[0:42] >> We will move on to the consent agenda.
[0:44] We have a live agenda tonight.
[0:46] The only item on the agenda is the town Council minutes from
[0:49] August 11th, 2026, which will be approving.
[0:55] What is Council's pleasure on the agenda?
[0:58] >> I move approval on the consent agenda.
[1:00] >> Second.
[1:01] >> We have a motion and a second.
[1:03] Would the clerk please call the roll?
[1:07] [members voting]
[1:10] >> The motion passes.
[1:12] We will move on to public hearings
[1:13] but we have no public hearings tonight.
[1:15] So then we will move on to citizen comments.
[1:17] During this section of the meeting,
[1:19] please come up to the podium state your name
[1:21] and address, and direct your comments
[1:23] to Town Council with a maximum speaking time of three minutes.
[1:27] This is the section of the agenda where anyone can speak
[1:30] about any topic of interest.
[1:32] We are now in citizen comments.
[1:34] Would anyone like to speak?
[1:53] >> Good evening.
[1:54] My name is MacK Hollins.
[1:55] Address?
[1:56] Just come here to see how the meeting goes.
[1:59] Don't see anybody saying anything.
[2:01] So just seeing how things are going and about
[2:04] if I want to make a petition to the town,
[2:09] how would I go about doing such a thing?
[2:11] I guess this is not a question and answer thing.
[2:16] >> I'd be happy to talk to you after the meeting.
[2:20] >> Thank you.
[2:20] Thank you for your time.
[2:21] >> Thank you.
[2:22] Anyone else?
[2:23] We are still in citizen comments.
[2:29] Seeing none, we will go ahead and close citizen comments.
[2:32] I will move on to appointments.
[2:33] We have one appointment tonight.
[2:34] This is appointment of Brad Saint Clair
[2:36] as a jointly appointed board member To the River Valley
[2:43] communications Authority.
[2:44] This is a joint appointment with the Blacksburg Christian Port
[2:49] and Virginia Tech are all in involved
[2:50] in making this appointment.
[2:52] Saint Clair comes recommended by the authority Board as well.
[2:56] This is to fill the remainder of a term
[2:58] by the current at large member retired Chief Catherine Foust.
[3:03] Brad Saint Clair is a retired from a leadership
[3:05] role with the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office
[3:07] and served as an interim director
[3:09] of the authority before the current director
[3:11] assumed the role.
[3:13] So he comes well qualified.
[3:15] What is Council's pleasure on this appointment?
[3:17] >> I move approval appointment of Brad Saint Clair
[3:23] to the jointly appointed-- to be the jointly appointed board
[3:28] member.
[3:29] >> We have a motion and a second.
[3:29] Any discussion?
[3:29] Seeing none with the clerk please call the roll?
[3:39] [members voting]
[3:40] >> The motion passes.
[3:41] We'll move on to unfinished business.
[3:41] Is there any unfinished business tonight?
[3:41] New business any new business?
[3:44] Now we move on to council reports.
[3:46] For those who have been following town council meeting
[3:48] we have not had a council report section.
[3:51] Although we had it many years ago.
[3:52] We have decided to bring it back.
[3:54] This is an opportunity for council members
[3:55] to share what they are working on,
[3:57] especially committee appointments
[3:59] or other initiatives that you might follow with.
[4:01] If anyone would like to share any council now
[4:03] would be the >> I attended the Economic Development
[4:15] Commission last week.
[4:16] We meet monthly.
[4:16] And we had the report of the Montgomery County
[4:16] Fire and Rescue.
[4:16] So I'm looking forward to when we get that at council as well.
[4:20] It was really well done.
[4:21] >> Excellent.
[4:32] >> I have been attending the stormwater advisory group.
[4:36] And we have been hearing from other municipalities
[4:38] about how they're handling stormwater utilities.
[4:38] We have been learning a lot about how the town has managed
[4:40] these stormwater utility to date, capital projects that
[4:49] are completed in capital projects that
[4:50] need to be performed to maintain compliance with the MS4 permit
[5:01] that the town holds.
[5:02] We meet every two weeks and continue
[5:02] to do so through December.
[5:02] We will be reevaluating the stormwater fee structure
[5:04] as the committee moves forward.
[5:06] >> I have a report.
[5:14] It is from the Parks and Rec Advisory Board.
[5:17] Have been diligently working through several drafts
[5:19] of a survey going out in September.
[5:19] This survey is designed the community's feedback
[5:19] on the investment the town is making
[5:21] and some of our athletic facilities at the Winfrey
[5:24] and Kip baseball fields and at the old Blacksburg High School
[5:27] track and field.
[5:28] The survey designed to help guide the town's priorities
[5:30] on which upgrades to make and where.
[5:32] Please keep an eye out and an era
[5:34] for when the survey goes live in September.
[5:36] >> I have got one as well.
[5:51] I'm currently chair of the new River Valley Regional
[5:53] Commission.
[5:53] We have an up meeting this Thursday, August 27th.
[6:00] One section that I think is really interesting
[6:02] every month is a review of mutual concerns and commission
[6:02] reports where we share what is going on in our communities.
[6:02] The regional can for you all out there has
[6:02] in it Floyd County, Pulaski County, Montgomery County,
[6:05] the city of Radford.
[6:07] And every single town in those counties.
[6:09] And so all of us get a chance to talk to each other about what
[6:12] is going on in our community.
[6:15] Sometimes you get good pointers and sometimes commiserate.
[6:18] But that is a really wonderful spot on that agenda.
[6:21] This upcoming meeting we're going to have our bylaws update.
[6:24] We are also gone a model artificial intelligence or AI
[6:30] use policy.
[6:31] We had a draft.
[6:33] Good practices draft from another regional commission.
[6:36] And so I think this document is going
[6:38] to be useful not only to our commission
[6:39] but maybe to other organizations that
[6:41] are struggling with what you do and what kind of policies
[6:45] you should have.
[6:54] It's always open to the public.
[7:06] The public is welcome.
[7:07] It is at some Thursday at the Pulaski County Innovation
[7:07] Center.
[7:07] And I can report on what happened next time.
[7:07] >> Is that AI policy for AI use by the Commission?
[7:09] >> By the Commission, yes, but it could be used for other
[7:22] organizations.
[7:22] >> I will share two quick council reports.
[7:26] I think both of these with Susan and I serve
[7:28] as a representative on the.
[7:28] One is the Virginia Tech Liaison Group which meets monthly.
[7:28] We discussed the start of the fall semester
[7:30] at our most recent, similar to what we did as a council
[7:41] at our most recent work session.
[7:42] We also had Juan Espinoza, the Vice president of Enrollment
[7:42] management, joined us and gave an update on enrollment
[7:42] at Virginia Tech in case anyone was curious at the time
[7:42] that he gave his presentation to us.
[7:42] There were 7480 incoming students,
[7:42] which is a little bit above what their target was,
[7:42] but the numbers change every day.
[7:44] We learned about just how complicated enrollment
[7:51] management can be at Virginia Tech.
[8:13] You might have seen some recent coverage
[8:15] about graduate enrollment declining for a variety
[8:15] of reasons at Virginia Tech.
[8:15] Those are moving targets.
[8:15] The other council report I will share
[8:15] is the Blacksburg Partnership Board
[8:15] of Directors that met recently.
[8:15] We saw a presentation on the Midtown development
[8:15] by Ian Friend with SAS builders.
[8:15] I think we as a council have probably
[8:15] seen all the information that he provided in different chunks
[8:15] like when we're looking at this hotel or this.
[8:15] But presentation went over the entire Midtown development.
[8:18] So I thought that was kind of helpful for the group to share.
[8:21] The Blacksburg partnership is also working to organizing
[8:24] a shop Blacksburg Saturday event on October 3rd.
[8:30] As we get closer to that, we can share more information
[8:33] about that.
[8:34] There may even be a proclamation about that.
[8:36] Get excited, everyone.
[8:38] Any other council reports?
[8:40] What about council announcements?
[8:43] Any announcements?
[8:45] With that, our next council meeting is Tuesday September 1st
[8:50] at 11 a.m.
[8:52] In Blacksburg Conference Room.
[8:54] Our next regular meeting we are voting on issues is Tuesday ,
[9:09] September 8th.