Coraggio Consulting
Albemarle County Board of Supervisors Joint Meeting with Scottsville Town Council, Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Date: Wednesday, May 14, 2025
Place: Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 1h 53m (video)
Official meeting video (Granicus): https://albemarle.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=1356
Official agenda: https://albemarle.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=1356

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-14. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:00] Hello, Dave, your honor. For those of you who don't know me, I'm on set. I'm the mayor of Stockville. We always like to get together with our friends in the north.

[00:00:18] We'll see you in the southern gateway to Altonwell County. We take pride in our town and we try to make anybody coming up to the heading north and through town realize they're in a really nice place. So a little bit about the rules, this is not a council meeting, it's not a board superpowers meeting, it's a work session.

[00:00:39] We're in work sessions or it's not a public forum. We've done the people up here who seem to have knowledge of someone in the audience that may be able to help them in reflection or answer. We certainly want to call them in public forum tonight.

[00:00:55] So, Mr. Andrews, in the city. We have a little bit of two problems. We have a lot of county. I'm going to turn to the meeting over the building. Well, I've heard this friend of the quality. I was meeting the order. It is about, expect, I mean, four seconds.

[00:01:12] I'm going to say four brothers, we're listening to Supervisor Dallas. I mean, Brian of the district, Supervisor Mike Rose, from the staff of the Supervisor of the district, Supervisor, and also the Whitehall district, Supervisor. that are dying and killed from the jack keeler test um i guess we're going to do introductions well first now we're going to have a call on the guys our town clerk melanie coulter i just know you're a thing over here on the end house number

[00:01:51] And this goes, he and I are the author of having served the longest on the council. It started in 2010, I think it was, and it's still taking a beating. Alex Bissette, who heads up our architectural review board.

[00:02:07] Bill Heisen, who is at Open Services and tries to oversee the maintenance and dealings with the Mancini Pitch area. and one of our newer members 14,000 he actually looks for the city of Charlottesville and uses his baritone and all kinds of ways so this is my guy with excuse Roger Whitley from the University of Colorado he was last so he's a couple thank you everyone

[00:02:44] THE HIGHLIGHTS AND THEN LUCKY PEOPLE REGUSES. SO WE'RE HAVING THE EXECUTIVE HERE. OUR COUNTY COUNTY IS HERE. AND I THINK THAT'S WHERE WE'LL STOP.

[00:03:03] AND I BELIEVE THE FIRST ITEM IS THE DISCUSSUM OF THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN. SO GOOD EVENING, MY NAME IS TONYA SPORTSENGER FOR THE COUNTY'S COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT.

[00:03:34] SO SOME OF YOU MIGHT KNOW THAT WE'VE BEEN WORKING ON A BAC 44 PROJECT FOR A COUPLE OF YEARS NOW AND IT'S A PROJECT TO UPDATE OUR COMPREHENSIVE PLAN AS PART OF A FOUR PHASE PROJECT. phase one as you can see on this slide was really about the stock of what we have developing some guiding principles which are in the wheel there to the right as well as looking at our land use build-out analysis what can we what kind of growth do we expect and how many households

[00:04:11] might we need to absorb and then we also reviewed our growth management policy of top out in moment in phase two we looked at our updating our goals and objectives and work with our community as well as the planning commission our board to make sure that those goals and objectives were accurate and represented our community's vision we also developed our land use and transportation planning

[00:04:44] tools including the activity centers these are areas of higher density and intensity of visas and and homes um so that we can start absorbing some of the growth that we're anticipating over the next 20 years this is a 20-year plan so we're currently in phase three which is about drafting the actual document the hard copy document we're confirming the recommendations or actions with our planning commission and board of supervisors the plan itself is um split into three parts

[00:05:23] the first is really about documenting our community's vision which is um documenting our context in the background as well as those guiding principles on that first slide part two we really dig into that growth management framework which establishes our rural area and our development areas we also as part of that part two will go over our development areas utilization review

[00:05:54] part three is implementation these are the topics and chapters that we've been discussing with our planning commission and board most recently some of the topics include land use transportation housing parks and rec all of these different chapters have an overarching goal as well as a few objectives with several actions underneath there are five points in the plan that are related

[00:06:32] specifically to scottsville the first one is scottsville is identified in this plan as an urban development area all this really means is that this helps the town apply for state funding programs like vdot smart scale uh smart scale program on your own previously the county had been a partner with scottsville to make those applications that would no longer be necessary to have the help and partner with you on doing those applications but

[00:07:10] it's not necessary the second one is getting into the actions of the plan so the first action is in our land use, one of our land use chapters. This is really about coordinating on our infrastructure improvements, including transportation, parks, open space, those kinds of things, as well as enhanced services. The next section is also in our land use chapter, and this is really about engaging with the town of Scottsville and other jurisdictions on a regional approach to access

[00:07:48] nature as well as integrate nature with design our next one is in our thriving economy chapter this is leveraging regional partnerships to build the county's tourism sector and then the last is identifying needs for new or improved library services and facilities so throughout the process we've had a myriad of ways that public and officials can keep up with the process itself.

[00:08:26] And we've had several public engagement opportunities here in the town of Scottsville at the EMC Community Center. Going back to, you know, 22, I think the last one that we had was just over a year ago where we talked about the different goals and objectives on the rural land use area and several other concepts.

[00:08:52] Can you go to the next one? So I'll mention here that our Engage Abamal website is the most up-to-date, accurate information on any dates or activities or events that might be going on.

[00:09:14] So I urge you to check that out. The website is listed on this slide. So in this third phase, three out of four phases, we still have to go to the board regarding transportation. We will have a community check-in in person on May 22nd coming up.

[00:09:36] That will be at, I'm sorry, I just blamed this, one of our middle schools that will be in. And then we'll have that board work session on May 28th. So we'll also plan to go through cultural resources with the Planning Commission in a few weeks here, May 27.

[00:10:00] We'll have a board of work session on June 4th, and then a Lunch and Learn, which is our virtual option, so we can maybe reach a few more people in late June, usually the last Thursday of the month this limit has occurred. So this brings us to Phase Box 4, which entails public hearings and the adoption of the entire claim.

[00:10:24] So we expect our adoption to occur during the Board's October 15, 2025 work session. And once again, I'll just remind you all to take a look at the website just in case dates may change, which does happen.

[00:10:42] With that, I'll take any questions or? I would be interested in a couple of comments. as the next question so the town is in the process of updating our own comprehensive plan and as we've done that one of the things we've tried to do is also plan for growth and financial services inside i'd be interested from the plan both in what your design is and maybe even from the supervisors i think if some of the residents of this area would speak they would be interested in knowing

[00:11:20] what thoughts there are for increased services whether it's transportation or whether it's in a number of different ways and so i think maybe the voices that are out there will be interested to know how the county views this part of the county we obviously are a little biased it's amazing but it's be interesting to know if there are any points that any supervisor has that YOU HAVE THAT YOU MIGHT USE BULLETNELTS RELATED TO HOW YOU SEE SCOTS GO OR THOUGHTS THAT MUST BE HELPED TO CUSPANDELLA AS A COUNCIL, HOW THE COUNCIL SEES SCOTS GO.

[00:12:00] I'LL LEAVE THAT TO THE SUPERVISOR. OKAY. AND WE'LL ORDER, I THINK, FOR THIS MEETING, BUT I'LL LOOK FOR THE SUPERVISORS WHO MAY WANT TO ADD RESPONSE CARVING. I'LL KIND OF TAKE A FIRST STATE APPEALING THIS, AND WE'LL BE AN INCOMPLETE ANSWER.

[00:12:16] SO I WANT TO START BY, IN PART, WE TALKED ABOUT THE REACTION. actions that have the word scott's bill in them but that's like a control that like here's where we specifically talked about scott's bill and they're not really there's a tremendous amount of stuff that implicates scott's bill um there is a tricky thing kind of getting at your question about services and how we consider the town of scott's bill and the county's planning process there's a tricky thing of the county operates on really stark binary in our around urban areas and the rural area. 95% of the county is rural area, meaning generally speaking you can't

[00:12:55] do something, right? You can have one residence per two acres and you can have certain types of businesses under special use permit that normally require people, which normally makes a problem happen. I'm saying it's for the audience, you might not be aware of it. And everything else happens in the urban, right? Where most people move, and that's also where we try to concentrate our services. It's kind of a broader cost-saving country, right?

[00:13:19] This is where people are concentrated, and this is where services are coming to be. The town of Scottsville isn't really either, right? It is a town with its own independent planning authority, so we don't get to say how many houses you have on any particular law. No. And it's also entirely surrounded by the rural area and identifies strongly with the rural country.

[00:13:42] From the county's planning perspective, I would say for the most part, we think of this area as consistent with the rural area, meaning we think it does not have the same demand of services because it does not have that concentrate on the link of an urban that's challenging, right?

[00:13:59] Because there are fundamental expectations that we come with and you're paying the same taxes and that gets really frustrating. And because there are special needs of the panel, I think we try and win there ways to flex that. I certainly try and find ways to flex it. That has to be done out of the spring.

[00:14:17] There are certainly core services that we think agree on the county like deserve and are entitled to regardless of rural and the biggest one right is our high quality police fire rescue there are different response time expectations in the urban versus the rural area but there is still there is a expectation of 100 coverage throughout the county which is not something you can get everywhere in this country um and it's significantly that's your fire check notes um and that is also one of the biggest this year cost drivers in the tax assessment i think that kind of got at that but i mean this is the thing right there's almost

[00:14:57] something intrinsically boring and hard to get excited about about comprehensive plans because it's the everything policy it's hard to get people psyched about like hey let's come talk about comprehensive plan because it was like right but it is everything policy so it touches everything so it's makes it hard to answer questions it also means it all matters and sorry i've been talking I look to the staff, if there's a staff member at the council that would like to speak to

[00:15:37] share, I think it's back to the board. I was just going to jump in and say that I've been watching and participating in conference since 1985, and it is like watching grass grow. But it is also the most important thing that we do because it sets the stage for all the future decisions in all the different sort of target areas and thought areas of the county.

[00:16:02] So it's something that I feel tremendous affinity for and find it very useful. But there are also many of those core services where are not provided due to population. And I'm thinking of certainly the water and other resources that are, we're all in the same pot, whether we're a smaller growth, the soon-to-be growth area in Scottsville or a much larger growth area in all the other five districts have, and the northern part of the Scottsville district certainly has a much, much higher population than the growth area.

[00:16:39] But the Scottsville residents benefit from that same provision of very, very, very high quality improvement. AND I THINK WE'RE GOING TO LEARN SOME MORE ABOUT THOSE LATER ON IN THE MEETINGS, SO I'M STOPPING. THANK YOU. I HAVE ONE VERY QUICK PLUG, AND I HOPE, VERY QUICKLY.

[00:17:06] SO I SAY THIS KIND OF FOR THE GENERAL AUDIENCE, BECAUSE I KNOW THERE'S A LOT OF PEOPLE COME UP HERE, THE WOMEN SOUTHERN PART OF THE COUNTY, MAYBE DON'T COME TO OUR MEETINGS, AND I DON'T LIKE YOU. It's a hike. And I've shared this with council before, but I'll say it again. It is hard to be engaged in the AC44 and the comprehensive planning process.

[00:17:24] But I would really encourage you all to look into that and try and get engaged, especially when we're talking about the rural area. I think right now this board is starting to grapple with a fundamental, like, how we can see the rural area, how we can see other country folks, and what we expect of the community that makes that 95% of the land.

[00:17:44] And we do, under current policy, it is a deeply preserved area. I'm blank on the name of the owner, but there's the reason. Proposal for the team towing and repair facilities, right?

[00:18:00] It failed the Planning Commission, and it got a negative recommendation from the staff. I'm not saying I would vote on that, but that is an obvious answer based on what our comprehensive plan right now says about the rural area. And I know that there's a lot of people out here who don't come to that.

[00:18:18] I don't know that what we say about the rural area necessarily, but working class people who have grown up country, their whole lives, walk out of the rural area, and we don't hear that very often. PEOPLE TO HEAR FROM ON FOLKS WHO ARE WORKING.

[00:18:35] I WOULD ASK ANY OF YOU TALKING ABOUT, WHEN YOU ASKED A QUESTION, I WOULD ASK MAYBE MORE SPECIFIC ABOUT WHAT SERVICES WE COULD HEAR FOR THE COUNTY TO KNOW, AS OPPOSED TO-- YES, WHAT I WAS ULTIMATELY GETTING AT, SINCE THIS IS THE WORK SESSION FOR US AS SUPERVISORS THE COUNCIL FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE PUBLIC HEARING IT.

[00:19:06] I'M JUST INTERESTED TO KNOW, AS YOU THINK OF THIS PART OF THE COUNTY IN YOUR DISCUSSIONS THAT YOU'VE HAD, WHAT WOULD YOU WANT TO SAY TO THE PEOPLE OF SCOTTSVILLE ON THAT SPECIFICALLY? WHEN YOU THINK OF SCOTTSVILLE AND THE NEEDS OF THIS AREA SUPERVISOR, THANK YOU FOR THAT COMMENT ABOUT HOW YOU UNDERSTAND IN TERMS OF WORLD.

[00:19:27] SO I'M JUST GETTING ANY OTHER SPOTS, BECAUSE FOR US, It's helpful to know where you're coming from so we can agree with you, disagree with me, you know, do whatever we need to do. Right. I guess I'm... I'm sorry. Go on, get finished.

[00:19:42] I guess what I was thinking of, when I was at Scottsville, I think of a wonderful place to visit. I think of what you have regarding the river, what can happen. I think of tourists, frankly. So, I'm on the city's EZB, and then I'm thinking ways to maybe promote some tourism bandwidth that we've got to win.

[00:20:06] I don't want to benefit you all, something like that. To me, that's kind of, you know, something that's easy to promote more tourism, because you've got a lot here, I think, tourism-wise.

[00:20:23] You sure do. that I think the county and you all would benefit from. So that's something that I think we're being together. Thanks. And I will just add quickly to what Beecher said. The last time we had a meeting, it was different than the people for the most part.

[00:20:45] I talked about tourism and how there were some historic trails and old roadways that could very well be beefed up and rolled into our tourism package that would bring folks back down here.

[00:21:03] Still, I ran across that information the other day. Happy to share it with you all again. But from my viewpoint, having come to Wisconsin over the last 28 years as an elected official from the school board level, visiting your school very often, right, and now from the supervisor's level, I think Mike makes a really good point that you all are in our rural area.

[00:21:29] We tend to think about you in that focus. However, for me, I think about you as an incorporated talent. And you are a duly elected town council, just like I'm a elected official and have a law of killing. So my lens is that you're a duly elected and you all have a talent that you run.

[00:21:51] You have the ability to do certain things, right? Just like we have, you know, you can do certain things. We all live in a building each day. We have these days of that. At the same time, we feel, or at least I feel, a certain appreciation.

[00:22:07] And I think I know over the years, we certainly want to help you all with things that you need, whether it's the levy or what I could go through. And it used to be on the board for the art center. I can remember working with all that.

[00:22:24] So we understand that we're all in this together. But I didn't really, in my heart of hearts, I think about Scottsville as an incorporated power with a duly elected council. I mean, that's just, now that's not taking anything away from our partnership and how we need to work together.

[00:22:46] But, yes. Thank you. When you all were developing your comprehensive plans or future plans, And you mentioned it shows that South Dakota was specifically mentioned in areas.

[00:23:10] Did you use the Saskatchewan plan, conference plan as a resource when doing that? And if so, was it in unison or were they confident? We did.

[00:23:25] We also met with Javier, I think it was a little over a year ago, TO TALK ABOUT OUR OBJECTIVES AND THE KIND OF PLANNESS YOU SEE IN THE REGULAR COMMUNITIES.

[00:23:43] AND I WILL ADD SOMETHING ELSE, I ALWAYS REALLY APPRECIATE THE MEETINGS THAT YOU'VE HAD OVER THE YEARS WITH DIFFERENT ORGANIZATIONS WHERE YOU'RE THE MANAGER WOULD COME AND JOIN THE MEETINGS AND CHAT WITH US and really provide insight in what you all are doing.

[00:24:09] We haven't had so many of those since COVID, I will say. But that was always really helpful. And I just really appreciated him coming. And, you know, lots changed after COVID. So maybe we could get back to some of that as well.

[00:24:27] But, for example, some of the chamber meetings, some of the meetings that we had with some of the other communities. And he always made a point from sharing what was happening in Stockton with a second from Stockton with a second. In reverse, have you all come to any of our chamber of Congress?

[00:24:54] I have not, but I've been down there recently. I've been down there many times, but not to the chamber. We need the same temperament. Absolutely. You're right. Next, I'm going to try some things, but I don't have to turn my head.

[00:25:20] I've got my slides on my phone, so I'm not texting, I promise. I'll take the next slide. So the county has been in the process of updating our economic development strategic plan. Lots of planning on the agenda today. um we kicked off um at the beginning of the calendar year um for this process um the existing plan and project angle was adopted in late 2018 and really took up back in 2019 uh and so we're we're um very well in the final period where we need to be looking at where we have been and where we're hoping to go in the next couple years um and that's really what that process has been about

[00:25:57] um and um one of the one of the things that has changed over time is that the um you know the board goals for economic development has shifted the county acquired a large property on the northern end of the county um that we call the romantic futures project um that was not contemplated in our current economic development strategic plan but was an excellent opportunity and we think um puts the county in the position for a lot of really positive things moving forward um and the global economy has changed um and the virginia economy has changed since 2018. the pandemic has had a lasting impact on the way that we work and where

[00:26:33] we work now we work um and and so it's time for us to take a look at what our next um strategy is going to be and really it's about that last bullet which is how we plan resources so um funding and staff time resources um need to go into the right things you can't do everything um and so that's what the strategic plan is really all about so i'll take the next slide um so we started in january in february with a data analysis and peer benchmarking so looking at other counties that have a university or college with a big research function similar to the university of

[00:27:10] virginia that also have a presence of some of the sectors that align well with some of the county sectors so biotech cities and cities for counties across the country and that have a roughly similar size um february and march we did stakeholder engagement um series of roundtables by sector um to hear from folks directly about what's important to them and what some of their challenges are um now we're in the time period of framework development patients spent time with board supervisors today talking about um the framework specifically and they'll have a dedicated work

[00:27:46] session at their meeting next week um that will lead into um a final draft plan document that the eda and the board of supervisors will have a joint meeting to hopefully adopt in august next slide so a little bit more about the stakeholder engagement we had two and really more like two and a half days of um public engagement or stakeholder engagement across um a period in february and the period in march um we had 85 folks with us our march engagement um representing those um those three on the slide there um primarily roundtable we also did some one-on-one

[00:28:25] or two-on-two interviews um so that folks had an opportunity to share with the consultants and with staff really what they see the key opportunities as being um and one thing that i would recommend to everyone um we asked um someone in each of those groups um so biotech and life sciences has a professional group civil biohub um that organizes a lot of the companies in that space we asked them to convene the round table so it wasn't the county asking please tell us how you you see things. It was sort of a trusted partner asking how do you see things. Next slide. Here's

[00:29:02] some of the things that we that we heard. Albemarle County, I hope you agree, has a ton of really exciting assets and we can do a better job of leveraging them and thinking about how we can take advantage of some of the great things that we have here. Growth is happening, but a lot of infrastructure isn't keeping up. That's hard infrastructure like roads and that's also the develop a process cycle. That is the time it takes to build something, and that's not a county problem. That's a national problem, but that's a struggle point. Town is strong

[00:29:40] when you talk to economic developers across the Commonwealth, especially if you think about southern and south side of Virginia. Folks will say, we need workforce. We don't have people. 8,500 people graduate from PVCC and the University of Virginia every year, And then they pursue wonderful opportunities in the national capital region, in California, in New York.

[00:30:04] And it wouldn't be wonderful if they had some really good job opportunities here. I'll take the next slide. We have a lot of players working on the idea of how to grow and help businesses scale. But it's a little bit fragmented. And so identifying ways to better work together and better identify opportunities for collaboration is really important.

[00:30:27] Albemarle has a good identity, but it's a little bit unclear. So if you think about Huntsville, you can probably think about aerospace. If you think about Albemarle, you might get yourself to UVA, but a strong identity in the business world is really helpful in helping to grow and attract other opportunities.

[00:30:50] And so economic development must be bold, focused, and values aligned. We heard from everybody, there's so many great things happening here. we really need to pick a couple of things and really take a good run at them and see what opportunities we're going to open up. And so we hope that that's going to show in the strategy that we'll share with the board next week.

[00:31:10] Take the next slide. One of the other things I wanted just to walk through is what our consultants call a cluster analysis. That's a new word for target sector. And so we'll roll with it. They looked at six.

[00:31:26] These are six that appear in the county's current economic building strategic plan. And a new one, clean tech and renewable energy, that entered into the city of Charlottesville's most recent plan update. And so the thought was, let's see if that's an opportunity for Albemarle as well.

[00:31:43] So the focus is on trading sector. Sometimes people will look at that list and say, why isn't higher ed on there? Why isn't the health system in there? Those are service type jobs that we don't sell a product outside of this community.

[00:32:02] And so that when you think about economic development, you think about how can you generate goods and services that have a demand outside of the community so that we're able to bring in dollars from outside the community to help us in our own. We've looked at legacy clusters as well as emerging, as I shared with the clean tech and renewable energy.

[00:32:21] on the next slide um the preview of um of what we'll go over in more depth with the board next week um the consultants have really um after doing a deep dive into the data and there's um 200 pages of data on the board's agenda packet that was posted earlier today that goes into why um but based on the data and also some recent investments by local government by the local government and Albemarle and also private sector. So the Manning Institute is a new institute at the University of Virginia. They're building it right now. And it's going to host 100 clinical

[00:33:00] research labs. They'll be working in partnership with the health system to try to speed up the process of getting new therapies and drugs to patients, which is really exciting. And it's going to drive a lot of future opportunities. So taking sort of the data and the things that we know they're happening on the ground these are the three sectors that um that the consultants are recommending that we focus on um so intelligence national security biotech and life sciences and agribusiness and food processing and that's a wide bucket so that includes um wineries breweries um it includes the alkaline industry um it includes folks who sell products at the

[00:33:40] farmers markets in the community and so there's a lot of things there's a lot of different small sectors that can see themselves in that bucket I mean there's the data supports there's a really huge opportunity for us and there's some opportunities for us to help folks working in those spaces to just scale their business in a way that makes it much more of a career path and less of a hobby

[00:34:06] Next slide. So this is my last slide. I really just wanted to say, you know, as this agenda was coming together, you know, what opportunities would I want to highlight for the town council's reaction.

[00:34:22] So these are just a couple of quick thoughts on some of the opportunities for Scottsville. The town is, you know, you know you've arrived when you're driving down 20 and you get to Scottsville. have a very strong sense of place and identity um it's a wonderful downtown there's some great opportunities to escape programs with the main street program um you know some stronger tourism marketing um you know there's good crossover with downtown and the opportunities as a river

[00:34:53] presents for river recreation um as well as live work walkability um for folks who are here river recreation obviously the bacho festival is a fun event every year the end of the seasonal two agent kayaking and the bacho tours um are another opportunity that's um tourism related um and then the tiger port plant sites it's not all just about hospitality and tourism um but you have a 61 acre light industrial site um um it's being identified in your west downtown small area plan as an

[00:35:27] an employment center um and there's some um some good opportunities um that you've all identified on public on marketing and leverage that site and bring your life into it and then we'll hear from our friends at the water authority um about capacity um to service that type of use um and so that's that's really all i have to say that i wanted to thank you all for your time thank you I'm looking for the agenda here, and so I'm sorry if this is not directly related, but it's the best place to fit in, and mostly to the supervisors.

[00:36:08] Supervisor Proof has been very, very cordial in explaining service disbursement in the county, but I think that the reality is, because you said it previously today, it's a population issue, which is fine. and it makes sense but scottsville has an issue and that is one development can double our population and double demand on our services because our tax revenue of the property tax goes to the county we will not be able to bolster those services our police for example would double the population that they have to protect we also take care of a large portion of

[00:36:47] the south town regularly so i kind of want to know from the supervisors if the town decides to grow that population will the town support us in the services dispersely that's a good question right um the thing that i would say back to you that i know it's not the popular thing and i love to say

[00:37:23] the popular thing when i'm in here right but i'm gonna say the unpopular thing which there are very very few towns of the hundreds that are incorporated in virginia that do not have their own real property tax rate on top um i understand why you don't want to implement a real property tax rate and i wouldn't either in your position currently because you're in one of the lower cost of living parts of albama county and you get fewer services and we have a high tax rate because we're a high population county with high services so it feels contradictory right that you would add that you'd be basically the highest tax rate in place while being in an area that has fewer

[00:38:03] circuits i get that and i don't involve the town for not wanting it i don't know of other examples in the commonwealth of virginia where the county has the hierarchy above you know uh organization goes back and delivers additional tax revenue for services on the account there might be examples and if so if so i want to be in here and say the popular thing i would love to have those examples from staff, from anyone, from y'all, saying, no, here, Martinsville, gets attacked or I can't care what.

[00:38:42] Because then that would be something I can say to my peers, saying, oh, we should paper two more copies to Scottsville. I would love to be able to say that. I don't know that there's any precedent for that, and I think it would be a hard sell outside of that. I think the county is really enthusiastic, I can say I'm really enthusiastic about offering whatever support outside right I don't want to revisit the decision about the tire factory and I'm not going to say how what I think you should have done there

[00:39:13] but we did have a significant financial assistance that's one example um if you wanted to do some kind of commercial development it you know expand the size of a commercial portion of the tire factory rezoning sometimes makes you stay and you wanted some kind of significant economic development assistance I would be gung-ho about that, but that would be, I think, more in the vein of the kind of assistance and support that we would see appropriate, as opposed to, like, direct financial contributions for hiring businesses. Does that make sense?

[00:39:52] yeah i guess it does but more broadly i mean if we do decide to develop and i think something you mentioned is that the tax increase is going to pay for more firefighters and police specifically can't you send them down here you know that's kind of where i'm going with that which is not scottsville getting police but how them are all dedicated more to the south economy i will say i will say so um the six new five uh the six new police that we hired this year um three of those

[00:40:28] literally have them are going for general control in phil on the south side of birds okay and a disproportionately large amount of the new firefighter hires i know it's a problem a disproportionately large amount of the new firefighter hires are going into the south side to floss up uh volunteer stations so we're you know we really think we are doing that and and you're not being let down from that, right?

[00:40:52] - I guess I am, you're talking about increases in the population. Over 50% of our budget is schools. Of course, that will be treated the same way, it's whatever it is, you know, it's only students, and then 10 of those schools got a little bit tricky. - It's got a little bit used to that.

[00:41:10] - Thank you. - I will say, well, there are 10,000 new residents in Crow Bay since 2005. They have considered many, many times over the last 100 years, whether to become a town, and have always decided, no, thank you, because we don't want to have more taxes to fund ourselves, to fund Greg and other agencies and town officers and they are still, but they see all this new population and are still catching up on the infrastructure, so I think we were all in the same boat.

[00:41:41] I would just add very briefly, so I, when we were developing the agenda, this is the one thing I obtained that I said to our clerk, our county executive, our director of economic development, I want to talk about economic development, vis-a-vis Scott and Phil, that is the only thing that I badly want the agenda done.

[00:42:14] That is because I remember, I want to say four months ago, I joined y'all, and I had a chill go down my spine because we had a bunch of fewer farmers market vendors to talk about annual fine in attendance every single year for the past several years.

[00:42:31] I am concerned, and I look at qualitative factors. I know that this is not an explanation, but the number of, significant number of downtown businesses that I turn forward. I look at Rodney the rooster going along, and this is something I say, this is something my concern for Scottsville, the economic vitality of Scottsville, because there is so much opportunity.

[00:42:55] We talk about how the problem facing outlaw county economic development is that we don't have a strong business identity. Scottsville has a strong business identity. I say, I'll just say, we are not in the county in the position of being able to be the first mover on anything. I will say again, I am so excited at the idea of being able to deliver some bacon for the town of Scottsville.

[00:43:21] But if there is an economic development plan, there's a tourism marketing campaign that you want, if there's something you want from the county, I need y'all to be the first members and bring it to us. And we will see what we can do. You asked us, if you increase population, what can we do for you? I'd also like to know what you all are planning and what you can do to tell it yourself, and then you need the same thing for us, or like Mike mentioned about, you know, when I mentioned all the

[00:43:59] vegetarian, that's something I'd be more than happy to take back to my committee, on that committee, I'd be more than happy to take that there, because I think you all have, once again, a lot to offer here. I remember coming down Main Street and they've shown somewhere in my mind where flooding took place.

[00:44:24] That, it blew my mind, frankly. It just blew my mind because the thing that you wanted was that high. That's a historical significance in my opinion. Maybe not yours, but, you know, yeah. But I like to know what you all are contemplating that you would need additional aid or what you can do for yourself also. One thing I will say Supervisor and I, I'll just as you see it further on the agenda since you brought up 5.4 is one that we'll talk about a little bit later

[00:45:01] but that is a very important thing, in fact there probably is no other important act without the county because everything in this downtown area we'll get back to that. There's a problem Okay, well, I'm doing it from a historical tourist point.

[00:45:20] I thought that that was on the agenda. You're going to identify possibly something where I think it is primarily a river town. And it's also a fruit, a historic town, and a river town. So those kind of three things are really drive us.

[00:45:37] We have, well, that's right. The more we help, we have tomorrow, we better move. And to that point, and I guess this is just information for me I'm interested in, but I was down recently when you all had a meeting about the happy ferry, and we're all really sad that the happy ferry's gone now.

[00:46:00] But there was a lot of talk that evening about the park and trying to make the park more robust, and I'm just interested in what has been happening with that conversation. Well, because the park is right there by the park, which is really a great acronym, and I didn't know if you all had an opportunity to talk about anything you might want to be able to do there, or just to get to what he was saying, and it was unfortunate, because that was really wonderful.

[00:46:35] I was about to say, I grew up with that there. Well, I know that, but it's in this area. Yeah, and you all certainly had and an investment in it and whether it's heart and soul or maybe not money but it brought people into the area and so that's why I'm committed and that's the way I'm sure SO I THINK IT'S GOING TO BE A PART OF THE SHORTAGE.

[00:47:07] I THINK IT'S GOING TO BE A PART OF THE HISTORIC TOWN, AND WE DO WANT TO MOVE FORWARD, BUT WE CAN'T GO AT A RATE COUNTY OF ROW POLITICAL. TO GIVE YOU AN EXAMPLE, LOOKING OUTSIDE THE CITY OF SHORTAGE, PANTOCKS, EVERY LITTLE PIECE OF GRASS HAS BEEN MOVED BY SOME TYPE OF BUILDING.

[00:47:29] Y'all got that housing and infrastructure and everything, so I can understand from the outside of Michigan, that stuff coming through there, y'all should be getting quite a bit of money coming in to help keep the county going.

[00:47:45] But coming back to what it's got, though, some of the people here, we have the right holder of the group, because we don't have all the young people coming in. What's happening, I think this county is moving to such a bad nature. People in southern Indian counties cannot really keep up.

[00:48:04] There are people in this area that look at a southern Alabama county and I'm like, I can't afford to live with it. The way they do, that's moving to the next county, where it's cheaper. In general consensus, a lot of people, it's not going to ask for the county, but the southern part of Alabama all, and a lot of people's minds think there's no grief.

[00:48:24] I mean, you take the idea of something different, but the milkweed control has got the biggest amount of people. Scotsfield would have a small amount of people compared to, what, 3,500 to 4,000 people you have milkweed. And sometimes it's not the part of the decision to raise taxes for everything.

[00:48:45] But there are people on the other end of the spectrum, there's nothing to the point that they can't do anything, they've got to leave. So, in Scotsfield, we want to try to go, but sometimes it's going to be hard because we don't have, if y'all have now i'm not saying althamore county has all the money in the world but you know

[00:49:22] your your comment about sasco and that area you really are watching on something but you're not identifying scottsville is a community it's not just a very large community look at the postal code of these for scottsville 24590 you're you're talking about a whole lot of areas down here occupants residents that live in this area but scottsville serves them look at our food line and the demographics of that that they've missed it by miles of the side story we should have built that food line outpaces most of the other food lines in outlaw county okay but look at that

[00:50:00] This town is where you identify with it, and where you could put the nucleus of things to offer this community, but it's a community. It's not just a community. Thank you, George. Let's remember, this is not a public forum session.

[00:50:16] This is a work session for the receiving point here. We're having a limited amount of time, and we're having a gentleman to get through. So, thank you for your comments. Let's hold them to the board supervisor's regular meeting, or our regular meeting eventually good evening i'm dave sungate i'm the deputy executive director of permanent water and sewer um just just for a minute talk a little bit about what we have going on here in scottsville

[00:50:56] you have a water treatment plant on the james river road there is a water tower just north of the water treatment plant and there's a second water tower at the stony point subdivision so we have a water treatment plant and two water storage tanks and of course we have a wastewater treatment plant which is just located across the street here um and we have total capacities of our water and wastewater treatment we're operating about 25 percent of the phone capacity so i'm talking a

[00:51:28] lot about growth and what we have going on here um but the um the water student authority and the joints with our admiral county service authority partners are a position for for us to come here at scottsville delete the next slide please to talk a little bit about our growth and our plans here in scottsville and um in our fiscal year 25 to 29 um cip planning process we have um about 1.6 million dollars in investments there's an emergency generator which we have filed for

[00:52:03] our grant with vm to upgrade our emergency generator and at the scottsville wastewater treatment plant and we have about a 1.5 million dollars worth of upgrades at the wastewater treatment plant so it's on the wastewater side and now on the water side uh we have the water made replacement project about 275 thousand dollars and then we're going to start our first phases of the water treatment plant upgrades so we got about two million dollars at the water treatment plant and then at this year 30 to 34 we're going to spend another nearly 10 million

[00:52:38] dollars at scottsville water treatment plant for a total of 13 20 million dollars here in scottsville Those of us in the area, we do have a solid waste authority, Southern Alabama Convenience Center, which opened up not too long ago.

[00:52:58] Facilities open six days a week, Thursday is the day that we'll close. And there's a list of materials that we recycle there. And then also, I'd be remiss to say we do have a tag bag program there where you can buy $24 for 12 tickets. And then we sell them at various locations, including our IV transfer station, our website.

[00:53:17] And then we sell them at the Green Mountain store and bounce market down here. Sort of short and sweet for y'all, but do you have any other further questions? A couple of things. - First of all, I'm extremely thankful for your convenience center. And I think that's also an example.

[00:53:34] I mean, personally, I like to go down to the place in Charlottesville quite often, but it's an example of a county providing something for people in the start of the county. I want to mention, I'm sure you've seen this, too.

[00:53:51] There's a group of people that are concerned about the watershed of Toadier Creek. What would you say to them? So, in other words, there are an email we just got even today from this organization that's expressed concern about the runoff in the watersheds.

[00:54:08] Is it going to spread on me? No, they're called the Tonyer Creek Watershed Association. So they expressed concern about runoff going into the, so I'm sure you're familiar with that.

[00:54:29] What should you say to that? a facility, a water facility to the size of Scottsville. The EPA changes the regulations based on the size of the facility. And what we have decided along with our partners at the county and Alabama County Service Department is we treat all of our treatment plants, whether it's Scottsville or the Red Hill facility, which has 6,000 gallons per day.

[00:54:52] We test the water the same, no matter if it's one of the bigger facilities up in Charlottesville for our red milk facility on the south side of Florida and so through those sampling programs we've identified and need to upgrade the treatment as the Scottsville water treatment plant and we did that it came up in 2015 we made an investment and we put some additional treatment there in 2029 so as far as what's coming and what what's going on we are collecting samples as we should we are testing our compliance we are aware there are some issues with the runoff we do take the water from totier creek and also from totier creek reservoir our treatment

[00:55:32] plant not only has the uv lights that we put in in 2013 and 2019 but we have granular activated carbon as much as all the other facilities uh in the urban area for adding granular activated carbon to red hill and so well i'm going to take those steps to answer your question no that's helpful i again i bring it to the attention everyone here as we have seen some input from this organization and i think it's good to know that you're taking their concerns and you're addressing them and that you're doing with us you can be pleased to be the water quality

[00:56:07] with housing so thank you for we both that information and i guess those who have concerns Yes, I was right with it, I'm happy. Question? Thank you.

[00:56:24] And then next we'll be from the alcohol. I don't know if you're going to be awesome. Is it the right slide? Welcome to the council. Hi, everyone. I'm John Andrew Soon, and I'm a big working on what kind of circuits are able to come as a team, if you will, to end my 30s.

[00:56:46] He says the executive director, who's fine, and Jeremy Lin, I guess, we have the privilege of working closely with Jeremy Lin, he's the director of engineering. And I really want to thank everybody in both groups. I know those who registered with very many of you last week, supervisors, there was a consent consent.

[00:57:09] and we were looking for needs across the county council to help our system be more tried together more resilient and the supervisors of the county said okay that sounds reasonable and we'll go to a public hearing in jim and we're truly grateful we're grateful to the town council who invited us down last august to speak about the scott's before what i mean to replace the project project and I want to say something about South and in the county county anybody and I'm certain is a customer you don't do it

[00:57:49] South and yeah yeah so let's just go through a few of these slides this is information is still from last August presentation I'll stay till the months go out I have the plans and the environments any questions to anybody anyone who thought it says we want to help with that uh the the next few slides will be a background some highlights of this gospel for what made the placement project some of the challenges we have down here are anticipated schedule with dr quest uh the the line there now the cyan uh

[00:58:28] color there goes from the lower left of the picture the water planted this is done get stop it about and comes on up to where the james river road breaks on toward the food line and comes down orange street and it's uh it's a replacement project we tend to offset the existing water line where it crosses farm fields and then we tend to replace it in exactly the same spot once we get into the harrow time so uh bullet number two uh the mains have been in service for nearly 60 years

[00:59:07] we know that someone saw the 1966 material back in the day gas siren asbestos cement water mains we've had repairs recently replaced water mains since they've they've reached the end of their used to like and they have eventually things have to be replaced the ledger there 7.7 that's a little over half of it rwsa's 13.8 but it'll be a little sooner time than if you will next slide so we uh

[00:59:41] we get different size water mains uh the largest size right from the water plant on up to that break in the line. Be a 12-inch main and it's replacing 8-inch main. The way the bath works on that, that doubles the volume. So that's also helpful when Dave Dunyo mentioned the plant operating at 25 percent capacity.

[01:00:09] It's good to know that you have a volume of water in the pipes available to buy the bucket. We saw some of the news about west california and it's not a fault of design if you have a vibration that you cannot feed back so it's but what you can't do is you can increase the value of the main transmission line so that's going to on the next slide not yet but you'll see one of the benefits in it's um you can enhance fire protection in the way well no there it is second bullet fire flow additional fire hydrant coverage a feature of the project it's not just a water main

[01:00:48] but it's the service lines from the water needs to the meters the meters will be upgraded send radio signals we get very accurate reads on the news we tend to talk a little bit around the office of being in the uh in the water business with a nice pavement on top we do a fair amount of road road restoration so some of the some of the roads that are in fragile shape we've helped me and you don't need to understand some of your throats but they're going to see an improvement in fact when I was visiting

[01:01:26] we took time to show them the deeply eroded section and it led us to reconsider a more more robust restoration because we don't want to turn our house on pirante and feel that we have a new level feel that we have a concern that we build a fair next slide uh some of the challenges uh are um some of the very narrow

[01:02:00] streets lauren street morrisville in particular uh where where we have just very narrow range to work and in those particular locations we have to put the new water banking right where we exist the apartment but what do we do for the customers in the name job we've got temporary service clean water nothing nothing downgraded about it if you feel it's going on it serves the customers that's the new world of our pursuits in these certain areas uh it's going to be difficult to minimize traffic impacts we'll do our best most of the streets and towns are public roads uh v-dop will

[01:02:40] be involved safety detours are unavoidable unavoidable and what i mentioned i meant with a couple down james river road by larvian decision and when i talk to people without construction oh you won't notice it you will notice it construction is noisy it's dusty and it's temporary it moves on by and and then you have an included facility but uh for a while these traffic impacts will be noticeable uh temporary and then the waterway advances and

[01:03:19] So I'm working with the very good people and acquiring easement, so I have a plan set with me.

[01:03:36] If anybody wants to look or take a look, we can look at particular parts and what our needs are. And our principal need is to offset the existing waterfront, makes it safer, simpler, cheaper installation. We can just leave the old, and eventually we'll abandon all that old $50, $60 year old material.

[01:03:57] Right now, we're working on the easements. I hope by the end of the year, Christmas time, to acquire those easements. Just one word on those easements. It takes time to hear from people, to hear their questions. This evening, the colleague got me to visit the resident, what's this all about?

[01:04:20] And then an hour after we met and spoke and went out to the edge of the road, it was like, got it. And so they understand and they're on board. So that's how the easements work. It takes time. Around Christmas, we'll wrap that up next spring.

[01:04:40] We'll advertise. We hope we'll get a lot of other people interested in gardens, competitive bids, and we'll see. Fingers crossed, everything goes well. summer fall 2026 construction starts have got a two-year construction went right at 27 months next line that's it and except i'm here till the lights go out i have my card and i'm over and you got to take it with me if you're there but a woman concerned by her of those suggestions he said when the water lights go down uh that was you but you know which one uh we have businesses

[01:05:20] there and you know i think it really is the thought out and working with the town like if there's a team or you know so the business aren't drastically affected by a shutdown for any length of time maybe doing this first so maybe the town can uh or someone from the town can work with you around that uh schedule right um you mentioned something really important that's the fact that a few of them is just up the street and we don't so here's an important part of meeting with the contractor in advance is the more information that we have

[01:05:58] it's a little hard at this point day of the week that we don't want to this far out but when you have things like in the sovereign occasion that that is we need to leave things and if we don't we'll be a very good part with the town and the businesses as well as we can be.

[01:06:22] These things can move at a certain pace of 265 to 365 a day and hopefully then we move across someone's tribe. I do want to mention one last thing. I thought it had occurred a little bit of an impact and it's important to people feel seen, not slighted, not included.

[01:06:44] We have about, I've circled it on our map, We have about 290 customers to rotate in Scottsville. And so if you kind of do the division there, 7.7 million, it's about $25,000 per customer.

[01:07:01] And it's, and where that money comes from, it comes from directly planning. It comes from, here, this customer base is less than 2% of our customers. 98% of the customers don't, we might say, don't benefit from the Scottsville baseboard dropship.

[01:07:20] But we, someone said that earlier, we're all in it together. And that's the truth. Our customers will move in a month from now. In June, there will be another water-based replacement project. Every customer in the East and the state contributes to these programs.

[01:07:40] And we're going to spend some money down here in Wisconsin. Any questions? I think a lot of, you know, most of the buildings down here are really old. And a lot of times you'll find that the meter doesn't line up with the building for service.

[01:07:57] Is there any possibility during this project that a survey can be made and hit the meter that belongs to that building and some of that building is halfway down the block? Yeah, and break me if I'm wrong here, but when we lay out the service lines to the meters, to the business.

[01:08:22] If you're my business, I'm not going to be on that wall trying to take a roundabout way to get to you. The project installs new meters. So if you're the door to the business and I'm the door meeting, I'm coming at you. It makes sense.

[01:08:38] The industry has had some issues with the service. The building has all the businesses. And it's... The business is over here. It's

[01:09:27] and recognizing how hard it is just because it isn't certainly in my industry for folks to understand all the lives in the water or anything about that information and give you a lot of what I did I'm just wondering is there something that you would like to have a council to help you with as far as information sharing with people or anything that they can do to help you to make AN EASIER PROCESS.

[01:10:01] WELL, I ONLY THANK THE COUNCIL FOR INVITING US LAST SUMMER. THE NEXT THING THE COUNCIL DID WAS THEY GAVE US AN EASEMENT TO GIVE US AN EASEMENT ACROSS THE COUNCIL. I'VE BEEN PUT IN TOUCH WITH A PERSON IN THE COMMUNITY WHO WILL HELP US, TOO.

[01:10:23] HERE WE GO. THE FOLKS IN TOWN KNOW THE FOLKS IN TOWN do the drugs. They have a person who I hope they'll fall and talk to me and look to me as a trustworthy person and it's the exchange of information that helps us have the best outcome. Truly, I will jump in my car and drop the hat.

[01:10:43] I live in Nelson. I'll come in this way to go to the office as easy as any other. But I intend, we all, at the service start, we intend to talk very boxed about them. I'm just trying to figure out the information sharing because sometimes that's so critical What we did do prior to August 19th was we sent a letter with some information, I believe, on some of the more capable folks that you were able to put a QR code in them, take that to your advantage, and you could learn more, and so we have, I think that there's, I think

[01:11:20] I THINK THERE'S A SENSE IN THE COMMUNITY THERE THAT, HEY, THEY'VE GOT THE SEARCH CARE AND I THINK THEY'RE PLANNING SOMETHING. I THINK WHEN WE LOOK AT THE SCHEDULE, THERE'S A LOT OF MONEY FROM THE BUILDING THAT'S GOING TO HEAR FROM SOMEONE ASKING IT.

[01:11:41] I WANT TO HELP THESE WORKERS UNDERSTAND IT. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. GOOD EVENING, NUMBERS OF THE BOARD, MY NAME IS BAN EFFERSON, BARD CHIEF OF ONLINE CAR RESCUE.

[01:12:09] I APPRECIATE THE OPPORTUNITY TO BE HERE WITH YOU TONIGHT TO SHARE AN OVIEW OF THE PLANNED CAR RESCUE SERVICE ENHANCEMENTS FOR SOUTHERN ONLINE. I will tell you at first I thought, wow, what a great turnout to hear about utilities, comprehensive plan, and economic development, but I know better.

[01:12:27] So I'll try to keep this brief, but I really want to walk you through the background of the data that shaped our decisions and the steps we're taking to strengthen the coverage and support for this part of the county. So we go to the next slide. So historically, as you look at this map, fire rescue stations were built by local residents and placed right in the center or very near those communities.

[01:12:50] And we can see that today in places like Earlessville, Crozet, Stony Point, even here in Scottsville. Stations built to serve the people living right around them. I mean, that's how they work. So as the county began to grow, we had to expand this system.

[01:13:06] That meant building new stations to cover growing urban neighborhoods, provide backup support to our rural station. Our fire rescue station is operating as a system. It's a coordinated county-wide system, not standalone units. So each station has a primary coverage area, but when a unit is already committed, the next closest station is our active dispatch to provide support.

[01:13:30] This built-in redundancy is managed through our continued dispatch system at the emergency communication center, which ensures that the backup services are deployed quickly and efficiently. It's really a critical part of our system to maintain consistent coverage, even during high-call demands, like last night, or major emergencies.

[01:13:50] So relative to Southern Alamo, the primary response from Southern Alamo is a Scottsville volunteer fire department referred to as Section 7, and our ACFR Medic units, which are stationed at Station 17, which is a former Scotchville volunteer rescue field. When additional help is needed, backup, this often comes from Station 11 on Monticello, on Monticello, which is on Mill Creek Drive.

[01:14:15] So as you can see on this map behind me, Southern Almar has fewer fire rescue resources compared to other rural parts of the county. And I'll go into that in more detail on why that really matters later in the presentation, but it's important to point that out and keep that in mind. Next slide, please.

[01:14:31] So over the last five years, we've seen some significant and major shifts in how we change our fire rescue system and how it operates. These aren't small adjustments. They've had a real impact on how we staff, respond, and plan for the future.

[01:14:49] In fact, I feel like I'll go before the board on a regular basis to talk about fire rescue, certainly during the budget time. So in addition to that, call life across the county has grown, about 20% grown or gone up. excuse me, about 20% of that same five years ago.

[01:15:07] We believe that this increase is driven by a combination of urban growth and rising both permanent and transient people moving through the area. More people means more cause and more pressure on the system. At the same time, our volunteer numbers have dropped.

[01:15:22] This is not new to us or new to the state. Many of you may have received reports from Vaco recently that outlined these very same challenges. Volunteers are very still a vital part of our system, They're facing more challenges, more training requirements, more calls, more demand at work and at home.

[01:15:41] All that makes it harder for them to commit the time that they once could. So we're focused on supporting our volunteer departments, but we're also recognized the need to strengthen the system with career status. It's about making sure every part of the county has consistent and reliable services, no matter the time of day.

[01:15:59] So to meet these growing demands, the county has hired 97 new fire rescue personnel over the last five years. This is a big part of our budget discussions this past, period. This is a significant investment in public safety, and it's really helping us to build a more stable and responsive system.

[01:16:17] So, go to the next side, please. So, relative to Southern Albemarle, Southern Albemarle particularly ranks higher than other rural areas in the county when it comes to social vulnerability. That means things like income, limited access to transportation, and gaps in health care, All of which can make it harder and for people to respond to and recover from emergency.

[01:16:40] We've also seen a steady rise in call line in this part of the county, which is right in line with what we're seeing system-wide. More frequent calls, which added strain on an already stressed set of resources in the area. And as we discussed, volunteer response continues to be sometimes inconsistent.

[01:16:58] With an increase in personnel and professional demands, it becomes even harder for volunteers to ensure that they're always available to respond. So when additional help is needed in Southern Elmo, as I mentioned before, the closest backup typically comes from Station 11 in Monticello.

[01:17:15] This is over 22 minutes away from the town of Scottsville. But one thing to keep in mind, Station 11 is one of our busiest stations. And sometimes there are times when they're not even available. So the backup has to come further away. So, of course, this can lead to critical delays. There are emergencies like house fires or life-threatening medical calls when every second counts.

[01:17:35] So when you put all this together, greater vulnerability, rising demand, limited volunteer availability, and long backup response times, it really creates a service gap and really increases the overall risk for residents that live in Southern Albemarle. So that really sparked a more closer look to them.

[01:17:54] So if we can go back to the next slide, please. So over the next or over the last five years, we're really starting to see clear signs that Southern Albemarle didn't have the same level of fire rescue coverage as other areas of the county that realization kicked off a broader review of how we could perhaps improve service and build capacity so that all started a little more than five years ago so in february after several years of analysis and planning we moved forward to securing securing funding through two primary sources so in early 2023 we secured

[01:18:30] funding through a fema safer grant application began working through the county budget process to find outstanding services in the area. This is a major step forward and really a turning point to help us put together these plans. So with funding in place in January of 2024, we began hiring and training new personnel.

[01:18:52] In January, a dedicated class of firefighters and medics started a six-month training program to focus on preparing them for assignments at Station 17. Now we're just weeks away from completing this effort. So in June of this year, next month, Station 17 will officially go live with a 24-7 ALS-capable firing.

[01:19:12] So you can go to the next slide, please. So as I mentioned, starting next month, the end of June, Agent 171 at Station 17 will be staffed around the clock with a three-person crew, including one of those, you know, paramedics. This means advanced life support will be available, which is a critical, serious medical emergencies and more complex incidents.

[01:19:36] There's another benefit here. If the primary ambulance is already out on a call, this crew on the engine will be able to cross-staff the second ambulance. This gives us flexibility to keep the EMS transport available in the area and to avoid delays, especially during busy times.

[01:19:52] For instance, it's at least an hour, sometimes an hour and a half, for us to transport in town and come back to the door. So that's a significant gap. So this crew will be able to cross-staff that second ambulance. So, with the fire engine of Station 17, working alongside the Scottsville volunteer target farmer, we'll be able to, you know, get more trained personnel to emergencies much faster, especially for structured fires, vehicle crashes, and other high-risk incidents.

[01:20:23] This initiative is a side of support, not to replace our volunteer partners by any career staffing that augments overall coverage and strengthens our system. We're committed to working hand-in-hand with our volunteers to the joint dispatching, shared training, and coordinated planning.

[01:20:38] That kind of collaboration is what ensures smooth operations and high-quality service is possible. So in closing, I believe these improvements will be a big benefit to Southern Alabama.

[01:20:55] You know, with its unique challenges that I mentioned before, I think this helps to close that gap. It's a big step forward for us all, and we're committed to continually working with our volunteer partners as this happens. Many of you on the board, we have been here before in many other cases where we've had to put careers there.

[01:21:14] One comes to mind is when we put daytime staff in the Crozet right around the corner at Western Elmar West. And they were very concerned about how that may impact their operation. And I can say their chief at Western Elmar is one of the strong-headed people I've ever met.

[01:21:30] But we sat down and we worked through it. And I can say today, while it's not perfect, it's a much better system for Crozet. So I think we can apply the same logic in this case. um and i'm willing to do that so i'm happy to answer any questions you hold okay could you address any problems you may have with uh retention we hear about hiring and they go through a

[01:21:58] really painful rent and of course the salaries and benefits um for withdrawal and and community service uh withdrawing people um but if you're retaining that's great are they headed down the road in right now um no we are retaining the brain is around eight percent um i would say the majority of people who leave the service they don't go to another department they go to a different career

[01:22:35] you know several years ago we started a new program which we and our people know it's there so we give them all the training that they may need and some people realize during that process that the fire service is not for them it's just the name internal family um so a lot of us folks decide to fill which we give up for a year but we only keep it close to i'll never work closely with our hr department to make sure that we're you know doing it as well we can entertain that because we've got such a good investment in those folks thank you thank you

[01:23:19] One representative that will speak. I'll be at next month. All right. Before we get into the session on what we have here, we'll turn off here.

[01:23:37] There was a number of our volunteers here at Lunds. I know that when we were here, we wanted to hear what the Chief of Jefferson had to say. But also, I want to thank all of them. Any of you that are here this evening, you haven't seen the river, people are safe and so many people out here, they're all like learning to talk, some of them have them all day, there's no one in the past tonight, keep the water out of town.

[01:24:09] We've got a lot of dedicated and they're compounded training and they're a great asset in the town of Stocksville. And hoping that nothing changes, the chief looks and said they go and work with volunteers.

[01:24:28] We would like to make sure our volunteers stay in existence for as long as possible. Well, Mr. Jim Carr in the back there, he's been 11th superintendent, so when we start discussing the 11th year in a minute, he can answer any specifically, but he's the expert on that.

[01:24:49] But again, on behalf of the town, I just want to thank all the volunteers. My first three or four years here, I ran the box. I don't know if it's not too busy to do it, but these guys, some of them have day jobs, they stay up on a pipe, they work, they work, they work, they work, they work.

[01:25:06] the day, they get called out, seems to get home to eat dinner, and they're going in. So, they're dedicated, they're highly training, they're motivated, and we're just really happy to have some volunteer fire department, as one of the town's chief assets.

[01:25:26] Thank you. Well, I have one thing to that, and that is, I expect and hope that your experience here will be the same as it is doing for today, but after 113 years.

[01:25:43] because they volunteer parties have asked for daytime staff and everybody was a little worried but i'll tell you the dance management and the staff that who were very carefully chosen to man that station and work especially well with the volunteers who have stayed totally engaged and have a very large young crew as well has really made it for a very successful operation so i wish you all the best and then the appremontal county i mean we we love volunteers frankly it saves us a ton of money so

[01:26:24] and they do an outstanding job this is a good job and to encourage that um but then you have to find volunteer support that we have to augment that but let me tell you if we can get uh more and more that would save my plan so i think uh hopefully i speak for the rest of the board that We are extremely grateful, not only of our career staff, but all of our volunteers, everywhere.

[01:26:55] All right, I'll be here. You can open it up for me. Yes, I want to introduce our levee superintendent at 10-4. I've got a pretty much something you said before I get started, because it makes it all different and it makes this whole thing totally different dynamic.

[01:27:32] for the same as a manpower for a fire engine they don't run a rescue squad westerns around the corner so they're totally different what's happening here isn't the same that i'll be coming all right um concerning the levy construction began in the levy in 1985 it was completed and dedicated in 1987.

[01:27:54] agreement was made then with the fire department to handle emergency operations the rescue squad handled evacuations and the police department provided traffic assistance and security the Levy is now almost 40 years old. As with anything with age, preventative maintenance increases both in need and expense. For the past 38 years, we have been inspected by the Corps of Engineers.

[01:28:20] The whole Corps of Engineers have inspected the levee system to ensure that the town maintains levees to their standards. Geothermal, electrical, structural, hydraulic, mechanical, system, and civil engineers all engulf the levee once a year to inspect all aspects of it. The town has developed an excellent work in relationship with the Corps and in fact this morning i was on the phone with on dealing with the flooding event that we are experiencing today since hurricane petrina four uses a pass fail system if a jurisdiction were to fail the board of engineers

[01:28:59] wipes their hands clean and no longer accepts any responsibility for that project that that would impact all aspects of the levy from readiness to recovery the scottsville town Council uses their budgetary planning process to maintain our list the town is currently working on replacing the backup generator within the budget restrictions however at this 40-year mark it is necessary to seek the help of more supervisors to assist with larger expenses over the large over the last

[01:29:37] several inspections has been noted the deterioration of the concrete on flood bulbs pump house and discharge structure 40 years of sun rain and snow have had an impact on the integrity of the concrete in the form of gaskets and scaldum the town is currently working on estimates for this concrete ceiling project first price we've gotten the repairing seal was 51 000 and not including the discharge structure the town is also consulting with

[01:30:14] richmond public works to obtain another price on this work hopefully it leads us down a better rate so tonight i just want to ask the board of supervisors to financially be more responsible for the legend in the town it protects because we're going to need it in the years to come now we're burning emergency operations uh chief cursley will address how that works good evening i'm timmy cursley fire chief of schedule fires um just to add on to what

[01:30:51] statute card saying we've been operating the levy now for 40 years here in the town we've seen it come a long ways and the volunteers have manned every single hour that's up front and so as you've heard tonight there's a lot of requests from the board for assistance in the levy and we're asking again that this is a a priority on your on your agendas in the coming years that we continue to support the town with the levy and what we do in regards to the operation and manning the pump house just since 3 30 this morning when everybody was at home asleep and

[01:31:29] safe and sound and not having to worry about any flooding we had already pumped five million gallons of water and had 15 and a half hours of staffing at the pump house the fd continues as we speak and at the meeting tonight to continue to pump and we'll do so through the middle of the night maybe into the mar depending on when the river reaches a level of 13 feet and the town is able to empty its own water another example of the operation that goes on in february 16th of this year spfd began bumping operations at 1 a.m operations continued around the clock for 66 and a half

[01:32:05] hours all manned by volunteers all manned by the volunteer fire department while continuing to run calls and service the area and continuing to answer our response times. We continuously do this in emergency operations. We pump 47.4 million gallons of water out of the town of Scottsville to keep it safe, keep Mint Creek from flooding inside out, keeping the residents safe and protecting the river from coming inside of Tampa. The town without a levee or the FD would be underwater and we would look like some of the other towns along the river river crested that

[01:32:44] day at 21.83 feet that is enough to put it out here in the streets and if you do the history and walk through the town you'll see the mark from the past flood before the levy was in place 66 and a half hours of staffing equals 16 ftes which are fire departments that would have to be hired by the county to do eight hour shifts of two people per shift to hire those 16 and acfr our salary and benefits training, we're talking $100,000 per $1.6 million that the town gets free every year from the I do wish that and we will talk next week in the public

[01:33:23] forum about the negative impacts of what's going on at the street and if they were going to build a pay station that helps Southern Albemarle, it would have gone further out than a half a mile from the station that's already serving this area. Thank you for your time.

[01:33:46] Yeah, so I think i've started to discuss scottsville levy is incredibly important only been down here for years the primary things that was explained in the first historical thing to ask towns um and i've i've started to discuss with county staff also and i've stressed with the mayor and council members and vice mayor um i come from a non-profit background the most important thing is

[01:34:21] always to appreciate in the volunteer group um the first thing i always got told is you want to make sure they're like a volunteer advantage the only concern that is coming through the dam and i'll express it as you're down from the street is that any shifts in in the uh in the service that our our volunteer fire department can provide negatively affect their enthusiasm and then negatively affect the impact of the amazing efforts that we can share with our lady.

[01:34:54] I, as emergency manager now, do not do it without a volunteer fire department. So as I kind of transition out of this, it's one of those lingering thoughts that I've had to share. I hope that somebody who's been a long time resident of the town that when graduated from Lester, that there's an opportunity here to collaborate and to listen to the Scottsville community, so I really want you guys to just please take care of your volunteers, very important.

[01:35:29] And then, as always, it's appreciative for the council to have a discussion with the supervisor crew that a few months ago um there's a large outsized economic base that we have here um sometimes i know children know this but it ends up having the community members advocating um i've seen that before and really successful development down here to put my predecessor um but there's an opportunity here to collaborate with the town especially continued previously mou that has been shared around and i've discussed with county staff before

[01:36:07] um that is a real uh large assistance for our levy superintendent and the maintenance of our staff so i hope that you know that the town council and the board's supervisors down the way could open up discussions about um we all know keeping on the trends are making it important for our work to do with staff and as leaders of our community but i don't know if we could add on that levy support that day in to day out but we make it much more interesting that i would like um us all feel a little bit more sacred um it's kind of pointed that tonight we have a lot of rain

[01:36:47] coming down and as i said we're up last night and then came down on the phone so as long as that stays on there javier just a comment um just someone on behalf first of all kind of give me I mean, what you shared, and as you know, we'll see when you say more about Charlottesville.

[01:37:09] But if you could mention a number or two just so that people could know what we're talking about. So the town of Scottsville has an amount that we have gotten for levy assistance from the county of the past, and the town is seeking an increase in that.

[01:37:27] And you could throw a few numbers out there. It would be helpful for people to know what we're talking about. SO THE TWO BODIES COULD FLIP THROUGH THE STAFF REPORT COUNTY MINISTER WAS NICE ENOUGH TO SHARE THE BODIES. FOR THE SECOND PATH, THE SECOND FROM LAST PAGE, A LITTLE BIT OF BACKGROUND, THE AGREEMENT THAT COMES TO THE AGREEMENT, WE HAVE CONDITIONS THAT WE AGREE TO GO, INTERNECTS

[01:38:01] AGAINST, CAN'T REMEMBER OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD, MAYBE CONSUMER GOODS INVEST, ESSENTIALLY IT ENDS UP BEING ABOUT AN ENFLATIONARY RESPONSE. RIGHT NOW THE REVENUE THAT WILL SHOW UP IN THE The budget that you don't have to get that to work not is about $22,000.

[01:38:20] We run a, with Tim Carr, we're still a department for levy-mans that's not graduating. That does not include a lot of volunteer time that was provided, a lot of charitable efforts that people may have included, but it's primarily focused on that day in, day out, and as assessed by the diligent annual reviews we have to give it inspections, not only on our levee, but also the really critical dam behind this.

[01:38:57] You're sitting in a downtown mall with a high-end dam, so it requires every year inspection. other year one night so we're hyper aware here of how important the name is about our dnn letting system is for the time first time yeah um that's a very quick clarifying question clarifying question i think in the mou that it stipulates that the town as a portion of the

[01:39:32] annual contribution maintains a capital a capital reserve fund can you give it a little sense what that capital looks like right now. It sounds like a lot of people are hearing are specifically capital. - Yes, so I came in and I had discussed with council earlier, so we have Elgin, essentially the money market for local municipalities.

[01:39:59] We put a reserve there of 10,000 and then the budget of this would include 2,000. It's part of the commitment every year we should be including it to that. And then year over year we end up using this funding we have to make sure that annually they're able to provide access.

[01:40:21] So now I comment that this is counsel has heard this from me, and I think one or two members of the board have heard this. But I'm going to talk very briefly about our taxes as an analogy. So something that has been very, a high point of concern that staff has brought to our attention during this budget cycle is the burden on residents for taxes has gone up steadily for factors that are partly upside down.

[01:40:56] The county is becoming more expensive, becoming more populous, it's creating more services, the services are becoming more expensive, all that stuff. But the big thing is the percentage of our taxes that we get from our residents, from real property banks has gone up faster than the contributions we get from the state, the contributions we get from the banks, and the rate at which our commercial has grown.

[01:41:21] All of those things are also growing, but much slower. So look at our competition of different taxes, and all of our funds used to be kind of close to the middle, and slowly residential has taken up, residential, like real estate, different from residents have gone up and state contributions federal contributions everything else has gone down even though it's increasing even though it's increasing we get so much less from our commercial these other things which makes a burden on citizen i say that in part because i know both an audience are concerned about taxes but also in part because i want to

[01:41:58] analyze as to what we're looking at which is we have a contribution of the name of scouting leverage and it is indexed to increase and their needs are increasing much faster than that because it does That's not, it contemplates capital, but like in the most notional way possible, in a way that I don't think actually grapples with what it means to be prepared for capital investments.

[01:42:20] So they've been investing since 2018, $2,000 of the money we give them every year. That's not, I was expecting a much larger number when you were talking to me about capital concerns, and I was prepared to have a hard, hard push right here.

[01:42:36] But $51,000 is a very reasonable, in the scale of both, you know, county and public businesses, that's a very reasonable capital expense. But the way that I know it's been structured just is a 7 to 10 in the lab. I think that's really clear.

[01:42:52] I raised this to the board because this is something we're under contract. We don't have to do more than $17,000 index. But I would say, to me, it's very clear to see how the town is in the same position. It's anger that we have to say about their contributions and education, anger that I have a defense about their contributions to health and social services.

[01:43:18] I think Scott's vote is very, very frustrated with us for the same reasons. And I do think it is worth, in this coming budget cycle, to better account who's got the capital needs that have grown. And that is not .

[01:43:33] Because right now, the capital is on the hook the material assets that are right and i think we could do more to help with that i don't mean to say that too reductively but these are small numbers they've missed and i appreciate that right that's the point right like i feel like we could do something that's deeply impactful with the community of scott and helping your own financial plan and i don't know

[01:44:10] that it has to be that hard of service and so to me that seems like an easy question but as i think a broader conversation we have with cfos office on our side the county attorney's office on our side about what that would be but i would ask the board to kind of support and potentially moving

[01:44:30] I THINK WE WOULD ALL WANT MORE INFORMATION.

[01:44:53] AND MAYBE ANY OTHER IDEAS TO EXCIT. THANK YOU. - I think we're going to next up in Randolph, and I don't think we're trying to attack with the direction of planning, as well as what we've been able to do.

[01:45:15] - Nothing else on the printed agenda tonight, Mr. Chair. I think from the staff perspective, we would say that we really appreciate the working relationship with the town. We really appreciate the partnerships.

[01:45:31] We've had a nice representation from the department here tonight. We'll follow up. follow up with the town administrator and then follow up with our board and uh see if there's anything after tonight that we owe the town that we need to do in the uh town and i'm happy for if there's any final questions tonight we'll do all we can to take questions well one of the suggestions

[01:46:02] we support our roads and uh especially we have a west village area there are no sidewalks so our roads are our sidewalks and we have elderly and we have people with strollers and uh you know we got potholes and and uh you know pumps and things like that so you i don't know when's the last time but the roads those three major roads in the west village that they've done that they all need work and uh you know i know handicapped people and i know people walk the streets you know one street

[01:46:39] like a street has no sidewalks at all and the others have half sidewalks so you know our roads are sidewalks and we don't they're 18th century roads and we can't uh it'd be hard to widen them but you know i i think that needs to be a priority for rida and important and we you know advocated but it would be good if alan all could advocate for that too those those particularly those rules you know route twice they're great you know they just did that and some of the other roads with and then west village area there they almost goes in and they're going to be torn up because they're going to develop that there so anyway that's what i'd like to have a table so yeah it's just a quick

[01:47:17] question so they're going to be torn up because of the development well they will be and also what they're going to do the uh the pipes too but maybe that's all but uh but the development the developments are already already and i'm hoping that they celebrate things but uh but they'll be just one in and out of there and they're already uh so we don't have a paving schedule very often for all the roads and very often i have people in my urban grade area that will say to me our roads are in terrible we need to pay and i'll call vdot and they'll say oh yes that's on our paving

[01:47:52] scheduled for this have you all done that or i guess that's my first thought is to find out from d dot and that's a pretty simple thing to do is to make a phone call to and very often i find that yes in fact they're going to be made next year or in six months or you know but they have that schedule we have to pay for the power here um the one thing we have is knowing the same power than every citizen has which is if there's specific things that are broken like power

[01:48:28] lying down in the road that's an example um significant potholes um there's been complaints about going down um having significant potholes after several of the storm events and i can point something specific just like any citizen you can call but they can also call me and then i can call they fix it and sometimes if you're looking at a small amount of tech in a row and you obviously say oh it's awful but it's like a one block tech in a row that you're concerned about being paid actually right so that is my super under attack given those subjects

[01:49:06] i can tell you the three roads and they can tell you problems with their own payment schedule And the fact that there's no sidewalks, I think, bring it up, you know, that is, right away and very expensive.

[01:49:25] One more comment I would like to say, and this goes back to Mr. Carr and a couple of comments that have been made already. I know you talked about the levee, but as we sadly recall an event in county just in most recent rain, One of the things, those of you who are unfamiliar with the river, it's a very powerful thing when the water is high.

[01:49:49] In fact, that number that our fire chief mentioned when it was over 21 feet, that's very high. And there's an unpredictable nature to the way that weather is, which we all know.

[01:50:04] But there's a constant, you might say, need that is always here in town. That wall that was put up, and as you mentioned, supervisor, there have been many drugs that have destroyed this town, and it's happened many times, and the town is not immune to that future.

[01:50:28] And so there's a sense where we as a town, not only bear the way of the protection of all the residents, all the tax base that's here in Scottsville, but at the same time, the infrastructure of the pumps themselves and all the pieces that go into what's behind the dam on the Scottsville Lake and then connected to the James River itself.

[01:50:58] it's something that on one hand that letter of understanding is it's important for us but the issue of that levy is do or die with the town you know in other words so so i think what i would have you think about that is not just a small amount that it may be but it's a do or die issue this town i haven't been married into a family from louisiana and my brother-in-law lived for fund but they were deeply impacted by Katrina living in New Orleans and you see what happens

[01:51:34] when infrastructure is not maintained and the things that happened there and I will say as a pound we've done the best we can but we've struggled with the need of the finances we try to upgrade and also simply maintain again anything that you can do as not just going into next year this is long term you know we we need your help next year five years from now or ten years from now and i think anybody who's been on the river will appreciate that the unpredictable nature of it and there's anyways thank you for taking the time to think about it but i don't think we're

[01:52:13] going to do with that part of how we live with it all the time thank you thank you all thank you and with that i'm going to adjourn the helpable supervisor's meeting uh our next meeting will be return to the end 21st one five one day i'm aware of the point opportunity for the public that was a pretty good page in the city i posted on the website on the website on the other side of the panel and for participation we will include the opportunity And I will just say

[01:52:53] Council We'll be having a meeting Sunday night, 7 o'clock We'll be talking about the We have a little

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