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Good evening folks. I'm Pam Carter and I'm
substituting for Jeff Slavin tonight for a little while.
We're, thank you for being here.
We appreciate your attendance.
I think that we will be starting off with some students
from the Stuart Middle School that's gonna lead us
in the pledge, and then after that,
I'll have Pastor Jamie McClanahan
from Wayne Hill Baptist Church,
which will be leading us in prayer.
So if the students will come forth and tell us your name
and tell us what you want to happen when you graduate. We would really appreciate that.
I'm Brooklyn and when I graduate I want to be an audiologist and help people to hear.
I'm in eighth grade.
I'm Braylin and when I graduate I want to go to cosmetology school
and I'm in seventh grade.
I'm Emma and when I graduate I want to become a forensic officer
and I'm in seventh grade.
I'm Valerie and when I graduate I would like to go to Astrology,
we'll learn about Astrology a little more, and I am in seventh grade.
You all have some wonderful aspirations. Proud of you.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which it stands,
one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
Let's pray.
Father God, we come before you in the name of Jesus and the power of the Spirit.
We pray God for your blessing over those that are here.
We are grateful for those who are serving in government.
God, we pray a blessing over them tonight as they meet or that you would give them
wisdom from on high discernment as they lead.
We pray for protection for them and their families.
God, we enter into a season of Thanksgiving where we just want to say thank you to them.
Thank you for all the things that are seen and much that is not seen that they do for us.
God, we're grateful for the freedom that we have in our country.
We're grateful, Lord, for the ability to be able to meet like this without fear.
And we're grateful for the ability to be able to worship as we please.
And so, God, we just pray that we wouldn't take these for granted.
We just, we live in a great country.
We have many freedoms and we want to say thank you for those.
God, I'm also thankful for the law enforcement that are here, pray that they would know how
thankful we are for them as citizens, and God, also, that they would be protected
as they serve, even today and this week, that as they go out, that there would
be protection on them, that they would have wisdom and discernment to make
difficult decisions under pressure. God, we are thankful for all that you've
given us and we pray for a blessing over this meeting. Thank you for these men and
women who are serving. For it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Thanks to each of
you for being here tonight.
Okay, start off with our ambulance funding
request. Chief.
Madam Chair, members of the board, good evening. Coming for you
this evening to request the approval to order another PL custom ambulance for
Goodman Specialties. As you know our ambulance fleet replacement plan is a
10-year replacement plan. We have 10 units and currently seven which front
line and three reserves. With that being said during their seven years of
front line we run them up to about a hundred thousand miles we rotate them
around the county and then the last 25,000 miles is usually through their
reserve status. The price of this ambulance is $429,394. That includes the 1,000 HGAC.
The estimated delivery time has reduced. Last year was 36 months. We're down to 24 to 27
months as outlined in the memo that you should have received in your packet. I did
do a little bit of checking, which was also in your packet from different locations.
Chestfield Fire and EMS has ordered a P.L. Custom as well as a Horton, and there's one was 125,
and one was 425, and the other was 450. Henrico County Fire and EMS has ordered a Horton,
which was 421,000. Harrisonburg Rescue back in 2023, which was one we talked about last year,
was at 4 or 5, and that was about the same as ours was last year. Churchfield Fire
Our rescue just ordered one for $438,000.
That was a Horton.
Stores Traff Rescue got it to Mirrors
the day ordered back in 23, and it was $406,000,
which was just delivered not too long ago.
And in Badatoc County, they're spending
around $430,000 for theirs.
So that's just trying to do a little bit of research
on that and kind of see what everybody else is paying.
So that's before you this evening.
Misery loves company.
Yes, it does.
Questions for the chief from the board?
Chief, what was the price we paid
on the last one we ordered?
It was, I think, 402, the last one we ordered,
I think came in at 402.5 something.
I don't have it right off the top.
It's about a 6.5% increase over last year to this year.
Did they give you a reason why they went up so much?
No, sir, I mean, it's, like I said,
it's average across the all all vendors right now
did the other localities here
did they put it out for beds or did they just I did not ask them that sir I
know a lot of them use ACAC but I don't know how many bid it and how many use
ACAC had
some folks that asked me some questions in the process that we've
been going through on order needs and I guess we've got them all from
Goodman, hadn't we? Yes sir.
What's the process on on doing that when we need one
it we just call them up and tell them that we need one or? Yes since we already
have a developed spec and it's the same spec that we've been working off of for
the last four years which is the medic in mind they already have that spec
set aside so as you know when we need it we sign the contract we send them a
PO and the contract signed and say we need the next ambulance so they
They just built it off of the specs that we've already approved that have been approved for
three years.
So, we never know without putting out the bids whether that price is good or bad or...
Well, I know that HGAC has been audited quite a bit.
I think the last audit was the end of last year to make sure it's there.
But I have had manufacturers tell me that if we go outside of HGAC, it's going to
cost us more than using HGAC.
Now, that's what manufacturers are telling us.
Well, in my opinion, you know, in order to hold these companies accountable
and want your business, you almost have to put it into bids.
Well, it is bided through HGAC. HGAC bids everybody.
So they have to put in a bid and they're audited constantly by HGAC.
So it's not just given. They have to bid on it and meet that requirement.
So it's still a cooperative type agreement and process but it doesn't seem like that the Goodman
should be getting the same business every every time so well I mean we're very happy with
PO custom product I mean they're they're a very well-built ambulance we have very minimal
issues with them especially since we switched to gas but the unit itself the build the quality
of their their craftsmanship is outstanding and Goodman is the only one
that can sell PL custom so in our area we cannot buy from anybody else so other
comments or questions if you're through are you through mr. Scholl I'm sorry I'm
still thinking okay we can come back if you think think of something else you
You know, it's kind of, when we go buy vehicles on a personal level, we usually go to two or
three dealers, you know, looking to see what's the best price.
And so I'm just still kind of concerned, you know.
So we kind of get complacent.
In the way that we do things rather than being proactive to try to search out for the
citizens' taxpayers to see whether we are getting the best day when things are not.
Well, ultimately that's what I try to do. When I reached out to all the other localities because
it was multiple vendors that have been used and they're all in the same price range. So it's not
like they're ripping us off. So I think that when you look at it, and that's not apples to
apples. So a lot of people's specs, ours would probably still even be a little bit more
like the Horton at Churchville ordered similar to ours that's a complete
different manufacturer and theirs was 438,000 ours is 429 so and their
design was almost similar to ours so that I mean to me that's you're we're
still kind of doing that I mean it's not through a cooperative but I mean
reaching out to these localities find out what they're spending and if you know
we had if I had a locality tell me that well I'm getting what getting them
for 300,000 and my next phone call is to be wise ours for you know if
you want to continue our business, then you need to sharpen your pencil.
But everybody's in the same price range.
And I don't like price either.
I think it's ridiculous.
What stuff costs these days?
Yes, Madam Chairman.
Yes, sir.
What is it you all need?
You need a motion to approve the contract?
A motion to approve the contract.
Well, I consider that price sort of a stress test to see if your heart's still pumping
adequately but sadly tractors cost $400,000 to you so I moved except second
okay motion's been made and properly seconded let's vote
Okay,
next on the agenda is the Gusset County Recreational Facilities.
Mr. Fitzgerald?
All
right, before you tonight is a request in regards to a potential possibility of Augusta
County Recreational Facility. You'll remember for years, years ago we had a plan to look
at a rec center at the far end of our building down below Parks and Rec. Mr. Bailey was
the board member of Beverly Manor at the time and had saved money over the years to
to look at doing that and then elections happened and priorities changed so it
kind of went away but there had been a group that came to me and wanting to
discuss the possibility of having some type of rec center that would include
some athletic fields some track space basketball course those types of
things at the end of our building closed our new Parks and Rec
Department and it included folks included Miss Bragg, Mr. Wells, the folks from the
Planning Commission, Parks and Rec Commission. We had a meeting with Mr.
Wells, the other Wells, Mr. Andy Wells at Parks and Rec. Myself, Ms. Wetzel, Mr.
Wolf met to discuss the possibilities, what that might look like. And the
The first step in that really is to have somebody have an engineering firm look at some concept
planning, look at the area down there, as to what size a facility could be there, what's
the layout might look like, how many fields could be there, those types of things.
Really need that information ahead of time so that we can start putting together some
ideas about what that might look like and then from that some cost estimates as
to what that type of facility may cost to build. So the first step of that was to
get a quote from Balzer Associates. Balzer is our on-call contractor
for this type of scope of services and you'll find in your packet the scope
The services are there for them to do some base mapping,
have three to four concepts of 100,000 square foot facility
along with the associated parking,
multiple use fields and other amenities,
doing an assessment of concepts relative to traffic
and current conditions and surroundings.
Meet with some staff to go over that
and then refine those conceptual plans
to basically give us a plan to consider.
Their lump sum fee for that is $12,000 to do that planning work and in talking to
Ms. Bragg and Mr. Wells they had asked that we put that on the agenda today for
consideration for them to split that out of their soon parks and rec
infrastructure funding.
Okay. Discussion from the board? Yeah, Chairman. So what
What is exactly being planned, or is it just up in the air?
The concept that they're going to look at is a 100,000 square foot rec facility that
would have indoor gym space inside.
Ideally, there would be some track space in there as well.
We're not certain, we'll have to do some work to figure out whether that fits and
how that fits and what that looks like inside that recreational facility.
And then on the outside, look at multi-use fields and what I thought would be that there
would be more of a turf type field that could play multi-sports on it.
You could play soccer and field hockey and whatever else on that field as you could mark
them on the turf.
So there'd be multi-use fields there.
But really taking a look at that main facility as the rec center and then the associated
of fields that may fit in around it and come back to us with basically a master plan as
to say this is what could fit down there, this is what the layout could look like, where
your fields would be.
And then with that an associated cost estimate on what would something like that look like,
how much is that, what would it take to build it, those types of things.
And so before, you know, folks got too excited about, you know, going forward really need
to kind of know what we're dealing with, so this is the section where we need to get them
to take a close look at it.
I think it'll fit down there no problem, but where it goes, how it lays out, and then
ultimately what is going to cost us to move forward, I think is what we're looking
for here with this scope of services.
So are we looking at, like, a gym facility, like, you know, what I'm concerned about
but it's competing with the private businesses
that offer gym services all around the county there.
So, you know, exercise bikes, you know,
treadmills, weightlifting.
I would be concerned about, you know,
supporting anything that would have that
that would compete against our private businesses
that I think, yeah.
Yeah, I mean, I think our group
and Mr. Bragg and Mr. Wilson,
I mean, we weren't really looking for a fitness center.
Okay.
Looking more like an opportunity to have some sports tourism in here where we'd have weekend
basketball tournaments, weekend volleyball tournaments where folks could come in and play,
travel, sports inside, on a court, indoor track facilities and that type of thing,
not necessarily a fitness center, more of a recreational type of center.
Okay, so the sports tourism, so stay away from the things that would compete with their local businesses.
correct yeah okay correct yeah I am I'm not looking to build a physical fitness
building down here it's more for different types of sports for our young
people but my priority is the fields we've got young people in our community
having to go to Crozet to play soccer I think we need to do something about
that and I think we can do that I was educated about the use of a field
for multi-purpose things.
That was something new to me, that you
can play multiple sports on one field
by merely changing the color of the boundary lines on the field.
And I found that very interesting.
And that's why I'm anxious to see what
balls we'll come up with as far as recommendations.
Are there going to be tennis and pickleball courts
looked at?
That was a lot of the conversation
on what we can and can't fit because we had lots of ideas for this little piece of property so we
really need to go back and shape it out and see what happens. A lot of emphasis in localities now
there's a lot of conversations about the sports tourism and our teams locally are having to go
outside of Augusta and farther away to go to tournaments and things like that
to have the facility locally if that's doable, like he was saying, for the volleyball, for
the cheer competitions, for the basketball tournaments, that kind of thing.
The schools can use it, obviously, for that kind of inner-county kind of tournaments.
You also have the travel component.
But when you talk to other localities, allowing for the tourism part, the travel tourism part
helps pay for the operational costs, and depending how they do it, you know, you can, there's
funding there that can cover some of the expenses in operating it, so.
So this request is to figure out what we can put there, and to put you some jigsaw, a puzzle
kind of things, and see what fits, how many fields, is it soccer, is it baseball, is it.
I think I agree with Mr. Wells, we were talking about the multi-use, and they use the different
color paints for the lines for the different sports, but we really were looking to see
what's possible to be done.
So, do we have a study that says these sports tourism activities are the most currently that
this would be a good idea because, you know, what I know is the limited pickleball seems
to be very big right now.
Tennis seems to have waned a bit, no offense to the tennis players, but, you know, Wainsborough
has just extended from four courts to eight courts taking up a couple more other
courts maybe there more maybe it's 12 courts across is also another sport that's
gaining popularity in the area and as mr. Fitzgerald said the group that met was
a good cross section of different people planning commission rec committee this
was what so was there community development was there I mean it wasn't
just three or four people sitting there. I guess we had close to a dozen people in
the room expressing different ideas and points of view. So we we came to the
conclusion, well let's see what Ballzer can show. What's a could possibly fit
down there. We'll go from there. And I know Pickleball has frequent tournaments.
You can see them all during the summer occurring on the weekend. So
that'd be something you know. You have Stanton has courts at Montgomery
Hall, but the county with our 77,000 only has two courts here, so.
In Weir's Cave.
Yeah, in Weir's Cave.
Right, so only two courts.
Just as a side note with that, we had meetings today.
There's a group in Stewart's Draft that's very interested in exploring the possibility
of putting four courts in the Stewart's Draft Park.
And we're just in the planning, trying to figure it out stage for that also,
but hopefully we can get more pickleball throughout the county.
but we are actively looking at it as Stewart-Straff Park, we hope, so.
And then I think we were looking also at the Beverly Manor property that has
old grown-up broken down tennis courts there that need to be mowed there. So
but I can get behind this and I would split it with the Wayne District too.
Thank you.
I was going to make the offer to also contribute to this four ways.
Well,
can I offer to help pay for the study and vote against the project?
If that's your prerogative.
It is.
Doc makes a very good point.
I mean, I'm not sure I'd even heard of Pickleball several years ago when they wanted
to build those courts down there.
and people down there are nuts.
I'm just amazed at the different ages of people that play.
I mean, people go over and play with their grandkids.
I mean, when many sports do you play with your grandkids?
And there are people there all the time.
And they're gonna now put pickleball courts
inside the facility there.
So, yeah, so it'll, it amazes me.
The person who started all this,
I just refer to as the pickleball queen
because that's all she talked about.
But guess what? It turned out that she was right, and we got somebody to fund it.
And all the county got out of that was being a pain, you know, with permits and stuff, just saying.
And go ahead and take credit for educating me that lacrosse wasn't up-and-coming sport in the area.
Because if it hadn't been for you, I still wouldn't know that.
Having only played this summer, pickleball, I had a seven and eight-year-old with my wife and I, pretty bad on the courts there.
So they were pretty humiliating.
Did you play tennis?
I've played tennis in the past, not for the last.
15 years. So it does help if you know tennis. It's a wrist in there. So the plans
that were developed back when Mr. Bailey was here, how much work was in that or
what was the concept of that? And yeah, I'll have to check. I'm not sure they
actually ever physically put together a plan. I know he was saving money in his
infrastructure to to fund something but I don't I've never seen actually a set of
plans or a layout or design or any of that I could check with with Andy to see
if he's got something but I don't I'm not sure that exists I'm not sure it
ever got to that point because he may recall he'd say million dollars or
so in his infrastructure and then didn't run again and the next board
member said that's not a priority for him and used the money elsewhere so I'm not
certain we actually have a set of plans to look at. Well does this aspect be
voted on tonight I'd like to see if there were a set of plans and maybe take a
look at that before we move forward with this.
I mean 15 years or better maybe
20 years I think pickleball came out in the 60s and it's been 15 at least 15
years I doubt if they were even looking at down instructor surface or
artificial surface back in because that's a that can be a big maintenance savings
and
we postponed this for two weeks and give you an opportunity to look and see
if it is and see if it's something that we can what's the pleasure of the
yet? No.
It's easy to postpone it until the 21st.
Second. Or the 20, what is it,
25th?
25th. 25th.
Is there a second to postponing it? Yeah, second. I mean, motion to
postpone to the 25th. And that's fine. That's what you want to do. I'm just not
sure what a 15-year-old plan is going to. Well, it may not be a 15-year-old plan,
but nobody's had time to look to see what it is and so you know two weeks is not going to
Make or break this deal. So I
Think it also would be a good. Sorry to interrupt you
I think it also be good if we looked at our other properties that we have including the rundown gym
That's on the Wilson property
property,
Wilson High School property, that I don't know how much that would cost to get
a roof fix on it, and what we have to do with the school to get that, and if it's even realistic
or if it's just way out of our range there to fix it.
But it at least has walls up on it there.
I don't know how much damage is inside, but-
Yeah, it's got a roof, I think that-
the courts there how much that would cost and how many things we could fit there
I think that would be. I think staff would agree with you and that's
leading to a recommendation you'll see with the comp plan which is a parks and
rec master plan that would talk about all that type of stuff what you do with
those fields what you do with the berry farm what you do with the Wilson GM tennis
scores I think yeah we don't currently have a parts and rec master plan but we're
going to need one moving forward so Mr. Scholl that was a motion to postpone
and Dr. Seaton second okay let's vote okay
we have four to two and with one
absent to postpone all right moving along the consent agenda I'll make a
motion that we approve the consent agenda as presented.
Yeah, I'd like to remove a couple of items
from the consent agenda.
The 9-11-24 and the 10-9-24 meetings.
I think we can do the consent agenda on the other remaining
items.
Dr. Seaton, is this in reference to the discussion that was held in January of this year?
For one of them.
And it's also related to the minutes of the meeting that were incomplete on 10-9-24.
Which ones from were you polling because of the discussion in January?
So the 10-9-24 doesn't accurately reflect the meeting, the motions that were made on 10-9-24.
Relating to the January meeting?
Related to the January meeting.
I want to bring to your attention that the minutes were approved.
moved. I have the duty of refusing to recognize your motion according to Robert's rules of
order section 47.7 and also 48.2. It's frivolous and it's delitory behavior and you're wasting
this organization's time by keep bringing it up and I'm not going to recognize it.
So I still ask that 10-9-24 is removed from the consent agenda as well as the 10-9-11-24
That's removed from the consent agenda. I want those voted on separately
Did you not understand what I just said?
It's not frivolous. I have the right to ask those removed.
Well, I'm not going to recognize you
So I'll just keep on going
There so this is not a this is a right to ask those to be removed from the consent agenda
We can remove them, but that doesn't know because we need to vote on them
You can vote on them separately. That's my right to have the pleasure of the board. That's my
Right to have them voted on separately.
What's the attorney say? What's the attorney say? I made the reference to
Robert's rules of order revised 12th edition that you can look up in section
47.7 and 48.2 that the chair has the right
to not recognize your motion because it's frivolous and it's
Dilatory and it's a waste of this board's time for you to continue to do that. So the motion that was made on
9 on 10 9 24 does not accurately that this the one that's in the minutes does not
accurately reflect the minute the motion that I made if we want to play the
recording let's play the recording the recording is totally different than what's
in the minutes right now if you want to ignore the recording if you want to
ignore actually what wanted what you want to do you can do that but you
to vote on this. I just have a question if I may. Absolutely. This has been the
same question that has been asked for almost a year and it has been denied
for almost a year. So my question is how many more years are we going to do this?
So the minutes need to accurately reflect what the motion was made back
on 10 9 24 and it does not. I'm talking about the other thing that you keep
one in the ad. So what I'm talking about is 10, 9, 24, I made a motion, these
minutes do not accurately reflect that motion, and so it's not an accurate
minutes. And I have the right to pull it from the consent agenda and have it
voted on separately. I'm not preventing the will of the
majority.
I'm just stating that. Do you feel these minutes do not reflect your
comments about that meeting 10 9 24 minutes do not reflect the motion that
was made that I made on 10 9 24 regarding regarding the the items that have
been discussed but it's the motion was made and the minutes don't reflect the
motion that was made I mean that's the simple thing they don't reflect the
minute the minutes the motion this has got to stop well then put the the actual
wording of the motion into the minutes the actual wording of a motion does not
go into the minutes it's the action of the board that goes into the minute the
wording of the motion I'll argue with you about it the wording of motion
rules there is there a second to approve the consent agenda but best
specify if I mean I'm not recognizing Dr. Seaton's request. So I'm at no the
attorney what's the rules on removing from the consent agenda I have the right
to remove it from the consent agenda the 9-11 and the 10-9-24 meetings minutes.
Certainly any member can request that items be removed from the consent
agenda to be voted on separately. It's a different question as to the motion that I think Dr.
Seton refers to. Robert's Rules of Order does speak to the content of meeting minutes.
And 48-2 indicates that those minutes should contain what was done at a meeting and not
what was said at a meeting. Further 48-4 indicates that secondary motions which
would be a motion to amend, which I think is what occurred on 10-9, I believe
that the motion was made to approve the minutes and then the secondary motion
made by Mr. Seton, which wasn't seconded but didn't need to be, but that
motion was lost so the motion was not stated in the minutes and they are not
typically included in minutes according to Robert's rules of order if it was
lost and it was it did not pass so it's thank you for that clarification so
is
there a motion to well Mike has made the motion to accept the consent agenda
is published is there a second so what about the 9-11-24 if it relates to the
January meeting I'm not 9 11 24 doesn't what's the topic I have the right
to remove it from the agenda from the consent agenda it's not regarding the
January 3rd meeting thank you all right we'll pull the two is there second
where you've seconded that seconded dr. Seaton's request no
I don't have a
they're just removed so the motion you'd be looking for would be to do the
consent agenda that would include the claims street addition street light
request and then the minutes of nine twenty-five twenty-four staff and regular
staff and regular and the ten twenty-one and ten twenty-one that would be the
motion to approve all those you would remove 9 11 24 and 10 9 24 and vote on
them separately. Okay, so the motion is to approve the consent agenda with the
removal of two of those two meeting minutes. Let's vote.
Okay, motion carries.
Chairman, I'd like to amend the 9-11-24 regular meeting minutes on page 12. My
statement during that meeting was not included in the minutes. I would like
those included. My statement was, as the only veteran on the Board of Supervisors, I appreciate
the location of the memorial being in front of the courthouse and in front of the administration
building. Veterans deserve our recognition.
The second thing was,
I asked Ms. Wetzel
about who owned the lease that had the radio tower that we voted on and she
stated Crown Castle Delaware Corporation and I think that should be
included in the minutes.
It's right after it. So it might be page 13 or bottom of it.
Again, am I not correct that we don't necessarily put word for word statements, so it reflects
the business that was conducted?
I mean, that is correct in terms of, again, the rules that the board has adopted to live
by.
Thank you very much for your time.
Um, indicate that that is more of a transcript of the proceedings.
Minutes are meant to be actions taken by the board.
Um, it's the pleasure of the majority of the board.
So it's fair to say that really none of us get basically word for word statements, it's just some of it.
I think it's important to know who owns the, who the county was taking, leasing the, uh,
The site from
So is there a second to dr. Seton's motion well
and our
Board rules say that things don't have to be seconded at this point in time
so let's take a vote whether to
Approve dr. Seton's motions a
motion did not pass
Five to one with one abstention
Thank you for so I'm motion. Also
on the 10 9 24
regular meeting. These minutes do not accurately reflect the discussion during
the meeting regarding the various meetings before that and I make a motion
to add these questions to the minutes that were part of the motion I made.
Whether he would so I motion to add these questions to the minutes that were
part of the motion and this is going to be on page 27. Whether he would vote
For body cameras. This is regarding the chairman and he said no when he found out that the animal shelter was
charging illegal fees, which he stated the nebulous whenever somebody else does did
Whether he would vote to live stream the Bza and planning Commission
And whether he tried to get a government employee fired or disciplined who has a private citizen spoke before the board by meeting with the state?
by him meeting with the State Veterinarian, Dr. Charles Brodas, and Deputy Director David
McGreevy at VDAC's regional office in Harrisonburg on 622-23.
Mr. Chairman, I have a question for Dr. Seaton.
You want, I'm curious, why do you want that in there?
Because that was part of the January 3rd meeting and that was part of multiple meetings.
That was part of the minutes.
That was part of the motion that was made last meeting.
Which two points.
First of all, why do you want just part of your conversation and there's nothing that
you're adding about Ms. Carter because you also asked her questions.
So I find it interesting that you only want one set of the questions added and not the
other.
The second part was, and you just said, and it's actually in our minutes, that
you moved to add the questions to the candidates and we voted no.
But the questions themselves was part of the motion, just like I'm making today was part
of the motion.
But you were the losing vote, so does that mean in Robert's rule it does not come back
up?
No, because this is a different motion because this deals with the motion of the last
meeting.
Well, I don't think for the next three years we're going to sit there every single
meeting and say, well, it's different, even though we voted on it multiple times
and in Robert's rule, if you make a motion, it loses then the person who loses the motion
doesn't get to bring it back up.
This is a different motion because this applies to the last minutes and not into the previous
minutes.
But the question is the same and it has been for a year now.
It's not the same.
It's a motion that applies to these minutes and I'm asking, it's a primary motion.
I'm asking these questions to be added to the minutes on page 27.
I think that Robert's rules, the question that was asked that you asked was that those
questions, and it doesn't matter if it's today, yesterday, or the day before, you've asked
the question that they be added to the minutes, and every single time for a year, we've said
no.
And so this is a continuation of the same question, whether it's week after week
week after week, it's still the same question.
So I don't think...
So I wasn't the one who tried to get somebody fired, who was a civilian, who was up here,
who spoke before.
There's been an investigation.
There's plenty.
Do you know anything about what happened?
Yes, actually.
Okay.
I mean, I know what you said, but I'm not going to rehash it, and I think it's interesting
again that you're only interested in one person's answers and questions being added
and not the other persons, so it's not a question of you want accuracy in the
in the minutes because you're not asking for everything to be included. So are
you amending my motion? Are you making a motion to amend it to include those
questions? No, but as chair let me tell you what I'm doing. I have the authority
to not recognize that and I'm not going to recognize that motion. We're
You continue to bring it up. We're going to move on to the next subject.
So Virginia Code 22.2, 29021 of the Virginia Personnel Act.
It is a violation of a speaker's right to engage with elected public officials.
This is an issue where a public official is trying to suppress a speaker who's acting properly.
So you are out of order sir matters to be presented by the public don't you have to
don't you have two sets of minutes that we haven't passed yes we didn't we voted
on the one and I'm what do we have this that still needs to be passed move we
adopt. All right folks.
Adopt as written as written currently written. Of course I said all that.
All right the October.
Okay matters
from the public Mr. Fitzgerald. Do not have
any one signed up tonight. Okay matters to be presented by the staff.
Do have a
couple things from staff tonight.
First, I will share with you, just so you know,
you'll see it on your calendar.
But November 25th, the board had agreed that week
to include both your meetings on the 25th.
So just for your calendar's purposes,
looks like we're going to be asking
to come in at 2.30 that day for a joint board and EDA
meeting.
What we would do at that meeting
is review the economic development strategic plan that has been prepared as part of our
comp plan process. And so we'd like to present that to you and the EDA at 2.30 that day.
We will start our work session at 4.30 that day. In this room, our other meeting will
be in a room down the hall, but at 4.30 in this room we'll start our work session.
do our work session till around six. We'll have entering in at seven o'clock that
evening. We'll have our normal meeting on the 25th and that will get you all
taken care of before Thanksgiving. So just for your calendar purposes that's
what the thought is right now. The other thing I wanted to share with you is
I've had some conversation with Dominion Energy. Some of you may have heard
about this proposal, some may not, but there is a proposal out there that they have submitted
to PGM, which is the group that manages electrical supply across Commonwealth.
What they do is they look at areas where they see a need for additional electricity
and then they ask power companies to, I guess, give proposals to how they could help.
Dominion Energy has a proposal into them, very preliminary, to
essentially add another line from Dooms to Lexington. This would be adding
another tower beside the existing towers that are out there, which would
also mean that they would have to widen their easements in those areas and
do a lot of extra work. That word has kind of got around some folks that
start asking questions and I talked to Dominion today about that and they were
very clear to me that that was a very preliminary proposal. They won't know
until February whether PGM even accepts that proposal. If it if it does get
accepted it will have to go through its full project process that they
normally would go through when they do type of project like that but I just
put that before you. They have offered to come to the board and do a
presentation if you'd like them to do that while it's in proposal phase or if
you want to kind of wait to get selected about PGM in February we could bring
them back in February to kind of talk about that project further but really
up to you but I did want to put it on your radar that it's out there kind
of been on the streets a little bit I talked Spencer Souter and Rockbridge
and they've been hearing a good bit about I think Dominion went to Rock
bridge this week and gave a little brief overview of the project and but they did
want to make sure that you all knew that it was very preliminary it's nothing
set in stone but it is out there for you to see but I'll be willing to bring
them whenever you'd like to do so but the the third thing I have is a request
that we had received from Project Groves as you know they have a lease
over to Berry Farm and have for many many years and you know we allow them to
build a barn over there and they would like to put solar facilities on the
rooftop of that barn. They have an opportunity to get some grant funds and
have been working with a company that would put rooftop solar on the barn to
provide some power for those projects over there. Their lease with us
requires the board to approve that so you had to approve the barn going on the
property as part of the lease so they they've asked if if I would bring it
back to you all essentially to allow them to work to install these solar
panels on top of the rooftop over there if that be the board would be okay
with that. Yes, it may be approved.
Any further discussion? All in favor of the
motion? Let's vote.
Okay. 6-0 with one abstention. Absence. I'm sorry absence.
Yep. Thank you. Okay. All right. I think that's all I have.
Okay. Matters to
presented by the board, Mr. Garber?
We'd just like to say that we should all
be pleased that we got through an election
and we didn't shoot anybody and we didn't burn anything down.
Obviously, there were people that were happy and people
that weren't.
But here's what I could tell, that a rather peaceful event
and that's always something to celebrate.
And I would also say that never
mind, I can't say it.
Just keep in mind, we're not missing somebody tonight
out of convenience keep him in mind. First
thing I'd like to do is congratulate
the Stewart's Draft, Draft Express Band that they have been going through their
competition season and they came out with the state championship for the
Classe bands and we're very proud of that group and they work hard and
they're a lot of fun so I want to congratulate them and something else
just to put on our radar and start thinking about, you know, we've gone through the reassessment
and I know that in the past there's been conversations about looking at what an in-house
reassessment would look like and department and so forth. So I would like to ask that at some
point we start evaluating that and determine whether that would be a better route for us to
So I didn't want to bring that up and maybe get the wheels started on that.
Just throwing that out there.
Yeah, it's been under discussion.
Okay.
So it's already on our radar.
Okay.
And we all came back from Vaco and I think that it was a very good session.
And I think actually I learned more this round than I have in some of the previous ones.
So it was a good, good few days.
Mr. Shaw?
I don't have anything.
Mr. Wells?
No way.
Dr. Seton?
Yeah, thank you.
Just to go over, we went to the VACO, the meetings I attended, it was kind of clear in the
education budget, elections, conferences that we had.
that they really hope they as the speakers, not necessarily all the representatives that
were there, but they were hoping that a Democrat would win and they were
We're looking at taxes going up by the minimum of $3 to $4 billion in Virginia, if they have
a Democrat governor. So I think we should all be aware of that. That's a whole lot of taxes
for us there.
I was made aware tonight that the Fishersville
Library Survey was completed, and so we're going to try to work with what the field,
the people who keep up the field and want to see changes, we're gonna work with
them to add things to the survey, make sure everything's in the right location,
and then try to get this approved in the near future there. I think I had asked
for it to be in the 25th, the November 25th meeting there.
And thank
you, that
Okay, well, I've got a couple things. First of all, I wanted to brag a little bit about
an activity that occurred out in Craigsville a week or so ago. I was contacted by a company
and I think they contacted Mr. Wells first about the end of September about doing a
– PBS wanted to do a documentary about the effects of a prison closure on a community.
and they selected Craigsville to be the community that they highlighted. So very
quickly their film crew came out so they I got in contact and I think it was on
October 23rd and they were filming on the 25th so very quick turnaround they
interviewed Mayor Fox they went over to the prison itself to take a look
around they interviewed Chief Martin from the fire department myself and then
they also interviewed lots and lots of the citizens to get their point of view
on this documentary. It's Laura Flanagan. She's on PBS. I watched a couple of her
shows so I'll be really interested to see what this how it turns out. They're
planning on it to show it sometime in January. They don't have the exact date
yet but once I get that date I will certainly broadcast it to you all.
let you know.
Second thing is I'm sorry I didn't have this before you but it's a
request for some infrastructure money from the Craigsville Fire Department and
it's to cover the cost of a lot of the new hose that they're going to be
required to purchase and it's a total of $8,647.28 so I would like to be
able to take that out of my infrastructure
and cover that cost for them.
Move or second whatever is needed.
OK, let's vote.
Thank you.
And the last thing that I had was a result of the VACO
conference, a discussion that happened.
Evidently, we're not the only locality that's
getting bombarded by FOIA request.
and one of a couple of the entities said that they have decided to have a report
given to the public and to the board on the top five users of FOIA and the costs
that are associated with those requests, the cost to the county.
And I think in the spirit of transparency for our citizens,
that we should provide that information to them.
And speaking with Mr. Oleg and Mr. Fitzgerald a minute to comment,
but I think that our citizens might be very interested to see who all's
doing four-year request and the cost to us.
So you'd like that to be provided at the end of the month?
How much would that be fairly easy for you to pull?
We have a system that I think we could pull it very easily and pull it,
you know how many hours it takes and we've got a we've got a four-year
software package that Erica manages for us and Jennifer's involved in that but
it's correct me if I'm wrong but I just I don't see that big issue yeah I think
we have the data available to do that there's
something you'd like to see at
the end of the month during your staff meeting work time is that where ever
suits you suit staff well let's just plan on doing it as part of a staff
brief and we can put that in the report and just put it in there each month.
Do we need a motion or a show?
I don't think you need a motion.
Is there anyone that's opposed to doing that?
If that's the board's direction, that's what we'll do.
Yeah, I think clarity is always good, except for I'm concerned that we're doing this
to intimidate people instead of allow them.
So I would vote against it.
It's readily available as a FOIA request anyways.
anybody could get it but I'm just concerned that this is going to this is
meant to suppress people asking for a FOIA for asking for information. I would
view it as a means of transparency to our citizens where their dollars are
going so I guess we do need to have a motion well
it's since Dr. Seton refuses
is it?
I had asked that they provide that at work session but Dr. Seton is
against doing that so I wanted to know what the rest of the feelings of the
board were.
I'm not what I worry about is that this report is being obtained to
to try to dox people to intimidate their ability to ask for this information.
So therefore you're opposed to doing this?
I would be opposed to any intimidation of citizens.
Well the truth can be mighty intimidating sometimes.
Now what is the motion on the floor? I've already got one.
The motion is to ask staff to bring a report of the top users of FOIA for the month and the cost to the county.
Okay.
And Ms. Bragg made the motion it's been seconded no I'll second okay let's vote
five
yes one no and one absent okay
any redoes I got one thing I know I know but
it came in I said we didn't have anybody from the public but I did want to
share with the board that we did get one e-comment today and we will send this
e-comment to you on email but it it regards the sympathize that the county
needs it's interesting because we talked about this earlier the county needs
soccer fields desperately every other municipality around Augusta has public
soccer fields Augusta County has two small fields of Sturkshraft Park
Augusta United must bar fields and churches, schools, HOAs, private property owners, scrambling
when weather causes disruptions, no fields with lights, in the winter months practice
may be played on baseball fields.
Kids need a safe alternative place for after school activities.
And so this Ms. Kathleen Cavender submitted that today.
So we'll send that to you on email, just a matter of the record.
Mr. Fitzgerald, I got that, but I can't read it, so if you'd resend it, it was highlighted
when it shows up highlighted, it might as well be blank, so if I get it some other way,
I can read it.
Well, we will.
We will get it sent to you again.
Great.
Yeah.
Then we do have a closed session.
Thank you.
Do we need a break before closed session?
Okay.
Mr. Shaw.
All right, I move that the Board of Supervisors of Augusta County convene
into closed session pursuant to one, the legal counsel exemption under Virginia
Code 2.23711A7. Consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff
members or consultants pertaining to actual or probable litigation where
such consultation or briefings in open meetings would adversely affect the
negotiation or litigation posture of the public body. For the purposes of this
This subdivision probable litigation means litigation that has been specifically threatened
or on which the public body or its legal counsel has a reasonable basis to believe will be
commenced by or against a known party.
Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to permit the closure of the meeting merely
because an attorney representing the public body is in attendance or is
consulted on a matter. A, the purpose of the closed session is consultation with
legal counsel and briefings by staff members pertaining to probable
litigation. The subject matter of the closed session is probable litigation
between Augusta County and a certain commercial property owner
are pertaining to the 2024 reassess evaluation of the owner's real estate property for purposes
of taxation.
Is there a second?
Okay.
I have a question for the attorney.
So it seems to say here, how would discussing this in open session adversely affect
our negotiator and our litigating posture?
I mean it requires that so I need to know how it would adversely affect our
negotiating, live-getting posture. I think in this situation my assessment would
be that to address that issue would itself compromise our position. What
issue? The issue that there is a certain commercial property owner who
contests, disagrees with, continues to dispute the 2024 reassessed valuation of
that owner's real property for purposes of taxation. That litigation is
probable and forthcoming in all likelihood and to go further into that I
think would would compromise the position of the county.
Anything more
specific then that I I write I think that we're our our specificity is the
purpose of the session is to consult for the body to consult with legal counsel
and also to receive briefings by staff and then the subject of that is the
specific subject I just outlined and then we have the particular exemption
from the Virginia Code also cited and I think those make it proper a proper
motion and a proper closed session so we have a motion so we have a motion on the
floor to enter into closed session let's vote okay
six oh we're now in closed
session