[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:02] Good evening. My name is Brian Van Gogh. I serve as chair of one kind of order supervisors and I'm called to order our meeting of Tuesday March 10.
[0:14] And on my microphone, I apologize Tuesday March 10, 2026. Would you please join me in the pledge of allegiance?
[0:43] Okay, so for the record we have a forum supervisor Marshal will not be here this evening, so with that we will move on with the adoption of the
[0:59] of the agenda. Can I have a motion to adopt the agenda?
[1:06] So moved.
[1:08] Second.
[1:10] I'll second it.
[1:11] All right. All those in favor say aye.
[1:13] Aye.
[1:15] All right. Our agenda is adopted.
[1:17] So next up we have a special presentations and appearances.
[1:23] And up under three A is the introduction of
[1:27] of Matt Garvey director of emergency communications via Stephanie Straub, Deputy County Administrator.
[1:37] Good evening, members of the board.
[1:38] It's my pleasure this evening to introduce you to Matt Garvey, our new ECC director.
[1:44] Matt comes to us from Frederick, Maryland with over 25 years of progressive experience in the industry.
[1:49] We started with us mid February.
[1:54] Chairman of the Board.
[1:56] Wow.
[1:56] Thank you for this.
[1:58] I'm honored to be here, and I'm sorry, a little nervous.
[2:01] All right, but I'm up to the challenge.
[2:03] You guys have a wonderful communication crew
[2:06] and I'm looking forward to serving the county,
[2:09] my wife and I are in the process of moving down here
[2:11] from Frederick, so that's an honor
[2:13] and looking forward to wonderful things here.
[2:16] Well, thank you, Mr. Garvey.
[2:17] We appreciate you joining our team
[2:19] and we wish you all the great success.
[2:22] We have outstanding emergency communications center
[2:27] team and so we're very appreciative for you joining that team and welcome. Thank you very much.
[2:34] Welcome, thank you.
[2:37] Okay, next up, under special presentations and appearances,
[2:44] is Salt Council Award and Memory in an honor of Nancy Groot. I will read off an item here
[2:54] and Sheriff Smith and Deputy Ron Kessner,
[2:59] who's also our Triide Coordinator,
[3:02] we'll join me up here in just a second
[3:06] and Mr. Groot, could you come forward with the Sheriff, please?
[3:15] So the Orange County Sheriff's Office triad seniors
[3:18] and law enforcement together.
[3:23] Let me read this nomination.
[3:27] I respectfully submit this nomination for Nancy Jackson grew it in recognition of her
[3:34] more than five years of dedicated service to the Orange County Sheriff's Office Triad Program.
[3:41] Nancy served in the Triad Program until the time of her death on January 21, 2021,
[3:49] Nancy was deeply passionate about serving senior citizens and other vulnerable members of Orange
[3:56] county. Alongside her husband, Bob, she faithfully served as part of the project life saver
[4:03] team. To Nancy, the individuals that they assisted were never merely clients, they were friends.
[4:12] Nancy cared for each person with a sincerity, compassion, and heartfelt commitment. Beyond
[4:19] her compassion, Nancy was a woman of action. At every triad function she could be found
[4:26] working diligently, setting up, packing up, taking the lead, and the kitchen to ensure every
[4:32] attendee felt welcomed and cared for. She consistently stepped forward whenever help was needed,
[4:40] never seeking recognition, only wanting to serve. Nancy also shared her creativity generously,
[4:49] A talented crafter, she lovingly created flower vases for our annual conference because she
[4:56] believed the tables should be beautiful, and inviting.
[5:01] It was one of the many thoughtful touches that reflected Nancy's spirit.
[5:06] She gave not only her time, but her heart.
[5:10] Nancy made countless contributions to Orange County.
[5:14] Try to add far too many to fully capture here.
[5:17] Those of us who had the privilege of serving beside her, as well as those that she served, are profoundly fortunate to have shared and heard dedication, warmth, and friendship.
[5:30] Her legacy of service and compassion will continue to inspire us.
[5:36] For these reasons, I hold heartedly and respectfully nominate Nancy Jackson Groot for this service award.
[5:44] Being that Nancy is deceased, the award will be presented to her husband Bob Groot on her behalf.
[5:53] For those who are here with the Triad group, would you please stand in honor of Nancy?
[5:59] First
[6:05] bit, Nancy and Bob, who had seven years ago in 2019, and got out of the door, so this is place ahead.
[6:12] Nancy was full of energy and full of love.
[6:15] Bob and Nancy already buried in the urban law enforcement profession from the life I've spent in true friends and supporters of the Orange County Sheriff's Office.
[6:23] They continue to support our agency by becoming tired of volunteers who have spent countless hours supporting the program and the community.
[6:30] As a matter of fact, when I took my training from probably life-saving, the rule is graciously
[6:36] allowed us to use their property for the practical portion of the training. Nancy's passing
[6:41] is tremendous loss to our community. I'm thankful for her timing and passion she gave to our community
[6:46] and Bruce.
[7:23] Thank you.
[7:24] Thank you everybody.
[7:26] Thanks for watching.
[7:28] Cheers off everybody.
[7:29] Thank you.
[8:04] So I know there's going to be a little reception out in the lobby. So it's okay if you get up and go out and greet Bob.
[8:15] We are very grateful for our triad volunteers.
[8:18] Let's give them all a round of applause.
[8:27] You know, in our community with seniors and law enforcement working together
[8:31] and our triad volunteers, there's nothing we can't do to help our fellow citizen.
[8:37] It's such an honor to recognize Nancy and to have a bob here to receive that notification
[8:46] and recognition on her behalf and in her memory.
[8:49] thank you all for for that.
[8:54] So next up, we have our consent agenda and do I have a
[9:04] motion to approve and I just want to make one particular point about our
[9:10] consent agenda. As we were going through the legislative process, there was a
[9:20] to send a letter to Governor Abigail Spamberger requesting that she vetoed Senate Bill 443.
[9:29] And just for those of you, you can see this in the agenda packet. But that particular bill
[9:36] would allow a buy-write use on any parcel that was approved for utility scale solar under an
[9:44] existing special use permit, which meant that there was no approval at the county for
[9:51] these kinds of facilities. So, Vaco contacted us. We were not aware that that bill had
[9:59] made it through. It sort of, as Vaco told us, kind of went and went with a bunch of bills.
[10:06] And so, once we found out about it, we agreed in individual discussions because it was important
[10:12] for us to get that letter to the governor. So we did that and now what we're doing is coming back
[10:19] and approving that as part of our consent agenda. So we have formal board approval of a letter
[10:25] that we have sent to Governor Spamberger. A number of counties have joined in that effort. So I just
[10:31] wanted to mention that as an information item for individuals. So I'll take a motion to approve the
[10:39] center agenda. So moved. The second, second, all those in favor saying I. I. We have approval
[10:47] of the consent agenda. Okay. Next up is old business. We have none. And following that
[10:55] is new business. The Virginia juvenile community crime control act plan merger with the
[11:04] the show. Fines from our office on youth. She is the director of office. The office. Do you have that? Okay.
[11:17] You have. Okay.
[11:20] All right. Good evening, Mr. Chairman members of the board. I am here this evening.
[11:24] To propose a merger between Orange County, VJ Triple CA. It's a lot easier and shorter to say.
[11:29] With green and Madison, a little bit about our VJ triple CA, sorry I thought I would have this in front of me.
[11:40] VJ triple CA was enacted in 1995 by the Virginia General Assembly.
[11:44] It gave communities the opportunity to address needs specific to their localities when it came to juvenile the link one sees.
[11:54] with accountability and in hopes of reducing
[11:57] recitivism with our youth.
[12:00] The mission of VJ TripleCA is before you.
[12:05] I am not going to get into all of that,
[12:08] but I wanted to make sure you had the information
[12:10] to kind of see what it's about.
[12:13] But the main reason I'm here is about our proposition.
[12:18] Orange County right now receives
[12:20] $21,728 from the state, adding that to the $2,181 maintenance of effort that is required.
[12:30] By the state, our budget is $23,999 to use for services based on our plan that we develop by annually.
[12:39] Our current plan programs, we currently have nine, and they include administration, which helps cover some of the costs
[12:46] of managing the program's community service,
[12:49] pre-D and post-D electronic monitoring,
[12:52] child-specific services,
[12:53] and those are services that encompass any service
[12:57] that's not directly on our plan.
[13:00] So it could be anger management, anything like that.
[13:03] So it's kind of a catch-all group.
[13:07] We also have substance abuse education and treatment,
[13:09] mentoring, which has become a big thing for us,
[13:11] which we really like.
[13:13] Healthy social behaviors and personal skills,
[13:15] Those are classes that work toward cognitive behavioral therapy trainings.
[13:21] One example of that is I just actually came from teaching decision points, which is a
[13:26] class for youth to teach them four steps to kind of get out of that trouble cycle.
[13:31] And so that encompasses those type of classes.
[13:34] And then our last one is public school prevention.
[13:36] In our plan, we've built in $2,500 for a subscription to an evidence-based online class platform called third millennium, and we offer that to the schools to send referrals over for kids for numerous things.
[13:50] It could be substance abuse, true and see a conflict wise, if they're not getting along with somebody to kind of help teach them those skills.
[13:59] So, that is what our planning compasses. On the next slide, we have Madison's plan along with their funding.
[14:07] So, Madison only gets $8,079 a year or their plan totals $8,079. They have to expend $1,494 and then they get $6,585 from the state.
[14:20] Their list of programs is a little bit smaller and the pre-D and a post-D electronic monitoring is actually something our office manages.
[14:28] is so it's not even really their program.
[14:31] So really they have three programs that they manage.
[14:34] On the next slide, we have Green County.
[14:36] Their annual funding is 7,596 dollars.
[14:40] They are not required to do a maintenance of effort.
[14:42] So all of their funding comes from the state.
[14:44] Again, here is their list of services
[14:47] and we do their pre-deimposed electronic monitoring as well.
[14:51] On the next page, trying to tie it together
[14:55] what our connections are.
[14:57] As I stated, we are doing green and Madison and...
[15:00] Whole Peppers, GPS monitoring currently. We started that in 2024. Due to DJJ changes, the probation officers aren't allowed to do that anymore. So we took that on, otherwise they wouldn't be able to offer that. And if you guys have seen the budget, when kids are in detention, it's a lot more expensive than when I have kids on monitoring. So they were very happy that we could continue that. And also, all of our localities are located within the 16th district under that Court Service Unit.
[15:30] So they are neighbors, and we've had kids cross county lines for different things, so.
[15:38] Benefits of combining the plan, more pulled funding for broader reaching programs.
[15:44] An example for Madison and for agreeing in their smaller, and so they don't have as much money and they don't have as many programs.
[15:51] So hopefully, by pulling all of our funds and also pulling our resources will help more kids, not just an orange, but in Madison and green.
[15:58] Um, this also allows judges a wider variety of offerings, which I know they're very happy about.
[16:05] Um, keeping youth in our community and out of juvenile detention, um, so potentially
[16:09] reducing, um, detention costs again to our localities.
[16:14] And then also the possibility of hiring a part-time person to manage pieces of this plant.
[16:18] Currently, I'm the only one that manages it for orange and the GPS, um, pieces for green and
[16:23] and co-pepper, but this would allow us to pull our funds and look at hiring somebody else that can
[16:29] devote a little bit more time to directly that program to make sure all of the kids are getting what they need.
[16:36] The next slide shows our combined plan funding, so if we total all of those together, we have a
[16:41] grand total of 39,584 dollars and we are proposing that Orange County be the fiscal agents as we are
[16:47] managing the plans, so that would come through our finance, our treasure's office and everything.
[16:53] The next steps, planning team approves the merge.
[16:56] We have already gotten that completed and approved.
[16:59] That's by the judges, the court services unit.
[17:01] And so our next steps are the board of supervisors and all free localities.
[17:06] They are very specific in the type of resolution that's needed.
[17:09] So the copy is in your packet.
[17:11] So you can see what that is.
[17:14] Then we'll officially designate the fiscal agent,
[17:16] even though we are saying orange,
[17:17] we will have to officially do that.
[17:19] and then the resolution, and then I have until April 1st to create the plan for the next two years.
[17:26] So a little tight on time. But this was brought about by the court services unit. They're the ones that
[17:32] requested this. And when we looked at it, it just really makes sense with what we're doing as neighbors
[17:39] and some of the things we're already doing for each other. So at this time, I would like to request
[17:45] for your approval to do the resolution so that we can urge these three plans.
[17:52] Okay, thank you. Questions from the board.
[17:59] I'm sorry.
[18:01] Ms. Coleman, you're pleased to be first.
[18:03] Thank you for that information.
[18:06] I just want to make sure I understand the
[18:09] the positive impact for Orange County.
[18:16] I get it for Green and Madison and also for us being good neighbors.
[18:21] I'm all about that and for helping more of our youth in the region,
[18:26] not just in our county, but what is the big selling point for Orange County?
[18:34] because it looks like we're getting a considerable amount now, and the other two counties
[18:41] are getting quite a bit less, and we're just pulling it all together to help them.
[18:47] So it's a help us understand or help me understand what the big positive point is for orange
[18:52] county kids.
[18:54] I will say my biggest plus for this is by pulling the funding we can hire a person to help
[19:00] manage these programs for our kids here as well.
[19:02] They can do the outreach, we can build more outreach into our program so that we are physically seeing these kids more often,
[19:10] whether it's in school, at home, in our office, and then we'll have a person dedicated directly to that.
[19:16] Yes, they will be doing stuff in other localities, but to give you an example, I have eight kids on GPS right now, five of them are Orange County.
[19:24] So, I've not really had an abundance of kids come through for Madison, great in call
[19:29] pepper.
[19:30] It's one here, two there.
[19:33] So, by pulling these funds, yes, it will help them financially and oversight and
[19:38] everything here will definitely help our kids to have more hands on a approach.
[19:43] Okay.
[19:44] Thank you.
[19:47] Yes.
[19:48] Thank you.
[19:48] Thank you.
[19:49] I was just curious why Orange County gets so much more funding than Madison
[19:54] Green.
[19:54] Your guess is as good as mine. I've asked that question. When are we going to look at the funny this funding has been the same since I started in 2010
[20:04] We are not sure having asked the court services unit. How is this funding determined?
[20:08] I've not been able to get an answer. It's something through the state through an algorithm that hasn't changed in forever
[20:13] So I wish I could answer that, but I can't. We're sorry. We'll all this money be used for the the part-time
[20:24] person. No, not all of it will be used for part-time person. It'll be used for continuing services.
[20:30] Again, the outreach is what we're really looking at for our kiddos. So yes, it will be used for that.
[20:36] But we also pay for a lot of services mentoring substance abuse education and treatment with providers and online.
[20:44] If it's an intervention or excuse me, a prevention, not an intervention. So we'll continue to fund those programs as well.
[20:52] And then ultimately you think that this will, this will proportionally benefit orange, and you wouldn't be proposing it otherwise.
[21:01] I do. I am looking forward to having, again, if we make it work, if it's approved, that part time person with more hands on with our kids.
[21:10] Just to help with recidivism, the more eyes we have on them and the more we touch them, the less likely they are to defend again.
[21:18] so. Okay, that was all I had. Thank you.
[21:26] Oh, may I ask one more question. Yes. It, it this doesn't
[21:30] work. How do we get out of it? We would go back to our plan coordinator in Richmond. I do have
[21:38] a specific person that I report to for the plan and discuss that with her. I will say there are other
[21:43] localities that are already doing this. The Rappianic office on use, they cover Fredericksburg
[21:49] Caroline Spotseek, King George, and Stafford.
[21:52] And then the Channendo office on youth,
[21:54] they cover the cities of Wainsboro and Stan
[21:55] and the counties of Augusta and Highland.
[21:58] And between our court services and meeting
[22:00] with the Channendo office on youth,
[22:02] it just made a lot of sense with how they're doing things.
[22:04] We're looking at their programs.
[22:05] We actually had a meeting this morning
[22:08] for a trurincy program that we would be able to help fund
[22:10] with this that could help our kiddos.
[22:18] Any other questions?
[22:20] Okay. Thank you for that presentation. So with that, I will open the floor for a resolution.
[22:30] Number 260310-6a. In our agenda packet, do we have a motion to approve that resolution?
[22:43] Motion to approve.
[22:44] Thank you.
[22:45] To approve and a second, is there any other discussion?
[22:49] I just want to as a matter of, I support this.
[22:53] I think it is important that we monitor very closely, that we make sure that we're not degrading
[23:01] any services in orange. It sounds like it will enhance. I love the regional cooperation,
[23:06] so I appreciate that. The only thing I would ask is at some point, as you get into the year,
[23:14] maybe come back and tell us how it's going so we can, you know, when we run into our colleagues
[23:20] from Madison or Green, we can have a conversation about it and if they ask and know, you know,
[23:27] how things are working. Madison's getting their presentation today too. Megan Hood with the
[23:32] court services unit presented at their meeting that started at four o'clock. So they're getting
[23:38] all this for me today. Yeah, I'll see a little bit ahead of us. Okay. All right, with that, I'll
[23:44] the question. Roll call please. Miss Coleman. Yes. Mr. Nichol. Aye. Mr. Capelle. Aye. Mr. Van Holvin. All right. Resolution
[23:57] passes for to nothing. Thank you for your work on this. Appreciate it. Okay. Next up is an agenda item that we put on here.
[24:11] And in the last couple of meetings, we've had a matter for discussion and consideration,
[24:20] regarding the Ballyed link, Dominion Energy Consortium for proposing transmission lines,
[24:30] a 765KB line in Orange County.
[24:33] Yesterday there was a meeting that,
[24:40] I'm going to just refer to them as Valley Link from here on out. Valley Link held an open house in Orange County. Last night, it Lafayette station and there was an incredible turnout from Orange County.
[24:58] I mean, five, six hundred, I think people solved they couldn't get in and actually drove
[25:07] by and said maybe we'll have another opportunity.
[25:10] So I don't know how many we could have accommodated in a much better playing space.
[25:15] We probably could have had a thousand people show up and express their opinions on this project.
[25:21] And so I want to open this, we've got some based on that meeting, we've got some actions, we want to undertake this evening that will set Orange County and our Board of Supervisors and our Planning Commission up for moving some things forward.
[25:42] So, let me just open it to the board.
[25:48] I know all of us up here were at that meeting, open house.
[25:54] I'm going to call in the open house.
[25:56] That's what it was. It wasn't really a meeting.
[25:58] So, all four of us were there.
[26:00] We did not talk with three of us together because that would have been an illegal meeting.
[26:06] So, we managed to have conversation amongst us and with a whole host of constituents.
[26:10] So let me just open it up for initial impressions and I know we have some thoughts about maybe some next steps that we could we could talk about so we'd like to kick us off.
[26:25] I'll kick us off just because I'm probably going to be the shortest here.
[26:29] Oh, not in stature, and first of all, thank everyone
[26:36] it came out yesterday.
[26:38] That's exactly what's needed to, well, you know,
[26:43] we're all reeling a little bit and trying to figure out
[26:45] what to do, right?
[26:46] So that's the first step.
[26:48] We appreciate it greatly.
[26:49] Hyper and press of how many showed up.
[26:52] Looking forward to, as you all know, the March 24th board meeting,
[26:58] We will accommodate a little bit better and hope everyone shows up again, that's going to be our opportunity when we get a presentation from ValleyLank that we can actually speak, you know, how long or whatever depends I guess how many people show up and want to determine that then.
[27:16] But let's keep that momentum up because that's that's the the energy we need.
[27:21] of that analogy there on energy isn't it?
[27:24] But that's probably the energy we need to keep this thing
[27:27] going in the right direction.
[27:29] But again, thank you all very much.
[27:30] Appreciate that.
[27:32] So let me just maybe get one item out of the way
[27:35] since Supervisor and Hove and brought it up.
[27:38] So we have a meeting on March 24th.
[27:41] We invited Valley Link to attend that meeting.
[27:44] They've accepted our invitation and will attend that meeting
[27:49] make a presentation. We in conjunction with that, I would ask that we have the board approve
[28:00] a joint planning commission and board a supervisors meeting for March 24th and for this meeting
[28:09] to be held at the Orange County High School. And I have a second. Second.
[28:19] So let's we got
[28:20] motion in a second. So we'll just get that went out and and so we can so we can kind of work through these items that various individuals may be bringing forward any discussion on a joint planning commission and board a supervisor's meeting.
[28:40] I would press or hail a comment. Sorry. Okay. I'll get better that thank you with time. We all will. So I would just like to thank you for bringing that forward.
[28:50] Thanks to all who participated yesterday evening, but as I'm had a vibrant discussions last night with folks I want to remind everybody that was Dominions meeting Dominions set that meeting or information session.
[29:09] What is being proposed, what was just proposed by a supervisor,
[29:15] nickel, is that we have a larger venue where our citizens can come in, sit down,
[29:25] listen to a presentation and participate.
[29:28] And so I just want you all to know that last night was an excellent
[29:33] showing of citizens and community, but it was the minions meeting. We need as much momentum and
[29:43] participation in the meeting that we hold, and we have given careful consideration to make
[29:49] sure that when we hold a meeting with such important item to discuss that we will have it at this
[29:57] proposed venue that will better accommodate.
[30:00] And I appreciate the support and the effort to have that done. So thank you. And thanks to everybody for not only being there last night, but helps spread the word that March 24th is as important or more important to show up.
[30:20] Okay, any other discussion on the Joint Planning Commission Board of Supervisors meeting?
[30:28] No, I mean, I went to the the Dominion Open House yesterday and and as I pulled in I just I just started laughing.
[30:37] Because I was proud of Orange County and I'd mentioned to Andre May at the he's the rep for Dominion.
[30:46] when I went to their Gordon'sville meeting on another power line and he asked what I thought
[30:52] I said you're going to need a bigger room for Orange County and so I was really pleased
[30:58] and proud of my fellow citizens and looking forward to the meeting on the 24th I still don't
[31:04] know if it'll be big enough but I think it's about the biggest venue we have in the county and so
[31:10] we've done meetings I can only think of one other time we we did a meeting there and and I
[31:15] do have been involved with that situation as well. So, so this will be interesting. We'll
[31:21] look forward to it. And thank you Chairman Nichol for proposing it and getting it together.
[31:27] Very, very good. Absolutely. Any further discussion? So, just as a point of information,
[31:37] this meeting is one of our regularly scheduled meetings. We're going to hold it as I noted
[31:43] at the high school. It's a different location in order to accommodate our citizens. We will
[31:52] more likely than not. We may have some very minor business that we need to conduct
[31:58] from the board just to cover some of our regular basis. But our agenda is likely to be a little bit
[32:07] for that particular meeting, supervisor Capel,
[32:12] who is also the liaison to the Planning Commission.
[32:15] He and I met with Frank D. Pascal,
[32:18] who is our Planning Commission chair,
[32:19] who happens to be in the room this evening.
[32:22] We discussed having a joint meeting together
[32:26] so that we could hear at the county level,
[32:30] both from a Planning Commission
[32:32] and a Board of Supervisors standpoint.
[32:34] So we're all here in the same thing, and we're all hearing the same answers to questions
[32:41] that we ask and that we hear from the public.
[32:45] What we'll probably end up doing at the meeting for purposes of efficiency, we'll have
[32:51] to open both meetings, so I'll open the board of supervisor meeting, and then Chairman
[33:00] and DPSC, we'll open the planning commission meeting and more likely than not, we'll just have one of us that sort of directs the traffic if you will and I've stepped up to do that and then at the end we would both close our meetings, close our meetings together.
[33:20] We'll make sure all of that's, you know, laid out in the agenda, we'll get proper notice, so that everyone knows the address and location, expected it'll be at five o'clock similar time to our regular meetings.
[33:34] I suspect the first part of it will go for a bit and then we'll get into comments from citizens.
[33:43] And so with that, I'll call the question.
[33:47] Yeah, I just want one more comment.
[33:50] So I just want folks in the audience who have a watch.
[33:53] So this is a process and it's this application process
[33:58] that the company's entering to, it's not one
[34:02] that any of us have engaged with before.
[34:06] But with help ourselves reading, everyone here,
[34:11] engaging with members of the public, you know, we're learning more and more, but we're going to
[34:16] engage with the process. And so there's certain steps, things happen at certain times, and we're
[34:22] going to respond accordingly. And it doesn't help us to get ahead of the process. So I just want
[34:28] folks to know that this is a process. And I think we've learned a lot about it, but I know there's
[34:35] pressure for us to do certain things now versus at different times, but there's a time and
[34:41] for when we'll do particular actions based on the process we're engaged engaging with.
[34:48] So that at all. I appreciate you mentioning that because that is important. It is not a
[34:56] one week or two week process as it were and so we want to make sure that we're engaged actively
[35:03] monitoring and engaging all along.
[35:06] I do want to, well, let me call the question, let's, let's, let's, I'll just, to schedule the meeting with the planning commission, all those in favor for March 24th, five o'clock, joint meeting, to entertain a presentation from Valley link and
[35:31] questions from the board and the planning commission. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. All those post motion passes for oh so we have a meeting set was that emotion or consensus.
[35:46] That was actually I've made the motion at the beginning has set who seconded.
[35:51] a supervisor, Coleman, back and on along.
[35:56] Yeah, so it was an actual motion, but not a resolution or anything.
[36:02] Okay, so
[36:07] maybe I'll just continue with
[36:12] with another piece of business regarding the board.
[36:16] I believe the board ought to take some action on and that has to do with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
[36:27] So, there's a process that's underway as speaking of processes that Supervisor Capel mentioned, where the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is undergoing a comment period.
[36:42] in that comment period ends on March 20th.
[36:47] So we don't meet until March 26th.
[36:49] So in order for us to affect any comments
[36:53] for that particular commission regarding a proposed
[37:00] expedited interconnection track that PGM is asking for,
[37:05] We need to authorize the board and in particular myself in the county administrator, county attorney, to work on this and let me if I could read a motion to that effect so that we're prepared to respond appropriately to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
[37:30] With that, I move that the Orange County Board of Supervisors authorized the preparation and submission of a comment to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regarding the ongoing PGM, Interconnection and Transmission Planning Reforms currently under consideration.
[37:48] The purpose of the comment will be to provide Orange County's perspective as a rural host community regarding the impacts of accelerated planning and the importance of coordination with local land use planning processes.
[38:04] A further move that the board direct the county administrator in term county attorney and
[38:10] consultation with the chair and members of the board to prepare a draft comment for review and to submit that comment to the federal energy regulatory commission before March 20.
[38:24] Do I have a second?
[38:25] I'll second that.
[38:26] We have a motion in a second.
[38:29] Is there any discussion?
[38:29] Yeah, if I manage to track this, just why this is important.
[38:34] So this is basically a request by PJM to fast track power generation projects.
[38:43] Basically they're looking to reduce the time from four years to 10 months.
[38:48] And so why is this important to Orange County?
[38:51] Well, we not only have this 765 proposal, but if you look at some of the PJM,
[38:59] documents that, you know, they're proposing other lines through Orange County. And on this
[39:06] particular 765, I mean, if you go back through the record, there's no, no indication that
[39:13] it was proposed for Orange County a year ago. And yet here we are a year later, and it's coming
[39:18] through Orange County. So they're already moving fast. So things come online, the planning process
[39:25] is moving fast, and as a rural county, we already are having problems keeping up with what their
[39:31] plans are. If they increase or shorten the time that it takes to get power generation online,
[39:38] it's just going to make those tales of the transmission lines they're going to be coming out
[39:43] as even faster. So that's why we need to comment because it doesn't help us do the planning that
[39:52] required to do. It doesn't help us have the the comprehensive planning place for the anticipated
[40:00] changes that the the PJM and others are going through that are that are going to impact our
[40:05] county. So we want to make sure they understand how this may impact us and are planning posture
[40:13] so that we can best serve our citizens as as the energy companies will try to accelerate things.
[40:22] Okay, any other discussion?
[40:27] Yeah, I think the motion is fairly straightforward that we will work together to submit that comment regarding the expedited process by March 20.
[40:37] With that, I'll call the question, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye.
[40:44] Aye. All those opposed motion passes for to zero.
[40:57] Mr. Chairman, we'll just want to quick comment.
[41:01] Supervisor Marshall isn't here.
[41:03] And I just want the public to know.
[41:05] He had had something planned long before we ever knew any of this.
[41:09] And I'm sure he would want to be here.
[41:11] But I just wanted folks to know that he had something pre-planned.
[41:15] And I expect these would all be five of votes otherwise.
[41:20] So we didn't mention why he was gone.
[41:21] So I just wanted to get that out there.
[41:23] Yeah.
[41:23] Thank you. Okay, I think you have a couple of items that you want to bring forward. Yeah, so there's a couple of things that we should get our planning commission gauge engaged in there aren't
[41:42] There aren't a whole lot of areas where we can have some direct involvement, but there is one code section
[41:51] 152-222, which basically gives our planning commission the authority to look at transmission projects,
[41:59] utility projects in general, and determine whether they are in conformance with our comprehensive plan.
[42:07] And so, I'd like to make a motion. I'll just read this so we can have additional discussion.
[42:11] I've got some other things I could say.
[42:14] But basically,
[42:18] if I can get my notes here, I'd like to make a motion that the Orange County Board
[42:24] of Supervisors Direct the Planning Commission pursuant to Virginia code 152-222 to review the proposed
[42:32] valiantly transmission project and it's associated transmission corridor alternatives in relation
[42:38] to the Orange County Conference of Plan to determine whether the proposed project is consistent or
[42:43] inconsistent with the conference plan, identify the specific
[42:47] conference of plan policies and land use designations relevant to
[42:51] that determination and transmit written findings, recommendations to the
[42:55] Board of Supervisors for inclusion in the county's official record regarding the
[43:00] project. These findings, recommendations shall be delivered to the Board of
[43:04] Supervisors no later than the Board's second regular meeting in May, 2026.
[43:09] So, that's the motion.
[43:11] Do we have a second?
[43:13] So, we have a motion in a second.
[43:15] Is there any further discussion?
[43:20] I would just say one thing.
[43:22] I appreciated the conversation, the supervisor Capell and I had with the chair of the planning
[43:29] commission, chair DPSC.
[43:31] We talked about, and I know at their last meeting, they discussed valley link and looking
[43:38] at looking at these items through the planning commission priorities, what they, what their role is and advising the board so this like the joint meeting we have is entirely appropriate and needed so that we ensure that our planning commission has thoroughly reviewed this and made.
[44:01] these recommendations as noted. So I support this motion and that would be my comment on
[44:10] other comments. Discussion. I would just like to echo your comments and think
[44:17] supervisor Capel and Chairman Nichol and Mr. DePascuel for your work on this because I think
[44:26] very important, a very key aspect of
[44:35] dealing with this project is to get it
[44:40] vetted through how it compares to what's in our comprehensive plane.
[44:47] So thank you.
[44:50] Other discussion? Okay. With that, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye.
[45:00] All those opposed passes for zero. All right.
[45:08] I think we have one more. Another motion from
[45:12] supervisor Capau. So, yeah. So, in light of, you know, the federal action to accelerate projects
[45:21] and also in light of the other, not only the proposal that we have now that we never
[45:27] We could really not have anticipated, and our comp plan is pretty clear that we weren't
[45:34] looking for projects outside of existing right-of-ways.
[45:37] There are other projects, as I mentioned before, that are in the planning process, and
[45:42] also will come into the county potentially through places where there aren't existing
[45:48] right-of-ways.
[45:49] And then given the pace of the planning and it just really seems like the posture of PGM and all the planning entities, it's really changed as of late and they're really accelerating things.
[46:03] And so with that, we think it's important that our planning commission look at our comp plan in light of all the changes that are going on in the industry, in the energy sector, in the pace of planning.
[46:17] And that we, you know, relook at our comp plan in our zoning ordinance, and just make sure that we have what we think we need to, um, to deal with any future planning projects that might be coming our way related to transmission or utilities.
[46:33] Um, so this would be more of a forward looking thing where we're looking at our comp plan and we're looking at the planning documents that that are around now.
[46:43] whether they've been proposed or not, but the R-TEP documents and other proposals that we've seen.
[46:51] And having the county reevaluate our position given the changes that are going on, which are quite extensive,
[46:59] and really not very well articulated until recently.
[47:02] And so I'd like to move that the Orange County Board of Supervisors direct the Planning Commission,
[47:09] and pursuant to Virginia Code 152-2223 to review the Orange County Conference of Plan.
[47:16] An identifier is where the plan may be clarified or strengthened to better guide the future
[47:21] location character and extent of major utility infrastructure, including transmission facilities
[47:27] proposed outside of existing rights of way and to consider whether the comprehensive plan
[47:34] should be updated to address large regional infrastructure proposals whose potential routes
[47:40] are configurations may change during regional transmission planning processes.
[47:46] The Planning Commission shall provide its findings and any recommended comprehensive
[47:49] plan amendments to the Board of Supervisors no later than the Board's second regular meeting
[47:53] in June of 2026.
[47:56] So, I have a second.
[47:58] Second.
[47:59] So, we have a motion in a second, is there any further discussion?
[48:03] I
[48:07] think this is right along the lines of your prior motion.
[48:10] With that, I will call for no discussion.
[48:17] I'll call for a vote.
[48:20] All those in favor of the motion.
[48:22] Please say aye.
[48:24] All those opposed.
[48:27] Motion passes for zero.
[48:30] So a final item.
[48:32] And then we'll have some further a little bit of further discussion, but a final item is I mentioned earlier we have this now approved joint planning commission and board of supervisors meeting coming up on March 24th.
[48:50] And that is a venue where we'll hear from Dominion, and it seemed to us that it would be appropriate and helpful for the board to provide a set of questions in advance so that valley link in Dominion could understand the areas that we want to discuss and that they might be able to cover in their presentation or answer as part of our process.
[49:19] here locally. So this project as we all know has potential significant impacts to a wide
[49:29] swath of Orange County, and there are a number of topics that the board and the public
[49:35] would benefit from from understanding the project more clearly, including the system need for the
[49:41] project, assumptions about the electrical load and growth, the alternatives that are considered
[49:47] and the potential impacts on our Orange County community.
[49:53] Providing these questions ahead of time to Bally Lane gives them the opportunity to prepare
[50:00] thoughtful and responsive answers to those questions and it helps ensure that Orange County
[50:09] during the March 24 discussion has a venue and a meeting that is both informative and productive
[50:19] as possible for our citizens. So with that I'll make the following motion. I move that the Orange
[50:25] County Board of Supervisors transmit the list of questions to Dominion Energy Valley link in advance
[50:33] of the schedule briefing on to the board for March 24 and that request that valley link provide
[50:42] written responses to the board for inclusion in the public record regarding the proposed
[50:47] transmission project known as Joshua Falls to eat. I will ask for a second.
[51:01] I'll second that
[51:02] discussion.
[51:05] What we will do, maybe what we will do just for the public's
[51:10] information is we want to give valley link as much time as possible, which is
[51:16] why we're taking this action now two weeks in advance. So there's no, we're not
[51:21] trying to do any gotcha stuff on the day of or anything like that. This gives
[51:25] them the ability to thoughtfully review the questions, provide these answers, and
[51:31] have a couple of weeks to get that work done. I not only think that that's appropriate, it's
[51:37] something that we need to begin to do so that we can understand this process and the project that
[51:45] they're bringing forward. And so with that, what we would do is submit a series of questions. We'll
[51:51] publish those questions so that you all can see those and understand what we're asking. And so when
[51:59] you show up on March 24th, you'll know what we asked about and I suspect we'll have some follow-up
[52:05] questions depending on the answers that come back to us. And that process will be open,
[52:13] public for all to see any other discussion. No, I'm, I think we're doing the right thing.
[52:24] Thank you,
[52:29] questions to
[52:30] By we link all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. All those opposed. That motion passes for to zero. So let me if I can open the floor for any other comments from the board before we move on to the next agenda item. Mr. Chairman. Yes. I would just like to again, thank you.
[52:58] Supervisor Capel, Supervisor Van Hoven, Planning Commissioner, Chairman, Mr. DePasclaw,
[53:08] everyone who's been involved in bringing together some proactive,
[53:19] effective, and intentional
[53:22] action so that we can better explore this project, get better answers, do an in-depth review
[53:33] of how it compares to our comp plan. All the things that we just mentioned, there's been
[53:40] a lot of work that goes into these motions and thoughtful process to make sure that Orange
[53:47] county is leading this conversation and not just following along or trying to play catch up
[53:56] which is what we've been doing for the past few weeks. Nobody's fault of our own, but
[54:02] I feel a little more empowered and I feel much more confident now that we have these approved
[54:10] motions in this intentional action that we're going to move forward. And I feel like we've set
[54:16] to set the pace for our citizens to be more empowered as well and mostly through our March 24th
[54:25] meeting come up.
[54:26] That is going to be an excellent opportunity for our citizens to learn, be more engaged,
[54:32] and to be empowered with information and a voice.
[54:35] So I think everyone for making that happen and I'm very proud of that, so just thank you
[54:41] all.
[54:43] Thank
[54:49] you.
[54:50] Any other?
[54:51] No.
[54:52] Up and now.
[54:52] I want to thank all the citizens for the input going out.
[54:57] So it's one thing to do a lot of study and figure out.
[54:59] But I can tell you for myself.
[55:03] There's several folks out there that I probably learned more from on how to go about doing this.
[55:09] Then one can learn reading on an internet and trying to figure out laws and regulations.
[55:15] So there's, please keep the inputs coming because they're highly educational.
[55:22] There's things we have done to night that came out from public interaction.
[55:31] So
[55:33] not at a knee jerks, just out of while we just learned this.
[55:37] Let's get this going. So please keep the comments coming.
[55:42] Thank you. Supervisor Van Hoven.
[55:44] Let me close this portion with a few comments.
[55:50] So we knew Dominion was embarking on a number
[55:55] of different transmission projects.
[55:58] So it's out there that different things were out there.
[56:02] There were some discussions, I think,
[56:05] as you mentioned earlier, supervisor Capelle,
[56:09] that there was a proposal last year, kind of vague,
[56:13] the may go here, may do this, may be called this, may start in Lynchburg and go up to
[56:19] fuck a year, all that changed in early February. When we discovered that this 765 KV line was
[56:31] coming all the way through Orange County. On February 10, a one month ago today, I sat here
[56:40] and inform the community that there was a mailer that was going to go out.
[56:46] It was a result of a discussion,
[56:50] pursuant to Dominion and Valley Link asking staff for some information.
[56:57] I engaged with representatives from Dominion to ask some of the details around that,
[57:03] where they explained that we're going to have open houses and some of the process.
[57:07] It was going to happen both in March and then potentially June, July with an application planned
[57:15] to be filed sometime in the September timeframe on February 10th, excuse me February 12th,
[57:23] that mailer went out to some of us, the U.S. Postal Service took about two weeks to get
[57:28] it to us. For others longer, for some of my neighbors, they got a little bit shorter, but
[57:35] Many individuals and citizens throughout property owners all throughout Orange County began to receive these fires with a map and a website, a map that you sort of couldn't even tell what was on the map. In fact, the entire community I represent wasn't even noted on the map. It's one of the largest most densely populated areas of all of Orange County didn't even show off on the map.
[58:02] On February 24th, again, I brought to the public's attention this proposal for transmission lines, talked about what was coming in terms of the meeting on March 9th yesterday, 530.
[58:23] We know now today on the 10th, one month out that this is going to have an incredible and
[58:34] likely negative impact on our county, going through homes where individuals have had invested
[58:42] their life savings on their farm, losing their house, splitting their farms, not in existing
[58:49] right away but a 200 foot cut through Orange County. 200 feet of right away cutting through our
[58:57] county, a transmission line that in Orange County will be the most powerful line ever built
[59:03] and I'm told that it's the most powerful line ever built by Dominion. I know there are other 765 lines
[59:10] out there but it's slated to tear apart farms, residences, properties all across our county
[59:17] And have negative impacts to our citizens, our rural character, the historic and natural resources that we value so much.
[59:27] The viewshed of our entire county will be altered for ever.
[59:36] This transmission line is equal to 500 K-300 KV lines combined into one.
[59:44] They'll have massive transmission towers as high as 160 feet.
[59:50] Maybe as low as 135, but if you see some of the 500 lines are about 85 feet, they're going to double that.
[1:00:00] Four hundred and fifty transmission towers into in throughout the 115 miles of this line.
[1:00:09] We had a couple hours, last night and apparently in June or July, a couple more hours for open houses.
[1:00:17] and grateful that Dominion agreed to come for our March 24 meeting. That's important. It's our
[1:00:26] responsibility representing all of you and many others out there to engage in the process,
[1:00:33] understand it, talk about what's important in Orange County, discover what is really going to happen
[1:00:41] and get real answers to real questions
[1:00:44] and to your real concerns.
[1:00:48] While this application process is governed
[1:00:50] by the State Corporation Commission,
[1:00:54] and it's important to note that I received an email
[1:00:57] from the Dominion attorney,
[1:01:02] an in-receive an email from their PR person
[1:01:06] or their routing person or their substation person,
[1:01:09] but from their attorney.
[1:01:10] asking if we, you know, had anything we need to talk about and
[1:01:19] oh boy do we have something to talk about.
[1:01:23] Orange County, unfortunately, in the way this will play out does not have a role in approving or denying this application.
[1:01:33] But we do have a role and we'll have a role to actively monitor and engage in this process.
[1:01:42] There is not one vote of electricity that is coming to the benefit of Orange County through this line.
[1:01:50] There's not a substation plan here where they're going to offload some of that electricity.
[1:01:55] we are a pastor for this massive transmission project.
[1:02:03] I said last time we were together on February 24th that it was important for citizens to attend.
[1:02:12] These meetings provide comments and input. There's lots of comments and input.
[1:02:17] And that's how this process should work.
[1:02:19] So if the process is designed to be 100% in terms of its timeline and valley link wants to move that to 25% of the normal timeline, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, especially for something that has no conceivable benefit to our community.
[1:02:44] So, I will call on our citizens to continue to engage, to provide that input, to valley link,
[1:02:54] to show up on March 24th.
[1:02:57] So, you can hear not only from valley link, but here are questions that we've asked,
[1:03:04] and that we'll ask on that day so that we can get the kind of answers that result in a open
[1:03:10] transparent set of communications.
[1:03:14] It's what you deserve.
[1:03:15] It's what the citizens of our county deserve.
[1:03:19] And with the project of this extensive,
[1:03:23] we shouldn't shut it down to just a couple of two hour meetings.
[1:03:27] We ought to be engaged all the while.
[1:03:31] And I went to the meeting up in co-pepper,
[1:03:34] because I wanted to sort of see what it was all about.
[1:03:37] up at Brandy Station and so that was the first meeting last Thursday and then I went there
[1:03:46] last night, saw many of you there, saw an incredible amazing turnout, five, 600 people on a
[1:04:01] a night, beautiful Monday night, by the way, in our beautiful,
[1:04:06] amazing county and saw people
[1:04:11] coming to say what was important, talking about the impacts to them personally, to their
[1:04:18] neighbors, what they were seeing with this transmission line.
[1:04:22] So a month ago this started and really started because now we had an idea what actually was
[1:04:29] being proposed. And so we're going to continue to engage. We're going to continue to monitor.
[1:04:35] We're going to continue to ask all of you for your help, your support, and your involvement.
[1:04:42] It does matter. And it's important as we go forward. And so I hope you will all join this board.
[1:04:50] On March 24th, five o'clock at the Orange County High School, we'll put out proper notices and join us and please bring your comments and your input to the process.
[1:05:04] And before I leave, I think we have a representative of Dominion Harris George here, George Jameson. Thank you for being here.
[1:05:15] I appreciate you coming out and I appreciate you being here, Andre said you would be here the night we're not going to have any formal presentations, but I just wanted to recognize you for being here and thank you for that.
[1:05:31] Well, thank you for having me.
[1:05:32] Thank you being here.
[1:05:34] And we'll have more to talk on March 24th and appreciate you all accepting the invitation to come to that meeting.
[1:05:41] Yes, sir.
[1:05:41] Excellent. Thank you. And we'll just let us know the logistics. Yeah, we will. We will have it. Not only send our questions. We'll provide all the logistics and information.
[1:05:52] And our countries are contact. So I. Yes, sir. Spectal. That's who we'll go through as we have.
[1:05:58] All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
[1:06:02] Just one.
[1:06:04] One is one.
[1:06:04] No, no, no, no.
[1:06:05] No, no, no.
[1:06:06] I know we talked about this privately.
[1:06:10] Yeah, but hats off to Sheriff Smith, and his team yesterday for managing traffic,
[1:06:22] making sure
[1:06:23] everything was was good.
[1:06:25] The people were exceptional.
[1:06:28] Our county residents were exceptional.
[1:06:30] Dominion folks were, you know, everyone was on best behavior.
[1:06:33] But everyone's afraid of Sheriff Smith, so I'm sure that has something to do with it.
[1:06:39] I appreciate you bringing that up.
[1:06:41] We did have great support from the Sheriff.
[1:06:46] And I'll tell you for 605 or 600 people coming out who had deep concerns,
[1:06:53] a lot of fear, a lot of anger.
[1:06:56] We conducted ourselves great.
[1:06:59] You know what?
[1:06:59] That's what's so good about Orange County.
[1:07:03] Isn't that amazing?
[1:07:06] We can engage in a way that is respectful
[1:07:10] and dignified and thoughtful and meaningful
[1:07:14] because we love this place where we are.
[1:07:17] We love it, we want to protect it,
[1:07:20] and we want to protect our citizens.
[1:07:22] So thank you and supervisor Coleman.
[1:07:25] Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[1:07:26] and piggybacking on Supervisor.
[1:07:30] Bells comment. I'd also like to give a nod and a great appreciation to Mr. Tony Wilson and Chelsea Wilson curms
[1:07:41] Lafayette station. And if they had any other staff there, I wasn't aware of, but I saw Tony and Chelsea doing a great deal of excellent work and heavy lift for hosting.
[1:07:54] I'm certain when they agreed to allowing someone to have a meeting, I doubt very seriously they had any understanding of what the capacity of that meeting really would entail.
[1:08:08] So, Lafayette station, they did a great job, so.
[1:08:12] Under the circumstances. Yes. Okay.
[1:08:20] Okay, so let's move on from our valley link discussion to a department director
[1:08:27] constitutional officer reports? Is there anything I don't think we have any of those? Is there
[1:08:36] we don't have a county attorneys report? I forgot to ask if Amy was on. I know she had the
[1:08:42] link. I'm on Mr. Chair. I thought you were Amy because I knew you had the link. So do you have a report?
[1:08:51] No, I have nothing at this time. Thank you. Thank you so much for
[1:08:55] serving still serving us as our interim county attorney in this process you've
[1:09:02] been a great resource for us and thanks for sitting in here tonight. Next up is
[1:09:08] our county administrators report.
[1:09:11] Thank you members of the board. Did you know it's budget season for Orange County and
[1:09:18] If it could you hit your mic, just so, yes, sorry.
[1:09:22] Thank you.
[1:09:23] Sorry about that.
[1:09:26] It's a budget season.
[1:09:28] So in order to stay on schedule with proposed timeline that we looked at previously,
[1:09:35] we need to get the board's consensus on placing an ad for our real estate tax rates.
[1:09:43] We are very much in the throws of doing the budget right now and there's still a number of things that could come about to change the numbers that we have including the general assemblies actions.
[1:09:57] So I would propose that we go ahead and do our ad, which needs to be run 30 days before the public hearing at the current tax rates.
[1:10:07] And I just need a board consensus on that to get that ad going.
[1:10:13] And thank you for bringing that up.
[1:10:15] I know when we kind of looked at the schedule originally,
[1:10:19] we had thought maybe the 24th, but to provide that early advertisement,
[1:10:26] we'll just go ahead and do that tonight.
[1:10:28] That kicks off our budget season, if you will, or the county,
[1:10:34] and allows us to continue moving forward without any disruption.
[1:10:37] So, do we have a consensus at the board for that advertisement?
[1:10:42] Yes, yes.
[1:10:43] Okay. We have consensus and please move that ahead.
[1:10:48] There will be work sessions and public hearings and all kinds of activity around our budget
[1:10:53] as we move forward through May when we anticipate ultimately about mid-May adopting the formal budget.
[1:11:02] So thank you for bringing that up to our attention and appreciate that.
[1:11:08] Anything else?
[1:11:09] Sure. That's it.
[1:11:10] Mr. Chairman.
[1:11:11] All right. Next up is board comment.
[1:11:15] Do we have any board comment?
[1:11:16] We've been chatting it up a little bit up here.
[1:11:20] So anything else?
[1:11:23] Okay.
[1:11:25] With that, we will move to where we don't have any information items this time.
[1:11:30] We have appointments, divorce, commissions, and committees.
[1:11:36] So I know I've talked to all of you individually about our,
[1:11:42] we're going to have a two step process.
[1:11:44] I just want to put this out there for the public for our new parks and recreation advisory committee.
[1:11:51] What we're going to do is take this up in the early April timeframe and have our district appointments.
[1:11:57] we have five districts, five appointments, go through that process so I would ask all of you
[1:12:03] to have your, and I know we've talked about this, but just so everybody in the public knows,
[1:12:10] please have those applications sent in for the district appointments. Once we do that, we'll move on
[1:12:15] to the at-large appointments for the Parks and Rec board and continue to move that forward.
[1:12:22] All right, are there any other items in terms of boards, commissions, and committees, any nominations for this evening?
[1:12:34] We do have one, Stephen Hine.
[1:12:37] Thank you for reminding me.
[1:12:42] That's me.
[1:12:45] On the Health Center, commission.
[1:12:50] Yeah, it's right in front of me. Thank you, Latoya, for refreshing my recollection. We have
[1:12:56] an at-large appointment. I will nominate Steven Hein, who's agreed to serve a four-year term
[1:13:03] through February 28th or 2030.
[1:13:09] Any others? Okay, so we'll just go and do that by consensus.
[1:13:15] everybody at OK with Stephen Hein?
[1:13:19] Proved.
[1:13:21] So please notify Stephen and thank you for reminding me.
[1:13:27] All right.
[1:13:27] With that, we'll move next to our calendar items.
[1:13:34] Again, you'll see on here.
[1:13:38] We may end up doing a work session on our budget and advance of that.
[1:13:46] Well, that will not interfere with our board meeting on the 24th and please be mindful March 24 board meeting will be at the high school again.
[1:13:56] I think if you say it enough times finally it seems so.
[1:14:00] Any other items on the calendar any questions or the group.
[1:14:05] Okay, and then we have to schedule a public hearing.
[1:14:11] I mean, make sure I got that right, yep, for to consider, is that still accurate for the 14?
[1:14:21] Yes.
[1:14:22] The April 14 for the public hearing.
[1:14:24] Stop the saying.
[1:14:26] Right.
[1:14:27] taxation and, but this is a public hearing to consider changing the deadlines for the land
[1:14:37] use program and other taxidate programs to align better actions. Great. So if there's consensus of the
[1:14:49] board, we will go ahead and schedule that for April 14th at our regular meeting. Any objections? Okay.
[1:14:59] And this...
[1:15:00] And I know we have a proposed work session schedule currently slated for I think three work sessions. One is March 24, April 14th and April 28th. So we'll look to get those scheduled what we may end up doing.
[1:15:22] We'll sort of send the note around to check timing and everything and confirm those and then
[1:15:29] advertise those work sessions like we normally do.
[1:15:32] So you see the dates, please make a note of that and we'll have to decide on a start
[1:15:38] time so if y'all can please email me separately so we don't have them in a verdant meeting,
[1:15:47] we will cover that as well.
[1:15:48] And then we have to schedule a work session on the V dot secondary six year plan to be held on April 14th.
[1:15:59] And we can do that just in advance.
[1:16:03] Do we have the broadband authority that day? Is it on?
[1:16:08] No. We on the 28th.
[1:16:11] It's the 28th. Okay. That's what I thought. Okay. Good.
[1:16:14] So we'll we'll do that as well and then schedule public hearing on ZTA 2601 that is the
[1:16:25] the recently unanimous approval from the planning commission where we will
[1:16:34] Consider the leading a buy right for data centers through a change in our ordinance that will public hearing will be held on April 14th.
[1:16:50] Everyone good with that.
[1:16:52] All right. So we got that rolling on as well. So all of those are will be scheduled accordingly.
[1:17:01] And then we have a public hearing.
[1:17:05] Is that to. Oh, that's today.
[1:17:07] So yes, we have a public hearing on proposed supplemental appropriation and budget amendment with the Andrew Oliver our finance director.
[1:17:18] The floor's yours. Good evening, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice Chair, members of the board.
[1:17:24] We're convening this public hearing to amend the FY26 operating budget and to add the
[1:17:30] Career and Technical Education CTE building to the capital improvement program CIP.
[1:17:36] Orange County Public Schools was notified that it had been awarded a $2.2 million grant
[1:17:41] through the school construction assistance program or SCAP from the Virginia Board of Education.
[1:17:46] This grant will support the construction of the new CTE.
[1:17:50] The total estimated cost for this project is $23 million.
[1:17:54] Tonight we are taking TTE actions.
[1:17:56] The first is to amend the FY26 operating budget to recognize the $2.2 million
[1:18:01] scrap grant revenue and to appropriate defines for the CTE building project.
[1:18:07] The second is to add the CTE building to the CIP to establish the project within it
[1:18:12] and to set the total project budget at $23 million.
[1:18:17] Because this amendment exceeds 1% of the total expenditures, a public hearing is required under the code of Virginia.
[1:18:24] Just to recap, total estimated costs of the project is $23 million.
[1:18:28] Funding sources include the $10 million scap grant and $20.8 million in local funding.
[1:18:35] The local funding may come from debt, cash, or other financing options, all of which will require a broader approval
[1:18:41] and this will come before you at another time.
[1:18:43] We're not committing to any of that funding at this time.
[1:18:47] So at this time, I would recommend the board open the public hearing and following the public hearing as the board adopt the resolutions.
[1:18:54] Thank you. With that, I will open the public hearing.
[1:19:01] And do we have any speakers?
[1:19:03] No, sir. All right. No speakers for this public hearing. I will close the public hearing.
[1:19:10] And now we will consider resolution number 260310-15A1, a resolution to amend the fiscal year
[1:19:23] 2026 operating budget for the career and technical education building project.
[1:19:30] Do I have a motion?
[1:19:32] So moved.
[1:19:33] I have a motion.
[1:19:35] Do I have a second?
[1:19:37] We have a motion in a second.
[1:19:39] any discussion, though. This is the continued process by which we not only are fortunate to receive
[1:19:51] a $2.2 million grant, but to formally begin the process as we finance the CTE building
[1:19:59] as a capital project in our plan. We've worked extensively with the schools division
[1:20:06] in the school board and appreciate their, in the superintendent, appreciate all of their help to get things in place.
[1:20:14] And so without any further discussion, I will call for a roll call vote.
[1:20:23] Mr. Capel.
[1:20:24] Capel.
[1:20:26] Hi.
[1:20:27] Mr. Van Helvin.
[1:20:28] Hi.
[1:20:29] Ms. Coleman.
[1:20:30] Hi. Mr. Nichol.
[1:20:32] Hi.
[1:20:32] The resolution passes for zero.
[1:20:36] good day for our accounting.
[1:20:43] Okay, now we come to that portion.
[1:20:46] One additional question.
[1:20:50] Oh, rats. I didn't do the other one.
[1:20:53] Yeah, sorry.
[1:20:55] I'm ready to get to public comment. So bear with me for just a second.
[1:21:01] Um, do we? We have another resolution for the capital improvement program. Uh, and that is resolution number 260310-15A2 a resolution to amend the capital improvement program to include the Korean technical education building project in the capital improvement program. Do I have a motion.
[1:21:24] So do I have a second I mean, yeah, I'll second it for sure. All right. I'm kind of a hangar on on this way
[1:21:35] Showing up. Okay, so we have a motion in a second is there any discussion?
[1:21:40] I think by now we've covered the bases, so I will call for a roll call vote with no discussion seen
[1:21:49] Please
[1:21:49] Ms. Coleman, aye. Mr. Nickle.
[1:21:53] Aye. Mr. Capeau.
[1:21:54] Aye.
[1:21:55] Mr. Van Hogan.
[1:21:57] All right, we have a resolution adopted to amend the CIP.
[1:22:01] It includes the CTE building project by a vote of four.
[1:22:05] Zero.
[1:22:06] Now, I think we're ready to move to public comment.
[1:22:11] How many speakers do we have?
[1:22:13] We have six speakers tonight.
[1:22:14] Six speakers.
[1:22:15] OK, so we're going to try
[1:22:19] Some of the little new in prep for some of the things we have coming, so normally I think
[1:22:26] when I introduce our public comment, we've opened up public comment.
[1:22:30] And for every one of our board meetings, in the past, we've had one or two minutes or sometimes three minutes. We're going to keep it at three minutes. We're going to have a timer, just get every use to it.
[1:22:46] And to be prepared, you know, we're not going to get too crazy if you go to three minutes and five seconds, but we want to kind of keep things flowing.
[1:22:56] please be respectful in your comments, please, when your name is called, come up, give your
[1:23:05] name and your address for the record. Make your comment. Well, once you give your name and address,
[1:23:12] we'll start the clock, if you will, and go through your comments, whatever they may be. And so with
[1:23:21] that we will call our first public commenter.
[1:23:25] We have Daniel Bowser.
[1:23:28] I have right before we start, I mean, does that make a noise?
[1:23:31] Do we need to be prepared for something full?
[1:23:34] I understand, I have not heard it,
[1:23:35] but I hear it does get your attention.
[1:23:37] Okay, so when this is our first time, thanks for asking about that.
[1:23:44] So there is a noise that will give you a little,
[1:23:46] like I said, don't be shocked, don't be afraid,
[1:23:49] that's everything's fine.
[1:23:51] I don't even know what the noise is.
[1:23:53] So we're trying, you're the first, all right?
[1:23:56] You're the perfect, you're the perfect.
[1:23:57] Sorry, he's got to be a first, right?
[1:23:58] That it's always got to be a first.
[1:24:00] So please state your name and address and we'll start.
[1:24:03] Daniel Baszett, 29228, Lama Lane,
[1:24:05] Roadsville, Virginia, good evening.
[1:24:09] Members of the board, Mr. Chairman, I live in Roadsville.
[1:24:13] I stand before you tonight
[1:24:14] because we're community is facing across rows.
[1:24:17] The proposed and minion energy transmission
[1:24:18] lives present a permanent industrial threat to the soul of Orange County and the rural life that
[1:24:23] we have all worked so hard to protect. In Roadsville, across this county, the land tells a story,
[1:24:29] much of the soil here has been held intended by the same families for generations.
[1:24:35] For these residents, their acreage isn't just an asset, it's their family heritage and their history.
[1:24:41] To fly through these multi-generational forms that massive industrial corridors is devastating
[1:24:46] below to the very people who have been valuable in the county for over a century.
[1:24:53] We're asking them to watch their legacy be carved up for a project that offers them nothing
[1:24:57] in return. We are just not talking about losing the views. We're talking about destruction
[1:25:05] of their history. We must also have transparency and who is paying for this. Is the financial
[1:25:11] burden falling that Orange County families to fund infrastructure that primarily serves data
[1:25:16] centers or interest outside our borders.
[1:25:19] We should not be as to subsidize a project that offers us no direct local benefit while we
[1:25:24] suffer the local consequences.
[1:25:28] These lines are a direct hit to property values.
[1:25:30] The most of us, our home, is our largest asset.
[1:25:33] And these towers will slash that equity overnight.
[1:25:38] Furthermore, the environmental impact on our watersheds and our local ecosystems is a price
[1:25:42] to hide a pay.
[1:25:43] We are the stewards of this land and allowing these high voltage corridors to clear our countryside as a failure of that stewardship.
[1:25:53] Finally, we live here because of the beautiful rural character of Orange County. It's our greatest asset.
[1:26:00] And once that beauty is gone, it's gone forever.
[1:26:04] I urge us more to stand as a shield to your constituents and demand that to me and explore
[1:26:09] its undergrounding or alternative routes that respect our land, our history and please protect
[1:26:14] our wallets, our environment, and our generational legacy.
[1:26:19] Thank you for your time.
[1:26:20] Okay.
[1:26:29] Okay.
[1:26:31] We have Russell's the Wensky.
[1:26:37] Russell.
[1:26:39] Do you have three in use.
[1:26:42] Yes.
[1:26:44] Hold on.
[1:26:45] This is second.
[1:26:49] Come on.
[1:26:50] You've got.
[1:26:51] You'll be number two on our.
[1:26:53] Using our.
[1:26:56] Maybe you have 75 minutes.
[1:26:58] I don't know.
[1:26:59] That was.
[1:27:02] Okay.
[1:27:03] Okay.
[1:27:04] are a place to stay.
[1:27:05] Thank you most.
[1:27:05] Mr. Winsky, I live at 16461 Terry's Run Road.
[1:27:10] I'm a newcomer to the county, but at the same time I've been coming down in this area
[1:27:14] for the last 15 years or so.
[1:27:16] I'm not understanding the county was always that this was supposed to be an agricultural
[1:27:20] county, you know, in respect to land and, you know, not, not have heavy industry.
[1:27:25] I'm originally came from Prince William County, which I stayed there for 47 years and it got
[1:27:31] where we had to start living with these data centers.
[1:27:35] They started with the power lines.
[1:27:37] They came through, our taxes kept going up.
[1:27:40] And a lot, the promises of cheaper power, more
[1:27:45] than kind of a power never happened that.
[1:27:48] My real estate taxes went from a reasonable figure
[1:27:53] to, I only listened, two and a half acres.
[1:27:56] My real estate taxes were over $6,000 a year.
[1:28:00] That, something that I think a bunch of these people are forgetting about, it's not just
[1:28:05] a matter of cutting a 200-foot wide squat to our country, you know, destroying everything
[1:28:10] in there.
[1:28:11] But my particular place is that one of the Danes will state, this family dates back to the slaves
[1:28:17] at Monpilier, okay, the Danes are buried on my place, this part lies in the right to the
[1:28:26] of this cemetery.
[1:28:29] That.
[1:28:30] Another thing that comes up which, you know, the budget was brought up that you were planning
[1:28:34] on reviewing the budgets in our tax rate,
[1:28:39] the area, putting it in a 750, a kill-out
[1:28:44] car line, not only is taking a 200-foot swat, but you can't, you can't healthy live within
[1:28:53] thousand foot of that size power line. Our homes which are there, how are you going to tax
[1:28:59] a person on a home that you can't live in? You know, the government makes some kind of
[1:29:05] restitution for taking your place, but it's a very small, minimal amount. They try to offer you
[1:29:12] fair mark and value for what it is. What's the fair mark and value of a house you can't live in
[1:29:18] or use of the property that you can to I've got some data and two different sources
[1:29:23] I can give it to the board and they probably have this information already but I like to
[1:29:29] you know hand it to them so that they can review it in case some of the people here don't know
[1:29:33] about it. Thank you.
[1:29:43] What that data basically represents is that not only do they take the land
[1:29:47] but they present the magnetic fields that's given off by these power lines you have to be
[1:29:54] minimum of a thousand foot away in order to take and live in a home.
[1:30:01] That's basically it. I'm aggravated with it. Thank you. Thank you for coming.
[1:30:17] Next, we have Aaron Pry.
[1:30:27] Good evening. My name's Aaron Pryne. I live at 7456, Oakwood Lake Drive in Roadsville. And I'm one of the ones that they're going to cut my property. And it is my house is within a hundred feet from their lives. So I'm hoping that you all can support us.
[1:30:45] all of us in this county because I believe you all feel the same way that we do and what
[1:30:50] this gentleman said is absolutely right and same with this one. This is our county and these people
[1:30:56] want to come in and destroy everything that I've been here 44 years. So I'm not sort of a newbie,
[1:31:02] but I am not born and raised here but my children were and they all went to school here and my son
[1:31:08] will inherit the property, but it'll be unlivable like this gentleman said. I mean 100 feet from their
[1:31:14] in, from their, plus all the wetlands that'll go, and that's only one line. There's two lines
[1:31:19] that we don't know where they're going to decide, but I hope that you will talk to SCC and make
[1:31:25] them go if they come through here that it all goes underground. We've just been cabled, so we're all
[1:31:31] used to things going underground, but this overhead stuff is just terrible. And I hope you all will
[1:31:38] support our county and take care of us like you've done for as many in a since 1734. So thank you very much for the evening. Thank you.
[1:31:54] Next we have dated Butler.
[1:32:00] Next we'll have crystal rust
[1:32:10] and crystal rust. I live at 1 3 1 6 3 Saint dress road.
[1:32:15] I don't know what else I can say that everybody else hasn't said, but it'll be 10 years in May
[1:32:21] since me and my husband bought the property here. This was supposed to be our forever home.
[1:32:26] With two young kids, I'm sorry. It will make our house on an habitable. It goes to our property.
[1:32:36] It's not just a massive ice war. It causes cancer. They're going to tell you on March 24th
[1:32:41] that those EMFs do nothing, they do, they cause leukemia and children, I have a three and a five year old, I can't live there and I won't be able to sell it either.
[1:32:54] I have no options.
[1:32:57] They don't care.
[1:32:59] We've already heard from representatives.
[1:33:01] One gentleman was told, small sacrifice for the many.
[1:33:05] They don't care, they know it's a sacrifice, they know we're sacrificing our land and our health for something that doesn't
[1:33:11] benefit us directly.
[1:33:15] I was talking to the environmentalist last night and they said after
[1:33:19] they clear that 200 feet, their maintenance is spraying herbicide. That's groundwater. We're all
[1:33:27] on well. It's a double dose. It's the radiation from those lines and it's ruining our water
[1:33:34] sources well. They don't care and it's not for us as for data centers that nobody wanted
[1:33:40] up north either, and they certainly don't want them down here, and this is a slippery slope.
[1:33:47] Once this starts, it will never stop. They'll put data centers in orange and coal pepper
[1:33:52] and wherever these lines go, and it won't stop. I understand from this meeting, my first
[1:33:59] one ever, because I'm so wild up, that we're all on the same page here. So I appreciate that.
[1:34:06] I will be there on March 24th, but this is terrifying.
[1:34:13] This was supposed to be somewhere I lived forever.
[1:34:16] And now I feel like I'm being pushed out,
[1:34:19] one way or another.
[1:34:21] So thank you for your time this evening.
[1:34:32] Final speaker, it's Bonnie Finchon.
[1:34:52] Bonnie Finchon, 16567 Mallory's Ford Road,
[1:34:56] Gordon's Will Virginia.
[1:34:58] First of all, I'm gonna thank all
[1:35:00] for the effort you're making to get ahead of this mess
[1:35:03] with these transmission lines.
[1:35:07] I can empathize with your shock and dismay
[1:35:12] of being broad sided with this.
[1:35:15] Many of us in the community felt the same way
[1:35:17] about the data center thing.
[1:35:19] So I understand trying to play ketchup
[1:35:22] and figure out where are we?
[1:35:24] How do we get here and what do we do now?
[1:35:26] So I feel I feel for you. I really do we shouldn't be surprised by this
[1:35:34] the data center was the beginning
[1:35:37] the transmission lines are nothing more than something to support those data centers and I agree with what the
[1:35:44] later just said they are bringing these transmission lines in ahead of us at any sort of parameters
[1:35:51] with or try to set parameters with the data centers where they have to pay for these
[1:35:57] transmission lines if they get into our county.
[1:36:02] But this accelerated rate is the same accelerated rate that went along with the data
[1:36:09] centers.
[1:36:10] Shubbing get it through.
[1:36:11] We won't try to get anything done.
[1:36:14] The normal course of things we're going to just push it in.
[1:36:16] And here we are, now it's the transmission lines, and if they get in, our county is going to be nothing, but data centers. I'm sorry. There's, there's no reason in this world for us needing 765 killable lines running through here.
[1:36:35] That's not to feed communities or anything like that. That is, for these data centers, I'm sorry. That's the way I feel about it.
[1:36:44] I appreciate y'all's effort to try to get ahead of it.
[1:36:49] What can we do as citizens to support your efforts?
[1:36:53] Can we send emails to what is the federal energy
[1:36:58] regulatory committee?
[1:37:00] Our commission is there a place that we can send emails
[1:37:03] to verbalize what your our concerns are
[1:37:07] with this thing trying to come through our community?
[1:37:10] The SEC, where do we write?
[1:37:12] Tell us what we need to do to support what you're trying to do and we will be glad to just tell us we don't know what to do
[1:37:21] I mean we don't know what the processes are but there's got to be a way for us to express our concerns at the federal level at the state
[1:37:30] Oh, and y'all know how we feel here. I mean, we've said what we had to say everything with the water, everything. We've touched on all of this, even with the data center. So tell us what we need to do.
[1:37:43] Give us information that we can help support your efforts to try to protect our county from these monstrosities. Thank you so much.
[1:37:53] We
[1:37:59] do have one additional speaker, this Sarah Closkey.
[1:38:12] Sarah Closkey 24405, Montview Lane, Orange Virginia, all of that phone.
[1:38:19] I appreciate everyone speaking up and participating in the process and the boards.
[1:38:27] Best efforts that I think we all want to avoid this type of development in our rural county.
[1:38:35] And I appreciate the lady that last spoke to reduce the impacts on wildlife by avoiding
[1:38:44] having these right-of-ways come through our land where it's going to be increased chemicals
[1:38:50] in our streams and loss of pollinators.
[1:39:00] So the clearing of the right-of-ways has an impact and the maintenance as well.
[1:39:05] And I think other people are more informed than I am about how eminent domain works,
[1:39:13] but I don't think that any restitution would make up for the long-term mental and physical
[1:39:19] effects by those impacted by proximity to these potential lines.
[1:39:28] And I don't know when the appropriate time for these questions that I have about
[1:39:38] noise abatement, noise is an issue about, you know, the decreased value of land that people
[1:39:45] have worked on and worked for for their adult lives, and I feel that farms are holding
[1:39:51] the wind and orange county against suburban sprawl. It's right on our doorsteps,
[1:39:59] and,
[1:40:05] you
[1:40:05] the farming legacy of this county, you know, I don't think there's ever any compensation that
[1:40:14] could be offered to make up for the decreased quality of life that a project like this through our
[1:40:21] county would cause.
[1:40:27] I'd like to refer people to the last lady asked a question about the
[1:40:32] the R.C. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and how to submit comments to that.
[1:40:40] The Facebook page Orange County Data Centers has a man on their name, Michael Regan,
[1:40:49] R.E.G.A.N., who has sounded the alarm about sending in these comments to the F.E.R.C.
[1:40:58] And he has detailed instructions on how to do so, and also he is offering a help session for people like me who might be non-native computer people.
[1:41:14] This coming Saturday at the Orange County Library Wilderness Branch from 10 to 1, and he advises bringing your laptop.
[1:41:25] And he would help you, especially if you have your comment ready to submit that comment through the owner's process there.
[1:41:36] And then I just put a philosophical note here.
[1:41:41] The great Indian chief, I believe it was Joseph said that the white man will not understand until the last tree is gone that you can't eat money.
[1:41:54] So
[1:41:58] I know we have a few other speakers, so who's up next?
[1:42:03] Next we have Michael Regan.
[1:42:05] There we go.
[1:42:06] Michael Regan is here.
[1:42:09] Ask a new shot received.
[1:42:11] Good afternoon, Board.
[1:42:12] First, I want to thank the Board for the tremendous actions they've taken today.
[1:42:15] I want to thank the residents for the tremendous actions of what they've done.
[1:42:19] And I just want to reiterate, I was at home on my farm.
[1:42:22] Raising my kids happy to be alone.
[1:42:24] and I've learned more about regional transmission, expansion plans, and FERC, and SEC, or state
[1:42:32] corporation commission than I would ever care to, but that's not just me, that's the entire
[1:42:36] community.
[1:42:37] So now we're engaged and we're looking and I'm sure that's making the gentleman in the back
[1:42:41] a little bit uncomfortable, but I just want to draw attention to a couple of things that we're
[1:42:45] sighted here today and I think they're critically important.
[1:42:48] The original sighting location of the each substation up until 2025 in their P.J.M.'s regional
[1:42:54] transmission, transmission plans, the EAT facility was described at a 765
[1:42:58] killable substation, approximately 65 acres in fall,
[1:43:03] cure county near the existing transmission hub that services more than
[1:43:07] Virginia. It makes sense from a great perspective that
[1:43:10] hub contains the infrastructure that moves electricity into northern
[1:43:13] Virginia, but it's not there anymore. We know that it's now
[1:43:18] arbitrarily proposed to not build in coal pepper county. In that decision,
[1:43:22] that single decision that happened sometime in 2025 after the PGM's approval process to relocate
[1:43:30] that terminating substation for projects of this scale at significant planning decision.
[1:43:35] Yet, most of the surrounding counties that the officials I've spoken to had no visibility
[1:43:39] into winner how that decision occurred.
[1:43:41] Maybe fall-cured it if you've got some buddies out there, probably asking questions, maybe
[1:43:45] I'll go up there for a meeting.
[1:43:46] But anyways, the practical result today is that Orange County now sits directly in the corridor
[1:43:50] or one of the largest transmission lines
[1:43:51] proposed in the region.
[1:43:53] And certainly as you've all discussed,
[1:43:55] when planned or the project moves between two end points,
[1:43:59] the counties in between are those that suffer the physical burden.
[1:44:03] And I will say, you know, unfortunately,
[1:44:05] and I don't mean to alarm anybody, but again,
[1:44:07] I am reading every plan I can get a hold of
[1:44:10] that's publicly available.
[1:44:12] The Joshua Falls E proposals part of a broader,
[1:44:14] regional transmission expansion
[1:44:16] that could affect Orange County Central Virginia
[1:44:18] through multiple 765 kilovolt corridors rather than the standalone project. If you read the latest
[1:44:26] PGM, February 26th letter to their board, they discussed the Vante substation as a 765
[1:44:34] kilovolt loop. So two of these potentially through the county or our surrounding counties to
[1:44:40] loop this back to Joshua Falls. So that brings you back to what we've already discussed,
[1:44:45] The Federal Energy Regatory Commission, they're considering that proposal for the EIT, and that's to accelerate approval of very large power generation and storage projects. For example, the battery energy storage systems that are considered shovel ready.
[1:45:00] So, under that proposal, that's at least 250 megawatts that could move through the process in 10 months, instead of 4 years, and as the meaning energy describes it themselves, this is an energy essentially highway that they can on and off track energy or demand as needed.
[1:45:17] So, with this transmission lines comes these power systems that they're so desperately trying to accelerate in the federal arena right now.
[1:45:25] So for the current, the concern for us, is that accelerating that large generation and
[1:45:31] storage that creates the demand and the need that they need for the reliability studies for new transmission lines.
[1:45:38] So the transmission lines that they're proposing right now are going to be based on demand created through the EIT.
[1:45:44] And the demand is not necessarily the consumer.
[1:45:46] It's the amount of power they have that's sitting there idle, waiting to get out and transmission lines.
[1:45:52] So, and then in a couple of, was already said, I've lost my time, I'm just going to go
[1:45:56] with five minutes later.
[1:45:57] We then have the big buzzer go off, which is, which is good because nobody got scared,
[1:46:01] but if you could just wrap it up, please.
[1:46:03] Okay, I will wrap it up.
[1:46:04] So, I will just say that I will just reiterate that if you do want to get your voice
[1:46:11] on record, I'm so proud of all that I've looked at the federal documents filling up now
[1:46:15] with comments from Orange from the Lisa from surrounding counties.
[1:46:20] And if you'd like to some help on that, you can look up on Facebook, but again, we will be at the wilderness library assisting people filing their comments and making the voices heard. Thank you.
[1:46:30] Thank you.
[1:46:30] Thank you.
[1:46:36] Next, we have Nancy Levesk.
[1:46:45] All right, I was late to the board.
[1:46:46] It took me an hour and a half to get here from Northern Virginia.
[1:46:49] So thank you.
[1:46:50] My name is Nancy Levesk.
[1:46:51] I'm at 3-1-1-0-6.
[1:46:52] There's a road in Levesk Grove.
[1:46:58] Just kind of reiterating what everybody else said.
[1:47:00] I've been 20 plus years transit as a marine and I finally end up in northern Virginia retire here stay here
[1:47:08] but I came to Orange County for the beauty of Orange County, which this transmission line ends up about a thousand feet from my home.
[1:47:18] I spent $30,000 put a nice patio out on the back, be able to sit and dream a coffee, don't have to worry about explosive devices going off or anything else.
[1:47:26] And now I'm going to have to look at some transmission lines that had no value to anybody in our area.
[1:47:35] As the one guy mentioned, I think there are many more options that can fund this power serves they are needing of north.
[1:47:43] They should not affect the hundreds of miles of beautiful Virginia landscape that is going to be destroyed because of it.
[1:47:51] And just the shout-off to the sheriff, nobody caught me while I was feeding to get here.
[1:47:55] Thank you.
[1:47:57] The shout-out has closed.
[1:48:01] Thank you.
[1:48:06] All right, now our final speaker, Jerry Garanami.
[1:48:18] Hi, I'm Jerry Gariani at 28401 Mind Run Road in Rosal and then District 2.
[1:48:25] And I'm one of the houses that where it goes right by the house and makes my house uninhabitable.
[1:48:33] And so I just want to urge, today, come to the board to urge, I know there's a lot of activity going on.
[1:48:40] And there's a lot of, I went to the Planning Commission meeting and I know there's a strategy to begin engaging with the State Corporation Commission.
[1:48:49] But I'd like to urge the Board as the executive body to start thinking on a broader strategy to fight this.
[1:48:59] And one of the strategies is to assuming that we work with the SCC on a case.
[1:49:09] But what if we lose that case and they vote to approve the transmission line?
[1:49:14] The next step is the SEC can only be appealed to the State Supreme Court.
[1:49:20] So we need to, you know, and that's a significant effort to bring a case to the State Supreme Court.
[1:49:26] So I'm urging the Board to start building a coalition of all the 78-9 counties.
[1:49:32] To look for, look for the proper legal counsel that specializes and taking things like this to the State Supreme Court and start building the case now.
[1:49:43] And that does a couple of things that helps prepare the case for the SEC, but then also be prepared right away for a state Supreme Court case.
[1:50:02] And so I'm just urging that we do, and I know that that's a that's a cost burden, but if we work with all the counties and all the counties pull the resources.
[1:50:12] And all the counties bring it to this Supreme Court as a group, that strengthens the case.
[1:50:20] So this urging to start that now.
[1:50:23] I'm also would like to kind of get the board and the county staff to start thinking
[1:50:29] out of the box of this broader strategy to look at things like, well, a lot of the folks
[1:50:36] I talked about, like, my home, would be uninhabitable and a certain distance away from that high voltage for a lot of reasons that everybody's talked about.
[1:50:49] You know, can the board look at rules and regulations to say, okay, if you're going to be, if a home is a certain distance to 100 yards, 500 yards from a high voltage line, it's, it's condemned.
[1:51:01] and does that force value length, then if all comes, if all those fails, now that it's protecting
[1:51:09] the homeowner that they're going to get paid for that home at a fair market value, and
[1:51:14] that just like Nancy said, sit on your porch and have to live underneath the line.
[1:51:20] So things like that, I guess I'm urging to think out of the box and start thinking of strategies
[1:51:24] that also would drive the, you know, valiant link to think about the cost of what that means
[1:51:33] would cost across the county because when I talk to the person yesterday, I said, why did
[1:51:38] you pick this route? They said, well, it's a cheapest route. Well, let's not make it the cheapest route.
[1:51:43] Let's make it expensive for them and try to stop this that way. So I'm just urging to start thinking
[1:51:49] about these things and build this strategy, and then let us know like Nancy said. And lastly,
[1:51:57] like the last speaker said, I'm a veteran, my neighbors are veterans, and so I'm really
[1:52:05] hoping we win this case because and we push this out of the county because if we don't, I mean it's
[1:52:10] like living in North Korea, right? I'm such people come in and take your property and destroy it.
[1:52:15] And for those of us who are veterans, it's like,
[1:52:17] well, why do we bother?
[1:52:18] Why do we bother doing this?
[1:52:20] You know, you're just going to take our property.
[1:52:22] So thanks for listening.
[1:52:25] Thank you for having me.
[1:52:28] Thanks.
[1:52:31] Any other speakers who didn't have a chance to sign up, came late,
[1:52:38] come on up, please state your name and address.
[1:52:42] Okay, hi, my name is Stella Bradford for zero five-rage road barber film is my address and I just would like to thank the community for showing up
[1:53:00] I think I could speak on behalf of a lot of young people that I'm not even affected.
[1:53:09] I'm in Barbara's cell but I know a lot of people my age that are and who are working right now and can't be here to say that they don't appreciate this and really what is the point like, you know, we've really tried a long time to imagine a future in orange and that's really hard to afford in general.
[1:53:32] And then once you can't afford it, that was the first thing I said to my first ever comment
[1:53:38] and my first ever meeting was what, you know, once we can afford things, it's unenchievable
[1:53:44] and even for our veterans that fight for our country. This is how they're fate. Orange County
[1:53:53] raised founding fathers of this country. And I think Orange County needs to really stand up for
[1:54:00] entire nation and really set a precedent for the entire world to take, you know, their youth
[1:54:06] and their future generations seriously because really what's the point if we're having children
[1:54:11] to a dead world? What is the point? And, you know, what are we fighting for? And I know what I'm
[1:54:20] fighting for, and it's to steward this land, you know, my ancestors took from people. And I don't
[1:54:28] like that. But it's the facts. And I really, you know, I take every, you know, day, seriously
[1:54:35] to try and first of all, make up for that. And second of all, take care of the land and make it
[1:54:41] not all for granted. Like this entire Revolutionary War was for granted if we destroy this country,
[1:54:47] via this county so fast, you know, it's our 250th birthday for this country and I really think we need to pay attention to it a little bit better and, you know, take care of our own selves and stand up for ourselves and remember that the young people can't say much right now, we're at work, we're one paycheck away from being homeless.
[1:55:15] Like, we really can't speak up because the things, you know, the 1% have cornered us into, you know, the situations they've cornered us into being, you know, the private investment firms.
[1:55:30] All of this is really messed up, you know, our excitement for the future.
[1:55:35] And we need to protect it county by county town by towns because I mean the people who founded this nation did it in this very area first.
[1:55:47] They didn't have a rule book. They figured it out. So we need to set some precedents. Please.
[1:55:53] Thank you.
[1:55:58] Okay. Any other speakers?
[1:56:04] Okay.
[1:56:04] I will close the public comment and we have a motion for a closed meeting, so we have some
[1:56:14] items we have to talk about in close, and that's.
[1:56:20] Yes, Mr. Chair, I recommend a motion to enter a closed session as permitted by the Virginia
[1:56:27] Freedom of Information Act for the purpose of discussion, consideration, or interviews
[1:56:33] of perspective candidates for employment as county attorney as permitted by section 2.2, 3711,
[1:56:40] A1 of the Code of Virginia. For discussion concerning a perspective business or industry or
[1:56:47] the expansion of an existing business or industry, where no previous announcement has been made
[1:56:52] of the businesses or industries interest in locating or expanding its facilities in the community
[1:56:58] as permitted by Section 2.2, 3711A5 of the Code of Virginia.
[1:57:06] And for consultation with legal counsel employed or retained by the public body,
[1:57:11] regarding specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel
[1:57:16] as permitted by Section 2.2, 3711A8 of the Code of Virginia.
[1:57:24] Did I have that in the form of emotion, please?
[1:57:28] So, man.
[1:57:29] Second.
[1:57:31] Second.
[1:57:31] So, all those in favor?
[1:57:33] I.
[1:57:34] All right.
[1:57:35] So we are now going to go into closed meeting.
[1:57:39] I want to thank everyone for coming out tonight.
[1:57:43] For expressing your comments to us and look forward to seeing you all on March 24.
[1:57:49] After closed, we'll come back in and adjourn the meeting formally.
[1:57:53] Thank you very much.
[3:19:49] Okay, we are reading from the meeting, some closed meeting. We have a sort of case.
[3:19:55] Yes, sir. Excuse me, I wasn't on Mike. So we are recombining from closed meeting. And we have a certification.
[3:20:03] Members of the Board to the best of your knowledge, or the only matters discussed in the closed meeting public business matters, lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements.
[3:20:12] And we're only such business public business matters as we're identified in the motion by which the closed meeting
[3:20:19] Was convened we're heard discussed or considered in the closed meeting. We'll have a roll call vote
[3:20:26] Mr. Van Hovins
[3:20:27] It's Callumann. I
[3:20:29] Mr. Nichol. I
[3:20:31] Mr. Coupel. I
[3:20:33] Members of the board may have a motion to adjourn
[3:20:37] so moved second all those in favor. I
[3:20:41] We are adjourned. Thank you and see you all on March 24th at the High School.
[3:20:47] Notice this is the follow.