Coraggio Consulting
Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors Meeting - June 25, 2025, Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Date: Wednesday, June 25, 2025
Place: Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 5h 31m (video)
Official meeting video (CivicClerk): https://chesterfieldcova.portal.civicclerk.com/event/1232/media
Official agenda (CivicClerk): https://chesterfieldcova.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=3600,plainText=false)
Official minutes (CivicClerk): https://chesterfieldcova.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=3618,plainText=false)

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 2026-10-24. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:02:03] Good afternoon and welcome to the afternoon session of the June 25th Board of Supervisors meeting. Madam Clerk. Mr. Chair, the first item on the agenda is approval of minutes for the May 28th Board of Supervisors meeting and the June 18th Poway Parkway public meeting. Motion approved.

[00:02:20] Second. All in favor? Aye. Item two, request to postpone agenda items and additions, deletions, or changes in the order of presentation. Staff has no requests. Item three, everyday excellence, Dr. Casey. Good evening everyone in the audience and for those that are watching on television today and or listening in, we start every board meeting with just a recognition of those that are on our front lines serving the citizens of Chesapeakeel County every day. We're really serving their fellow employees so that they can best serve the citizens every day. So today is a great example of really both of that because what I have behind me are some of the most talented trades people,

[00:02:58] if you will, in general services. There's many people in businesses, you know, our size or even larger, that basically contract everything out. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's just that there's processes you have to go through and expenses incurred. But we keep this force behind me busy, busy enough that, again, they are able to do things that we would otherwise have to pay outsiders a premium to do. And they do it with care and attention, and they do it with materials that they fix and find and recycle as best they can.

[00:03:30] I was initially worried because I called about a paper towel dispenser being out, and I was like, I thought all of them were going to show up to fix it. But it is fixed, whoever did that, but thank you. But having said that, I'm going to turn it over to John Neal, who is the Director of General Services, to do the appropriate recognition of everyday excellence.

[00:04:12] Thank you, Dr. Casey, members of the board. It's my honor to be here today with this group of wonderful individuals that makes my job a whole lot easier so I just want to do some quick introductions and then we'll get into a little bit of some of the projects that they've been working on for the past year or so Mark West, Michael Herring, Ed Humphreys, Joanne, I didn't see Joanne, Joanne, okay, Daniel Coates,

[00:04:52] Paul Redd, Rodolfo Vega, Austin Ball, Andrew Anderson, Adam Prather, Robert Watson, Bruce Perkinson, Cindy Loshgriff, Jason Somerville, Earl Kirby, Pete Troxell, and in the back we have Sam Hayes and Craig Willingham. So as Dr. Casey mentioned, we have a talented staff that does a lot of work in-house that would normally in other locations would be done by contractors. So just want to talk a little bit about some of the projects that they've done. You've seen some of their work, you've seen the end product of some of their work, and I'll sum it up with what that

[00:05:31] cost savings was by doing it in-house. So sports visitation and entertainment, we converted the internal auditor space in the one-story park, painting the walls, refresh the space, gave sports visitors and visitation and entertainment a place to land, but we also relocated the audit team to the fifth floor and they have a shared space that they're using, again just trying to maximize the efficient use of our spaces and get the right people in the right place so that they can do their job. The audit team, we replaced the carpet, did some working on the walls, just

[00:06:09] cleaned up the space, gave them a shared workspace where they can come in and schedule if they need to use the space for meetings. But with them working remotely primarily, they did not need, they elected not to have a full office space. We did some work with IST and planning for the geospatial services team. We relocated the team from the IST to the second floor of the community development building that was a vacant space that wasn't being used so that work involved wall demolition replacing the carpet this team here did that and also with the furnishings that's that was a coordinated effort with

[00:06:48] capital projects and with buildings and grounds so very proud of those two divisions working together on that particular project we converted the LPC space in the basement and created individual offices and provided a secondary entrance for that group down there. We also converted a former attorney's office on 9910, it's the corner building, the old corner office, made that into a workspace for the sheriff's office. So we can convert an individual attorney offices into more of a meeting space and also replace the flooring, new

[00:07:26] lighting, added a card reader system, just really refresh the place from a 1980 style building into a modern-day workplace and then constituent services we create a couple office spaces for them here on the fifth floor and the Commissioner of Revenue work as well we repainted the walls just freshen up their space open up their area where they can have the service counters and it not look as closed as it was before so all total our crews perform this work for about two hundred two hundred fifty thousand dollars for equipment and

[00:08:02] materials. Now if this work had been contracted out, we're probably talking about $450,000-$500,000 on the open market for light renovations. So extremely proud of the work that they're doing and also that the quality of work that they're doing. They're providing excellent quality and excellent services for our employees so that they have a great place to work. And I'm extremely proud of y'all and appreciate your effort and thank you for being here today.

[00:08:28] Y'all have any comments?

[00:08:46] Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to say thank you. I was a county employee for a long time, and I'm not sure how many of our other employees say thank you for everything that you do.

[00:09:06] Sometimes people, unfortunately, take people for granted and just think that all this stuff gets done on its own or by just some magic wand it gets done. But all of the work that you do is what allows for everybody else to do their job as well.

[00:09:24] And, John, unfortunately, the way you phrased that, they're all going to want to raise now because you're not paying them enough. Not sure if you're aware of that, but thank you very much for everything you do every day. I know that, again, sometimes we don't say it enough or some of our other people who benefit from all of your work don't say it enough.

[00:09:44] And thank you for bringing everybody here today. And we're glad that we could get you out of the heat for at least an hour. Thank you very much. i i echo everything that kevin said but also i was asking why don't we have a bottle filler on our bubbler i'm sorry our water fountain i'm from wisconsin that's a bubbler thing sorry but i came in last month and there was one in there and i was so excited so thank you so much for replacing our water fountain with a water bottle filler uh the ladies are just like we're

[00:10:18] going to complain to you about things from now on so that we get stuff done i was just kind of curious just by a show of hands who's been here five years or longer with chesterfield 10 years or longer you know you guys it's one of the things i think that really makes y'all work is that when you're here for a long time you guys kind of feel that after a while you can read each other's minds like you're able to predict it and that's how a team works when when folks have been together for an extended period of time so thank you for being here at chesterfield and uh everything

[00:10:56] that you do it's just deeply appreciated joe just reminded me of something else that you did which I hope that people take the time to take a look at, you know, installing those lights permanent on the law enforcement officer's memorials. They look fantastic.

[00:11:13] I was part of the committee that actually designed our law enforcement officer's memorial for the police department side. And there were lights that were supposed to be part of it in the beginning, and they were never put in. And I really appreciate the work that you did. I think it really finishes it off, and it really, I'm hopeful that the community will get to come out and take a look at that.

[00:11:32] We hope we never have to add any more names, but it really looks better today because of what you did. So thank you. Y'all are quite humble, too. When your name was called, you didn't even flinch. We couldn't tell which one was which. So it shows me that you like to just get your work done and stay out of the limelight.

[00:11:52] So we'll let you get back to work. Thank you.

[00:12:05] Item four, work sessions.

[00:12:23] A, environmental stewardship update. Mr. Bowles. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.

[00:12:52] Dr. Casey, as you might remember, Last month, we had a presentation on the update to chapter nine of the comprehensive plan, talking about environmental stewardship efforts. So as a continuation this month, we have some additional content.

[00:13:11] Before I get started though, I wanna introduce a few folks that are with us today. Gregory Powers and Avis Bennett with James River Soil and Water District. Thank you for being here.

[00:13:27] believe Callie Moyers with the district is also here. Thank you Howard Nestor. I saw Howard. There's Howard, president of Chesterfield Farm Bureau. Thank you Howard. Kim Hines with CVWMA and I'm sure I'm missing some folks so if the presenters will fill in any gaps I'd appreciate it. But today we've got several presenters for you. Morris White with Cooperative Extension. Breonna

[00:13:59] mooring again from james river soil and water diaz tompkins with uh the farm bureau will be talking about the young farmers program and then john neal will will fill in it in the end with some discussion about some new programming so without further ado i'm going to step aside and let them get started morris will be going first and then brianna diaz and john thank you all right

[00:14:35] Good afternoon. I'm excited to be here today to tell you more about what's happening with Virginia Cooperative Extension here in Chesterfield. I am Morris White. I am the Northeast District Director. So I'm covering from Chesterfield over to Matthews County up to Loudoun.

[00:14:53] That's about 25 counties that I represent, but I'm really excited about Chesterfield because this is where I live. So it gives me an opportunity as well to serve as the interim unit coordinator as we go through some changes. This has allowed me an opportunity to come into the office at least about once a week to make sure that everything is going well as we go through some changes that we've had put in place to make sure that it doesn't impact the community, but behind the scenes that we're able to operate a little bit more efficiently.

[00:15:22] So behind me, we have some special guests with us as well to help make it happen. I always say this is where the magic happens. We have some of our volunteers, our extension master gardeners, And we also have our agricultural and extension, natural resources extension agent, Sarah Siegfried, with us today as well.

[00:15:40] So I'm glad to have our team with us. And first, I want to say thank you for your support at Chesterfield County. Thank you for the support that you all provide us to be able to do the work that we do on a daily basis. It has been an awesome partnership working with Parks and Recreation. And I think you'll be able to see that today as I share more information about what's taking place with Cooperative Extension.

[00:16:01] Give me a little background history. We are a partnership between the two land-grant universities here in the state of Virginia, Virginia State University and Virginia Tech. And we work with the local governments to provide Virginia Cooperative Extension. And that's why I'm working with those 25 different counties as the Northeast District Director.

[00:16:21] And some of the programs that we offer, we offer programming in the areas of agriculture, family and consumer sciences, community viability, and 4-H youth development. Most people know about our 4-H program, but we're covering all these program areas as we're working with different people throughout different communities across the country.

[00:16:42] So in Chesterfield, this is our new organizational chart of what's happening in Chesterfield County. I will tell you that the gold stars mean that there are new employees. So we have three new employees on our team, and they are, we have Sylvia Lovelace, who's our new administrative fiscal assistant.

[00:16:58] So as you walk into our extension office, she will be there to greet you. We're really excited to have her on our team. Awesome new employee that we just recruited. Excited to have her on our team. Also, we have a new volunteer coordinator, Danny Lovegood, who works with all of our volunteers.

[00:17:14] Our Master Gardeners happen to be our largest volunteer base, but we still have like 4-H volunteers, Master Naturalists, and different volunteers that just help out in general with the programming that we do. And then last but not least, we just recently hired a 4-H extension agent by the name of Chandler Burwell.

[00:17:33] And Chandler is actually at Virginia Tech this week at Virginia Tech's 4-H Congress. So I'm going to go ahead first and tell you a little bit about our extension master gardeners and the work that they do and tell you what their 2024 look like. They are awesome when it comes to volunteer service.

[00:17:50] 55 volunteers contributed 13,000 hours of service, which equaled about $461,693 in value. And that's based on Virginia's volunteer rate. So we have a rate that we use to say, hey, if they were an employee, this is what we will pay them to help us get those rates.

[00:18:10] And also, this was equivalent to seven full-time staff members. I'm always getting asked questions like, how could you all impact 60,000 people with a staff of four or five? But it's the volunteers and our trainer-trainer program and format that we have where we're able to expand and reach more people.

[00:18:29] Also, with a community reach in education, 708 public horticulture inquiries were answered. That's a 21% increase for this year. Lots of people are calling into the office, and they're speaking to our master gardeners during the day. As Sierra and our extension agents may be out at workshops, conferences, learning new things, or helping our citizens, We have our volunteers that are there as well.

[00:18:51] They're answering the questions of, hey, what's going on with my plants? What's this insect in my yard that I just found? And they provide that through the help desk that we have in our office. And also, if you were to stop by, you can still also ask them questions as well. Also, with their environmental and public space stewardship, as you approach our office, you'll notice that we have a demonstration garden right to the side of our office.

[00:19:15] They maintain that demonstration garden. And it's exciting because you can go out there and learn about our native plants to the area, which you can take back to your house and your community. So it's really an awesome site. They manage our beehive, our chicken coop, composting station, and rain burrows.

[00:19:31] And to be honest, I told you I live here. This has become a, hey, let me show you what I do. As people come visit me, we drive up here on Saturday and Sunday, and we look at the Chucksville Extension Office. They also have a youth garden, library gardens, and veterans outreach garden that we have at the office which has been very beneficial this year we have 25 new master gardeners so every year we have a new class this is a college level course worth three credits so they're going through an extensive course to be able to help serve and provide knowledge to people as they come into the office to ask these questions we've leveraged our partnerships

[00:20:08] one of the 66 000 project and landscape improvements with parks and recreation And we collaborate with Farm Bureau, James River Soil and Water Conservation District, Central Library, and many more others as we partner to make this work. And so also every Hour of Extension staff supports 89 hours of volunteer service, which is why it's important that we have that volunteer coordinator who's able to work with all the different volunteers, sign them up for different projects, and also work with the partnerships that we have in place.

[00:20:39] So at this time, I want to say thank you to the Master Gardeners who are behind me and the work that they do. And they're just doing a phenomenal job. So thank you for being here and thank you. I also want to tell you a little bit about our 4-H program. So thankfully, it was not this week, but last week we were at 4-H camp.

[00:20:58] We had storms, but we were at 4-H camp. And I always say as well, this is where the magic of 4-H happens. It's really exciting. We had the opportunity to take over 140 campers from Chesterfield to 4-H camp. Shesterfield camps alone. Most other localities are camping with two or three people to make that number of 140, where it's awesome that we're able to take that group to camp and give them the experience of 4-H camp. Well, this year was something that was a little different. We were able to provide scholarships, 15 scholarships, the first time 4-Hers going to 4-H camp to experience

[00:21:35] 4-H camp. And this was made possible through partnerships and collaborations. So one partnership to happen was with Stuart Broth with Parks and Recreation Commission in partnership with CFIT Community. And multiple Parks and Rec Commissioners members donated personal donations to make this happen. They were able to provide two charter buses where we had buses to take the youth to 4-H camp, which this was a big, it was a big help to get them there. It was exciting. I ran check-in as they came in, checked in bus one, and they would come up and check-in. They were just getting So excited. We're riding to Janestown. One of the kids said, Mr. White, have you ever been to 4-H camp?

[00:22:14] I mean, they were just so excited to get there and experience going to 4-H camp for the week. We had the opportunity as well, as you see in the bottom picture to the left, Marley and our team here with Parks and Recreation and some of our supporters to actually go down and experience camp for a half a day.

[00:22:31] And so that was really exciting to see exactly what was happening and where these funds went to actually go support. At the top right-hand corner, you will see a picture with someone with a hat on, and that is our new 4-H agent that we just hired, Chandler. And so Chandler was a Parks and Recreation employee who came over to work with us in 4-H at Virginia Cooperative Extension, so we're excited to have her.

[00:22:54] And the other picture is lunchtime with 140 youth, their first day checking in, first lunch as they arrive to 4-H camp, starting to make new friends. So again, I just want to say thank you to Parks and Recreation for your partnership and support.

[00:23:10] I do have a token today that I want to give you to say thank you, to show our appreciation to you. And so, Neil and Marley, if you would come forward.

[00:23:31] Thank you to the board for supporting us to allow the support through them.

[00:23:52] And then the initiative that the Park Commission championed to provide those scholarships was tremendous. So we look forward to even a better outcome next year in terms of cambership. So thank you. I just want to say how proud I am of my prac person, Stuart Broth, who is a very, you never know that he's 85 years old.

[00:24:22] Yeah, yeah. And he is just an amazing, wonderful person and took this on the getting donations and sleeping bags. And it's awesome that those kids were able to go and experience that. So thank you.

[00:25:00] All right, are we ready? Let me move it closer. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Brianna Mooring. I'm the district manager with the James River Soil and Water Conservation District. Thank you guys so much for having us here today. to speak with you. I'm really excited to share the conservation work we've been doing here in Chesterfield County. I will be moving this. All right. So there we go. Okay. So how do we support clean water in Chesterfield? As more roads, parking lots, and buildings pop up where forest and fields used to be, rain doesn't really have anywhere to soak into the ground. And so instead

[00:25:37] it's running off these surfaces, collecting oil, trash, dirt, and it's going straight into our local rivers and streams. This kind of pollution is called non-point source pollution. Our programs focus on protecting and improving local water quality by tackling that non-point source pollution and we help the community implement conservation practices. So these are some of the examples of non-point source pollution we find. I'll give you just a little bit of history about who we are and how we operate. Soil and water conservation districts were originally established in the 1930s

[00:26:16] during the Dust Bowl era to tackle those local soil and water conservation issues. The James River Soil and Water Conservation District was established on September 26, 1940. We were originally covering three counties, including Henrico. In 1975, Henrico split off, and now Chesterfield and Prince George make up the current James River Soil and Water District.

[00:26:37] Districts are locally led and non-regulatory. This means that we do not enforce laws. We support our community. We're funded by both the state through the Department of Conservation and Recreation and our local governments. And we offer programs that provide financial and technical help to Chesterfield and Prince George residents who want to protect and improve those natural resources in our area. All right. So we are a small but mighty staff of four. As the district manager, I oversee our operations, finances, and administration of our programs. Joseph Gerdes is our conservation

[00:27:16] specialist. He runs our agricultural programs and works closely with local farmers. Anne Devine is our conservation technician. She leads our suburban conservation programs, helping homeowners and businesses protect their natural resources. And Callie Moyers is our education outreach coordinator.

[00:27:33] She brings hands-on environmental education to students and adults throughout the district. Say hi, Callie. She's back there. We're guided by a six-member board of directors. Two are elected from each county, and we have two appointed directors as well. We're joined today by Avis Bennett and Greg Powers. Thank you guys so much for joining us. We also have associate directors, including Marley here. She, from Parks and Rec, she's very supportive of our mission in Chesterfield and we're so grateful to have her. Sierra Seacford with Cooperative Extension is also one of our associate directors. Our board meetings are open to the public and we welcome anyone who wants to

[00:28:11] attend. If you guys want any more information, please let me know. So how exactly do we provide for you? Many Chesterfield residents are noticing more and more water running into their yards during the really heavy rainstorms that are happening and so this can lead to damage, erosion, and ongoing frustration from those people, and that's really where we come in to help.

[00:28:32] Through the Virginia Conservation Assistance Program, we offer site visits to understand these concerns and work together to find practical conservation-based solutions to their issues. One of the most popular options we have is rain gardens. If you look at this photo behind me, you can see the water from the downspout is directed straight into that rain garden, and instead of rushing off and causing erosion, it's able to filter through the garden and let that water drain more naturally than what we have now with a lot of our driveways and stuff. So this simple solution not only helps protect the individual

[00:29:06] properties themselves, but it also supports the health of our local waterways. Suburban conservation, like the work we do through the Virginia Conservation Assistance Program, is not the only thing. It's just one part of what we offer. We also provide technical support and design assistance to guide residents, landowners, and farmers addressing natural resource challenges on their property. In many cases, we're able to offer financial assistance, or what we call cost share, to help cover the cost of those conservation practices that improve water quality.

[00:29:37] One great example from our agricultural programs offered through the Virginia Agricultural Cost Share Program is the use of cover crops. It's a huge one in our district. These cover crops are like grains and legumes planted after the main harvest, and they help protect the soil over winter. They make sure that the nitrogen is staying in the ground and not running into our rivers and streams. They not only protect the resources, they also help producers improve their bottom line and really support the conservation of soil nutrients and reducing runoff, which makes sure that they have really healthy topsoil to continue farming in our area. Beyond our on-the-ground

[00:30:16] conservation, we also are committed to our education outreach efforts. We host events and provide learning opportunities for students of all ages. Supporting Chesterfield means not just protecting the natural resources today, but also investing in the next generation of environmental stewards. And here's how we put that commitment to action. So over the past year, we distributed more than a million dollars to local producers through our district using that agricultural cost share program. It helped farmers implement conservation practices and protect our natural resources and support their operations. We also supported the construction of Virginia's

[00:30:53] first equine manure storage facility, and this was funded through our agricultural program, and it happened right here in Chesterfield County, the first ever in our state. This is designed specifically for horse owners, and the covered structure itself makes sure that the manure is dry and contained for six months, and this prevents nutrients from running off into our local waterways, reducing pollution, and protecting our water quality. On the suburban side of things, we approved 18 conservation practices last year through the Virginia Conservation Assistance Program. Residents received over $100,000 in cost-share funding to install 18 practices,

[00:31:31] which includes six rain gardens, eight conservation landscaping practices, three permeable paper driveways, and one dry well. These efforts help reduce erosion, manage our stormwater, and create more native habitat for our pollinators. So with the recent addition of our full-time education outreach coordinator, we really look forward to expanding our programming, leading more conservation workshops, and building our impact in the Chesterfield community.

[00:31:58] In April, our district hosted the Area 6 Envirothon at Pocahontas State Park. Envirothon is a team-based natural resource competition for high school students, and it focuses on natural resources. Students who participate learn stewardship and management concepts and work to solve real-world environmental problems.

[00:32:15] The team from Chesterfield Technical Center at Hall Street came in first place. We are so proud of them. They did great. They went on to our state competition and they got fourth place in the oral presentation, which is, I think, the hardest part. So they did a really good job, and we're really proud of them. This year, our board added two scholarships to fully cover the cost of our Youth Conservation Camp, which is a week-long camp at Virginia Tech that gives high schoolers hands-on experience learning about our natural resources with other professionals.

[00:32:46] It's a really great opportunity, and we're really excited to have four Chesterfield students going. Our annual poster contest encourages K-12 students to share their ideas about soil and water through art. Chesterfield students represented the district really well. We had a student from Chesterfield come in first place in the state for the 10th through 12th grade category.

[00:33:07] That's that May the Forest Be With You Always. And then for the 10th through 12th grade digital poster contest, which is one on the far right hand side, that student came in first at the state level and they won at the national level. So we are so happy for them. And this student also is one of the ones that's on our Viathon team.

[00:33:23] So they're just fantastic. We're so proud of the students that you guys have in Chesterfield. You have incredible education programs for kids who are really interested in the environment. So thank you guys for that. We also host rain barrel workshops in conjunction with Chesterfield Environmental Engineering.

[00:33:41] We provide residents with affordable tools and knowledge to reduce stormwater runoff. Participants build their own customized barrels and learn how to use them effectively on their property. We actually have four workshops scheduled for the rest of 2025 in Chesterfield. I'm going to read those for you. The first one is going to be on July 12th at 10 a.m. at the Chesterfield County Fairgrounds.

[00:34:01] On September 9th at 530, we will be at the Beulah Recreation Center and again on October 21st at 530. And on November 1st at 2 p.m., we're going to be at the Midlothian Library doing the workshop. So if you guys want to keep updated on our future events and our exciting conservation practices we have going on, please join our Facebook and Instagram community.

[00:34:23] We also have a monthly newsletter, the James River Soil and Water Scoop, where you can hear success stories, find fun activities for all ages and see who's making an impact specifically in your area. Let me know after the presentation if you guys would like to join our community. I'd be happy to give you more information. So thank you guys again so much for your time today.

[00:34:42] And thank you for giving us a home at the Central Library with Cooperative Extension. We've been fortunate to have Marley help us in our visibility in Chesterfield. And we're just really excited to continue that. And I just want to really thank you guys for your help supporting us in the county and seeing exactly how much we can grow.

[00:35:01] I'm really excited for our future. And here's my contact information. Please don't hesitate to reach out. I'd be happy to talk anytime. Thank you, guys. I have a question, Mr. Chair.

[00:35:18] So you talked about a horse manure storage facility? Yes. Where is that? It's the western part of the county.

[00:35:34] There's actually a lot of smaller horse owners who just have, like, a couple horses on, like, maybe six or seven acres. And those are the people we are really trying to hit in Chesterfield, working with that equine community, because there are a lot of people out here that have horses.

[00:35:49] And we have programs that can help pay for, and we cover a lot of the costs. A lot of the times it's like 80% of the costs to install those practices. And so to me, it's a no-brainer. If we can make sure a horse owner knows about our programming and is able to access it, that's really what we want to do.

[00:36:06] We have a lot of horses in the Matoka District. Yes, sir. What do they do with it after? So they do have to maintain it. It's usually around 10 years, and they'll just utilize that building to make sure that that manure is not just, like, getting rained on and run off.

[00:36:21] So it's just storing the manure, making sure that there's a safe place to put it for up to six months, and they usually use that or sell that to other people to use on their farms. You know, there's different purposes for that. It's great fertilizer. Oh, absolutely. So we work with both sides.

[00:36:37] We do our, like, agronomic practices, working with corn, soybeans, you know, making sure people are split-applying nitrogen and not just throwing out all the nutrients in the world so that, you know, it's not running off. But we're happy to talk with you more about that. The best grass I ever had was when a friend of mine gave me a truckload of manure.

[00:36:55] Keep spreading that word. We'll get more and more manure storage facilities out here. It's absolutely true. It's the best lawn I ever had. Thank you. Good afternoon.

[00:37:31] Thank you for inviting me. My name is DS Tompkins. I've been a long-term resident of the county, spent much of my life here. First off, I want to start by saying I am a product of Chesterfield County. I'm a product of Chesterfield County Public Schools. From a young age, I've always been involved in agriculture.

[00:37:50] It's been a way of life for me. And in the process of doing that, I've learned that growing up in agriculture means you're growing up in the community, with the community. From at least eight years old, I still remember attending 4-H and FarmView events. This provided me the opportunity to be enveloped in an atmosphere of not only learning, but of lifelong learning, of stewardship and hospitality.

[00:38:16] This combined with my accelerated, lifelong lessons of agriculture teaching me patience, developing my skills and what it really takes to run a business to develop the skills even needed outside of the farm.

[00:38:32] when it came to school, when it came to networking. For those of you who may not know, Farm Bureau is a nonpartisan organization. It's a member-based one where it's a mission for farmers, ranchers, and rural communities. And Wolf Farm Bureau is another arm known as Young Farmers and Ranchers, which I am proud to be a part of. They are in the goal of empowering agricultures from ages 18 to 35. Their mission is in educating, networking, and leadership development. All of these things

[00:39:10] throughout the years have developed me and prepared me for life. As some of you may know who have known me from high school, from working at a community level with the superintendents to participating with 4-H from a local extension under Mrs. Gregory, and later on in life working with Mr. Nestor, who I would probably call my mentor, in Farm Bureau. A lot of these things that prepared me for example it has taken me to the chance of this just past year I had a chance to work on a movie with Denzel Washington and Netflix and it's my skills I learned while being

[00:39:45] a part of Farm Bureau being on those farms learning what to do they I they called me personally say hey we need someone looks like a cowboy talks like a cowboy but who knows how to work for horses so I jumped that opportunity I learned a lot made a lot of friends and a lot of people thought I was from Texas. I said, no, I'm from Virginia. And they said, really, which part? I said, Chesterfield.

[00:40:07] So you may have some tourism in the future. They're going to be looking for a lot of those horse farms. But along with my experiential learning, there's also been a lot of education. I've had chances to work with the USDA. I've had a chance just recently, I just came from South America, Chile, where I work with the extension service, where I was down there for three months It was an agricultural exchange where I got to learn firsthand what they view farming as, their economic structures, and I got to share how we do things in stateside.

[00:40:43] But it wasn't without Farm Bureau nor 4-H where I wouldn't have learned these skills of being able to connect, seeing our similarities. And at the end of the day, one thing I do realize is no matter if it's urban agriculture or middle-of-nowhere farming, One thing we have in common is stewardship for the land and the importance of working together.

[00:41:04] And with all this, I am proud to say that through Farm Bureau and through the support of the county, support of the extension, I proudly wear Chesterfield County, and I proudly wear Farm Bureau wherever I go. And when anyone ever asks me where I come from, I tell them, I come from Chesterfield County.

[00:41:23] Thank you. And you're willing to be featured in a video in the county and at least lend your voice as a narrator for some video? Of course. No problem. If you don't mind me asking, what was the movie about?

[00:41:41] So it was a Netflix production. It was based in the early 1900s, I believe, if I remember correctly. It was called The Piano Lesson. It was based around the idea of a family heirloom that got lost through time, and it was a story where they just go back and relish and realize the importance of this heirloom.

[00:42:01] And through, I believe, we filmed it in Georgia, which is funny, but in the movie, they'll say it's Mississippi. But this special piano traveled throughout time, and it was hand-built during the period of the Annabelle himself, and from this, they show the importance of family, show the importance of holding on to things.

[00:42:22] Yes, it has. I believe it came out three months ago on Netflix, so if you have... Oh, yeah. Mr. Chairman, if I may, I just want to thank Diaz.

[00:42:38] I met him many years ago. He was middle school, probably. I think it was middle school. Yes, sir. Dale District. So I was really proud of all what he has done. He's done a tremendous job. And I just want to thank him for being here today and for an outstanding presentation. Thank you so much. Thank you.

[00:42:57] Just a couple of points in that. As a mental health professional, I've come to believe that we're not on this earth, we're in it. And I think people forget that. And so I'm convinced that maybe a great deal of the mental health challenges we experience is being disconnected from the natural world.

[00:43:17] So that kind of connected is one way to connect people is to ask a really simple question, which is, where does your food come from? And I think that people forget, well, we just pick it up at the grocery store. Well, where did it come from? And that is, for me, an immediate connector for folks to just be reminded of that.

[00:43:37] So thank you for the work that you're all doing. My wife just finished the naturalist program at Pocahontas. You can see the Miller family is all in. So I reminded my wife as I was walking out the door this morning, don't forget to water the garden. Thank you, Dr. Casey, members of the board.

[00:44:00] I have the honor and privilege of closing the show, I guess, with this one. And just wanted to give you a couple of updates and give you an announcement of a new program that we're starting. But just briefly, before I get to the announcement, just talk a little bit about the recycling efforts that we've been doing over the past three years.

[00:44:18] You know that our convenience centers, we've opened up the express lanes in May, and that has been well received, great feedback from the community. Appreciate the support in making that happen. Cuts down the wait time tremendously for our two busy convenience centers.

[00:44:35] Additionally, we created the community recycling centers at the seven parks, Dodd, Daniel, Ettrick, Going, Horner, Huguenot, and Rockwood. Another great response to that program, we've expanded our container count at Huguenot to 11 containers that are picked up three times a week.

[00:44:54] At Rockwood, we have 12 containers picked up three times a week as well. Dodd has four containers. Daniel has six containers. Both of those parks are being picked up three times a week. And when we get into that three times a week pickup, that tells us that we're getting great response from the community, great support, that they're bringing the materials to the right place.

[00:45:13] Ettrick going in Horner, we still have four containers being picked up. The great thing about this particular program at the parks is that we have someone that is going to check each park site just for the cleanliness. And that is something that we offer that's different, making sure that our sites are presentable to the public.

[00:45:31] And that's important to note. During our first nine months, from July 24th through March 25th, we've collected about 12,650 tons of recycled material. And that's from our curbside program that we're partnering with the local private vendors, our convenience centers, and our community recycling centers.

[00:45:53] During that same time last year, we collected about 10,400 tons. So we're on pace to exceed what we collected last year. We continue to see the program grow and grow, and just that increased participation and tonnage. And overall, we're seeing good material, good clean material, no issues from the vendors.

[00:46:13] We do have some monitoring systems in place at a couple of the parks, just to make sure that people are tracking who's leaving the material and when they're coming by there. As Clay introduced earlier, we have Kim Hines here with us with CBWMA, and we continue that great partnership with CBWMA.

[00:46:35] We've had e-cycling, shredding events. Our most recent one was June 14th at Thomasdale High School. We have future events coming up on August 9th and November 8th. Those are on our websites. Again, that's a partnership with CBWMA through their resources that they have available.

[00:46:52] They continue with their education and community support in the schools and just also providing that regional support. So we are in lockstep with CVWMA, but the main feature I wanted to talk about today is another partnership that we have with CVWMA, and that's implementing composting sites at our northern and southern area convenience centers.

[00:47:14] So we see this as another opportunity to enhance our county's environmental stewardship program, and as shown on the slide, the middle picture, about 50% of solid waste can be diverted to be in compost, can be compostable. So with this program, what we're seeing is we'll provide the community with an opportunity to, an option to divert compostable material away from the landfills.

[00:47:39] Again, that impacts, that has a positive impact on our recycling rate and our diversion rates that we track in the county. So the picture on the right is a sample of the composting area that we're going to set up. And we're very particular about how we're going to set this up so that we have a clean site. The bins will be lined with bags where people will put their compost material in. The contractor, NOPE Composting Company, will come by and pick those bags up. But we're also putting the bins on an elevated platform just to reduce the option for spillage and make sure we

[00:48:18] have a cleaner site. So we are looking to have these in place by August and operational by August. So just, again, another option for our community to be involved in environmental stewardship, help with the diversion rate, help with the recycling rate, and we're very excited about that.

[00:48:39] Any questions that you may have or comments? Go ahead, let them ask the question. Okay. The program has an outstanding program where we educate our citizens about composting.

[00:49:06] We try to do it basically at home, teaching people how to do it in their homes. It probably would be a good idea if we collaborated and see if we are all on the same page. Okay. Possibly you can help us, and we can also possibly help you.

[00:49:23] Absolutely. Our program is very well accepted, but we just don't get people coming out to the programs as much as we would like. Okay. The second thing, I'm a big recycler.

[00:49:42] I use the E-Colf Convenience Center. Most of the people that use that center of seniors, they're having a really hard time lifting those lids. You have to hold them up with one hand and try to put the items in with the other hand.

[00:50:02] A lot of them have made contractions that they bring along with them, hold the lids up. If I'm able, I help them, but we have to come up with a better, easier way for our citizens to lift those lids.

[00:50:18] It's not working. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. That's all I have, Mr. Chair. Mr. Carroll. Two things.

[00:50:34] One, thank you for getting the lanes open. A couple of months ago, I sat on Route 10 for 45 minutes waiting to get in to recycle. It's a big difference for the community now that we have them. They can pull in, get in a separate lane, and go in and do the recycling.

[00:50:53] Because, I mean, as we know, there are a lot of people that are coming in and out of the recycle. So that was very timely. And I do agree with what he's saying about composting. A lot of people could, they don't understand the value of how great that could be, even for their own bushes and plants around their house if they do their own composting.

[00:51:15] I've been doing it for years. So thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all. B, local college update by Brightpoint and Bryant and Stratton, Dr. Worsley.

[00:51:50] Good afternoon, Chairman Engel, members of the board, Dr. Casey.

[00:52:12] It's a pleasure to be here. It's a pleasure to be here with Beth. Oh, you're introducing us. i think they need no introductions i'll tell you leaders are always we're ready to go right good afternoon mr chair members of the board it is a pleasure to be here today as you know you well know but those that may be listening or tuning in here for the first time chesterfield county is very fortunate to have institutions of higher learning right here in our locality earlier this year you may recall we had virginia state university that came and gave a college update. We have two of our friends here. Dr. Figge has already introduced himself, president

[00:52:51] of Bright Point College, and also we have our market director, Beth Murphy, who is here from Bryan and Stratton as well. And I also want to mention Ms. Hines and Mr. Grady, I will have her today as well. So we're excited to hear what you're going to provide as updates to us today and tell us all the great things that are going on. And we will start with Dr. Fege and we'll move to Ms. Murphy.

[00:53:13] - Okay, very good. Well, Chairman Engel, members of the board, Dr. Casey, appreciate the opportunity to be here today. And thank you, James, for introducing us. We really appreciate it. What we wanted to do today is to talk within pictures. Pictures tell a thousand words.

[00:53:30] And so that's what we're gonna do. I've got about nine pictures. Beth has about nine pictures. But we're gonna tell our story through that lens. So what you can see here is when I applied to be president, I said I was going to start a president student advisory council and hear members of that council here.

[00:53:48] And I'm going to tell you about each and every student. But within this picture here, we have a military veteran who came back to school and is now working in security as she completes her degree. We have a mother of three children who always says, I wish I could do more to help, but I've got to take care of my family.

[00:54:08] We have here a young man who started our e-sports team, a very competitive program, getting ready to start its second year. We've got a woman who works in our testing center, has been a great advocate for Chesterfield County, has worked, volunteered for the elections. We have a young man to the left whose sister said, you're coming to Bright Point, moved him from New York, because basically said, this is what you're going to do.

[00:54:30] You know, our vision statement is a success story for every student. And part of the way we can reach that is by knowing our students so that they can tell us their stories so that we can be better for them as they achieve their goals at Bright Point Community College. You know, to foster our success for every student, we need to ensure all of our students feel welcome.

[00:54:50] They need to know about the supports that we have available to them and when they need to get the instruction expected to achieve their goals. And that's what we work every day to do. This program actually got started because my good friend, former ball supervisor, Dr. Ted Raspiller, had a conversation with Lance Jones, who's in the picture in the top left.

[00:55:10] This is our new radiologic technology program that we started last year in partnership with HCA. They provided excellent support, the faculty, the space, and the equipment for us to be able to start it because they had a need that they weren't able to fill.

[00:55:27] And so they helped us get this program started. We are now seeking final accreditation. We had 21 students start the program. Many of them are now going into their second year, and we have the new cohort that are starting this fall. It's very important that we're meeting the workforce needs, and so we're looking to expand in pharmaceutical manufacturing.

[00:55:45] We currently have a career studies certificate. We're looking to create an associate degree that would transfer directly into Virginia State and or VCU's program. We know LEGO's coming to town, And Dana Newcomer, who's a member of our Community College Workforce Alliance team, which is a partnership between Reynolds and Brightpoint, she was part of the delegation that went to Mexico to learn about the training needs so that we can be sure as they look to hire their 1,700 plus personnel, how can we be at the table to make sure that we're meeting their needs.

[00:56:17] So as we look to create new programs, it's about what business and industry needs and what our students expect of us to be able to offer. And we know you're bringing a lot of new business and industry to the area. We know a lot of business and industry is expanding, and we look forward to meeting those needs.

[00:56:33] You know, for future discussions, we will need to talk about new program development and expanding current ones, and the costs are significant. And so it's going to take state, local, and private dollars to meet all of the demands. and we'll talk about some of the specific things at another time. Picture three here.

[00:56:49] These students, the far left and the far right, are from CCWA Student of the Year Awards. Again, our fast-forward program is designed for students to be able to get fast-term credentials, to be able to get entry-level jobs. The young man on the left, Juan, won an award for information technology, getting a certification.

[00:57:09] And the young man on the right had his 9-year-old daughter at the event. And I looked at him and I said, man, that is an amazing suit. And he said, it's the first suit I ever bought. And I said, are you serious? He said, yeah. He said, I wanted to look good for this program tonight, winning an award through CCWA.

[00:57:26] He got his credential in manufacturing technician one and is getting entry-level job and is coming back to continue towards his associate degree. Part of CCWA as well is they have nurse aid, they have CDL, many different programs.

[00:57:43] As you can see, these are a couple of our nursing graduates. They weren't smiling this much a week prior as they were going through final exams. But when they got to their pinning, they were certainly elated at how well they did. And I know Beth will probably say the same thing with Brian Stratton. With two new hospitals coming to Chesterfield, we need to provide even more nurses, radiologists, all the different health care needs in this area.

[00:58:06] And so I know both of us are going to be at the table to help meet those needs for our citizens here. We know our students need supports. This young lady at her nursing pinning had her son. What keeps me up at night is not necessarily our current students with children because they figured it out.

[00:58:23] They figured out whether a parent or child care. How many students are not coming to us because they don't have child care or someone to watch their kids? And I know you are facing that with employers as well where people aren't able to take good jobs because they're not able to leave their kids at home alone, obviously, and they can't find good daycare to take care of it because there's just a limited supply.

[00:58:44] So I'd love to have conversations and figure out how we can work to be able to provide those needs for our students so they can come get the education to have that upward economic mobility available to them. We're really working on providing those students supports. I find those who aren't successful, it's not because of academic programs.

[00:58:59] It's because they don't have the supports necessary to be able to be successful. We provide free tutoring. We have great library services. Over 1,000 students get a technology loan from our library that they can use throughout the semester so they don't have to worry about going to buy a computer.

[00:59:17] And we're starting a new initiative this fall through RVA 757, a partnership they're creating with PCs for People, where students will be able to actually purchase a computer for maximum $150. And so it won't be a loan that they then have to return. It'll be a computer, a device that they'll be able to keep permanently.

[00:59:35] These are some of our pharmaceutical manufacturing students. I did it. So they were very proud, obviously, of how well they did. We have over 80 degrees in certificate programs at Bright Point. Again, these are some of our pharma students. Over 7,550 are residents from Chesterfield enrolled in classes through Bright Point. And just over 2,500 last year were dual enrollment students where they're getting the classes while still in high school.

[01:00:01] Last academic year, Chesterfield students enrolled in over 23,000 credits, saving families over 3.5 million dollars in tuition. And that is the community college rate. So for my family, my daughter was actually one that was able to complete the UCGS, 31 credits going to her four-year institution. The plan, and she does know this, is now for her to graduate in three years. So that will save a full year of tuition, room, board, etc. And they'll get her off our payroll a year sooner. So they're great opportunities for kids as they're in school to get certifications. And I

[01:00:38] you'll hear from our friends from the Chesterfield Technical Centers about the workforce programs, how do those align into BrightPoint and other institutions for students to be able to reach their goals. Our students work really hard. This is my favorite hat. If you can guess which program this has, we're only 51 in the country. There are only two in the state. It's our funeral services program. So the student said, "I earned this," which I thought was quite creative that she had there so again our students are very proud of their accomplishments they want to work they want to get out and we are meeting their needs their mothers and daughters who graduate together sons

[01:01:16] and daughters who graduate together like their families are being impacted by the work that we provide for these things you know the future and there's one more i love this one the future is bright you know we changed our name to bright point three years ago and our enrollment's been up every every year sets again we're working really hard to meet the needs of the community i know i could talk to you for three hours about all that we have going on each and every program that we have and the great work that we're doing uh for our students uh but uh i just wanted to give just a little uh some headlines of what we have going on and i'll now pass it over to uh beth murphy

[01:01:55] thank you okay good afternoon let me get off let's see let's go to brian stratton land there we go all right so thank you so much for um giving us the opportunity to talk with you i'm happy to be presenting with phil um so brian stratton college we are very proud of our rich history as a career college with over 170 years of experience and providing outcomes-based education we continue you to positively impact our community. The Richmond Chesterfield campus of Bryan and Stratton College is one of 16 ground campuses in the four states that

[01:02:34] Bryan and Stratton College operates. In addition to our ground campuses we also have an online division as well as the continuing ed. We're middle states accredited and of course we're not-for-profit. The Richmond Chesterfield campus is the largest campus in the Bryan and Stratton College system. We just kicked off our May semester with 1,049 students, which is our largest start ever. Our campus continues to serve the underrepresented and underserved population. 77% of our students are between the ages of 18 and 39. Over 70% of our students tried another college before they

[01:03:13] landed at Bryan and Stratton College. Our student population is 90% female and 59% of our population is Hispanic or black. Seventy percent of our students are actually coming part-time as they manage family and work and all of the other life things. Our tagline is built different for you, and I believe this captures who we are. Bryan and Stratton College runs three semesters a year to give students the opportunity to complete their degrees in an accelerated fashion. Each semester we offer day, evening, and weekend classes, and they're offered in a variety of modes of modality.

[01:03:51] I can't talk in person, blended, remote, and online. Our population is split even day and evening. And of course, those evening students are the ones who are usually balancing the most. As an institution of higher education that works primarily with the non-traditional student, we advocate a great deal of resources for our students. We believe in that personalized approach. Each prospective student meets with Rayford Grady and his team to ensure they're embarking on the best program of study. New and continuing students always meet with a financial aid advisor each semester to

[01:04:29] ensure they understand the finances of their education. Last year we awarded over two million dollars in institutional grants and scholarships to our students. Each Bryan and Stratton College student is assigned to an academic advisor. They meet every semester to make sure that they're on track. Our average class size is 17 and our students also have access to 24-7 library and tutoring support. Our career services department works with each student and partners with our graduates as they transition into the workforce.

[01:05:03] Bryan and Stratton College alumni have access to career services for free over the lifetime. We offer, similar to Bill, certificates, diplomas, associate and bachelor's degrees. All of our degrees are stackable. Nursing, medical assistant, and human social services are our largest programs of study, with LPN as of this semester becoming our largest program. Both the nursing and the medical assisting have the programmatic accreditation. Nursing and associate, the diploma and associate nursing programs represent

[01:05:40] 80% of our total population as of today. That's about a 10% jump year over year. Last year the Richmond campus of Bryan Stratton College graduated 351 students and this year we're close to 400 students as are projected to graduate. Our top five employers from a hiring perspective are HCA, Bon Secours, VCU Health, Sheltering Arms, and OrthoVirginia. And these employers not only hire our graduates, but they partner with us for on-campus events, provide internships, clinical opportunities for our students. As I noted, nursing is our largest program of study.

[01:06:19] Both our PN and ADN programs are ACEN accredited. In 24, we produced 274 nurses for the Commonwealth. In 2005, we've already provided 206 nurses, 95 LPNs and 111 ADNs.

[01:06:40] Our NCLEX pass rate continues to be pretty impressive. The associate degree is at 92% and our diploma students are at 96%. Over the past 10 years, Richmond-Chesterfield campus of Bryan and Stratton College has doubled our enrollments.

[01:06:57] So despite operating seven days a week, we've outgrown our location inside and out. We're bursting at the seams in our classroom and in our parking lots. So we are going to be relocating, we're very sorry, from 101, from 8141 Hall Street to 101 Gateway Parkway early January 25.

[01:07:19] Yes, Mark's little puffy chest over there. This new location is going to offer students, faculty, and staff more space, more parking, access to the bus line, and puts us closer to our largest employer partner, HCA. We plan to kick off our January semester at this new location.

[01:07:37] Everybody cross their fingers. I just wanted to note how honored we are to operate in Chesterfield. We partner with Chesterfield in many ways, including sharing space with Chesterfield Adult Education, partnering with Economic Development to celebrate Small Business Week, and being an active member in the Chesterfield Chamber.

[01:07:58] Our decision to remain in Chesterfield County and to rename the campus as Richmond Chesterfield is a direct reflection of the support that we receive. I'm so appreciative to each of you, your campus visits, your attendance at graduation, offering keynote addresses. I just, I couldn't tell you how supportive I feel, and I thank each and every one of you. I have a couple pictures to share too. So this is graduation. As you know, we do three a year, so we can celebrate our graduates in real time. And so we're shaking

[01:08:37] hands. Oh, and this was Dr. Worsley was with us last time as our keynote speaker. We also do our pinning ceremony during graduation. Again, 80 percent of our population is nursing. We have an active student nursing association on campus, the SNA. You'll see them if you follow our Facebook page. Most recently, we've partnered with the Manchester YMCA to do some community clinical partnerships. It's been very impressive. This is our medical assisting. They were there in the blue

[01:09:08] scrubs. This is on campus, our SNA group again, going to graduation. Student speaker from last graduation who was a nursing student. And that is the end of my presentation. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Go ahead. I just want to say an outstanding job. You're continuing to excel and do well. And we're so excited because it makes a difference in our communities and with our citizens. Thank you so much. And if there's anything else we can do as we continue to move

[01:09:44] forward, please feel free to share as you will. Thank you much. I just wanted to say we're very proud to have both institutions in Chesterfield County, and we're thankful that we have a Chester campus, Chester, Virginia campus, a Midlothian, Virginia campus, and now we will have a Chesterfield campus and we thank you for um recognizing that you are in Chesterfield County it's a two-way partnership and we thank you for that well I'm sorry to be losing you in Clover Hill she actually asked me if I could redraw the lines to include

[01:10:24] it just seems unfair I don't know that he gets both of them but anyway um I greatly appreciate all that you do, and I know how important the work that you do is to get people out in the community as quickly as they possibly can and work around circumstances.

[01:10:50] One of the reasons that Beth asked me to be her keynote speaker is because that's how I got my degree, working full-time, going to school part-time, and raising my kids by myself as a single mom. So it's necessary sometimes.

[01:11:07] It's the only way you can do it. And I think it builds character and makes you appreciate it better or that much more. So thanks much. Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. Thank you for everything you do. I think that, you know, we graduate almost 5,000 kids a year from our school system.

[01:11:25] And we hope that many of them are going into your programs. Because the goal, at least for me, is to make sure that we create jobs here in the community so that the children of the people that live here, when they get out of school, can have a job, they can stay here, raise their children, and have the quality of life that they had growing up.

[01:11:45] And we know, especially in the medical profession, there is a great demand for the people who are out there saving people's lives in the hospitals, quite frankly, and all the other things. Trust me, you know, we have to get kids more involved in the trades.

[01:12:04] I'm not sure who everybody thinks is going to fix their house. or fixture plumbing or fixture electrical or fixture HVAC. I'm not sure who they think is going to do this work if we don't have young people that get involved in these type of programs. And they need to understand that these are great jobs and they can have great careers.

[01:12:25] I think you may one day see me come for an HVAC class because that's the only thing I can't do. Thank you. Mr. Chair. A couple of things. The first is that how honored I am, Beth.

[01:12:41] Thank you for the invitation to be the next keynote speaker. I listened to what Dr. Worsley said at the last. I was like, oh, my, I better get started writing now. So it's an honor to have, you know, ultimately both of you in Midlothian and, of course, in Chester for the other campus for Bright Point.

[01:13:04] I want to say that our daughter, our youngest, has two degrees from Bright Point, one in general studies. and one in engineering and two associate's degrees and what a difference it made when she headed over to George Mason.

[01:13:23] Just ready for college, just busting at the seams and ready to go. I worked for Chesterfield Mental Health for 13 years. I left and then came to work at Bright Point. Being at Bright Point was, for the last 11 years, has been an incredible honor and just adore working with the students. It just is an incredible honor. But I couldn't figure out a way to get back to Chesterfield. I have to tell you, it was the most proud day of my life when I get to carry both ideas. Because it says something about Chesterfield, it says something about Brightpoint, and I get to do both. So thank you for everything that y'all are doing in the community. It's

[01:14:01] just an absolute asset. And when we go and talk to these companies and say, hey, you know, it's interesting about coming to Chesterfield. They are aware and know of BrightPoint and Brian Stratton even before we've walked in the door. Thank you.

[01:14:25] C, Workforce Preparedness Update, Dr. Worsley. Good afternoon, Chair, Mr. Chair, members of the board. We are excited that we had opportunity here from our partners for higher education. And then we're going to look inwardly and take a look at what's going on here in Chesterfield County Public Schools. And I see Mr. Macklin is already passing out some handouts for you. And seated is Katie Stokes. Mr. Macklin is the director of CTE. For those that don't know what CTE is, it's a Career in

[01:15:01] Technical Education. He's also also the director of Chesterfield County Public Schools Online. Ms. Stokes is the coordinator of Work-Based Learning. And collectively they're going to be talking about the CTE program as well as CTC Hall expansion. Many of you know they many have relocated as well as the work-based learning programs within our school district.

[01:15:23] So at this time, I turn it over to you all. - Thank you, good afternoon. We've got 97 slides, five and a half hours of presentation. We'll shove it in 10 minutes. We're good. No, just kidding. So we're excited to share with you today, but I think before we start, it's just worth acknowledging the room before us and the acknowledgements within.

[01:15:43] And quietly, what wasn't noticed was a young man sitting on the side over there who two weeks ago was with us in VDOE when we received an award for Advisory Committee of the Year in Region 1, working with our agriculture program at Courthouse.

[01:16:00] It's nice to acknowledge that Chesterfield Public Schools has award-winning CT programs. So this year, that same ceremony, downtown Chesterfield brought home Program of the Year for our Technology Education Program at Matoica, Advisory Committee of the Year for our Ag Program at Courthouse, and business partner of the year in region one and state for our partnership with dominion energy so we're really proud of of the programs that we have how we're connecting into businesses and the community to make sure that we are um meeting the needs um so what dr vicky said earlier we do

[01:16:40] want to help students find their way to connection to their career futures and and how we do that is is kind of magical but sticking with an award ceremony uh recognition there uh our students at Thomas Dale, our FFA students, Future Farmers of America students, just took first place in state and turf grass management so we're really proud about about that as well too and we're always proud of Colleen Coleman at our Hall Street campus with the Envirathon programs. What was acknowledged there was previously she's won an international award and plant the moon so where they take moon sample and they grow a product for the moon so today we're gonna spend

[01:17:17] a minute just highlighting the CTE programs that we have in the secondary level. We'll touch a little bit about elementary school, middle school, and high school, our Hall Street expansion, which we're all aware of, and Katie Stokes, in which she does to make connections with the business community like no other in the state that we know of. But let's ground ourselves in what is career and technical education. That's important to know. Basically, it's how do we help students have hands-on skills and knowledge in specific jobs or careers. What they do with that knowledge and skills and turn it into industry certifications and have real-world experiences in the field to

[01:17:54] affirm. Current technical education dates back to 1918 with the Smith-Hughes Act, which identified how to help standardize food production and farming across the country. It has evolved into family and home economics. It's involved into technology and industrialization. It's evolved into business and IT and healthcare, but it's evolved through the days. But it does date back quite some time, and Chesterfield has a rich experience in being award-winning, amazing opportunity for our students. But it is important to know at the school level, public school level, elementary school, middle school, and high school, we're helping students explore and find what they

[01:18:34] connect to for what their career future is. And we want them to explore and to affirm what is right for them. We also want to confirm what's not right for them. So that saves a ton of time because if a student doesn't know what they don't want to do, that's a success as well. So let's just anchor in some of our data points which are important to note of who are we serving and how are we serving them there. We roughly have about 27,000 students involved in current technical education between sixth grade through twelfth grade. It's roughly 43 percent of our students are taking current of education experiences so they're learning what they're trying what they want to. Now this can be

[01:19:13] duplicative courses because students could be taking nurse aid as well as medical coding and billing or medical terminology at the same time so there is some duplication there but that's just affirming into their paths. But it's important to note where our students are. Huge middle school experience there but also acknowledge what our middle schools do. In sixth grade it's on a wheel So every nine weeks, the students are turned over as they're exploring classes.

[01:19:38] And then seventh and eighth grade, there's semester classes. So it's a lot of turnover to help students try and explore everything from CTE to fine arts, practical arts as well. So that's important. But we do this with 186 teachers that are helping students find their connection to business, information technology, family, consumer sciences, IT and the like.

[01:19:58] And so we're very fortunate to have a big breadth of opportunities for our students and an amazing teacher staff. So linked here in some of the handouts that you have, just for reference, where are our students and in what industry sectors?

[01:20:18] And so this handout that you have here talks about briefly on the front is our 16 career clusters. It's designed to be opened, where then you see all of our careers that we're offering, the courses, the enrollments, and the certification that are being earned, and then it culminates with some data on the back.

[01:20:36] But it's important to notice here on this slide, you're able to see how our students, where they are and what sectors they are. I'll acknowledge the formatting up there as we're a Google organization switching over to a Microsoft organization, so that's the format there.

[01:20:51] But as you can see, at the high school level, these are high school level students and 15,000 of our students. I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge in finance that 5,000 number. Economics and personal finance, which is a graduation requirement, is included in that number. So it is an inflated number as a graduation requirement.

[01:21:09] Worth acknowledging that. But I also provided for you our program of studies. This is what all of our school counselors have in their desks that they work on. And this helps our students identify what their paths are, where they might be by cluster. The students have the opportunity to see the sequence of courses.

[01:21:26] They also have the opportunity to see the industry certifications or industry-recognized credentials that can be earned as well. We also start each pathway with the data to help the students understand what is the growth in the sector, what are the regional openings in the sector, and what is the means salary, if I can expect this.

[01:21:44] because it's helpful for students to understand that end game of what can I expect out of this. So these are just some handouts that we use to work with our students and our community to help our students find their right place. But involvement is one thing, but outcomes are another.

[01:22:00] I'm going to start to the right of this slide deck and just show some history, and we'll start with our dual enrollment credits as we work with BrightPoint. We also, on certain occasions, have opportunities where we're working with Reynolds and Blue Ridge Community College when courses that BrightPoint doesn't offer, they do. An example is veterinary science.

[01:22:17] That's not a program that Bright Point has. So we're working with Blue Ridge Community College on that standpoint. But you see how we've grown in just a short time, doubling, more than doubling, our dual enrollment credits in CTE. And then you're also able to see something there. And this isn't a typo.

[01:22:32] It was just due too early. The number there isn't 9,193 anymore. It's 9,198. And we're still waiting on our nurse aid certification test to come back. So we're going to be over 9,200 certifications this year. That's how many students are in certifications this year.

[01:22:48] Everything from Cisco to Nurse Aid to we have a drone program where they're getting their FAA Part 107B AutoCAD certification. So certifications across the board helping students make connections to careers. Katie's going to fill in what they do after they get that certification with to affirm that for them.

[01:23:08] But just important to show the number of students we have that are taking certifications and then sometimes earning multiple. What do you mean multiple? Well, in our automotive program, you will take an ASE certification. That's the blue seal you see outside of every dealership you have. You might take a brakes. You might take a steering suspension.

[01:23:24] You might take electrical engine suspension. So there is an opportunity for students to have multiple stackable credentials as well in that line. So you'll see some of these certification numbers where students are earning multiple in stacking. And I won't even start in the number of stackable credentials there are in IT. It's just unfathomable. We also have another opportunity here.

[01:23:44] And I'm going to benchmark two things, and this slide starts to articulate it. In this flyout, you see our 16 career clusters listed here, and this is the former national career cluster model. The handout that I've provided you now has six clusters as opposed to 14.

[01:24:03] It has 14 cluster models in it, but it's based in a row of six. And so we'll be migrating to these in the coming year. We've worked with our school counselors, we've worked with our teachers, we've got a lot of feedback about this. But you can see they're super chunking these programs.

[01:24:19] So building and moving includes advanced manufacturing, construction supply training, and transportation. And so it's how we're going to nest our programs and help students find opportunities. This is going to be a connection for us when we start in middle school, working with our students to help them understand they take some career interest surveys, Learning about themselves, what is their learning style, connecting that to the courses that are available to them, both either the Tech Center, our Specialty Center, or in their natural feeder high school.

[01:24:48] So we're excited to rebrand ourselves and re-identify ourselves in these ways to hopefully help students be more meaningful connections to what their career futures make. I now change and I speak on behalf of Brian Russell, our Tech Center Principal, who after a long year with students has taken a minute off to have a little family vacation time.

[01:25:06] So, we'll share a little bit about the expansion here, but we're going to start with the why is an expansion needed. To your point, we have about 5,000 students that we're graduating every year, and some of those students are already set to go on to four-year colleges or two-year colleges.

[01:25:23] Many of our students are earning certifications and are entering their workforce in that. But we want to make sure that we're serving our students the best way that we possibly can. So, just a little data here from our current year. So we have year one and year two programs, and you can see this year we have 30 different programs.

[01:25:44] 2,200 students submitted 3,600 applicants. That doesn't make any sense. Well, they'll submit for a first choice and second choice. So my first choice might be automotive technology, and my second choice might be automotive repair collision if I don't get an automotive technology because we are oversubscribed.

[01:26:04] Of that, there's only 1,300 seats. So even in the first and the second position, we're well over our seat limit, which is at 274% oversubscribed. We have more students wanting to take career and technical education classes at the Tech Center than we even closely have seats to.

[01:26:20] That gives us a rationale. But I think a support for how well we're doing with our teachers and our students and the connections is actually the students that are going to stay in the program and come back for year two at an 89% return rate, which means students have connected with that and want to stick it out to the second year.

[01:26:37] That's a really high percent rate. At our comprehensive high schools, we run at about a 60% rate, 55 to 60% for return, but the Tech Center is much higher. That speaks to the programs and our students. Likewise, following the same model of our cluster models, this is what's planned for the expansion, where we're going to create opportunities and creative and cultivating resources, which is going to be a partnership with Dominion Energy.

[01:27:03] on our energy sector around renewable development as well as distribution. Caring for communities, our health care, nursing, pre-nursing, health sciences program. We're excited about a new venture there. We're going to expand our current accounting program to say accounting is great, but along the way, bookkeeping is fantastic too.

[01:27:25] And so let's have a bookkeeping opportunity with an opportunity to come out with some certifications specifically to serve our community. are experiencing, we're going to have a hospitality program. We're excited about creating a hospitality program, and as well as our marketing, our digital AV technology program, we'll be using our TV studio down there, which is going to be very different than the program we have at Manchester on mass communications. Ours is going to focus on the production product. Manchester's kind of focuses on the story and the storytelling. We're going to focus on the technical production side, so a little bit different. So we're going to add about

[01:28:02] 650 seats. That's going to put the Tech Center CTC at Hull right around 1,200 students and courthouse is right around 1,300 students. And so the combined two buildings we've served over 2,500 students will be served at the Tech Centers between both campuses. So we're excited about that. Some real quick layouts and orientations. So we're going to have our media production in the current TV production studio that's there now that's moved to the new building spring line. We'll be having a new entrance. We're going to take the flagpole and move it down to door 20 because that's the main entrance where we're going to have our students

[01:28:37] entering in and so that'll be our front face entrance down there at our door 20. It makes more sense from a parking and access standpoint for our students and families. Zooming into our second floor here, this is the left side. The right side of the building is currently the tech center. It's where we have physical therapy, occupational therapy, criminal justice and the like, but on the left side, and I'm going to zoom into that left side on my next picture here, and you can see we're going to have an energy suite where we're going to devote two labs to energy, one on renewable solar, wind production, and one on transmission and distribution, two labs there we'll be working with.

[01:29:15] Our friends at Brightpoint and VSU both have a Dominion Energy Partnership Lab, and we'll be working to make sure we're in concert, that we're working that together, and our already in partnership with Dominion Energy. We'll have a health science suite where we'll be setting up an ESC emergency room setting with hospital beds and a center call there.

[01:29:35] Possibility for a JRTC facility to run there. And our infotech is going to be everything from networking, cybersecurity, programming, and health informatics, if we can swing a health informatics, which is just the application of the IT suite in there.

[01:29:50] You also see we'll have our finance and bookkeeping and also our hospitality suites we'll be adding to the space. That leads into Katie Stokes. Thank you. So I'm going to talk a little bit about work-based learning and what that kind of looks like in Chesterfield County for you guys today.

[01:30:10] So work-based learning really is just how are students having tangible experiences to affirm their career interests that align to their academic and career plans and also the courses that they are taking. Really what it boils down to for me is kids can't be what they can't see. So how are we creating opportunities for our students to have these experiences, not just in high school, but in middle school and even pushing down into elementary?

[01:30:31] To lay the landscape a little bit for you, too, though, there are obviously regulations that come down from the state and with VDOE around work-based learning. It is a measure that does go into school accreditation. Two years ago, we were focused on what we called the College and Career Civics Readiness Index in Chesterfield and across the state, which really focused on any student having experiences that aligned to academic and career plans and also the courses they were taking.

[01:30:54] So an example of that could be not just a student in CTE, but if I'm a journalism student and I really have a passion for journalism, that's what I'm taking, we could go have an internship at the Richmond Times Dispatch so that students could actually see what that looks like. The state has gone away with CCRI, was what we called that.

[01:31:10] Now we are doing what is called 3E, so that's the readiness index that we're looking at for school accreditation. So that's employment, enlistment, and enrollment. And so that really falls down now into employment for us, and it really only focuses on CTE courses. Not that that's all that we're doing in Chesterfield, but that's where our number one focus is.

[01:31:27] So I wanted to put up here for you guys to see what the 3E Performance Framework is really looking at. They are really focused on a small number of work-based learning experiences. So I wanted to kind of lay that landscape before we get into the next slide, where I kind of break it down, and I'll walk through that with you. But what is being reported now to the state are internships our students are participating in, clinical experiences, school-based enterprise, and then apprentices.

[01:31:51] So we'll kind of walk through what that looks like. So this slide is kind of where I like to tell my stories. So every year in Chesterfield, we track every experience that our student has. It's really important for me and our team to focus on where is our continuum for work-based learning, not just with what the state is looking at with internships and clinicals, but everything that our kids are being exposed to because I really fully believe that through work-based learning and creating a sustainable model, you can really see the difference in the impact you're making with our students. So we look at everything from career fairs and career days all the way through registered apprenticeship. And each one of these experiences up here in

[01:32:28] Chesterfield, we are tracking every single year what are kids having. And so we have 31,000 experiences in Chesterfield for this school year. You can see a good chunk of those are occurring with our guest speaking. And that's happening across all of our K-12 continuum. In middle school, we have a high population of this that happens because, as Chad mentioned, we are students in 6th through 8th grade take a course called Career Investigations. And the whole point of this course is to learn who are you as a learner? Who are you? What are your interests? How does that connect to the courses you're taking and the experiences that are going to be offered for you down the road? Are you going to straight into employment?

[01:33:03] Are you going to a two-year college like Brightpoint or Bryan Stratton? Are you going to four-year or going into the military, something of that nature. In that course, we've really focused on that we want to have a minimum of 20 guest speakers to come in to touch on each of the career clusters. So that if students are saying, I'm interested in engineering, we're having people come in and speak about that. Healthcare, speaking about that as well. In Chesterfield, we've also really taken a different model on this. When we have Dominion come in, I don't just want engineers and electricians to come in and speak. I want somebody from human resources to come in and talk about Dominion and the careers there, because there are more than just those two pathways at Dominion Energy. And it's really about how are we making our students aware of all the opportunities

[01:33:40] that are in their back door that we have right here, not just one set pathway. And my real big goal with this, with what we're doing with our students in Shesterfield, is I had a guest speaker in middle school that kind of developed a passion. I'm interested in that. I want to learn more about that. Now let's maybe do an informational interview to follow up to then ask some of my questions, not just hear them talk to me about this experience. Okay, that was a really great experience, now could I go out and do a workplace tour? Could I go have a job shadow? Could I go have an internship? So that we're really building a pathway that walks a student through to affirm, yes, this is right for me, or no, it's not, which we think is just as important for our kids.

[01:34:18] And so as you're looking at some of these experiences too, I want to talk about a few things, especially with you guys. So an internship, we had 801 internships last year. That is 801 students having an internship for more than 40 hours in a real world setting. You guys are one of our biggest components of that. Currently right now we have five students that just started an internship Monday here in Chesterfield County. Four with your IST department. They're doing a really great job over there. I've already gotten feedback this week on the experience that they're having. They came ready to work. They were punctual, on time, ready to go. We have one student that's doing an internship that just started this week with you guys with the circuit courts. I got a

[01:34:55] great email yesterday from her supervisor from Claudia. She said that the student came ready to go. She's asked some great questions. She's getting some really good experience. We have 28 students in your parks and rec right now that are doing internships with us. So Chesterfield County not only invest in us and our students, but also in these opportunities for us. So we appreciate that partnership. In school-based enterprise, which is another really growing feature that we have here in Chesterfield, we had 891 last year. That is where students are not just doing a service.

[01:35:23] And I'm going to take a minute to talk about our nail tech program. Our students aren't just doing your nails when you come into the nail tech program. They are marketing the program. They developed a name for their business. They're advertising it through our different avenues that we have in our different stakeholders. They worked on the inventory, the pricing list.

[01:35:40] They work on calling the customers and reminding them of their appointments. They do a follow-up after the fact, after the service is done to say, hey, you did this. You're a returning customer. Do you want to come back and get another treatment for a discounted rate? So they are learning the whole entrepreneurial aspect of how to run a business not just how do I sit here and do nails so when we're looking at school-based enterprise it's really about how are we creating that so if a student wants to be an owner and own their own business while they have that skill set how are they getting that experience as that we also had 167 clinical experiences last year in Chesterfield so 167 students went out for a clinical experience our pharmacy tech program which is our one of our

[01:36:18] best programs that we have here had students do 130 hours out with clinicals last year in their settings. So they are out at a pharmacist working day in and day out with them to earn these hours in this time period. So this just kind of gives you a scope of what's happening each year in our buildings and the amount of students that are going through these different experiences.

[01:36:40] I like to tell one more story with this because I have normally tell my justice story. If you guys have heard me speak before, I talk about justice a lot. But I have another story I want to share about Wesley because she's been reaching out to me a lot and I want to give you her experience. Wesley in sixth grade took career investigations here in Chesterfield. She didn't really know what she wanted to do but she knew she liked math. She had an engineer come in and speak to her and she thought hey that's kind of a cool job I want to learn a little bit more about that. In high school she had another guest speaker come in and talk to her about engineering and it was a female engineer and that really resonated with her because she hadn't seen herself in that field in the past because that's typically a male-dominated field. She ended up taking a tech drawing class at

[01:37:18] Clover Hill High School, loved it, went out and did a job shadow with progressive design. They loved her so much, they invited her to come back for an internship over the summer. She did an internship with them for 40 hours, and they were so impressed with her again that when she graduated, they paid for her to go to Virginia Tech to get her degree. She is currently a senior at Virginia Tech. She will be graduating and will be coming back to work for progressive design upon graduation. So she is a shining star of how this works in this pathway and how these opportunities are so vital for our students because that really helps you to paint the picture. I've had multiple touch points where somebody has affirmed that, yes, this is right for me and

[01:37:55] given me that opportunity. So here I'm going to break down just a little bit of our data for you for over the couple of years that we've been doing work-based learning and really tracking it to this level. So when we started, it was the COVID year, so it was a little tougher year, but we still had 768 experiences during COVID. A lot of that was virtual. A lot of that was really creative. How are we getting people into the door? How are we creating these opportunities? But the team and the business partners came together to help make this happen for us. And you can see we've had substantial growth over the last five years with this. We had 31,585 experiences this year.

[01:38:31] We had a little bit dip this year because, like I said, the state is really looking for us to track what is in CTE. In Chesterfield, we still believe what's good for kids is what's good for kids. So even if a journalism student comes to us and says, I want to have an internship, yes, it doesn't count for school accreditation, but we're still going to help that kid make that connection. We're still going to help have these opportunities. And so we really focus on that and are trying to make sure that we're still letting all students be able to have an opportunity to do what they want to do. You can also see on the other side with our partners, this is the growth of our business partners that we've had over the last five years. We started with 107 and now we're at 545 business partners. Some of these are very large partners like Dominion, CarMax, Carvana. These

[01:39:10] are larger partners that we have that come in and do lots of experiences across the breadth. And then We have some smaller ones that are only able to do one or two students. But we appreciate every business partner that we have because it takes a lot of time and energy. And that really resonates to what's in the middle of the slide here. These are the hours that our students are committed to doing these different experiences.

[01:39:29] So you can see up there for clinical experience, we had over 15,000 hours. That's not just our students doing 15,000 hours. That's our business partners providing that time and energy to have that mentorship, to have that role to work with our students when they're out there. And so this really resonates the most with me because it shows you the whole stakeholdership of this.

[01:39:48] It's teachers, it's students, it's our employer partners, and it's our families that are dedicated to getting our kids there, preparing our kids for this, and then providing this opportunity for them. And so that's really what this resonates and says to me for all. I also want to point out the 83 businesses that we have up there.

[01:40:05] Those are 83 students that are not doing necessarily school-based enterprise. They are students typically through, like, our MAID program at Meadowbrook High School or other different pockets around the county. are running their own businesses. They are doing different things. I have a student at James River High School that took our social media class a few years ago, loved it so much. He also loves riding roller coasters, and he found a way to connect these two together. He goes all across the United States and rides roller coasters and rates them and then posts about them on social media. He is making more money than I am, and he hasn't even graduated high school. So really, really amazing things that our students are out here doing and creating and having these

[01:40:44] opportunities for. And the biggest and best part of this too is our employer partners. Every year we grow our partners. Every year we develop deeper relationships with them and we appreciate all that they do for us and we hope that this is a return on their investment. We do a job fair every spring for our seniors that are graduating that are looking to go straight into employment and over the past five years we've had about 500 students be employed through this job fair. Most of the students that are doing the job fair are students that have had a work-based learning experience and and we invite our workplace learning partners to come to this job fair.

[01:41:13] They get first dibs to come. The ask when they come is that they have to have one full-time job that they'd be willing to offer to a student on the spot if the student meets the requirements for that. Chad and I have both had some really great experiences through this, but this year I had a young man that went through our nurse aid program, and when he walked away from the job fair, he had three offers, one from HCA, one from Spring Arbor where he did his clinical hours, and one from Bon Secours.

[01:41:36] And I was like, how are you going to decide which one? He goes, the one that's going to give me the most money and the best benefits. So this just really speaks to how they were coming together. But we do want to recognize what our partners are doing, too. Every year, if you've had a chance to come, we do a workplace learning employer partner recognition breakfast, typically in the fall, where we invite all of our employer partners to come and thank them.

[01:41:56] We provide breakfast for them and just really want to give them a space to network and just talk about the experiences that they have. And we've created a 5280 club. Anybody know what 5280 resonates with? How many feet are in a mile? So it's for going the extra mile.

[01:42:12] So these employer partners have provided multiple experiences for multiple students across that pathway. They've done something where it's guest speaking, job shadows, and then also having internships or clinicals. And so we recognize them every year with a plaque that they get to go back and hang in their offices.

[01:42:27] And then at the conclusion of the event, we walk out and we unveil our new word wall. I don't know if you guys have been at the Hull Street campus and seen it outside when you are over there, but it's a really great recognizing of all the partners that we have. I will tell you there is a name difference on the board. And sometimes this generates a good conversation.

[01:42:44] If you look, the font sizes are different. There's a small, a medium, and a large. And that denotes how much impact and how much support those individuals have given for us. So that kind of generates some competitiveness when some car dealerships or, you know, some different organizations see why is their name bigger than mine.

[01:43:01] But that helps them to motivate for next year to see where we can step in and where we can connect to provide more experiences. And so, Mr. Carroll, I heard you say earlier about talking about jobs and keeping people here. and so I wanted to go back to the job fair. So the focus of this is not only to help connect these kids, but it's the ROI. So in over five years, we've had about $14.1 million of economic impact coming back into Chesterfield because those kids are being employed here, they're staying here because they're committed to here.

[01:43:25] A good example of this is I had a student last year that was in here in fleet services, and she had a four-year college opportunity to go off to, but she had been in our automotive program. She connected with our fleet services program here in Chesterfield. She loved the team. She did not go to college.

[01:43:41] She ended up staying here because she already had a full-time job and a pathway that she wanted to be in, and so that's what made her stay and want to be here for us. So these are just some tangible examples of why we do what we do and how these experiences can create these moments for our students to really say, yep, I know I have found my passion.

[01:43:57] I know I've found my jam, or no, I haven't. How can I come back while I've got the school system here to help me and support me to then figure out what my next steps are? And so that's really what work-based learning is because, again, like I said, you can't be what you can't see. So these are the experiences we're creating for our kids. Katie's just doing a few things with a few employers, a couple thousand experiences to that point.

[01:44:19] But when you look at the hours that employers are investing in students, that speaks volume, and this increases year over year. So we must be doing something right from that standpoint. But my anecdote this year for the job fair wasn't about a student.

[01:44:35] It was about a dad. He came with his daughter. He got a job. The dad got the job. But he came for his daughter. But he got a job. transforming lives is what we do. So let's talk about what does that mean? Well, let's talk about the outcomes because outcomes mean a lot. And so when we look at a four-year CT graduation rate of 99.85 percent, that's for students who took two or more CT classes in sequence that we track and we follow. And students who are taking at least two CT classes are graduating on time at 99.85 percent. That's pretty good. We're making a connection, right? And making connection is always important. And from a school standpoint, it doesn't matter where the connection is. If it's

[01:45:15] on the ball field, if it's on the drill field, if it's in band, chorus, orchestra, if it's in English, making the connection makes a difference. But we are required federally to follow up with our students a year after graduation. And that's what these data slides here show, that a year after graduation, tell us how you felt. Were you prepared? What was your satisfaction rate?

[01:45:33] And 94% of our students felt satisfied or extremely satisfied a year after they left us. again speaking to the volume of our quality of experience transitions to our students we'll count anything as a positive transition except for hanging out on somebody's couch right that doesn't count um so students whom are uh going to work uh going to school or going into the military you see we're at 97 of our students ct students taking two classes or more are positively transitioning out we're working on that we'll raise that get some of those kids off the couch and such for us right um but but here here's here's a standpoint that looks fantastic so so you took some experiences and sometimes it's about the teacher you made a relationship with

[01:46:13] and that's why you took the second year and sometimes that's great because you need that relationship with in a school but a year out of school how many what percent of the students are still in that field of study or work and at 82 it's pretty fantastic about making connections because it is about students along the way who have tried something decided that wasn't for them and we tried something else for them so that speaks volumes for the resiliency from our students So that's a brief little window in what we do in CTE to help students find their career future and connect to our community to hopefully be able to stay here upon graduation.

[01:46:46] They've got to go get more education to come back because they've got a connection in our community. Thank you. Just a very quick question.

[01:47:01] On a previous slide in the upper right-hand corner was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I was curious about that. Yeah, that's a great one, right? So in the presentation here is, That students earn credentials.

[01:47:17] We've got 9,100 credentials. We're going to be 92 in a minute. I know we're going to be over 9,200 students. Earned industry credentials like Microsoft, like Cisco, like and having a work-based learning experience. It's like peanut butter and jelly because it just affirms, yes, this is my experience and I'm connected to this and my future.

[01:47:34] So, yep. I wasn't sure when you said that the kids have found their jam. There you go. There you go. That's even better. That's even better. Well, thank you for what you guys do. And it's obvious that it proves out with 82% of them still being in the same career path when they get out or after a year.

[01:47:58] So that's awesome. My ex-turn that I had is going to UVA this fall. So I told her to make sure to apply for the internships here that we have in that summer for college students. So that's awesome.

[01:48:14] Yeah. Thank you so much for what you do. Thank you. Ms. Carroll, go ahead. I just want to say thanks. And the expansion now getting more room at Hull Street. So hopefully more kids will have an opportunity.

[01:48:30] I think one of the slides which showed that we had a lot more kids apply that could actually get into programs. And so hopefully, do you know what that increase in capacity is going to be? We're going to increase 650 seats. Yeah, that's good. We still won't meet.

[01:48:49] We'll still be oversubscribed, but we're able to set 650 more students. And the nice part about serving 650 more students is that 650 more students out of our already crowded high schools as well, too. So we answer reliefs on both sides. Hey, we got a high school coming. We're working on that, too. Thank you.

[01:49:09] D, 2025 General Assembly legislation, Mr. Minks. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, every year we go through legislation that's been passed by the General Assembly that the board, which is either mandated for the county to adopt or the board has an option to adopt by ordinance.

[01:49:35] And we've got, I think we have 10 items on here total. One is just an item that is of some interest because we have been following this particular legislation. But the first three of these items deal with mandatory changes.

[01:49:51] They're all in the land use area. One has to do with notices and how they're sent by first-class mail and an affidavit system after we send notices of public hearings. The second one has to do with a bill which significantly changed the way that we have to deal with subdivision and site plan approvals.

[01:50:11] So it's been constricted our time frames and forced us to get things out for state review, usually BDOT review, faster. So both of those items we're recommending that we incorporate those into the ZOMOD.

[01:50:28] process and that they would come to you as part of ZOMOD when you consider that. But since they are requirements, they are functionally being put in place as of July 1, but we're going to incorporate it also into the ordinance so it's consistent with the practice.

[01:50:44] The last one in the mandatory area has to do with site plan subdivision plat approvals, and this actually was a fairly major change, and it removes the authority of the Planning commission to consider these subdivisions and site plans.

[01:51:01] And so now they're all are required by law to be considered administratively and it also then shortens the time for these reviews as well. This one is going to take some time to develop so we're going to be putting that one together and we're recommending that that one then go to the planning commission for a recommendation and then come to the board.

[01:51:20] So those are the three items that are mandatory. The optional changes are a variety of different things. One is we have a new authority to set up a local, it's called a Foundation and Soil Management Fund.

[01:51:38] And this would be to make grants actually to individual, to private property owners, to manage soil problems that they might have. If the board will recall, years ago we had a shrink-swell soil program. This is a little bit different from this.

[01:51:55] This is actually to set up a private, in effect, publicly funded private grant program. We've never done anything quite like this, and so we're asking that this one be studied and that we report back to the board in November on this, on what the recommendation would be.

[01:52:11] So this would be something actually quite new for us. The second one has to do with deadlines for the zoning public notices, And this changes the publication of the last notice before a public hearing.

[01:52:29] There are two notices. The second one right now says seven days before the hearing. This would allow it up to five days before the hearing, so it allows a little flexibility. And we're recommending that that go to the Planning Commission and come to the board. There is a very technical one under the Virginia Public Procurement Act, but actually fairly important.

[01:52:52] And this has to do with technology contracts. Technology contracts are the most difficult to negotiate because we're dealing with tech companies throughout the country and actually throughout the world in how we are dealing with what their contracts are going to look like, what their terms are.

[01:53:16] And any way that we can standardize terms and basically enforce some standardization is good for us. This law actually allows us, if the board adopts an ordinance, to establish some of those terms which keep coming up over and over and over in our negotiations.

[01:53:35] So we are recommending that we actually set this for a public hearing and have that public hearing in July because it really would be good for our contract negotiations with tech companies. There is a provision here also for shortening the appeal period for notices, for the appeal of notices of zoning violation for particular non-agricultural excavation material waste and debris violations.

[01:54:04] And we're recommending that this be referred to the Planning Department and our department to prepare an amendment and that be forwarded to the Planning Commission and eventually the board consider that as an ordinance change. The tree canopy fund is, again, new authority, and I will say that on this particular one, the planning department is very concerned.

[01:54:30] This is establishing a fund to collect and maintain and distribute fees collected from developers who can't provide a tree canopy, that they put it in the fund, and that contributes to tree planting in other areas. It doesn't sound like a bad idea but planting is concerned that actually that developers may use this as an opportunity to avoid their responsibilities to maintain tree canopies. So right now we are suggesting that we not deal with this at this

[01:55:05] moment and study it and maybe revisit it sometime in the future if it looks like a good idea. The last one is a very elaborate provision that was enacted by the General Assembly to permit, either by ordinance or policy, for differential water connection fees for different types of development.

[01:55:33] And while there may be some logic to this, the problem that we saw was by setting up differential connection fees, differential capital recovery charges, other availability fees in our utility system, it may well violate the covenants that we have on our utility bonds, which are generally providing for some uniformity between different categories of users. So we are concerned about this. We're going to take a look, a more look at it, but right now we don't recommend doing

[01:56:09] this because we think it will raise concerns with our bondholders and conceivably violate covenants. And needless to say, being one of the very few jurisdictions that have triple A rated, triple, triple A rated, yeah, quadruple now rated, but in the utility area where we do revenue bonds, it is virtually unheard of to have triple A ratings on revenue bonds, and we have them.

[01:56:38] So we generally don't want to do anything that might jeopardize that. So we're suggesting not doing anything on that. The legislation of interest is really a new bill that follows up on last year's legislation on reporting by precinct the various types of ballots, absentee, provisional, and other ballots.

[01:56:59] This is to follow up to have the Department of Elections actually set up standards and guidelines on how to do that at the local level. So we think that this is a good idea. It's certainly needed in some of the smaller jurisdictions throughout Virginia, but it will be standards that affect our reporting as well, and we'll be working with the registrar and the local electoral board on how to implement these standards when they're finally developed.

[01:57:24] But this was something that the board was very much involved in in its infancy, and so now we're seeing it developed into the standards area. So if all that sounds good, we would just ask the board to allow us to go forward based on those recommendations, if that's all right with the board.

[01:57:41] And we don't need a vote, just a sentence. I think it looks like we're good to go. Thank you. Thank you. E, consent agenda highlights.

[01:57:56] Mr. Harris.

[01:58:10] Board members, run through the consent agenda highlights. We have more than normal today. I've got ten things. A meaty consent agenda, so if you'll indulge me, I'll get through them quickly. but we did feel like they were all worth at least noting. In no particular order, first one, you are setting a public hearing for July for a variety of transportation projects. This is federal, state, and regional funding primarily, up $62 million, just kind of all bundled together.

[01:58:42] It puts you over your public hearing threshold. So that's the reason for the action. The largest project here, the dollar project is 360 widening. That is 32 of the $62 million total. So that's just a preview of common attractions for next month. Same vein, setting a public hearing to amend your business license ordinance. This was a 26 budget item. You built the financial framework to allow the threshold to increase to $550,000. We've done this over the last three or four years

[01:59:17] on a regular basis to make sure that we are keeping folks in that $10 slot, that they stay in there. So work closely with the commissioner to do this. So this is following through on that budget promise, setting the public hearing that the commissioner's office has plenty of time to get all of the forms and the processes ready for tax year 27 or calendar year 27 when this would go into effect. So we're just working ahead. Third item for you, a permission to do a construction

[01:59:51] contract for the Fallon Trail Marina Drive to Eleham Avenue. So it's sort of a combination item. There's a variety of actions associated with that, adding some additional funds, some local dollars, but also some VDOT reimbursement to get that segment of the Fallon Trail moving along.

[02:00:09] So that item is on your consent agenda for tonight. OAA funding, you've been a regular topic for you all. We've been working our way through those funds, trying to find places where they meet an existing need and fit within the overall mission of what we're trying to do.

[02:00:26] We've had the opportunity to work with the court system and several of the judges on the veterans treatment docket. And so what this does is appropriate $290,000 of those opioid monies to support that program, kind of like you heard in the previous presentation, we have a bit of a wait list there. So this allows us to incorporate more folks into that veteran docket and see how that plays out. But it's a nice use of the opioid dollar. So we have that on your consent for tonight. Health department consolidation. Interesting topic. As you know, it's a, we're

[02:01:03] joint, one of our many joint efforts with the city of Colonial Heights. They have a small satellite office in the city of Colonial Heights. And we were approached by Colonial Heights and the health district itself to consolidate that here on the Chesterfield campus, similarly how we do in social services. So all this is on your agenda tonight. We have an agreement between the county and the state, essentially state health department. And over time, we've made amendments to that.

[02:01:34] and so this adds an amendment to that ongoing agreement that shows how the consolidation will work. Colonial Heights has been a close partner with this. They have signed off. It's gone through all of the state approvals, so it just kind of defines in one page how this relationship will work. There's only about five staff, I believe, that work in the city of Colonial Heights, so it's a relatively small consolidation. We'll work with them to certainly get the word out about that.

[02:02:04] we will end up getting a financial credit on our payment to the state for for housing those folks here so it seems to make sense both localities and and the state health department are in support of the of the consolidation sixth item for your consideration traditional year-end adjustments county and schools combination item on your agenda not not a lot of fanfare here pretty projected to be thin margins on both sides county and schools and the predominant recommended uses are really kind of in the same camp for on the county side is to accelerate our fund balance

[02:02:44] policy moving from you all set out a multi-year goal we didn't try to do it all in one one fell swoop is it eight and a half percent of expenditures now we want to take that to nine and a half So we would fund that policy, which really is, you know, the heart of many of our financial ratings, making sure that we are maintaining that.

[02:03:04] So that's the primary use of any surplus dollars that would be available on our side. And schools, they're projecting a total of around $11 million, and they would set the bulk of that seven of that total aside for a use, a revenue that would be a use in their FY27 budget.

[02:03:24] So 25 surplus seeding a future financial plan. That's been a standard practice. They've been coming down off of that number, but $7 million would certainly represent another reduction. So that would be the primary use there. The bulk of the rest of the money for schools would either go into school buses or the debt service reserve, which we're setting aside to execute their referendum. Next item, FY26 budget amendments. This really kind of represents the final stitch before we get to July 1st. This is the culmination of the state's work and what you have

[02:04:01] before you is in the comp board space. They have made some dollars available for some additional positions. They've done this sporadically over the course of the last 10 years. The bulk of the resources here will be invested in the Commonwealth Attorney's Office. They did a study to look at judicial workloads and felt like six additional attorneys were warranted in the Commonwealth attorney space. We've long since been an advocate of that position, so we're glad to see the state come through. And then there is one position that would be made available for the circuit court clerk's office. So those seven positions would be created and then appropriating the funds,

[02:04:39] all state dollars, to support those. So we didn't have that work when you all voted in April. We knew there would be some changes. We've worked closely with Natalie, Casey, and that team to figure out all the details. And so that's on your consent agenda tonight to create those positions and appropriate those associated dollars. Next up, really kind of getting a jumpstart on FY26.

[02:05:01] One of your CIP highlights was tennis court renovation and rehab. Mr. Bowles and his team did a facility condition assessment of county facilities all across all of our parks and schools, and James River High School, Matoica, and Thomas Dale were most in need of this rehabilitation. So we're trying to go about this in a very deliberate fashion. Again, that was the FY26 included already in your budget. All this is doing is getting the contractual part of that moving along. They've got some pretty, you know, tight windows to get this work done with temperature

[02:05:39] and other considerations. So trying to jumpstart on that before we get into the next fiscal year. If they didn't do it this way, they basically lose 30 days waiting for your July meeting to jump on that. Last two are really kind of companion items. We do have a reimbursement resolution on here. This is just a prospective ask of staff. We don't have any immediate barring plans on the general government side for FY26, although we talked to you throughout the budget process, particularly some large HVAC projects and some other things that we would

[02:06:14] bundle those together potentially if economic conditions warranted. Some of that work is beginning now. And so what the resolution says is if we do borrow at some point in the future, we can reimburse ourselves for work that's going to begin today. So it still gives us that flexibility. Those projects could proceed on a slower timetable, all cash basis, or we could have a borrowing sometime in the fall. This allows us to pay ourselves back for work that's happening right now. And then lastly, your resolution of support for the bond sale that is scheduled to

[02:06:50] occur next month. This is us just working through the 22 referendum, $75 million on the school side, primarily to support the next phase of the high school, which has recently broken ground. So, you know, just again, continuing to chip away at that 540. And then there's also a up to $50 million dollar authorization for us to refinance existing bonds. So that's no new debt, no new projects. It's just like we refinanced your home mortgage. We've got some series that are right to be refinanced at a lower rate and save, we're estimating right now between half a million and

[02:07:26] $600,000. So those kind of are treated as two separate transactions, but both have to be authorized by the board of supervisors. So with that, I'm happy to take any questions you might after thank you yes sir item five reports are there any questions regarding the reports seeing no questions the reports are approved item six 15 minute citizen comment period on unscheduled matters this time is designated for citizens to talk to the board of supervisors it is not a time

[02:08:03] for dialogue with board members and it is not a question answer period those conversations can easily occur with individual board members outside of the board meeting as a reminder the board's procedures state no citizens shall speak on any matter of business that is a subject on the board's agenda for that day and each speaker shall have three minutes to address the board. We have one

[02:08:24] speaker, King Solomon Shepard. First of all, I would like to highlight Ms. Susan Wilson. She's

[02:09:16] a star. She is so polite and helpful and you had two other people, I don't know their names, They were nice to come out and help a little guy like me, okay? I once ran for city council years ago when I was young.

[02:09:32] I'm 69, not interested in no more politics. And by sitting here, I don't want any of you guys, seriously. I mean, y'all have to listen to a lot of things, and that's where I'm coming from. As a matter of fact, I admire you to just want to sit and listen to so many things, okay?

[02:09:54] It's admiration, all right? I came, I gave you a copy. I suffer, I'm a 100% military disabled veteran. I have mental issues, memory issues, you know, medical issues.

[02:10:15] So I can't write, can't spell very well, but I speak. And so this is just a copy of one of the things that I have spoken. And and also the letter is a copy where I had to come to a situation with your government and I highlighted all of the laws that pertain to people with disabilities and how and how it affected me.

[02:10:48] I have to come back again in January. No, July. I told you I struggled. OK, I struggled. It's serious. It's real talk. I have to come back in July. And so I just wanted to give you something about me before I have to appear for you officially.

[02:11:10] Because a lot of times, you guys don't know the people you're dealing with. So the Spirit, which I believe in God, told me and share one of my writings. Okay? Is that okay? It's about America. All right? It's nothing negative. All right, the last one I sent out, it's just a text message because, like I said, I can't write.

[02:11:37] Got to find it. Sorry. This is a modified version of a previous message. It is a message that needs to be shared during this time. America, stand tall, accountable and patriotic for all American citizens in our nation.

[02:11:57] Sometimes in life, our heavenly supreme power wants Americans to become both military and civilian airmen, soldiers, and sailors to assist with combating evil spirits and humans through actions.

[02:12:13] Mr. Shepard, go ahead. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm sorry. When I do this, I'm ready to cry. Excuse me. Okay. These negative individuals and spirits can infect Americans' personal lives, communities, and infrastructure of our nation.

[02:12:42] These negativities pose a threat to our nation's security, peace, goodness, and righteousness. Americans must stand up for each other as Americans. Americans have heavenly backup, and we will not fight these battles alone. Ephesians 6, 13, 2 Kings 6, 15 through 17, Psalms 121, 1 through 2.

[02:13:08] Americans are heavily blessed with great military forces, great law enforcement, security, intelligent agents, both domestic and international. Our American personnel of the military law enforcement security intelligence agents, both domestic and international, work very hard and place their lives in danger to secure and protect our great America.

[02:13:37] America, as we look around the world, citizens in the other communities are willing to do whatever is necessary to help to protect their country in time of a national emergency crisis. For far too long, American citizens are not trained and prepared for a United States emergency crisis to assist, protect, and take action along with our leadership in military, law enforcement, intelligence agencies, and security to observe, stand up, fight, and protect American children, families, neighbors, friends, communities, industries, and governments.

[02:14:16] As Americans freely give their efforts to assist the leadership within these protective agencies, the members within our honorable protective agency by laws and spirits must be trained and held accountable to understand they are not above the American citizens and the law.

[02:14:34] The spirit of mutual respect and cooperation should never be compromised due to unauthorized authoritative actions and behavior, biases, prejudices, and discrimination featuring Americans against Americans. All Americans are an equal and respected part of this great heavenly nation filled with love and compassion for the betterment of all Americans in our nation.

[02:14:58] American industries and government must provide quality jobs, housing, health care, education, fitness, and food so that Americans can be a strong nation and able to defend all Americans. Americans, imagine asking one million homeless Americans that are weak in their bodies and spirits to go out and fight for their fellow wealthier Americans, brothers and sisters, who did not previously care if their weaker fellow American citizens did not previously have

[02:15:32] decent housing, health care, food, education, etc. My fellow wealthier brothers and sisters of America, it's time to realize that Americans are becoming more isolated as a nation. Americans need to come together as a stronger nation to provide better opportunity toward each other American's successes. In spite of the many, many current pessimistic viewpoints in America, America can collectively, with honor and pride, rise up to our heavenly God-given strength again. It's imperative

[02:16:09] that America is God's chosen nation, that's my opinion, and people demonstrate heavenly exemplary leadership from the heavens down to the earth beneath. In America, we must pray and defend the legacies of our Heavenly Father's purpose to stand against evil and to teach humanity how to love one another. Much love, King Solomon. Thank you so much, Chairman. Thank you.

[02:16:36] Item seven, closed session pursuant to 2.2-3711A. One, Code of Virginia 1950 is amended relating to the performance of the clerk to the board. Mr. Chair, we need a motion to go into closed session.

[02:16:54] Second. All in favor? Aye. Good evening and welcome to the evening session on the June 25th

[02:19:42] Board of Supervisors meeting. We verified that all board members have received copies of the comments posted on the online comment portal for consideration on matters before us tonight. These comments are part of the public record and will be attached to the meeting minutes.

[02:19:58] At this time, I'll ask Ms. Snyder to give the invocation. Thank you. I have been a little there's been a lot of crazy stuff going on in our world right now. And I just, I actually called Sean Franco, Pastor Sean, and talked with him for a while. And he sent me something and I just wanted to share it because it has to do with what we were talking about. It's just a song, a piece

[02:20:32] from Deuteronomy. God defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow and loves the foreigner residing among us giving them food and clothing and you are to love those who are foreigners for you and your families yourself were foreigners i ask that we just try to be more kind and understanding to all of our neighbors and community members and to hold each other up in this time thank you so much amen amen we would like to call forward deputy county administrator matt

[02:21:10] Harris to lead the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Item 11, County Administration Update, Dr. Casey. Good evening, members of the board and the public that's here and the public that is viewing us tonight. I just have a few

[02:21:44] items to present to you as part of the county administrator comments. If I could have Kim Conley come up to the podium. She's our director of community engagement and resources and she's here to talk tonight about a youth advisory board presentation that we've made as an annual exercise at the end of that advisory board's tenure each school year. So the advisory board itself is 21 members of our high schools and of which 10 of them were graduating seniors and these students you know, select a topic of the utmost importance and relevance to through their lens. And it's our

[02:22:19] goal to try and take their input and knowledge and really consulting advice as wisdom. And their topic will be about addressing mental health issues in our middle school students and helping build positive cultures and the importance of community service. Ms. Connelly. Thank you, Dr.

[02:22:35] Casey. Good evening, the honorable chair, members of the board, and of course, Dr. Casey. On behalf of Community Engagement and Resources, and in the absence of Chloe Carter, Youth Engagement Coordinator, I have the pleasure of presenting to you the incredible work that Youth Advisory Board, the Youth Advisory Board, has completed this year. The Youth Advisory Board provides a unique opportunity for juniors and seniors from Chesterfield County Public High School, as well as up to eight at-large members who attend school outside of Chesterfield County Public Schools to participate in Chesterfield County government learning government operations.

[02:23:11] This year, we had 21 members, 10 of whom as seniors appointed to serve. The Youth Advisory Board provides a youth perspective to the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors as well as county departments, often in the form of focus groups, service projects, town halls, and more.

[02:23:28] This is an opportunity for youth to use their voices to serve the community, experience county government firsthand, and gain leadership skills. This year, the Youth Advisory Board continued their mission to address youth violence in the county in partnership with Chesterfield County Mental Health and Chesterfield County Public Schools.

[02:23:48] The students reviewed national, state, and local school and community climate data on youth violence to create a prevention program for middle school students that address mental health, building positive culture, and the importance of community service.

[02:24:04] This program served 120 students at Robius Middle School and 80 students at Carver Middle School. A special thank you to the following Chesterfield County departments for partnering with our students in the creation of their project.

[02:24:20] Rebecca Lent, Senior Clinician of Chesterfield County Mental Health. Audra Lancaster-Boyce, Coordinator of School Counseling and Mental Health Services, Chesterfield County Public Schools. In addition, we had a big thank you for our adult volunteer, Representative Dr. Siobhan C. Pulley, representing the Dell District and a school counseling re-enrollment coordinator for the Department of Juvenile Justice, for her dedication in supporting the Youth Advisory Board and their project.

[02:24:53] Now, I would like to invite the Board President, Dia Patel, and Board Secretary Reese Montgomery to speak briefly about their experience. This year we had the privilege of presenting our workshop at both Robius and Carver Middle Schools. We ensured that we included games and activities that engage students to get

[02:25:33] out of their seats and involved with the content. The students learned new information about each of the topics and stated that the information was helpful and that they would like more programming like this in the future. The program was so well received that we were asked to come back by the Carver Middle School Administration to present this workshop to their afterschool program and to return next year to serve a new group of students. This was a rewarding experience and we thank the county for supporting us in our efforts. Good evening Honorable Board. So we created

[02:26:13] the IMPACT project last year and we reintroduced it this year again as a group and our goal with it was to decrease the amount of negative student interactions within the Chesterfield County within students but we also hope they take it farther and do it just outside of school and we introduced topics about building culture getting to know other students and getting to understand their backgrounds and perspectives the importance of mental health and mental health strategies and also prevention strategies when people feel elevated emotions how to cope with that as well

[02:26:47] as emphasizing the importance of community service and how that isn't just a service to who you're doing it to but also yourself and then we also provided resources for students at their school, what they have available to them, and how they can reach out for more help.

[02:27:05] I really enjoyed my experience on the Youth Advisory Board, and I really thank the board members and all the members on the Youth Advisory Board, as well as everyone we were able to partner with to accomplish this. Thank you. Thank you, Deanne Reese, for sharing your experience in leadership and with the Youth Advisory Board program.

[02:27:33] Will the additional members please come forward when your name is called to be recognized? The certificates, we have new certificates.

[02:27:53] Anjel Patel, with the Bermuda District, representing Clover Hill High School.

[02:28:23] Audrey Shepley, representing the Bermuda District, Monacan High School. Evan Lern, representing the Clover Hill District, Clover Hill High School. Nia Marocker, representing Clover Hill District, Clover Hill High School.

[02:28:43] Joseph Nugy, representing Clover Hill, Code RVA Regional High School. Allison Aviles-Kintania, representing Clover Hill District, Maggie L. Walker, Governor's School.

[02:29:04] Leah Craft, representing the Dale District, Elsie Byrd High School. Kara Holly, representing the Dale District, Guardian Christian Academy. Shani Goginani, representing Matoka District, Clover Hill High School.

[02:29:24] Audrey Tang, representing the Matoka District, Maggie L. Walker, Governor's School. Hayden Sarniam, represent Matauka District and Manchester High School, excuse me.

[02:29:42] Reese Montgomery, represent the Malothian District, Malothian High School. Gabrielle Jones, represent the Malothian District, Malothian High School. Dia Patel, represent the Malothian District, Malothian High School.

[02:29:59] Anya? Oh, Jayden. Jayden Sutton, represent Bermuda District, Trinity Episcopal School. Please help me to recognize these wonderful students for being a part of the Youth Advisory

[02:30:20] Board for 2024-2025. All right. Well, first off, we want to thank y'all for participating in the

[02:31:06] program. And my next question is, how many of y'all are seniors? All right. The juniors, are y'all coming back to the program next year? Awesome. Glad to hear that. For the seniors, we're sorry that you're moving out of the Chesterfield school system to your next destination whether it be college or to work or to the military but we want to remind you that when you figure out what you want to do there's places in Chesterfield County to have those jobs and we gave you all a lapel

[02:31:41] pin because we recognize you all now as ambassadors of the county so please help share the county story with the people that you come in contact with. Anybody else? We'll make sure she gets one. Anybody? Any other board members want to make a comment? Joe? Did all of you get a little

[02:32:05] pelt pen? All right. Well, thank you all. Congratulations and great job. Mr. Chair, I only

[02:32:48] have about three more items to cover. If I could have Dave Good and Teresa Boniface, Director, Assistant Director of Constituent and Media Services, come up to the podium. You know, everyone's heard of Grammys, Tonys, Emmys, and Oscars, but apparently there's something called the Hermes and I've always pronounced it wrong and Dave will probably correct me again but it is the recognition of a media department public or private sector across the United States for the content that they produce and in case for Chesapeake County content that we are gearing for citizen engagement and citizen information so with that said I like them to give a little overview of

[02:33:27] that plus an additional recognition they got from the PRSA thank you Dr. Casey Mr. Chair, Mr. Vice Chair, fellow board members, Dr. Casey, Mr. Minx, it's my pleasure to be here tonight, and we try to make this as brief as possible. But this is one of the nights, as you may recall from last year when we did something very similar.

[02:33:46] I'm very proud to recognize the Constituent Media Services team tonight, especially our group that works within our Communications and Media Division. This team had an outstanding showing in the Hermes Creative awards, as they have for the last four years. This year we won seven awards, including three honorable mentions, three gold awards, and another platinum award, which is the highest honor that we can get from Hermes. To understand Hermes, it's an international competition. It's not just government. It's private sector. It's entities and agencies and individuals from around the world

[02:34:26] that your work is judged against, and we've done quite well with that again this year, and we're very proud of that. We also, I wanted to mention, as Dr. Casey did, that we were also recognized recently by the Richmond chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.

[02:34:48] Our recognition was in conjunction with the department that the lady you just heard from, Kim Conley, oversees, and that's our Community Engagement and Resources Department, which we shared that recognition with. We were recognized for multicultural engagement related to the county's Cafe Con La Comunidad program.

[02:35:06] So I want to congratulate Kim and her group for that recognition as well. I also want to mention that our sports visitation and entertainment department was also recognized as a finalist in that same competition. In a moment, Assistant Director Teresa Boniface, I'm going to ask her to take the mic, and she'll take you through some brief details about the individual awards won and show a brief video.

[02:35:28] But I would like to take just a moment to have members of our Constituent Media Services team please stand and be recognized.

[02:35:50] Lastly, before I turn the mic over to Teresa, I want to thank all of you. It's with your continued support that we continue to do the outstanding work that we do in communications and local government. In so many ways, each of you help us tell Chesterfield County's story.

[02:36:06] could be sitting down with brad franklin to do a podcast talking with jim mcconnell to add some comment and flavor to a blog working with our constituent services side of the shop to host community conversation meetings or stand before lots of audiences both locally and throughout the region to speak on numerous occasions throughout the year it could also be standing in front of the camera yourself many times to be recorded this video so we appreciate that support and we appreciate you being part of the team to help tell those stories with that i'm

[02:36:38] going to turn things over to theresa thank you good evening chairman members of the board dr casey it is an honor to stand before you today to celebrate the remarkable achievements of our communications and media division like dave said our team recently had been recognized with numerous accolades for the hermes creative awards and the virginia public relations awards these awards are a testament to the team's hard work creativity and dedication i'm thrilled that for the second year year in a row, we brought home the prestigious Platinum Hermes Award for Mark Gormis' exceptional

[02:37:13] photo portfolio. The award reflects his commitment to capturing the essence of Chesterfield through powerful images and storytelling. We're also proud recipients of multiple gold Hermes Awards for the 2024 State of the County presentation and podcast, which was the first of its kind in the region, the Unlocking Harmony with Chesterfield Harp program video, which highlighted Jelly Roll's recent visit to the jail, and our Chesterfield News Minute, which keeps our residents informed and engaged with timely updates. Additionally, we received several Haramay's honorable mentions for the experienced Chesterfield map design, which beautifully highlights our county's

[02:37:50] attractions and offerings, the strategic plan poster design, which effectively communicates our visions and goals, and the AEDs and Parks videos, a crucial initiative promoting safety within our recreational areas. In addition to the seven Hare Maze Awards, new this year, as Dave said, we submitted for the Virginia Public Relations Awards, hosted by the Public Relations Society of America's Richmond Chapter. These awards draw submissions from other local and state agencies, as well as regional and national PR agencies. I'm excited to announce that we received the Commonwealth Award, a first for us, in the event in the Multicultural Communications

[02:38:29] award category for Cafe Conla Comunidad. This event was launched in 2024 to engage the county's rapidly growing Spanish-speaking population and help them gain a better understanding of local government. These awards are not just a reflection of the talent and dedication of the communications and media team, but also a testament to the unwavering support and guidance provided by this board and our county leadership. Your commitment to fostering an environment where creativity and innovation can thrive has been instrumental in this success. Finally, before I show this quick

[02:39:05] video, highlighting all the words I just mentioned, I want to thank the communications and media team whose relentless pursuit of excellence and passion for their work have made these achievements possible. Their hard work and creativity continue to position Chesterfield as a communications leader in not only the region, but in the Commonwealth as a whole. And I am extremely proud to be part of this team. So with that, we'll show a quick video.

[02:39:43] Thank you very much.

[02:41:03] Try not to take up too much more time. There's one more thing we have to do. As you just saw, one of the awards that we received was in recognition of the production work to turn our state of the county address into a podcast, a live recorded podcast nonetheless. And of course, you can't do a state of the county address without your county administrator.

[02:41:22] So at this time, I'd like to ask Dr. Casey to please stand as we present to him what I think is most likely his very first Hermes Creative Award certificate. Thank you. Didn't see that coming, but I'll stick it on my resume.

[02:41:48] Hold on one second. I thought for sure they were going to bring Cole out. I have a restraining order against Cole. Anyhow, back to business. Thank you. If Consuela Wilson could stand, she's our Director of Accounting, and we have a long-standing deal that I never call the Director of Accounting to the podium to be recognized because she is a behind-the-scenes person and a behind-the-scenes department that we periodically recognize for their achievements.

[02:42:21] It goes without saying, I was 17 years old, Ms. Wilson, when you got your first Government Finance Officers Association gold certificate, if I will, of achievement in financial reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association. So you've been doing that for, I'm not going to say how many years now because you'll do the math for my age.

[02:42:39] But having said that, this is a national recognition in premier accounting standards of not just auditing a report that's unqualified, which is the best opinion, but putting the information in a document, a nationally standardized document, for consumers of information to consistently and best read financial information.

[02:42:58] So on behalf of Chesfield County and me being a former accountant, I want to thank you very much. Two more items.

[02:43:13] One is, you know, we periodically go through bond ratings with our three rating agencies. We've been doing that in a triple-triple-A status for 29 years. So the reaffirmation of the triple-triple-A, which is, again, itself representative of 1% of localities across the country, attain that.

[02:43:33] That is actually not the news that I would espouse each time, only because it's just, you know, it's expected of us to do that. But what I want to share is now we are one of only three localities in the entire country to earn the fourth rating agency out of New York City's Kroll Bond Rating Agency, also known as KBRA, and for the first time in our rating with them have earned a AAA rating.

[02:44:00] So I'm not sure what to call it because we've been saying AAA for so long. Some people call it quad AAA. There's some folks that I've talked to that call it Quadzilla, which I think I like that term better. But I will say it really just recognizes that these ratings are from four different perspectives now, independent agencies that really are trying to determine who is the best of the best in honoring its word of making debt service payments.

[02:44:28] After all, that's the underlying nature of a bond rating. It's not where you are today. it's where they think you're going to be each year over the next 20 to 30 years in honoring your commitments. So it's a futuristic, if you will, validation to who you are, but it's based upon the past and years and years past of not just this Board of Supervisors commitment, but many of your predecessors of yesteryear, including some that I see in the audience tonight. Having said that, I want to just again thank our team underneath Matt Harris for leading that rating process.

[02:44:59] Bottom line for the citizens of Chesterfield County, other than the validation process, it gets us the lowest borrowing rates possible in the United States. In fact, right now, our bond rating is better than the United States government in that respect. My last topic is, there were some news stories, and again, we don't necessarily do monthly report outs, but it goes without saying.

[02:45:22] in early January when Richmond had its water issues. Chesterfield immediately shut off its interconnecting valves and in some respects that helped the city maintain pressure to preserve water for a little bit longer before it ultimately was not able to do so.

[02:45:38] The CIT just is for disclosure purposes. Chesterfield is a connecting point to the city of Richmond. We have a very longstanding arrangement with them, longstanding contracts that go out many years and up to 32 million gallons per day of water can flow into Chesterfield County through multiple connection points. Needless to say, we are a partner with them. During some of these crises, though, we've been a partner the other direction in helping pressurize their system and even keeping places like Chippenham Hospital operational during crises. So we are going to work further together, so much so just for disclosure purposes. Mayor Avula, with consultation with the three

[02:46:17] other localities, Hanover, Henrico, and Chesterfield, which we've been doing quite frequently since January, has thought, and we concur that a group of individuals, representative of the board of supervisors with the chairs of the three counties, myself and my peers throughout the region, and the more important aspect of it is our four utility directors all together discussing, again, the reliability, the availability, the redundancy, the quality of water. It's a very enlightening topic because it's something we take for granted, having potable

[02:46:52] water, but we are having those discussions. We have been having them. This brings a little bit more formality and awareness to it, so much so that Governor Youngkin, who we had met with just yesterday with the leaders of the localities and my peers, was very pleased with the regional collaboration and cooperation that has taken part thus far, much of which has just been more one-on-one conversations, quite frankly, between peers and utility directors. But needless to say, his interest in this topic is warranting our reporting back to him, perhaps even monthly, over the next three to four months, as we may need to define what is the state's role,

[02:47:29] if any, in this process. But we are going to define ourselves so much better for Chesterfield, and also the region will be defining itself as well. So that is the closure of my remarks. thank you thank you and board member reports miss Snyder thank you chair so let's see first off congratulations to dr. Casey for being selected as recipient of the inaugural Virginia Business Magazines and Virginia C-Suites Awards he

[02:48:07] was selected as one of the top in the C-Suites for government category and it was a pleasure to attend the ceremony recognizing this group of outstanding leaders who demonstrate impressive resumes and lead their organizations to success, making positive impacts on the lives of others. We're so grateful to have your leadership here, sir. Next, please. So Weidmuller, which is in

[02:48:39] the uh south lake uh industrial park um celebrated their 50th anniversary uh being here since 1975 um they're originally from germany and and it was an an a very um interesting day i actually was talking with the ceo and um the family who started this company was there visiting from germany for the celebration and I said well my my husband's family's from Germany and and they asked where and when I said well you probably won't notice where it is because it's way up in the middle of nowhere

[02:49:16] up towards the North Sea and I said the name and they're just like what did you say and her family was from the same town her her grandparents and was the the pastor at the church in Bridgestead and it's the smallest little town you'd ever it's almost to the Denmark border and I was it was no one has ever known where it was. So it was a very momentous, I don't know, it was just a clandestine type moment, I think. But congratulations to them and many more years here in the United States

[02:49:47] with their innovative products. So this is the second annual outdoor fest. It was a fantastic, fun-filled day of rock climbing performances and kayaking. I see Mark caught me on a kayak here.

[02:50:05] It was great to learn about the outdoor recreation activities. They had dog water jumping this year, all sorts of different things. They had some row teams there from the, what is the name of your, Robius Landing.

[02:50:22] The crew team was there doing demonstrations. So it's awesome, and you should come and check it out next year. Hopefully it isn't as windy. It's been two years it's been windy this. Next slide. As you may have seen on NBC12, I had the pleasure of joining several county staff members with the Chesterfield Colonial Heights Families First and Infant Toddlers Connection of Chesterfield programs to help judge the second annual diaper drive or diaper dash and the inaugural toddler trot.

[02:50:59] So the little girl that's on the side on the left over here actually won last year for the diaper dash. And so this year, she came to cheer on her sister, who did another run.

[02:51:16] But it was a great event. This event is held during the hit cancer below the belt, 5K also. It's just a great community event down at the stadium.

[02:51:37] So next slide, please. I'm excited to be hosting two community conversations next month. Actually, mine are at Woodlake Community Center on July 16th at 6 p.m.

[02:51:53] and the North Courthouse Library on July 29th at 2 p.m. So please come out. I love these. I don't have any plans. I just open it up for conversations, and I love just having an open conversation and hear what's concerning you and what you might want to see in the community.

[02:52:15] And finally, this coming up soon, next month, we are celebrating 50 years of Rockwood Park. This family-friendly event will have a DJ, Bounce House, Inflatables, Rockwood Nature Center activities, and Gelati Celeste is revealing a special ice cream flavor.

[02:52:36] This is not your special flavor. It's a different one this time. In honor of the park, we're going to have a new one. All right. So we look, oh, okay. They said it's not going to be as good. Okay. We look forward.

[02:52:53] We look forward to seeing everyone on July 19th from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. And there'll also be the Latino farmers market going on during that time period also. So that concludes my report. Thanks so much. Mr. Holland. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Juneteenth Community Leaders Breakfast was a A wonderful celebration that commemorated freedom for all.

[02:53:22] Juneteenth, which is June 19th, marks the date in 1865 when the last enslaved people in the United States learned they was free. This is two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, which was effective January 1st, 1863, by President Abraham Lincoln.

[02:53:46] Ms. Joanne Cromwell-Reed received this year's Juneteenth Celebration Trailblazers Award. Ms. Cromwell began her career in 1980 as a special education teacher at Matoica Middle School, later serving in several roles including vocational evaluator, assistant principal, and principal before taking her talents to central office as a personnel specialist and eventually as a Director of Human Resources before retiring in 2010.

[02:54:21] Congratulations to her on that wonderful award. Next item, please join us for a spectacular 4th of July celebration. Don't you know it's going to be great? It might be Eclipse, New York this year, starting at 5 p.m. at the Fairgrounds.

[02:54:38] I thought we'd get a good laugh on that one. The Fairgrounds. This year's main stage musical entertainment, Brass Wind, is composed completely of retired active duty military and features vocalists and brass and rhythm sections.

[02:54:56] There will be 20 local food vendors, yay, short of lines, offering a wide range of meals and treats, as well as kids' zones with bounce houses, slides, entertainers, and a game truck.

[02:55:13] You know, that's going to be great. Stay informed about the event by signing up to receive event emergency alerts by texting Chesterfield 4th or 888-777. that's easy to remember. Please be aware that new procedures are being implemented this year to ensure pedestrian safety and smooth traffic flows following the event. Visit chesterfield.gov slash fireworks for more details. We can't wait to see you there. This concludes my report, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Holland, and I love to see your humor coming back in there.

[02:55:52] Good job with that. Mr. Carroll. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We had a really wonderful day. We officially broke ground on the long-awaited Western Area High School. It's about a $135 million project. It was one of several projects overwhelmingly approved by the voters in the bond referendum of 2022. Located at 17500 Duval Road, the new high school will feature a state-of-the-art amenities, including two full-size gymnasiums, a 3,500-seat stadium, specialized arts and career

[02:56:29] education classrooms, dedicated special education space. Outdoor athletic facilities will include baseball, softball diamonds, ample parking, and gathering spaces to support school and community events. The future 340,000 square foot facility is designed to accommodate approximately 2,400 students. It will be given a permanent name prior to its scheduled opening in August of 2027.

[02:56:53] The county, we don't name, the Board of Supervisors, we don't name the schools. That falls upon the school board and we don't do the redistricting either that falls upon the school board as well so they have a heavy task ahead of them so i had the honor of attending this habitat for humanity dedicated its 397th house in honor of the resident rose thornhill senator kane and i had the pleasure of welcoming stornhill to her house now this wonderful woman has donated hours upon hours

[02:57:29] upon hours of her life helping to get other houses built for other people that's how habitat Humanity Works. And there's another person who's not able to do the work who's in line for house and she's volunteered to do their hours of work so they could get a house as well. She qualified for the Richmond Home Owners Program. Obviously she completed a series of financial home ownership and budgeting courses. She also fulfilled, like I said, over 300 volunteer hours on her on prior and during to get her own home.

[02:58:05] And this is a program that we support with the county through federal funding. And I will have to tell you that the workmanship that was done on this by volunteers, they really did a great job. And this is down in the Ettrick part of Chesterfield County.

[02:58:22] It was a wonderful event. Next. So Chesterfield Transportation hosted a public meeting last week to provide information and answer questions about project details and gather feedback from the community. this is relating to the Poet Parkway extension phase one. If you weren't able to attend there's still time to submit your input. Comments are being accepted until July 18th. Certainly to learn more submit a comment and opt in for some email notifications regarding the project updates and please visit chesterfield.gov forward slash Poet Parkway extension. This is a long awaited project

[02:58:57] in Chesterfield to extend the parkway. This section we're talking about is the extension from Charter Cowan to Woolridge, which will help alleviate traffic in that area, as well as the connection of Woolridge all the way up to 288. Next slide.

[02:59:15] Upcoming, mark your calendar on July 23rd. Deep Creek Middle School, it's almost complete. We're going to have a ribbon cutting, like I said, on July 23rd, and the school will open up in August, welcoming students this school year.

[02:59:32] The school board has completed the redistricting for that school. We broke ground on the elementary school earlier this year, and we also awarded contracts to handle all of the road improvements that need to be completed even for the elementary school to open up.

[02:59:51] That was about a $43 million project, and those contracts have been awarded, and you'll see the construction on those roads coming out of the ground. They have to be done before August of 2026 prior to the elementary school opening up, and as it looks right now, everything's on schedule.

[03:00:09] Mr. Chair, that concludes my report. I did make it to your event, Jessica, at the fairgrounds. I was walking around, but I didn't run into you there, but I was there for that. So, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Care. Dr. Miller. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[03:00:25] So, I'm happy to say that the annual National Night Owl kickoff is going to be the Saturday, June 28th, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. It's going to be over at Westchester Commons. This event will include live music. It will be a variety of vendors there and a visit from, of course, McGruff, the crime dog, and so much more.

[03:00:46] This is a really big deal here in Chesterfield County, and we end up having one of the largest and the most celebrated national night outs in the country. So I'm looking to see if we can continue to climb that ladder. We continue to be one of the top five, and we'll continue to get there.

[03:01:03] It's really important. The National Night Out aims to spread awareness about drug prevention, generate support for anti-crime efforts locally, and then also strengthen partnerships with the community, and we hope to see you there. I have two upcoming community conversations like Jessica.

[03:01:25] We're coming up on mine. I'm excited to host them. It's one of the favorite things I just simply love looking forward to and doing. The first one is going to be July 9th. That's going to be at 2 p.m. They're both at the Midlothian Library, and the other one's going to be July 17th at 6 p.m.

[03:01:42] Again, this is something that I know that we have about 30 spots, and we're starting to get full. And if there's more than 30, we'll open up more. But it's just one of my favorite things to do. And that was my report. Thank you, Dr. Miller.

[03:01:59] On that, I would just say that we'll still probably keep all the community conversations to 30 people at a time. so that everybody gets to participate, but we may have the first time that we've filled up all 30 slots in both meetings in your district, and so I appreciate you being willing, and I think other board members would do the same, to offer it to another slot of people in another timeframe to handle all of the citizens that want to come, but at this point, they've been limited because that's all the citizen participation that we receive, so congratulations

[03:02:37] on getting close to 60 and hope that if you get there, you can get to 90. All right. The Learn, Explore, and Advance with Possibilities Workforce Development event. That's a mouthful. It was an exciting day and a long conference. It was held at the Perkins Center for the Arts, which, by the way, if you haven't been to, it's a fabulous facility in the Bermuda District. And if you haven't been there, I encourage you to go. And if you have, I encourage you to go back.

[03:03:11] That event included workshops, coaching sessions, and networking opportunities to help attendees gain clarity on their next steps in their careers. Some of them were looking to build skill sets to advance themselves from where they currently are.

[03:03:28] Some were looking to build skill sets to obtain work. So I'm glad that we were able to put that program together to assist people because we want all of our citizens that are able to work to be able to find good jobs. Next slide.

[03:03:44] All right. This year's Chestfield Restaurant Week raised over $16,000, and that was the first time I've ever signed a big check, so that was fun for me. The funds contributed to the Chesfield Food Bank and Outreach Center during the Chesfield Chamber's monthly luncheon.

[03:04:07] I really want to thank all of the restaurants that opened up their doors, put together a special menu to foster the ability for our citizens to go in, eat some great meals, and have money contributed to the Chesfield Food Bank.

[03:04:27] I think that was a win-win-win all the way around for the community. Great food, great cause, and great publicity for our restaurants, some of them which had never participated before. So we encourage all those that participated this year and those that may not have to participate next year.

[03:04:47] Again, it's a great cause. Next slide. Lastly, Dr. Miller and I had the pleasure of attending Bryan and Stratton's college commencement ceremony. By the way, Dr. Worsley was their keynote speaker at that event.

[03:05:04] So we were happy to be there for Brian and Stratton and also to support Dr. Worsley. We want to congratulate all of their graduates. And we also have heard from them that as they have been known as Brian and Stratton of Richmond, They will be in conjunction with a slight move in location in January.

[03:05:30] They will now be known as Bryant and Stratton of Chesterfield. So we thank them for making that change. And that concludes my board report. Item 13, resolutions and special recognitions.

[03:05:48] A, resolution recognizing 2025 Senior Volunteer Hall of Fame inductees, Ms. Graves.

[03:05:55] Good evening, Mr. Chairman.

[03:06:35] honorable members of the board, Dr. Casey. I am Kim Graves, manager of aging and disability resources. This past month, we celebrated Older Americans Month, a national recognition of seniors and the positive impact they have in our communities. Their diverse roles as caregivers, employees, employers, neighbors, and as you'll hear more about in a moment, volunteers make our community safer, healthier, and stronger. First, I'd like to briefly recap a few of the ways we celebrated Older Americans Month. The annual Chesterfield County Senior Prom, which the

[03:07:10] Manchester Family YMCA graciously hosted, we had 200 seniors dance the night away. Thank you to Mr. Engel and Mrs. Schneider who joined us. Senior Day, which is a partnership with Chesterfield Triad Initiative, was held April 30th. We had 230 seniors in attendance with guest speaker John Childry, representing the Virginia Attorney General's Office. On May 28th, in partnership with Henrico, Hanover, and Richmond, we hosted our Older Americans Month luncheon for 150 seniors

[03:07:46] across the region. Lastly, on June 5th, the county's annual Senior Volunteer Hall of Fame was held at Chesterfield Technical Center Hall Street Campus. We received 16 nominations. These nominees volunteered over 108,000 hours of community service after the age of 60. I'd like

[03:08:07] to now invite our dedicated residents Robin Herber, Peter Plourd, and Juanise Roan to join you. It is

[03:08:47] my honor to present to you for your recognition the three individuals who were inducted in the 2025 Senior Volunteer Hall of Fame at the ceremony on June 5th. Robin Herber from the Midlothian district, a retired rehabilitation teacher who continues to support the visually impaired and teaches seniors how to cope with vision loss through the Lifelong Learning Institute. She has also served others for over 30 years at Mount Pisgah United Methodist Church. She was nominated

[03:09:20] by Robin Altamari. Next, we have Peter Plourd, resident from the Midlothian district, who is a dedicated volunteer and Vietnam veteran who actively serves his community through church committees, his golf club, and veteran organizations. He contributed over 500 hours

[03:09:58] to the Medical Reserve Corps, including service at more than 30 COVID vaccine clinics and call centers. He also volunteers with the community response team, helping protect vulnerable residents. He was nominated by Sarah Gagnon. Next, we have Wynice Roan, representing the Dale District, founded Five Loaves, a mobile food pantry launched during the pandemic to serve

[03:10:34] families in need. He partners with churches, farmers, and local groups to fight hunger. Juanice also serves as head usher and canvassing team member at St. Paul Baptist Church and remains committed to ending food insecurity in our community. She was nominated by our own Bernadette Gilmore with Aging and Disability Resources. Please join me in recognizing the 2025 Senior

[03:11:10] Volunteer Hall of Fame winners. I just wanted to say a couple words. Wow, 108,000 hours of volunteer service from 60 plus year old citizens in Chesterfield County is amazing. And then to be chosen as Hall of Fame out of that group of 16 is really special. Thank you for all the work that you do to make our community better we really do appreciate it and there's no way we could ever pay

[03:11:48] you back for those hours but we do have a heartfelt thank you for that mr. chair mr. chair yes

[03:12:16] adam clerk can you read the resolution yes sir exactly well we need to approve it so whereas volunteering is a powerful force for the solution of human problems and the creative use of human resources is essential to a healthy, productive, and humane society.

[03:12:43] And whereas our nation's heritage is based on citizen involvement and citizen participation, and volunteerism is of enormous benefit in building a better community and a better sense of one's own well-being, and whereas the active involvement of citizens is needed today more than ever to combat growing human and social problems, to renew our belief that these problems can be solved, and to strengthen our sense of community, and whereas volunteer

[03:13:08] Volunteering offers all, young and old, the opportunity to participate in the life of their community and to link their talents and resources to address some of the major issues facing our counties, such as education, hunger, the needs of youths, and the needs of our elderly.

[03:13:25] And whereas agencies that benefit from volunteers should show their appreciation and recognition to the many volunteers who possess numerous skills and talents, which they generously and enthusiastically apply to a variety of community tasks and encourage others to participate in programs as volunteers.

[03:13:43] And whereas 16 adults in Chesterfield County, age 60 plus, have donated 108,000 hours of volunteer service since they have attained the age of 60 and were nominated for the Chesterfield Senior Volunteer Hall of Fame.

[03:13:59] Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, this 25th day of June 2025, publicly recognizes Robin Herber, Peter Plourd, and Juanice Roan, who were selected among the 16 and were inducted into Chesterfield's Senior Volunteer Hall of Fame on June 5th, 2025, and expresses appreciation to these dedicated volunteers who contribute immeasurably to various programs throughout the area to strengthen our county and build bridges to the future, and be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to Robin

[03:14:35] Herber, Peter Plourd, and Juanice Roan, and that this resolution be permanently recorded among the papers of this Board of Supervisors of Chesterfield County, Virginia. Can I get a motion? I'd like to move to approve this resolution. All in favor?

[03:14:51] Aye. Now we're good.

[03:14:54] Be resolution recognizing Mr. John Lugbill, sports backers, upon his retirement, Mr. Poma.

[03:15:42] Thank you, Madam Clerk, members of the board. It's great to be up here again. And even more exciting, there's so many people who could be up here introducing John. Yeah, come on up here, John. So many people who could be up here to introduce John. Will, come on up to Mr. Gecker, too. Again, so many people who could be up here introducing John, but I'm honored to share a few both memories that I've had over the years

[03:16:18] and also some of the accomplishments that have served our residents here in Chesterfield County and the greater Richmond region as well. You've heard me more than anyone talk about sports tourism, and I can tell you with the utmost certainty, sports tourism in Chesterfield County and the Richmond region do not happen without Mr. Lugbill. I'm just going to pick out, John, there's so many more you could talk about, but a couple highlights that have really stuck out to me over the last 15 years that I've worked alongside you. You know, they hear, the board hears a lot about bid on events. Well, back 15 years ago, you weren't going out and bidding on

[03:16:54] Richmond Volleyball Club. You were creating tournaments, inviting teams to come to Richmond to take part in these tournaments and showing them why sports tourism in Richmond was a great thing. Look at the events, both of the events today. The sports tourism grant program, it's something I really had an honor to be a part of, and that doesn't happen without yourself.

[03:17:15] Will, you are a big part of that sports tourism grant program. It has provided so many groups in Chesterfield with the opportunity to take part in sports tourism programs. From all of the active living components to the wellness programs, the list could go on and on. And I just, there's one stat I'd like to close this out with.

[03:17:33] In last year alone, 10,135 Chesterfield residents took part in sports backers events. Your legacy lives on through all of those events. We're so excited to continue to work with you, but, John, from the bottom of my heart, I appreciate everything you've done for Chesterfield County through sports tourism, through active living wellness programs, and tonight, very honored to introduce you to our board to present this resolution.

[03:18:02] Thank you. Madam Clerk, will you read the resolution? Yes, sir. Whereas Mr. John Lugbill will be retiring from sports backers effective June 30th, 2025, and whereas Mr. Lugbill has served the residents and visitors of Chesterfield County with passion, humility, and distinguished pride in making the Richmond region a more active destination through large-scale events and programs, and whereas among many noteworthy achievements under Mr. Lugbill's leadership, sports backers was named the best sports commission in the country four times by the Sports Events and Tourism Association.

[03:18:37] and whereas with exemplary leadership, Mr. Lugbill helped the Bike Walk RBA program receive Bicycling Magazine's People's Choice Advocacy Award and the Kids on the Move program received the Youth Event of the Year by Running USA and whereas Mr. Lugbill's commitment to public service extends beyond events and programs and is evident through his energetic passion to advocate for a healthier and more active Richmond region and whereas the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors recognizes and sincerely appreciates the 31 years of dedication that Mr. Lugbill has devoted to

[03:19:14] Chesterfield County and the Richmond region. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors this 25th day of June 2025 publicly recognizes the outstanding contributions of Mr. John Lugbill and extends appreciation on behalf of its members and the citizens of Chesterfield County, congratulations upon his retirement, and best wishes for a long, happy, and healthy retirement. And be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to Mr. Lugbill and that this resolution be permanently recorded among the papers of the

[03:19:47] Board of Supervisors of Chesterfield County, Virginia. A motion. We have two to move in one second. All in favor? Aye. Wow, 31 years representing the region and for us, for our citizens here in Chesterfield County. The amount of people that participated in sports backers, over 10 000 citizens in chesterfield county that is a remarkable number looks like i probably need to do a little bit more of that participating but um i really appreciate what you've done

[03:20:27] in the region and for chesterfield county for our citizens to get people up get people moving get people going and get them excited about doing it so thank you for all those years any other board members when john when i was elected i know you may have heard this story before but i want to share it with everyone here i was working for chesterfield and every day i would go for a run around the trails here one day i was in the locker room and someone said to me you ever like run in races or anything like that and i said no i really don't think i've ever wanted to do something like

[03:21:05] that. He said, do you ever hear of sports backers? And that began a journey in 2008. That is 10 marathons ago. And that is many, many races since. But what I want to share is that you saved my life in a way that just isn't with the story that I was on a run one morning with my wife. We were running together for years and I couldn't get up a hill. It was a hill that I would typically not think twice about. And it led to having heart surgery. If I was not a runner, they would have

[03:21:43] never caught it. And the cardiologist said, how did you find this? This is impossible to find. How did you figure it out? I said, I'm a runner. And so thank you for the bottom of my heart. When I was elected, the only board I cared about that I would be on is the sports backers board.

[03:22:03] and i am so grateful to you the work that you've done for me and our whole region uh you've heard it a lot of just all this gratitude but it is maybe it's kind of hard to take in sometimes but it's really true uh you have changed a lot of people's lives and uh couldn't be more grateful thank you okay um i i think i feel a little bit like dr casey does every year with the uh state

[03:22:39] of the county where there's so many people that make uh our work possible just like with you there's so many in in chesterfield and so i'm so grateful for the opportunity i am reminded that it is june 25th so it's only six months till christmas so sign up for the carmax tacky light run um in midlothian it's it's an unbelievable event um but but yeah it's been just a privilege and working with your team over the years, I've often said just how nice and really enjoyable the staff

[03:23:12] at Chesterfield County is to work with, and that's been through multiple different sports tourism plans, an active living plan, the creation of CFIT. There's just so many things here in Chesterfield that I'm proud we were able to contribute and help, and getting Chesterfield County residents more active and healthy has been a joy. So thank you all very much.

[03:24:29] I'm glad you came down. Recognizing 2024-2025 Future Community Leader Certificate Program recipient, Ms. Conley.

[03:24:51] Good evening again. I would be remiss if I didn't thank you all for your continued support, not only for the Youth Advisory Board, but also for the Future Community Leader Certificate program. It is your dedication to our youth and the importance of pouring back into our youth by local government operations, and you all do that so genuinely. And I want to just say thank you because it is not only important for us, but it's also important for their future because they're going to be our future that they'll lead. So thank you for taking just the time to come to meetings and be supportive of the initiatives that they have. So today, the Future Community

[03:25:29] Leader Certificate provides Chesterfield County High School students with the opportunity to learn and the local government, interact with government officials, and engage in volunteerism to support the community. The requirements for the program is to complete the certificate are as follows.

[03:25:45] Completion of the Chesterfield County 101 program that was developed with Chesterfield County's Learning and Performance Center. Attend a Board of Supervisors meeting to absorb board meeting operations, identify their representatives, and learn about community-related issues and concerns. Complete 24 hours of community service in the greater Richmond area.

[03:26:05] Ten of those hours must be completed with Chesterfield County government. I'm excited today to invite the Future Community Leaders recipient for spring 2025 with Gabrielle Jones, representing the Molothian District, who is also a recent graduate of Molothian High School.

[03:26:23] And as you saw earlier, she is a member of the Youth Advisory Board. Gabrielle?

[03:26:47] Congratulations. This is not an easy honor to get, and appreciating your tenacity and the stick-to-itiveness to go through the process.

[03:27:06] So congratulations. Couldn't be more proud for the Midlothian District, so thank you. Yes, you already got one? Okay, good. All right, you're very welcome.

[03:27:23] Item 14, new business.

[03:28:13] A, performance grant agreement with Bellwood Crossing LLC for Liberty Gardens Apartment Project. Mr. Smith. Yes, so this is a continuation of the incentive program that the board adopted back in 2019, originally, to spur redevelopment of the Route 1 corridor.

[03:28:32] This proposal is known as Bellwood Gardens. It's the old boatyard property, if you've ever been out to Route 1 a few years ago, where all the old boats were stored. So it's located at 8075 Route 1. It's a 90-unit multifamily project that will invest at least $10 million in the corridor.

[03:28:50] So, again, this is just an incremental real estate rebate on those incremental taxes. It starts at 80% for the first seven years and then slides down to 60, 40, and 20 for the last three years of that 10-year term. So, this is similar to the one that you approved, I believe, last month.

[03:29:06] Happy to answer any questions. And there may be one or two more that are out there that are qualified to receive this, but this incentive has been stopped for the future. but they had qualified prior, so they still get the incentive.

[03:29:25] Correct, yeah. If other developments have entitlements approved, then they could be eligible if they come in once they start construction. Yes, sir. Was this part of the incentive to rejuvenate the Route 1 corridor?

[03:29:43] Yes. Thank you. Any further discussion? Can I get a motion? So moved. I'll second. All in favor? Aye.

[03:30:00] B, approval of a fixed tax rate agreement with Project Sky, also known as Skyward, Mr. Elder. Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board.

[03:30:17] Dr. Casey, Jake Elder, Deputy Director with Chesterfield County Economic Development. The agenda item before you this evening is for approval of a fixed, tangible personal property tax rate, specifically for computer equipment used in a data center for a confidential end-user data center prospect considering locating on property known as the recently rezoned Upper Magnolia Green West Track Day property that totals approximately 880 acres. The current tangible personal property tax rate for computer equipment used in a data center is 24 cents per $100 of assessed value. This tax rate was

[03:30:55] established in 2019 to attract the type of prospect that we are working with today. The reasoning behind the county's decision to attract a high caliber data center prospect was to secure significant capital investment, generate substantial and consistent revenue, create high-quality jobs and solidify Chesterfield County's position as a leader in the digital economy for decades to come. To estimate the tax revenue impact for this specific type of project, we worked with our partners at the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, also known as VEDP. VEDP monitors and reports data points for significant economic development projects across

[03:31:33] the Commonwealth, including data centers. Data center projects of this scale can result in multiple billions of dollars of capital investment at each site or campus. And yes, that's B with a billion with a B, excuse me. Per $1 billion of investment, approximately $300 million is in real estate capital expenditures and approximately $700 million is in data center equipment expenditures. Utilizing those investment numbers and utilizing the current county tax rates of $0.89 per $100 of assessed value for real property and $0.24 per $100 of assessed value for data center

[03:32:08] computer equipment personal property, that equates to over $2.6 million in additional real estate tax revenue and over $1.6 million in business personal property revenue annually to the county. For those that are doing the math of that, that's over $4.2 million in additional tax revenue annually to the county per $1 billion of investment. On sites of this size and data center projects of this scale, it can result in multiple billions of dollars of capital investment at each site or campus. As a reminder, the agreement that is presented with this agenda item would only go

[03:32:45] into effect should the Board of Supervisors choose to raise the tangible personal property tax rate for computer equipment used in a data center from its current rate. Should the rate be raised, the project would only be eligible for a grant equal to the marginal increase in the tax rate paid above today's rate, provided the company has completed the project and any associated utility infrastructure improvements or is demonstrating progress towards these items.

[03:33:12] The proposed term is for an initial 10-year period from the issuance of the first certificate of occupancy of a data center on the property, and there are two successive 10-year renewal periods, again, if the company has completed the project and any associated utility infrastructure improvements or is demonstrating progress towards those items. There is also a provision that allows the company to elect to have the grant funds issued directly to the Utilities Department to be applied to utility infrastructure improvement costs associated with the project.

[03:33:45] Lastly, due to the long-term financial planning and investment for a project of this scale, the county has requested to honor the commitment that attracted the prospect to our community and approve the fixed tax rate agreement with Project Sky for Skyward. Happy to answer any questions. Board members, do you have any discussion?

[03:34:04] Mr. Carroll? Mr. Chair. First, I've prepared a statement that I want to read, and then I've got some other points that I'm going to bring up. I'll start with one of the points first with Mr. Minx. Under this agreement, I think it's on page, it's in section 1 and 2, end of 1 and end of 2, on page 2 of 12.

[03:34:34] My interpretation of what this language is is that, one, if the agreement is issued and starts after the completion of a certificate of occupancy of the first, that puts them on a 10-year clock. Puts them on a clock, which means if you don't build it in 10 years or finish completion in 10 years, whoever's sitting on the board of supervisors in 10 years will be the determining factor as to whether or not the agreement continues.

[03:35:00] Is that correct? Yeah, this is three potential terms. They renew unless the board makes a determination that they have not met the standards for renewal. So, yes, the board at that time would make a determination.

[03:35:17] Have they completed, number one, or are they making progress towards completion? Based on that determination, then there would be a decision by the board as to whether or not the agreement would automatically renew. If the board decides they have not made that progress, then the board would be making the decision that it does not automatically renew.

[03:35:37] Again, this only comes up if a future board actually increases the tax rate. So it would only happen if, indeed, the tax rate goes above the current 24 cents. But if it does, then there would be that determination out 10 years.

[03:35:53] In the two zoning cases that were passed last month, 25 SN 138, on page 18, there's a clause that says infrastructure improvements cost. The development shall be responsible for the design and construction costs of any on-site and off-site water and wastewater infrastructure improvements needed to support the development as required by the overall plan.

[03:36:17] My interpretation of that and all of the water agreements that were part of the zoning cases basically says that if they don't pay for it and provide the funds to improve the utility system, whether it's for water or storm water, they can't build those units.

[03:36:34] That's the way the zoning reads, yes. The capital cost is their cost to provide. You know, we have certain capacities. We might have them available. But if we don't and they need capacity to be able to operate, the zoning makes it very clear. They have to provide it.

[03:36:50] Okay. Ms. Chair, if you'll indulge me a little longer, a couple of things. One, we've received a lot of input from the community, and I love input. Before I was elected to the Board of Supervisors, I used to stand on that side of the podium for many years advocating on behalf of the Fraternal Order of Police.

[03:37:09] And many times when the Board would make decisions, I would scratch my head and go, "What are they thinking? I don't get it. Why are they making that decision?" Well, when you get on this side of the dais and you start getting all of the other information that you get that the community doesn't have access to because of the nature of these agreements, you kind of understand why some of these decisions are made.

[03:37:31] I will be honest with you. Back then, my opinion was we should not have nondisclosure agreements. I was like, we need transparency. We have to have nondisclosure agreements. All that does is keep the community from knowing what's going on. That was my opinion. My opinion changed when you get elected.

[03:37:47] When you get elected and you start trying to bring billion dollar companies to your community like Lego, like Commonwealth Fusion, like these companies, and as part of their agreements, they want an NDA because they do not want to disclose to their competition who they are.

[03:38:07] And part of these agreements are structured so that they're going to have to pay, and probably in this case, tens of millions of dollars or more for the infrastructure that's going to be needed just on a water side. And it's not limited to just that, because God knows these people want to be a good part of our community, and I think they will be, but I will tell you, there have been economic development deals before, in Chesterfield, that were announced years ago, said, oh, this is the next best thing to slice sheets, it's going to be fantastic.

[03:38:39] They never happened, because the company didn't come here. Other jurisdictions, some of the emails that people sent, and I appreciate the information, I do, but we had done our research too. Some of the other jurisdictions, the bigger ones like Loudoun, for example, that has almost 200 data centers, yeah, they've jacked their rate up, and Henrico recently jacked their rate up on the data centers, too.

[03:39:03] But you should foyer those jurisdictions and ask them, what kind of agreements did you sign first before you jacked your rate up? And you'll find out that they signed agreements with those companies. Now, once a company like that comes to Chesterfield or comes to a jurisdiction and they build and spend millions upon millions of dollars and put millions of dollars of investment in place, you can jack the rate up on them if you want to.

[03:39:24] They're not going to go anywhere, because they've already spent billions of dollars to put a product in place, which is why a place like Loudoun could jock the rate up, and no one's leaving, or Prince William, or Henrico, or other jurisdictions. But $0.24 on data centers right now in Chesford County, we only have one, and it's a small one.

[03:39:44] So $0.24 on equipment on a data center right now isn't worth much. And if they don't come, it's worth nothing, absolutely nothing. So I appreciate, I really do, the input. This is not an easy decision to make when you look at this.

[03:40:02] But with the development that they're bringing, if they build it, and they'll be on a time clock to do it. They'll be on a time clock to do it because they know if they don't, the rate could go up and they could pay more money. But this tax rate was set in 2019 before I was elected.

[03:40:20] It was elected as stated. It was changed as stated to attract companies to come to Chesterfield County. This board didn't raise the rate, not in my first term, not in my second term, Because we didn't have any data centers to raise the rate to, except for one in Meadowville Technology Center.

[03:40:39] And it was at one time a Capital One, and now it's been bought out by a different company. And they've announced a $2 billion investment in Chesterfield, probably because the rate was so low. Again, the idea was to attract companies to come here. Companies have now come here to Chesterfield County, and they want to build several data center locations, as we talked about, those two locations.

[03:40:59] The proposed agreement, again, as stated, would limit to the first 10 years starting from the date of issuance of the first certificate of occupancy. If they don't bill it, the 24th sentence doesn't matter. You're not going to tax anything because there's nothing here.

[03:41:19] As stated, the Board of Supervisors sitting at the time of the 10-year agreement ending will have the opportunity to determine if the applicant has met the conditions. If the applicant has not met, the Board can vacate the agreement or they can raise the tax rate. The other part that's in here, the language that was added, is that if the tax rate does get raised, the applicant will agree that the difference between 24 cents and whatever it's raised to, that money would go for the utilities department for the infrastructure.

[03:41:48] So even if the rate does go up, if a future board decides to raise the rate, the money is going to go to our infrastructure. Now, we're pretty lucky in Chesterfield County. I say luck. Maybe not. Maybe it's absolute skill. Over the years, our utilities department has done something that no one else did.

[03:42:05] they actually built redundancy into our system. I'm not trying to be mean when I say this, but when other jurisdictions lost water, we didn't. As a matter of fact, we shut the gates at the city line so that the bad water wouldn't come into Chesterfield County. And one of our water systems was down for maintenance, so we just turned the dial up on the other one and pushed water from Lake Chesden all the way up to the rest of Chesterfield County.

[03:42:30] And so we have a tremendous water system, and we're in the process of getting a fourth water source, which will help provide that. but right now the taxpayers are on the hook to pay for that water source or we're going to issue bonds to do it but if this company wants water they may have to pay for that water source and all of the infrastructure necessary to be able to get water to their businesses i mean that's something i would be pushing for if they want if they want to do it something else the companies build the infrastructure the cost them be considerable tens of millions of dollars just

[03:43:10] for the infrastructure if they build the data centers with the current tax revenue rate of 89 cents per hundred on the building um that's a big number on a billion dollar building that between the the building cost itself and the 24 cents on the inside so we have a choice we could vote no and they just won't build they won't come we'll be another one of those economic development cases that would say this is spectacular and all of a sudden they pull the plug and say we're going to go somewhere else why does anybody think they're leaving other parts of the country to come here

[03:43:46] because some of those those jurisdictions have already built out enough data centers that they don't want anymore. If you don't want them to come, you jack the rate up. Then they won't come. They'll go somewhere else where they can get a better rate. And I'm not saying the rate shouldn't be increased in the future. Down the road, it could be, especially if a future board decides to do that. But at a bare minimum, when we look at the numbers, you're potentially looking at either $24 million a year in tax revenue for the county or $48 million a year, depending on if you want

[03:44:21] to go with the low end or the high end of the range. And that's based on including $0.89 per hundred for the building and 24 cents for the for the equipment inside. But there's a bigger thing that it does for us. It's the economy. All of the tradesmen, all of the tradesmen who came and spoke about those two cases last month, the electricians, the plumbers, the brick masons, all the people who look for these jobs, they'll be employed. They'll have years upon years of employment opportunity here in Chesterfield County instead of having to go somewhere else. And the revenue

[03:44:58] gets put into our small businesses because those people who are working here they go out to eat or they move here or they eat or they shop at our stores or they buy cars here. All of it gets invested into our economy. I want to cut the tax rate. We've had an 80% residential, 20% commercial for years and RICO has got a different number. RICO's only 235 square miles. Matoga's 207, 207. It's almost the size of RICO. So we have been a bedroom community. Everybody

[03:45:36] If anybody complains about the houses being built, I get it. We put zoning cases that are coming out of the ground from years ago. More houses, more houses, more houses. We need the commercial to offset that. If you want to lower the tax rate from 89 cents down to 80 cents by 4 cents or by 8 cents, you got to bring the commercial in.

[03:45:55] You got to bring the commercial in, big commercial. And this will help. It absolutely will help. And if you take a look at what potential, what the data centers can do, what Lego can do what Commonwealth Fusion can do when you take all those in consideration if all those economic development cases come out of the ground the county in the future whoever sitting in these seats will have an opportunity to cut the tax rate substantially substantially so we can kill the deal mr. chair we can do

[03:46:30] that I'm not in favor of that I think that there's a lot more information that will come out later when these companies decide to announce who they are and we're not under a non-disclosure agreement anymore I wish I could tell you more right now it's not the way i like to do business but it's the way the companies do business and if you want those companies to come here and you want them to introduce their capital into our community this is unfortunately part of that process so mr chair i appreciate the indulgence

[03:47:06] of the board of giving me an opportunity to to talk about this i didn't get a chance to email all the constituents back that send me emails i greatly appreciate their input and i understand where they're coming from and maybe maybe in the future when all the information comes out they'll feel differently or maybe they won't but my choice when I look at this number is to say do I kill a deal that could potentially bring 50 million dollars a year in jobs good jobs and economic development to the community or do I say no I'm not going to kill the deal thank you Mr.

[03:47:42] Chair any other discussion I think I would like to add that as you said about the why they raise I think that given what we know about who the end user is going to be, I would like to raise our rate after because I don't want to bring any other data centers.

[03:48:09] I think that this, I appreciate the company and all that I've learned about them and their commitment to the community. And so I really feel that there's no reason to bring another data center here because I really would not want to take over.

[03:48:30] I mean, I think there's a reason that the one on Brander's Bridge was denied in the planning commission last week because people don't want it here, especially in the areas where infrastructure is a problem. And so these people are willing to put the infrastructure where it needs to be.

[03:48:48] And so I think I would encourage us to think about raising it after. And I know that means that we'll have to reimburse or, you know, make up that difference. But again, it'll go towards the infrastructure that they're putting in.

[03:49:04] So it's a win-win in my mind. And I don't say that lightly. So thank you. Mr. Chair, just one last comment. We hear the community say there's no infrastructure, there's no infrastructure. We're actually finding a way to do it.

[03:49:19] We didn't have a high school plan years ago or a middle school or an elementary school. We had a great bond referendum to build these schools and they're coming out of the ground. But this is an opportunity to make a company or companies actually pay our community so they could actually build here as opposed to the complaints that we get and say, well, you allow all these developers to come in and the county puts the bill for everything and they don't put the bill for anything.

[03:49:46] Well, this, they have to or else they can't build it. And that's, I think, a really important key to this, in my opinion. Thank you. Is there any other discussion from board members? Well, thank you, Mr. Chair. There's an old saying, the tree falls in the woods. Does it make a sound if no one is there to hear it?

[03:50:15] And the answer is no, it doesn't make a sound. And the reason it doesn't make it sound is because you need a giver and a receiver to actually hear the sound. And I mentioned that because we can say all of these things and I can send out emails and I can explain my position. And I'm going to read that in just a second, but I want to make the point that if whatever it is we're saying isn't being heard or it's being discounted immediately, then there's really no reason to say it because it's not being heard. There is no giver and there is

[03:50:55] no receiver. But I still think it is our responsibility to say it so that people know where we stand. It is not an easy decision. It is not an easy decision because it's a big decision and it's a big decision because we're talking about a lot of money and this started back in 2019 and here we are today six years later the idea was let's plant some seeds and let's see if it grows and if it grows then it can create what we're looking for it to create which is a tree

[03:51:34] and so that when the tree is there we're going to hopefully see it grow and see it become something Approving this fixed-rate agreement will secure a significant capital improvement. It will generate substantial and consistent revenue, and it will create high-quality jobs and solidify Chesterfield County's position as a leader in the digital economy for decades to come.

[03:52:04] That being said, the board made a deliberate policy choice in 2019 prior to me joining the board, prior to Jessica joining the Board, sacrificing immediate tax revenue on data center equipment in anticipation of a much larger long-term economic gain. The idea is to secure this data center that we need to offer stability and predictability that they require. This data center operates on extremely long planning horizons. Their investment is massive, and their

[03:52:43] operational lifespans are going to be measured in decades. A tax rate guarantee provides the financial predictability essential for their internal capital allocation decisions and risk assessment. A fixed rate agreement provides the necessary certainty for this prospect to commit immense capital in Chesterfield County. This isn't just a 24 cent tax rate, It is about the volume of the taxable assets this rate will apply to.

[03:53:20] This data center prospect is a powerful economic catalyst. Approving this agreement is an investment in a broader ecosystem of high-paying jobs and diversified economic activity that will benefit county residents for generations.

[03:53:38] It will generate demand for construction trades, electricians, and plumbers, and HVAC technicians, cyber security professionals, IT specialists, maintenance crews, and a variety of support services. And who is going to teach them all? Brightpoint, Brian Stratton, the colleges, Virginia State. This is going to have ripples throughout the entire community. They will attract other technology-focused businesses that rely on robust digital infrastructure. And I want to make one last point. There are folks in this community that will say our taxes are too high, but yet when

[03:54:18] we're trying to bring in this opportunity, then they're complaining that we're not charging them enough. And I am telling you something, they wouldn't be coming unless we had a strong economic development authority who was able to work out this deal. This is a very smart, good deal. Are we right? I believe we are. I am going to be approving this. The only question that's left is we'll find out. But I am convinced that the opportunity for that tree to grow. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Holland. Mr. Chairman, thank you. Great comments. Usually

[03:54:57] decisions are not isolated just at one rate or one time. Decisions have ripple effects and it's critically important for leaders such as board of supervisors, this board, to make decisions about the future. We did in 2019. We listened and we set the rate. And today we're seeing the results, the fruits of that decision. And so, yes, I appreciate your emails, comments. I read them. And I always am one who always try to look at the

[03:55:34] big picture. Where will we be? What will be the impact? And one thing that we do know is that technology changes. It will continue to change. It will continue to be depreciated. It will continue to be used. And so I'm excited to think through this decision. And I did. I thought through it.

[03:56:00] I listened as I read comments, comparative comments about what other counties are doing and have done. And I believe very strongly we're making the right decision as a board today to support and to encourage this. I'm excited about the future. I'm really excited about Chesterfield's future, because I know it will be great, it will be bright, it will be glowing as we celebrate, and you don't hear this often, many times mentioned, jobs.

[03:56:32] You know, our country has gone through a lot, and we look at the Federal Reserve, when they look at the jobs, they look at inflation, and we're in a great spot with regard to jobs, to create more jobs, and of course, I think I'm really comfortable that we're making the best decision. And so therefore, I appreciate the hard work of citizens, hard work of staff, for everyone that we have employed. So thank you for that. That concludes my comment, Mr. Chairman.

[03:57:04] I have a question for staff. Matt, you made me think of this, Mr. Hollins. I appreciate your comments. Years ago, another board of supervisors made the decision to create the Meadowville Technology Center. Do you remember what year that was? We got full control of the property around 2005. 2005. Do you remember how much you paid for it? Our total net investment in the property, including the purchase of the land, was about $40 million. You covered this back in a work

[03:57:43] session in January. Total spend, a little over $90 million. We had great state and federal partners to help us out, but we had about 40 in it altogether, including the original purchase. So our investment for $40 million over many years, it didn't happen in one year cycle.

[03:58:01] It happened over much time. What's the property value of that now? Yeah, so the initial assessment we got control of it was just a shade under $9 million, and the 2025 assessment was about $356, $357 million.

[03:58:16] And that's before, obviously, the build-out of Topso and the full Lego build-out and a number of the other park tenants that are under construction now. But Lego's building is 1.7 million square feet, and we're talking over probably a billion dollars for that, right?

[03:58:32] In terms of their investment. I mean, their... Right. So when they applied for their building permit, how much was it? It was in excess of half a million, I think. It was a serious number, yeah. I thought it was $7 million for their building permit.

[03:58:49] Yeah, I mean... If I remember correctly. It sounds right. Yeah, $7 million for a building permit. It was 1.7 million square foot building. The point about this is that Board of Supervisors got crucified when they approved that location in Chesterfield County, and it took years to come out of the ground.

[03:59:07] It took years of future Boards working to get companies to come in here, including now, which is probably going to be worth billions in assessments and probably within the next couple of years, because the other data center that's in there, Clarissa, I think is proposing a two billion dollar investment in that exactly these deals are bigger than that bigger than that so i want them to build i want them to be on the clock um because it will give it won't be me but

[03:59:45] somebody else sitting in this seat will be able to go wow we cut tax rate we can cut the rate on personal property we cut the car tax down there's so many opportunities not to mention to continue to fund public safety and and our schools so thank you mr chair i appreciate your indulgence thank you matt any other board members i'm glad i'm going last um and quite frankly i have um spent

[04:00:17] a lot of time on this and i didn't know i didn't respond to emails because i wasn't sure how i was going to vote tonight i don't like voting on something that we can't share with you i wanted to defer the decision but there's a timing on the closing that's contingent upon the decision being made. And I'm not going to have the opportunity to wait. It's either we make a decision tonight

[04:00:54] or we lose an opportunity. And I had some pretty spirited conversations with my board member colleagues. I've had some spirited conversations with the final user of the facilities. Quite frankly, I believe that it's made what will be voted on tonight better than it was. I sat down, I hope you don't mind me talking a little bit about a conversation,

[04:01:30] Dr. Miller, but I sat down with Dr. Miller and we discussed the pros and the cons. When we got done discussing the pros and cons, Dr. Miller looked me square in the eye and said, you just convinced me why I need to vote for this. That was not my intention. It was a true discussion on the pros and cons. Is this deal exactly what I'd like to see? No. Are we being transparent in the end user?

[04:02:06] No. Ultimately, I think Dr. Miller and Ms. Snyder sent emails out to their constituents. And I'm not sure if Mr. Carroll sent his out, but he's read his statement tonight. And I appreciate your comments. And pretty much all comments said, trust us. You elected us. Trust us. There's a lot

[04:02:36] of people in this room tonight that don't trust us. And all I can tell you is that there's good reason for everybody here to make the statements they had. This board is a diverse group of people with lots of different thought processes. I had the opportunity to chair this board this year.

[04:03:03] The rest of my board members are willing to go out on a limb and do something courageous because they think that's what's best for the community and as a chair of this board because they have been steadfast in what they're doing I'm going to go with them and support this tonight and that was a big step for me I don't believe the end user thought that was going to be what

[04:03:36] I said tonight to be honest with you but I appreciate the work the time that each and every one of these board members have put in to this decision and I know that we're asking you to trust us. What I can tell you is the story when the NDA is lifted and you're able to hear the whole story. I truly believe in my heart it will make more sense to each and every one of you.

[04:04:08] Until then, we are asking you to trust us when we know there's not any faith or trust in us. But when the story comes out, you'll be able to make a decision. All I'm going to ask you is to wait until the story comes out. If we lied to you, come after us. Don't re-elect us.

[04:04:31] If we told you the truth, then start to give us some trust. Thank you. Go ahead. No, go ahead. I kind of want to go off of something that you said.

[04:04:47] And so I have actually had someone actually reached out to Mark, or well, to Mark, and didn't reach out to me. And I think there are some people that thought that I probably would not vote on this because of my environmental beliefs and my political beliefs, et cetera.

[04:05:12] And the people that know me, trust me, they don't need to have the information. I said, I would not be making this decision if I did not believe that it was going to work out and be a good thing for the community and be an added value to the community.

[04:05:33] I don't do things lightly. And you can roll your eyes all you want. I just, I'm sorry. I don't have to, I mean, I could vote no, because there's already four people that said they're going to vote yes, but I'm voting yes, because I believe that it's something that's going to be good for our community, and I wouldn't have said that we can not bring any other data centers here, because I believe that this is the best that we can find, and

[04:06:07] the best that could come to us, and so I just need to say that out loud, because the people that know me know that I'm not mine, and I would not say something if I didn't truly believe it, so thank you. Any other discussion?

[04:06:25] Can I get a motion? I move approval, Mr. Chairman. Second. All in favor? Aye. T, approval of a fixed rate tax rate agreement with Project Locke, also known as ARIS.

[04:06:42] Mr. Elder? Mr. Chair, members of the board, Dr. Casey, I'll be brief. The agenda item is the same as you just heard in your previous item, except it is for the recently rezoned Watkins Center South property that totals approximately 350 acres. As mentioned, data center projects of even this scale can result in multiple billions of dollars in capital investment at each site or campus, resulting in millions of dollars in additional revenue annually to the county. The board is requested to approve the fixed tax rate agreement with Project Block or AIRS. Any questions? Any questions? Any discussion? Just one,

[04:07:24] Mr. Makes, this has the same clauses in it that we talked about earlier as the other agreement. It does. It is the same agreement. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions or discussion? Can I get a motion? I'd like to make that motion. Can I get a second?

[04:07:40] Second. All in favor? Aye. D, appointments. Mr. Chair, we have one appointment to the Economic Development Authority. Can I get a motion? So moved. All second?

[04:07:56] All in favor? Aye. Next, we have two appointments to the Health Center Commission for the County of Chesterfield. So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Next, we have three appointments to the Community Criminal Justice Board. So moved. Second.

[04:08:18] Aye. Next, we have one appointment to the Community Policy and Management Team. So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Last, we have two appointments to the Social Services Board.

[04:08:35] So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. E, consent items. Mr. Chair, there have been no requests to remove items from the consent agenda for public comment. Motion to approve the consent agenda. I'll second.

[04:08:51] All in favor? Aye. 15, 15-minute citizen comment period on unscheduled matters. This time is designated for citizens to talk to the Board of Supervisors. It is not a time for dialogue with board members, and it is not a question-answer period.

[04:09:10] Those conversations can easily occur with individual board members outside of the board meeting. As a reminder, the board's procedures state no citizen shall speak on any matter of business that is a subject on the board's agenda for that day. and each speaker shall have three minutes to address the board.

[04:09:26] We have two speakers. First will be Pepe Jones, and second will be Thomas Curl. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Casey, my name is Pepe Jones.

[04:09:48] I'm a resident of Malothian District. I made this speech about two years ago. I first made this speech when Maury Sullivan was supervisor for Malothian District. That was quite some time ago. That was at the beginning of my removing signs on my own.

[04:10:10] I've done over $30,000 so far, and I've quit counting after that. Maurice Sullivan was supervisor quite a long time ago. That was when Greg Allen had a full head of hair.

[04:10:28] Jake Yelter wasn't even born. If I throw something out of my car, I can get a $500 fine for littering. Yet, you let these propagate all over the county, and you have an ordinance against them.

[04:10:48] It's against the law for these things to be put on the sides of the road. You can put them at the entrance of the development. This one and this one were put in front of my church at the corner of Coalfield Road, Amalekian Turnpike.

[04:11:07] This one's three miles away. This one's 11 miles away. Teddy Roosevelt, who in anybody's list of the top five presidents would be in there, said that if you complain about something and don't offer a solution, you're just whining.

[04:11:28] So I have a solution. When the county pulls these, or when somebody like me pulls these and turns them in, put a date on the upper right-hand corner and turn them in. For the first, let's say, two dozen that are removed, you find the scofflaw $10 a sign.

[04:11:54] For the next two dozen, you just double it, $20 a sign. And for every dozen after that, you just keep doubling it until they finally go away. So you have a solution. You have a law department that can enforce it.

[04:12:12] If they don't pay, take away their business license. Pretty simple, and we thank you. Next speaker. Thank you. Next speaker.

[04:12:50] I saw an email from you. I'm Thomas Kirill. You all know who I am. That said you were supporting us talking about items on the agenda. Are we or are we not allowed to talk about items on the agenda? Under the board's rules, you're not allowed to talk about things that are on the agenda. Perfect.

[04:13:06] Then I will be glad to talk about the peanut property data center in Chesterfield because it's not on the agenda. Fair enough. So I'd like to read an email I sent to you, Mark. And you're right. We don't trust you. you. Mark, I appreciate your email from last night and for continuing the dialogue with your constituents. That said, we are long past the point of accepting vague reassurances. For more than 18 months, we've asked County Administrator Joe Casey, we've asked Matt Harris, Economic

[04:13:40] Development Director, we've asked Garrett Hart and members of the board, including you, for hard evidence that Chesterfield's massive investments in economic development are yielding tangible returns to the taxpayer. And you're right, we're still at an 80-20 mix after 20 years and hundreds of millions of dollars and no data. Instead, we have received carefully curated talking points, glossy media posts, and a legal presentation designed to dissuade public scrutiny rather

[04:14:14] than inform understanding. So for like the peanut plant data center, we hope we have some more notice more than just a week because I think it's important for the taxpayers to have time to vet that and understand it. That really is something that I think that you would want from a transparency and trust standpoint. This is the kind of key financial data that should be disclosed months in advance, not quietly put into the minutes at the very last minute. That's unacceptable.

[04:14:44] Let's just call it what it is. It's a deliberate attempt to limit public engagement on a decision that, back to your point, will have multi-generational impacts. This is not transparency. It's deception, and every official involved should be held accountable.

[04:15:03] Now, I hope I'm wrong and you're right, but your history over the last 20 years and your transparency the last 18 months at our requests is abysmal. So forgive us for being skeptical, but skepticism is warranted when public trust is treated as an inconvenience, and that came out in spades.

[04:15:22] On behalf of the Chesterfield Citizens for Responsible Government, we request that before you vote yes on the peanut property, you publicly confirm that you've reviewed the following. All verifiable financial documents and business cases, full projections of revenue to the counting, including real estate taxes, machinery, tools tax, pilots, and other direct payments. I know about that. I spent 30 years with IBM. I ran lights out data centers here in the U.S. from Hyderabad and Bangalore, India. So I know a lot about data centers, and I know a lot about data center economics. I would guess I know more than all of you combined. What are the estimated public

[04:16:00] costs including infrastructure, utility costs, and county-funded support. Mr. Curl, your three minutes are up. Can you wrap it up quickly? I will. All right. The other thing I would like to do on over and above that is full contractual and incentive agreements. We want to make sure that the taxpayers are protected, complete fixed-rate agreements, specifics on job recreation targets, et cetera. These are not unreasonable requests. They're minimum standards for sound governance and fiscal accountability, particularly for deals of this size. We urge you to do the right thing and make sure it withstands the scrutiny of the citizens you were elected to

[04:16:36] represent. Thank you very much. Thomas Curl on behalf of Citizens for Responsible Government. Thank you. Next speaker. Mr. Schwenderman. Hello. My name is Carl Schwenderman. I would like to comment on the Chesfield mega site. They approved the construction of several hyper data centers on it and um there's a big problem the tidewater in western has a two and a half mile section

[04:17:12] of railroad bed that runs through the through the mega site on the western side of it and the count in the in the planning commission put no proffers in or any rules to protect it from getting bulldozed could could the board of supervisors please ask the developer to to not put their data centers in the path of the railroad bed like and and grant the railroad bed a 40 to 60 foot easement to protect the trees in the easement so that it can have a 10 foot trail along the roadbed that can break they can act as a branch line of the fall line trail because they're they're the current currently there's there was no there's there was no written

[04:17:51] no proffers or anything to openly protect the tidewater and western roadbed to allow it to become a multi-use trail because it's and it would be nice if they could if they could ask developer to transfer the railroad bed over to the Chesterfield Parks Department. Also, there's a big transmission line that's going to carry 900 megawatts of electricity from the Chesterfield substation in Midlothian to the data center. Could they ask, they could ask Dominion Power to proffer building a multi-use trail along that new power line easement, and the trail, the two trails would merge, would meet up with one another, forming a giant Y that would really open up Chesterfield

[04:18:29] County to pedestrians and bikes because the Tidewater and Western would be the closest thing that Chesterfield would get to act as a pedestrian beltway. What makes the Tidewater and Western so special is it's actually a three-foot-wide narrow-gauge railroad that ran from Bermuda 100 in Chesterfield.

[04:18:48] It crosses the Fall Line Trail in Chester, but it actually ended in Farmville, Virginia, where it actually would meet up with the modern-day High Bridge Trail, which would allow someone to ride a bike from Farmville all the way to Newport News if they're all merged into one super, if they merge with the Capitol Trail.

[04:19:09] Please grant the Tidewater and Western the easement to protect it from the data centers. Thank you. Madam Clerk. Item 16, deferred items from previous meetings. We have none. Item 17, zoning requests.

[04:19:25] Mr. Chair, you have nine cases on your consent agenda this evening For the benefit of the public, consent cases are those cases where the applicant accepts staff's recommendation and there is no previous opposition. For each case on the consent agenda, staff has received written confirmation from the applicants that they agree with the conditions being imposed and that all proffers are offered in compliance with state law.

[04:19:47] First is 23SN0132 in Cloverhill Magisterial District. Witten Brothers site expansion is a request to rezone from General Business C5 and Light Industrial I1 to General Business C5 with conditional use plan development for exceptions to ordinance requirements on 10.32 acres known as 900 Johnston-Willis Drive.

[04:20:11] The applicant proposes to expand parking to accommodate additional vehicle inventory. Exceptions to ordinance requirements are requested pertaining to landscaping, signage, and setbacks for existing vehicle display areas. Planning Commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report.

[04:20:35] - Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on case 22, I'm sorry, 23 SN0132, Witten Brothers site expansion. Is there anyone who'd like to speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name.

[04:20:53] - Hello, my name is Carl Schwendeman. Could they please ask the applicant to build a five-foot-wide sidewalk along Route 60 that's set back 10 feet from the road and build a sidewalk along Johnston-Willis Drive? Because the problem is that the zoning, this is outdated.

[04:21:14] There's no proffers for a sidewalk along Route 60. And the thing is, Richmond extended the new GRTC buses down Route 60, and there's a bus stop nearby. And now, if the bus stops being put in along Route 60, there's just tons and tons of new pedestrians now.

[04:21:30] And if you put landscaping here, without a sidewalk, it'll make it dangerous for the people who are actually walking in the curb in the street. And if you ask a developer to build a five-foot-wide sidewalk along Route 60 now, it can be put in relatively cheap.

[04:21:48] Because they're building, they're going to put in like 200 parking spaces here, and they're going to tear down the showroom. So essentially, they're going to tear up this whole lot and redevelop it into a modern car showroom. And so relatively from a cost standpoint, it would be a lot cheaper if they just asked the developer to build the new sidewalk along Route 60.

[04:22:11] Now, when they do the mega project, instead of trying to do it like five years later, the sidewalk will also add a lot of value to it and approve safety along Route 60 and Johnston-Willis Drive. Thank you.

[04:22:27] Are there any other speakers? Seeing none, I'm going to close this case. It's back before the board, and this case is in the Clover Hill District. Thank you. Carl, I do agree that sidewalks would be good, but they're not doing anything other than building the new parking lot in the back.

[04:22:53] The new showroom has already been built. That was done. It's just gotten finished in the last couple months. So all they're basically doing is putting in new display areas along the curbing with landscaping and I think that might take away their place to display their vehicles.

[04:23:14] I'm just, I wish that was thought about sooner, but. Anyhow, so I move to approve case 23SN0132 subject to the staff conditions in the report.

[04:23:40] - I second. - Any discussion? - Yeah, he's got a question. Let me just kind of explore this just a little bit of what Carl's saying. And Jesse, maybe this is something you can answer for me. The applicant may be here too.

[04:23:58] Sorry, I should have introduced you to the call earlier. That's okay. I didn't expect to have to answer any questions. Is it possible to put in that sidewalk? It's not something that we have discussed, and really this is the first time that that has come up.

[04:24:17] So I can't even really speak to whether or not that would be something that the applicant would be willing or even able to do based upon that area at this point I'm just looking because there's no other sidewalks anywhere near there there's no sidewalks on either side of there either yeah so typically when we review these cases we do look at things like sidewalks pedestrian amenities because this is really just a parking expansion there's no nexus between pedestrians being generated and the additional parking so from a legal

[04:24:54] standpoint i think uh jeff will nod his head you know it's tough for us to say hey could you put it a sidewalk because you're adding more parking it just doesn't make a lot of sense as much as we all love sidewalk um that that would seem to be a maybe a bit of a stretch to ask them to do that as part of a parking lot jess we could ask them we just can't um make that a condition is this a conditional use or a straight zone uh there it's a cupd case but they still need to

[04:25:31] accept the condition and they're not in a position to accept that tonight um but i would i would say that because you have to do uh improved landscaping in the area so you're going to be working in the area to mr swinderman's point um i don't believe at this point we can force them to do that but um i would say that it would be a goodwill gesture to the community if if there is room if they would consider. I know you asked for five foot. I would be happy to see a three foot wide walk through

[04:26:06] there if we can fit it in there. I'm not asking for that to be added to the case, but I am asking, I can ask the applicant to consider that and put that in if they're able to. Of course, I'll certainly address it with my client. Thank you. If I could suggest, Mr. Chair, we'll certainly work with them, the landscape plan to see if we can, you know, at least fit it in there if they're not willing to do it.

[04:26:28] I'm not sure it can fit, but if it can and they're working in the area anyways, it would be, it is a good suggestion. Any further discussion?

[04:26:44] We have a motion on the table. All in favor? Aye. And we didn't get a second. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought we had a second. I had Mr. Hall in second. Oh, did he? Okay. Yeah, he did. That's great. We did. All in favor? Aye. Next is 24SN 1190 in Bermuda Magisterial District.

[04:27:04] Haley Ford Body Shop parking lot is a request for conditional use plan development to permit exceptions to ordinance requirements in the General Business C-5 District on 1.68 acres, known as 9020 Pams Avenue. The applicant is proposing to expand parking for an existing auto body shop.

[04:27:24] With the addition of new parking, additional site improvements are proposed, including landscaping and ornamental fencing. Planning Commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on case 24 SN 1190, Haley Ford Body Shop parking lot.

[04:27:45] Is there anyone who'd like to speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to close this public hearing. It's back before the board. This case is in the Bermuda District.

[04:28:01] I make the motion to approve case 24 SN 1190 subject to the conditions in the staff report. Second. All in favor? Aye. Next is 24SN 1266 in Bermuda Magisterial District.

[04:28:20] Bellmead rezoning and exceptions is a request to rezone from residential R7 and light industrial I1 to residential townhouse RTH district, plus conditional use plan development to permit exceptions to ordinance requirements on multiple parcels totaling 42.87 acres.

[04:28:38] The property borders the southwest side of Interstate 95 and is bounded on the north by Wonder View Drive and bounded to the south by Proctor's Creek. A residential development containing single-family and townhouse dwellings with up to 275 total dwelling units and associated recreational amenities is proposed.

[04:28:58] Planning Commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on case 24, SN 1266, Bell Mead rezoning and exceptions. Is there anyone who'd like to speak to this case?

[04:29:15] If so, please come forward and state your name. Hello, my name is Renee Eldred. Overall, this is a good case. It'll be a plus for the community.

[04:29:31] My only issue with this is getting out from Wonder View onto Route 1. It's going to play hell. there's two there's a stone marker and two um historical markers that sit in front of the halfway house that you literally got to stick your nose out in the road to to see around them so if there's any way to work with them to get it so the sight line looking left because those people they

[04:30:09] It crowned that hill as a hill just right on the other side of the halfway house. And I fear for what might come because of that. And I know it's the only way in to actually do the project, but it still needs to have some kind of consideration when it's built.

[04:30:29] So, thank you. Any other speakers? Hello, my name is Carl. Could they put a sound barrier in along Interstate 95, like one of those big heavy sound barriers to block out the traffic noise from the cars?

[04:30:47] and uh also could they it could they ask the developer to pre-wire all the houses and townhomes for electric car chargers basically they would all they would need is just a dryer outlet is a is a common dryer outlet in the garage of the car in the garages of all these houses and basically someone could buy a electric car charger and plug it in because it's a lot cheaper to uh put a chart It's a lot cheaper to pre-wire a house now than it is to retrofit it later on for electric cars.

[04:31:23] Thank you, board. There are numerous issues that I actually have with this zoning request. The first of all is that one of the main things, if you look at figure 6.6 in their road access, they're actually going to block what they call a stump road of Maywood, and that's going to block not just my property, but also everybody else on the south side of Maywood.

[04:31:50] So now all of those property owners are going to lose all of their access to their property. Just for clarification, Virginia Constitution, Article 1, Section 11, that's called a taking. That's illegal. There was good back and forth, so thank you to the board and the county employees who said, no, you can't block it.

[04:32:06] We need to get guarantees from them that if this does get approved, they can't do that. If they want to go forward, they need to go with what the county suggested. You have to pay Buena Vista, and then you can only put your gate up on the backside of a community because you don't want it as a main access point.

[04:32:21] Now, to the other point of traffic, there has been no VDOT traffic study. How can we approve something when we don't even know if this is feasible for our community? It's a known fact that during peak rush hour times, 28 to 36 percent of traffic accidents increased there.

[04:32:40] We're going to have more traffic accidents with 575 additional cars on the road. Does that sound irresponsible? No, it doesn't. All of you talk about care for the community, and I believe it. That's something that should appall you. all of these family members here, probably yourselves, use that road. You have to get off I-95. Where does that traffic go? Right down Jeff Davis towards 288, right in the Chester to try and divert past it. We haven't done anything to know what we need to do for those roadways that already cannot accommodate traffic on that roadway. So we really need to deny this as it stands or say,

[04:33:18] hey, we're going to have to go back to square one and re-envision this entire concept because as it stands, it doesn't work. To the other point of environmental, there's only five points. There's no environmental studies. It goes right up to Proctor's Creek, which is a federally protected habitat. I have box turtles on my property right now. They just nested. There's no studies of impact to that. And they're going to be building a massive area completely disturbing that habitat.

[04:33:45] And these turtles only live in a 10 acre area. That's their habitat. What are we going to do for our future? We're going to say, hey, it's okay to make some quick tax money. Let somebody make profit financially all for the destruction of people's access to their homes and their environment? What are we going to leave behind? And I do find it ironic that this is just after the 249th anniversary of Virginia enacting its Bill of Rights protecting property is fundamental and that our existence in society does not deprive us of this right as reported in the Virginia Constitution. As I said, Article 1, Section 11, 12th of June, 1776. It's more ironic

[04:34:24] that tomorrow, the rest of our constitution was enacted one month before the federal constitution that we're about to celebrate our independence of. Without our constitution and those protections of rights, the rest of the country wouldn't have the rights that it has. So anyway, thank you for your time.

[04:34:39] And again, please deny this request as it stands now. Let's go back to the drawing board, because as it works, it does not work. Can you state your name for the record, please? Sorry. My name is Edgar Jett. Thank you.

[04:34:55] Any other speakers?

[04:35:04] Don't be blinded, please. You're going to have to speak in small words. I don't speak in legalese, and I am a stroke survivor. I'm a disabled, handicapped veteran, and I live there on Buena Vista Boulevard where they're going to block it off.

[04:35:25] And if they block off Buena Vista Boulevard, they're going to force me into homelessness. I ask that you simply defer your signature for another year because we spoke before down there. They made me an offer for the property owned on the west side of Buena Vista, and they reneged on the deal.

[04:35:46] It was a bait and switch. They offered me $90,000. They said they'd give me $5,000 then, $5,000 when I signed the contract, and I could stay until they finished, until they started building, and then they would give me the other $80,000 and I'd have to leave. That was, I would have accepted that, and I would have been gone now.

[04:36:05] But now, I'm just stuck there because of that. Hold on a minute. And I've been to the planning meeting. I think a bunch of these people were at the planning meeting, And the contractors stated that the cheapest they could build a house for was $500,000.

[04:36:26] I'm going to state publicly that I will accept that, okay? And if they give me that money and give me six months, I'll be gone from the property. The lady that lives behind me owns four lots on the east side of Buena Vista Boulevard.

[04:36:53] If they take four of my lots and give them to her and trade them for her, for my four lots on my side, then the developer will own the entire east side and everybody on the west side of Buenavista Boulevard will have access to their property from Seminole Avenue. Then there should be no problem with putting up gates wherever they want to put them. You understand what I'm saying?

[04:37:20] Everybody on the west side will have access from Seminole. There will be nobody left on Buenavista boulevard on the west side i thank you for your time and i only ask that you defer the decision for one year sir could you state your name for the record oh you don't want to know that i'm edgar ajet the fourth that's my son thank you any other speakers seeing none i'm going to close this

[04:37:53] public hearing is back before the board um what is the applicant here good evening mr chairman members members of the board my name is jeff geiger here on behalf of the applicant um with the chairman's permission. I'd be glad to touch on some of the comments. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[04:38:30] Thank you, Amanda, for the map. I understand there might be some confusion. The last two speakers spoke about Buena Vista Road continuing here. Currently, that road is not in the state system. There's no pavement there. It's not a VDOT road. Seminole is the VDOT road, actually, to about right here. What we are planning on doing is putting in private pavement through here it's right of way but it's not maintained by vdot just a paper what we call a paper road we will put in private pavement to get back to buena vista only once you get to our

[04:39:09] property line here would there be a gate for a fire access so we are not doing anything to block access we are not doing anything to inhibit their use of buena vista when the vista is a paper road if they are traveling it there's a dirt road there they're free to continue to use it we will not do anything to inhibit their access. Once they do hit Maywood, there would be private pavement that we would maintain, and then they would work their way out to the VDOT systems. You have to recognize the area we're dealing in here. Even though it looks like there are

[04:39:46] lots, it's not developed. It was a subdivision created in the 1920s and just never developed. 95 came through, and we never really saw any investment back here. So we have an opportunity to create some new housing, create some new opportunities, and bring a little bit more life to this area.

[04:40:12] Traffic has been evaluated by your traffic department. Environmental, as you know, we will go through a variety of environmental requirements that are imposed on us through the state and the federal government and administered by your environmental engineering department.

[04:40:31] There was the request for the sound barrier. As you know, your zoning ordinance requires us to stay 200 feet away from Interstate 95, and we are doing that. And then lastly, we have and know that we need to work with VDOT to evaluate the Wonder View intersection.

[04:40:52] We will be making improvements there, and VDOT will have to sign off on it, and we have to meet those VDOT site distance requirements. That's all controlled through the VDOT approval process. We believe we've got a good proposal here to add a variety of single-family homes and townhomes to fill in an area where housing is needed, and this will be an opportunity to add that housing in an area that's been designated for residential and gives us that opportunity to meet that need.

[04:41:27] With that, we ask the board to recommend approval. Any questions of the applicant? Just a quick question. The property that the gentleman is talking about where he said he wasn't going to have access, can you give me a feel of where that's located?

[04:41:45] Mr. Miller, I don't know. He's referenced Buena Vista, and that's here. And this right here is a paper road. There's no VDOT, what we would call a VDOT road there today. Now, Maywood here, we will put in private pavement.

[04:42:06] So if they live in one of these lots here and are coming this way and out, they will continue to do so. We will not interfere with them. If they live on this side, they'll come up this way and come out. We won't interfere with them.

[04:42:22] Did the applicant make an offer or anything that you're aware of? My client has told me no. There have been others that have looked at this property, and others may have knocked on their door, but my client has told me no. Okay, thank you. Mr. Chair, can they show us where they thought it would be blocked?

[04:42:43] Can you show us on this map? He can help you with the location with the pen, if you don't mind helping them to show where they live.

[04:43:02] I own, let me see, I think these. Thank you. And I understand they were going to put the gate here.

[04:43:21] So you can see this label here, and it points to the green line there. So the gate will only be at the green line. It will not be at the white. And then you're going to put houses on here? Just here.

[04:43:39] That's where they put the gate? That's where your paper shows the gate is. No, see right here, emergency access gate. The words are right there. Yeah, right here, right here where I put it. No, see this line here?

[04:43:57] It points to right here, so there's no blocking you. So you're not going to interfere with us in any way? No, sir. I don't think so. I don't think that's true. Well, it's committed here, and if they prove it, it'll be in the zoning, and the plans have to follow that.

[04:44:15] This is a conditional use, right? Yes, sir. I'll just proffer that they can't block your property. I'll add an imposed condition that they can't block your property, and I'm sure they'll accept it. Okay, because Winavista is actually a private road that I maintain now so I can get in there, yeah.

[04:44:32] Yeah, that's right. It's a paper street. VDOT doesn't maintain it. Yeah, I do. If you're going back and forth, that's a private road. I will impose a proffer that says that you cannot block the drive to his home. What is your address, sir? 10510 Winavista.

[04:44:49] Boulevard okay all right that's not we don't have a problem with that thank you any other questions from board members i'm going to make the motion to approve case 24 sn 1190 with subject to the conditions in the staff report and with an additional imposed condition mr chair i believe

[04:45:25] we're on i'm sorry did i look down at the wrong i'm sorry 24 sn 1266. sorry about that thank you did good today make the motion to approve case 24 sn 1266 subject to the conditions in a staff report with an additional imposed condition that the uh applicant cannot block the driveway

[04:45:55] or the um access cannot block the access to 10510 buona vista drive buona vista boulevard Can I get a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Next is 24SN 1295 in Clover Hill Magisterial District.

[04:46:20] Midlothian Quarry Expansion Rezoning is a request to rezone from Light Industrial I-1 to General Industrial I-2, plus conditional use to allow expansion of the existing quarry use onto an 88.25-acre site known as 3420 Warborough Road.

[04:46:39] To accommodate planned expansion of the mining pit at the existing quarry site, 3636 Warborough Road, the applicant proposes to relocate secondary processing of rock materials and stockpile storage onto the subject property, 3420 Warborough Road.

[04:46:56] No mining activities would take place on the subject property. Planning Commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on case 24-SN 1295, Midlothian Quarry Expansion Rezoning.

[04:47:17] Is there anyone who'd like to speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to close this public hearing. It's back before the board. This is in the Clover Hill District. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[04:47:34] Yeah, this is, I was a little concerned when I heard they were expanding, but they're not really expanding the mine itself. They're just moving all the equipment farther back into this new property so that they can continue to mine what's underneath where the equipment is now.

[04:47:52] I went for a tour here. It was really kind of cool, actually. But anyway, I would like to recommend the approval of case 24SN 1295, subject to the conditions in the staff report.

[04:48:11] Second. All in favor? Aye. Next is 25SN1026 in Matoaka Magisterial District. Ball Second Dwelling is a request for conditional use to permit a second dwelling in an agricultural aid district on property known as 6130 Cedar Springs Road.

[04:48:34] Construction of a second dwelling that is detached from the principal dwelling is proposed. This new dwelling will be occupied by a family member. Planning Commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on case 25 SN 1026, Ball's second dwelling.

[04:48:58] Is there anyone who'd like to speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to close this public hearing. It's back before the board, and this case is in the Matoka District. Mr. Chair, I make a motion to approve case number 25 SN 1026, subject to conditions in the staff report.

[04:49:20] I'll second. All in favor? Aye. Next is 25 SN 1029 in Midlothian Magisterial District, actig second dwelling is a request for conditional use to permit a second dwelling in a residential r40 district on property known as 3709 old gun road west construction of a second dwelling that is detached from the principal dwelling is proposed this new dwelling will be occupied by a family member planning commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff

[04:49:53] Report. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on case 25 SN 1029. I got it. All right.

[04:50:11] Actig, is that? Okay. Actig Second Dwelling. Is there anyone who'd like to come forward and speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to close this public hearing. It's back for the board. Mr. Carroll? I'm sorry. Midlothian, I'm sorry. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to go ahead to move approval of case number 25SN1029, subject to the conditions in the staff report. Second. All in favor? Aye. Next is 25SN1056 in Bermuda

[04:50:50] Magisterial District Field. Family daycare home is a request for a conditional use to permit a family daycare home plus conditional use plan development to permit exceptions to ordinance requirements in the Agricultural Aid District on 1.03 acres, known as 4010 Kelmarby Road.

[04:51:11] The applicant proposes to allow for the care of up to 12 children from their home. In addition, the applicant is seeking an exception to the required 40-foot side yard setback to allow for the construction of an addition connecting the detached garage to the dwelling. Planning Commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report.

[04:51:32] Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on case 25 SN1056, Field Family Daycare Home. Is there anyone who'd like to speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to close this public hearing.

[04:51:51] It's back before the board. This case is in the Bermuda District. I make the motion to approve case 25 SN1056 subject to the conditions in the staff report. I'll second. All in favor. Aye. Next is 25SN1057 in Matulka Magisterial District, Murphy Second Dwelling is a request for conditional use to permit a second dwelling in an agricultural aid district on property known as 20011 Genitoe Road.

[04:52:22] Construction of a second dwelling that is detached from the principal dwelling to be occupied by a family member is proposed. Planning commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on case 25SN1057, Murphy's Second Dwelling.

[04:52:42] Is there anyone here who would like to speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to close this public hearing. It's back before the board. This case is in the Matoka District. Yes, it is.

[04:52:58] Mr. Chair, this is actually going to be used for a family member to live on the property with them. I think it's an appropriate use. And I'm sure that, you know, we'll see more of these coming in the future. So I make a motion to approve case number 25, SN1057, subject to conditions in the staff report.

[04:53:18] Second. All in favor? Aye. Last on your consent agenda is 25 SN1132 in Matulka Magisterial District. Brant Veterinary Services is a request to amend prior zoning approval, Case 85 SN 0035, to promote a veterinary hospital in a light industrial I-1 district on 1.65 acres known as 13861 Hull Street Road and 6909 Chidal Drive.

[04:53:49] The applicant currently operates a veterinary hospital at 6901 Chidal Drive, as shown on this slide. However, with the business growing, the applicant seeks to relocate to a larger space at 13861 Hull Street Road.

[04:54:05] Planning Commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on case 25 SN1132, Branded Veterinary Services. Is there anyone who would like to speak to this case?

[04:54:22] If so, please come forward and state your name. Hello, my name is Carl. Could they ask them to build a sidewalk along Chattel Drive when they build the new building, when they start building the new building?

[04:54:42] Mr. Chair, I can answer that. Carl, I'm not building a new building. Let's wait until we're here. Any other speakers? Seeing none, I'm going to close this public hearing. It's back before the board. Mr. Carroll. Carl, they're not building a new building.

[04:54:58] They're actually moving from one building to another. In the illustration, it shows that there's a building. And if you literally look out the front door of their building and look over to the right, there's a medical building that's currently there right now. And they just want to move from one location to the other. Unfortunately, when the other location was zoned years ago, it wasn't zoned for a veterinary clinic.

[04:55:19] This business has grown and basically outgrown the space that they're in, which is why they need to move or they want to move to the other location to expand. I think it's an appropriate move, Mr. Chair. Let me make a motion to approve case number 25, SN 1132, subject to conditions in the staff report.

[04:55:39] Second. All in favor? Aye. Mr. Chair, that concludes your consent items for this evening, and you have two discussion items, the first of which is 24 SN 1030, Beulah Road Cluster Lots, Rezoning, and Exceptions.

[04:55:56] Mr. Ramsey. Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board, and Dr. Casey. Case 24SN 1030 in the Dale Magisterial District, Beulah Road Cluster Lots, is a request for rezoning from agricultural to residential R-12 with conditional use to permit neighborhood recreational facilities, plus conditional use plan development to permit exceptions to ordinance requirements.

[04:56:17] A residential development containing a maximum of 166 single-family cluster-style dwellings is proposed. The commutio includes single-family detached residences with associated neighborhood recreational facilities. The subject property, outlined in red, consists of 59.05 acres and is currently zoned agricultural.

[04:56:39] Beulah Elementary School and Windermere Subdivision are located to the east, with the Summer Tree Subdivision located to the north. The subject property is outlined in white in the current slide images. As shown on the aerial image on the left, the site is currently occupied by residential homes and associated structures.

[04:56:58] The comprehensive plan designates the western portion of the property for corporate office, research and development, and light industrial. which suggests the property is appropriate for corporate office research laboratories and light manufacturing and assembly uses that are generally dependent upon raw materials first processed elsewhere. The plan designates the eastern two-thirds of the property for suburban residential two, and this suggests the property is appropriate for residential development and a maximum density of two to four dwellings per acre. A community consisting of a maximum of 166 cluster-style dwellings is proposed. The conceptual plan for the proposal is shown in the current slide.

[04:57:37] single-family detached dwellings located on individual lots as planned. The development would include interconnected roadways that connect to the adjoining arterial roadways, and that's Beulah and Kingsland Roads, pedestrian-scale streetscapes with street trees and front porches or stoops, sidewalks on both sides of internal streets and along the project's frontage with Beulah and Kingsland Roads, and programmable common area interspersed throughout the project. The applicant has proffered design requirements as part of this request.

[04:58:06] Community design elements include a conceptual plan layout with specified areas for roads, dwellings, sidewalks, and common area, and this includes active and passive recreational amenities. Development of a field area for recreational play, a community garden area, and a pedestrian pathway with a connection to Beulah Elementary School had been provided.

[04:58:27] The first set of conceptual elevations proffered with this request are shown in the current slide. The second set of proffered elevations are shown in this next slide. Design standards for dwellings include these proffered conceptual elevations, a minimum house size of 1,450 square feet, specified building roof materials, masonry foundations, and treatment of garages, porches, stoops, and chimneys, and direct vent fireplaces.

[04:58:54] Exceptions to ordinance requirements for the residential R-12 district standards are proposed to accommodate the development and are outlined in the current slide. These include exceptions to permit reduced lot sizes, lot width, and lot coverage requirements.

[04:59:10] Corresponding reductions to setbacks have also been requested to coordinate with the smaller minimum lot size. To address concerns from adjoining property owners, the applicant has proffered a fence improvement inside a portion of the buffer around portions of the property.

[04:59:26] Proffered condition 27 now requires the installation of a six-foot tall fence, being vinyl or pressure-treated wood, next to five specified properties on portions of the southern and western boundaries of the request. This fence location is shown on the current slide with a red line.

[04:59:42] This fence is not required where the boundary is located inside of a designated resource protection area. The Planning Commission with a unanimous vote recommended approval of the request. Staff also continues to recommend approval. The comprehensive plan's recommendation for uses on the property calls for a mix of residential and non-residential uses.

[05:00:03] While the western half of the property does not presently support residential uses, the applicant's proposal will provide a development plan that seeks to limit impacts on and provide transition to existing area residential properties. Transition to existing single-family development to the south and west will be accomplished with the use of proffered buffers.

[05:00:23] The applicant's request will comply with the Comprehensive Plan's land use designation that supports the eastern portion of the property being developed for suburban residential uses. The development's proposed buffers, site layout, and roadway and pedestrian connections will also support the plan's guidelines relative to land use transition, compatibility of uses, and integration of roadway and pedestrian facilities.

[05:00:47] Quality site design, recreational amenities, and architecture proffered by the applicant would create a unique and viable development that enhances the surrounding community. And then as of today, staff has not received any letters of support or opposition that were submitted through the citizen comment portal for this public hearing.

[05:01:07] And at this point, I'd be happy to answer any questions from the board. Board members, are there any questions for staff? Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing for case 24 SN1030, Beulah Road Cluster Lots, rezoning and exceptions.

[05:01:29] I'm sorry. Well, does the applicant want to make a statement if the applicant's here? You're good? Okay. At this time, I'm going to open the public hearing for case 24 SN1030. Are there any speakers that would like to come forward?

[05:01:46] If so, please come forward. State your name. I'm John Kaslow, and I'm represented by Mr. Holland. Best wishes to you, sir. This is the first time I've looked at that, and I've got a couple of questions.

[05:02:05] I mean, there's a lot of houses there. Where's the traffic going to dump out to? Is it going to dump out to Chester Road, Hopkins Road? Can anybody tell me that? We'll have the applicant come back up, so just ask your questions, and then we will have somebody come up to answer the question.

[05:02:25] Let me add another question to it. How many cars are we going to put on Chester Road or Hopkins Road, and are we going to have to pay to expand those then? Okay, is that your two questions? That's my questions. Okay, we will get that answered for you.

[05:02:41] Thank you. Good evening. Jerry Turner. This looks like the same situation we've got on Fordham Road. We've got an elementary school.

[05:02:59] The kids are walking in the street because there's no sidewalks. Yeah, they're building sidewalks, but they're internal to their property. They're not taking into account anybody else walking up down that road. The county right now is spending a lot of money building sidewalks for those kids that live, that walk to Jacobs Road School.

[05:03:24] Ten years from now, you're probably going to be, the county's probably going to be spending a lot of money building a sidewalk for the kids to walk to, was it Bueller or whatever that elementary school is over there. Y'all have got to stop letting these developers say, well, we're building sidewalks, but they're on our property.

[05:03:49] They're not on yours. We're not putting them on state right-of-way. You need to look at what's the future for this area is going to be when these kids start walking, not necessarily out of this development, but the other developers around there.

[05:04:06] Thank you. Hello, my name is Carl Schwenderman. Could they ask the developer to build the sidewalks along both roads to the school, but also if this development is within a mile of the Fall Line Trail, Could they ask them to build a sidewalk or a bike path along one of these major roads to lead to the Fall Line Trail?

[05:04:32] Because the Fall Line Trail, I heard it's going to run along Chester Road. So it's probably going to be, it has to be close to this thing. And it would be nice if they had a branch line from the Fall Line Trail run out to this one here because of all the density of it. Any other speakers?

[05:04:54] Seeing none, I'm going to close this public hearing. It's back before the board. This case is in the Dale District. And I don't know, do you want to have the applicant come up and speak? Yes, have the applicant come up and address the traffic in terms of where it goes for Mr., for John.

[05:05:17] Good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. My name is Anne Miller, and I'm a planner with Balls and Associates representing the applicant this evening. So as you can see on the concept plan, we do have two accesses for the property. There's one going to Beulah Road, and then one to Kingsland Road.

[05:05:36] So that was in design with the Transportation Department to provide access to both Kingsland and Beulah to help with the connectivity and move cars. So, you know, I'm not sure exactly where everybody will go, but I'm assuming, you know, people will take both roads to either Route 10 or then they could go east towards Chester Road eventually and get to that location.

[05:05:59] We're also providing road improvements on both Kingsland and Beulah. There will be turn lanes at both accesses, a widening of Kingsland Road with a sidewalk on both frontages as well to help lead to the school, and then the sidewalk connections within the development, and then we do have a connection to the school over here as kind of proposed by staff and the applicants agreed to that.

[05:06:26] And then we also have an off-site turn lane improvement at the corner of Beulah and Kingsland Road to help with traffic flow in the area. So they'll be paying cash proffers, but a reduced amount in order to do that improvement as well.

[05:06:42] I'm happy to answer any other questions you all may have. No, no other questions I have. Thank you, Sam. Yes. Thank you very much. Okay. Yeah, I think it did. She'll be glad to speak to you, John, as well.

[05:07:00] So, this is right before the Dale District, and we've closed the public hearing. Is there any other speakers? I don't see any. Okay. If not, Mr. Chair, I move that we approve case 24SN-1030 with the subject conditions and exceptions as noted.

[05:07:26] Do you have a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. The last discussion item is 24SN-1313, Iron Bridge Center. Mr. Saunders. Good evening, Dr. Casey, Chairman Engel, and members of the board.

[05:07:47] Case 24, Essendon, 1313 in the Bermuda District, Iron Bridge Center, is a request for an amendment of a previous zoning approval, Case 04, Essendon, 0271, to modify the master plan, permitted uses, and development standards for previously approved commercial development on 20.47 acres.

[05:08:06] Here's a zoning map of the property. It's currently zoned C3. The image on the left shows the property outlined in white. The land use plan map on the right shows that the subject property is designated for community mixed use. The proper conceptual plan shown in this slide shows the general locations for internal access drives, access points to public streets, public street improvements, commercial parcels, which are labeled as 01 through 06, tentative locations of best management practices, and landscape setbacks from public streets.

[05:08:41] Proffered conditions limit uses to those permitted by right or with restrictions in the C3 district and further prohibit several C3 uses to include residential, more than one convenience store with an automobile service station, and automobile sales and rentals.

[05:08:59] An exception to the use requirements is also requested to allow for self-storage use to be developed on development tract 05 as shown on the southeastern corner of the property. The proffered conditions require that a 50-foot buffer be maintained adjacent to two residentially occupied parcels that are adjacent to the east of the subject property, as well as along West Hundred Road if development of tract 05 is developed with a building that's two stories or taller.

[05:09:31] Conceptual elevations have been provided for commercial retail uses with both contemporary and neotraditional options and are shown in this slide. Conceptual elevations have also been provided for self-storage uses, which are shown here. Planning Commission and staff both recommend approval of the request.

[05:09:50] The proposed modifications to the master plan and development standards permits a commercial development that is consistent in scale and intensity of what was originally approved. In case 04SN 0271, updated propers and conceptual elevations ensure a high quality of architectural treatment for buildings containing a self-storage use and other commercial uses.

[05:10:12] That concludes my presentation. Any questions? Any questions for staff? Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on case 24SN 1313, Ironbridge Center. Is the applicant present?

[05:10:33] Good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. My name is Jeff Geiger here on behalf of the applicant. Picking up on a comment that was made earlier, I'm pleased to bring you a commercial project.

[05:10:57] I really appreciate Rich's summary. I'd like to kind of touch on a couple highlights about this project. and then really kind of focus on the work we've done with one of our neighbors. As Rich mentioned, this is an amendment.

[05:11:15] This project was already zoned C3. We're adjusting some of the proffers. As part of that, we've added some enhancements, additional restrictions or protections associated with the proffers. The prohibited uses have expanded from 6 to 20.

[05:11:33] Conceptual plan has been added. We've reduced the number of access points. We've enhanced architectural requirements. lighting and has to has to follow the Chester design standards and we will be providing a special use path along Iron Bridge. It is our understanding that ultimately there will be a spur along Iron Bridge to connect to the Fall Line Trail. We have been told it will possibly be on our side or on the north. If it's not on our side we have to build a sidewalk. We will be providing

[05:12:10] a variety of road improvements in the area to support the youth. But one of the important conversation points for this case was with one of our neighbors, our neighbor across Ironbridge.

[05:12:28] It's the Chester Fish Club. They own the pond that's over there. And our very first meeting was with them, and we continued to meet with them throughout this case. And as part of that, we wanted to assure them that since this was originally zoned, Virginia had updated its stormwater requirements. And we have become far more restrictive in how much water we have to hold back and that we are responsible for complying with that law. We have enhancements in terms of quality requirements, the amount of water we have to hold back, and that new requirement of energy

[05:13:08] balance. It used to be we could release the water through any size pipe. Now it's a two to three inch pipe that the water is released through. We're holding back more and more water. And as you know we have enhanced maintenance requirements. They asked us could you do more. We said well think about it and on this slide are the additional enhancements related to storm water that we told them we would do. We would make the sediment traps larger. We put in the super silt fence and most importantly we would design our system to the 100-year storm instead of the 10-year. Again

[05:13:46] holding back more water. This slide here outlined in red is our project area. In black are the drainage areas that we will be creating as a part of this project. You will see that there are three different areas, A, B, and C. Only A goes to the pond. Admittedly, they asked us to send no water.

[05:14:22] Unfortunately, God said, nah, with the topography, we got to send a little bit there. But we have worked to send as much as we can away. B and C do not go to the pond. That's outlined in green.

[05:14:40] in addition we were kind enough they were kind enough to share with us their dam study with that dam study as you may know dams in virginia are regulated by the department of conservation and recreation and there was a law update every dam owner had to submit a dam study and i love saying

[05:15:13] that um in reviewing it our engineer noted that the area in yellow was not was not included in their initial study. The area in yellow by law has to be included in their dam study. You will see outlined in red the portion of the property that drains into the pond that they are responsible for evaluating. We are reducing it because they asked us to. You'll remember that area A that I

[05:15:48] showed you? It's smaller than what is in yellow. So less water will be going plus we will be holding a bath more. We've also had the opportunity to speak with their engineer and their engineer has confirmed that as long as we do our project to the 100-year storm like we've proffered, we will have no impact on the pond. So with that, I would ask that the board approve the request before them, subject to the conditions set out in the staff report. I'll be happy to answer any

[05:16:23] questions that the board may have at this time. Any questions on the applicant at this time? So the yellow area was not in the inundation study, is that what you're saying? in the initial inundation study we were given, correct.

[05:16:40] And it's been added now? Their engineer has said he will add it. He told me that he's already done it and that it's already been approved by DEQ. I called their engineer and had a conversation with them.

[05:16:56] Okay, I was just, I see Scott back there. I was just going to ask him if that would be addressed. I just wanted to. I don't think that the dam study would be addressed by our environmental engineering. think that is done by DEQ, but I did speak to their engineer, and he told me that he had already added that, already submitted the paperwork, and had preliminarily gotten back from DEQ that everything was good with the new submittal, and he did that based on the smaller area that you have in this case.

[05:17:35] So the additional water is not going to affect the dam flow at all? Their, Balzer is their engineer, the pond engineer. Okay. And they confirmed to me that that's the case.

[05:17:52] Okay. Because I heard what the applicant said. I heard what the applicant's lawyer said, but I called their engineer and asked him, and he confirmed that for me. And I've worked with Balzer. But as far as I understand from their engineer, DEQ's already reviewed everything with the update, and they have agreed that everything, they had to make a couple minor tweaks to some words, but they've agreed that it was okay.

[05:18:24] So, based on their engineer approving it, I felt comfortable. Any other questions for the applicant? Is there anybody else who would like to come up and speak to this case?

[05:18:40] If so, please come forward and state your name. Hello, my name is Carl Schwendeman. I have a question. There might be a possibility that there might be a section of Tidewater and Western Railroad bed on the property.

[05:19:01] It would be around here where this road is, like here. Could they ask the developer to build an 8-foot-wide sidewalk or an 8-to-10-foot-wide sidewalk on one side of this road and then have it go out here in the direction of the fall line trail because there might possibly be a section of railroad bed along here, and this is where the proposed spur of the fall line might be running on.

[05:19:36] So basically they could just put like an eight-foot-wide sidewalk on one side of this internal street here and then have it just go that way where the railroad bed possibly is at or just see if it's there. Any other speakers?

[05:19:55] Seeing none, I'm going to close this public hearing. It's back before the board. Can the applicant, I believe the applicant may have addressed that earlier, but could the applicant come back and clear that up? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[05:20:11] I'd be happy to. We agree that, you know, providing that access to the fall line, that spur, is important. We're going to provide that along Iron Bridge, if that's where the county elects to put it. We did see Mr. Swinderman's comment in the portal ahead of time, so I did ask my engineer, is the bed on the property?

[05:20:32] They have done an ALTA survey, and there is no evidence of a bed on that survey. So if it was there once, it's no longer there. Thank you. But you are adding the connection that would need to be made, or if the fall line went on the other side, you're adding sidewalk there.

[05:20:53] So either way, that area will be connected to the fall line trail. Yes, just so you and I are on the same page, along Iron Bridge, we have to do the special use path. If no special use path, we have to do a sidewalk. All right.

[05:21:14] This case is in the Bermuda District. Did I close the public hearing? This case in the Bermuda District, I make the motion to approve case 24, SN1313, subject to the conditions in the staff report.

[05:21:30] Second. All in favor? Aye. Item 18, public hearings. A, to consider a siting agreement with Herman Energy. Mr. Smith. Yes, so this is actually a continuation of a zoning case, really.

[05:21:49] So back in January of this year, you all approved a conditional use to prevent a utility scale battery facility in the Midlothian District off of Drive Ridge Road. As part of that, the developer, in accordance with state code, has offered the county a siting agreement.

[05:22:07] It totals $315,000 that they would contribute to the county over the life of the agreement. Ostensibly, that could be used for things like additional fire training, fire equipment, things that are unique to battery storage facilities that localities may have to encumber as a cost to deal with those.

[05:22:26] I did also speak with the applicant. I did not think it was necessary that he attend, but they did send a statement. They're happy to collaborate with the county. This is actually their second project. They also did the earlier one on dry bridge, and they believe that this will deliver additional benefits to the county while providing them some clarity on future tax obligations.

[05:22:48] So, they appreciate the county's cooperation and the collaboration on this project. With that, it is a public hearing, and I'm happy to take any questions. Any questions for staff? Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing to consider a siting agreement with Herman Energy.

[05:23:09] Is there anyone who would like to speak to this issue? If so, please come forward and state your name.

[05:23:23] Renee Eldred here. I don't really have a problem so much with the case itself, but I do kind of question whether or not with solar coming in, battery storage coming in, is there anything either countywide, statewide that says these places have to be inspected every so often to see whether or not they have issues, if anything's leaking, if they're in compliance, not in

[05:23:57] compliance and if there isn't maybe that might be something that we want to consider looking at for future use because battery store or you know storage for solar powers it's it's going to increase as solar comes in and I know there was one property on Bellwood Road many years ago that was a battery recycle place and it was close to being a super fun cleanup kind of thing so They were doing what they wanted to because that's what they did back then, and you just

[05:24:35] don't want that to go forward in something else that could be solved with a simple inspection every so often. So it was just something to consider. Thank you. Any other speakers? I'm going to close this public hearing.

[05:24:54] It's back before the board. Is there any discussion? I will, just because of the question, ask, is there anything? Well, the siting agreement actually is not a zoning case, so there's nothing that we can put into a case right now, but do you know if there was any, is there a bond or something?

[05:25:17] So for solar, there's decommissioning bonds for the battery storage sites, and specifically, they'll meet with our fire department regularly. There's specific ways they have to deal with things. They actually have telemetry on the batteries as well, similar to our SCADA systems, because they want to know if batteries are going out, if there's temperature changes, all of that.

[05:25:35] So they're pretty advanced. This is not a disposal site. This is actually an energy storage system. Thank you. Is there any other questions by the board? Can I get a motion? Second.

[05:25:51] All in favor? Aye. B, to consider the lease of county property at 3401 Courthouse Road. Ms. Snow. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Casey, This is a public hearing to consider the lease of property at 3401 Courthouse Road, known as Rockwood Park, to new singular wireless PCS LLC.

[05:26:18] Staff has negotiated a new five-year lease for $12,000 annually with a 3% annual increase and three five-year renewal terms. The public hearing is required to lease county property. Approval is recommended. Thank you.

[05:26:34] Any questions for staff? Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing to consider the lease of county property at 3401 Courthouse Road. Is there anyone who would like to speak to this issue? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to close this public hearing.

[05:26:53] It's back before the board. Is there any discussion? Mr. Chair, I move approval. All in favor. Aye. C. To consider a lease amendment for county property at 11730 River Road.

[05:27:09] Ms. Snow. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Casey, this is a public hearing to consider a lease amendment for county property at 11730 River Road. New Singular Wireless PCS LLC has leased space on the county's Union Branch Tower at the site since 2006, and they are requesting the lease be extended for an additional five-year term beginning July 1, 2026, with four five-year renewal terms.

[05:27:36] Rent will be $30,000 annually with a 15% increase each renewal term. A public hearing is required to lease county property. Approval is recommended. Ladies and gentlemen, it's a public hearing to consider a lease amendment for the county property at 11730 River Road.

[05:27:55] Is there anyone who'd like to speak to this issue? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'll close this public hearing. It's back before the board. If there's no discussion, can I get a motion? I just have a quick question. You said that it's going to be renewed July 1st of 2026.

[05:28:16] So why are they doing it a year early? I mean, it may be what they typically do, but I'm curious to know why so early. I honestly don't know. I apologize. That's all right. It's the end of the term, so they're just re-upping it.

[05:28:38] It's for their ability to plan for their coverage. Mr. Chair, I want to make sure my people continue to have good cell service. I'm making a motion to approve. Second. All in favor? Aye.

[05:28:55] D, to consider the quit claim of a portion of county right-of-way adjacent to Warborough Road. Ms. Snow. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Casey, this is a public hearing to consider the quit claim of a portion of county right-of-way adjacent to Warborough Road.

[05:29:10] This portion of right-of-way is no longer needed. Public hearing is required to quit claim right-of-way. The request has been reviewed by staff and approval is recommended after the public hearing. Any questions for staff? Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing to consider the quick claim of a portion of the county right-of-way adjacent to Warborough Road.

[05:29:33] Is there anyone here who would like to speak to this issue? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to close this public hearing. It's back before the board. If there's no discussion, can I entertain a motion? So moved. Second.

[05:29:49] All in favor? Aye. E, to consider the conveyance of an underground easement to Southside Electric Cooperative at Lake Chesden Park, Ms. Snow. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Casey, this is a public hearing to consider the conveyance of a 20-foot underground easement to Southside Electric Cooperative at Lake Chesden.

[05:30:09] The easement is needed to power an automatic gate at the park. The request has been reviewed by staff, and approval is recommended after the public hearing. Any questions for staff? Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing to consider the conveyance of an underground easement to Southside Electric Cooperative at Lake Chesden Park.

[05:30:29] Is there anyone who'd like to speak to this issue? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to close this public hearing. It's back before the board. If there is no discussion, I would entertain a motion. Mr. Chair, this is in my district.

[05:30:44] I make a motion to approve. Can I get a second? Second. All in favor. Aye. 19, 15-minute citizen comment period on unscheduled matters. We have no speakers. Mr. Chair, we need a motion to adjourn to the regularly scheduled Board of Supervisors meeting on July 23rd at 2 p.m. in room 502 of the county administration building.

[05:31:09] Any chance I can get a motion on that? So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye.

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