area has become
[2:12:53] untenable and ask for direct engagement
in, you know, kind of a righteous
[2:13:01] relocation
maybe. Um well, do these do these humans
[2:13:06] have rights that Dr.
was talking. They're all from here, too,
[2:13:11] by the way. I beg your pardon. They're
all from here. Mike and Samantha, too.
[2:13:15] Yeah. Yeah. They're all right. What's
the difference in their rights and our
[2:13:21] rights? I mean, I don't know. I mean,
I'm just I I I'm just toward I don't
[2:13:25] want them to be behind your business,
you know? I want them to have housing,
[2:13:31] but I don't know how to go about that. I
think we need more people involved in
[2:13:36] it. And I know Pastor Kayla is working
very hard with other community leaders.
[2:13:43] I think that's what we need to do is get
the community leaders together and try
[2:13:48] to come up with a solution. That's why I
think the county also needs to be
[2:13:52] involved.
But as long as we let them stay
[2:13:58] there, no needle will be moved because
social services is content with them
[2:14:05] staying there. Maring Housing Authority
is content with them staying there until
[2:14:11] until we
start being a little bit aggressive. And
[2:14:16] I hate it. I hate it. Honestly, I hate
it. But
[2:14:20] well, it it'll be the property owner has
to be aggressive. Remember the people
[2:14:24] who are staying there have committed no
crime. Right. Right. Only the property
[2:14:28] owner is in violation of the zoning
ordinance. Yeah. So this is where low
[2:14:33] when notified
of it he'll have a decision to make.
[2:14:38] He'll either make his property comply by
asking them to leave or he will not. And
[2:14:44] if he does not
then Todd will take the next step and
[2:14:48] then maybe he'll appeal that. And so
certainly not something that's going to
[2:14:51] happen overnight. But But the owner
would have to decide to either and and
[2:14:56] then what if the owner just takes the
charge? No amount of camping ordinance
[2:15:02] violations result in public hanging,
right? Like it it just is what it is.
[2:15:07] There's no there's no escalation level
to, you know,
[2:15:11] just making it. What if he decides to
take the charge? Then I guess we do it
[2:15:17] again.
[2:15:22] That's my motion. It's just a very very
tough uh situation to be in because
[2:15:27] there's no really good answer.
Um no answer period. Well, um we can be
[2:15:33] here all night talking about it and
never get it solved. But we have a
[2:15:37] motion and a second and we have had
discussion. Do we want to discuss
[2:15:42] further? I just like the motion reread.
Yeah, I want to. Yes. Miss Spencer made
[2:15:47] a motion seconded by Mr. May. a motion
to enforce the camping laws.
[2:15:52] Um I will mention that um those camping
ordinances have not been produced uh to
[2:16:00] your satisfaction.
[2:16:04] Remember earlier in the meeting we had
asked that Mr. Long present us with
[2:16:09] those camping ordinances. So, we're
making a motion at this point in time to
[2:16:16] enforce ordinances that we do not
know. I do we want to clarify those
[2:16:22] motions? I I think are those ordinances
rather
[2:16:28] I I think both
camping have come to a public hearing.
[2:16:34] Is that correct? Yes. And you all have
taken action on them. Uh, I believe
[2:16:39] they're adopted. Or could you read Could
you read in the
[2:16:45] minutes ordinance?
As far as the minutes, no, what we have
[2:16:51] in the ordinance for the camping.
I'm trying to find
[2:16:57] Let me get my phone.
[2:17:16] to summer stylish sandals for 10.
[2:17:44] Yeah, we might have to
[2:17:55] take a race.
[2:18:01] In the interest of time, since we cannot
produce these, I got I got it right
[2:18:05] here. Okay, just took me
says camping on private properties.
[2:18:10] Camping on private properties allowed in
the town of Marion with the following
[2:18:14] restrictions. There must be a camping
unit, tent, travel, trailer, RV, etc.
[2:18:19] Only one camping unit per service
building located on the same parcel or
[2:18:24] parcels that are contiguously owned by
the owner.
[2:18:28] The service building must have working
sanitary facilities available 24 hours a
[2:18:32] day for the people camping on your
property. Camping is allowed for 72
[2:18:37] consecutive hours. Example, Friday,
Saturday, Sunday. People can only camp
[2:18:41] on the property they own or related to
the owner. No more than four people can
[2:18:46] camp in a camping unit
simultaneously. Primitive camping is
[2:18:50] prohibited. A service building with
working sanitary facilities is required.
[2:18:56] And then it goes on to commercial
campgrounds, which I don't think really
[2:19:00] applies to this situation. And could you
tell us the penalty for failure to uh
[2:19:06] adhere to this ordinance? Well, what
would happen is we give the we have to
[2:19:10] write the property owner, excuse me,
property owner uh notice of violation.
[2:19:15] Normally the presidents we set and we
send them an initial letter say we've
[2:19:19] noticed this happening on your property.
Can you meet with us and let us know
[2:19:23] your your plan what's going on here? If
they don't meet with us, most of the
[2:19:26] time they do, but if they don't, then we
send them the first notice of violation.
[2:19:29] We give them 15 days to correct the the
issue. I I'm I'm asking the monetary. So
[2:19:36] So the monetary I believe it would be a
class three misdemeanor. So it would be
[2:19:40] up to $500 fine.
And how often can this $500 fine be
[2:19:48] applied? Daily. Daily. So you're looking
at a $500 fine. uh and with
[2:19:54] non-compliance that uh but the court
would have to enforce that. Is that
[2:19:59] correct?
[2:20:02] So the court would be the one that would
have the ability to go up to a $500 fine
[2:20:08] or whatever they feel is
appropriate. Is that correct? Right.
[2:20:13] That the court could find them guilty
and have no financial penalty. Okay. So
[2:20:21] now we know what we're voting on. Can I
ask a question? Of course. Okay. So, the
[2:20:25] rights of Cubans are okay as long as
our codes and and and uh uh zoning
[2:20:38] issues
are enforced.
[2:20:43] Can you ask that question again? I'm
just I'm I'm just hung up on if if if
[2:20:50] everybody has rights that Dr. Wasam was
talking about, citizens rights. Well,
[2:20:56] they are citizens, right? Is that and I
I don't want to belabor this, but I have
[2:21:01] a a real problem with where will they
go? That's that's that's that's kind of
[2:21:08] a question I'm thinking is if we run
them from this place, they're going to
[2:21:11] go to Wona. from Wona. They're going to
go to
[2:21:16] somewhere else and they're just going to
chase them all around town. I mean, I
[2:21:20] point of order, you may withdraw your
second.
[2:21:24] Well, I get that. I just It's I'm I'm
seeing a problem here. And I and would
[2:21:31] we not be better off asking you know
someone like from social services come
[2:21:35] to have a discussion with us next
council meeting invite them and then see
[2:21:40] what see what the the best outcome for
everyone is in this situation. So we
[2:21:45] have a motion and a second. You can
withdraw your second. That will kill the
[2:21:50] motion. Or it will open the floor to a
second uh from another council member.
[2:21:56] Or we can take the motion and the second
and we can go ahead and take it to a
[2:22:00] vote.
[2:22:03] I'll resend my second.
Please let the record show that Mr.
[2:22:07] Mayor rescends his second. Is there
anyone else on this council would like
[2:22:10] to second that motion?
[2:22:16] Then the motion dies on the floor. We'll
move on. Town manager report.
[2:22:21] I'm gonna be real quick. Sorry. Uh radio
read. As of April 1st, we had had
[2:22:28] installed uh
1,186 radio meters. That's almost a
[2:22:35] third of what we anticipate. Um I had
housing authority reappointments, but
[2:22:41] Charlie was here and did that first. in
your packet.
[2:22:46] Um, I had the bid where I put the mowing
of the Round Cemetery out for bid.
[2:22:55] Um, let me find
[2:23:02] it. In your packet, I had the list of
biders.
[2:23:07] Uh, it's page, let's see, are the pages
page 22.
[2:23:11] Um yeah, we had uh one, two, three,
four, we had five biders. Uh one of them
[2:23:19] uh was rejected uh due to the fact that
they didn't price it the way that we had
[2:23:24] asked. Uh the low bid was Elite Property
Care at
[2:23:29] $43,000 for this
season.
[2:23:33] Um advertised it three times in the
Smith County News, had it on the
[2:23:38] website. um had all the procurement uh
hoops jumped through.
[2:23:45] Um would like to ask council at this
time to consider awarding the mowing
[2:23:52] contract to Elite Property Care. Do you
need a motion?
[2:23:59] Thank you. I I'll make that motion to
award the mowing to Elite Property
[2:24:05] Care in the amount of $43,000.
[2:24:10] I'll second it. Motion and second.
Staff's advising to accept this
[2:24:18] contract. Any discussion? Billy, they
are bonded, correct? Yes. I have
[2:24:23] reinsurance information. I saw that.
They've got the business license. Tony
[2:24:28] has met with them um and um talked to
them and they seem very capable of doing
[2:24:38] their job. All right, motion and second.
Any further discussion? Let us vote. All
[2:24:43] in
favor? Unanimous. Thank you. Motion
[2:24:47] carries.
We're cutting it close on getting that
[2:24:50] started. So, I appreciate it. Uh Wel was
scheduled to be here today, but it it
[2:24:55] rained. So, uh, they're here. They're
here. They just can't start till
[2:24:59] tomorrow. Okay. They're here. They just
can't start till tomorrow. Pray for
[2:25:03] sunny day.
We hope to work on the park drive in uh
[2:25:10] concrete while the papers are in town so
we can so we can uh have them to pull
[2:25:15] over that and patch it.
Uh, I have here Market Street bids have
[2:25:22] been sent to the EQ for their approval.
I got word today and sent you all a copy
[2:25:28] of the approval letter from DEQ. So,
we're we're good to go on the Market
[2:25:32] Street Project.
Um I think Hunter had asked me what the
[2:25:38] projected time was. We're thinking it's
going to be September early fall. Um it
[2:25:44] takes even if we order everything, it it
takes about 3 months for them to build
[2:25:48] all the concrete structures that we're
going to need. So, it's probably going
[2:25:53] to be filed before we can actually get
started on
[2:25:57] it. That's basically all I have. You You
said pavers are in town. Does that mean
[2:26:03] Staley Street? Yes. Grows closed. Thank
goodness. Thank you very much. Yes.
[2:26:08] Wonderful. Nobody wants it no quicker or
faster than we do, Billy. The Park
[2:26:14] Boulevard phase two. Uh I think everyone
has been informed about that. Uh I I'll
[2:26:21] make a motion that you work with uh VOTE
to
[2:26:26] [Music]
uh whatever needs to be done to not
[2:26:30] proceed with that at this point.
Okay, I'll second that
[2:26:36] motion. All in
[2:26:41] favor? Anything else, council? Yes. I I
would just like to make a comment. I I
[2:26:47] understand so much about what Miss
Spencer has said, but I think that we
[2:26:52] have tried to do something to tonight
because we're writing that letter. I
[2:26:58] think that's a start. And I would like
to ask Billy to have someone at social
[2:27:05] services come to our next meeting that
maybe we could talk to and find out what
[2:27:11] they can do.
That is an invitation. Um, do we need a
[2:27:17] motion for that?
No, just an invitation. So, if there's
[2:27:22] nothing further, I need a motion for us
to adjourn.
[2:27:27] I make a motion. Second.
Motion second. All in
[2:27:33] favor? We stand a journ.