[0:23] good evening ladies and gentlemen
the time has arrived for us to commence
[0:28] our March 2nd 2023
Board of Supervisors meeting
[0:34] we will now be favored with an
invocation by digging Daryl Rollins
[0:46] good evening Dr Elliott
board members Mrs Rollins
[0:51] Mr Harrison
[0:55] Mrs
I'm sorry Mrs Perkins indeed everyone
[1:00] under the sound of my voice amen let us
pray
[1:04] father God lord we thank you this
evening though God for amen this awesome
[1:09] opportunity God to once again be here in
the land of the dying amen hoping one
[1:16] day o God to make it into the land of
the Eternal living
[1:19] father God right now Lord we we thank
you for another day
[1:24] God we act right now oh Lord that you
will bless this board oh God and its
[1:28] members bless our administrator oh God
we actually would bless everyone under
[1:34] the sound of my voice oh God
reminding us all oh God that the words
[1:38] we may speak tonight o God and the
meditations that we may have in our
[1:42] hearts amen it should be indeed it must
be amen acceptable in your sight and
[1:49] although God we may not agree on all
issues Lord we can certainly agree to
[1:55] disagree in a respectful way and so
bless us right now God and we shall be
[1:59] blessed keep us oh God and we shall be
kept and for that God you alone shall be
[2:05] glorified for us in Jesus name we pray
thank God amen amen we do now call this
[2:12] meeting to order and we will at this
time have a moment of silence
[2:29] thank you let us stand now for our
Pledge of Allegiance
[2:43] our nation
[2:58] board members you have before you our
agenda
[3:02] for our scheduled meeting uh
and I need a
[3:08] ction on the adoption of the agenda
agenda with one special request to add
[3:14] to the agenda that is a special
recognition
[3:17] for a very valuable
citizen of our County if we could get a
[3:25] motion on the agenda if there are no
questions on it put it before the board
[3:29] now for action
[3:38] that we will adopt the agenda as it has
been presented with the addition
[3:44] a second this has been probably moving
second all in favor let it be known by
[3:48] the voting sound of I aye opposed the
gender has been adopted
[3:54] the first item is our special
recognition
[3:59] yes
[4:02] again good evening we've had our work
session but I will again speak to our
[4:07] chair and members of the board and Mr
Harrison Miss Perkins and all that are
[4:12] assembled I cannot tell you that he
gives me such great pleasure to be able
[4:17] to present this surprise recognition on
tonight we know that we just came out
[4:23] the heels of February being black
history month and we are pleased that
[4:27] the Surry NAACP have recognition in the
county in honoring on black history but
[4:33] March is women's history month and if
you look
[4:38] this way you can see that you have
amongst us a very notable woman
[4:45] in Mrs Judy little
Mrs Judah little I said a surprise right
[4:50] yes so Mrs Judy little
became the first woman elected and the
[4:57] first African-American woman to serve on
this Board of Supervisors when she was
[5:03] elected in 1999.
this year marks Mrs little your 23rd
[5:10] year as a public servant and a loyal and
dedicated member to the board
[5:15] having retired after 33 years of working
with the United States Department of
[5:20] Agriculture
your service passion and commitment for
[5:25] Community extends over 50 years oh I
never thought of it
[5:36] [Applause]
accolades are many as you have served on
[5:41] many boards and commissions most notably
your election as the
[5:47] 2015-16 president of the Virginia
Association of counties that is huge yes
[5:53] and your term on the Sarah County Board
of Supervisors as chair Vice chair and
[5:59] certainly an Engaged member so during
women History Month a time when we
[6:03] celebrate the economic political and
social achievements of women we
[6:09] congratulate you Mrs little thank you
for your service to the residents of
[6:14] Surry County now while we do not have a
properly worded resolution in full on
[6:19] tonight all framed up to present to you
the action on tonight is to ask the
[6:25] board to do a properly worded resolution
and we can certainly present that to you
[6:30] at a later date thank you so much thank
you and prior to the board taking that
[6:35] action I'm going to ask Mr Elliott as
chair to present you
[6:39] with this in honor again and recognition
of your service to Surry County
[6:45] and as you know Mrs little you have some
surprise visitors in the audience so
[6:50] family of Mrs little of your mind
standing
[6:54] [Applause]
[7:06] we want to present this to you for your
dedicated service to the citizens of
[7:12] Surry County as being the first and only
woman who has been elected to the Board
[7:18] of Supervisors of Sarah County thank you
for your service and may God continue to
[7:22] bless you
[7:25] thank you
[7:36] this is a little would you like to have
any comments at this time
[7:39] sure if if it's okay
okay thank you first of all to those who
[7:47] are here in my family
um and those others who are here from my
[7:52] community I appreciate you being here I
was kind of shocked when
[7:57] I will why did they pick tonight to come
because one of them has been before and
[8:02] the other one has not been before or by
two daughters and
[8:08] um so I was like I don't know what's
going on about that but anyway but I
[8:13] won't just want to say
um thank you
[8:16] um to the Board of Supervisors and the
administration for the recognition
[8:21] tonight I certainly appreciate it and I
had never given it a thought that I have
[8:26] been serving Surry County for 53 years
but I will say that it has been a
[8:32] blessing I love Surry County and when I
went into it that's why I went into it
[8:39] was because I do love Surry County and
thank all of you I certainly appreciate
[8:45] I love plants so this is right on thank
you thank you Miss Lowe board members we
[8:52] have before us our consent items
uh
[9:00] we do have a before us our consent items
and
[9:03] and they be in the approval of the draft
minutes from our February the second
[9:08] meeting and our work session on February
the 23rd uh the approval of the draft
[9:13] minutes for our joint meeting with the
school board on February the 27th and
[9:18] the approval for accounts payable for
the month of January a request for a
[9:25] public hearing
uh dealing with uh easement then a Crest
[9:30] we have two requests for public hearings
three requests for public hearings and a
[9:35] budget amendment appropriated Grant
funds that we receive from gen and
[9:39] Foundation to receive those funds are
there any questions on those items do we
[9:43] need to pull any one of those items out
for discussion
[9:48] if there be none we will ask for action
on our consent items
[9:55] Mr chair our move that we approve our
consent items listed one through eight
[10:02] you have a motion of a second second
second it's been a problem to move and
[10:05] second all in favor let it be known by
the voting sound of ah
[10:09] emotion is carried
board members the next item on our
[10:13] agenda is our public Hearing in regards
to the Surry County comprehensive
[10:18] comprehensive Plan update
Mr Wade
[10:31] good evening chairman Elliott good
evening members of the board
[10:34] Miss Rollins
Mr Harrison
[10:38] and Miss Perkins
tonight we have a four-year public
[10:41] hearing for the Congress of Plan update
the appointed commission had been
[10:46] working on this project for a little
over at this time a little bit over a
[10:49] year now
and through various
[10:53] Avenues of of public involvement we do
have our Consultants here tonight that
[10:58] have assisted us with the process Summit
behind me
[11:03] miss Ann Darby and she'll be doing the
presentation tonight for you all and if
[11:08] you all have any questions
please please let us know but she's here
[11:13] to do your presentation for us thank you
thank you Mr
[11:20] hi good evening Karen Elliott members of
the board thank you so much for having
[11:24] us here again my name is Ann Darby I'm
the planning department manager for
[11:28] Summit design and engineering and we've
had the honor of working with Surrey
[11:33] with staff the Planning Commission for
just about a year now working on this
[11:38] comprehensive plan amendment I want to
just review a little bit the offered the
[11:44] process the opportunities for engagement
we started with public participation in
[11:50] April 2022 we held two focus groups they
were comprised of a variety of different
[11:56] stakeholders they were landowners they
were people who were forced energy
[12:01] projects I'm going to keep accidentally
saying solar because solar is what came
[12:06] out when we talk about energy projects
we also had a public open house at that
[12:09] time in April we also started a public
survey that was distributed we had 181
[12:15] responses they're mostly people that are
very focused on on the issue already we
[12:20] closed that survey in June and we
published a summary of the survey
[12:24] results
and we also sorry then in June 2022 we
[12:30] continued that conversation with the
Planning Commission we went over many
[12:34] many many different uh and I just I just
say that to say that you know it's this
[12:39] has been very thoughtful and very
um very methodical we discussed many
[12:45] different uh scenarios with the Planning
Commission you'll remember that I was
[12:49] here in June of 2022 to discuss the
progress with you we offered at that
[12:54] point three solutions to the board and
that not excuse me not Solutions three
[12:59] options and that was
a alternative that would create policy
[13:05] that wouldn't allow any new energy
projects
[13:08] the alternative of having no new
restrictions or something in between the
[13:12] board at that time said something in
between and we went forward with GIS
[13:15] analysis a lot of GIS analysis which we
will I will present to you also in this
[13:20] in this presentation
so in that's last summer and lot into
[13:25] last fall we continued with that
analysis we went back to the Planning
[13:29] Commission and we were in constant
contact with staff on this in October we
[13:33] had a second open house to Omit to
review the draft we had a lot of
[13:37] comments on the draft
we spoke again to the Planning
[13:41] Commission in November 2022 and then the
Planning Commission made a
[13:44] recommendation to approve the amendment
as it is in the in the final version
[13:50] in their meeting last month
and then tonight obviously is a public
[13:54] hearing
just to recap there were two focus
[13:57] groups two open houses in the survey we
did a lot of research we researched what
[14:02] other localities in Virginia do we
researched what other localities across
[14:06] and other states do and different ways
that that localities in Virginia are
[14:12] able to limit to the degree that they
see Fit Energy projects again the gis
[14:18] analysis and I'll go through that I'll
show you a bunch of maps they are in
[14:22] line with best practices and they're in
line with public input so we again to
[14:27] reiterate talked about this a lot
discussed a lot with the Planning
[14:30] Commission
Board of Supervisors and then there was
[14:34] one Planning Commission subcommittee
that was very very involved
[14:38] um there's this PowerPoint says several
drafts of the comprehensive plan
[14:42] amendments we counted today there have
been 17 drafts and those drafts are
[14:47] reflective each time each change was
reflective of another comment uh
[14:51] Planning Commission comments board
comments and public comments I do want
[14:55] to address one
um all of the public comments that were
[14:59] made last time we presented to the
Planning Commission we we took notes we
[15:03] wrote them down and the Planning
Commission discussed them in detail and
[15:07] we made the the changes that the
Planning Commission recommended one of
[15:11] the ones I do want to point out is that
someone made a comment that a question
[15:17] about whether or not making these new
restrictions or where energy projects
[15:22] may be developed would take away
someone's property rights if they were
[15:26] in the agricultural M1 or M2 District
there's we did a GIS analysis said that
[15:32] there's very few there are very few
properties that that would apply to but
[15:35] the fact is that because any pros
property right now that one anybody
[15:39] wants to develop into an energy project
has to go through a conditional use
[15:43] permit we're not taking away any
property rights that a resident
[15:47] currently has so that's that's um a
well-researched but a short answer in
[15:52] the end
so again when we did Community
[15:54] engagement what we heard these are just
some bullet points of what we heard the
[15:59] most loudly and the most clearly utility
scale solar is mostly what's on people's
[16:04] minds the energy projects theoretically
this could
[16:07] um you know this amendment
would deal with battery storage with
[16:12] wind if that's ever an issue but utility
scale solar clearly I think everyone
[16:15] knows that that is the the projects that
are in most in question distributed
[16:21] solar and Community solar so smaller
solar projects are much more generally
[16:26] accepted to be located anywhere in the
county seventy percent of survey
[16:31] respondents believe that energy projects
new energy projects should be limited to
[16:35] a quote very small percentage of land in
the county so we took that from the
[16:39] beginning that's the feedback we heard
in this this amendment is reflective of
[16:44] that the most significant items of
concern were displacement of wildlife a
[16:49] loss of farmland and Timberland loss of
historical and agricultural character
[16:53] people then that that came from
proponents of Tourism proponents of
[16:57] Agriculture a lot of different camps
had the same concern and that was loss
[17:03] of this character
there were some issues from previous
[17:05] solar developments about traffic
Wildlife passage storm water and
[17:12] variants from site plans I believe that
a lot of these things have been that
[17:17] have been cleared up so that new
projects are going through a more strict
[17:21] more rigorous process and so these
problems probably shouldn't happen again
[17:24] but we did hear that a lot and it's
worth mentioning
[17:27] so our GIS analysis what we did was
look at the county and and we
[17:34] sorry yeah we looked at the county as a
whole we looked at the different
[17:38] residential areas the residential
Corridor and the residential investment
[17:42] area that are treated
in very specific ways in the
[17:46] comprehensive plan towns and then
Wetlands where you wouldn't be able to
[17:51] develop something anyway wetlands and
water
[17:54] first of all just under 200 000 acres
are in the county as a whole as you can
[17:58] see that the county boundary goes into
the river
[18:02] so we then first removed the river
removed water remove Wetlands from the
[18:08] land area that we are considering for
our analysis we removed towns and key
[18:13] residential areas that's almost 30 000
acres and that again it's in the current
[18:18] comprehensive plan that so
I conflate them all the time we all
[18:22] conflate them energy projects are not
supposed to be in the town's residential
[18:25] areas or the residential Corridor that's
current Uh current recommendation from
[18:30] the plan
the Planning Commission was concerned
[18:33] about historic sites and Parcels so they
asked for those to be removed so that
[18:38] there is consideration in the creation
of energy projects around historic sites
[18:44] they ask that they be buffered and this
was back and forth and I think that this
[18:48] is probably you've seen drafts of this
but by a half mile it went back and
[18:52] forth between a a mile and a half mile
ended at a half mile
[18:57] so if we combine those areas that are
inappropriate for development so
[19:01] historic areas Wetlands water towns and
residential corridors
[19:08] 84 000 Acres about
and those are the areas so basically
[19:12] these maps are just opposites of one
another as you can see
[19:16] so there are areas that are not
appropriate for energy projects there
[19:21] are about 113 114 000 Acres
and then we looked at transmission lines
[19:27] so we all know that we want energy
projects to be the most effective most
[19:31] efficient as possible so located near
transmission lines this is a one mile
[19:35] buffer so that leaves 55
000 Acres about
[19:41] so it Narrows down to land where energy
projects might be appropriate they're
[19:46] still over 35 000 Acres that energy
projects might be appropriate within
[19:51] transmission lines outside of a mile of
historic areas outside of towns outside
[19:57] of residential corridors
so this is just a brief summary of the
[20:03] policy
it differentiates between utility scale
[20:07] solar Community scale solar and
distributed and we stick with State
[20:11] definitions of those
and then it just it says that the county
[20:15] will support the installation of
distributed energy facilities wherever
[20:19] considered appropriate and set clear
permitting standards a lot of this a lot
[20:23] of the amendment is making
recommendations to no matter what the
[20:26] decision is make sure that it's very
clear from the beginning so someone
[20:29] doesn't come to story think they can
maybe develop a property into an energy
[20:35] project and then get knocked down so
it's for everyone's benefit very clear
[20:38] from the beginning
uh so distributed energy projects will
[20:43] be allowed by right in residential
commercial and mixed-use Zoning
[20:46] districts
utility scale energy projects are
[20:49] limited to more to no more than 10
percent of developable land that's over
[20:54] 15 000 acres and that is in response to
both Planning Commission comments a lot
[21:00] of the public and uh survey feedback and
what we heard at public open houses and
[21:04] also what we heard from the board which
was to find something in between totally
[21:08] limiting and not limiting at all
so utility scale and Community scale
[21:14] energy facilities will be considered if
they meet the following conditions
[21:17] within one mile of the transmission line
and that's measured by the centroid of
[21:23] the panels if this is or the energy
producing equipment whatever that is and
[21:28] that is so that a
this might sound familiar that's so that
[21:32] a developer could not purchase a
property and then purchase other
[21:35] properties to get closer to a
transmission line this makes that very
[21:39] clear that we're talking about the
centroid of the energy producing
[21:42] equipment
so the project must be screened from
[21:46] residential corridors residential
investment areas and towns
[21:49] the property must be more than 0.5 miles
from historic sites
[21:55] no part of the facilities should be
within 750 feet of any place of worship
[22:00] or any Cemetery
uh every project must provide Wildlife
[22:06] corridors so that you're not preventing
and that's again a lot of what we heard
[22:10] we heard from a lot of hunters about
different changes and movements of
[22:15] wildlife deer deer behaving differently
um so continuous Wildlife quarters to be
[22:20] provided vegetative screening should
prevent the facility from being seen
[22:25] from residential commercial or mixed-use
areas and any noise generated that's
[22:30] another thing that we heard back in the
focus groups is noise and that is to
[22:34] noise generating elements should be at
least 750 feet however that wherever
[22:39] that is situated from residential
commercial or mixed use areas so that
[22:42] cuts down on the impacts of the projects
and so also the projects can be within a
[22:50] half a mile of existing Community scale
or utility scale energy
[22:55] continued the that's just a more General
statements not about placement but in
[23:01] general it says that the amendment says
that supporting the use of agrivoltaics
[23:05] which is farming with uh solar equipment
for example
[23:10] um that would be supported if that ever
were to come up advocacy in general for
[23:15] the increased Financial benefit from
additional solar facilities so I know
[23:19] that you've all been part of the
conversations of figuring out how a
[23:23] county can benefit the revenue sharing
and so if there's an opportunity to
[23:27] advocate for increased Revenue sharing
according to this amendment the county
[23:32] would be in favor of that and strengthen
requirements for solar facility
[23:36] decommissioning just to make sure that
whatever is created at the end of its
[23:42] useful life
the land goes back to the way it was as
[23:45] much as possible so and the amendment
also makes recommendations to clarify
[23:50] the approval process it doesn't this
hasn't been exactly worked out so it's
[23:55] not specific it recommends to clarify
the approval process right now there's a
[24:00] multi-step process of rezoning and then
a conditional use permit and a citing
[24:04] agreement so the the however that works
the amendment recommends clarifying that
[24:11] simplifying that so that they're not
unintentional barriers to development of
[24:17] new project
one of the options is to create a new
[24:21] Zone zoning district for utility scale
solar again it's not specified there are
[24:26] ideas there and there's the gis analysis
and recommendations to clarify
[24:32] so in conclusion this has been a very
thorough process starting last April to
[24:37] now to March we have involved the
community people have given a lot of
[24:42] input the Planning Commission in
particular the Planning Commission
[24:45] subcommittee has been very very active
in thinking of many many different
[24:50] scenarios and parsing out wording in us
and doing more and more analysis it has
[24:56] been it's been one of the most thorough
well thought out
[25:01] processes that I've ever been a part of
honestly
[25:04] um and the the ideally it should benefit
the county and the developers by
[25:09] providing Clarity and laying out the
priorities
[25:13] so I'm happy to take any questions
thank you board members are there any
[25:18] questions in regards to the presentation
[25:24] if there be none
We Now open up
[25:27] our public Hearing in regards to the
adoption of the update to our
[25:33] comprehensive plan
if you would like to speak on this
[25:38] matter you come to the podium state your
name in your district and you have three
[25:41] minutes to speak
[25:45] where we do have two that signed up it
is Mr Sam Edwards in regards to the
[25:50] comprehensive plan is he here
[25:54] siblings
[26:00] good evening Mr chairman board members
and staff thank you for giving me the
[26:05] opportunity
you know I had as we were saying the
[26:09] Pledge of Allegiance the last few words
says in liberty and justice for all
[26:13] I'm concerned about land owners rights I
think that this is a model
[26:18] that can create besides the fact we're
restricting landowner rights
[26:23] in my mind
I think it creates a model for future
[26:27] infringement on man under his rights
whether it's solar you want an RV park
[26:33] you want to build a Meat Processing
Plant
[26:37] if somebody doesn't like how it looks
they can come and get enough people
[26:41] together
and prevent these projects from taking
[26:45] off
[26:48] the pay Consultants have told me that
it's more like 7 000 acres are available
[26:54] in Surrey not the 15 000 this out there
because if you take these overlay maps
[26:58] that are
referred to tonight and
[27:01] you're Consulting explain that uh in
their calculations it was fifteen
[27:06] thousand I've got Consultants that say a
seven thousand so I think we're
[27:09] restricting it
too much
[27:12] in addition to that
the one that really kind of surprised me
[27:16] or shocked me a little bit was the half
mile from historical sites I think in
[27:21] Surry County eventually as we increase
the number of historical sites in Surry
[27:26] County
it will be impossible
[27:29] to have a solar
or any kind of development
[27:34] and in reality I know everybody likes to
keep Timber Agriculture and all that
[27:38] together and sorry tourism and thinking
that's going to be the economic
[27:41] development package of the future
I just don't think that's strong enough
[27:44] to support
the money that's needed to run our
[27:49] government
as it continues to grow
[27:53] we need more higher paying Economic
Development like solar to support it and
[28:00] I think we're short-sighted and in
[28:04] allowing that
[28:07] last but not least I'm kind of repeating
myself here I just feel like the land on
[28:11] the rights are being stepped on it's the
farm and Timber owner if farm and Timber
[28:16] owners want to keep their land as let it
be their choice that would limit it
[28:21] but they don't want their farm and they
don't want their Timber to use for salt
[28:24] that's
and as long as where they put it doesn't
[28:28] affect others negatively like
put up the screening make it far enough
[28:32] away so people can't see it okay that's
fine
[28:35] I'm not sure how much impacted nobody's
really done a study about how much
[28:38] impact it's going to have on the deer
population in Surry County
[28:42] I don't know how many of you all have
been
[28:44] so unfortunate to hit a deer but there
seems to be plenty and why would the
[28:49] Game and Inland Fisheries bring coyotes
into Surry County to control the deer
[28:52] population if we were running it to a
shortage
[28:55] I just don't think that's a logical
argument
[29:01] thank you very much
sir
[29:06] Mr Gray Creswell
[29:15] chairman members of the Board of
Supervisors hello staff appreciate the
[29:20] opportunity to speak before you this
evening my name is Greg Cresswell I'm a
[29:23] senior development manager with AES
clean energy
[29:26] AES clean energy is a subsidiary of AES
headquartered in Arlington Virginia
[29:32] a little bit of background on the
company locally you know us as the
[29:36] developers and now the constructors of
the Cavalier solar facility
[29:41] that is located here in Surrey and also
in Isle of Wight
[29:46] broadly AES owns 455 operating sites
across the U.S and in Virginia we own
[29:53] five operating sites roughly 800 plus
megawatts with another 3000 megawatts in
[29:59] development so fret of experience behind
us
[30:03] the proposed Surry County comprehensive
Plan update contains several strategies
[30:07] which we believe have Merit and would
agreeably assist Surrey in maintaining
[30:11] responsible growth for the energy energy
industry while keeping the desired rural
[30:16] characteristics in the county
other revisions We Fear have a sense of
[30:21] being more uh more specific and
prescriptive in nature rather than in
[30:26] keeping with the use guidelines in a
traditional comprehensive plan
[30:30] I'd like to discuss a few of those
points with you this evening and I'll
[30:33] try to be quick I know I've only got a
few minutes and quite a you know quite a
[30:37] few things to discuss specifically
objective five strategy two represents a
[30:42] 10 cap on developable land I would
suggest that's a pretty reasonable
[30:46] number
one thing that I would suggest along
[30:50] with that would be how we Define that 10
percent cap and what is developable land
[30:54] or what has already been developed if
you look at existing projects are we
[30:58] considering the entire parcel are we
considering the portion of the parcel
[31:02] which has actually been developed if you
have open land outside developed or
[31:07] outside of the fence it could be used
for AG purposes could be used for Timber
[31:10] could be used for other purposes that
are not necessarily energy related so I
[31:15] think that might be another alternative
to look at how we phrase this
[31:20] objective five strategy three references
Center the project site must be within
[31:25] one mile of existing high voltage
transmission lines
[31:29] I do have a little bit of concern that
this could actually be contrary to what
[31:32] it's trying or what its intent was
designed for if you cite facilities
[31:36] together in a narrow distance of an
existing infrastructure it leads to a
[31:41] highly concentrated and Visually
disruptive utility Corridor Mr Chris
[31:45] Willis your three minutes sir that's
about three minutes yes sir
[31:49] thank you very much thank you if you
have any handouts you would like to
[31:52] present to the board we'd be glad to
take it yeah that's all thank you very
[31:55] much for the opportunity thank you
[32:00] are there any more comments in regards
to the comprehensive plan
[32:06] yes Mr Drew
[32:10] the topic I want to address and good
evening Lord and congratulations to
[32:16] Michigan miss little i i attended the
January PC meeting when they discussed
[32:22] uh the comp plan and and I know those
pros and cons and I know those people
[32:26] are going to be negative and people
positive on the changes but we'll have
[32:29] to say having served with y'all and gone
through some solo hearings guidelines
[32:34] are much much needed
um again although the pros and cons to
[32:40] them I wish we would have had some in
the very beginning and when I was
[32:43] serving on that would have made a whole
lot a whole lot easier
[32:47] what I want to do was just a reminder
though
[32:50] um when I attended the PC meeting that
was language that has been taken out
[32:55] of this comp plan that's in front of you
all this evening and our thanks to the
[32:58] PC Planning Commission for doing that is
that they talked about simplifying the
[33:04] um
the development process by only
[33:07] requiring a cup and Ms little and I were
only two here this evening I guess that
[33:12] were on the board at the time when the
solar ordinance was passed in that time
[33:17] we said we needed it was passed fairly
quickly and that we need to go back and
[33:22] revise this solo ordinance as well as at
the board meeting we inserted a rezoning
[33:27] in that ordinance and I at that meeting
actually made the motion and explained
[33:32] to the other board members that rezoning
developers don't like it but it protects
[33:38] the citizens a cup is easier and more
legal liability won't go into the
[33:43] details but we board members actually
inserted that in and so when y'all do
[33:48] start looking at the ordinance I would
hope that you would continue with the
[33:51] rezoning I even heard about making a and
we talked about it at that meeting about
[33:56] making a new category because we don't
have one really I think it's industrial
[34:00] or something that's that's in that now
and and we'll say this is that
[34:06] Miss Perkins I don't know if Hardy Cash
was still at Hampton when you were there
[34:10] but he certainly was when I was there
and he would sit in on the meetings and
[34:13] he would speak up from time to time I
said what what's his role and they said
[34:20] Ombudsman and I said well what's an
ombudsman they said well Mr Cash was
[34:24] here when we passed the zoning ordinance
in 1964.
[34:29] he's the guy that knows all the history
and so it was little I don't know when
[34:33] you're planning to retire from the
forward but when you do I suggest you
[34:38] make her the ombuds woman
and I and I laugh about this but that
[34:43] does need to be continuity because
we do forget
[34:47] the reasonings why and that's just the
reason and one little thing is that
[34:52] something when I did read the comp plan
update and again I appreciate y'all
[34:56] doing it plan planning Commissioners and
the flannels and and consultant is that
[35:01] it mentions small nuclear I was a little
I think it's a little vague there's
[35:06] other energy type projects I guess is
what I'm saying from wind to different
[35:09] things and I wouldn't real clear you
understand me of what the what the plan
[35:15] uh Encompass and that's it and thank you
and congratulations to you again thank
[35:20] you thank you Mr
[35:27] there'll be no other comments from the
floor we will now close the public
[35:31] hearing and are there any comments or
concerns from board members
[35:36] any questions of Staff any comments on
what has been presented
[35:44] if not uh
we can move forward on
[35:48] the recommendation for the approval of
the amendment to our comprehensive plan
[35:54] is there and emotions from the board at
this time on what's before us
[36:03] Mr chair
if I may I would like to
[36:08] remove myself from voting on this issue
yes Miss Carl we understand
[36:15] are there any questions on what's before
us
[36:20] if there are no questions chair would
entertain emotion
[36:23] for approval or denial
this is Chairman
[36:27] um I don't have a question at this
moment but I don't think I'm quite ready
[36:33] to vote for the uh
boy
[36:39] I think we may need to take a little
more time to digest what we're saying I
[36:46] do anyway I need a little more time
to digest all that has been
[36:52] um
proposed in this project
[36:58] any other comments or questions from
board members
[37:01] chair I agree with Miss little I think
it's the way it's not did a great job
[37:06] with the information however it's a lot
to digest we just want to make sure that
[37:11] this uh can make accurate decision on
whatever we decide to do
[37:14] thank you Mr Pierce then we have two
when and one uh staining then we will
[37:21] table this uh action until further
notice
[37:30] next item on our business is moving to
new business it is the Virginia outdoor
[37:36] Foundation amenities and Improvement
grant for Surry County pops and Rec
[37:46] yes um Mr chair I am going to ask Mr
Harrison uh Deputy County Administrator
[37:54] if he would present this item to the
board
[38:00] yes ma'am good evening
chairman Elliott members of the board
[38:03] Mrs Rollins Miss Perkins
um pleased to announce that staff has
[38:08] diligently been working on a Grant
application with the Virginia outdoor
[38:12] foundation and a huge thanks to Mr Hal
Godfrey who is our chair of our Eda for
[38:18] the connection to vof
basically in essence what this
[38:22] application is about is many of you know
that we have been looking to do some
[38:27] improvements in our Parks and
Recreations facilities
[38:30] and this application allows us to do so
um through
[38:35] um of deed of easement I'm indeed for um
open space and conservation with vof
[38:42] and from what I'm understanding we're
able to apply for up to two to five
[38:45] hundred thousand dollars for
improvements in amenities at Parks and
[38:48] Recreation
[38:54] are there any questions from the board
that I could entertain
[39:02] Mr Harrison Mr
[39:07] is there a deadline for the I have no
problems I I want us to apply
[39:13] is there a deadline yes ma'am there's a
deadline on the 7th of March we have a
[39:19] community meeting scheduled for the
sixth so we have all the preliminary
[39:22] information already written up we want
to hear from the community as well just
[39:27] to get some input from them and we'll
apply um submit our application on the
[39:31] 7th so 7th of March
[39:34] okay Mr travel question too yes Mr
Pierce thank you Miss Harrison for this
[39:39] uh for this opportunity uh the committee
Community uh meeting on the Monday is
[39:46] that we're at March 6
um with those suggestions be put into
[39:49] the grant or is it or what the funds
come in first and then from the
[39:53] suggestions you'll make this
so there's flexibility Mr Pierce
[39:58] um we are going to take in information
from the community the the money from
[40:03] the um the grand to go towards overall
infrastructure plans
[40:08] um we're suggesting certain amenities
we'll hear from the community on certain
[40:11] amenities and we just have to make sure
we keep in constant communication with
[40:14] bof as to what we are using the funds
for so we have flexibility with vof as
[40:19] we spend the funds and we definitely
intend to take in the community's input
[40:22] on how we spend the time
[40:26] it's not a matching Grant so in essence
all we have to do is put an easement on
[40:31] the Parks and Recreation grounds which
is approximately 104 Acres and so
[40:36] there's some wooded acreage there as
well as your own open space for fields
[40:40] and so on so um all deed of easement for
open space and conservation
[40:45] and that's all we have to do with vof we
don't have to put any
[40:51] of the application
thank you for that you're welcome
[40:56] yes Mr chairman members of the board
um there is a resolution that's included
[41:02] in your agenda material that the board
will need to take action on tonight
[41:05] thank you Mr Harrison for um for working
on this again board members this is
[41:11] another opportunity that we're seeking
um Grant funds for to support the
[41:17] development of the Parks and Recreation
facilities some of you may remember that
[41:23] back in 2017 or 18 roughly that the
board went through a very similar
[41:29] discussion process amongst the
communities when we talked about making
[41:34] some considerable site improvements to
the current parks and recreation
[41:38] facility kind of talked about whether or
not we wanted to do something with one
[41:41] of the schools again this is again an
opportunity that was presented before us
[41:47] to actually apply for a good amount of
funding to help in the advancement of
[41:52] some major improvements that according
to some strategic initiatives that this
[41:56] board you'll have talked about over the
last past few months staff exercise due
[42:02] diligence and trying to seek Grant funds
to support the development of Parks and
[42:07] Recreation facilities so the community
meeting that Mr Harris and just
[42:11] mentioned will take place on Monday
at six o'clock or seven six 6 p.m at The
[42:20] Parks and Recreation Center and we
encourage the public to come out to make
[42:24] comments for that the resolution that
you have before you if I may read it at
[42:29] this time chairman
states that uh the designation of Sarah
[42:34] County parks and recreation facility as
an open space to be preserved for
[42:39] recreation and conservation with the
Virginia Outdoors Foundation whereas the
[42:44] Surry County Parks and Recreation campus
exists to Officer County Citizens and
[42:49] visitors public recreational access and
amenities whereas the Surry County Board
[42:54] of supervisor intends to improve
existing and introduce new recreational
[43:00] amenities at the Surry County Parks and
Recreation campus whereas the Surry
[43:04] County Board of supervisor supports the
County's application for funding the
[43:09] Virginia Outdoors foundation for the
protection of the grounds for open space
[43:14] conservation and Recreation for public
use now therefore be resolved at the
[43:19] Surry County Board of Supervisors here
about authorizers and an easement to be
[43:24] placed on Sarah County Parks and
Recreation campus by the Virginia
[43:27] Outdoors Foundation upon Surry County be
awarded a grant for open space
[43:33] Recreation and conservation
fellow board members we do have the
[43:37] resolution
2023-02 for the designation of Surry
[43:42] County parks and recreation facility as
an outdoor space to be preserved for
[43:46] recreation and conservation with the
Virginia outdoor Foundation what is your
[43:51] pleasure on this resolution
it's true yes a move that we are
[43:58] a move that we approved this resolution
in 20 to
[44:03] 2023-02 the designation of Sarah County
parks and recreation facility has an
[44:07] open space to be preserved for
recreation and conservation with the
[44:11] Virginia Outdoors Foundation board
members we have a motion on the floor
[44:15] can we have a second
it's been properly moving second all in
[44:19] favor let it be known by the voting sign
of aye
[44:22] aye opposed
resolution has been adopted
[44:27] the next item before us goes back to our
first order of business
[44:33] is that is a motion to prepare a
resolution for Mrs little we just want
[44:39] to thank her tonight we want to give her
something to take home with other than
[44:42] the plan so we want to entertain a
motion from the board to prepare a
[44:48] resolution for Mrs little in regards to
her service to the county
[44:54] Mr chair uh mood that we uh go ahead and
get in the process of preparing a
[44:59] resolution for the honorable Miss Judy
little
[45:01] you have a motion carry a second second
problem over second all in favor let it
[45:06] be known by the voting sound of I
pose Chris little will get her
[45:10] resolution thank you thank you so much
thank you at this time we will turn the
[45:17] meeting over to our account
administrator for her report yes thank
[45:21] you again Mr chairman and um I guess
this is the night of recognition
[45:25] um so my first item that I'm going to
ask the board to consider tonight we
[45:30] have another citizen that is assembled
before us and we know this citizen is no
[45:36] stranger to his service in the community
as well so at this time I am going to
[45:42] ask Mr Urban Jones who has served as
Surry County's Parks and Recreation
[45:48] director but come forth to receive his
honors on tonight
[45:57] foreign
[46:04] board members
um at the request of Mrs little
[46:10] um we have a resolution Mr Jones to
present to you on this evening
[46:16] um and this resolution reads that Mr
Irvin A Jones was inducted into the
[46:22] Norfolk State University Athletic
Association Hall of Fame class of 2023
[46:28] on February 17 2023 along with his
Norfolk State College football teammates
[46:36] and six other athletes
Sarah County Public Schools hired Mr
[46:42] Jones as a torrent officer in 1980 and a
coach for track and field and football
[46:48] he remains a coach today totaling
43 years of service in the coaching
[46:57] field
yes Applause
[47:02] [Applause]
[47:06] Mr Jones has also coached basketball for
19 years and remains in this position as
[47:12] well in 1983 Mr Jones was hired as a
director of Parks and Recreation for
[47:19] Surry County and retired in 2017. he is
currently teaching group exercise
[47:25] classes for seniors at Surrey Parks and
Recreation as it stands today
[47:31] the Board of Supervisors of Surry County
wishes to recognize this Milestone to
[47:37] Irving A Jones life and the many
contributions that he has made to help
[47:42] make Surry County a better place for all
citizens through his active
[47:46] participation in the fairs of the county
now therefore be resolved that the Surry
[47:52] County Board of Supervisors hereby
extends Hospital appreciation to you Mr
[47:58] Irvin A Jones for his Endeavors aimed at
improving the quality of life for the
[48:03] citizens of the county Mr Jones and Mrs
Jones I believe is here and I'm not sure
[48:09] of any other family members if you want
to stand and be recognized as well
[48:13] because we know behind every good man
there's a good woman
[48:17] [Applause]
The Zone all you have done for Sarah
[48:30] County and what we know you will
continue to do we present to you this
[48:34] resolution and gratitude for your
service to this County
[48:42] [Applause]
as long as you can you can have a remark
[48:47] if you would like to do so
if you don't have one I Tell You Me and
[48:52] Mrs Jones got a thing
[48:57] thank you so much for this for this
award I try to hold my emotions in it's
[49:01] been a great pleasure pleasure to be
working here in Surry County
[49:05] and a little thing about it too when I
graduated from Norwich State and I first
[49:10] worked in Isle of Wight County
with the recreation department and then
[49:13] I was Dr Penn called me into the Surrey
to to work at LP Jackson and start
[49:19] coaching there
and then uh and the opportunity to come
[49:23] and work at the regulation Department
and it's been a blessing to be working
[49:29] here in this County and then I have a
blessed wife who's been my support
[49:34] and the special blessing like that said
she for the first time she let me cook a
[49:39] few weeks ago on Valentine's Day but uh
with all that mine and then a special
[49:43] thing too A lot of people don't know
that William Dick Price who was was my
[49:47] coach in our state
uh our family is originally from Surry
[49:53] County
and he was his mother passed away when
[49:56] he was two years old and he never got to
know a lot of his relatives in Surrey
[50:01] and he was due to come here for a big
family Union which we always have a lot
[50:05] of them and Siri and uh but before that
uh they one time they named William Dick
[50:11] Price Stadium out for him enough Stadium
then he couldn't make for that reunion
[50:15] then the next year was coming to two
weeks before that he passed away but he
[50:20] was an inspiration to
to to me and and and for Syrian uh and
[50:25] he had he didn't plan for me to come to
work to see everybody the Lord worked it
[50:29] out that way and I appreciate that I
thank you all so much
[50:33] again I thank my wife and for for
marrying me and let me cook one time
[50:38] Mr Jones before you go I see you have
some mighty big rings on your hand how
[50:43] many state championships in Syria did
you take part in five state
[50:47] championships that deserves a handcraft
thank you Mr Jones
[50:57] at this time I will ask Ms
Chaplin to come
[51:03] Economic Development update if you're
ready Miss chaplain
[51:09] so much members of the board
Ms Rollins
[51:15] certainly appreciate Mr chairman having
me here this evening
[51:20] um we're going to talk about a little
bit of what's happening at the Surrey
[51:22] Marketplace It is Well underway it is an
exciting project and I know that many of
[51:29] you have been questioning about it and
we've we've been working on this for
[51:33] several months and right now the
concrete floors have been cut open and
[51:37] much of the piping and conduit has
already been in there been replaced the
[51:42] bathrooms are underway flooring was
picked last week the ceilings and
[51:48] lighting are almost complete with the
LED lights it's looking great looking
[51:51] bright in there and remember again I've
told you this it is an old building so
[51:57] there's been some surprises that has
happened with some rot and all of that
[52:01] has been replaced and they're doing a
great job and identifying issues from
[52:06] the renovation and repairing those as we
move forward
[52:09] um
[52:12] the
the requirements for this building are
[52:16] food grade requirements so of course all
of those are being done to spec the
[52:20] steel framing is almost complete uh and
and when I say still framing it's like
[52:25] the studs but they're actually steel uh
the old HVAC units are gone and the new
[52:31] units are all in and they're really kind
of uh efficient units they're the the
[52:35] large ones that are outside that are
kind of The Oblong rather than the big
[52:39] square units very new technology that is
supposed to have high efficiency so
[52:45] it'll be great for the store power and
electrical systems in the building are
[52:49] being upgraded to the new code standards
and of course the electrical permit came
[52:54] in last week so that is moving along
some of the areas that have been open
[52:57] can now be closed up uh the increased
power capacity with the electrical
[53:03] upgrades all the refrigeration and
freezer
[53:06] equipment will be coming to the store in
the next couple of weeks after the
[53:11] floors are actually done in the front
part of the store when you go into the
[53:15] front entryway the back doors it was
determined today the glass doors will
[53:20] still be a back entry there so I know
many people are familiar with the
[53:23] building
um
[53:26] the
areas where the wood had been exposed on
[53:31] the outside the soffits have been
replaced there a lot of the areas on the
[53:35] outside because it's an old building had
poor drainage areas all of that is being
[53:40] repaired so it's not just the interior
it's the exterior as well
[53:43] contracts are making weekly contractors
are making weekly progress on this and
[53:49] pretty much every single week we're
having a meeting with Eda and staff and
[53:53] bringing things forward with that with
that project so hopefully in the next
[53:58] two to three weeks you'll start seeing
more and more and yeah you'll notice the
[54:03] windows are all boarded up we want it to
be a surprise but I can assure you
[54:08] things are moving
in addition to that uh one of the things
[54:12] that we're working on many of you have
heard about the business grants that the
[54:16] Eda is offering we've had several
applicants for that and we are booked
[54:20] with meetings to review and talk with
the folks and answer any questions
[54:24] through uh Mr Howell with the Eda
Hal Godfrey sorry about that and talking
[54:33] to people answering questions about the
applications but we've had some good
[54:37] candidates for that as well so
continuing to work to enhance our parks
[54:42] and properties that we have to offer
Economic Development solutions for
[54:46] companies that may be looking for a new
build and this year we are excited that
[54:52] the site that's over that that actually
touches on 460 we preliminarily will be
[54:58] working on some phase ones for that and
some other
[55:03] standards that are required to you know
be able to attract some Industries happy
[55:07] to answer any questions you may have in
regards to Economic Development
[55:12] um
anything from the court
[55:18] Mr sure yes let's go
um can you give us an estimated opening
[55:25] date for the market
uh I can give you an estimated
[55:29] construction date will be completion of
construction will be late spring and the
[55:36] the opening would be shortly thereafter
and again barring no surprises that we
[55:44] run into because we had gotten a couple
of delays as it relates to the wood that
[55:49] was rotted and some of the soffit and
you know additional construction that
[55:53] had to be done because when they've
opened up things they've had uh hidden
[55:57] damage that they didn't realize was
there when they initially looked at the
[56:01] building but that's you know a
renovation rather than a new build
[56:07] are there any any other questions
for Mrs chaplain in the champion
[56:12] question if you don't mind yes Mr
Speaker excuse me for my ignorance but
[56:15] if there's a um like a blueprint or
something
[56:18] if um we could see exactly how the
inside may look inside the store that
[56:24] they're talking about tomorrow yes all
of the plans are there located on site
[56:30] and if you have an interest in in coming
over I'm happy to meet you there and
[56:35] actually all of the plans for everything
the plumbing plans the uh construction
[56:41] plans everything and it shows you you
know the walls and everything that's
[56:45] there and we keep them inside the store
just in case
[56:48] someone wants to come back from
Administration or you folks happy
[56:53] thank you for that you're certainly
welcome that would include a little tour
[56:56] possibly
[57:01] get that out
[57:07] Miss Chaplin okay
um if there's no other questions from
[57:11] the board why you're standing
um there is another item that I may get
[57:15] your assistance and touch on as pertains
to Economic Development as Workforce
[57:20] Development being a component of
Economic Development and I know that
[57:24] she's back there probably smiling but I
just cannot help for asking her to just
[57:28] come forth and just have a seat up front
for a second uh Miss Linda Golston
[57:32] Workforce Development and Mr Harrison if
you have any comments please share but
[57:37] board members I had this awesome
opportunity today to go down to Virginia
[57:43] excuse me to uh Dominion power training
facility now if you are recall board
[57:49] members last year I'm doing the budget
process you know it's our role to sort
[57:54] of kind of help you all take a landscape
of the community and kind of see some of
[57:58] the things and recommend policies to you
all
[58:01] um that's consistent with some of the
goals and objectives that you all had
[58:05] asked us to do so on last year I
presented to the board the fact that we
[58:09] need to think about Workforce
Development in the county and the fact
[58:13] that we need to pay attention that we do
have dominion facilities here and the
[58:17] fact that we have a wonderful student
population in Surry County and how we
[58:21] can connect those opportunities so you
all thank you Board of Supervisors for
[58:25] agreeing to put some funding in our
current Year's budget to help with a
[58:30] Workforce Development program whereby we
can connect with some businesses like
[58:34] Dominion so today we had the opportunity
I've I've told Miss Golston and asked
[58:40] her it's an opportunity to execute in a
program today I had the opportunity to
[58:45] go and witness eight students eight uh
from Sarah County High School the
[58:51] assistant principal Mr Pope was also
there so I'm sure that he shares my
[58:56] comments along with the school board and
Dr Sims but that was one of eight
[59:00] students uh all 18 year olds from
surikana high school who have gone
[59:05] through a uh four-day training program
with dominion and they talked about how
[59:11] much they had learned so much by this
opportunity for them to be able to go
[59:16] there and see and witness the various
operations and procedures and dominion
[59:21] and the fact that they are now aware
that there is opportunity right here in
[59:26] Syria whether or not they choose to go
to college or whether or not they chose
[59:30] to seek a different career path
um their eyes were open and they said
[59:34] their minds were open and there was so
much appreciative of the opportunity to
[59:40] take a part in this internship program
um I'm sorry I probably could go on on
[59:45] and on because I really got goosebumps
and I was tickle ping but I want to give
[59:48] Miss Golson an opportunity even though I
didn't prep you ahead of time but if you
[59:53] just want to say something board members
um this is something that she executed
[59:57] with uh Dave Zimmerman and uh again just
some wonderful opportunity so miss
[1:00:03] ghosts and they just spoke so highly of
Surry County and Miss ghosted in her
[1:00:07] work to help bring this internship
program so can we give her a hand please
[1:00:12] foreign
[1:00:17] board members I would just like to thank
Ms Rollins for the vision and thank the
[1:00:23] board for the funding to be able to
bring it all together I contacted
[1:00:28] um two of the gentlemen at Dave
Zimmerman and told him what I wanted to
[1:00:32] do and immediately they just jumped on
and we were having weekly meetings the
[1:00:36] school system the kids were excited
when I went to meet with them I asked
[1:00:42] them what would make them want to go
there and they said to find
[1:00:45] opportunities in Siri and then one of
the young men said to get paid but it
[1:00:51] was they were so excited their ads were
opened up and they said they all I think
[1:00:56] all eight of them said they felt the
closeness yes I work in of what they saw
[1:01:01] and they saw families and it was one
young lady who was going to school for
[1:01:05] Society for psychology and she said she
had changed that and was thinking about
[1:01:10] going to to be a painter
so I just want to thank everyone for the
[1:01:15] opportunity that we will be able to
Grant to the students and they have
[1:01:19] already gave us another date that they
want to continue to grow this program to
[1:01:24] expose the kids to see what they can do
right here in sarri County absolutely
[1:01:28] foreign
[1:01:34] and I I cannot help also to say that
they said that they were very surprised
[1:01:38] of the diversity
um that they saw down that dominion and
[1:01:42] all I'm going to say is is women history
month and a lot of women in in higher
[1:01:47] positions work at Dominion so they was
very happy to see that
[1:01:52] um so they talked about the diversity
and they talked about
[1:01:55] um just a whole array of things that I'm
sure that would make you all proud as
[1:01:59] well board members and citizens so thank
you again for that Mr Harrison you any
[1:02:04] comments
no you all have said it all amazing okay
[1:02:08] great job
[1:02:11] thank you
um board members the only other thing I
[1:02:15] have um as you can see on number two on
that item there was a mid-year Financial
[1:02:19] Outlook but we did move that to our work
session on this evening um as you all
[1:02:25] know that we are in the midst of our
budget process and I can say that I look
[1:02:29] forward
um to working with the board and helping
[1:02:32] develop a budget that we would be
presenting
[1:02:35] um to the board on the first Thursday in
April
[1:02:38] um my email address is M Rollins at
surrycountyba.gov if there's anyone have
[1:02:44] any uh questions in the comments as we
are preparing for that budget process
[1:02:48] please feel free to email me those
comments or questions
[1:02:53] um other than that Mr chairman we do
need to go back and take action on one
[1:02:59] new business item okay
board members we
[1:03:04] fail to I failed to get a motion onto
table the item number one of our
[1:03:11] public hearing
in regards to the
[1:03:24] not my mistake number two on the new
business Marina management agreement we
[1:03:30] need a motion to table that until our
next meeting
[1:03:37] been probably moving second all in favor
let it be known by the voting sound of
[1:03:41] aye aye opposed motion miscarried
thank you we will now open up our
[1:03:47] meeting for public comments
and we have first
[1:03:52] public comments Dr Daniel
I want to say your name right I don't
[1:03:57] know if it's a wild pea Shea or shop one
of the two Shea all right
[1:04:06] ladies and gentlemen Dr Daniel Shea
Surry County resident for about five
[1:04:11] weeks now
and this place is very very special
[1:04:15] um over our year building our home and
visiting the county we've had so many
[1:04:19] positive welcoming experiences from
residents and County officials
[1:04:23] I'd like to thank the citizens and
business owners I've met for being so
[1:04:26] kind and helpful on people like rose I
talk to people on the ferry it gives me
[1:04:30] 20 minutes to meet people I've never
meet before and you know if you bumper
[1:04:33] stickers offend me they'll find out what
you're thinking bumper stickers inspire
[1:04:36] me I'll find out what you're thinking
too but people like rose who heads of
[1:04:40] County trash pickup Dave who brings his
expertise from Hampton Roads Vineyards
[1:04:43] to my backyard and current nine Vines
I'm no competition for them
[1:04:48] um cupcake and sandwich shop owners and
roadside standowners and so many more
[1:04:52] wonderful people
I've had positive and helpful
[1:04:55] experiences with your inspectors people
like Matt Westheimer and Miss Francis
[1:04:58] Bailey post office is federal but I'd
like to thank postmaster Ms Patricia
[1:05:02] Sims and Lele and Charlene who have all
been so kind and helpful
[1:05:06] and I've had the pleasure of meeting the
County Attorney Ms Lola Perkins
[1:05:09] who is very friendly and clearly eager
to make a positive impact so I look
[1:05:14] forward to getting to know all of you
better as we spend more time here so as
[1:05:18] of this moment I'm too new to comment on
the comprehensive plan or much of
[1:05:21] anything else political here I do know
that what Drew us to Surry County was
[1:05:26] its rural character and the people and
I'm hoping to see our rural friendly way
[1:05:31] of life preserved and I hear elements of
that as you discuss the comprehensive
[1:05:36] plan so thank you all for being very
thoughtful with that as far as
[1:05:41] preserving our way of life as Rural and
friendly I know I support that my family
[1:05:46] supports that I'm sure many others will
as well so thank you for your time and
[1:05:49] for your service to Surry County I look
forward to getting to know all of you
[1:05:52] better
thank you
[1:05:59] next we have Miss Fran bonds
[1:06:09] good evening I am Fran Barnes from
Claremont history I will say to Dr Shea
[1:06:14] I think you've been to our Historical
Society
[1:06:18] so do come there because we're right
down the road here and that's what I
[1:06:23] just wanted to make sure I know all of
you receive our newsletter hopefully if
[1:06:28] we didn't goof on any addresses uh I did
Mr bird I learned you were missing but
[1:06:32] Miss Dawson took care of you I don't
know if that's I'm too busy and I miss
[1:06:36] things but we are having a program on
Monday March the 13th and it's in the
[1:06:40] newsletter but just wanted to make sure
the public knew that this is going to be
[1:06:44] really neat this is a Miss I'm not sure
he's a doctor and I want to make sure of
[1:06:48] that Mr Andrew Andrew Andre Taylor I'll
get it he is an oral historian and he
[1:06:54] has been hired at William and Mary in I
think in the year of 20 in 2020
[1:06:59] he came as the uh the pandemic was going
on and I think he was somewhat Limited
[1:07:04] in what he could do then but he's
rolling as I understand he is going to
[1:07:08] talk to us all of us it's free to the
public although we're going to start
[1:07:11] putting out a donation basket because it
takes money to do some of these things
[1:07:17] um but he's going to talk about doing or
taking oral histories especially from
[1:07:22] our elders here that have I have a
friend who's 92 and he is he's very
[1:07:26] familiar with Claremont Manor and the
days when Melissa Rogers the movie star
[1:07:31] was there and I want to get those
stories from him he's told me I need to
[1:07:35] write them down
and so we're looking forward to this
[1:07:39] he's going to tell us how to do that why
to do that I think we all know that
[1:07:43] um and
um just give us some ideas and then we
[1:07:46] hope to do this and this kind of came
about because we went over to the old
[1:07:50] school African-American School in
Claremont and we realized there's a lot
[1:07:55] of stories there and we don't know them
and then a lady came in of Surrey
[1:07:59] resident and she said tell me about
loafers oak loner's oak loafers Oak
[1:08:04] we nobody knew much about that and
what's the story and why was that name
[1:08:07] that and then another person was looking
at the records that Women Marry and saw
[1:08:11] that Bowen the late Bohannon now but and
Hannah had stories over there from his
[1:08:17] many many family histories and so I
think it's a great idea to do this and
[1:08:21] that's this is coming on Monday March
13th and it is at the parks and rec our
[1:08:26] programs always start at seven Mr Taylor
says he will come early so if you want
[1:08:30] to come into 6 15 of course Mr Rollins I
got to have the building open at 6 15
[1:08:37] and and he will talk to people ahead of
time and I told him we would have him on
[1:08:41] the nine o'clock Ferry because I didn't
want him to sit an hour he said he did
[1:08:45] not make wine mine waiting till 10 if
somebody had questions and want to talk
[1:08:49] to him so it's going to be a great
program and we welcome everyone I want
[1:08:54] to add real quickly that I work with
Ervin Jones for 10 years and Pony
[1:08:59] Baseball and it's sad to think of all
the people who worked in the pony
[1:09:04] baseball here that have passed away but
I'm sure Irvin was really glad when my
[1:09:08] youngest son went to high school and he
didn't have to put up with me anymore
[1:09:11] because we we found umpires he marked
the feels he is truly a a inspiration to
[1:09:18] all and the kids all know him because he
we just did Pony Baseball for 10 years
[1:09:23] and and I appreciate him and he tells me
he's a great cook but I don't know about
[1:09:27] that
[1:09:30] thank you
next we have Mr Trevor Brinkman
[1:09:41] uh Mr chairman board members County
Administration citizens and guests my
[1:09:45] name is Trevor Brinkman carsley District
I'm a veteran Surry County High School
[1:09:50] teacher and I'm here to speak in support
of the school board's proposed budget
[1:09:54] which asks you to commit to a process
which will begin to work to restoring
[1:09:58] equity and transparency to the payment
of all teachers
[1:10:02] your support of this proposed budget
will finally begin to correct systemic
[1:10:06] problems which have disproportionately
harmed dedicated veteran teachers
[1:10:11] all of you support paying teachers at
the published salary scale you need to
[1:10:16] justify to your constituents why we are
spending more money on schools in a time
[1:10:20] of declining enrollment
enrollment is disconnected from the
[1:10:24] disparity that unequally impacts
chronically underpaid staff
[1:10:28] I plan to explain to you the origins and
impact of this opaque inequity
[1:10:32] during the recession of 2008-2009 the
schools were asked to cut their budget
[1:10:36] it is a complicated story but the
solution of freezing of pay skill steps
[1:10:41] meant that the staff may get bonuses or
mandated percentage raises but they
[1:10:45] could not expect pay scale step
increases
[1:10:48] however published pay scales continued
to increase annually and in an effort to
[1:10:53] recruit new teachers veteran staff were
not paid at these publicly stated
[1:10:58] amounts new hires were paid at published
scale but veteran teacher contracts were
[1:11:03] adjusted to Frozen rates and have varied
by teacher
[1:11:07] here's an example of three veteran
teachers who have all taught at Surrey
[1:11:10] for the last 14 years
one has 22 years of experience and is
[1:11:16] underpaid by 10 steps another teacher
has 15 years in Surrey but is underpaid
[1:11:21] by nine steps a 12-year veteran is
underpaid by eight steps
[1:11:26] why are these teachers paid off the
published pay scale by different numbers
[1:11:30] why is the teacher with the most
experience hurt more than his colleagues
[1:11:35] burning these chronically underpaid
veteran teachers back to the Equal Pay
[1:11:39] is an important investment in the future
of Surry County schools these dedicated
[1:11:43] teachers have earned less while saving
the county money for years only to see
[1:11:47] new hires making more money than them
I believe all County agencies should be
[1:11:52] transparent and pay at their published
scales
[1:11:56] and to treat all employees in an
equitable manner
[1:11:59] I'm also upset that the people who have
educated my three children and devoted
[1:12:04] years to Surrey schools are chronically
underpaid in a manner that lacks
[1:12:07] transparency why do teachers who have
taught in Surrey for a long time get
[1:12:12] paid less than newer less experienced
teachers
[1:12:16] I am a teacher and I love my job
I'm currently the county teacher of the
[1:12:21] year I have taught a dozen subjects
coach soccer collaborated on grants
[1:12:26] invested in my own education to provide
new and better opportunities for my
[1:12:31] students and given Surrey students
countless hours outside of the classroom
[1:12:36] here are some facts
my actual step is 22. I am paid at step
[1:12:43] 12. that is an under compensation of
9138 dollars compared to the published
[1:12:52] pay scale that's nineteen percent less
than the county is saying that they're
[1:12:56] paying me
that's just this year
[1:12:59] when I was at step 20 I was paid at step
14. that was a loss of thirty eight
[1:13:05] hundred dollars
when I was at step 17 I was paid at step
[1:13:09] 15 and under compensation of one
thousand eight hundred dollars
[1:13:22] deserves some Applause from the
[1:13:28] I was getting ready to call y'all the
congregation amen
[1:13:32] thank you for your service to
students in Sarah County
[1:13:36] at this time there were comments
[1:13:41] for the bird I want to say
congratulations Miss little for your
[1:13:45] service to our County I also want to say
congratulations to Coach Jones for all
[1:13:49] your service thanks thank you Miss
Barnes for bringing up the Pony Baseball
[1:13:52] because I used to ride with Miss Barnes
plenty of times in that station wagon
[1:13:57] and uh also remember uh Coach Jones
umpire behind me while I was playing
[1:14:00] catcher so thank you for that your
service um Mr Jones I want to say keep
[1:14:05] up with great work Miss Golson for all
that you do for our students and
[1:14:08] connecting them with opportunities for
internship opportunities and career
[1:14:12] exploration continue to do that uh kudos
for that and also Mr Brinkman I want to
[1:14:18] thank you for your connect uh your
service to our County and um also I want
[1:14:22] to say thank you for advocating for
salary Equity because it is important uh
[1:14:26] and I'm a huge advocate for uh for
educators so uh you know continue to do
[1:14:30] what you do and hopefully we can uh we
can work towards progress in that area
[1:14:34] and again thank you Mr Rollins thank you
all for your
[1:14:38] your service to our County
[1:14:42] thank you
thank you Mr bird we we have again Mr
[1:14:48] Drury signed up uh to speak on
and the way he sounded we missed him he
[1:14:54] wanted to come back for public comments
so we'll open it back up for Mr jury for
[1:14:57] three minutes
[1:15:04] we read it very thoroughly no problem
sir so thank you for recognizing Mr Jen
[1:15:08] and forward this evening
I just want to talk
[1:15:13] briefly
um
[1:15:16] in the 1990s I had the opportunity to um
into the light to be in the corporate
[1:15:21] world in the business world and it
allowed me the opportunity to visit
[1:15:25] communities and Community meetings
sometimes as the applicant from from
[1:15:30] Canada right on down through middle
North America on down into South America
[1:15:37] and the reason I bring this up is I saw
a lot of rural areas and Villages
[1:15:41] attempting to survive just like we are
here in Surrey and they continued to to
[1:15:47] do so and of course we compete against
them in a way but it's not a issue
[1:15:52] that's just here it's it's everywhere
and what I saw what the successful ones
[1:15:58] were actively involving their citizens
in that government and advocating for
[1:16:02] the citizens
and I bring this up because we citizens
[1:16:06] living south of the Black Water I'm not
sure why that Quirk went when they drew
[1:16:09] the Surry County Line but they came out
of the swamp and
[1:16:12] locked us off
but for the ones that live south of the
[1:16:18] black water
we've got two energy projects going on
[1:16:22] that at the present and field we don't
have anyone advocating for us
[1:16:29] one I don't know maybe you'll have it
maybe not we call it the locals we call
[1:16:34] it the Columbia Gas Line
it's the big natural gas line it's two
[1:16:38] lines that go through southern Surrey on
down to Norfolk I think maybe it's owned
[1:16:44] by TRC or something at this at this
point
[1:16:47] it's an existing gas line and they've
proposed a new 24 inch gas line uh going
[1:16:53] down that same easement the first one
was put in the 1950s and they're
[1:16:58] upgrading it to a 24 inch one
part of it is they're going to double
[1:17:03] the size of the easement for
construction
[1:17:06] is happening now
um
[1:17:09] and I don't mean to over
complicate this but
[1:17:14] the citizens lab we are waking up in the
mornings and seeing people going across
[1:17:18] our property and I call it trespassing
and we have to go out there and say who
[1:17:22] are you and what are you doing and they
say they tell us and but anyway we try
[1:17:28] to be polite
a lot of activity is going on over that
[1:17:32] and I'm going to meet with the
representatives Saturday to try to
[1:17:36] figure out what the heck is is going on
are they talking about starting
[1:17:40] construction on that
um
[1:17:43] they tell me probably in 2024 and uh not
indicating you can understand when
[1:17:50] you've got a 300 foot swath going across
the fields it's going to be very
[1:17:53] disruptive to us landowners as well as
the farmers in the county so so
[1:17:58] hopefully the farmers and all of us will
be compensated I just want to make you
[1:18:02] all aware of that I'm not sure what
local government officials can do other
[1:18:07] than
tell them to be nice to us and tell us
[1:18:11] when they're coming on our property and
especially seriously especially on
[1:18:15] Sundays you may have people on your
property so I think I've got a good wife
[1:18:20] from Texas that's gotten them straight
on that so uh I think they're they're a
[1:18:23] little bit more polite to us now so
the other one is the Align methane
[1:18:28] project and this is very confusing for
people because we've got two entities
[1:18:32] working in the same area so you never
know who to call when you see people on
[1:18:37] your property
um
[1:18:40] as you all know presently I'm contesting
this the legal notice of this project as
[1:18:45] a citizen an attorney in the DiMera
hearing it has been delayed and I'm sure
[1:18:49] miss Perkins has kept you all informed
of that and I think it's late April or
[1:18:53] something is when that's going to come
back
[1:18:55] what's that three minutes is up yes sir
well thank you so much
[1:19:01] all I want to say is that the project is
progressing over there and again we just
[1:19:07] don't feel like we have anyone over that
advocating for us and we just wish we
[1:19:11] could change this and thank you
[1:19:20] continuing with with uh the gender board
comments left off of Mr bird would go to
[1:19:26] Mr Pierce
[1:19:30] thank you chair uh good evening to
everyone thank everyone for coming out
[1:19:34] tonight I think everyone who's listening
to us at home I just want to continue
[1:19:38] with the thank yous I guess this means a
lot of acknowledgments so it seems like
[1:19:42] we have been giving great news all night
so I'm going to continue that uh by also
[1:19:46] congratulations
[1:19:49] for making history right here in Sarah
County Mr William Stafford thank you
[1:19:54] guys for your updates and everything
with that Coach Jones congratulations
[1:19:58] man funny content real quick story about
Coach Jones uh Coach Jones coached me uh
[1:20:03] in school uh we won the state
championship together uh for his uh
[1:20:06] state championship in uh basketball at
Sarah County high but also too I share
[1:20:11] this story of some of my students how I
tell my old coach told us a story one
[1:20:16] time that uh he was playing football you
know you need 11 players to play but
[1:20:20] evidently I think some players got sick
or something and they only had eight so
[1:20:24] Coach Jones said he had to hike the ball
uh catch it through it and catch it so
[1:20:29] he played at the center the quarterback
and receiver so uh you know to say that
[1:20:34] to hear that he won uh was inducted in
the Hall of Fame in Norfolk State and I
[1:20:38] was always questioning that story but
hearing that actually I I think you were
[1:20:41] probably right coach so give you that
one but yeah but again congratulations
[1:20:45] man
um but moving on to Ms ghost and I
[1:20:49] really appreciate what you do for our
local community uh
[1:20:53] jobs we understand that's a hard task
not only locally but nationally I
[1:20:57] understand a lot of people don't want to
work like they use so I don't know
[1:21:00] what's going on it must be something in
the water but uh hopefully hopefully get
[1:21:04] that resolved right here in our in our
local community Cherry County by just
[1:21:07] being pioneers and incorporating that in
our youth right there and where it all
[1:21:12] starts I believe right there in our
school system so continue that good work
[1:21:15] and I did hear a lot of students uh talk
about that so it is a great great
[1:21:19] accomplishment for you and your staff
um I want to remind everyone in order
[1:21:25] for us to work together we need to come
out to these Community engagements I
[1:21:28] believe we have one coming up on uh
Monday March 6th so just remind everyone
[1:21:32] to come out there to voice your uh input
tell us the staff here in the in our
[1:21:38] government center exactly what you guys
are looking forward to see so that way
[1:21:42] we can kind of meet on a common ground
to see how we can work together so again
[1:21:46] that is uh Monday March 6 at 6 00 pm at
the uh Sarah practicing rank so please
[1:21:53] come out there and support that please
[Music]
[1:21:56] um
almost done uh Mr chair I almost
[1:21:59] promised uh last but not least uh I want
to um thank you all everyone who gave
[1:22:04] out their comments today uh Mr Brinkman
thank you for all your your hard work
[1:22:08] and due diligence I can bounce for Mr
Brinkman he's a hard worker and he's
[1:22:11] really dedicating what he does to our
students here in our um our community so
[1:22:15] keep up the good work on that
um and as well as Miss Barnes uh Dr Shea
[1:22:19] welcome
um the what what um uh District are you
[1:22:23] and Dr said don't know
all right we're gonna have to find that
[1:22:28] out before we leave today okay so yeah
but welcome
[1:22:31] huh
okay
[1:22:35] all right we'll we'll we'll figure we'll
figure that out but we'll work welcome
[1:22:41] welcome and uh Mr Jerry thank you for
your your feedback uh and um and
[1:22:45] everyone else too and lastly and this I
promise this is it uh you know um as a
[1:22:50] farmer you know we're about to get
cranked up pretty soon uh in these uh in
[1:22:53] the highways I know I'm excited to get
back in the tractor so I just ask this
[1:22:57] uh the citizens just to be patient you
know as far as the farmers out there
[1:23:01] trying to get to their fields um you
know we want to get off the road as soon
[1:23:05] as quickly as possible so we just asked
you guys just be patient understand
[1:23:09] there's a lot of safety concerns when
we're driving this heavy and Wide
[1:23:12] Equipment down the road so just be
mindful of that and thank you for the
[1:23:15] time chair
thank you thank you Mr Pierce uh Mr
[1:23:21] Calhoun
thank you chair um I just I'm not going
[1:23:25] to go through all the accolades that
have been said I I um absolutely applaud
[1:23:31] everybody who
um who's been brought up today Ms little
[1:23:35] especially you with your number of years
of service
[1:23:39] um
I would just like to again welcome Dr
[1:23:42] Shea and then uh and the others who
spoke tonight
[1:23:47] again as I've always said at every
meeting I ask that you please invite
[1:23:52] your neighbors your friends your family
to come to these meetings listen speak
[1:23:57] up and and give us some support
um in in the growth of of Surry County
[1:24:04] just ask that you all do that and and I
appreciate all y'all being here those on
[1:24:09] television I wish all a great evening
thank you
[1:24:13] thank you Miss Kyle
Mrs little
[1:24:17] um I sort of like um Mr Calhoun I am
very appreciative of all the um thank
[1:24:26] yous for me tonight it was a surprise I
don't want anybody to think I was not
[1:24:31] surprised I was very surprised
and shocked actually but I also just
[1:24:36] want to say thank you to my board
members and to those who have spoken
[1:24:41] tonight we hear you some things we can
accomplish some things we cannot
[1:24:46] accomplish but we do appreciate you
sharing those things that are of concern
[1:24:52] to you we want to welcome the gentleman
to survey our home here in on the James
[1:24:59] River we love story as I have already
outstated Surrey has been my home I was
[1:25:06] born in Surrey and moved away but came
back and have been able to be fortunate
[1:25:12] enough to serve the county so then miss
Golston oh my
[1:25:18] um Mrs goston is an excellent
Workforce person she has worked for our
[1:25:23] County for quite a while and done a
great job
[1:25:26] she fought a long time to get those
students to go to Dominion
[1:25:31] she didn't understand why but now she
understands it did finally happen so
[1:25:36] thank you Miss Goldston
and we do have some new employees we're
[1:25:40] going to thank them for being here and
to my family thank you for taking out
[1:25:45] the time to come out and and for keeping
it a secret believe me they didn't say a
[1:25:51] word and they normally do so thank you
for that
[1:25:56] um I love the county love you all all
citizens and we're I mean you know you
[1:26:02] have decisions to make and those
decisions we have to make them based on
[1:26:06] sound judgment and what we feel like is
better for the community so thank you
[1:26:11] all for coming out tonight and be safe
when you leave here God bless
[1:26:16] thank you madam Vice chair I would like
to say Dental to all uh comments that
[1:26:22] have been made tonight that's applicable
and we think the citizens for being out
[1:26:27] tonight this is an exciting time to be
serving the citizens of Surry County we
[1:26:33] have a lot of irons in the fire the
board is contemplating a number of
[1:26:37] things to make Syria all the better than
what it is I brag about Syria where I go
[1:26:42] I think this is the best County in the
world
[1:26:45] but we want to do even more to make it
even better so I thank you all for
[1:26:49] taking the time out and as uh honorable
Mr Pierce stated uh there's a Community
[1:26:54] Action meeting on Monday night please
come out and we're going to have a
[1:26:58] presentation for the citizens to see and
to get input from the citizens as we
[1:27:03] Endeavor to improve the best County in
the world so thank you all for coming
[1:27:08] out tonight and there is one item before
we
[1:27:12] leave the board comments that I will
bring up and that is on yesterday
[1:27:17] evening I believe it was the passing of
Miss Gene Stewart who's a volunteer
[1:27:23] member of the Denver volunteer fire
department so we as a board would like
[1:27:28] to have a moment of silence and honor of
citizens who gave her civic duty to this
[1:27:34] County
[1:27:44] thank you we pray the strength of the
steward family at this time
[1:27:49] board members you have before you are
reports one coming from uh
[1:27:55] Blackwater Regional Library the
director's report and we have the
[1:28:00] billing officials report are there any
questions on the reports that we
[1:28:04] received
[1:28:10] if there be none we do have our January
investment letter
[1:28:15] are there any questions on our
investment letter
[1:28:20] if there be none we will move now to
closed session we'll ask our legal
[1:28:23] counsel to give us the code section that
we may go into closed session
[1:28:27] thank you Mr chairman
required today is to convene a closed
[1:28:32] session pursuant to one Virginia code
section 2.2 3711 A1 to discuss
[1:28:40] appointments to The Economic Development
Authority and Virginia code section 2.2
[1:28:46] 3711 A8 to consult with legal counsel
regarding obligations related to
[1:28:53] management of County property located in
the Surrey district and Mr chairman I
[1:28:58] will need a motion and a second we have
a motion to enter in closed session
[1:29:02] have a motion of a second second problem
moving second all in favor let it be
[1:29:07] known by the voting sign of aye aye
motion is carried we will now enter into
[1:29:11] closed session
[1:29:20] foreign
[1:31:34] Mr chairman I moved that we would
appoint Mr Howell to the um Eda
[1:31:40] you have a motion do we have a second
[1:31:46] it's been probably moving second it's
done with roll call vote for Mr Trenton
[1:31:50] Howell uh Mr Pierce all right let's go
home
[1:31:57] Mrs little all right
Mr Burger
[1:32:01] aye
I wrote its eye as well
[1:32:05] due to the vote
need to we have no need to carry this
[1:32:10] last name for the apartment Mr chair can
I make a comment please yes Ms Cowan I
[1:32:16] just
like to make my comment I
[1:32:20] this vacancy was in my district
and I was not
[1:32:26] ified or asked or anything about Mr
Howell you all knew my position last
[1:32:32] month in the meeting
[1:32:36] requesting Miss Diane cheat to be on the
board
[1:32:39] and all of a sudden I feel like I've
been ostracized because she's in my
[1:32:46] district and representing my district
and and I and I'm promoting her to be on
[1:32:53] the Eda
[1:32:57] it's pretty sad that you don't support
my efforts and my thoughts of who that I
[1:33:03] would like to be on the Eda board and
and even have a comment regarding that
[1:33:09] issue and going behind my back I feel
and not even talk to me about it thank
[1:33:16] you very much
[1:33:23] are there any other matters of business
that entertainment board at this time
[1:33:29] if not the board would entertain a
motion for adjournment until our
[1:33:34] move
we do not have a date until further
[1:33:38] notice except my April 6th April 6th day
we have a motion could have second
[1:33:47] been probably moving second all in favor
let it be known by the voting Center
[1:33:50] most caring the meeting is a turn
[1:33:57] foreign
foreign