Coraggio Consulting
Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors Meeting - July 23, 2025, Wednesday, July 23, 2025

Date: Wednesday, July 23, 2025
Place: Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 4h 30m (video)
Official meeting video (CivicClerk): https://chesterfieldcova.portal.civicclerk.com/event/1233/media
Official agenda (CivicClerk): https://chesterfieldcova.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=3614,plainText=false)
Official minutes (CivicClerk): https://chesterfieldcova.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=3644,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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[00:03:05] Good afternoon and welcome to the afternoon session of the July 23rd Board of Supervisors meeting. Madam Clerk. Mr. Chair, the first item on the agenda is approval of minutes for the June 25th Board of Supervisors meeting. Can I get a motion? So moved. Second. All in favor?

[00:03:21] Aye. Item 2, request to postpone agenda items and additions, deletions, or changes in the order of presentation. Staff has one request. We would like to remove item 13A, recognition of spelling bee champion Harper Cox, Midlothian District.

[00:03:37] that is all we have. Can I get a motion? Minus 13A. Second. All in favor? Aye. Item three, everyday excellence, Dr. Casey. Good afternoon, members of the board, those that are here with us today and those that are watching. As we start every meeting of the board of supervisors, it's recognizing everyday excellence. And again, it's recognizing many of the frontline employees, whether individually or groups of them, that are just making a difference to the lives of our citizens every day. Today is no different. So while I'm talking, if Neil Luther and Parks and Rec

[00:04:15] Director and Recreation Manager David Potter could come to the front, we have a nice little presentation for the youth, which you can recognize them here behind me, our youth leaders that is, for many of the youth programs and activities. So I did tell them that this is probably the coolest assignment they've had thus far this summer to be waiting here. And I want to applaud them. I haven't been out to the summer camps this year, but in the past, when I visited, you know, I'm there for 10, 20 minutes or so, and it feels like three hours. So for them to want to do it every day, they know what I'm talking about. For them to do it every day, and again,

[00:04:51] in many cases, enabling many of our families, parents to have work and continue to work in a safe, protective, affordable, in essence, way that we're being mindful of their children, Not just providing a safe environment, but actually an enriching, learning, and empowering environment based upon some of the programs I know we do.

[00:05:10] So before I go much further and steal anything that Mr. Luther and Mr. Potter would like to say, I will turn it over to them. Thank you, Dr. Casey. I will not be long. I'm going to let David recognize his team, but I would just like to preface it by saying that we have, and I'll cover this a little more in my presentation, but we really have made a concerted focus this year.

[00:05:31] We have some new team members, reassembled some things and doing a better job, focusing on doing a better job of how we provide services for youth programming. It's a very hard sometimes cohort to reach. Summer camp is what we're all about these many months or many weeks during the summer.

[00:05:48] They're doing an excellent job. I'll say personally at Beulah, it's fantastic to have a camp embedded there. I had this morning a group of young children come by. They were clipped flowers in the garden, and they were distributing fresh flowers. They built a garden at Beulah.

[00:06:04] They grow in flowers, and they were distributing them amongst staff. So it's really nice to hear laughing children, and I know it takes a lot of hard work to make that happen. So I'm very appreciative to have the opportunity to recognize these folks. So David's going to say a little more about them individually. Sure.

[00:06:21] First off, in order to recognize excellence, come on, team. You're the stars of the show today. So it's an honor to be with you as we recognize our youth services team with Parks and Recreation. Last year, we had more than 1,800 programs, served more than 45,000 residents through those programs, but we realized that we actually were falling short a little bit with our youth programming.

[00:06:48] We needed to expand that, and through your help, through some additional funding requests, and reallocating some support, we were able to create this team of superstars. And when I tell you superstars, they are led by Mr. Corey Jones.

[00:07:04] Corey has an infectious smile and personality. He comes in so happy every morning. It trickles down to his team. He sets a positive vibe and a positive culture. And, you know, the kids are coming to us like, oh, my God, I just love Mr. Corey.

[00:07:21] I love the staff. I love everything. We videoed them and asked them what their favorite thing about camp was, and we couldn't hear what they were saying because they were yelling out so many different things at once. So what they are doing is truly amazing, and it starts with Corey and his leadership over our youth services team.

[00:07:39] Next, I'd like to recognize Tiara Green. Tiara is a longtime cheerleading coach, been a mentor to young girls for a very long time. She has been instrumental in developing the curriculum and the plans and the themes. I went into Curtis Elementary the other day and it was cruising with Curtis and everyone in the camp was like they were on a cruise ship.

[00:08:01] All the activities that they were doing, I was like, oh my gosh, we are bringing these experiences to them inside a gymnasium for them to experience that. So the educational components and stuff, Tiara has done a phenomenal job creating. Next, I recognize Chris Allen.

[00:08:18] Chris Allen is also known as Farmer Chris. Her and her family own and operate a farm here in Chesterfield County in the Matulka District, Mr. Carroll. And Farmer Chris leads our educational and agricultural program.

[00:08:33] She was instrumental in those flowers that Mr. Luther and some other staff members received this morning. She goes around to each of the camp locations. She brings rabbits, chickens. She teaches them all about farming and agriculture, you know, and has just been instrumental.

[00:08:51] And a lot of the kids said their favorite thing was Farmer Chris, Farmer Chris. You know, so we definitely appreciate all that she does. And this team is committed to making sure that we serve every child. And we know that some kids may need just a little extra support.

[00:09:07] So that is where our certified therapeutic recreation specialist, Ms. Jessie Honaker, comes in. Jesse has trained a team of inclusion coaches, so we have inclusion coaches throughout all of our summer camps to make sure that each of those kids make the most of their summer opportunity.

[00:09:25] You know, I would just say that with the development of this team, we were able to expand youth opportunities by 50% this summer. So that is huge, you know, and we will continue with this division to have after-school programs year-round, and the connection that we have made in this first summer of this team has just been phenomenal. So they're definitely deserving of our support and recognition. And I will share one last thing. They also were instrumental in making sure that not only were they fund safe locations for

[00:10:03] every child, they were also very financially accessible. So our scholarship program this year, We gave away more than 50, 100% scholarships to kids and families. We had a grandmother come to us that had five grandchildren that she had taken in.

[00:10:21] We helped those kids get into all of our camp. And that grandmother just thanks us every day on what a blessing that this program has been to them. So we do hope that at the conclusion of the summer, we send each of you a very nice wrap-up video so you can see firsthand of all the smiling faces and the opportunities that they've created for our youth.

[00:10:41] So this time, please join me in giving these folks a round of applause. Board members, any comments? Well, first off, thank you for being out in this heat.

[00:10:59] And I hope you're all, like, taking care of yourselves and drinking lots and lots and there's a misting tent somewhere or something because that's a lot. But this sounds amazing, and I love all the different aspects of it and the farming and the activities and anything that makes it inclusive for everybody that doesn't always get as much fun out of it that's amazing and so thank you so much for all you're doing I greatly appreciate anyone that can spend that much time with children because mine are 30 and 32 and I'm glad not to have I have dogs I have the four-legged ones now but

[00:11:38] thank you so much I love visiting them being the cool aunt but I don't like yeah thank you so much Mr. Chairman, if I may, I just want to thank you for the experience and investment you've created in the lives of the others and the difference you've made in how you've given.

[00:11:54] And the more you give, the more you receive. And so you have flowers, I understand, which was a wonderful tribute to you to smell your flowers. And to our farmer, thank you for having in that regard. Thank you all for everything you've done and do for the children here in Justfield County.

[00:12:13] Thank you. Have a rewarding, have a rewarding day. Mr. Chair. David, how many kids are in the program? We have 250 in the Fun in the Sun program. Those, some of the kids signed up all summer.

[00:12:29] It's all for six weeks. Some of them will sign up for two weeks at a time. That's absolutely amazing. I'll bet every single one of you can think back to when you were a kid and there was somebody in your life that made a difference that probably was such a profound difference as led you to be who you are today.

[00:12:49] And I think almost probably every adult in the room can make that same statement. And the fact that you're the ones making the difference for the kids is absolutely phenomenal. So thank you very much for what you do. And, yes, thank you. Stay cool. Stay hydrated. And certainly, David, if there's anything that you need and the team needs to continue, because that's a lot of kids.

[00:13:11] And it makes a big difference for the community, for them in the future. So make sure you keep us up to speed if there's something that we need to help. Most certainly. And, again, thank you. to the board for the additional funding. This team started and hired on an additional 50 camp counselors and, you know, a lot of school teachers and folks for the summer. We talked them into giving back for the summer and working with us. So the experience we've provided has been outstanding and really because of the additional funding support. So thank you so much for that.

[00:13:44] Well, if we take care of them during the summer and keep them occupied and keep them occupy it in a good way uh sorry jim i'm stealing what you're going to say in the future it's just going to be much brighter for them so we don't end up seeing them in a different way sorry hey mr chair um there is hard work and then there is heart work and uh what y'all are doing is heart work i spent many many summers at camp and uh what comes up for me over and over again how nice it is

[00:14:19] even if it's hot how nice it is to be outside it is so much nicer to be in this earth as opposed to on this earth and when you have a farmer chris hanging out and and saying hey what it's about is flowers and it doesn't a lot of kids take it for granted you know you just the flowers were where'd they come from and just being able to have a sense of oh that's where they came from So you'll be forever known as Mr. Corey.

[00:14:48] It'll be just who you'll be for the rest of your life because you're going to be somewhere at a grocery store or out in the community, and you're just going to be Mr. Corey. And you're always going to be Farmer Crest. And that is, those kind of nicknames are the ones that just follow you because what comes with it is just a ton of appreciation and love.

[00:15:08] Thank you. Well, I had just a little to Mr. Carroll's comment. Taking care of these kids in the summertime and keeping them engaged and keeping their minds going will win you a lot of thank yous from their teachers in the fall because kids that disengage and don't pay attention at all throughout the summer go back to school and they have a learning gap more so than the kids that come to programs like we're putting on that you're running for the county.

[00:15:40] and they're so important because they keep that learning gap down and the fact that we have teachers helping with that program makes it even better that when they go back to school they'll go back with the right mindset so thank you for doing that for our students

[00:15:55] love the t-shirts by the way they're great item four work sessions a intern recognition dr casey yes i like to have uh hr director mary martin selby actually come on up um she's a spokesperson

[00:16:30] person on behalf of the intern program and her and her entire department, you know, having interns is, in essence, recruiting and retaining talent no different than any other employees. So her department actually centralizes this operation on behalf of many, many departments. In this very room, I had a chance to meet all of the interns.

[00:16:48] I think we have a record number that occurred this last year, and each one goes around and tells their story after a couple of weeks of being here, and I was just impressed with the breadth and depth of not only their knowledge but their interest in and all the other services of Chesterfield County and we have hired many of our interns so this is this is goodwill and and and but accountability that they actually work for us and we treat them as employees with that respect and the accountability but I know my three children have benefited from intern programs in the past one one actually found out he didn't want to do

[00:17:24] something and switched at an early age, which is very important. One found exactly what he wanted to do and one just wanted the money. So I think all of them may have some elements of that. So I will turn it over to Ms. Mary Martin-Selvey. Thank you so much. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Casey. That was a hard one to follow, but I really should connect with you because those students, children that you are working with might need to come to this program when they get a little bit older. So we'll talk. As you all know, the county has sponsored

[00:17:58] internships back to the 1980s. And we really feel like it's our way of giving back to that next generation of public servants. In previous years, when we've come before you all to present the interns for the summer, we've always given you some general information about the program.

[00:18:19] But this year, we'd like to switch it up a little bit and shift the focus and share a few facts about the program that really demonstrate the impact the county's internship program has had on the workforce, as Dr. Casey mentioned, and also the community.

[00:18:36] So here's what makes Chesterfield County's program unique and special. Approximately 375 students have served as interns with the county since we started the formal internship summer program.

[00:18:52] That does not account for the hundreds of interns that came to the county to intern outside of the summer program. Over the 37 years that we've had the summer program, we've only had to take that program away on two occasions temporarily.

[00:19:15] And the first time was in 2008 and 2009 during the recession. And the second time was in 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic. So that shows you that we are really committed to making sure that internships are a part of the business that we do.

[00:19:34] Currently, we have 23 college students participating in this summer's program. But there's also another 48 students interning in other county departments that are not a part of this summer internship program.

[00:19:49] And I understand some of those interns are in or from VCU School of Social Work, Virginia State University's Criminal Justice Program. We also have some students from Bright Point Community College and a few from UVA.

[00:20:05] And this is really because of some unique requirements for college students to intern or have placements for certain credits that they need to be credentialed. And a number of our departments have ongoing, longstanding relationships with these colleges and universities.

[00:20:24] So definitely want to make sure that we mention those other programs that our departments are really, really good at and work well with the colleges and universities outside of the program. Over the past few years, our county departments have really engaged with CCPS, our school system, with Dr. Casey's blessings and support.

[00:20:51] We've really tried to beef up our high school internship program. So we have a number of students that we're bringing in. And I think Mr. Luther has certainly benefited from the work-based learning program and having high school students working here as well as general services.

[00:21:08] But many of our students are, you know, interested in skills trade as well as technical professions. And we want to support those students as well because there's certainly a shortage in those types of professions. And we have needs for those as well.

[00:21:27] So definitely we are a part of the CCPS program. Last school year, we also expanded our high school program to include hosting students with disabilities. And it's through a program called Start on Success or SOS.

[00:21:47] It's a highly structured program that helps students with disabilities become ready for college or careers. And we are going to participate again this year. It was very rewarding for both the students and departments. HR actually hosted some of those students as well.

[00:22:06] So what's been the impact of these programs? Dr. Casey said a great number of our current employees were former interns. We were talking about this the other day. Many of them, after they graduated from college, they applied for full-time positions.

[00:22:22] They've been promoted throughout the years into leadership roles, and some have worked 30-plus years and are now Chesterfield County retirees. I've seen that happen in my career. Some of them started as interns and now are retirees.

[00:22:40] So, I mean, that's a testament right there to our success with the internship program. Because of these successes, our internship program here in the county has been recognized by the Virginia Talent Plus Opportunity Partnership, or VTOP, as being a top Virginia employer for interns, both in 2024 and then again earlier this year in 2025.

[00:23:07] So we do have a small group of the 71 interns that are here this summer, both through this program and otherwise, here to observe a portion of your meeting. and also to address the board. So at this time, I'd like to ask the interns to stand, to introduce themselves.

[00:23:29] And let's start with my good friend, Malia, in the back there. Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Malia Megenson. I'm a rising senior at ODU, and currently I'm interning with the Commonwealth Attorney's Office.

[00:23:50] Good afternoon. My name is H.H.N. I'm a rising third-year student at the George Washington University, and I'm an intern with the Circuit Court Clerk's Office. Hi, I'm Claire Sears. I'm going into my second year of the Master's in Social Work program at VCU, and I'm with the Juvenile Justice Department.

[00:24:09] Hi, my name is Megan. I am in my second year pursuing a Master's degree in Planning at VCU, and I am with the Department of Parks and Recreation. Hello, everyone. I'm Josh. I'm going into my second year at UDN, and I'm working with the Department of Business Management.

[00:24:28] Hi, I'm Kopita Chen. I'm currently at VCU. I'm in my fourth year, and I'm with the Department of Social Services. Hi, I'm Maddie Cassidy. I'm about to start my senior year at William & Mary, and I'm with the Learning and Performance Center.

[00:24:46] Hello, I'm Taylor James. I am currently going to my last semester at grad school at UCU, and I'm with the Mental Health Support Services. My name is Gwendolyn Hughes.

[00:25:02] I'm going into my junior year at William & Mary, and I'm with America's Historical Park. I'm Ashley. I'm going into my senior year at JMU, and I'm working at the Library of the Marketing and Communication Department. Hi, everyone.

[00:25:17] - My name is Gianna Brooks. I am a rising junior at Old Dominion University and I work at the therapeutic recreation section of Parks and Recreation. - Hi, I am Zion Thomas. I'm a rising sophomore at Virginia Tech studying cybersecurity and I'm interning with the information systems technology department.

[00:25:41] - Oh, okay. So, sitting next to me is, is Emily Waters, and she's an attorney this year, or this summer, with Constituent and Media Services.

[00:26:04] And I'm going to turn it over to you, Emily, so that you can talk a little bit about yourself. And she's representing the interns today by addressing the board. Good afternoon, everyone. As she said, my name is Emily Waters, and I've had the pleasure of interning with Constituent and Media Services for two summers now.

[00:26:26] last summer downstairs with communications and this summer right through here with constituent services. I'm entering my senior year at Virginia Tech pursuing bachelor's degrees in public relations and political science and I hope to work in local government when I graduate. So we hear it here every day obviously but the work done at the local level of government is truly so meaningful.

[00:26:50] Anybody who disagrees clearly hasn't had the opportunity to work even for just a summer or two in Chesterfield County. One of the best parts of this experience has been the opportunity to work alongside a wonderful class of interns with the same passion for local government work. They've done all kinds of work, from developing curriculums for youth enrolled in the juvenile detention home, helping to restructure the Parks and Recreation Master Plan, restructuring websites and team share points, to conducting customer service assessments throughout the county departments. The intern with library services has done a lot of social media work to bring exposure to the mixed bag of services the libraries has to offer.

[00:27:31] Many spend much of their day out in the field, maybe at the wastewater treatment plant or wearing a hard hat on site. All in all, the work that this internship program allows us to do is remarkable. We all have friends who are doing internships with other agencies, other corporations, and they just don't have the same opportunities to get this hands-on experience and work in the field or really produce things that end up going to the residents.

[00:27:57] So we're just so, so grateful to everyone who makes sure that our experience is nothing like that at all. From the resume workshops to the hands-on work that you all make sure we have the opportunity to do, this program is incredibly enriching. Thank you to everyone who mentored us this summer and let us get a taste of what it's really like to work for the best county in the world. To the Board of Supervisors and to Dr. Casey, thank you so much for your continued support

[00:28:25] of this program it's been an honor to be a part of it for two summers now thank you thank you again for your support any questions for the interns or for you or members we didn't pay you to say that right that'll cost you even extra thank you so much mr chair thank you all hope you have a great experience let me just mention thank you emily for the kind words um which y'all don't realize

[00:29:01] if you haven't already realized is that you've checked into hotel chesterfield which means that you could check in, but you don't check out. And so some of the folks who came here for an internship and then they were here for 37 years or whatever it was, I realized that in many ways I've drank the Kool-Aid, but I need to tell you that I'm hoping that you'll consider Chesterfield as a place to work, and I'm hoping that during the summer when you're doing the internship that the hat just felt right. So thank you for all the work that you all have done. Good luck

[00:29:37] at school. Ms. Snyder? That sounded a little threatening about not being able to check out, but that's okay. Thank you all for committing to spend your summer with us. I know there are lots of other things that you could be doing, but that just speaks to the volumes, to your commitment, to your career choices, and finding out what really you want to do, and experiencing things and learning and helping other people as well.

[00:30:13] So thank you so much. Chair, thank you all so much for your experience and continued studies at your universities. Congratulations. Thank you all again for participating here in Chesterfield County.

[00:30:32] One thing that struck me was how many different schools are represented here, which shows that either schools, we have a good reputation or somehow we have the best media into those schools, but somehow y'all heard about Chesterfield County, whether you live here or whether you're from somewhere else, but whether you live here or you are from somewhere else, we like this to be a home for you in the future, so thank you for your work this year. We hope to see you back again in

[00:31:01] the future. Thank you. B, Parks and Recreation Update, Mr. Luther. All right. Hey, I walk right

[00:31:56] into that one thank you that's a hard act to follow okay three minutes I will speak fast thank you all for having me this afternoon I'll try to move through this quickly obviously we've got a lot of things going on summer's a busy time for us as you all probably know July is national recreation in parks month so I

[00:32:35] I always try to make a tie-in when we have the opportunity to come before you all in July to show thematically what we're sort of connected to. This year's theme is Build Together, Play Together. It's pretty fitting for us. I think you just heard, and I'll touch a little more on what we're doing on the human side to build relationships, to build community.

[00:32:56] And then obviously I've got a lot in my presentation to go over related to brick and mortar because we also are very much in a build mode in that sense. So with that, I will just jump right in. I will, you know, David did a good job of sort of explaining the landscape, but with this team and this new focus, we really are trying to use our resources to better serve that youth market within the community.

[00:33:25] We know that particularly the preteens can be sometimes tough to reach. We want to be able to provide a variety of experiences. They are, you know, summer camp is their platform right now, but it's growing into many things.

[00:33:40] So up on the screen, you're seeing things like at Beulah, we've had the Chesterfield Pickleball. Linda Scott came out and has run clinics teaching young people how to play. They are actually the most, the fastest growing demographic within pickleball.

[00:33:57] And I just got a text from the camp at Beulah. They were asking the kids at Beulah if they could have one wish before the summer was out, what would it be? And they asked for a professional pickleball coach to come in and instruct them. Now, I don't know if that means Linda wasn't sufficient or whether she just whetted their appetite.

[00:34:16] But in any event, we have quite a number of youth that are coming in regularly after hours now in the evenings for a pickleball program. We have Futsal Fridays. It's become very popular. We run a lot of effort, or put in a lot of effort into making nature and outdoors more accessible programmatically.

[00:34:35] And then you heard Farmer Chris' story, and the good story about Chris is that she has been able to use, again, this platform from summer camp and is creating relationships with the schools. And the intention is to now do, going into the fall and into next spring, some after school activities where the children from particularly nearby, Beulah and Hopkins and other schools can come to a garden location and work to grow a garden after school so a lot of seeds metaphorically are being planted that we're hoping to bear fruit just some fun images David covered everything from this summer we

[00:35:14] wrap up next Thursday I'll touch on that a little more we've got a celebration plan but these for these children and I tell this to all of our camp counselors when they come in this will be the highlight of most of those children's summer. Many of them, as David said, enroll in multiple sessions. So the team has really made an effort to diversify the experience that they're offered and not just warehouse the children for the full day. And so a lot of enrichment experiences, either going to locations like Pocahontas up in the top right. We took them, they've gone to the movies. We've brought them

[00:35:51] the market to the farmers market over here we have a week and we bring a lot of things to them as well so they get educational opportunities and programming on the site as as well so again first summer new team we've had some some good successes and we're looking very much very forward to going forward to building on that this slide is i could tell a story about each one of these this is really Just to remind you all that we work very closely with a lot of organizations internal to the county and external to the county.

[00:36:26] These are all force multipliers for us. We cannot do it without the partnerships and relationships that we build. They help us make better use of our facilities, certainly. They help provide services where they are better than we are.

[00:36:43] And there's an individual story that goes along with each of these. I will touch on many of them as we roll forward through this presentation, but I just did want to take a moment to acknowledge that the work we do is multiplied by the efforts that we have or the relationships that we have with a number of organizations.

[00:37:04] So with that, the first one I'd touch on operationally for you all is, again, relationally, sports is a big focus for us. We are in the facility business, but we partner with, obviously, the sports visitation and entertainment section.

[00:37:21] They are effectively our marketing and our scheduling and relationship manager. So we recently made the decision organizationally to put all of those responsibilities over with JC and his team. So they're going forward the conversations, whether you're a local CQL rep for local football or whether you are coming in for the Copa Talento, you're going to be dealing with and connecting with the same person that's representing Chesterfield County and how we schedule these events.

[00:37:54] The other big partner in this effort is the school system, and one of the things I want to touch on, and you all know that we have been trying to do a better job of benchmarking our facility conditions, so the next evolution of that is to look at fields, and our focus in that is going to be looking at the school system.

[00:38:15] Just to paint a quick picture, we currently today have a total inventory of 254 athletic fields spread out across the county. 140 of those are diamonds for baseball and softball, and 114 are rectangles.

[00:38:34] Most of our diamond complex, about two-thirds of the diamond fields that we use, are on school property. And one of the things that I think as we get into this condition assessment, we're going to start getting into is, as you all probably know, many of those school locations, particularly the elementary school locations, have the old model construction of multiple use fields.

[00:38:59] So you'll see a rectangle with two or three or sometimes four diamonds or infields at each corner. That was an old model, and it's becoming difficult to work. Nobody likes to play football where the end zone is across the infield.

[00:39:16] It creates drainage problems. So I think as we get into this condition assessment, we're going to be identifying opportunities to prioritize decisions about investments into our athletic or sports fields where we can get the most bang for the buck, so to speak, in terms of making an investment and leveling up the quality.

[00:39:37] I know when Mr. Poma comes and makes his presentation, he will obviously talk about the good story of the folks who are coming in from the outside. I tell him all the time that's not what I am concerned about. I appreciate what he does because it generates funding justification to reinvest into maintaining or improving quality for our residents.

[00:39:56] And I always also remind people, even these slides that are all obviously highlighted, tournament activities are really not the true story because the bulk of our field assignments still go to local user groups.

[00:40:12] River City, 60% of our scheduled use out there is local recreation and school use. As a matter of fact, the new Deep Creek Middle School soccer team will be practicing and playing at River City this fall and spring because their field at their school is not quite ready yet.

[00:40:32] So I just want to remind everybody as we go into this that we in Parks and Recreation do it because of the value that it brings to the community. Along those same lines, just a quick reminder that we have a story in our buildings as well.

[00:40:49] We have four community centers that we program out of currently, and each one has a very unique flavor. It very much becomes a hub for the community. So around the clock up there, that's Bensley, some activities there, that's Stonebridge, some senior activities at Stonebridge.

[00:41:10] That in the center is the, I think that was the Black History Fair or Expo at Beulah. And then we have a new mural going up. Mr. Ross Brown is finishing up a mural that's at Beulah.

[00:41:26] But each one of these locations, Ettrick, Benzley, Stonebridge, and Beulah, all are heavily used by the community, again, for multiple programs. And the other thing there, just to remind you, is we also have some relationships that we're drawing from to, again, multiply our impact.

[00:41:46] So Sportable, as you all will recall, we are entering into a performance arrangement with them where they're going to now start to take over. They will be operating many of our programs for active adults and getting us into the realm of adaptive sports.

[00:42:02] Their program lead has actually started. She's embedded at Beulah. This is on your consent agenda tonight to make a procedural transfer, but that process is in place. We've also had discussions with Sportable and the volleyball club about what we can do to better utilize the potential at Stonebridge and make that full building more available to the community.

[00:42:26] So we are very conscious that our presence in the buildings is important to the community, and we are working collaboratively to maximize that potential. The other thing we do well, I think, and is important to us is we do connect with the community with our events.

[00:42:44] We have a pretty robust portfolio of activities going through and order. That's the Snowball Festival that we held in, I believe it was in the end of January or early February. Kite Day, Trunk or Treat is always a huge favorite.

[00:43:03] Last fall for Trunk or Treat, we had 10,000 folks at Trunk or Treat. I will share that this year we are moving Trunk or Treat to River City to try and diversify the flow of not having the situation where people have to stand in line for so long.

[00:43:21] And we'll see how that works as a proof of concept. I'm going to talk a little more about that as the slideshow progresses. But here we did Outdoor Fest. We had about 3,000 people attend this year. That event in the hot wash, we actually now have reached out and are looking to do next year at Pocahontas State Park.

[00:43:43] We're actually going to move the date to coincide with a trail run they already have there and really focus on using and being more collaborative with the state park to create a resource. And then 4th of July, 7,700 people within the fence line this year.

[00:43:59] The overall estimate of attendance was pushing 12,000. So it's a big event. I'll talk a little more about it when we get to the fairgrounds. I think we all know it's a great event. We put a lot of effort. There are challenges and limitations that the fairgrounds as a site has.

[00:44:15] So we are looking at options, again, on what we can do if we are going to throw an event that's going to draw that kind of crowd. And then on the smaller side, these are just as important. We very much are in the community. So National Night Out, that's coming up here in two weeks.

[00:44:33] We're adding Beulah this year as a location. We have our back-to-school backpack giveaway. That's the top right corner. Juneteenth event down at Ettrick. And then last year we had the two tree lightings, one at Beulah and one at Ettrick.

[00:44:49] And, of course, we support the one over at Harrogate, at the old Harrogate building. This year we'll round it out with two more. We'll have one at Midlothian Mines and one at River City as well. Those events, Beulah and Etrick each drew about 500 people, give or take, very community focused and just a great time and it's a great way to bring the community out into our park and engage in a fun activity. So with that, just bring you all up to speed. I know that we collectively sat down with you all individually as stakeholders when this fairground study kicked off. It's been

[00:45:29] going about nine months now. The consultant team is close to wrapping up. We'll be coming back to you all probably, I would say, early fall to sort of share the recommendations. They went through, the consultant team, it includes an architect, includes an engineer, and includes actually a fairground consultant that specializes in going around the country and looking at community fairgrounds, county fairgrounds, and looking to how they can grow and repurpose and evolve.

[00:46:04] Here up on the slide is one of the early images, and it's really based around, at this point, the feedback that we have received, the team has received. That was feedback from you all. That was feedback from us as Parks and Recreation. Certainly the fair association was at the table.

[00:46:24] Then we did a community outreach. We did an in-person meeting. We sent out about 3,000 mailers. We didn't have very good attendance there. There's about 20 folks who came out. That was intended to really capture the direct neighborhood feedback around the fairgrounds, but then we put out an open survey online. We got about 800 responses on that, and basically the feedback we're getting from the community is that they feel like the fairgrounds is an important location. They feel like it's underutilized or doesn't live up to its potential.

[00:46:57] And when we kind of ask that open-ended question, that pie chart up there, the blue, green, and teal all basically aspirationally talk about the desire to use the fairgrounds for recreation and community use.

[00:47:19] Those are sort of the theme that was the, as you sort through the wants. One of the things, again, getting back to July 4th and the traffic problems, that was noted. It was about an 85% response rate that said the traffic flow is a limiting factor on their decision to go to the location.

[00:47:41] The consultant team is baking into their assessment and their recommendation on how to structurally repurpose the fairgrounds, to look to events in the future where 80% to 85% of the traffic can be actually parked on the site without having to rely on the adjacent school and government center parking.

[00:48:06] So that, by definition, is going to start to shrink the kind of event we can have there into the 1,500, 2,000, 2,500 mark, which is about what the fair actually has at any given point in time during their week. It's when we get into those large events that really generates the problem.

[00:48:24] And so that's going to be one of the things that I think you're going to see out of the program recommendations and the supporting concept plans that the consultant, again, will be bringing forward to you all for review here probably in about 60 days. Along our event chain, I wanted to focus.

[00:48:43] We've had quite a bit of storyline evolution in how we interpret and work in the historic preservation and historic programming realm. J.C.'s group really started this role in with a tagline, that history happened here theme.

[00:49:01] And the staff that we have in place, and I'm going to talk about Henrikus and the changes there in a second, but we have just really focused around the fact that we have in Chesterfield a lot of historically significant locations. We have a lot of human capital in the realm of historical interpretation.

[00:49:23] And to tell these stories. And so we've been very purposeful about marketing and getting taking the show on the road, so to speak, and moving beyond just Henrikus and taking that same talent and doing events in other locations.

[00:49:39] So the event in the top left, we finally got cooperative weather. We had about 600 people at Eppington that made the trip out there. I heard nothing but very good feedback about that. We had a living reenactment of a circuit rider making the announcement of the Battle of Bunker Hill.

[00:49:58] and it was set in context of what conversations would have been happening here in Chesterfield County in Virginia in 1780 time frame. So I heard nothing but good things about that.

[00:50:14] We did the same thing down at Henrikus where the slide on the right, we took the anniversary of the indigenous uprising and sort of shifted the narrative of an event at Henrikus to tell the perspective of what it would have been like to have been here in April of 1619 when the tribes coordinated a rebellion against the the colony the columnist and a lot of living history vignettes again about five six hundred people came a free event we put on and it was just a great way to

[00:50:48] sort of better tell a story of history most recently we told some story at Rockwood about the impact of Rockwood and its relationship to the courthouse here as a mustering location. So again, a lot of things that are going on to broaden our perspective on the stories that we're telling, the way that we're telling them with our staff, and just as importantly, the way we are creating new relationships with our partners, the Historical Society, the foundation at Eppington, foundation for Henrikus. And along those lines, Henrikus, as you all well know, we are sort of

[00:51:28] unwinding at this point what it means for Henrikus Historical Park to be owned, operated, and maintained as a county-supported function and better define the role going forward for the foundation to stay in a support role where they can do what foundations should do, which is to generate interest and dollars that are earmarked for special purposes. But, excuse me, along with those conversations, one of the things that became very evident with Henrikus is the context in which

[00:52:01] it sits. And the colonial village there is an important piece of it, but Henrikus as a piece of the overall Dutch gap offers a lot more potential. So that leads into the conversations that we have been having with you all about taking Dutch Gap and reimagining it all together as a thousand acre park that has history, it has nature, it has water access, it has a number of things that can tie together. So what you see up here is the latest rendering of the physical

[00:52:38] improvements that support that. The bridge and the road project, as you all know, is well underway. That's being led by CDOT that is funded with the consent order dollars that were earmarked by Dominion. We are hopefully going to clear the road for construction bidding here sometime late this summer or early fall. So those pieces of it are on track. The rest of it is more conversational at this point. The money that comes forward or was earmarked out of the bond

[00:53:14] is a next fiscal year scheduled appropriation, so we are in the discussions of what we can do to take the old golf course and reimagine it as a focal point for river access, titled James Access.

[00:53:30] So that project, again, has a lot of storylines, but I think the one takeaway is that thinking about But it all as a whole rather than as individual parts positions us to really make the best use of that asset for the community going forward.

[00:53:51] Real quickly, again, back to the build together theme, we have had some recent park openings. We opened up the cricket pitch. We refreshed Katie's playground at Huguenot. We opened up new community or refreshed the community gardens over at Rockwood.

[00:54:09] opened up Kiwanis Park up in in the community up there in Chester so we've had some recent openings and completions and we've got some more that are coming soon this is an aerial from Monday it's already dated but this is the new playground and sprayground at Beulah that will will open that with the help of mr. Holland and all of our her summer camp kids next Thursday I think 10:00 a.m.

[00:54:38] clip a ribbon on that and then it'll be open to the public for National Night Out on the 5th so that one is coming down quickly we have soon to follow the renovated concession building and restroom up at Robius who not Little League should be finishing up in the next couple of weeks so that'll be coming we've got Winter Park Park coming along nicely this is a slide I threw in And just because I know you all get a lot of our construction right now is reactive to maintenance issues.

[00:55:16] And it's planned and unplanned, just in no particular order. The Green Mile at Rockwood has gone down. That is a slide front or a shot that I took. I believe it was Monday. I wanted just to show it, but it's already changed.

[00:55:34] The painting crew, that stripe has been repainted. It's white on the edge. It shouldn't be a double yellow line. should be two white lines. So that's been done. Um, I think we got a hundred and we had a lot more, we had, and the, and the, the logos are down, but, um, that, that generate a lot of traffic on social media. But I think the takeaway is it underscores how popular Rockwood is as a park and how many people actually walk, um, and choose to walk along the road in preference to even walking on the trails, just because it's measured, it's perhaps a little easier. So this is a safety measure to

[00:56:10] basically accommodate where people are and how they're using the park and make that adjustment. Mother Nature has certainly thrown us some curveballs. We lost a boardwalk or a dock at Robius. It floated down. We retrieved it. It wasn't salvageable. That's a piece of the boardwalk where we retrieved it down at Riverside Drive, but it is being put back together.

[00:56:39] Robius has presented some challenges. Robius is a very loved park. It's not a very large park. It gets about 300,000 visitors annually, and they all, of course, want to congregate at the river. So it does have some challenges. We had some recent trail washouts from the recent rains.

[00:56:56] We lost some trail and road down at Appomattox. So chasing Mother Nature this year has been challenging. It's been raining, and that's created problems with grass. Ironically, it becomes difficult to grow new grass when it rains so heavily because the sprigs tend to wash out.

[00:57:15] And then we have other ones that are planned. So that on the far right are the new shade structures that you all supported going up at CTC Hall and the pickleball courts. The tennis court project is the colors have been selected. The contractor is going to start demolition, I believe, the first of the week.

[00:57:33] The kickoff meeting has been held, and the schools have picked their colors at James River, Matoka, and Thomas Dale, so that project is moving along. So we are obviously in a lot of, and I know I've missed a ton of things that are out there, but just a reminder that we are putting a lot of effort into keeping up with maintenance needs, both reactively when Mother Nature throws us that curveball and programmatically when we've got planned things that need to happen.

[00:58:03] Cogwell Park is coming along. That should open up in October. That is the base asphalt for the pickleball, basketball, the restroom, and the shelter, so the park's coming along nicely over there. River City, the park, that's an aerial that's probably a couple weeks old.

[00:58:25] That's coming along. That should be a spring-summer of next year opening. I think that one is going to be pretty exciting for the community. I know there's a lot of demand and interest, so we're anxious for that one to come about.

[00:58:43] We've been putting a lot of effort into, again, renovating facilities that maybe are showing their age a little bit. So the Diamonds was sort of the first effort. We finished the field work last year. The restroom, that's the concrete pad you see there, is under construction.

[00:59:01] And then the field wrap, the sort of stadium that you see on the top left and the right is an illustrative, is ready to go out to bid in a couple weeks. So we're proceeding in an orderly fashion to finish that project up.

[00:59:18] We have Horner Park. I'm excited about this one. we've landed on the on the left is the full build out the the concept plan it includes a new athletic facility diamond facility in the lower left it puts a lot of much-needed community park features in there there's a twin can't really see it the in the sort of center bottom is a 12-quart pickleball complex there's a spray ground a field archery range a lot of walking trails a dog park a

[00:59:52] A lot of the community features that we hear repeatedly that they want, that the community wants are planned for that. And then exciting on the top or the right, we are proceeding with a renovation to what's existing on the baseball side.

[01:00:07] And those fields are under design right now to be done just like we're doing the renovation work at Rockwood, the fields will be hybridized so that the outfields are grass and the infields will be synthetic turf for more all-weather playability. We do have the kickoff for the James River Park.

[01:00:29] This again is a combination. This is at the mouth of Falling Creek. We just had the design kickoff for that. These are our progress drawings. I apologize that the graphics are a little odd but basically a native or a natural focus park at the lower end as you come in adjacent to drury's bluff a playground a picnic area a long riverfront trail along the bluffs descending into what you see on the left there which is the program for a new boat access that's being paid for by the dominion dollars that is to replace the one at dutch cap that includes a road

[01:01:09] it comes in along marina drive that one is um our boat launch is actually in its second round of permit review that's mr engel is an old illustrative so the boat launch is actually uh a keyhole shown or it should be where the fishing access is so the boat uh the boat launch is into the main river but you don't launch right into the flow or into the channel you're protected than a keyhole. But that project, again, combination of Dominion dollars for the access

[01:01:43] and the boat access piece, the road access, and then a separate development off bond dollars for the nature park and the features that go with that. And then I'll wind up just saying Rockwood, we did a 50th out there. We had a good party, a little hot. But Rockwood, I think, is a really interesting story because again, it's the first park. It's the park that sort of started it all here in the community. We had a good crowd. The market was going on. The market's

[01:02:15] proven to be very popular. Rockwood, just in traffic count wise, Rockwood, Daniel, and Dodd are all the largest by traffic. They all average around 700,000 by traffic counts annually. And Rockwood, we've made some efforts. You saw the Green Mile, the center slide is the end product once we finish the renovation for the fields. That is scheduled to wrap up in October. It'll actually, it doesn't look like it can get there, but it can happen pretty quickly

[01:02:50] that once the concrete goes down for the infield, for the curbing for the infield material to go in And then they should sprig here in the middle of August to get the grass and the outfields in place. So that park is a special one for us, and we had a good day.

[01:03:11] And I think Rockwood is also very reflective of the commitment that you all have allowed for us to make improvements, to throw activities and put programming into the park that connects the community with their park space. and so I would end just by saying again thank you all for all the support that you've given us and I'll be happy to take any questions that you might have I think that was a little more than three minutes but I board members any questions or comments go ahead thank you sure thank you for

[01:03:50] all the work that you're doing I mean we learned during COVID how important parks and rec is so thank you for that a couple quick questions just an update can you give us on Kay's playground and And I know that there was some things that needed to be done there. What's going on?

[01:04:06] Katie's Playground, yes, we have the carpet there on the hill, the little mound, was a punchless item. The installer, he didn't seam it correctly. So we knew immediately it was going to have to be replaced.

[01:04:21] And so this is just a timing issue and some arm twisting and some back and forth with the contractor and the subcontractor to come in. and do it correctly so it's it's all it's all related to how that artificial turf was stretched over the the artificial hill there so we're on the right track with that right yeah i mean it's it's um i know a lot of people again that caught a lot of buzz on social media it's nothing catastrophic that was just um it's just like when you build your house and you have you know a problem and and you know it needs to be corrected um but it wasn't it's it's not a failure it was it was just a a poor seeming job to begin with that we needed to replace and one other question

[01:05:01] in that this has gotten brought up a lot recently with regard, and this may not even fall under your rubric, but around invasive plants and those kind of things. Do you get a lot of information or get a lot of questions about invasive plants, whether they should or should not be in our parks, that kind of thing? We don't really get a whole lot of questions. I will say we have had those discussions as we review projects for plant material and try to use native plants. The bio biofilter, and I don't have the slide up, at Buell is a good example. It is a totally

[01:05:35] native species habitat for biofiltration. We're going to do a little signage there because I was standing there watching the progress on the spray ground, and there were several warblers in that area feeding off of them. So it was a really cool little micro ecosystem going on. So we just had that conversation about leveraging that for interpretation and awareness you know pulling invasive species out of large tracts of property is a whole different conversation but we certainly are aware where we can you know move the needle particularly from an educational

[01:06:14] standpoint doing that farmer chris is obviously that's top of mind for her as well and then finally just a comment and appreciation for all the work that you have done with regard to the little pocket park over at Rockshire. They're so excited that that's going to be happening and they're even having like a pre-Rockshire playground kind of party coming up where there just is going to be just popsicles and people are going to be just giving out popsicles and it's just exciting how important it is to have the parks because of how community building they are and so thank you for all the work that you do to build our community in that way.

[01:06:52] Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Trent, thank you. Tremendous presentation. Outstanding job. Keep it the great work. Thank you. Well, we had a great turnout at Rockwood, and that was amazing.

[01:07:08] It was a little hot, but that's okay. Thank you so much for that great extravaganza of ice cream and moving back and forth with the speakers. It turned out great, and I think everybody that I saw had so much fun and enjoyed the tours and the educational aspects of it as well.

[01:07:34] On the fairground, I saw that on number four was miniature golf. I'm all for that, and I'd love to have, like, a miniature golf tournament maybe amongst the county staff, maybe. You can kick some butt.

[01:07:51] Bring it on. The golfer says bring it on. You know, people don't realize, you know, with Chesterfield County, the size that it is, you know, how much parks is a big part of it.

[01:08:15] And even in my district, some people, they say, well, I have to go to Rockwood Park. I'm like, what's the matter at Horner Park? It's right there. And it's a great park, and the changes that are going to happen out there are going to be fantastic. And hopefully the goal, and I talked with Dr. Casey about this earlier, is to be able to tie in the new preserve around the high schools through walking trails, all the way up to eventually to tie in with the park.

[01:08:44] And that way, you know, even cross-country, for example, the kids that are running cross-country would run those trails all the way from the high school complex, middle school complex, elementary complex, all the way up into the park area. But your staff does a tremendous job. I don't know if we ever tell them thank you enough.

[01:09:02] Every time there's an issue that comes up in one of the parks and we ask it to be addressed, it's taken care of. And it's taken care of right. You know, I brought some things to your attention down in Ettrick. Within, I mean, within days they were fixed. So, again, pass along how grateful we are for all the hard work.

[01:09:19] I appreciate that. Thank you. Well, since you got all these compliments now, I do want to remind you a couple things. Looking for the boat ramps, boat boat ramps, to open at similar time frames.

[01:09:36] Both of them, I think, are going to be important to access for the citizens to the river that, Quite frankly, the current ramp, although they're happy to have it, is subpar and have issues down there. So having both of those open up is vitally important for the community.

[01:09:57] And do you know when the splash zone at Bensley is going to open? We're getting another price on that. We cancel the last bid, and then we're going to have to come back and talk about the funding for it. All right.

[01:10:13] We promised that to people. need to make sure we deliver it? I will say anecdotally, I saw just the splash pad. I know when this one opens because I've seen it. They're going to be very popular. I think there's a misconception in the public. I saw a post where a mom was saying that she was anxious to have one.

[01:10:31] She figured they would be $20,000 to $30,000. So they're a little more than that. They're going to run in the range for a small one in the $600,000 to $700,000 range. So nothing, I mean, fund does it that these things are not inexpensive so we we busted that bid um it was a general that was marking it up and are going to come back with a true price for you all right thank you mr chairman i have one additional comment i made briefly i forgot to mention and that is um uh on

[01:11:03] friday we will have the 2025 pony world series yes here in chesterfield county at am at harry daniels park and of course these are 11 year olds from around the country and the world mexico included and so very proud of that so if you have an opportunity you want to see some baseball future stars come out to harry daniels park friday afternoon thank you and this weekend i'll end on a better note i do appreciate everything you're doing for the county

[01:11:39] thank you all very much we we appreciate it as well so thank you for your time item c building

[01:12:13] inspections update. Mr. Clements. I brought Jason Laws with me. He's the assistant director, assistant building official. So if you have any really tough questions, I brought him to answer those. Well, why don't we dive into it? So what we thought about doing for this one,

[01:12:50] we haven't done an update in quite a while for y'all. So we decided actually to take what we, but Jason and I do the Government Citizens Academy, which is a great event. And I think folks get a lot out of that. So this is a good part of that presentation. So we thought it'd be good for y'all to see what we're presenting to the citizens. So it's a bit of an education on what our department does, actually a little bit about what the code is. And we threw in some statistics and things so you can kind of just see where we're at with the state of construction in

[01:13:24] the county. So diving on in, you want to talk a little bit about what we do? Yeah, just kind of start with what we do in building inspection. I guess to start with this, this is a picture of the new customer service desk. If you hadn't made it over there, I do invite you to come take a look.

[01:13:45] It turned out beautiful. It's gotten a lot of compliments from customers alike, but this is one of our permit techs, our front-facing staff that take in any permits, kind of customer service side of it, process permits, answer any of the questions that the walk-in customers may have, that type thing. Very important work. They're looking to process permits at a 99.5% accuracy rate, so eliminate as many areas as possible right off the bat to try to ensure smooth

[01:14:20] construction through the process. Yeah, one thing that, so we are about over 90% now of air businesses online, but we still have customers come in, so we still have that option if air customers want a face-to-face interaction. So this is also another picture. This is the back office, them doing the permit processing, working through Elm. As Ron mentioned, a lot of the permit gets processed online where customers can apply from their comfort of their own home or in their own office. So it has reduced foot traffic in the office significantly, but work is still

[01:14:58] staying the same. It's just a different methodology of submitting applications. And with that, we've moved after post-COVID, I guess during COVID, we went to allowing electronic plan review at a necessity to kind of reduce contact with customers and give them a chance to apply while doors were closed and that kind of thing. So about 99% of our plans for the commercial side are submitted electronically, and about 95% residentially are submitted electronically.

[01:15:34] So our staff is reviewing using DigiPlan, which is a software system that's integrated into Acela. Markup tools, being able to communicate with the customer through electronic means, both directly on the plan or in comments in Acela.

[01:15:52] Customers have seen, some customers pick up on it quicker than others, obviously. There's a technology learning curve there. But overall, it has been a huge success. Yeah, and all of our, just so everybody knows, when you apply for that permit, After the permit, techs have done all their work to make sure everything's set up correctly.

[01:16:11] All the reviews are done concurrently. So planning, utilities, health department, environmental engineering, building inspection, they're all kind of shout out to everybody at the same time to make it as efficient a process as we can. This is a picture of one of our inspectors in the field.

[01:16:30] He's an attic inspecting roof framing. Our inspectors have what we call MG90s in the trucks. it's basically internet, same system the police and fire are using. So it allows them to update in live time. So as soon as they're done with the inspection, they can enter their inspection results. Customers are able to sign into their portal and see the results immediately.

[01:16:54] So it expedites the communication and the process there. They also can, we talked about the digital plans. They can also bring up the digital plans on their computer and see them if need be. We'd still ask the contractors to have paper plans on site just for inspection purposes so they can carry it up in the attic, that type of thing, instead of carrying a laptop.

[01:17:18] But that's just one of the conveniences. Also, this is one of our inspectors doing a commercial building, doing trade inspection, could be plumbing or gas. So we also, along with the structural inspections, we do plumbing, mechanical gas, electrical inspections as well.

[01:17:36] Have expert inspectors on staff to perform those inspections. Yeah, another piece of the commercial that's a little different, really doesn't matter whether it's a 3,000-square-foot house or a 10,000-square-foot house. The actual inspections performed are still pretty much the same. They may take a little longer on the 10,000-square-foot house, but the inspections that we do and the order in which they are done, pretty much the same.

[01:17:59] Commercial, you pretty much got to tailor the inspection process for the commercial jobs, especially the larger ones. So usually what that entails is having a pre-construction meeting with all the contractors, all of our inspection staff around a table like this and have the contractors, you know, discuss the project, what order they want to do things in so we can kind of tailor the inspection process to suit their inspection schedule.

[01:18:22] You know, whereas you may do one or two framing inspections on a house, you may do half a dozen on a commercial job and, you know, trying to figure out how to get all that coordinated and done so it's as quick and seamless for the contractor. You know, our job is really to make it as easy as possible.

[01:18:39] So a lot of time is spent talking on the commercial jobs to make sure that's straight. Absolutely. And this is kind of the finished product. Ron kind of touched on it a little bit, but all of our staff are customer service focused, results driven. We're not there to be a stumbling block for the contractors.

[01:18:57] We really want to be a resource and help them through the process. We want to be there for the contractors. If they have any questions, we'd much rather them ask ahead of time. We can address an issue to start so it doesn't become a bigger issue after it's constructed, especially on the commercial side.

[01:19:15] Our inspectors do a great job communicating with the contractors. They almost, to a small degree, are project managers. They're communicating. They're telling them what's needed, what the next step is, make sure there's no surprises at the end of the project when they're trying to close and get people to move in.

[01:19:31] So they do a great job communicating with contractors so there's no surprises at the end. Yeah, and on a job like this, Craig Condrey, our commercial inspection chief, he usually reaches out to the contractors involved well ahead of CO issuance time.

[01:19:50] So a month or two out, he's figuring out what's left to be done, what departments still have to sign off on it, and communicating with the contractors. So we don't have this 11th hour. You know, it's Friday, and everybody's trying to get a final and get their CO by the end of the day, try and get all that set up.

[01:20:07] they have it when they want it when they need it yeah and with that we regularly get emails or compliments on on our team where general contractors are working all over the country and how they they just praise chesterfield county in the process and how they wish they could build all their jobs here in chesterfield county so it's something that we can all be proud of and we tell them they can build all their jobs we also do property maintenance so it's uh this is this is one that's got chipping paint dilapidated that's kind of an eyesore in the neighborhood

[01:20:45] um and this this was the end or start of the end result obviously still being worked on shutter needs to be installed um you can argue whether you like that paint color or not but it's it's probably it's probably better than what it was to start with so um so property maintenance is complaint driven um go go out as as as we receive complaints um this one's a kind of the blight program do you want to touch on that one a little bit yeah so this one if we go back in time i was actually sitting there trying to think was it six or seven years ago we you all created the community

[01:21:20] enhancement department um so with the creation of the community enhancement department and bringing dan cullen and his team on board uh we partnered with them pretty much as soon as he he walked in the door uh i got together with him and we started kind of putting together how can we as a team address these distressed properties and a few years ago we've we dusted off an old ordinance dealing with spot blight abatement and with dan and his team's ability to bring in partners like heaven at for humanity as an example for this one and finding grant money to help kind of

[01:21:59] augment our blight eradication fund you all declare a few properties blighted which allowed us to come in, acquire the properties, get habitat for humanity involved, and rehabilitating them into affordable housing.

[01:22:18] So this is actually the very first one that is now under construction, under renovation. This is the Shelldeb property, the '8763 Shelldeb. So this one's well underway. If you go inside, you'll see it's been pretty much gutted in their repairing joists and beams.

[01:22:34] So we're looking forward to this one really being the first and truly the culmination the vision from you know half a dozen years ago uh towards community enhancement uh a few others on that list the uh 8801 ram circle uh that's actually in the design phase the uh designers engineers have already been out there to take a look at it to figure out what needs to be done so that one should be under construction here in the near future and the 4731 black oak property we're in the final stages of acquiring that property

[01:23:09] actually i just signed off on the purchase order to cut the check to acquire that one so i think we finally got in our sea legs we've learned a lot in the process there really isn't a manual on how to do this a lot of having to hire a consultant to help with uh the acquisition process um as a matter of fact some folks from newport news uh called us up uh say us including emily uh bittner and um the attorney's office to kind of talk about how we do this and how how we make it work so we figured it out i think at this point

[01:23:46] um i also want to stress uh this is a a a rare thing we've only acquired four properties at this point through the blight process 99.9 percent of the time our property maintenance process that we utilize to turn the gray house into the the pretty blue house that's typically what we do to address those distressed properties these are kind of the exception to the rule they typically have owners that are absentee to be polite or in some cases they don't even have an owner. Everybody's deceased and you know we've already spent a few usually most of these cases

[01:24:21] a year or more trying to come to another resolution. So this is kind of the extreme cases but it's nice in the extreme cases to have the tools in the toolbox to be able to turn them into affordable housing and their community partners to help us do that. And we also do amusement device inspection so this is actually ron at the at the zoo inspecting the zip line so he gets his hands dirty occasionally um but we also do uh like the fair amusement devices any type of carnivals and things that come in so we inspect those as well um yeah so you haven't been on the zip line

[01:25:00] course at the metro zoo i can highly recommend it it's a great way to see the animals and we do we complete all this by having a staff size of 69 uh individuals make up our team uh 16 of those are permit techs, nine plan reviewers, that's including the supervisor plan reviewers, 35 inspectors, about nine of those are commercial, residential, three automation, and six administrative staff.

[01:25:28] Yeah, what's not reflected up there is I also have seven staff members in the fire department that are by technical assistance that help with fire protection plan review inspections and some building plan review. I also have, I got to admit, I'm not sure the exact count, it's around a half a dozen uh folks in the community hansett department are also my technical assistants and basically what that means is they go through the certification process basically to work in a building inspection department be it a permit tech a planner viewer inspector you've got to have one or more certifications that are uh they're state certifications but they require passing

[01:26:05] national uh exams and taking a number of classes so once they get the the state certification then and I can designate them as technical assistance. So, yeah, it's probably closer to about 80 folks that are total. Under your umbrella. Under the whole umbrella, yes. And I just want to reiterate this.

[01:26:24] I mean, building inspections purpose is obviously the public safety, the welfare of the citizens and anybody that visits Chesterfield County. But what's different is as far as, like, public safety, as far as fire and police, is a lot of those are reactionary in a sense where if nothing happens, then we've done our job.

[01:26:42] So you don't necessarily hear about it. So I just want to reiterate that that is our goal, is to make sure we catch it before something happens to make sure the citizens are safe. Yeah, and unfortunately things are going to happen. So the bottom two fires, people were displaced, but they didn't die.

[01:27:03] So when you do have the fire, the fire alarm systems, fire protection systems, fire radio construction, all of that works as a system to give people time to get out of the buildings, even though the building is damaged or in this in one case completely destroyed you know if everybody gets out safely then that's also a success all right uh so just some statistics we uh do about 110 000 inspections a year uh so these are 2024 statistics but that 110 is pretty consistent uh for the total number of inspections our inspection rate that's what we use to kind of

[01:27:42] gauge overall workload? Do we have enough inspectors? Last year it ran at 2.96. The goal is 2.3. If it's less than three, I'm pretty comfortable with it. And I think the reason it's a little higher than that 2.3, 2.5 range that we're looking for, I think it's mainly just vacancies. We have enough positions now. The board was real good about providing us additional positions as we came out of the recession uh kind of that 2010 to 2014 range we added enough staff positions off so now it's just a battle of keeping them filled you know i

[01:28:18] got people retiring actually one of my best uh commercial inspectors that has been with us for a long longer than i've been here and that's quite a while i just retired this month so um i guess that's a constant battle for everybody but we're still doing pretty good commercial value uh so that's the total estimated cost of construction provided on commercial permits so in 2024 it was 974 million and I got a chart in a few slides will kind of give you the five-year average but it's it's gone up about a maybe 150

[01:28:56] million a year over the past five years thereabouts and you'll see that when we get to it but that's a pretty good amount almost a billion dollars of construction kind of goes to you know how big a county we are apartment numbers uh that's 458 units that's actually down a little and we we're going to do a little more research into that it has been running if i go back to 2023 excuse me 2022 was around 1600 and 2023 it was around 1300 so anecdotally talking to staff they think it's we're doing about the same number of buildings It's just there's less units per building in the 2024 numbers because that was buildings applied for in 2024.

[01:29:36] But I'm still going to analyze that a little bit more, see if I can figure that out. Townhouses, so that's individual townhouse units. We had 594. Single-family permits, 1,357. You'll see I got a chart of that, too, which is pretty good.

[01:29:53] You know, we bottomed out in the recession around a little better than 600. Our peak years back in the early 2000s, we were doing a couple thousand, but 1,400, that's a pretty good manageable number for us. And then the COs, so with the commercial certificates of occupancy, we actually issue a certificate of occupancy to a unit or a building.

[01:30:15] So like a building like this gets a CO, strip shop and center across the street, each one of the tenant spaces would get a CO because they're different occupancy types. And then for residential, that's units, so that's townhouses and single-family dwellings. We issued $1,755.

[01:30:34] Now, I know the cost of development, the cost of fees for construction, there's been a lot of discussion about that, even down at the General Assembly. I know there's been a number of bills that were in this kind of area of conversation.

[01:30:51] So I figured I'd kind of show you what we do on the building permit side. So we haven't increased fees in over 20 years. I think the last fee increase we had was early 2000s. So for commercial, we do it based on estimated cost of construction.

[01:31:06] So it's basically $7.40 for every $1,000 of construction estimated cost for building and $6.60 for trades. So what does that look like? Well, I took the sheets down here at Courthouse Landing. They just finished up.

[01:31:21] And this is the sheets building, the main building. Estimated cost of everything. So this is building and all of the trades was $1.7 million. Total fees for everything, all of the building and trade permits was $15,416, which was less than 1% of the estimated cost of construction.

[01:31:43] So just 0.9% of the estimated cost of construction was their permit fees. And for that, they got over 60 inspections. I didn't add up how many hours of plan review time, but you get all your plan review for that. the permit techs and all the work they're doing behind the scenes so I think that's pretty reasonable what we're charging what you get for your money and if you look at our budget year over year we're pretty much what basically state law says is that we have authority to charge permit fees to offset our cost and if I take Lego out of the equation we pretty

[01:32:20] much have done that if you look at revenues versus expenses they run about six and a half million to seven million a year, and they're pretty evened out. So we're still doing pretty good, and I don't anticipate having to come to you asking for fee increases anytime in the near future. As for residential, so residential, we actually charge a fixed fee, which is basically based on adding up the average number of inspections we do and how much they cost.

[01:32:50] So the building permit, 684, and then each trade, it's, you know, 171 electrical, 114 for both mechanical for mechanical then 114 for fuel gas and then 228 for plumbing so when you add it all up including the environmental and planning fees we charge uh which together has around 90 dollars and then the state uh requires a two percent levy on the building permit when you add it all up a house is going to cost you a fourteen hundred twenty seven dollar permit fee which again is point three percent uh if you take the average cost of a new single family dwelling in chesterfield which, according to Google AI, was $474,000.

[01:33:30] So, again, I think pretty reasonable on the fee side there as well. So here are the charts I was going to show you. So this is for our single-family dwellings. You know, going back to 2020, we were really rolling.

[01:33:45] If you remember the reports I was sending you all during the pandemic, I think everybody was a little surprised at how well construction was doing. But, yeah, we peaked up there almost at 1,900 houses in 2020. I think the 2021 and 2022 drop were more of just a correction.

[01:34:02] I think it was almost a little bit of a bubble. It kind of corrected itself, and now you'll see we're starting to pick back up to kind of find that happy medium with the 23 and 24 numbers, both kind of in that 1,300, 1,400 units a year range.

[01:34:21] So for that commercial value, again, it's easier to look at commercial value than it is to look at units because it's hard to compare a sheet to a Lego or something big. And you can pretty much see going back to 2020, we're, you know, a little better than 400, maybe 425 million.

[01:34:38] The dude kind of steadily went up, and it's kind of plateaued a little bit there. And if I take Lego out, Lego was 828 million itself. So I pulled that out of the 20, and most of those permits and that value came in 2023.

[01:34:54] So I pulled that value out just so you could see the trend without that outlier factored in there. So, yeah, you can see that Lagos almost the total value of everything else in the county. And I did want to touch a little bit on what codes are.

[01:35:13] A lot of people don't actually know this or understand this. We get the question quite often, you know, what's the code in Chesterfield County? Well, we really don't have a Chesterfield County code. The way Virginia is set up, we have a uniform statewide building code that was set up in state law, does not allow local amendments.

[01:35:31] It's part of the Virginia Administrative Code, which is basically the regulatory law that kind of sits underneath the statutory law that's promulgated by boards as opposed to being written by the General Assembly. So the Board of Housing and Community Development, which is a citizens board, it's appointed by the governor, but they're staggered, so no one governor can appoint the whole board. They represent the 11 congressional districts in Virginia. There's also a building official and fire official that also serve on that board, but that's the board that's pretty much responsible for promulgating the building codes and the fire

[01:36:08] prevention codes here in Virginia so that's what we're enforcing and that that law went into effect in 1973 so we actually did have a Chesterfield building code prior to 73 that was written into ordinance I still have a couple dusty old copies of it but 73 the General Assembly decided that we want a code that's uniform throughout the Commonwealth yeah if you went back before 73 in Ryko County Chesterfield County Hanover County the city Richmond all had different codes. So if you built a house in Richmond and drove across the bridge and got into Chesterfield, you had a whole different code you had to follow. It was also done to

[01:36:47] promote affordable housing. There were concerns that some jurisdictions may use local building codes to make affordable housing difficult. So that was a big part of it as well. They're updated every three years. So right now we're in the process of going through an update cycle here Virginia for the 2024 edition. And you might say, well, it's 2025. Why are you guys on the 21 edition and working on the 24? And it's because we adopt our uniform statewide building code based on some model codes, which I'm going to touch on here in the next slide.

[01:37:26] I did want to also mention here, violations of the building code are actually criminal violations. They're not classified misdemeanors. A lot of people don't realize that. Now, we are certainly not out there trying to take people to court and charge them with crimes. We're just trying to get code compliant buildings. But in those rare and extreme cases that we do need a little more peace, so to speak, we can prosecute them in court. And usually when that happens, we're typically also asking for court ordered abatement. So we're still more after getting compliance than trying to find somebody or send them to jail. So So this is what I was talking about.

[01:38:02] So the International Code Council is an organization that's a 506 organization that writes model building codes so that states can then adopt them, make whatever amendments they want to them.

[01:38:20] But this takes the heavy lift of developing a very technical code off of state or local governments and boards. I have a picture, I don't have it in this slide deck, but I took all of the code books above my desk, just above my desk, put a tape measure, I was four feet.

[01:38:39] That's not all the codes, that's just what I want handy. So you really can't expect even a board that's specifically set up to actually write all of those technical requirements. So the International Code Council does that. They write the model building codes. Jason and I and a number of our staff are involved in both the ICC process and the state process.

[01:39:00] Chesterfield does have a voice in that. So basically the model building code, once it comes out, the Administrative Process Act here in Virginia establishes how you promulgate that regulatory law, and we go through a process.

[01:39:17] So the ICC model code has to get published before we can even start our adoption process in Virginia. Then we kind of go through a similar process of making amendments to it. And anybody can submit a code change. So if any citizen doesn't like something in the code, they can submit a code change during that cycle.

[01:39:35] But once the Virginia amendments are incorporated, then we produce what's called the Virginia Construction Code and all of the Virginia codes. And it's broken out into three parts.

[01:39:51] The Virginia Construction Code is basically for new construction, primarily commercial, and multifamily. Part two is the existing building code. So this is a code that's specific to taking an existing building and doing construction work on it. It's kind of hard to take a building, or even a building like this that was built in the, I guess, late 70s, early 80s, and try and put the new code to it if you're going to do alterations to it.

[01:40:17] So the existing building code is set up to make it easier to do work on existing buildings, and it gives some breaks and some exceptions for existing buildings to make it easier to rehabilitate them. And then part three we've touched on is the property maintenance code, which pretty much takes over once you have a certificate of occupancy issued and the building is occupied for its intended purpose.

[01:40:44] And just a, I did want to touch, so what, you know, I talked about what we do in building inspections and why we do it, but what is the statutory purpose for a building code? Well, this one is, when I teach classes, we'll use the S's question, and we typically get this piece of it, it's to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the residents of the Commonwealth.

[01:41:00] But it goes on, so the buildings and structures should be permitted to be constructed at the least possible cost, consistent with recognized standards. So that's where we get into adopting national standards. But the Board of Housing does have to consider cost. So that's why sometimes codes might not go as far as some people would like them to go.

[01:41:20] But that has to be a factor in the decisions the board makes. So what does that look like? Well, the Code is your nice, fuel-efficient, comfortable Toyota. It's not your G-Wagon. That's a little bit above Code Wagon. So if that's what you want, Code's not going to get that for you.

[01:41:38] But it is going to get you something that is safe and affordable. This is another thing I tend to go over when I teach classes is that a lot of people think of the Code as a minimum, and it is. The building Code is the minimum for the customer, but it is the maximum for us.

[01:41:57] It's their Code. It's our Constitution. So we don't have free reign. We are limited in what we can call by the code as much as the customer is required to meet that minimum. And a couple of things, this is one also sometimes folks think we could do, we like regulate the entire premises, which we really don't.

[01:42:20] The building code is specific to the building or the structure. Pretty much once you get outside of that building or structure, get out into the yard, you pretty much lose the building code, authority, and scope. There is a provision that says you've got to have a positive slope for 10 feet out from the building, but that's it.

[01:42:39] Once I get 10 feet away from the building, I'm done. And even that 10-foot slope, it's only 6 inches and 10 feet, so it's your hand if you think about that. Sometimes we'll even get complaints. I can't get up my driveway and the winter is too steep. Why did you let them build my driveway that steep?

[01:42:54] Well, I don't regulate the slope of your driveway. Another one is workmanship, the building code. Again, it's a Toyota. It's not the Mercedes, so we don't regulate workmanship. I thought I'd finish up with this.

[01:43:12] So when I teach a class for the state, it's a three-day class that all new, anybody that's in building code enforcement or fire code enforcement have to take. And we teach this thing called the Virginia Way. The Virginia Way actually started in Chesterfield. I don't know if some of you were around back in the Roger Robertson days, if that name might ring a bell to some of you, but Roger Robertson used to be our chief of inspections and used to teach that class, and he basically took kind of the Chesterfield concept of how to treat customers and treat our citizens, and now we're teaching it statewide.

[01:43:44] And the basic concept of the Virginia way, a.k.a. the Chesterfield way, is that we're facilitators and we're customer and results focused. All of my staff, even my permit techs that spend all day behind a computer screen, know that the goal is to get the building out in the real world built safe and code compliant and to facilitate that, not to be the roadblock.

[01:44:05] So I'll kind of end on that, and we're happy to take any questions. So the house on Ram's Circle? Yes. Are they going to rebuild it from where it is, or are they tearing down, or what did they determine?

[01:44:27] You said they were out there inspecting. They were out there like a week ago, and I haven't heard the results of that, but my understanding is they're going to rehabilitate it. All right. Kind of like the shell dev house, I mean, once you strip all of the ugly down, sometimes there's something you can work with underneath it.

[01:44:45] Okay. But that's my understanding, but we haven't gotten the final back on that. All right. I'll be interested to see that. Thank you so much. Great job. Good presentation. Thank you. Go ahead, Mark. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a quick question.

[01:45:01] You were saying that there's been no fee change. Well, who sets that? Is it on the state level for the fees? Or do we do that? And then how do we compare with other localities? I'd have to get you exact numbers. I think we're pretty on par with most localities.

[01:45:18] But, again, I haven't really, because we haven't needed a fee increase, I really haven't gone out there and done that research in a number of years. Chair, if I could just interject, as Mr. Clemens mentioned earlier, the state code does not want building inspections actually to create far more revenues than the cost of operation.

[01:45:37] So as Mr. Clements mentioned, basically the expenses of his office are approximate to the revenues. So if there was a deficiency in that, then we would have the right to raise our fees, residential, commercial, or otherwise.

[01:45:53] But yet the process is it is written into ordinance or fee schedule. So if we decided we needed to change fees, you know, after we did the research and produced a business case, then we would come to y'all and y'all would have to actually make the fee change. That just speaks volumes to how efficient you are and how you work and how it's been unnecessary for you to change any kind of the fees because of just how good you are at it.

[01:46:21] So thank you. Thank you. As a person who built his own house and had to work with y'all's office, what people really should understand from the takeaway on this is that, you know, you talked about minimum standards.

[01:46:41] But making sure that we hold, whether someone like myself is building their own house or if it's a developer building a house or builder building a house, holding them to those standards is extremely important because you're building, not just on a commercial side, but on a residential side, you're building someone's house.

[01:46:58] It's the biggest investment that they make in their life, more than likely, unless you're one of those guys that buys a billion dollar yacht. I'm not, right? But it's the biggest investment someone makes. And by making sure that we hold people to standards when we do our inspections, it's going to ensure, hopefully, a long-term quality house that someone, you know, can enjoy and not necessarily have problems with, you know, their step sagging or other things that can happen.

[01:47:28] And I think one of the things that the county went to years ago about requiring a separate engineer to engineer the footer for houses based on shrink-thrill soil, I think that was a good step, actually, because I think it's really cut down, quite frankly, on those type of issues that we had before.

[01:47:47] We don't see them anymore. We don't have people calling up saying, my fireplace is pulling away from the house. Or I have cracks in my interior of my house because my foundation has shifted. I was in a house recently down in Georgia, and the whole back end of the house is sacking.

[01:48:06] And all the windows have become unplumbed, and the doors have become unplumbed. And so we don't have those problems anymore. And I think it's really critical. Quality control is really what you do, and that's what keeps people safe.

[01:48:22] So, you know, keep up the good work. It's important for our community. Thank you. A lot of people don't get that. They think you guys have just come out, oh, yeah, I got to pass building inspection. It's so that your house doesn't burn down, that you don't have all the problems associated that can happen in the house, and it protects the investment of the person who's buying the house.

[01:48:48] Yeah, Mr. Chairman, it might be worth discussing or briefly just explaining what Mr. Carroll was talking about with the footing because Chesterfield is fairly unique. It's completely code-driven, but we require, so if you're going to build a house in Chesterfield, you've got to get a soil report.

[01:49:06] So an engineer or geotechnical engineer has to test the soil, determine whether or not the soil is expansive. And if it's expansive, yes, an engineer has to design the footing. But we also require a third party perform the footing inspection. And the reason we do that is because they are there.

[01:49:23] We don't have time to sit there and watch them pour the concrete. So that person actually watches the concrete get placed to make sure the right amount of concrete and reinforce it is placed in the footing. They also perform what's called a slump test. I think we're probably one of the only jurisdictions that require the slump test, which is testing the concrete to make sure the concrete delivered is the correct concrete, and they're not getting lightweight concrete.

[01:49:47] So thanks for mentioning that. Mr. Chair, to that point, and I'll say it, I had to hire a soil scientist to come out, do the soil compaction test all of that and then the engineer certified the footer was there when it was poured my house is 20 years old this year they had one nail pop one in 20 years that's because in my opinion the footer from the ground up was built the way it was supposed to and it's kept the house from shifting no cracks no unequal floors nothing and and so i was when i went through

[01:50:24] the process i really didn't understand it at the time then i learned i said this is probably a good thing. Well, as probably the only person here that routinely puts building permits in, in multiple jurisdictions, I've been able to witness firsthand the quality job that building inspections does in Chesterfield County. I would say that, although I think that a lot of the things Mr. Carroll spoke to are important, if you get a lot of rain in your house, had a lot of moisture in it, it's probably

[01:50:58] going to um take two seasons are a winter and a summer before you know if you're going to have nail pops and it's not necessarily a sign of um bad workmanship it could be a sign of the wood moving around in the house and to your point um they're they're inspecting for um life safety issues um we've had citizens that have reached out to us and said that their trim doesn't make it all the way to the floor or that a counter isn't caulked properly something

[01:51:37] along those lines and they they think that that's a deficiency in the building inspection process and it's actually not because to your point you're not there to inspect whether or not they did it to the best standard you're there to make sure that they did it to the standard that's required in the code and so So although it does make sure that structurally everything Mr. Carroll said was correct, it doesn't actually guarantee that all of the workmanship, like trim, which is not structural in any way,

[01:52:14] is done in a particular manner and that people aren't going to complain about it. So I do think it's important for people to understand that there's things that you do that are very important that do give us very good comfort that their house isn't going to fall down, they're not going to be in a dangerous house. But there's also things that are not the county's responsibility. And therefore, they need to do their own inspections, their own look through, their own third party if they need to, to ensure if they're buying a home, whether it be new or

[01:52:48] used, that those issues are looked at by a third party that might be able to give them some better advice on the quality of the craftsmanship, not on the structure of what was just built. So I just think that's important for people to know. I recommend they get some, if they don't know what they're looking at, they get some help from a third party to make sure when they build a house that they got all that addressed and not call building inspections to try to get you to address that. And that's kind of what we were touching at with the minimum and maximum slide. And that's

[01:53:26] our maximum we can't go above that um and somebody's expectation may be higher than what that what our maximum is and that's where we run into disagreements and other than some uh i know you field some issues with elm where something might get caught up in the system from here and there um it's very rarely if ever building inspections it's you're the ones that get all the calls because you're the ones that process the permits you're the ones that get people mad at you because you process the permits, but very rarely is it your department that's causing a holdup. So thank you for that.

[01:54:00] I appreciate that. You're welcome. Thank you. Item D, consent agenda highlights. Mr. Bowles. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Casey. We've got quite a few highlights, so I'll jump right in. First is an item related to the Central Virginia Transportation Authority.

[01:54:31] They're accepting funding requests for regional transportation projects, and tonight there's a resolution for $125 million to partially fund a portion of the Poite extension from Woolridge to Genito Road. That's the loan request that's being made, so just underscoring the importance of that project. Next, several regional opioid abatement grants. The opioid abatement authorities created this grant opportunity for localities to partner in order to

[01:55:08] abate and remediate opioid epidemic through treatment efforts prevention. The first is a program with Chesterfield and Colonial Heights for just under $461,000 for the DSS Family Engagement Project. This one works with pregnant women, parents, relatives that are dealing with substance abuse challenges. Next is Chesterfield Colonial Heights

[01:55:40] and Powhatan for comprehensive opioid management programs. A third is Chesterfield City of Richmond in Henrico for almost $307,000 to support the Chesterfield Recovery Academy outreach and transportation project. And then there are several sub-grants around $500,000 that allows the county to begin spending the opioid settlement funds to take burden off of substance abuse-related

[01:56:13] annual funding requests that the county may otherwise submit. Land acceptance in the western area of the county. These are parcels containing about 214 acres from the Economic Development Authority at no cost. These are the sites of the western area infrastructure improvements, the elementary school, middle school, high school, and library. There will be additional transfers as the rest of those projects move forward, including the Upper Magnolia Preserve.

[01:56:54] For the jail, a comprehensive medical and behavioral health care services for inmates. This is a comprehensive program that was competitively procured with award recommendations to Physicians Correctional USA.

[01:57:16] Again, this is providing basically all of the inmate health care and has an estimated annual value of around $2.9 million. For the Proctors Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, renovations to the administration building there to house the pre-treatment staff from their current location, which will be demolished as part of another construction project.

[01:57:43] This is about a $5.7 million construction contract for your approval. From the Towing Advisory Board, they've recommended several changes to the towing contract that mostly center around requirements for and capabilities of heavy-duty wreckers.

[01:58:04] This would be for instances where a tractor-trailer or other large vehicle requires towing. It also recommends a PPI-based 2.9% rate increase.

[01:58:20] All of these changes are supported by the police department staff. Performance grant for Revke. Yes, sir. A question on the towing contract. Yes, sir. I had asked the police department to reach out to the state to ask them what their policy is for the heavy equipment.

[01:58:41] Do you know if they've shared any of that information with you? I do not have that information, but I can check and get back to you. Okay. Thank you. Yes, sir. I just think that the state, probably more so than anybody else, because of the fact that they deal with interstates, probably must have some type of heavy record policy in place.

[01:58:59] Well, maybe not, but it would be good to know what theirs currently is, or if they don't have one, if they just do what we do, which is, you know, we got an issue, we got to call a heavy record. Okay. But they probably have more boat vehicle crashes on state highways with heavy trucks that need to be pulled out than anybody else.

[01:59:19] OK, so I'm just trying to I'm just curious as to what their policies are. OK, I will find out and let you know. So back to the Red Key Performance Grant, in order to assist the development of Bridgewood Commons and the road and sewer projects in that area, the board approved a grant agreement back in 2021, which refunds 80 percent of the marginal increases in real estate and sales tax paid by Red Key up to four million dollars.

[01:59:49] I'm assuming they have met the grant requirements of investing $20 million and constructing 100,000 square feet of retail space. Those requirements have been met, and REBKE is requesting grant funds for this year, totaling about $1,050,000.

[02:00:08] And again, they will come back annually for each future year until the cap is reached. Over at the airport, we have a grant for some updating of the terminal, furnishing fixtures, equipment to an aviation-themed design.

[02:00:27] This is a $377,000 project, which 90% of that is paid for from federal and state funding, the balance coming from the county. Several community contracts that we have, just some cleanup of those to align with the other existing contract recipients.

[02:00:51] The first one, as Mr. Luther mentioned, is for Sportable, where they will be taking existing dollars that are budgeted with Parks and Rec to begin performing the adaptive sports programming, as well as active 50-plus lifestyles.

[02:01:10] That's just, again, a procedural adjustment, transferring those funds from parks over to the community contract area. All of these changes are one time only and do not necessarily impact the future.

[02:01:26] All of those requests have to come back to you each year for a separate approval. And then finally, we have three public hearings that staff is requesting that you set. The first is for ZOMOD, which is the comprehensive update to the Counting Zoning Ordinance, which regulates land use and development.

[02:01:52] At their July meeting, the Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend approval to the board. So, again, this is just asking to set a public hearing for September. The Northern Route 10 corridor plan also requests to set a public hearing.

[02:02:10] This was initiated in the fall of last year to guide future development in the northern Route 10 corridor area. Some of the primary recommendations include land use designations to promote commercial and residential opportunities, infrastructure improvements for bike and pedestrian facilities, design guidelines for construction in the corridor, as well as some conceptual layouts for redevelopment of key properties.

[02:02:40] Again, the Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve this at their June meeting. And then finally, another set public hearing for amendments to the thoroughfare plan related to the proposed east-west road between 360 and Branders Bridge.

[02:03:01] This would eliminate that road and also would reclassify a proposed section of the road between Branders Bridge and Route 1 and Ruffin Mill from a limited access road to a four-lane divided major arterial road. That's all the highlights and happy to answer any questions if you have any. Board members, any questions? Thank you. Item five, reports. Are there any

[02:03:38] questions about the report? Seeing none, the reports are approved. Item six, 15-minute citizen comment period on unscheduled matters, we have no speakers. 7, close session. 1, pursuant to section 2.2-3711A5, Code of Virginia 1950 is amended to discuss or consider prospective businesses or industries or the expansion of existing businesses or industries where no previous announcement has been made of the businesses or industries' interest in locating or expanding their facilities in the community, and two, pursuant to Section 2.2-3711A3, Code

[02:04:18] of Virginia, 1950, as amended, to discuss the acquisition by the county of real estate for a public purpose or the disposition of publicly held real property where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position and negotiating strategy of the public body.

[02:04:36] We need a motion to go into closed session. Second. All in favor? Aye.

[02:04:41] It's on, but it's not -- it's a new mic.

[02:05:16] There's an extra one here. It's not working. It's not working because it's red there but not at the top where it should be. Testing. There we go. Now we're working.

[02:05:31] Now we're working. Good job. All right, Mr. Chairman. All right. We'll start this over. Good evening and welcome to the evening session of the July 23rd Board of Supervisors meeting. I verified that all board members have received copies of the comments posted on the online comment portal for considerations on matters before us tonight.

[02:05:53] These comments are part of the public record and will be attached to the board meeting minutes. In addition, for those citizens who are here for the zoning case, for the zoning portion of the meeting, the applicant for case 23-SN-0129, Genitoe Crossing Rezoning and Exceptions, has requested a deferral to the August 27th meeting.

[02:06:16] At this time, I'll ask Mr. Holland to give the invocation. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Shall we pray, eternal and almighty God our Father, we thank you for this opportunity to come before you to pray.

[02:06:38] to thank you for being so gracious, kind, and compassionate. We pray for peace throughout this planet, this world, for each nation, Lord, and its people. We pray for love, joy.

[02:06:54] We pray for our leaders throughout the world. Father, right here in our own country, we pray for leaders at every level of government that we will always be mindful to do justice, to love mercy, and to ever walk humbly before thee.

[02:07:10] We thank you, O gracious God Almighty, to help us as we serve the people, to serve them with distinction and serve them well, that they might be pleased. We might have a peaceful, prosperous, productive county, and that all who are in Chesterfield County will be pleased.

[02:07:32] In the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we give you thanks. We thank you for this opportunity today. God bless everyone. Amen. We would like to call forward Girl Scouts Bridget Downs and Janiah Jones to lead the Pledge of Allegiance.

[02:07:49] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[02:08:33] Item 11, County Administration Update, Dr. Casey. Good evening, members of the board, the public that's behind me, and all those that might be watching. I just have a few comments to make, and I'd like to call Corporal Ekerich up to the podium.

[02:08:52] He is one of the leaders in our police department and a leader for our national night out, and we are going to be hosting our 42nd annual national night out. And again, for those that have never participated, you will never forget it. And for those that have done in the past, please do so again.

[02:09:09] Corporal Ekerich. Good evening, board and citizens of Chesterfield County. Good evening to you as well. I'm just here to give a quick update on, again, our National Night Out program. We wrapped up registration yesterday with almost 85 communities taking part in our National Night Out event, which is about on par with where we were last year.

[02:09:32] We're very excited. We have houses of worship, businesses, neighborhoods, a wide variety, and diversity in the county. So we're going to be well represented. I've given the information to our planning department who's working on the routing.

[02:09:52] So pretty soon I'll be able to report to the board and deliver that information as to where the parties in your districts will be. So you can attend at your leisure and visit with your constituents. Any questions?

[02:10:10] Can you use your microphone? Thank you. We had to move up to first place, you know, from third. Thank you. I will note, as another matter for police that's just mentioned, is that I want to congratulate them for receiving their third commission on the re-accreditation for law enforcement agencies.

[02:10:37] CALEA is the acronym that is used for that. We have also received in the past the Public Safety Communication Accreditation, and we are participating for the first time to have our training academy of police also qualify for such accreditation. There are very few entities, as you would imagine, across Virginia and the country that have received so many accreditations for one department, and that is the maximum that they have for all of the various programs.

[02:11:05] My next call-up would be Mr. Poma, our Director of Sports Visitation and Entertainment. It goes without saying the Commonwealth Games, which is an amazing feature of, I think, almost 10,000 athletes, has been in Lynchburg for many years, hosted by Liberty University.

[02:11:22] Together with the powers and the assets that Chesterfield has, as well as in Henrico County, we work jointly together to have the Commonwealth Games moved to Chesterfield and Henrico. And Mr. Poema can espouse on the benefits to our region and to our economy.

[02:11:37] Thank you, Dr. Casey, Mr. Chair, members of the board. We talk about it a lot. There's incredible momentum behind sports, athletics, our leagues, our associations, our special events here in Chesterfield County. it's great to be up here today to follow what mr luther said this afternoon and that momentum is truly because of your investment into these facilities that you see in each and every district across the county these facilities are what allow us i'd love for dr casey to say it again to move from liberty university to chesterfield and henrico counties that is something

[02:12:14] we should be proud of and it's because of your support in these facilities our partners in park and recreation and really the whole region here henrico and chesterfield are leaders in this space we're blessed now with the tourism improvement district to help us go after these types of events that require significant funding but this really is a region-wide win you'll see up on the screen here a couple pictures but this is a first class event really think about this as the state games or as they call it the state olympics mr mullen from the sports visitation entertainment team

[02:12:49] was able to take part in the passing of the torch from liberty university here to chesterfield and henrico and we were involved in a photo op opportunity with our regional partners but again starting in 2026 you'll see over 10 000 athletes for a minimum of three years this was a three-year win participating at our diamond field our rectangular fields in our schools Special thanks to Dr. Murray and Dr. Phillips for really helping us.

[02:13:17] The one thing you know we don't have right now in Chesterfield County is a basketball facility. And so we're putting together a tremendous package of our school gymnasium, all of our different courts, all of our different fields to be able to bring 10,000 athletes each and every summer. And to our friends in Parks and Recreation, this is just an additive of what we do day in and day out every summer.

[02:13:39] You look at the weather this summer, it's been, you know, rain, rain, rain. Our Parks and Recreation team and their service is what allows us to go and be on this national stage. Yes, it's about relationships, but it's about customer service first and foremost.

[02:13:55] So really, I'd like to thank you all for your support into these. We'll keep you attuned of how you can participate in these state games where the opening ceremony will be. But really, the impact of 10,000 athletes. Yes, 10,000 athletes, 30 sports, but that's for three years.

[02:14:13] And first and foremost, it's for our residents to get to take part in these events. So it's that blend, as Mr. Luther said, of providing special events that help fund these facility improvements, but providing first-class opportunities for our residents. And the Commonwealth Games are one of those prime examples.

[02:14:29] You don't go to Liberty or Roanoke where it was previous to these 16 years. You and I are staying home in Chesterfield County. So we're excited. I thank our regional partners. I think I really started with Dennis and I having a conversation about one year ago. So I thank our partners in Henrico County and thank all of you.

[02:14:46] Any questions about these games? Board members, any questions? Good job. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Poema. I just have three other fairly quick items. One is we received recent notification from the National Association of Counties that we had won 40 distinctive awards amongst our many different departments.

[02:15:07] We participate in the awards program just to, again, highlight some of the initiatives that our own employees come up working as individuals or teams solely on behalf of the people of Chesterfield County and deploying programs and services in the most effective and efficient manner. You know, we also do it as helping our peers across the country.

[02:15:25] I get calls all across the country wondering how we are doing something because they've read about it or heard about it. The NACO program puts many of those in the same category and makes it easier for people to make outreach to us. So 40, I think, is the most annual that we've received. But again, I want to thank all those that participate, including our school system.

[02:15:45] The next item is our procurement department, which, again, receives much news sometimes across the state about, you know, what purchasing buys or doesn't buy. But our procurement department is actually one of only 30 public entities across the entire United States and Canada to have received the designation of Quality Public Procurement Department, you know, from the National Institute for Public Procurement.

[02:16:07] Again, a highly accredited and stringent criteria. In fact, they newly revised the criteria to make it even harder for those to qualify for it. So again, not only have we gotten in the past, but we actually qualified under the higher category. And again, I want to congratulate Procurement Director Stephanie Brown and her entire team for that accomplishment.

[02:16:27] And then last but not least, I have an image of the floral therapy art show that was at the Branch Museum. My wife and I attended it. I was there for a full week. Last year, my wife and I went to a very small little gallery that was only going to be for one day.

[02:16:45] And so now it was for a full week. And actually, they feel like they have outgrown that space because it was so crowded and it overwhelmed the Branch Museum in a very pleasant way. So what you see are some pictures of the floral art. Again, these are from our Helping Addicts Recover program.

[02:17:04] I do have some representatives of the sheriff's office in the audience, so I want to thank them on behalf of Sheriff Leonard for all their efforts of dealing with our addictive recovery population in our jail. There is some studies that say creating floral arrangements is another method by which somebody can maybe help with their trauma that may have led them to the addiction path.

[02:17:26] So what you see are photographs of that, and that's what was displayed at the gallery. there were actually many offers to buy these pictures so you know we're not necessarily in the business of art selling but you know the nonprofit that's led by Donnie Newton that you see there on the bottom screen there with Kerry Rhodes one of the leaders of Harp again I've encouraged them to understand you know through the nonprofit at least what is the way in which this can help you know those in the program showcase their talent but also maybe monetize it for they themselves later in life and so more to come on that matter and actually I'm looking forward to actually working with larger museums and galleries, and I've also

[02:18:01] had some contacts from them, that we can actually be hosting even more of a premiere exhibit in the future that lasts longer. And each of those pictures actually came with a story from the inmate themselves in the program, and very powerful stories and words that go with the pictures.

[02:18:18] Mr. Chair, that's the end of my comments. Item 12, board member reports. Ms. Snyder. Thank you. So I had the pleasure of attending and kicking off the Copa Tolento opening show.

[02:18:44] Copa Tolento, their mission is to empower athletes with knowledge and skills needed to reach their full potential. And so this is a lot of teams that wouldn't get seen by scouting people come and are seen.

[02:19:03] they bring in a lot of scouts from across the country and some other countries also to participate in these soccer events and some of them got asked to participate in higher teams in the national level from this event and so it's just a really great opportunity for all these kids there were 200 and he left now it was like 210 or 240 teams that were there this that it was so busy um and it's amazing. So they did a really great job at this, and it's a whole weekend long, a four-day

[02:19:39] weekend over the 4th of July. So next slide, please. We broke ground on the new medical office building at St. Francis Medical Campus. Since first opening its doors 20 years ago, Bon Secours has provided reliable, high-quality, and compassionate care, and the completion of this 90,000 square foot medical office building will surely be something to celebrate.

[02:20:09] Bon Secours has been a trusted provider of medical care for years, and I'm confident we will continue to meet the health care needs for our community members for generations to come. And I think they're going to have some surgical units as well as day surgeries and checkups and medical offices.

[02:20:31] And so this is a great addition. And then right next door, the following, a couple days later, we broke ground on the newest Virginia Physicians for Women's office. For decades, they have brought passion and dedication to personalizing care that they provide with this new space.

[02:20:54] VPFW will be able to offer the vital services that every woman in our community deserves. That means more wellness visits, more prenatal care, and ultimately more healthy families. A lot of their OBGYNs actually deliver at Bon Secours, so there's a perfect location being right there on the campus.

[02:21:15] And so we greatly look forward to this. And this organization does a great job getting involved with the community. also they do um they do uh drives for supplies for the mcdonald's house and they work on habitat humanity houses together as a group so it's just a really great company and next and finally this past weekend we celebrated rockwood park's 50th birthday it was a wonderful celebration with dj

[02:21:47] inflatables nature center activities and historical tours and gelati celesti brought us a brand new flavor called rockwood bark and i believe that it is available in their stores right now for you to try so this completes my report mr holland thank you mr chairman i am so thrilled to say that the bronco world series 11 u world series will be back in chesterville county this weekend starting Friday afternoon.

[02:22:24] For over a decade, this event has been a cherished tradition for our community, and they look forward to returning year after year. The talent of these kids exhibited cannot be missed.

[02:22:39] These are future major leaguers. They are coming from around the country, including Mexico, to play here this weekend. And so I hope that you will have an opportunity to visit the Harry G. Daniels Park Fields 1, 12, and 13, where the fun will kick off on Friday at 5.30 p.m.

[02:23:04] And you'll see some exciting baseballs, maybe even a home run or two. And finally, as part of National Night Out, the brand new Beulah Splash Pad will officially open.

[02:23:21] The splash pad at Beulah is the first in Chesterfield County and contains over 20 water elements for children to enjoy, such as spray tunnel, tunnel, rainforest, water play, and puddles.

[02:23:40] The playground includes climbing structures, slides, swings, and accessible playground equipment. A restroom facility on site is also complete and ready to use.

[02:23:55] The public is invited to join the facility at the National Night Out event on August 5th from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. I should be there at some time between those three hours. We'll try to structure it along with the other 20 or so events we have scheduled throughout the Dale District.

[02:24:18] So I look forward to seeing you on the newsflash pad. You might want to just jump in and jump on. Thank you. Mr. Carroll. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[02:24:34] So, I've served on the CVTA since its inception in 2020, and I'm honored to say that I was re-elected as vice chair of the CVTA at our most recent meeting. Reverend Tyrone Nelson in Henrico County was elected chair.

[02:24:52] So when the CVTA first started, Henrico was chair, and Chesterfield County was actually vice chair. If you don't know what the CVTA is, it's made great strides regionally for transportation, and it's helped Chesterfield County to get caught up on some... major transportation issues.

[02:25:10] Again, it's probably one of the best regional partnerships we have within the nine jurisdictions of Central Virginia by far. So it's an honor to continue to serve. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for letting me continue to serve in that role. And it's an honor to serve in the vice chair function again.

[02:25:28] Next slide. So we had an unbelievable day down at Virginia State University. They held a ribbon cutting and two groundbreaking ceremonies. It was rather quick from one site to the next site to the next site. There's a lot of projects coming out of the ground at Virginia State University.

[02:25:44] For those who don't know, Virginia State University is in Chesterfield, even though their mailing address is Petersburg. It's in Ettrick. The ribbon-cutting celebrated the opening of the Alfred W. Harris Academic Commons, which is the new home for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the College of Education.

[02:26:04] It's a 174,000-square-foot building. It's the largest in the university's history, and it's beautiful, by the way. In addition to the modern classrooms and office spaces, the building features an array of state-of-the-art amenities, including a swimming pool, gymnasium, and gallery.

[02:26:19] It also includes an elevated indoor running track, cardio and dance studios, and a dedicated TV and recording studio, so the students that go there can get experience in those areas. We also broke ground on two new buildings, a residence hall and a welcome center.

[02:26:35] The welcome center will house the Office of Admissions and Institutional Advancement. The new state-of-the-art residence hall will significantly expand the university's on-campus housing capabilities. The 110,000 square foot facility will open in spring of 2026. And they've had to open this facility because they've seen an incredible increase in student enrollment at the location.

[02:26:57] And this will add 454 beds to their housing portfolio. And again, unbelievable, they're now exceeding over 5,000 students enrolled. The surge in enrollment has outpaced availability on-campus housing, and that's why they've had to build this building.

[02:27:14] And the newly announced residence hall will feature both double and single suites, a multipurpose assembly space, study lounges, and dedicated student parking. Again, there's a lot going on down at Virginia State University. Next. You know, you can't take yourself too seriously in life sometimes.

[02:27:32] But we had the opportunity, Jim and I, to throw out the first pitch at Tri-City Chili Peppers. It was our Chester County Employees Appreciation Night. If you haven't gone to the Tri-City Chili Peppers game, you really should. It's a great, it's like going back in time, truthfully, to go to a baseball game.

[02:27:52] And I appreciate Jim catching the pitch I threw in. It was a little high and inside, so it wasn't exactly a strike. But I am 62 years old, so, you know, there's that. You've got to cut me a little bit of slack. And like I said, if you can't take yourself too seriously in life, you've got to have a little bit of fun.

[02:28:10] But what they do for the kids down there, it's just a great night out, and I really appreciate them partnering with the county for this. And today, a little action photo, today we cut the ribbon on the new Deep Creek Middle School. And I appreciate our board members being there today, as well as the school board.

[02:28:29] You know, this middle school is a twin school to Fallen Creek, which was open in the Dale District. And so we have two now of the largest middle schools in the region, quite frankly. It's a 254,000 square foot, three stories.

[02:28:47] Each grade will have their own floor. The school includes a 1,000-seat auditorium, which isn't finished yet, but they're getting close. A 650-student capacity cafeteria, 1,200-seat gym with an adjacent locker rooms, and they also have an auxiliary gym. And those gyms will be, you know, it takes a year for the, you know, a lot of people don't understand how this works, but when we open a new school like this, it takes about a year for what we call the punch list.

[02:29:12] you buy a house and something goes wrong with it they have a year to come and fix it usually or house warranties may be a little bit different so it prevents us being open being able to open these facilities up to the public for public use outside of school use for that first year but after that these gyms will be open and the fields and everything will be open for the community to use we had a tremendous turnout today I think there's probably over 200 people or more from the neighborhood that were there today it's a beautiful school and I I

[02:29:43] I do appreciate, you know, the opportunity to get this done because we have a lot of growth in the western part of Hall Street and this will help to alleviate the crowding in those schools. So, Mr. Chair, you all, thank you for being here today and that concludes my report. Dr. Miller.

[02:30:01] Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good evening, everyone. I thought I'd start out with the NACO Conference and the Digital Accounting Survey Award. A few of my fellow board members, Ms. Schneider, Mr. Carroll, we all attended the National Association of Counties annual conference this year.

[02:30:20] The conference was held in Philadelphia, and the whole conference, the National Association of Counties, is for 3,000 counties in the country. So we had the opportunity. They're all appointed officials. There are chief executives there. But parishes, counties, all together, 3,000.

[02:30:37] But we're really talking about our best practices. best practices in the way of federal policies impacting counties and all those things that are that we get to kind of cross-pollinate. It was just an amazing opportunity to be there. It's the third time I've had the opportunity to be a National Association of Counties and it's quite a thrill to be talking to folks and just find out what's going on. As part of the conference, as part of the NACO conference, Chesterfield was awarded first place in population category. I think that it was 250 to 399 in the annual digital county survey.

[02:31:12] So, okay, so there are 3,000 counties, about 150 of them are about our size across the country. And what that says is that we were able to, as far as digital counties was concerned, is that, hey, we have one of the best, and actually we have the best, and this is actually the second year that we've had a consecutive year and has been awarded this recognition in the sixth time.

[02:31:36] It's the sixth time that has been since its program's inception. This year, the county was recognized for modernizing our enterprise GIS platform, launching an AI-powered county website, achieving a 99% search success rate, delivering a new enterprise health records platform for mental health support services, and strengthening cybersecurity. We all know about that.

[02:32:03] cybersecurity with AI-powered automation, and advanced threat detection. It was an honor for to be recognized alongside with many other great localities. And the recognition is a direct reflection of our hard work, of our employees, and definitely a collaboration of all these employees working together.

[02:32:23] So it was a thrill to be there. I had the opportunity to tour the Richmond Marine Terminal. Another opportunity that when I was at the inner city visit, one of the nice things to do there is with the inner city visit, we had the opportunity to again cross-pollinate and talk to folks.

[02:32:42] So I hadn't been to the port of Richmond, and it provided an opportunity for me to go down there. I learned about barge schedules and how they work and the port of Richmond and what sort of practices they implement to reduce emissions. The port of Richmond's marine terminal is crucial in transporting goods between inland and ocean carriers.

[02:33:02] With three barges, it's streamlined service, it's smartly done, it improves connectivity, and it just connects the whole region, if not the whole Commonwealth. So it was really nice to be there. I appreciated the invitation to learn more about what's happening in the Port of Virginia.

[02:33:23] And then we were talking about ribbon cuttings. So next week, A.M. Davis, we're going to have our ribbon cutting at A.M. Davis Elementary. This is going to be the county's first two-story elementary school. Both floors will include conference rooms, of course, and teacher workrooms, offices.

[02:33:42] The new complex is adjacent to the old A.M. Davis, which was built in 1964, which was the same year I was built. So I'm glad that they're getting an update. I hope to myself somewhere along the line. I'm excited for the returning schools and the students.

[02:33:59] I think they're going to just be so excited with the education. It's a new and it's a state-of-the-art facility. I'm going to get to tour it for the first time, even before we have the ribbon cutting. And, Mr. Chair, that is going to conclude my report. Thank you, Dr. Miller.

[02:34:14] Mr. Chair, I just want to say that, if I remember correctly, at the groundbreaking, it was extremely cold, so hopefully it won't be extremely hot at the ribbon cutting. Yeah, it was cold. You are correct. Hopefully it won't be the opposite. Yeah. All right. So we had the 4th of July celebration at the county fairgrounds.

[02:34:34] Around 11,500 people came out for our 4th of July celebration this year, which is great turnout. The weather could not have been better, and the sky was clear for the stunning 20-minute firework display. There were 16 food trucks to choose from, so a little something for everyone.

[02:34:54] And for the kiddos, the kid zone did not have a fee this year, so we were happy to be able to see so many youngsters bouncing in all of the different types of houses that were available. And we want to thank everyone that came out. It was a great celebration.

[02:35:11] I had the opportunity to speak at the 70th Fire and EMS Recruit School graduation. We're so proud of the hard work that these young men and women did. We want them to know that they have the full confidence of this board in their abilities. There were 18 recruits in total. They started with 18, finished with 18 coming from all sorts of backgrounds and we wish them successful and

[02:35:41] above all else safe careers. All right as GRTC's board's vice chair it was a pleasure to attend the tap into transit campaign launching launch celebrating the transit access partnership created in conjunction with Plan RVA and RVA Rapid Transit.

[02:36:05] The event showcased GRTC's new 60-foot articulating pulse buses and celebrated the zero fares. Next. My board colleagues and I recently attended a recovery court graduation at the county's circuit court.

[02:36:25] Chesterfield's Recovery Court is a life-changing treatment alternative to incarceration for adult offenders with substance abuse disorder. and I like to say the young man that are I guess he wasn't necessarily young but he's definitely younger than me um he's actually gone through done extremely well and um has a very good paying job and has become a very productive member of society so um this was a great turnaround for him and there was many others that were in court because if you're in this program they pretty

[02:36:59] much go to all of the graduations if you're in the program. Unfortunately, honestly, the room was full, but it was full of people with good promise now that didn't have that when they started into the system. So we were very happy to see how they were progressing. And we also attended the very first Veterans Treatment Docket graduation at the 1917 Historic Courthouse right outside these doors. The veteran treatment docket consists of a five-phase treatment program. Each phase has

[02:37:33] specific treatment and behavioral goals that must be met to move to the next phase. Each participant is placed with a veteran mentor and a probation officer through community correction services who they meet with weekly. Treatment services are delivered through the VA, veteran services and mental health support services and participants come to court every other week to review their progress with the judge and the veteran treatment docket team

[02:38:07] we had two in the initial class graduating both of them were wow everything they had to do to get through that that program these things aren't something that you can just show up do a little at a time go to a couple meetings and um get your charges dropped that they are intensive programs that really change lives we got to see uh one of these um gentlemen is now going to be gainfully

[02:38:41] employed as a nurse and he was a medic in the military when he served in the military both of them had extensive military careers military honors and both of them got themselves into a place where we wish they hadn't, but we thank them for their service.

[02:39:00] As I believe they said less than 6% of all adults in this country serve in the military. We were glad that they were able to have an opportunity to go through this program and get back on track and be able to complete the program successfully and have their charges dismissed.

[02:39:18] So again, I think that was a win for them, a win for the community, and it's certainly something we are very appreciative to be able to do for our veterans. And lastly, I recently had the opportunity to sign the bonds for our latest general obligation sale.

[02:39:36] There was $75 million issued tied to the 2022 referendum, and the funding is going towards three major school projects, Bensley Elementary, the new elementary school in the western part of the county, and the new high school in the western area of the county.

[02:39:54] We locked in a true interest rate of 3.7%, which came in better than the current market rates. And that's thanks to, in large part, to the quadruple AAA bond rating, or Quadzilla, as Dr. Casey and the budget team like to refer to it.

[02:40:12] Chesterfield is one of the only three localities in the entire country to hold this rating, and it really pays off compared to a jurisdiction with a single-A bond rating. The locality would have paid. We saved over $7.5 million in interest over the life of the bonds.

[02:40:33] And if that wasn't enough, well, we were at it. We looked for opportunities to generate additional savings and found one. We refinanced a portion of our existing debt and locked in a new interest rate of 2.5%.

[02:40:49] And that move alone will save the county over $700,000 across the next four years. So we're excited to be able to do that. And that concludes my report. Item 13, resolutions and special recognitions.

[02:41:06] A. Resolution recognizing Bridget Downs, Clover Hill District, and Janiah Jones, Matulka District, upon attaining the Girl Scout Gold Award. Ms. Ellen Marie Hess. Good evening. I'm Ellen Marie Hess, and I'm the incoming board chair of the Girl Scouts of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

[02:41:33] It's really my pleasure to be here while you honor these two extraordinary young women, Bridget Downs and Janiah Jones. Girl Scouts has been empowering girls to lead with courage, confidence, and character since 1912 when our founder, Juliet Gordon Lowe, gathered 18 girls in Savannah, Georgia to hike, play basketball, and give back through service.

[02:41:57] Just one year later, in 1913, Girl Scouts of the Commonwealth, Virginia, began with Troop No. 1 in Highland Springs. Today, our council serves 10,000 girls and more than 5,500 adult volunteers across our 30 counties and six cities throughout Virginia.

[02:42:18] From our headquarters in Henrico, our service center in Fredericksburg, and our two beautiful camps in Hanover and Northumberland counties, We continue to provide leadership experience like no other, one that challenges girls to explore, learn, and take action to improve their world.

[02:42:36] The Gold Award is the highest honor a Girl Scout can earn. It represents not only a commitment to leadership and service, but also a deep dedication to creating sustainable, meaningful change. And to put what they did in perspective, there are a million girls in Girl Scouts, and only 3,000 earned the Gold Award this year.

[02:43:04] Today, we are proud to celebrate two of those Gold Award Girl Scouts from right here in Chesterfield County. Their vision, their perseverance, and impact are nothing short of inspiring.

[02:43:20] And please join me in recognizing their achievements. Thank you. Madam Clerk, will you please read the resolution?

[02:43:35] Whereas the Girl Scouts of the United States of America is an organization serving over 2.7 million girls and was founded to promote citizenship training and personal development, and whereas after earning three interest project patches, earning the Girl Scout Gold Leadership Award, the Girl Scout Gold Career Award, and the Girl Scout Gold 4Bs Challenge Award, and designing and implementing a Girl Scout Gold Award project,

[02:44:04] The Gold Award is the highest achievement award in Girl Scouting and symbolizes outstanding accomplishments in the areas of leadership, community service, career planning, and personal development. And whereas the Gold Award is the highest achievement award in Girl Scouting and symbolizes outstanding accomplishments in the areas of leadership, community service, career planning, and personal development.

[02:44:28] And whereas Bridget Downs of Troop 5142 and Janiah Jones of Troop 152 have accomplished these high standards and have been honored with the Girl Scouts of the United States of America's Gold Award by the Girl Scout Commonwealth Council of Virginia Incorporated.

[02:44:45] And whereas growing through their experiences in Girl Scouting, learning the lessons of responsible citizenship, and priding themselves on the great accomplishments of their country, Bridget and Janiah are indeed members of a new generation of prepared young citizens of whom we can all be very proud.

[02:45:03] Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, this 23rd day of July 2025, publicly recognizes Bridget Downs and Janiah Jones, extends congratulations on their attainment of the Gold Award, and acknowledges the good fortune of the county to have such outstanding young women as its citizens.

[02:45:24] Can I get a motion? Motion approved. All in favor? Aye. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Wow, this is amazing.

[02:45:40] So besides getting the resolution, you're also going to get your patch, right? And we have one of these two. This is one of our Chester County pins to add to all the other pins that you have. And one of the things that we would like for you to do now is tell everybody about this wonderful thing that you both did about your projects.

[02:46:07] Hi, everyone. My name is Janiah Jones. I'm a Girl Scout ambassador. For my Gold Award project, I created No BS Allowed, a project focused on body shaming. what is it how it shows up and how it affects people especially teens like me i started this project last year after realizing how much body shaming is just accepted in everyday life it's when people make fun of how you look whether it's your size height skin hair or even the way you dress for me it's being called names like slenderman or daddy long legs at first i laughed

[02:46:41] along but inside it made me made me feel small and insecure that experience made me want to do something about it. I wanted to speak up and help other girls who might feel the same way I did. So I created a workshop for middle and high school girls. We had real conversation, interactive games, and a guest speaker who talked about body shaming and how it can affect your mental health. My goal was to create a safe space where girls felt seen and supported. To make it sustainable, I partnered with SunTouch Community Service, a veteran-owned non-profit in Chesapeake. They've agreed to run

[02:47:17] my workshop every year as part of their youth mentoring program. I pass everything on to them, my presentation, flyers, banner, and all my templates, and they even ask me to help with future workshops when I can. I also reached out to FedEx, and they donated the large banner and printed flyers for the event. To get supplies for the workshop and goodie bags, I created an Amazon wish list inserted with families in my Winter Ridge service unit and my Girl Scout troop.

[02:47:51] Thanks to their support, everything, snacks, drinks, supplies, giveaway items was donated. I didn't have, I know I can't stop body shaming overnight, but I believe I have started some important conversations. No BS Allowed is about encouraging kindness and helping people think twice before they speak. Everyone deserves to feel accepted for who they are. Thank

[02:48:12] you 18 I have my mom Vicki Jones and hi I'm Bridget Downs and I created sheet music stations um I'm a graduate of Thomas Dale high school as of this past May and I attended the specialty center for the performing and fine arts for the vocal specialty center because of that I did I

[02:48:49] practiced a lot of music and made a lot of friends that always were complaining about this much, this is so much to buy my Bissou music for my new etudes this week, and da-da-da-da. And so then I decided, you know, I really have been looking for a Gold Award project to do. Why don't I take one of my favorite things, libraries, because I'm sure you all have heard of a little free library, and combine it with my other favorite thing, music. And so I created two sheet music stations. One is housed at Chester Library, and I worked with both Chester Library and the Perkersen Center for the Arts and Education to create this.

[02:49:24] And the other is house at Thomasdale High School. So I put together, built these boxes with my dad, and found tons of sheet music thrifting, or I got donations from my friends to ensure that my community and the Chester community had access to music without having to pay out the wazoo for, you know, just some random piano music.

[02:49:51] And I go and check back on these boxes every now and again. And the one at Chester Library, thankfully, has been donated to with a full station full of operatic music. Who knew? So we wonder who.

[02:50:09] But I am so grateful to my troop leaders, Elizabeth and Paula, who could not be here, for this experience. And I'm so grateful to my other sister Girl Scouts who are in this picture. um, Aubrey and Sarah for all of the support that they gave me. And I'm also deeply grateful to my mother and my father who could also not be here, but it's okay. Um, uh, to all the support and the work that they put in and my mother just, you know, standing there, are you guys okay? As my dad and I are yelling in the garage that something didn't get cut right. So, you know, it all, it all

[02:50:48] happens like that so thank you so much for letting me be recognized here i really appreciate it yes we also have in the audience the program manager for the highest awards stephanie angiwan who would have worked with these very inspiring young women on their projects and so i wanted to make sure and i also want to say this is really special that you guys did recognize them and and it's a great you know it feels like you really support girl scouts and the fact that you buy

[02:51:28] girl scout cookies from us in bulk every year it that's that's what that's what makes the little um engine run and we really appreciate it oh well i'm gluten-free so i can only eat the gluten-free ones but anyhow so so i actually also got my gold award my mother was my scout master so i i didn't have a choice but to get it but I did a project in a nursing home that I volunteered in and I got

[02:52:06] together some friends and we did collections for prizes and we also created a bench and a little garden outside for them to go and sit so yeah that's I know that was a long time ago so but that's so I totally understand it's important and it builds character and scouting was one of those things that I, I was the top cookie seller for five years in a row. So, so anyhow, I just think that it's just, it's a great way of getting to know your, your friends and your other girls in your community and building character. And your project is amazing. And body shaming is

[02:52:45] definitely not something we should be doing. And music is so important. I bet you that Chelsea from may have put all that other operatic music in there. So that's awesome. Anything else to add, Mr. Carroll? This is amazing.

[02:53:04] You've really set the bar high, and I hope that you'll be an inspiration for other young ladies who want to come up with similar projects that can help the community. A round of applause again for them. This is awesome.

[02:53:23] Item B, recognizing Supervisor James M. Holland for his service to the Opioid Abatement Authority.

[02:53:49] Mr. Tony McDowell.

[02:54:04] Mr. Chairman, members of the board, thank you for the opportunity to be here. My name is Tony McDowell. I'm the executive director for the Virginia Opioid Abatement Authority, and I'm here on behalf of our authorities, board of directors, our chairman, Senator Todd Killian, to thank and to recognize Supervisor Jim Holland for his service to the Opioid Abatement Authority since its inception.

[02:54:26] And so, as I'm sure you are aware, Virginia has been participating in the national opioid settlements. And in 2021, the General Assembly established the Virginia Opioid Abatement Authority as a separate, independent agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia and established a governance structure with 11 board members, each of whom represents a specific stakeholder group for the Commonwealth of Virginia.

[02:54:51] Governor Northam appointed Supervisor Holland to serve in the seat that represents all of Virginia's cities and counties, essentially the voice of local government for the Opioid Abatement Authority. he started on day one as one of the as in the first group of board of directors for the authority and they had a lot of work to do they traveled mr holland and other board members traveled all over the state to go to listening sessions and public meetings and to and to understand what the problems are what kind of issues exist in our communities because of opioids and substance use

[02:55:27] disorder i i traveled with him to some of these he's been to fairfax he's been to bath county he's He's been to Roanoke, he's been to Hampton Roads, all in the service of fighting the opioid crisis. And the members of the OAA board elected him to serve as the treasurer of the organization, which is a huge lift for a brand new entity that's responsible for tracking, understanding, receiving, distributing over $1.1 billion from more than two dozen different companies over a spread of two decades.

[02:56:00] and taking all of that and turning it into a grant program with a budget and deliverables that will save lives across Virginia. Throughout that process, Mr. Holland has been integral in establishing the fiduciary controls of the organization. He served on the grants committee, so he was personally involved in reviewing line by line the various applications that came before the authority and was involved in approving more than 120 projects around the state with a total value of an excess of $72 million. And throughout that time, I could hear his voice. I can hear his voice today because he's drilled it into us, not just about the importance of safeguarding these

[02:56:40] funds, but making sure that every dollar possible goes to people that are sick, to families, to people that are suffering, to putting communities back together after the devastation of the opioid crisis. And so Mr. Holland had to step down from our board earlier this year, but our entire board wanted to express their appreciation. So on behalf of the board, it's my pleasure to recognize Mr.

[02:57:02] Holland and offer him a small token of our appreciation with this plaque. Yes, thank you.

[02:57:28] First of all, Tony, Mr. McDonald for being here. It was a huge honor for me to be nominated by Governor Northern and re-nominated by Governor Youngkin for such critical work. You know, I saw firsthand at NACO, for example, the impact of fentanyl on families, the devastation it caused.

[02:57:50] And so I was going to do everything I could with my power to help all Virginia families in that regard. Our very first heart was Tony. He came on board and just took it and ran with it completely. He did a tremendous job, has done a tremendous job in what we were doing. And I often horn in on the fact of being physically responsible. I said we want to keep the administrative costs to five percent or less so that every dollar can go to the families of Virginia

[02:58:24] to help them through this crisis and we continue to do that great work as our governor's wife does as well. So I want to thank you. I thank the board for serving. It was a pleasure to move about the state to listen to hear to see the impact of fentanyl and so let's continue to work together to make it to make this commonwealth the very best it could be a model and a leader under tony as we have seen uh so i'm just honored to be a part of it and i think i'm very thankful

[02:59:01] to my colleagues for allowing me to serve and my board as well as well as the governors so thank you Tony so much for your leadership your great work and God continue to bless you as you continue to to help us save lives here in the state of Virginia. Thank you. I think I've shared before but Mr. Holland has been a leader in the region for a few years now just a couple and if you want

[02:59:36] to know who they trust with the money you got to look to Jim Holland. He's been the treasurer or the finance committee chair for just about every board that he's served on and they've been numerous in the region. And if you want to know someone's trusted, look for who they put in the finance committee role, finance committee chair of the treasurer's role. So congratulations on the honor to serve in this role that the board chose you, this board chose you to be their treasurer. And you followed in the footsteps of many other boards that have very much benefited from the wisdom of Mr. Holland.

[03:00:14] Thank you, Mr. Holland. Item C, resolution recognizing Corporal Timothy D. Morton II Police Department upon his retirement.

[03:00:47] Will Corporal Morton and his guests please join the board on the stage?

[03:01:15] The red carpet's missing.

[03:02:04] Madam Clerk, can you read the resolution? Yes, sir. Whereas Corporal Timothy D. Morton II will retire from the Chesterfield County Police Department on August 1st, 2025 after providing nearly 35 years of quality service to the residents of Chesterfield County, and whereas Corporal Morton began his career with Chesterfield County as a police recruit in 1990 and continued to faithfully serve as a police officer, senior police officer, master police officer, career police officer, and corporal, and whereas Corporal Morton also served during his tenure as a field training

[03:02:39] officer and general instructor, and whereas Corporal Morton was recognized with a life-saving award for quickly assessing that a man was in cardiac arrest with no pulse and administering chest compressions until rescue units arrived. And whereas Corporal Morton was recognized with three unit citations for the positive impacts his unit made through the community policing program, including extensive efforts at crime reduction, as well as enhanced relationships between the police and community groups with a strong emphasis on positive involvement with juveniles.

[03:03:13] And whereas Corporal Morton earned a chief's commendation for his demonstrated law enforcement skills in his investigation of 21 cases of vandalism involving persons driving through a local subdivision, shooting out car windows, resulting in the arrest of multiple suspects.

[03:03:29] And whereas Corporal Morton earned an achievement award for his two-year effort during the COVID period to address parking issues in the county resulting from residents working from home, and his presentation before the County Board of Supervisors resulted in an amendment to county parking ordinances.

[03:03:46] And whereas Corporal Morton received the National Service Award for his two-week deployment to Mississippi to assist fellow law enforcement officers and the citizens of Mississippi while under extreme conditions following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

[03:04:02] And whereas Corporal Morton is recognized for his initiative in the formation of the Read with a Cop and the Boots on the Ground programs. And whereas Corporal Morton is recognized for his impressive teamwork, his strong work ethic, and his communication skills.

[03:04:19] And whereas Chesterfield County and the Board of Supervisors will miss Corporal Morton's diligent service. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, this 23rd day of July 2025, publicly recognizes Corporal Timothy D. Morton II and extends on behalf of its members and the residents of Chesterfield County appreciation for his service to the county, congratulations upon his retirement, and best wishes for a long and happy retirement.

[03:04:47] and be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to Corporal Morton and that this resolution be permanently recorded among the papers of this Board of Supervisors of Chesterfield County, Virginia. Having received a motion from Mr. Carroll, can I get a second?

[03:05:17] Second. All in favor, I will let you go first. Thank you, sir. Tim, congratulations on such a monumental achievement. I think you know we're special in the sense that I had the opportunity to serve with you 25 years.

[03:05:38] Congratulations on a retirement that is well-deserved. When I think of you, I think of two things. You're a fixer and you're an encourager. You know, when I think about the fixer aspect, whether it's within the police department or whether it's outside the four walls of the police department, the community, you make things happen.

[03:05:59] You fix problems. The community appreciates that aspect that you bring to the table, and I appreciate it as your chief of police. Encourage you. The fact that I came in as a pre-cert officer, for whatever reason, we connected, and you encouraged me throughout my journey and my walk.

[03:06:18] I never forgot that. You know, there were times where you were sharing things about me that I didn't see in my own self that was encouraging, and it allowed me to move to the next level. So I appreciate you. I thank you for all that you've done for the community. of chesterfield county and more importantly what you've done for the chesterfield county police department your legacy thank you we're gonna we're gonna have a few people that i think want to say something to them i you know i i don't know what i'm gonna do when i go to wawa

[03:06:57] and you're not there okay i'm sure i'll see you there again um a lot of people don't know tim's been um integral in the mental health response that we've had in the county and um i know there's going to be some big shoes to be filled to help with that response. I hope you have helped bring somebody up behind you to be ready to try to fill those shoes. And if you haven't, then I feel sorry

[03:07:30] for whoever has to go behind you. But between that, your service to the citizens and your service to the fish that you've caught, that you shared over the years, I definitely appreciate all of the calls.

[03:07:46] You've worked a lot in my area, and we've had many a discussion. Thank you for keeping me informed of what's going on in the community, the issues that I needed to know about, and all of the things that you've done to help citizens.

[03:08:05] Policing is not just about arresting somebody or taking them to jail, but it's about helping people to have a better day, and Tim's done that for 25 years. Thank you for doing that. I think we're building up to the premier show coming up here.

[03:08:31] But on behalf of the entire county, first and foremost, your name will be engraved in a brick and placed in front of the historic courthouse amongst many of those who've served really their entire careers with us. Many of your fellow officers of years past are there as well. And this is a replica of that same brick for, you know, whatever building projects you're going to be working on next week.

[03:08:53] But I just want to say one brief thing is when I first started nine years ago, I tried to do as many rye-alongs and tour the county. And I think I remember even telling the chief at the time, I said, you know, it's amazing. I met all the Morton brothers. You know, you have like, you know, it's triplets. And they're like, we only have one Morton.

[03:09:10] And I was like, there is no way. Because I think I traversed the entire county, you know, for about 48 straight hours. And I think I saw you three different times in three different places doing three different things. And so that's the kind of person you were back then. I think it's the kind of person you were throughout your career and especially over the last nine years.

[03:09:27] You know, for those that don't know, you know, you're the person who has helped those without a home and had a ripped tent, quite frankly, in the middle of the woods. You knew their name and you got them a tent out of your own monies. You're the ones who helped provide them clothes and food. And you know what you do?

[03:09:42] you knew their name and you knew what they needed and and you respected their lives actually and and if they needed referrals veteran services or social services you knew exactly who to call and got them what they needed uh that i've witnessed that firsthand uh many times but then you're also there treating anyone of the you know many people of chesterfield with the same respect and empathy as needed and it's the epitome of what a police officer is in chesterfield county a role model, quite frankly. And even you worked the tacky light run, and if it wasn't for you, everybody would have been going down the Midlothian Turnpike. You know, you showed them

[03:10:18] how to make that turn all these years. So thank you very much on behalf of all of those in Midlothian. Thank you. A lot of people don't know, and you probably know this about public safety, police officers work a lot of holidays, and they're not home for that. And I think for probably 20 years straight, you and I worked together at the Brandon Mill. And it's not just a fireworks display it started at first thing in the morning with a 5k run and then it was a parade and then it was a fireworks display that night um the interesting thing you know each police officer

[03:10:55] has a unique career and you've touched so many and i have to agree with what the chief said and what joe said i think you're probably more well known other than chief of police than any other police officer in chestville county because of how you put yourself out in the community throughout the years i've people ask me you know tim morton you know tim morton you know tim morton they ask me that we're losing someone really important to our community tonight to our police department tonight but as Jim said hopefully you've brought some other people along using the mentor talents that you have that are spectacular and hopefully those people make part of that part of you part

[03:11:35] of them to continue on what you've done for our community brother I wish you the best of luck in retirement absolutely it's a it's a great institution I'm glad you're joining it you've done a tremendous job for our community. You're going to be sorely missed. I wish you the best with what you're going to do in the future. And thank you very much from the bottom of my heart.

[03:12:01] Oh, yeah. Well, I feel kind of like a NASCAR driver getting ready to thank all my sponsors. I couldn't have been the officer I was if I didn't have a lot of help. I had a lot of help from people in community enhancement. I had a lot of help from people in the community, building inspections the fire marshal's office mobile integrated health uh lupe mcleod who's here tonight was a big help she made me what a king one day out of the year every year for i don't know how many of the last years um it's been a wonderful time working with mental health

[03:12:35] the three kings festival we do the i don't know that's a good question lupe you got anybody picked out yet all right so uh my it's a celebration for the hispanic community takes place in january and we go up we get the three kings and we uh greet the kids take pictures hand out items and have a grand old time

[03:13:06] so um how many how many people do we have at the height of the the three kings festival at bird wasn't it eight it was thousands of people would come thousands so but i'd like to thank uh my librarians jessica's here tonight dana's not here and and for the read with the cop program which won a naco this year we're put in for the naco um the boots on the ground that tara mcgee

[03:13:42] started for me on a suggestion that i had to bring the groups in the county together so we worked as one unit instead of a whole bunch of individual units won a naco and a faco last year tearing her husband BJ are here tonight a bunch of my former supervisors back there in the back best move I made in the police department I think was uh they broke the community policing unit down for a short period because of staffing and uh hi buddy when they brought me back I went to work for then Captain Kevin Smith uh down in the South District I wasn't too sure I hadn't worked in the South

[03:14:21] District since I was in the field training program was the best move I ever made working for Kevin and kind of helped get me to where I was today. But I can't mention everybody. There's so many of them. Wyatt and Myra back there in the back came down tonight. We did a program with them many years ago.

[03:14:37] And Tara and myself and who else do we have, Tara? Oh, brain cramp. Anyway, there was a group of us that went and did the run that day.

[03:14:56] Deanna went out with us, and we had an awesome time to raise some funds for autism. And it's just been awesome. It's been an awesome time. It's been a lifestyle, not a job. I'd particularly like to thank my wife, my daughters, Carson, down at the end, and Kate, who's watching on TV for their help all these years.

[03:15:30] Hold on. And helping keep things in perspective for me. So it's been a great career. I will miss it. Thank you.

[03:15:51] You got off easy.

[03:16:02] Resolution recognizing Deborah L. Lovering, circuit court clerk's office, upon her retirement.

[03:16:38] Will Ms. Lovering and her guests please join the board on the stage?

[03:17:06] Hey, Tim, look at this.

[03:17:18] I'm not sure that you did much in the county.

[03:17:35] Good God. Are we ready? Yes, sir. Madam Clerk, can you read the resolution? Yes. Whereas, Ms. Deborah L. Lovering will retire from the Chesterfield County circuit court clerk's office on August 1st, whereas Ms. Deborah L. Lovering will retire from Chesterfield County on August

[03:18:11] 1st, 2025, after providing 30 years of dedicated service to the residents of Chesterfield County and its Circuit Court Clerk's Office, and whereas the Circuit Court Clerk's Office provides professional support to judges, attorneys, and law enforcement, as well as other internal and external customers through operational, administrative, and records management functions, And whereas Ms. Lovering has provided outstanding service to Chesterfield County, including her diligent and faithful commitment as the Civil Division's Deputy Clerk Supervisor of the Circuit Court Clerk's Office.

[03:18:44] And whereas Ms. Lovering demonstrated unwavering loyalty and exceptional dedication throughout her career with the Clerk's Office, consistently conducting herself with courtesy, professionalism, and grace. And whereas Ms. Lovering's extensive knowledge and experience have made her not only an indispensable resource within the clerk's office, but also a valued mentor to staff, the court, and colleagues across departments.

[03:19:10] And whereas Ms. Lovering has exemplified the spirit of teamwork, leading by example, and instilling a collaborative and proactive mindset in those she leads, readily offering assistance whenever and wherever it is needed. And whereas Ms. Lovering's strong work ethic and high standards have motivated her staff to strive for excellence while her compassionate nature and open-door approach have earned the respect, trust, and admiration of those who work with her.

[03:19:38] And whereas Ms. Lovering's warm demeanor and exemplary customer service skills have ensured that countless members of the public received outstanding assistance, further enhancing the image and service of the clerk's office. And whereas, as a result of her competence and dedication, Ms. Lovering has been a true ambassador of the clerk's office, representing it with pride and professionalism and setting a standard of excellence for all who follow.

[03:20:04] And whereas Ms. Lovering has always rendered invaluable service to the clerk's office and judges with a high degree of productiveness and professionalism and will be sorely missed by all who wish her the best as she enjoys a well-deserved retirement that will be marked by more time spent with family, friends, and plenty of gardening.

[03:20:24] Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors this 23rd day of July 2025 publicly recognizes Ms. Deborah L. Lovering and extends on behalf of its members and the residents of Chesterfield County appreciation for 30 years of exceptional service to the county.

[03:20:42] And be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to Ms. Lovering and that this resolution be permanently recorded among the papers of the Board of Supervisors of Chesterfield County, Virginia. can i get a motion all right mr holland and dr miller all in favor i wow um i can tell you that

[03:21:18] i don't think i've ever seen this stage this full and we've had a lot of people up here for a lot of reasons so um that speaks volumes for the career you've had and what you've done to serve the circuit court and justfield county as a whole thank you for all of the work that you've done So I just want to say to you, Deb, thank you first and foremost.

[03:21:42] I've only had the pleasure of working with Deb for a couple of years and don't even know some of the folks who have worked with her over the years. So good to see everybody here. The mark of a true leader is the impact that you have on others and leaving things in a better position than where you found them.

[03:22:00] And Deb, you exemplify both of those things. You have clearly had a mark on everybody around you, and you are leaving us in a better position. You helped us digitize files. You helped us work on digital appeals. You've helped do e-filing. There are so many things that you have spearheaded and led that we would not be able to do in the circuit court clerk's office without you.

[03:22:21] So I'm so grateful for that. And on a personal note, as I was listening to Mr. Holland's invocation, he quoted Micah 68 and saying that, you know, what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and love kindness and mercy and walk humbly with your God. And Deb, you exemplify that, and you have demonstrated that to me and to those around you in the work that you do and how you show up. So thank you.

[03:22:47] Thank you for your service. Thank you for your commitment. Thank you for your work.

[03:22:57] Well, thank you. I think a lot of people may not appreciate it, what it takes to do your job it's a you know it's really been around in essence since 1749 to some degree and it's a job that you have to do right every time otherwise someone can get hindered later on in life so I thank you for just being an accurate and a stalwart of just making sure what we do and everything in a clerk's office is done professionally and properly what I have here is is a brick with your name and tenure on it that same brick as I said before we place outside in front of our historic courthouse. With so many people here, we'll just put an asterisk that I think you did

[03:23:36] set the record for the amount of people and making me feel a little bit more calmer about our public hearings later tonight. But that's just a side note. But having said that, on behalf of the entire Chesterfield County workforce, thank you and really thank all of you for showing the support of a co-worker. I know that's what we try to espouse each and every day, but seeing it is believe in it and and i believe it even more now so thank you so much can i take this from dr casey

[03:24:10] thank you and deb i wrote i wrote out a couple of notes for you and this is brief um first of all thank you to the board for this recognition for deb um on behalf of all the judges i'm not going to look at her of the chesterfield county circuit court it has truly been our honor to serve with you. You are the definition of a public servant. You started July 1st, 1995, and for three decades

[03:24:48] you have selflessly served the people of our county. If you have ever been lucky enough to work with Deb, you realize very quickly she is not only one of the most knowledgeable clerks, not only in Chesterfield County, but the Commonwealth of Virginia. She is truly one of the kindest and most genuine people you will ever be lucky enough to meet. She treats every single

[03:25:23] individual with dignity and with respect, and that is welcoming folks who are challenging in the court systems, welcoming our law clerks, welcomed me. I think she gave me a stress ball my first week and circuit but everyone no matter what and who you are you treat them with the same dignity and respect and everyone who's here tonight I think demonstrates the special mark

[03:25:57] you've had on our lives you will be missed I hope you enjoy retirement you will be seeing me still and we love you and we thank you and we strive to be like you thank you I know it's gonna be nervous, so I've got to read it. Thank you, Justice Powell. You touched my heart by being

[03:26:37] here today. I've missed you. She was one of the second or third judges that I sat with in the court, and her grace and her kindness is what I tried to follow in your footsteps. I want to give thanks to God for his wisdom and grace throughout my 30 years working in the clerk's office.

[03:27:03] To my wonderful husband, my mother, my sister, best friends, and family, I am incredibly thankful for their love and support. Having my civil team, administration, judges, and other courts and agencies on my side has been a blessing during this incredible voyage.

[03:27:27] Each person helped shape who I am today. My retirement doesn't mean goodbye. I'll always be a part of the clerk's office. I look forward to hearing about your continued success and growth in the years ahead.

[03:27:45] As I hand over the keys to my office, I know our legacy of excellence will live on through each of you. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of this remarkable journey.

[03:27:59] E, resolution recognizing Mr. Leslie Ritchie Jr. upon revised service year's program.

[03:29:07] Will Mr. Ritchie and his guests please come forward and join the board on the stage?

[03:29:24] Read the resolution.

[03:29:54] Yes, sir. One of the county's strategic goals is to recruit and retain an empowered, diverse workforce consisting of individuals who choose a long-term career with the county. And whereas in 2007, the Board of Supervisors began placing engraved bricks in the walkway outside the historic 1917 courthouse to honor retirees with 25 or more years of service.

[03:30:18] And whereas the board desires to also recognize employees with at least 25 years of service, factoring in service years for both the county and Chesterfield Public Schools. And whereas the recognition policy has been revised to include these criteria in the eligibility requirements to receive a BRIC. And whereas under the revised policy, the board is pleased to retroactively recognize Leslie Ritchie, Jr. for 27 years of service.

[03:30:45] Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors this 23rd day of July, 2025, publicly recognizes Mr. Leslie Ritchie, Jr. for his service to the county and extends on behalf of its members and the citizens of Chesterfield County appreciation for the valuable work he performed for the betterment of the county.

[03:31:05] And be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to Mr. Ritchie, and that this resolution be permanently recorded among the papers of this Board of Supervisors of Chesterfield County, and be it further resolved that a brick with Mr. Ritchie's name and service dates be placed in the walkway of the historic 1917 courthouse.

[03:31:27] Can I get a motion? All in favor? Aye. Well, this is a little overdue, isn't it? We're here.

[03:31:43] we're glad to recognize that between your service to this county through schools and on the county side together that you qualified to receive a brick and we're glad that we're able to go back and take that information put it together and realize that you are definitely entitled to this honor and we thank you very much for your service to this community. Celeste congratulations on your on your time with the county uh one of the things that stands out for me in your tenure with the

[03:32:22] county is that you're focused on learning and wanting to be better and and receiving an award for quality and continuous improvement graduating from that school that's permeated throughout your whole career and what better way to cap off your career by retiring and now working for a learning performance center you you keep continue you place that emphasis on education and making our employees better, getting our employees to be better. Through your influence and your mentorship throughout your career, you've left an impact on every place that you've worked, and I do

[03:32:55] appreciate that. So thank you. Well, if you've been paying attention, my role is just to show you a brick with your name on it and the tenure. And if patience is a virtue, you've been very virtuous. You know, a lot of localities espouse counties slash school relations, and we had as well but at some point in time you know there's certain things we needed to do and amend ourselves to really act like that and I thought I'll thank Mr. Carroll because you know someone who's worked with the schools and the counties collectively for 25 plus years you know those in essence salaries

[03:33:34] were funded by the one tax bill if you will of homeowners and businesses over all those years so we are one and you know you're an example for those that don't know we went through a recognition ceremony a few months ago with about 10 to 15 people if i recall who fell into that category when we amended our policy sorry that we we missed one of you but uh but uh hopefully you're the last and you know it is sort of ironic you work for general services because they try and put all these bricks in chronological order and they just finished doing that so um you're gonna have to make some friends with your former workers because they may have to reorder to the year you

[03:34:09] left again but but we're going to do it once and we're going to do it right so on behalf of the entire Chesterfield County and the school system we want to thank you for your length of service thank you very much I think everybody here if you would come up here we wouldn't have beat the last one so that's okay that was tremendous I appreciate everything that was done to get this brick it was

[03:34:41] important to myself. My wife is in the same position. Next year, she'll get hers. That's right. Well, I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. I appreciate that. And after a short retirement, I'm back in Learning Performance Center. So if you need CPR, first aid, AED, or learn how to drive forklift, I'm your man. So give us a call. We'll make sure that happens. Thank you very much.

[03:35:09] Item 14, New Business. A, claim of Branscombe operating LLC for Winterpock Road widening. Mr. Minks.

[03:36:08] Mr. Chairman, members of the board, this is the second claim that's come before you from the Branscombe organization. Two of these claims have to do with Route 10. This has to do with the widening of Winterpock Road. The contractor is, any contractor that is disputing the payment that's made under a contract has to bring the claim to the Board of Supervisors, and this is the second one being brought by Branscombe.

[03:36:36] The claim, it may be the largest attachment that you've ever received in your board packet. I think it was 1,200 pages, which include all the information relating to the claim. It's been analyzed by staff as we do every claim that comes before the board.

[03:36:55] We've analyzed this claim, and we are recommending the board to deny the claim. There is a representative from Branskim, their counsel, Mr. Harvey, I think would like to speak to you about the claim. You can come forward.

[03:37:14] Thank you, Mr. Manx. I was before this board on May 28th, and again, my name is Jim Harvey. I'm with the law firm Woods Rogers, and I'm also pleased to be here with Brian Birdsall, the president of Branskim.

[03:37:36] Again, they were awarded a contract based on a set of plans. issued by the county for the widening of winter park road to alleviate congestion in that area this is a vdot locally administered project we perform that work we have submitted our claims in accordance with the disputes resolutions provisions in the contract relating to defective plans differing subsurface conditions utility impacts improper administration lack of timely communication

[03:38:12] delays in final acceptance and failures to pay signed change orders that were agreed upon by both parties. These are disturbing situations for a contractor. They've had a great impact on a company like Branscombe who has proudly worked throughout this commonwealth and for Chesterfield for many decades. It is unfortunate that we never received a response from the county to any of the claim items, nor was there any attempt to reach out and resolve these items prior

[03:38:44] to today. We've set forth, as you've seen in detail, the basis for the claims. We seek the total of $3,357,985.56 in an extension of contract time of 539 days to the contract.

[03:39:06] we have submitted these in accordance with both state law and the contract disputes procedures, which require us to be here today. So, I am here to respond to any questions you may have with regard to the claim. Otherwise, we ask that you grant our claim. Thank you. Board members, do you have any questions? I have one question, Mr. Chairman. You mentioned that the county did not respond to your claims? No, there's been no response or denial other than to schedule this I'm hearing.

[03:39:43] Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Seeing none, can I have a motion? Mr. Chairman, according to our attorney's recommendation, I move that we deny the claim until they can work it out as best as possible.

[03:40:06] Can I get a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Be appointments. Mr. Chair, we have one appointment to the Board of Building and Fire Code Appeals.

[03:40:21] Can I get a motion? So moved. All in favor? Aye. Next, we have one appointment to the Chesterfield Community Services Board. So moved. All in favor?

[03:40:37] Aye. Last, we have one appointment to the Committee on the Future. So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. C. Consent items. Mr. Chair, there have been no requests to remove items from the consent agenda for public comment. Do any board members have any items they wish to remove?

[03:40:57] If not, I need a motion on the consent agenda. So moved. Second. 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.

[03:41:14] It is not a time 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 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.

[03:41:35] We have three speakers, if they'll please come forward and speak in this order. King Solomon Shepard, Selena Thompson, and Judy Malloy. First speaker, Mr. Solomon.

[03:41:56] Hello. How's everyone? Okay, first of all, I want to thank you, Chairman Ingram, because of my disability, you did allow me to speak last time.

[03:42:14] And that meant a lot to me, okay? I want to pass these pictures out to you all.

[03:42:24] okay that's in reference to what i'm talking about i last time i came here yeah let's go ahead and

[03:43:25] start from there okay last time i came here i passed you hand this out to you all and if you if you read it i really don't need to read it again okay and thank you for i don't know if you've been reading the text messages yeah so you can get an idea where my heart is okay

[03:43:59] Um, the pictures speak about a housing, a fence that's at 9200 Reims Road, which was, um, erected before the fence you see here, and mine's not as extensive as that fence, and it's not as close to the center from the center of the street, but they said it was okay for them to have it.

[03:44:34] and as you read my um i don't know if you had did you or this is a this is a letter from my doctor that um recommended based upon my condition it says i'm not gonna read all of it it did talk about me being a hundred percent service connected and um maybe i can read it fast he's

[03:45:09] He's a 100% service-connected veteran and is currently being managed for me for bipolar, 100%. Prognosis is guarded. As this is a chronic condition, he has informed me that he has been increasingly stressed from being told that he does not have permission to maintain his current state.

[03:45:35] He informed me that it was built for safety purposes and to remain his privacy. And I spoke how the person, the potential son-in-law, would shine his vehicle into my home.

[03:45:51] So I just put a partial fence there. And I also have a record here where one of my vehicles was broken into. This is from your department, police department. It was 100% damaged.

[03:46:10] It says, based on his history as well as my evaluation, I do believe that he will benefit from being permitted to maintain his fitness due to his chronic mental health condition.

[03:46:27] Further information about this statement, condition, and functioning can be obtained from my notes and those of other providers in his medical record. Mr. Shepard, your three minutes are up. I'll give you just a minute. If you can wrap it up.

[03:46:44] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You're always there for me. Thank you. These may be obtained at the patient's request from the medical records office. I know one of my things talked about homelessness, and I was homeless in six years across America.

[03:47:06] My home is a very attractive home, and I've put a lot of effort into it. I'm proud to be a resident of Chesafear County, and I come from very humble beginnings.

[03:47:21] And so I put a lot of effort in trying to make my home extremely beautiful. If you ever get a chance, go down Reims Road before you get to the school and you see the purple front. And that's all I have to say.

[03:47:39] And this was by Danelle Robinson, medical doctor. That's all I have to say. Thank you. All right. You can leave that with the clerk as well if you want. I leave it, but can I get a copy? Not now, but I cannot pick it up later on.

[03:47:58] You can mail it to me. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Thank you. My name is Selena Thompson.

[03:48:17] I've lived in Midlothian since 1991. I'm a member of Chesterfield Citizens for Responsible Government. Our charter is to make sure the county is transparent in all areas and are good stewards of our hard-earned taxpayer dollars. I speak tonight not just as a concerned resident of Chesterfield County, but as someone deeply troubled by how the data center vote was handled, both in substance and in process.

[03:48:41] the public deserved better. With virtually no meaningful community input, you approved one of the most impactful land use decisions in recent history, with major implications for our electrical grid, our property values, and our quality of life. The vote was rushed, public notices were limited, and many key details, including infrastructure demands, and long-term tax revenue projections were either hidden or disclosed after the fact. Why did citizens find out about the massive 24-cent, 30-year tax break through social media and watchdog groups, and not from you,

[03:49:19] our government. Forecasts predict that Virginia's electrical demand will double in the next 10 to 15 years with data centers as the main driver. Meeting this demand requires massive investments. Where is this money going to come from? The unintended consequences of your decisions put the burden of paying for these necessary investments on us, the taxpayers. You have a duty to represent the people. The Board of Supervisors adopted a comprehensive plan which states, Community input is an essential part of the plan process.

[03:49:52] It also states, we need your input on how you think the county should best grow and develop in the future. But instead, you lock the public out of the conversation. We have lost trust and confidence in your decisions. We're not opposed to economic development, but we expect development to be responsible, transparent, and community-driven.

[03:50:14] The data center deal may benefit developers and bring in tax revenue short-term. Long-term, we lose our rural character. We're burdened with increased energy demands and potential rezoning precedents that cannot be undone. We ask this board to revisit the approval process and release all documentation related to the data center vote.

[03:50:35] We ask you to commit to the full public hearings for future large-scale land-use projects. And we ask you to enact stronger community notification policies so no citizen is caught off guard again. Chesterfield deserves a government that operates with integrity and openness, where decisions are made publicly, and where this board is accountable to the people they serve.

[03:50:58] Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Good evening. My name is Judy Malloy, and I lived in the Midlothian District of Chesterfield County for 22 years.

[03:51:17] I'm here in support of the Chesterfield Citizens for Responsible Government organization after being informed of significant increases in spending and tax levels that have occurred within the county over the past few years. all with approval of you, the Board of Supervisors.

[03:51:35] From 2020 through the approved fiscal year 2026 budget, county spending has increased from $1.4 billion to $2.4 billion, a 74.6% increase. This is two times higher than the Consumer Price Index inflation rate over the same period and five times higher than the county population growth.

[03:52:00] Real estate property taxes collected by the county over 2020 through fiscal year 2026 period will be increased from $494 million to $742 million, which is of 2.2 times the CPI inflation rate.

[03:52:19] On top of this increased taxation, the county continues to borrow more money, which consumes more county revenue to pay debt services from 2020 through fiscal year 2026 adopted budget debt services expenses will increase from 78.6 million to a projected 126.5 million an average annual increase of 11.6 percent which is six times higher than the CPI

[03:52:53] inflation rate over the same period. For over one year, Chesterfield's Citizens for Responsible Government have requested that the county management, with strong Board of Supervisors involvement and support, implement a cost reduction continuous improvement project to reduce county spending where possible. I understand that a report has been provided to the county management and the Board of Supervisors explaining why this is important and how to implement this program. To date, the county has chosen not to do this. Clearly, the taxpayers of Chesterfield

[03:53:30] County deserve this program to be implemented immediately. Any savings resulting from the implementation of the program can be applied to education department, other critical services, and potentially a portion of it can go to reducing real estate property taxes for our county residents you the board of supervisors were elected by the residents of chesterfield county to protect their interests and make sure that spending and taxation does not get out of control please address this out of control spending and taxation i want to thank you for your time thank

[03:54:10] you madam clerk item 17 zoning requests mr chair you have one deferral request case 23 sn 0129 in Clover Hill Magisterial District. Genitoe Crossing rezoning and exceptions is a request to rezone from Community Business C3 and Corporate Office O2 to Residential Townhouse RTH District plus Conditional Use Plan Development to permit exceptions to ordinance requirements on 14.16 acres known as 11000 Hull Street Road.

[03:54:44] The applicant is requesting deferral to the board's August 27, 2025 public hearing. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing to consider the deferral of case 23-SN-0129, genital crossing, rezoning, and exceptions.

[03:55:02] Is there anyone here who would like to speak to the deferral of this case? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing none, I'm going to close this public hearing. It's back before the board. Can I get a motion, Ms. Snyder? Yeah, so move to defer until the August 27th meeting of case number 23SN0129.

[03:55:33] Second. All in favor? Aye. Mr. Chair, you have three items on your consent agenda this evening. For the benefit of the public, consent items are those cases where the applicant accepts staff's recommendation, and there is no previous opposition.

[03:55:48] With all consent cases tonight, 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. First is 24 SN 1169 in Matulka Magisterial District. Hiddenwit Brewery and Recreational Establishment is a request to amend case 19 SN 0609 to permit a public address system, outdoor music, plus conditional use to permit a commercial indoor recreational establishment and conditional use plan development to permit exceptions to ordinance requirements in the

[03:56:24] Agricultural A District on 10.23 acres known as 21110 Hull Street Road. Hidden Whit Brewery proposes to have amplified music for an outdoor stage on the property. To ensure that the use of a public address system has minimal impact on surrounding properties, a condition to address noise and hours of operation has been added. In addition, construction of a 24,300 square foot commercial indoor recreational facility is proposed. The facility will provide space for indoor basketball, volleyball, youth camps, and private training with the primary focus on youth

[03:57:04] athletics. 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 1169, Hidden Whip Brewery and Recreational Establishment. Is there anyone here who would like to speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name.

[03:57:29] Seeing no one, I'm going to close this public hearing. It's back before the board. This case is in the Matoka District. Thank you, Mr. Chair. If you haven't been out there, this is an outstanding company that's opened up in the western part of Street and what they're going to propose to add to this is going to make it just that much better on top of everything they already do. I make a motion to approve case number 24 SN 1169 subject to the conditions in the staff report Mr. Chair. And I'll second. All in favor? Aye. Next is 24 SN 1322

[03:58:07] in Bermuda Magisterial District. Meadowville Triangle 2 rezoning is a request to rezone from Community Business C3 and Agricultural A to Community Business C3 plus Conditional Use Plan Development to permit exceptions to ordinance requirements on multiple parcels totaling 8.59 acres known as 204 East 100 Road. The applicant proposes to remit the development of retail, office, or a mix of those uses. To accommodate the proposed layout, exceptions to setbacks, building height and parking location are also proposed with this request planning commission

[03:58:46] and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report ladies and gentlemen this is a public hearing on case 24 sn 1322 meadowville triangle 2 rezoning 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 i'm going to make the motion to approve case 24-SN-1322, subject to the conditions in the staff report.

[03:59:22] Second. All in favor? Aye. Last is 25-SN-1080. In Bermuda Magisterial District, Old Sage Road battery energy storage system is a request for conditional use to permit a battery energy storage facility in a heavy industrial I-3 district on 60.47 acres, known as 11501 Old Stage Road.

[03:59:50] A six megawatt utility scale battery storage facility is proposed. Conditions of zoning approval will establish specific standards for the battery storage facility that address the general layout, access, anticipated locations of transmission lines, decommissioning, enhanced landscape areas, and facility operation and design elements.

[04:00:13] 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 SN1080, Old Stage Road Battery Energy Storage Systems. Is there anyone here who would like to speak to this case? If so, please come forward. State your name. Good evening, Jerry

[04:00:49] Turner. I'm not against what they're trying to do here. I am concerned where you're at the location of this and what's going to happen 20 years from now when it becomes a super site of cleaning up. I'm hoping the county has got some kind of ability to just walk in this place and inspect it.

[04:01:13] Because if they're not doing, taking care of these batteries and they start leaking, then it's going to be up to the county to clean it up. Now, I'm sure that there's ways of making sure that doesn't happen.

[04:01:29] And I'm hoping you guys, and especially the county, is looking to this because we're getting ready to start drawing water out of the, I guess, the James River for drinking. This is right next to the James River, and all the people that are downriver are going to have to deal with that, too.

[04:01:49] My concern is not with what they're doing. It's the future when it becomes a cleanup site. Thank you. Any other speakers? Seeing none, I'm going to close this public hearing.

[04:02:06] It's back before the board. Is the applicant here? Can you come forward? It was stated by the clerk that in the case there is a decommissioning plan that's in place.

[04:02:37] Can you describe the decommissioning plan? Sure. I'll invite my colleague from Kimberly Horn to discuss. So a decommissioning plan is required by the State Code of Virginia for energy projects. That would include battery energy storage. So there is a third-party cost estimate that would be provided and adjusted over time to reflect what costs may be incurred from removing the battery energy storage system that fee would be bonded with the county and if at any point the applicant abandons the project which would not

[04:03:11] happen um if at any point that becomes an issue the county can pull those bonds and um decommission the project thank you i just wanted to make sure it was clear that there is a plan in place and there is a bond that will be posted to cover the cost in the event that something, as Mr.

[04:03:30] Turner had described, took place. It puts the responsibility on the applicant and any future transfers. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Sure. So that's mandated by the state. Are there also inspections at any point that are done to maintain the viability of the project as far as how ... I'm just asking.

[04:03:58] So I can speak to during construction. Obviously, inspections would be required as we build the project. I do not know what the long-term requirements are. I can speak a little bit generally at all of our facilities. When there's an environmental incident, we're required to make a report to the Department of Environmental Quality, and we usually communicate that to the county. As far as I know, I don't know if there are inspection procedures for the county to come and inspect the facility during its operation, but I know one of the proposed conditions is to allow access for emergency services and fire department.

[04:04:38] We would certainly be happy to work with the county to make sure that any questions are answered in the future. Do you know if PMJ is going to come and do any inspections? Because I'm assuming that this will have some kind of agreement with PMJ and they're going to want to make sure that this facility is taken care of.

[04:04:59] Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this will be, this actually, this project was already approved by the state regulators at the State Corporation Commission. So, it's, you know, the State Corporation Commission has approved this project and as part of the PJM interconnection, PJM is where the project is going. I think my colleague, Luis, if you have something to say, also from Dominion Energy may have more detail.

[04:05:21] Good evening, everybody. To answer your question directly, every six months, we get our battery vendor coming over doing checks and also dominion is right now in the process of entering an agreement where we're going to be certified so not only our third party external uh will come and check the battery but we're also going to perform checks ourselves and we're going to follow the same procedure so every six months they come over take a look at the battery make sure that everything's good if there's something that has been identified needs to be checked we stop operation address the issue and then come back and continue okay thank you so much

[04:05:56] yes sir go ahead can you talk a little bit about how the pad is prepared prior to the installation of the batteries I can speak generally and then Louise if you want to add on so the pad is going to be very similar to what you'd see for a substation or other type of development there are some requirements that Dominion has for drainage so we'd have positive drainage over the pad it's a pretty flat area. And then there's gravel proposed based on geotechnical recommendations

[04:06:31] to make the pad ready. And then all of the equipment. Luis, if you want to touch on how we structurally put that in. Yeah. So we have our internal procedures where we have a standard of how much depth the pad needs to be set up. Under that, we also have some grounding mats on it just make sure that there's no electrical current going around the area and also the other thing is we are making sure with our battery developer that any item inside of the battery cannot leak outside

[04:07:09] so what we're making sure is that everything's sealed and then we check those seals like every check every six months we we check that so the part will be built to substitution standards Same thing that we do in any property in Virginia, North Carolina, and then we'll make sure that nothing leaks out of it.

[04:07:31] So just so I understand that a pad like this is lined, correct? Yes, it is. Thank you so much. Any other questions? Mr. Chair, noticing that this is in the James River watershed, and myself not being familiar with how many feet above the James River this is, I'm assuming this is well out of the floodplain.

[04:08:01] someone here from environmental no I didn't see you have an answer for me Kim Lee Horn is providing environmental review and scope for the project we are not located in a floodplain no but James Rivers to these noted the flood and come up very high and you know as of late we've one of the things that we've noticed this weekend a lot of rain which has caused a lot of flooding in the area. And I'm not sure this particular part of the river, Mr. Engel, maybe you're more

[04:08:40] familiar with it, how high up it comes. But I'm assuming based on this that you've looked at what a floodplain is for both the 100-year floodplain and beyond that. And I just want to make sure that you're not going to build something that may get flooded. So I think that environmental area signed off on this. And if they're okay with it, I'm okay with that is part of the site plan review and that we can ensure that they look at that as they review the site plan but I'm pretty sure they're not gonna put

[04:09:16] something that's important into that space but but trust but verify right so we will make sure that the environmental engineering looks at that it's a plan of you understood and I can add in first stormwater too we have done some preliminary engineering in terms of when rain falls on the site where it's going to be directed to um so right now the plan for stormwater quantity or the volume of rain that's going to fall on the site um it's going to be treated in an underground detention system located locally to the project so that's the plan for sort of immediate detention of stormwater from the

[04:09:49] facility that's yeah that's excellent uh is that going to be aligned retention it is in design right now okay so we can provide more details okay great thank you any other questions thank you With that, I make the motion to approve case 25 SN1080, subject to the conditions in the staff report.

[04:10:20] Second. All in favor? Aye. Mr. Chair, that concludes your consent items for this evening. You have no discussion items on your agenda this evening. Item 18, public hearings.

[04:10:35] A, to consider an ordinance to amend the county code by enacting new section 2-55, establishing rules applicable to contracts for information technology goods and services. Mr. Meeks. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, this is one of the items that we went over during your work session in June on new legislation.

[04:10:56] This particular item allows the board to adopt an ordinance to ensure that for our technology, good and services contracts, that all provisions must be consistent with Virginia law. Negotiating those contracts can be challenging, and this will help us tie down some material terms.

[04:11:19] And so this matters before the board on the public hearing. The board set this public hearing at the June meeting. Board members, are there any questions for staff? Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing to consider an ordinance to amend the county code by enacting a new section 2-55, establishing rules applicable to contracts for information technology goods and services.

[04:11:44] 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'll close this public hearing. It is back for the board. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second.

[04:12:01] All in favor? Aye. Thank you. B, to consider an ordinance to amend the county code by amending section 6-4 to increase gross receipts thresholds for business license taxation to $550,000. Mr. Durkin. Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board, Dr. Casey. This is a public hearing to consider amending chapter 6 of the county code as it relates to business license taxation. The proposed amendment updates the ordinance to reflect the gross receipts threshold at which businesses qualify for the

[04:12:39] $10 flat license fee and incorporates the upcoming increase to $550,000 effective January 1st, 2026 as included in the fiscal year 26 adopted budget and we recommend approval. Board members, are there any questions for staff?

[04:12:58] Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing to consider an ordinance to amend the county code by amending section 6-4 to increase gross receipts thresholds for business license taxation to $550,000. Is there anyone here who would like to speak to this issue?

[04:13:16] If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to close this public hearing. This is back before the board. If there's no further discussion, can I get a motion? So moved. All in favor?

[04:13:31] Aye. C, to consider appropriation and transfer of funds and grant authorization to proceed with transportation projects. Ms. Walker. Good evening, Mr. Chair and members of the board.

[04:13:47] Dr. Casey. This is a public hearing to appropriate federal, state, and regional funds, as well as transfer some local funds and authorize CDOT to advance some new and existing transportation projects. This is the list of projects.

[04:14:04] As you know, we are constantly seeking funding to advance infrastructure projects in the county. We have been successful in securing over $65 million in outside funding to advance the 13 projects you see on the screen here.

[04:14:20] mix of projects. We have a couple of larger dollar capacity projects, widening Hull Street from Wood Lake to Otterdale. We have extending Busy Street, which will provide a connection from Midloth to Courthouse on the southwest quadrant of that intersection. Then we have four federal grants that support transit. We have the Route 1 along Midlothian Turnpike, and those grants will support bus stops, bike ped infrastructure crossings, and operational funds to operate the service.

[04:14:52] And then the other, the remaining projects are bike ped related, ped crossings, lighting at a few of the roundabouts that have been requested by some of the residents out in Hampton Park, and ped crossings. So that is the summary of projects totaling over $65 million.

[04:15:11] Happy to answer any questions. Board members, is there any questions for staff? Sure. So the county microtransit study, where else are we looking at, right?

[04:15:26] Is that what we're determining? Where else it might be beneficial? Is that correct? Or expanding it? So we have the existing zone under the demo. The study that GRTC already did had identified two other zones. This will take a look at those, but also other zones within the county that might make sense.

[04:15:46] So more of a comprehensive look. So I think I've discussed with Andrea from, is that her name? Adrian. Adrian. Adrian, sorry, about the Cloverdale and possibly how it's not getting as much use because there's so much retail and not the people that need to use that retail don't really live in the area, so they can't get picked up to go to the thing.

[04:16:10] And so part of me wonders if we shouldn't expand farther down Hull Street towards, you know, Brandermill and Woodlake and the other stuff on your side, on the other side of Winter Park and all that over there, where there'd be more people that might use it to get to the retail places along the road.

[04:16:32] But that certainly makes sense. And we can be sure to fold you into some of the study work group meetings. I appreciate that. Thank you. And Cloverdale is actually the fastest growing microtransit in the region this past month. They actually went up significantly in the last month. Yeah, that is good.

[04:16:48] Sure. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing to consider appropriation and transfer of funds and grant authorization to proceed with transportation projects. Is there anyone here who would like to speak to this issue?

[04:17:04] If so, please come forward and state your name. I just wanted to let everybody know there's three projects going on Route 1. And I also wanted to take the opportunity at the Planning Commission when they got rid of the freeway.

[04:17:26] It opened up a firestorm about what's left to do. And I just wanted to tell everybody who might be listening, one of these projects that I looked at, I think it was the Wayside Park.

[04:17:42] That's literally been since October of 2020 in the works. And this is just getting the funding. I don't think they've acquired easements for it yet, so it's not even expected to start until 2026.

[04:18:01] And that's just like a, I don't know how, it can't be more than a mile segment. So people need to understand how long it takes from just the concept of doing something to it actually getting in the ground.

[04:18:20] Quite frankly, we've been asking for this stuff on one for the last 20, 30 years. so i'm glad to see it coming i still have my concerns about the crossing on a 45 mile an hour road it doesn't seem like a good idea to me to have pedestrians thinking they have the right of way and the people that are going down driving these 3 000 pound cars going do they have the right away or not so we'll see but just i really would like to let everybody know that just because

[04:18:56] you're talking about a road a sidewalk anything today it's a ways down the road before you actually see it so thank you thank you any other speakers good evening i'm jerry turner i really wasn't going to say anything but you always got that bud in there you're reallocating funds for different

[04:19:35] projects and i've got up before y'all a lot of times on especially when you're when you're letting these developers develop these projects along these major roads and y'all don't make them improve their driveways or put in sidewalks. Now we've got to come back and allocate county money to do that. To give you a good example of what I'm talking about, Courthouse and Hoyle Street, the state just spent $450,000 adding a crosswalk to go across Courthouse on the south side of

[04:20:12] Hoyle Street. $450,000 to put in a crosswalk. Because I asked VDOT about it, and that's when I find out how much they were spending. I guess the thing is when I went by there one day, there was 22 guys holding up shovels. These developers can do it a whole lot cheaper and a whole lot quicker than going through the state or the county. You say, well, that's county, it's state money.

[04:20:43] No, that's taxpayer money. So you need to stop letting these developers off the hook when they're building next to these major roads and tell them, okay, where are you going to have to put a sidewalk walk in.

[04:20:59] You don't have to put it in a turn lane. Just go ahead and build your houses. Thank you. Thank you. Any other speakers? Seeing none, I'm going to close this public hearing. This is back before the board. Any other discussion or can I get a motion?

[04:21:15] Yes, Mr. Chair. Go ahead. Unless you want to go further. Go ahead. Go ahead. I'll wait. I believe, Mr. Turner, that that also included sidewalk all the way down to Axbridge from the corner.

[04:21:34] It goes in front of Shoney's. Okay. Thank you. Chair. One, to Mr. Turner's point, I'll give you a perfect example of where we did that. Cosby Village Shopping Center on Hull Street was required to put in a third lane in a turn lane on Hull Street, as well as sidewalks all the way along the front of the development.

[04:22:01] So you're right, when we end up an opportunity to hold someone accountable as part of a construction project, we should have them do it. The 360 widening project that you see here was proposed way back when Marlene Durfee was on the Board of Supervisors. That's how far back it goes, and it was brought back before the board when I got elected in 2019 and 2020 is when we started bringing this project forward.

[04:22:27] Why? Because of all the growth in the western port of Hull Street. So I'm extremely gratified to this board to find and help with the additional funding, but the CVTA regional got a commitment, I got a commitment for us, for $32 million, almost $33 million for this project.

[04:22:44] It's sorely needed in the western part of Hull Street in order to alleviate some of the traffic problems that we currently have up there. And so I agree with you that when the opportunity presents itself, if we can get a developer or someone who wants to do construction out there, we're going to require them to do it.

[04:23:01] And certainly if there are other construction projects that come before this board in my district in the western part of Hull Street, they're going to be required to do the same, to put turn lanes in, third lanes, and sidewalk projects. So with that being said, Mr. Chair, I'm not sure if anybody else has any other discussion, but I'll make a motion to approve.

[04:23:22] Second. All in favor? Aye. D, to consider the quit claim of a portion of county right-of-way known as Meadowville 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 known as Meadowville Road.

[04:23:45] This portion of right-of-way is no longer needed. Necessary easements will be retained. A 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. Board members, are there any questions for staff? Seeing none, ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing to consider the quick claim of a portion of county right-of-way known as Meadowville Road.

[04:24:09] 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's no further discussion, can I get a motion? You got that motion, so moved. Second.

[04:24:26] All in favor? Aye. E. To consider the quit claim of rights in a prescriptive easement known as Mount Hermon Road. Ms. Snow. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Casey, this is a public hearing to consider the quit claim of any right, title, or interest the county may have in a portion of a prescriptive easement known as Mount Hermon Road.

[04:24:48] The prescriptive easement runs east and south from Moseley Road across several parcels, including a small portion of county property known as Irvin G. Horner Park. The park site is adjacent to and accessed by Genitoe Road, eliminating the need for the prescriptive easement. A public hearing is required to quit claim right-of-way.

[04:25:07] The request has been reviewed by staff and approval is recommended after the public hearing. Board members, are there any questions for staff? Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing to consider the quit claim of rights in a prescriptive easement known as Mount Hermon Road.

[04:25:25] 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's no further discussion, can I get a motion? Motion approved, Mr. Chair. I'll second.

[04:25:43] Which one of you wants? All in favor? Aye. Aye goes the order. 19, 15-minute citizen comment period on unscheduled matters. This time is designated for citizens to talk to the board of supervisors.

[04:26:00] It is not a time 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 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.

[04:26:19] We have one speaker, Jerry Turner. Good evening, Jerry Turner.

[04:26:40] Y'all thought you was going home early. Anyway, 32 years ago when I moved up here to Virginia, they were talking about power height extension. A couple of months ago, or several months ago, I went to a VDOT show where they had all their schedules on which direction they were going to go.

[04:27:01] I went to one a couple, I guess last month, I guess where CDOT had their deal on how they're going to do phase one. The county's already bonded $300 million to do phase one.

[04:27:20] And I'm all for it until I saw stoplights. You got three stoplights on the phase one. If y'all can't build this road without stoplights, you don't need to build it. You ought to be able to get on part in downtown Richmond and drive all the way out to Courthouse, I mean the Hull Street, without having to stop.

[04:27:46] Putting stoplights on there is just creating another Hull Street or Midlothian. That's all y'all are doing. Just adding another fiasco, another cluster that you're going to wind up with. Because all you're going to do is create more traffic because as soon as y'all put those stoplights in there, all that property around there, those developers are going to start building.

[04:28:11] So now you've got another 10,000 houses that y'all are allowed to go in there because you put a stoplight right there. There again, if the county is going to do this kind of project, do it right.

[04:28:27] Putting stoplights on power height, you definitely can't call it power height with a stoplight on there. You've got to change the name of it, something. I'm not sure what I asked some of my creative friends to come up with a name for it. That'll probably be the next time I come talk to you about what kind of name you need to change it to if you don't get the stoplights off there.

[04:28:47] But putting a stoplight on Power Heights Parkway is uncalled for, and you don't need to do it. If you can't do it without putting lights on there, don't build it. Thank you. Thank you. Madam Clerk. Mr. Chair, we need a motion to adjourn to Congressman McClellan's Town Hall on July 30th at 1.30 p.m. at Meadowdale Library to then adjourn to a joint meeting with the Camp Baker Management Board on July 31st at 3 p.m. at 7600 Beach Road to then adjourn to the regularly scheduled Board of Supervisors meeting on August 27th

[04:29:27] at 2 p.m. in Room 502 of the County Administration Building. So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye.

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