Coraggio Consulting
Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors Meeting - October 22, 2025, Wednesday, October 22, 2025

Date: Wednesday, October 22, 2025
Place: Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 4h 25m (video)
Official meeting video (CivicClerk): https://chesterfieldcova.portal.civicclerk.com/event/1236/media
Official agenda (CivicClerk): https://chesterfieldcova.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=3723,plainText=false)
Official minutes (CivicClerk): https://chesterfieldcova.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=3766,plainText=false)

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-24. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:02:29] Good afternoon and welcome to the afternoon session of October 22nd Board of Supervisors meeting. Before we begin today's meeting, I want to take a moment to acknowledge a profound loss that has touched our board and our community. On October 14th, we lost our board colleague, Dale District Supervisor Jim Holland.

[00:02:50] Since 2008, Mr. Holland has served on this board with honor and distinction, a testament not only to his dedication to others, but also to the deep trust the community placed in him. as he fought a courageous battle with cancer, he remained deeply engaged and thoughtful in his work.

[00:03:11] Mr. Holland was a passionate advocate for the Dale District, which is an understatement, and oftentimes a guide to other supervisors. Given his long tenure on this board, he served on this board as long as all of the rest of us combined. He leaves behind a legacy of service, and his impact will be felt for years to come. In his time of grief and sorrow, we keep his wife and entire family and our thoughts and prayers. And if we could just take a moment to reflect on that and

[00:03:49] think about him and his family at this moment. I appreciate it. Thank you. Madam Clerk. Mr. Chair,

[00:04:24] the first item on the agenda is approval of minutes for the September 17th Board of Supervisors meeting. So moved. All in favor? Aye. Item two, request to postpone agenda items and additions, deletions or changes in the order of presentation, staff has one request.

[00:04:43] We would like to add item 14A, authorization for county attorney to petition the circuit court on behalf of the Board of Supervisors for a writ of election to fill the vacancy on the Board of Supervisors for the Dale Magisterial District. That is all we have.

[00:04:58] Motion to approve the amended agenda. All in favor? Aye. Item three, everyday excellence, Dr. Casey. As we start every meeting, we want to show the frontline services of our staff to the people of Chesterfield County.

[00:05:20] And I'll just personally note the word excellence is a word that was said many times by our Dell District Representative. You know, hence the term everyday excellence is in the spirit of Mr. Holland, of what we try and do for the people of Chesterfield County.

[00:05:36] So today is no different though, and it is a large crowd, but it just shows you it takes many of us and many different expertise to help out those in need. And then what started out maybe as a library observation lent itself to many different departments, boots on the ground in some cases of a team that never gave up holding somebody's hand until they got to where they needed to be.

[00:06:03] So with that said, I'll let Ms. Freed explain all the goodness that's behind this story and the people behind it. Thanks, Dr. Casey. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Casey, as was just mentioned, as you recall, last month, the Mental Health Support Services Department presented our annual report, and we used this as a success story.

[00:06:24] And it truly is. When you look at the number of people that are involved in this, it represents a number of departments as well. and i'll name everybody in a few minutes but just to kind of summarize briefly again this is a situation that started with a grandmother and a grandson who were living in their vehicle in the parking lot at one of our libraries and had been living there i think for two and a half months a lot of support was being provided to them by library personnel and the next door neighbor i believe was the husband of a library professional i may not have all the details correct but i will

[00:07:00] say that once they really put on the radar that this family was in need everybody just sprung into action at that time and it started with our co-response team coming in they initially realized that there needed to be some engagement with behavioral health professionals and just trying to you know have them be comfortable enough to speak with behavioral health professionals was you know a situation in itself but once they gained once the family gained or we would gain the trust of the individuals in need there were

[00:07:35] lots of immediate things that needed to occur from you know clothing that they needed because they were in their van with some pets some cats and so when it came time to try to get them to seek services outside of the van there was some issues there where they needed clothing and so people had to go immediately and tried to obtain clothing for them there were food issues there were there were housing issues and this team behind us just I mean they met all of those needs and it didn't just continue as a day they needed to work with the family to be able to obtain benefits for longer-term services there

[00:08:12] was some placement in temporary housing hotels and food needs at that time and and then eventually led to a very successful story of the individuals being placed in a group home for the son who is doing extremely well, and then longer-term housing for the grandmother as well.

[00:08:36] And we were able, through the help of Animal Services, care for their cats during the process and assure them that their animals would be taken care of until they could continue to be able to have them. So with that said, again, there's so much more to this, but that just gives you a flavor.

[00:08:54] And at this time, I would like to just name the individuals and departments, if you'll raise your hand, and I'll probably name a few folks that could not attend today as well because they definitely deserve recognition. So there's Dana Bamba Joy Dukas from the Chester Library, and Tommy Dukas, who is the husband of Joy Dukas, who provided transportation and a lot of additional help to the family.

[00:09:17] There's Aaron Lape and Riley Gorman from Chesterfield Fire and EMS. Also, Lieutenant Abbott was involved as well from the Mobile Integrated Health Care Team. Caleb Messer from Animal Services. Stephanie Williams, Terry Martin, and Jamie Muchowski from Mental Health Support Services.

[00:09:35] Kat Kerr and Master Officer Jesse Bowen, who represent our Chesterfield Co-Response Team. Officer Tim Morton, who is now retired, but a Community Engagement Officer, was also involved in this situation. Eden Griffin, Bryant, I mean, excuse me, Brenda Bryant, Anjanette Gilbert, Stephanie Vess, and Emily Giambra, and I'm sorry, I batched that.

[00:09:59] All from our social services, the Department of Social Services team. So again, a huge thank you to everyone here for the tremendous work, not only that they did with the family, but they're continuing to do to ensure that the family has the best supports possible.

[00:10:14] So thank you. - Ms. Snyder.

[00:10:30] so happy that this turned out the way it did um i first found out about it from tommy and joy they called me and um had some we had some conversations we had seen some each other somewhere and um i know mike mabe was i think part of some of this stuff also he had helped down there as well um but i just am so happy when community can come together um and look at all these people that it took but i mean sometimes it does take a village but it's so very important sometimes because some times those people don't have a village. So thank you so much from the bottom of my heart to

[00:11:05] everybody. Mr. Chair, this is why we have everyday excellence. There are so many things that our county employees do every day that if we didn't highlight this or bring it to the public's attention, they would have no idea. And you didn't do it because you wanted recognition. You did it because you wanted to do the right thing for someone in the community that needed help. But that also speaks to the quality of your character and the quality of the type of person that you or an equality of county employee that you are.

[00:11:37] So I commend you for everything it did. And it never ceases to amaze me of the great things that our county employees do every single day. And many people in the community, unfortunately, have no clue. So we're going to continue to try and do the best that we can to spotlight it when we can so people know that we do have great people working here.

[00:12:00] We have really great hearts who really care about people who want to do the right thing. And we'll get together and make it happen no matter what it takes. So thank you very much. And thank you, Joe, for bringing this forward. That and I've said here, the kind of work we do is not just hard work, but heart work.

[00:12:21] And how much it takes, you said a village. I sometimes see it also as like holding a ladder. So we hold a ladder so that we can help those that really need help to climb out of wherever they are and to get them where they need to go. So thank you all for what you do.

[00:12:37] I step back in awe and just breathe a sigh of relief that you all are in the world. So thank you. I'm very thankful that as a county, we're able to have employees and citizens that work together for the community.

[00:12:59] I know some of you, this is part of what you do on a day-to-day basis. But many of you on this team were adopted into a family of taking care of the community. And that is going above and beyond what's in your description of your work for your job.

[00:13:20] But it's knowing your why for serving the citizens in the county. And I know Dr. Casey wants everybody to know their why. And what you did in this shows you know your why, regardless of what your title is in the county or whether you're just a citizen helping out.

[00:13:39] We want to thank you all for doing that. Thank you so much. I usually don't follow up, but I would like the record to note that this story has taken many months to unfold, which is in some ways fortunate because Mr. Holland was aware of this story and very proud of everyone that you served.

[00:14:02] And so I just wanted to know that Mr. Holland was aware of everything that you have done and was so complimentary to me and others that he had heard this story from. So thank you on behalf of the Holland family.

[00:14:14] Item four, work sessions, a sports visitation and entertainment annual update, Mr. Poma.

[00:15:55] Good afternoon, members of the board, Mr. Chair, Vice Chair, Dr. Casey, Mr. Minx. It's great to be up here today, and I'm really excited to have colleagues and friends in the room.

[00:16:12] But before we do, I think something I would really like to take a moment and just reflect upon is Mr. Hahn's influence on tourism. As you know, a board member of Richmond Region Tourism for as long as I can remember. Really, I think since the day he first stepped in office, if I'm not correct, here in Chesterfield.

[00:16:32] And looking over Dr. Miller's left shoulder, I'm kind of at peace with that baseball back there because, you know, that Pony League World Series meant so much to Mr. Holland. And for all of us in this room, Neil, Mr. Luther knows this, but that was really the first sports tourism event here in the county.

[00:16:52] So while today is a lot of good news, I don't think we can move forward without reflecting upon the influences he's had on tourism in this room. So thank you for allowing me this opportunity. Before we get going, I'd like to introduce some of my team.

[00:17:08] Up here next to me is Mr. Matt Mullen, who is our new Assistant Director of Sports Visitation Entertainment. I also have, looking over Matt Schiller there, Miss Liz Hart, who is the head of, really, our marketing and communications function within SVNE.

[00:17:25] And then you'll hear a lot about local athletics today and kind of the transition into this department, and that function's led by Miss Ronnie Hopson over there. So really appreciate having a team that day in and day out wakes up with the passion to create an identity here in Chesterfield, and I hope that's what we'll get across us today is really a passion for creating that first choice community and that first choice destination. Over really the last year, I can't believe it's been a year since we've been sitting

[00:18:00] up here, that word identity is what continues to dominate what we do day in and day out. Sports tourism is an identity. Experience Chesterfield is an identity. Our parks and recreation department, what they do throughout all of our parks is an identity. But our priorities have stayed almost exactly the same and Mr. Mullen here is going to talk about the infusion of local athletics and what that means to Chesterfield County but really when you look at it all three of these things up here are really about creating that identity. It's been an award-winning year for SV&E and I think the fun

[00:18:37] part of being in a new department is that a lot of fresh looks and fresh set of eyes on things and You get to create new things, whether it's Cole the mascot that you see up there, winning events, all the different things that come with creating a new department really in conjunction with Mr. Luther and his efforts has been a really fun year for us, but also really roots our team in their day-to-day effort to create this identity.

[00:19:04] When you look and you see that Virginia is for lovers logo, I could not move on without talking about the importance of everything you're going to see throughout today in becoming what we y'all know as an official destination marketing organization. That does not take away from the state's role as a DMO, a regional role as a DMO, other localities role as a DMO.

[00:19:25] It allows us to do what we do every day and be as fiscally responsible as we can in driving our brand and identity forward. And really wanted to call attention to that here in the beginning. Lastly, before Mr. Mullen jumps into really number two here, you know, you've heard me use that word home field advantage a lot.

[00:19:49] And we couldn't do sports tourism. We couldn't create an identity through tourism without thinking about our local athletics and our athletes. So what you're going to hear about today is really an intentional effort to grow our relationships in the community. And Mr. Mullen would not be seated here if it were not for his expertise in this.

[00:20:08] I mean, I'll let him dive in. Yes, thank you. I'm excited to be here to help present our year two update, which is very crazy to sit here and say that. I remember last year when Mr. Poma gave our year one update and all of the wonderful things that we've done over the last two years and what's to come is very exciting.

[00:20:25] But like JC mentioned, and we'll discuss more in depth later, championing local sports is very much a part of my background. I came here a little over two years ago from Henrico County where I was predominantly involved in the local sports scene. this is very much a part of our strategic fabric and adding this function to our team will only allow us to better assist our leagues and continue to showcase chesterfield across the commonwealth this move has been very strategic to ensure that there's one contact one face and better customer service from one dedicated team so we're excited to see this as it continues to grow team chesterfield

[00:21:01] you see a lot of slides like this and i think it's a very common theme throughout department presentations is really what this community means to us tourism and visitation and now even local athletics into what we do is not a one-size-fits-all approach it's a dynamic economic engine that happens because of the great quality of life here in chesterfield but because of everybody's community efforts you just see we could go on and on we could have slides with you know numerous numerous logos up there you know who means what to our community and it's been a very fun year to to work with so many new partners, to see the Children's Museum and the zoo come to life

[00:21:40] in creating the experience Chesterfield Identity. But I also know that what we do all across the departments, what we do with your passion, your vision, to create a Chesterfield that is a family-friendly Chesterfield, a great quality of life in Chesterfield, that is our mission every single day.

[00:21:56] We could not do what we do. Mr. Luther's sitting over there. Everybody here works hard to help create a brand and identity, and I thank Mr. Luther for his guidance and expertise in the realm where we work together, but so many other departments, Dave and his team, Teresa, fill a huge void for us, really in the media and communication side, where Liz just can't do it all, and so appreciate y'all's effort in how you help us create an identity and a brand here in Chesterfield.

[00:22:30] But these are just more of our experiential Chesterfield partners, and I think Mr. Mullen as a few he'd like to specifically shout out here on the sports and events side. Yeah, we're very fortunate to have so many local partners, both internally and externally, from organizations that we work with day in and day out, like Midlothian Tennis Club or Iron Bridge Baseball Academy.

[00:22:49] Some new partners like Richmond Icebox, the new hockey rink that's going behind the Lake Project, and the 360 Fieldhouse, the indoor complex that's going near Hidden Wit. We've had a lot of conversations with our new partners lately trying to help them navigate the development process and how they can better partner with us and with the county moving forward as they continue to progress in their projects.

[00:23:10] And we've had a lot of success with some of our partners lately. Swim RVA just announced last week that they won the bid to host the USA Masters National Championship in 2027, so we're very excited for Adam and his team. We've got a partner here with us today that we'll share a special message about here shortly.

[00:23:30] And, you know, internally, for the two years that we've been in existence, we've really worked hard to better partner locally with other departments like fire, police, EMS, and ensure a level of safety for our athletes and our families at our events. So we're very fortunate. We're very lucky.

[00:23:45] We have a lot of great partners that make us look very good. Thanks, Matt. We talk about visitation a lot. We can talk about all the different impacts and factors that drive visitation, how we measure visitation, how we drive revenue to the county. But I want to start here because this is a very important piece, especially for you all.

[00:24:05] As you know, the sports visitation and entertainment department is funded completely off of our lodging tax rebate. Those are legally restricted dollars that go towards tourism and infrastructure efforts. How we look at these dollars and work with Mr. Luther on all of the field and upgrade amenities, working with budget and Mr. Harris and how we're projecting out the future, it starts with our hotel data.

[00:24:31] And I think we are in a very, very positive lodging market. You see that top slide, that top picture there on this slide is the number of active hotel rooms and hotels across this region. Chesterfield currently sits at 52 hotels and just over 4,400 hotel rooms.

[00:24:50] We are in a thriving lodging market, and nothing shows that more than the slide right or the picture right below that. Every month, you usually see a new hotel added to that in process or in the pipeline under construction. That is very in large part due to the demand.

[00:25:08] I think probably for the first year or two here in Trusterfield, you heard me talk a lot about occupancy rate. And I've kind of moved on from occupancy rate with you all. And I appreciate that you know the lingo and know the impact. But now what we're really focusing on is hotel demand.

[00:25:25] As our supply rises with hotel rooms, so our demand is still staying in the 3, 3.5, sometimes more percent range. That continues to show a healthy and very healthy market to move forward in. You all know the major hotel developers around here.

[00:25:43] As that lodging tax continues to grow, we have the ability to do more and more in our park system, in our brand and our identity, and it starts right here. You see that middle number, 66.33% average monthly occupancy. I can't tell you how high that is.

[00:26:00] There's numerous data points out there. Each hotel will probably tell you a different number of where perhaps they break even or where they make money. It's usually somewhere in that mid-30% range. So to see an occupancy in that range with an average demand that is always in that 3% to 4%, we have a healthy market to continue to drive visitation.

[00:26:23] And I think what's most important here, and you all recognize this, it's not displacing any existing business or hotel owners. On these weekends, when we sit at 95-plus percent occupancy throughout Chesterfield County, perhaps because of a tournament at River City, when we build more hotel rooms, more people are going to stay in Chesterfield that are staying in Short Pump or any other place.

[00:26:45] I'm all for the regionality and the importance of that. But ultimately, it's about driving that revenue back to our residents, back to our counties, and helping Mr. Luther create facilities that do what they do for our residents. And I think I want to shout out that property right there.

[00:27:02] Mr. Casey, I know you sent this out to the board last week. But this is really, this is the first Hyatt select brand in the entire country that Chameen Hotels opened up in Chester. And I think that shows the vitality of our market. and we all know what's coming, and as you can see on the screen.

[00:27:21] I wanted to show just kind of the growth of the lodging tax. Now this is just the 8%. You all have heard the TID numerous times, and that is an additional 2% assessment on top of our 8% lodging tax. But if you look at that growth chart right there, you can see the significant growth.

[00:27:40] This week we also shared with you some data behind what that, if you go back to that slide there, that those 2,200 hotel rooms, what impact they could have on us as a county. Each hotel room is about $2,900, you know, at a very high level of return on investment back to the county through our lodging tax.

[00:28:02] As these hotels come on board, it's important to note, and with the best budget, fiscally responsible department here in Chesterfield County, what we are doing with those dollars, and you all have heard that plan, time in and time out, And it's really, I look at this with great anticipation and excitement because of all we can continue to do for our residents as we grow this lodging tax.

[00:28:26] I also think it's important to kind of look holistically at the numbers in here. We can talk about economic impact all we want. You can divide an economic impact number in half for all I care. I look at those trips to Chesterfield County.

[00:28:43] If you look at this, it shows robust growth. year in and year out. 5.3 million out-of-market visitors who made 52.2 out-of-market visits to Chesterfield. That's a very large number. And the data set here we use that you stayed at least for an hour in market. So that usually equates to spending time in a shopping, eating dinner, whatever that may be. Then you go to the overnight visitation portion of this. 1.8 million overnight trips that equated to 5.4 million overnight stays. Now, that's not just because

[00:29:21] of sports tourism. That's not just because of whatever intentional effort you see out there. Look at that bar graph there, where you see 8 to 31 days. I'd be willing to bet, you know, Mr. Hartwick could tell us the data behind that number, construction workers working here in Chesterfield County, all the different means that affect our visitation profile. And, you know, no surprise but we know where our visitor origins come from. Ms. Hart does a tremendous job using the data at our hands to market to that next visitor but Nova, Virginia, Hampton Roads area

[00:29:57] really are our two most visitation markets. At the bottom of that screen there it's always worth talking about the impact that tourism and visitation has on our residents. According to Virginia Tourism Corporation, every Virginia household saves $900 annually on state and local taxes because of the revenue generated by visitors. We know it's an important part and a fabric of our economy, but it is also something that is real dollars that we take very seriously with your lead here in Chesterfield. Before I, I'm going to turn this portion of the presentation over to

[00:30:36] mr mullen but when you look at this screen we have a healthy visitation market because we do not rely on one segment of travel and you've heard me say this probably presentation in and presentation out friends and family travel is the number one source of travel to chesterfield we are creating a great quality of life here in chesterfield with your lead your passion and friends and family when they invite their friends and family here that is how your visitor profile grows that's how our our attractions and restaurants stay in business. Transient travel just as important. Business travel just as important. But also event-based travel is something that means a lot to all of us here

[00:31:15] and something that I am proud to have Mr. Mullen leading. Can you go back? Yes. I did have one question. Can you explain to me 52.2 million out-of-state visits with 5.3 million out-of-state market visitors. What am I missing? So if you look at 5.3 million individuals who visited 52.2 million times. So the average visitor. Okay, so they've come back multiple times from out of market. Correct. Okay, thank you. No problem. So you'll see on the screen here the top five

[00:31:53] event types by category. So these are the different types of events that are reoccurring here in Chesterfield on a regular basis. Anything from concerts at West Chester Commons to lifestyle events at Pocahontas State Park, art shows and galleries at the Perkinson Center for Arts, where we held our Hall of Fame this past year and last year, home football and basketball games at Virginia State University, events at River City Sports Flex.

[00:32:17] Our data continues to collect events that are spectator driven. And while Cole helped lead the march at the Midlothian Village Day Festival, these events just show the breadth of things happen across our community that represents a quality of life amenity for our residents and our experiential brand which is why we created a sports and events division so sports and events is made up of many different facets from local athletic field bookings to large-scale sports tourism events community events at the fairgrounds like and then we have events like restaurant week and the hall of fame looking back last year the local athletics team both with parks and rec before

[00:32:56] they transitioned over to SVE earlier this year were responsible for coordinating over 30,000 facility bookings so a facility booking is anybody that reaches out to our team with interest in reserving an athletic field so the bookings that they you know that they go through on a daily basis I like to tell everyone it's like a giant puzzle and they have to go through all the requests and put the puzzle together as equitably as equitably as possible which is quite an undertaking and ronnie over here to my right has done a great job this year with that there is also we had 438

[00:33:31] different organizations that we had to work with for all these facility bookings on 220 plus fields courts and diamond fields so one thing we noticed as we took over this dysfunction earlier the year in april is that we use a lot of school sites for our facility bookings so the supply and demand of our field sites and recreation parks don't always meet and i think one thing that's important to note here is that you see a number that i'm going to talk about here a little bit later but 73 of all the facility usage of facility usage is from our local residents first

[00:34:09] versus 27 that are driven from tourism last year we also hosted over 200 special events these are community events that range from birthday parties to pta events baptisms 5k runs festivals at the fairgrounds and much more and I'll talk about this more here in just a minute but we hosted 156 sports tourism events and we're excited to announce a few new partners that will be bringing events to Chesterfield in 2026 and beyond our goal in hosting sports tourism events and we say this time and time again is to establish a home field advantage for our residents and enhance a Chesterfield as a first choice destination for visitors and with that I'll turn it back we are going to come

[00:34:47] back to you we have a special announcement here shortly we're going to come back on this local athletics piece here in a second and dive in on some findings here but first we had a really special photo here about an hour ago probably an hour and a half ago and as you all know you hear a lot about sports tourism when it comes to diamonds or rectangles or a natatorium but I think one of our visions as we move forward in sports visitation entertainment is high profile championships and events that help create an identity for everything here in

[00:35:22] Chesterfield and so with that we have a couple of special guests here Patrick Canesfield with the American Junior Golf Association and Troy Thorne with the Golf Club at the Highlands if I could get you both up there and members of the board actually I'm actually gonna have you come up here for a photo at the same time so if I could have you get out of your seat stretch your legs sorry Miss

[00:35:45] Schneider. I caught you off guard. All right, so this process really started a long time ago. Mr.

[00:36:08] Mullen's going to dive into this, but with high-profile championships comes an identity for Chesterfield. It provides opportunity for our residents. Niche sports are a big part of what we really envision moving forward, and so we're very excited to announce the Clay Chesterfield junior golf championship with the american junior golf association mr mullen get in the photo please and it's something that we have tremendous courses all throughout this county troy we appreciate all of your hard work so we're going to get a group photo here and then i know a

[00:36:41] couple of you would like to make some of that jesse turn this over to mr mullen and then we'll have some remarks thank you so this process started a year ago in december jacy and i had dinner with Patrick at the U.S. Sports Congress Conference.

[00:37:19] For the last year, we've been working with him and Troy to find the right course, the right weekend, and make sure that we have this inaugural event kick off without any hiccups. But like JC said, it's not just about River City Sports Flags or Diamond Sports. Our goal is to enhance our tourism portfolio of high-profile events like this. So with that, I will turn to Mr. Carroll, who very nicely helped us with this event. I've got like eight months to ask you for help with my golf game.

[00:37:44] It's pretty so far at this point, so I know that we may be asking for help again in the future. But with that, I'll turn to you. This is unexpected. I was talking with the gentleman earlier. The Highlands Golfers Club, the Highlands neighborhood actually touches three districts.

[00:38:03] The Dale District, which if Mr. Holland was here, that would have been the first thing that he said. It's in the Dale District. But it also touches Matoka and it touches Bermuda. It's the only neighborhood in Chesterfield County that you could actually have someone run for each district and out of one neighborhood everybody would be running the county just saying but it's a tremendous golf course and they've just put a lot of money into that golf course all brand new fairways the greens the tee boxes everything is an excellent condition you know because you played it earlier today and so to be able to work with them work with you all to get this to come here to Chesterfield County I think it's spectacular we're

[00:38:41] gonna do the best that we can to help you have a spectacular event including are people pushing it out to the community. We get a lot of people from the community come down to see it. And I think that's part of it. And so we're looking forward to it. Really appreciate you all choosing Chesterfield for coming here and all the hard work that you all did to make this work.

[00:39:00] I'm pretty excited as a golfer. But I also think, you know, people need to understand who's playing in this, right? Why don't you tell us a little bit about that? Yes. Thanks so much, Kevin, and Play Chesterfield, the whole community, JC, Matt, for bringing us here. Really appreciate it.

[00:39:16] The American Junior Golf Association, we're a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated since day one back in 1978 to the overall growth and development of junior golfers with the end goal of helping them earn college golf scholarships. So what we're going to put on here next year, we'll have 156 kids from all across the world that will be in town playing.

[00:39:36] We expect roughly 10 to 15 states, 3 to 5 countries to be represented out of the club that week. It is a five-day event. We welcome everyone from the community to come out. We'll have an opportunity for you to actually participate in the event with our Junior M fundraising event set up very similar to a Pro-Am out on the PGA or LPGA Tour, where you'll be able to play with top-ranked juniors during that week of the event.

[00:40:00] We'll also have a qualifying event for those kids that did not get into the event based on ranking. That will be the day prior to that. And then the actual competition will be 54 holes of competitive golf with all the kids and parents in town throughout the entire week, no cut. um at the end we'll we'll crown a champion so after kind of listening here today um you know i've heard passion i've heard excellence i've heard community and that really encompasses everything that the ajga uh stands for and does um and i think you guys will all be really excited to be a part of that and see that here next year so uh once again thank you to everyone that really made this possible and we're super excited to be here uh in the future so thank you

[00:40:37] yeah just on behalf of the the owner george emerson i'm sure many of you know him but um he couldn't be here today but we are very excited for everybody that stepped up and i know you had a big role in that but we we are very excited um he's never very excited to close the course for five days to get you know you know why but um he's very excited about this and he said yes right away and he was trying to find any way possible to make this happen so we're excited the course is going to be great uh looks like a great team from the ajga we're excited to have a lot of

[00:41:16] people in town to see the course and showcase that so we're ready yeah can't wait thank you yeah so uh it says june 22nd through 25th which are the official uh dates of the event and then

[00:41:36] the qualifier will be hosted on the 21st the day prior so awesome after transitioning thank you everyone after transitioning local athletics under our department earlier this year we've done a lot of observing and examining the processes, those that work and those that don't.

[00:42:14] And one thing I will share from our team is that, you know, one thing JC tells us, you know, every day, whatever it is that we're going to do, we're going to do it right. Golf swing on a field hockey stick. As a sub-junior golfer, I'm hoping to get some tips from the junior golfers.

[00:42:38] Well, thank you. Thank you for your time, Mr. Carroll. I really appreciate your help getting this tournament here and could not be more grateful for all the support of the board. This is, if I walk away today, this is the slide I want you to remember.

[00:42:55] We know what visitation means, but it doesn't happen without a grassroots athletic and sports community. And I cannot emphasize enough where we have to go as a county with our youth sports programming in partnership with Parks and Recreation.

[00:43:14] Neil and I are, and Mr. Mullen and both teams are very excited about where we are heading, but it's not gonna come with a lot of hard work by both teams with your commitment, with budgets commitment, county administration.

[00:43:30] As Mr. Mullen alluded to, it's a puzzle out there. Our demand of our fields vastly outweighs the number of available quality of fields. Mr. Mullen referenced the school sites.

[00:43:46] What Neil's team has done with our park sites is, I'll show you a picture later of the diamonds at Iron Ridge with the Hokies out there on Sunday. What they do is first class. It is a first choice parks community.

[00:44:02] But we also know we have a growing population. You saw it, the numbers referenced in BizSense today. Take this to the sports side of things. we have to continue to step up to meet the demand of our residential groups, or what we have called our co-sponsor groups.

[00:44:18] So before we come to you as a board and say, we need more fields, Neil and I both have a job to do. And that job is, as they do a complete facility assessment, including our local elementary and middle school sites, we're gonna do a holistic policy review of how we rent fields to our resident groups.

[00:44:40] We've already, in the few short months, Neil and I have worked together to make some immediate changes. Mr. Carroll, I've told you about a few of these over the phone recently, but our co-sponsorship is old.

[00:44:57] Sports changes yearly. How amateur sports are played changes yearly. The demand for sports changes yearly. I'm gonna use a travel baseball analogy 'cause I'm a baseball guy. When I came up playing travel sports here, your travel baseball teams were independent from Huguenot Athletic Association or Little League.

[00:45:17] Now you largely have travel teams who are playing for Huguenot Little League. They are our residents. So when you look at when a group comes to rent a field, if you are co-sponsored or not, if you are a nonprofit or not, if you are serving our residents, you need to be on our fields.

[00:45:34] I don't want you leaving, Neil and I don't want you leaving Chesterfield and you shouldn't have to pay for our fields either. And so we are gonna go through a holistic scheduling and co-sponsorship policy review as Neil and his team go through a complete park and rent facility assessment.

[00:45:50] And we're gonna come with a strategy of how we meet the demand for our residents, how we maximize the use of our fields. I'm stealing Neil's quote here. His job is to basically grow the grass and our job is to kill the grass. And we really do mean that.

[00:46:06] We wanna maximize the usage of our fields. but it's not gonna come with some tough conversations. We have done things largely the same way for a very long time. There's not gonna be exclusive facility rights, if you wanna call it that.

[00:46:22] Just because you've had a group of facilities since day one, your makeup, it's gonna be a data-backed approach with Ms. Hobson's lead. How you serve our residents is how you're gonna get on our fields. And my goal simply is, and I know Neil is on board with this, we're gonna use all those tourism dollars to eliminate our local fees.

[00:46:45] And I think that's very important for where we are heading and that fabric of how we incorporate sports is to get rid of our local fees and maximize the use of our fields. I wish I could mic drop and walk out right now on that slide, but that's how important it is to what we're doing.

[00:47:00] And I really appreciate Neil's efforts in this, Mr. Mullen, Ms. Hobson's efforts. The one line I don't like to hear, it's always been done this way. I respect wholeheartedly where we've come from, but we are a growing population and sports is at the DNA of our community.

[00:47:20] - So this is our tourism profile from this past year. We hosted 156 different sports tourism events, and I know Mr. Poma says this quite often. - Just one second. I think what you just touched base on is pretty important. We need to make sure that we have equity across the community and opportunity on these fields, especially for our kids that are from here.

[00:47:42] Sports tours are absolutely fantastic, and we love to see everything that's going on and bringing everybody here. But also it's about making sure that our kids who live in this community get an opportunity to play in these fields as well, and it's a fair opportunity in all parts of the county. So I appreciate the approach that you're taking and moving forward to make sure that there's equity across the group here because we've seen shifting in these leagues and how many people in one league opposed to another league.

[00:48:12] And so we have teams that are, or leagues in some senses, that are stuck in one place and they don't get an opportunity to play in some of the other places. And some leagues don't get enough even field time, comparatively speaking, to the amount of children that they have on their teams. And so the approach that you're taking, I look forward to seeing what you come up with and how that works out.

[00:48:34] One other point, you mentioned that we want to use tourism dollars, But those tourism dollars that we're using are from people from out of town staying in our hotels that are only able to be used to generate heads and beds, which our facility improvements take care of.

[00:48:53] But that's also how we take care of our citizens. Correct. Well said. Thank you. So the chart on the screen is our tourism profile from this past year. You'll see we hosted 156 different sports tourism events, but the two numbers that really stand out the most when you look at this is of all the attendees that were at our tourism events, 40% of them continue to be from local.

[00:49:19] So that means, you know, to Dr. Casey, the line that we like to say, the home field advantage is still there. And then when we go through our data, the facility usage still favors heavily local use. 73% of all scheduled athletic fields are for our local co-sponsored sports organizations, whereas only 27% is derived from tourism events.

[00:49:38] So, you know, we're continuing to make sure we favored our residents here in our backyard first. And, Ms. Schneider, I need to call out quickly. The award-winning River City Sportsplex, I know it is a great county asset, but that was a big award for us in our industry to continue to show off the venues, what Parks does.

[00:49:58] So I know you go out to River City right now and it looks great with the additions out there, but it's already an award-winning facility. And Neil, thank you for all you do out there. Our brand is extremely important to us. We are a content machine. Ms. Hart is the best of the best at what she does in getting the word out.

[00:50:16] I wish we could be everywhere. We can't. So we like to say, you know, it's really, sorry, you know, one post at a time. And we mean that wholeheartedly. When you look, we wish we could cover and be at every attraction every day, but we live and breathe by showcasing the experiential aspect of Chesterfield.

[00:50:39] A lot of destinations think you have to create a profile. You have to create what you want to become, whether it's food and beverage or outdoor recreation. No, Chesterfield is about our quality of life, and we have so much breadth in our community that with a very limited staff and limited budget, We do things very methodical in where we are targeting residents, where they come from.

[00:51:03] And as a DMO, we have a lot of opportunities through our grant programs to do that now. And I'm going to show you just a quick video on the right. This is a very strategic marketing effort by us. We partner with social media influencers in different geographic areas to help drive visitation.

[00:51:20] This was a vacation starts with VA grant that was amplified by Virginia tourism And really, largely, you'll see the engagement in that bottom right photo from the Northern Virginia Market. The Safari Skyride. This is just one of the activities we did on our recent trip to Chesterfield, and it's the family trip that has left our kids asking when we get to go back.

[00:51:43] All the activities at the Metro Richmond Zoo took us by surprise, add in exploring mining ruins at Midlothian Mines Park, trying out new board games at Unplugged Game Cafe, the new Katie and Friends playground is accessible for all ages, and the cabins at Pocahontas state park give nature with the accommodations you want grab a drink and a bite to eat at guide roasting company and top of the perfect family trip to chesterfield with kline fairy bar so that's just a very you know uh determined effort by us is to use these grant monies to help us get out in the community and be as fiscally responsible as park as possible i'm also super

[00:52:19] proud of liz this is something this is really our first in-house created campaign and we just launched this last week you're not going to see it locally yet as we get I feel like after Halloween is probably pretty appropriate here locally but we're trying to influence holiday travel decisions right now and this is a really really fun campaign that Liz put together you can even see the great logo that constituent media services created with the the tacky lights around experience Chesterfield we have one of the brightest holiday destinations in the country and people don't know about it led by the tacky light run we are

[00:52:56] really using this as a occasion to influence travel and in what we call a shoulder season one of those months where occupancy is not high as it is you'll

[00:53:08] get a sneak peek of the vibe here or maybe not and just so the record shows

[00:53:45] are our models canceled on us that morning at about 9:00 a.m. so Liz ran and got Adelaide out of school. Don't tell Dr. Murray that. And we made the best of it because we had a lot set up to go into these assets. So the visitor guide, Dave, Teresa, your team was tremendous in helping us get this started. Year two will be even better. Don't tell anyone, but that's the cover photo coming soon. On the right, we had a great photo shoot. I'm really excited. Quickly,

[00:54:23] Mr. Mullen. Establishing the Hall of Fame in year one was one of the most exciting things that our team has had the ability to work on. Members of the board, I believe all of you have now been to one of our Hall of Fame events, whether it's last year or this year, and we want to continue to thank you for your support with this initiative and hope you continue to see the excitement that's built around this event. The purpose of the Hall of Fame is to recognize the past sports history and excite the future of what's to come. We talk about storytelling a lot in our department and the number of stories that we have have come to light from this hall of fame is incredible i remember last year bobby watkins got up and spoke about being inducted into the virginia golf hall of fame but

[00:55:01] chesterfield was the one that mattered it's one where it all started at the grassroots level and it's it's stories like that that make us want to continue going and growing this this hall of fame event every single year and really in closing here we're adding one element to the hall of fame that you all have heard about and i'm really really excited about what's to come with this in 2026 we are starting our scholar athlete program to again really story tell around our high school

[00:55:27] student athletes and thought i'd show you this promo video promo video with dr murray chesterfield high school sports have long been the backbone of our community connecting families and neighbors through a shared sense of pride and tradition through covering athletics in chesterfield i've seen firsthand how sports can help young men and women become future leaders chesterfield has

[00:56:05] partnered with CBS 6 to honor 22 of our high school students between September 1st and October 31st each high school will nominate one male and one female student who exceed in the classroom on the field in the community and demonstrate leadership each honoree will receive a $500 scholarship be featured on CBS 6 in addition two nominees will receive a $1,000 scholarship and have their names engraved on the Hall of Fame wall at the River City Sports Place.

[00:56:40] For more information on the program, visit PlayChesterfield.com. I'm just personally really excited about this one. But in closing, you know, a year ago, plus Mr. Holland threw out the first pitch at the Diamonds at Ironbridge in the Dale District.

[00:57:03] We didn't know, you know, what was coming down the road here. And on Sunday, a few of us were out there when the Virginia Tech Hokies came and really is probably the biggest thing to play on our field. But all I could think about was he'd probably be up there and what would he say?

[00:57:19] Welcome to the Dale District. And I just think it means a lot to know the backbone of tourism through Mr. Holland, but also the timing of having them here. There was someone definitely from above watching on Sunday.

[00:57:35] So appreciate your time, and it's been a fun year. And, you know, all of our partners, Neil, Dave, thank you. Members of the board, thank you for all your support. And with that, I'll take questions. Mr. Chair.

[00:57:51] Mr. Kerr. You know, we hold a lot of events in Chesterfield where people come from other parts of the country. And I know that our communications and media people can't be at every event. But I had an idea. I don't know if you guys have even thought of this, but it just popped into my head while we're watching this.

[00:58:10] Have we thought about partnering with the schools, with kids that are in those programs to say, hey, look, would you like to get some extra credit? And work with the schools to say, when we have these weekend events, have the kids come out, take pictures, and do a story on it, or video, and that they could actually provide to us.

[00:58:30] And would help them get the experience that they're looking for in that type of avenue, and help us to cover some of these events. And we could, you know, partner with them and with the schools. I don't know if we've considered anything like that. Maybe you already have, but... Dave's ears, I'm sure, perked up when we heard that.

[00:58:47] And we agree with you. I'll just give you one example. Everybody knows Mr. Ken Oxendine works with schools. We're actually exploring, there is a sports broadcasting part of the career and technical education component, and that's one example we're pursuing right now is how to loop those into not just the high schools, but our events as well.

[00:59:07] So adding on to that is something we'll definitely look at. When I was a kid, we had a high school radio station. Now, that's a long time ago, right? The UCVY 91.5. I know, that's weird. I remember this stuff. But one of our announcers was a guy named Alan Beswick in high school.

[00:59:27] Alan Beswick went on to be one of the major announcers in NASCAR across the United States. But he started out as a high school radio station. And when I think about those things, I go, any opportunity we can give our kids that may be a life-changing opportunity for them in the future, I think we need to do.

[00:59:44] And I think this is one of them that could make a difference for the kids in the future. So just something to consider. I agree. Coming up with ideas. Are we finding that filmmakers are reaching out to us to want to film here in Chesterfield County?

[01:00:04] I know we have Pocahontas State Park, largest state park in Virginia. Are we getting any folks that are, or at least are we going out there and asking that question? Yeah, I think the proactive piece of that is something I'd love to pursue further with the state film office. You would be surprised, HGTV actually is here more often than you think with our growing population, new homes.

[01:00:27] There's been numerous instances of that in our time. But the proactive piece is something, it's probably on my top drawer sticky note that my team knows I always have in there. But I do agree with you. I'm just excited I'm going to have a tree lighting ceremony at.

[01:00:50] Just joking. No, no, no. Huh? Yes, spooktacular. And I've got something else. I'm going to try to be there, but I'm excited to see more and more things happening at River City and hopefully Genital Road can handle the traffic impacts and we'll work on perfecting the traffic flow in and out, I think, for multiple things that we're looking at.

[01:01:16] Mr. Luther is working. We're working hand-in-hand on a traffic plan out there. Thank you so much. Well, a lot of good things going on. Thank you for sharing that with the community through this afternoon work session and keep up the good work.

[01:01:33] Thank you very much, members of the board.

[01:01:50] B, Mobility Services and Transportation update, Ms. Conley and Ms. Smith. Good afternoon, everyone.

[01:02:07] Hi. Now you can really hear me, right? Well, thank you for giving us the opportunity to provide a Community Engagement and Resources Mobility Services update in addition to the transportation bar we'll be sharing on microtransit. As you all know, Mobility Services falls under Community Engagement and Resources, Access on Demand, which is a schedule and pickup service, provides residents with an easy pickup.

[01:02:32] This program is popular and is widely used throughout the county to a target population of residents. Access on Demand, as you all know, in order to enroll in the qualifications for the program is you must live in Chesterfield County.

[01:02:49] You must live in Chesterfield County, but there are three pockets in order to be able to be eligible for the program. The first pocket is age 60 or over. You can have a disability, whether it's short term or long term, and then low income.

[01:03:06] And the validation for the program, you have to provide documentation in order to be qualified for the program. So you're enrolling with our office, and then we have three vendors that are used for the transportation services. The service area which we are covering, which is great for our community and our residents, because if you look at the green area, that's any trip for any reason from one part of the county from the Matulka district down to the Bermuda district. If you can just see the coverage that we have, and that's any personal trip, any mobile, any medical trip, or any personal medical

[01:03:45] employment anywhere in the county. And then outside of the county, we're allowed trips that are work and employment, work and medical only. If you could see Richmond, Hemrico, Hanover, some parts of Hopewell and Columbia Heights. So we're fortunate to have the program that we take good care of our residents and they can move anywhere in the county that they want to within those means and then still be able to go to work into their medical appointments. To tell you a little bit about the history of the of access on demand, our leaders back in the early 2000s thought they identified there was a need. There was a need to provide transportation services to our residents and

[01:04:23] grateful enough we're 20 years later but that need still exists today. In 2004, Access Chesterfield was launched. It was a curb-to-curb shared ride service. Passengers purchased vouchers.

[01:04:39] The vouchers were purchased either in Citizens Information and Resources, which is now Community Engagement and Resources, the Treasurer's Office, and any of the county libraries. And our residents had to buy a book of tickets, which was $36, or they bought individual tickets.

[01:04:55] We provided both ambulatory and non-ambulatory trips with one cost. In 2018, Citizens Information resources now community engagement resource community engagement and resources provided a service where we took over access Chesterfield to now it's it's from mental health to our new department and at that time it was two full-time employees thanks to dr. Casey for creating our department in 2019 we transitioned to access on demand and access on demand is a look is a different

[01:05:34] service in a sense of access just to feel was more of a ride shares program and access on demand is you schedule and you pick up. So after COVID ridership with access just to feel went with reduced, but really low. And so access to demand has picked up and we were able to actually have three full time employees with the program. And 22, I will say kudos to our colleagues and information sector systems technology. They helped us develop a tool to support the program.

[01:06:06] Power BI was created that we can create reports, track the use, pull any type of data that we want. It's just at a fingertip. And that has made life so much easier for not only our staff and CER, but also our budget partners and anyone else within our certain departments that we're working with to pull information about the program.

[01:06:26] We also created in 22 the online registration and an interactive map, which help residents to navigate where they want to go and to determine where they can go in the county and outside the county. That online registration is a very different tool than before because the tool before you had to come and get your vouchers.

[01:06:45] This online registration, you can email or call us or fax in your registration. We get you enrolled, but you're paying the vendor on site with a credit card. This service that we have is very unique. In fact, it's so unique that our partners in Hanover has created a program just like ours.

[01:07:05] A little bit different requirements, but our programs are similar, and they use us as a marketing tool to be able to create their program. The Taylor service that we provide, it ensures access to transportation providers with special mobility needs, whether it's wheelchair or if you have some other device that you need assistance with working, I mean, getting transportation.

[01:07:26] Out of our three vendors, someone can support you by providing that service with the correct vehicle. Drivers are trained in ADA disability sensitivity and HIPAA compliance. That's very important for people because our residents care about who's transporting them and making sure that they can really adjust and be sensitive to the needs they have as they're transporting to, whether it's a personal visit, a medical employment.

[01:07:50] And lastly, this program, as we value it, is because it's safe, it's reliable, it's door-to-door, and it's an affordable transportation service. This is just an excerpt from Power BI, and it shows you from the last three years the information that can be compiled.

[01:08:10] And fortunate enough, we were able to determine, just at a drop of a button, how many riders we had and how many trips we had. If you can see, the last three years, we've had 2,636 riders, active members, and over almost 400 paid trips.

[01:08:28] And if you look at the cost per mile, the average mile is 11.6 miles that the average rider is taking. And the cost per trip is approximately $31, $32 a ride.

[01:08:47] The program status, in FY 2025, we provided 150,000 paid trips. Passengers, 47% seniors, 41% disabled, and 12% low income.

[01:09:03] Their trip purpose, 69% of that was employment. 15% of that was medical. Trip destinations, 65% of the trips were within Chesterfield County, and 35% were in to or from, transporting to or from the county.

[01:09:27] As we know that our program is valued by our residents, is valued by our leaders. You all have met with us individually. My colleague Matt Harris and his team, the budget team, have been very supportive and assisting us in navigating the demands of the program.

[01:09:45] While we may not go out and truly advertise outside of participating in vendor events, if someone calls and asks and wants support, we know that this program is important to you all, it's important to our community, and sustainability is important as well. So as we've talked through several meetings for the last year or so on how can we sustain this meeting, this program, we know it's in our heart to make sure that our residents get to and from, whether it's personal, whether it's medical, or whether it's employment. And so we currently have three transportation vendors that we've been

[01:10:19] working with for the last year. That's Lodges, Ride Round Trip, and You Serve. They're providing door-to-door, ambulatory, wheelchair service. The ridership, because our ridership has drastically increased, we have to think about what it looks like moving forward in the future. How do we sustain it. Sustainability is our key, although we're embracing that there is a need, a strong need.

[01:10:43] And so our cost per ride has been $6 for a number of years. And we've been good to our community with providing the $6 ride. And there has not been any change. We're fortunate enough that we have been able to receive two grants from the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation.

[01:11:02] One is a $500,000, and that's for wheelchair rides, and the other is for one position, program coordinator position of $80,000 in our department. Our department really finds that many of our residents often share how loyal they are, because we've had a number of residents for a number of years riding.

[01:11:25] And just the riders really care about the program, and they're very appreciative of the county being supportive and allowing us to have a service of this magnitude. We've met with you all, the leaders, our leaders, but we've also met with the Citizen and Budget Advisory Council Committee with Matt Harris and his staff.

[01:11:48] And part of that discussion we've had, we've come up with some recommendations. And in those recommendations, we wanted to, and with your input, because we've incorporated your input as well into these recommendations, is have a disability, keep the disability, because we have to have that, one of our pots.

[01:12:08] But that's no change. Meet income-based eligibility requirement is no change. And then one of the changes would be a qualifying component would be with age. You have to qualify, you may be 60 years old, but there's a qualifying component to the age to make you eligible for the program.

[01:12:27] The recommendation is to increase the cost from what we currently have now, $6 to $10 one-way trip within the county and $15 one-way trip outside of the county. We also discussed it would be advantageous to us to review the program and its fees and costs every two years to see if there needs to be an inflation adjustment at any point.

[01:12:52] So this will help us stay aligned with the costs that the program has been for the last several years. This year, by the end of fiscal year, we're projecting to be about $6 million. Last year, it closed the fiscal year with a little bit over $5 million. And the last option that was shared is trying to look back and do some research on the ride-sharing option.

[01:13:16] could we incorporate that at some point moving in the future. As part of these recommendations, it is our next steps to this would be we're collaborating with Constituent and Media Services on a campaign of sharing the information about the program changes with the community.

[01:13:34] In addition to that, we will have a community meeting to also present the changes of this program with them as well. And then these changes would be effective January 2026. And I say this all of, you know, while we're faced with sustainability, we had a program that the county offered, Staying Strong, last week.

[01:13:58] And some of the riders came up to the vendor table and said to other people, this is the greatest service in the county. If you don't know anything about it and you need help to get around to your medical appointments, come talk to these people here. This service changed their lives and has given them back their freedom.

[01:14:17] It's a reliable and affordable service. So residents by word of mouth share, I think Frank maybe shared with me one day last week a call, one day we had eight calls. Now not because we're out on billboards or anything like that, it's just word of mouth with the program.

[01:14:36] So we're fortunate to have leaders that support this program like you all that will continue to be able to meet the needs of our community by providing this service. We're fortunate to work with our CDOT partners with GRTC and the Microtransit program.

[01:14:52] So based on just the discussion that we've had, the conversations that I've had with the GRC partners and CDOT, Barb will share more with you all after my presentation about the Microtransit and where we stand with that. This concludes our presentation on mobility services.

[01:15:15] Not Barb. Barb is my, Barb is next. Any questions, Your Honor? Can we advance the slide?

[01:15:35] Thank you. Oh, I could advance the slide. Sorry about that. So I'm Barb Smith. I'm from the Transportation Department and here to give an update on microtransit in the county. So I'll get started and focus in on GRTC's link microtransit and explain what that is.

[01:15:53] So it's an on-demand curb-to-curb service. It's offered to any resident, and they can book rides using the GRTC on-the-go app or calling. GRTC. The service goal that GRTC has for responding to requests is 20 minutes, and so far they're meeting that goal. Microtransit operates within zones, and GRTC currently has six zones in the region, and riders are picked up and dropped off within that zone boundary. But some of the zones connect to fixed route bus service, which expands their

[01:16:32] options outside of that zone into the greater GRTC bus system. The vehicles are ADA accessible, and the technology that's used for microtransit allows for ride grouping during high demand to make it more efficient. So our zone is called Cloverdale, the Cloverdale link, and this is a pilot. The pilot started in March 2024, and the grant goes through March 2027. GRTC was able to

[01:17:09] SECURE DEMONSTRATION FUNDS FROM THE VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF RAIL AND PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION FOR THE PILOT PROJECT. THAT GRANT RAMPS DOWN OVER THE THREE-YEAR PERIOD, REQUIRING MORE AND MORE LOCAL MATCH, WHICH RIGHT NOW IS BEING PROVIDED BY GRTC.

[01:17:27] THERE'S A TENTATIVE EXPANSION TO EXPAND THE PILOT FOR ANOTHER TWO YEARS. Our zone extends from east of the Chippenham 360 interchange and runs along 360 all the way west to the Clover Hill Library.

[01:17:46] Let's see, ridership. So you can see ridership has been slowly inching up. We had a month in July that we were close to 900 rides a month and we're always looking to figure out ways to get more and more people aware of the service and riding.

[01:18:08] So as the pilot's gone on, we've had some zone expansions, and right now GRTC is evaluating more residential coverage, yeah, and connecting up to Stonebridge, which would tie in another bus route.

[01:18:26] So right now the zone touches a bus stop that's near that Hanes on the east side of the interchange at Chippenham. It also connects the 82 Express at Commonwealth Center, and if we do this expansion, it would cover Stonebridge. We've also done marketing along the ways. Of course, with the launch, there was a marketing effort. We did another marketing effort in the fall of 2024. And right now we're developing two more marketing pushes. So the benefits of microtransit. Fixed route bus

[01:19:01] service operates best on grid roadways where there's a nice concentration of population and employment. And that's where fixed route bus service can really provide the most coverage and frequency for riders. The benefit of microtransit, because it can deviate and it only makes a trip when someone requests a ride, you're providing more coverage and more frequency for the riders. The curb-to-curb service means riders don't have to walk far to get to the vehicle or to their destination. And in Chesterfield, where we don't have a whole lot of

[01:19:41] sidewalks, that is a real big benefit. And then the higher frequency because riders, the trips only are initiated when a ride is requested. It provides efficient, reliable response to riders that they can count on getting a ride within 20 minutes. So with the link, we've got more flexibility.

[01:20:09] Like I talked about, it connects to fixed bus routes and the zones are very adjustable and the hours are adjustable so we've made changes along the way with the pilot that way. Another great benefit is that there's no CDL required for the drivers. We all remember the problem we had with CDL drivers so that's really good for a workforce. Challenges though you know it is zone based so your trips originate and end within a defined zone and because it's new we're still learning a lot

[01:20:46] And that's why we have gotten a study, or gotten study money from Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation to do a countywide microtransit study. So with that, we'll be looking at cost, how much do additional zones cost, how does microtransit compare to fixed route bus service, which is more cost efficient.

[01:21:10] We'll also be looking at how it integrates with fixed routes and how it would integrate with Access Chesterfield. You know, can we take some demand off of access so that they can focus on the more critical trips? We'll also be looking at zone design.

[01:21:28] Where do microtransit zones make sense in the county? You may have heard Powhatan started with a very defined zone, but now has expanded to countywide. Does that make sense in Chesterfield? Or does it make sense to have zones that connect and people can kind of hop from zone to zone to get more places?

[01:21:49] So we'll start that this month and should have that study wrapped up in a year. And we'll be working closely with Kim. Do you have any questions? So Kim, when people call for the access on demand, if they live within the Cloverdale, do we give them that information if it's something that they would be able to use for their...

[01:22:15] I'm just asking if you guys are sharing that information with them, if that's... So staff, when people call in there in that area, they often will say, we have Cloverdale, the microtransit, it's free, you can do this thing. So yes, they answered your question, yes, they did. Go ahead.

[01:22:33] Sorry. I know I had talked at our TPO meeting about, you know, is it possible to look at, because I think that some of the reason why we haven't gotten as much pickup on ridership is because we don't have as many residential places within Cloverdale area.

[01:22:55] And so if we could expand a little out into the residential areas that would utilize that the most, we might get better ridership. Because right now there's a lot of businesses along there, but not a lot of people to utilize those businesses on there. So thank you so much for that.

[01:23:12] GRTC did a really great job of jumping on that as soon as they heard you mention it. All right. Thank you both. One last thing I will share. Mr. Holland, he was very supportive of Microtransit as well as our Mobility Services Program, Access on Demand.

[01:23:33] I will say he signed up during his journey of going through the process of being sick. He signed up for Mobility Services just in case he may need the service. He was already signed up and can just make the phone call. So we know we'll miss him, and we'll miss his champion in leadership in supporting this program as well.

[01:23:51] But thank you for the opportunity. Thank you. Madam Clerk. See consent agenda highlights. Mr. Bowles. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, and Dr. Casey.

[01:24:15] A few consent agenda highlights for today. First is the 2026 legislative program. So you reviewed this draft program at your August meeting. And today's action finalizes the approval for the upcoming General Assembly session.

[01:24:33] There's only one change to highlight, which was upon further consideration on the topic of vote centers. There was board consensus to remove this item from the legislative program. Next is a resolution expressing concurrence with the inducement resolution adopted by the Powhatan Economic Development Authority in approving the issuance of revenue bonds for the benefit of Shamine Hotels and SL Hotel LLC.

[01:25:03] Shamine is undertaking financing of up to $150 million for the acquisition, construction, and furnishing of a new Hilton Hotel and Conference Center located in Chesterfield. And since our EDA is the spring line project developer, it declined to also be the bond issuer.

[01:25:24] Under federal tax law as well as Virginia law, the Powhatan EDA cannot issue bonds for this hotel financing without the approval from you. And just to clarify, Chesterfield nor the Chesterfield EDA has any liability for these bonds.

[01:25:44] So next up is the construction contract for the Chester Fire Station replacement project. This is a project just under $12.2 million for the station replacement, which was approved as part of the 2022 bond referendum, as well as having that funding authorized in subsequent CIPs.

[01:26:12] Currently, FIRE operates out of a 6,600-square-foot facility that dates back to the 1960s. This facility will be 17,378 square feet and have three apparatus bays for an engine, ambulance, the public safety, mobile command center, and will also house a battalion chief.

[01:26:41] Land purchase at 8,800 and 9,000 Winterpock Road. This is 35 acres of land for the purpose of siting the Grange Hall replacement elementary school. That was also approved as part of the 2022 bond referendum.

[01:27:00] We have negotiated a purchase agreement with the current owner for just under $7.3 million, which aligns with the current market per lot value as determined by an appraisal.

[01:27:17] And we'll also have a contribution of $761,000 towards the road improvements that will eventually serve this school. Finally, another construction contract for the Proctor's Creek control building expansion and renovation.

[01:27:42] This is just under 5.9 million and consists of renovating and expanding the existing admin building there to relocate the pretreatment staff from their current office, which will be demolished as part of the recently awarded flow equalization basin construction that I believe was on your agenda last month.

[01:28:04] And then to close out the consent retirement items, have several this month. Jerry Pruden, fire and EMS for 44 years. Stephen Fortier in police, 26 years.

[01:28:21] Louis Densmore, utilities, 17 years. Russell Granderson, police, 28 years. Wendy Likes, mental health support services, 25 years. Wayne Brumbaugh, another police, 20 years.

[01:28:38] Stacey Sloniker in utilities, 27 years. And Tommy Tucker, emergency communication for 30 years. So all together, if my math is right, that's 217 years of service collectively. So those are all the highlights.

[01:28:56] I'm happy to answer any questions. Yes, sir, Dr. Casey. I was just going to add one more, and that's the award of the construction contract for the Woolwich Road Extended. Okay. So that's a major project that's going to ensue and take two to three years, I believe, to construct. And thank you, Ms. Walker, for thank you.

[01:29:22] Any questions? Thank you. Item 5, reports. Are there any questions regarding the reports? Seeing no questions, the reports are approved.

[01:29:38] Item 6, closed session. One, 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 industry's interest in locating or expanding their facilities in the community.

[01:30:06] 2. Pursuant to Section 2.2-3711A3, Code 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.

[01:30:28] And three, pursuant to Section 2.2-3711A1, Code of Virginia 1950 as amended, relating to the performance of the county attorney and the chief of police. Mr. Chair, we need a motion to go into closed session.

[01:30:47] Before we do that, I know this is out of order, but since we are going to go into closed session first, I do believe we have one speaker for the citizen comment period. and if it's all right with all the board members, I'd like to move that up to now and let him speak so he's not stuck here while we're in closed session.

[01:31:06] That's what I was getting ready to ask you. Thank you. We were right, Brian. You're welcome. Yes, sir. Okay, so we're doing item eight now, which is 15-minute citizen comment period on unscheduled matters.

[01:31:24] This time is designated for citizens to talk to the Board of Supervisors. It is not a time for dialogue with the 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.

[01:31:48] We have one speaker, Craig Conway. Thank you. My name is Craig Conway. I live at 3519 Kendall Crossing Terrace in Tarrington, which is a far north part of the county. I am a new resident of Cheshfield County, having lived here only about four months.

[01:32:07] A recent headline in the Wall Street Journal said, We can't stop climate change, but we need to prepare for it. Part of that preparedness is an early warning system of sirens to alert citizens of bad weather. Not everyone has a phone on them or is near a TV or a radio to hear alerts.

[01:32:25] I lived in St. Louis County, Missouri for 50 years. St. Louis County surrounds the city of St. Louis, but is a separate and distinct political entity and is over five times the size of St. Louis. St. Louis County is 508 square miles, just a little bit bigger than this county.

[01:32:46] Population, though, is one million people compared to about 400,000 in Chesterfield County. Also, as a means of comparison, there are about 23 fire stations in Chesterfield County spread out over 14 municipalities. This compares to hundreds of firehouses in 43 fire districts, spread out over 88 municipalities in St. Louis County.

[01:33:11] Thirteen years ago, St. Louis County began installing sirens throughout the county, which became fully operational 45 days ago. It is the largest such early warning siren system in the United States. Locations of the 204 sirens are fire stations, parks, unincorporated areas, and numerous other public and private areas throughout the county.

[01:33:38] The system was paid for by various means, including grants, a 1% sales tax voted on by its citizens in 2009. Each siren costs about $45,000, including insulation. That's the total of $7.5 million for the entire system.

[01:33:57] It was all part of a $100 million bond issue that replaced individual police, fire, and EMS systems so that they all are united under one system. Everybody in St. Louis County is aware of the first Monday of the month at 11 a.m. when the sirens go off as a one-minute test.

[01:34:19] There are three west-to-east zones in St. Louis County that the sirens are located. If a zone is not affected by severe weather, the sirens will not be activated, thus minimizing siren fatigue. The sirens work even when the cell towers are down.

[01:34:38] The sirens sound three minutes and are activated automatically by either a National Weather Service alert, winds greater than 80 miles an hour, or a severe thunderstorm warning. No human interaction is needed, but the system can be activated manually.

[01:35:00] The sirens are so situated that they can be heard for two to two and a half miles. Although the use of sirens is mostly for those outside of the home, they can be heard in the home also. In summary, with more severe and destructive weather patterns, a growing population, and a need for a more active alert system, I would like to see the county begin investigating a siren system for the county, and a call to the St. Louis County Office of Emergency Management would be a great place to begin.

[01:35:33] Thank you for your time. Thank you. I think you dropped something as well on the floor behind you. Now, can I get a motion to go into closed session?

[01:35:50] So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye.

[01:36:31] Okay.

[01:37:05] Mr. Chair, we need a motion to certify that to the best of each member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements under the Freedom of Information Act were discussed in closed session to which this certification applies, and only such business matters identified in the motion by which the closed session was convened were heard, discussed, or considered by the board.

[01:37:32] Clerk, can you please call the roll? Ms. Schneider, Mr. Carroll, Dr. Miller, Mr. Engel. Mr. Chair, your last work session is the social services annual update, Ms. Grant and Ms. Rogers.

[01:37:50] Mr. Chairman, members of the board, and Dr. Casey, I'm Angie Grant, board of the chair, Chesterfield Colonial Heights DSS board. I'm delighted to stand before you this afternoon, and on behalf of the board, I would like to express our profound gratitude to you, the Board of Supervisors, for your unwavering support of Kiva and the Department of Social Services over the past year.

[01:38:13] Your support is invaluable and integral to our operations. We were just honored this week to have Dr. Casey, a part of our board meeting, what words of insight, wisdom he has regarding the state of our commonwealth, so supportive of outside the box thinking and the love of community partners appreciate that our board provides administrative policy oversight for a department that assists individuals families in our community the goals are encouraging self sufficiency preservation restoration of families and protection of children

[01:38:49] senior citizens and people with disabilities our board firmly believes that our work is of the utmost importance to our community and we are deeply appreciative of the vital role that you the Board of Supervisors play in this. Your support is a testament to our shared commitment to the well-being of our community. Serving on our board we have Mr. Engel. Your representation of the Board of Supervisors has been invaluable. We're grateful for your service and your expertise. Also representing the board is Dr. Shauna Mayo, Kathy Robbins, Jay Payne, Juan Santacoloma,

[01:39:25] Mr. Chris Coleman, Lori Kombucha, and Richard Yates. Many of them are here today. We would also like to thank Dr. Worsley, representing the county administration. Your continued guidance and support are deeply appreciated and have been instrumental in our work.

[01:39:42] Today, our board would like to brief you on the successes and challenges of the past year and the new opportunities that we'll have. We have asked Kiva Rogers, our director, to come and present this report to you. But before she comes, I'd like to say a few words about Kiva. Kiva has become a friend.

[01:39:59] I've known her for a very long time now, and I love her dearly. And I love the fact that she comes to us with professional, obviously, support and insight for the department, but also as a foster adoptive mom and the insight that she brings with that.

[01:40:17] She's led this department since 2016. She's led with excellence over the past nine years. She's a leader with vision, grit, a heart for her employees, and a deep commitment to providing effective, efficient, and quality services for our customers.

[01:40:37] We are incredibly fortunate to have her as our director. Working alongside of Kiva is an exemplary team. Eileen Fields, who serves as her administrative assistant, Danica Ricks, LaToya Cathcart, Karen Riley Jones, and Raishana Addison, they each have extensive experience and expertise, and this team, along with Kiva, is second to none in Virginia. The work of social services is demanding, stressful, and often heartbreaking, and this team tirelessly works to create a culture of health, care, and integrity among its staff and communities of Chesterfield and

[01:41:16] Colonial Heights. Our board is privileged to work alongside it in a small way. Thank you for your time. I now invite Keeva to Kim and give her presentation. Chair, members of the board, Dr. Casey.

[01:41:32] Year nine, I should have this figured out by now, the microphone. Chair, members of the board, Dr. Casey, I really am grateful to have an opportunity to start our presentation by sharing with you our new strategic plan that we launched in January of this year.

[01:41:49] This strategic plan really represents a significant amount of reflection and input across the department. The plan, when we started it, we wanted to look for a clear, create a clear path forward, one that really strengthened how we lead, how we partner with the community, and just overall how we serve the community.

[01:42:13] The plan centers around four key goals and areas of focus, Starting with leading at every level, looking at our workforce, and we're working towards creating a culture of leadership, one where we empower staff to take initiative, solve problems, and continuously grow.

[01:42:33] That is so important to help us achieve Goal 2, which is to provide and create a five-star experience in service delivery. We're committed to delivering service not only with excellence, but to be efficient and most of all, compassionate.

[01:42:51] I'll share some of the data on workload. And what we strive to do is never forget that regardless of the 80,000 Medicaid recipients that we serve, Those are 80,000 individuals who are behind those numbers and cases and never lose sight of that.

[01:43:11] As we build on collaboration as the third goal that we focus on, we're breaking down silos. Today we started really showing the power of what collaboration can do. Our strategic plan really makes intentional efforts to grow and to build on collaboration and working across divisions, not just within our department, but with other county departments as well as with community partners.

[01:43:39] And the last area that we focus on, Mr. Holland would absolutely love Goal 4. He was a big data person. He always wanted to see numbers. And we have really focused on becoming more data-driven in the work that we do.

[01:43:56] Dr. Miller said earlier today it's hard work. You stole my line. was going to say that that at social services we do a tremendous amount of hard work and what we are doing now is in addition to the hard work also looking at the data and helping us to be more efficient ensuring that we're we're being informed in our decision-making we're tracking our progress and we're also being held accountable for everything that we do this plan really is more than just a document it is a roadmap that we're using to help guide the department as we

[01:44:33] continue to evolve and meet the needs of the community everything that you'll see today really is focused around the theme of collaboration starting from everyday excellence to um everything that you'll see today everything that we accomplish is because we work tirelessly with others we cannot accomplish the work that we do by ourselves, whether it's citizens who help us to identify people in the community who are in need or partnerships and innovation that the board

[01:45:05] oftentimes supports us to bring new innovative ideas to the community. Our plan is deeply rooted in developing our workforce. As we look at, this is just a snapshot of our workload over the last year, I highlighted the four areas where we've seen the most significant increases in our work, beginning with Adult Protective Services, which saw a 23% increase in investigations of abuse, neglect, and exploitations of seniors.

[01:45:39] Our crisis assistance team experienced a 21% increase, and that team is going to be the teams. Ms. Snyder reached out to me the other day with someone who lost their electricity. That's the team that works with individuals who are experiencing life crisis, whether they're experiencing homelessness, loss of electricity, or if they need glasses and don't have insurance to pay for glasses.

[01:46:06] I wanted to highlight that the Medicaid program, while we saw an increase in applications, the number of recipients actually decreased by 10% in FY25. Last year when we met, we spoke about unwinding.

[01:46:25] That was what we were in the midst of last year. we saw a significant 10% reduction in our recipients, but what we also saw was a significant increase in new applications as well as appeals. So it's going to take a little while for the numbers to stabilize. As people lost insurance, they reapplied or they appealed to try to see if there was another way that they could continue to receive benefits. Our foster care area also

[01:46:55] received a 16% increase in children who entered into the department's legal custody. Our traffic within the lobby, while down at 23,000 visitors, it's down as well. Dr. Melody, do you want to say something? Forgive me for interrupting. I'm curious to know, with the increase, do you think that's the result of increased population, or do you think there's something else going on?

[01:47:26] I think it's a combination of factors. When I think about the increase of adult protective services, I can't believe we're still talking about the pandemic, but we have seen the trajectory since the pandemic has just year over year continued to increase.

[01:47:49] We remember that during the pandemic that population was hit very significantly, whether it was there in nursing homes or people could not come into their home for an extended period of time to provide care. So what we're finding is that more people are making referrals.

[01:48:08] The investigations are a lot more complex, but that they are now, in response to that, we've seen like a rallying around that population. I can definitely say that with the foster care numbers, some of the things that we talked about actually at our board meeting, we're getting more data at our board to kind of help paint the picture of what's happening because we're seeing the increase in foster care what we've had to do is really look at it systemically where our foster care numbers are increasing where you look at kids who are in the juvenile detention system

[01:48:46] those numbers are going down and so what we're beginning to see is that we're seeing an increase in foster care with our older young people who are coming into care. So I think it's a combination of systemic factors as well as population things that are going on. Specifically with adult protective services, are you finding that the situation is that you have multi-generational in the same home that's creating this kind of a situation? Are you seeing trends there at all what that might be about? I can't say that I've seen

[01:49:24] a lot of trends of multi-generational. Our highest area is going to be self-neglect. So people who are trying to stay in their homes no longer are able to care for themselves, experience medical, a medical crisis happening, still try to stay in their home. That's our fastest growing area is going to be self-neglect. So as the population ages, we'll likely see more of that.

[01:49:53] You're not seeing necessarily where you have they're in danger from another, like a parent or a son or anything like that. You're seeing that Adult Protective Services falls under that they're just not having adequate supports necessary for them to take care of themselves.

[01:50:12] Correct. And the complexity of Adult Protective Services is unless they've been deemed incompetent, they have the right to make decisions. And so our team really has to try to engage with seniors who are very independent and have lived independently for, you know, 80 plus years and then experience a crisis.

[01:50:36] And so helping them to see that they need help, trying to do it in the least restrictive way that we possibly can is the work that that team is really working on. So essentially aging population is what's going to contribute to this. Got it. Thank you.

[01:50:57] Sorry. One of the areas I wanted to highlight where we just talked about the realities of the workload are some really great things that we're seeing with our workforce. Despite the challenges where increasing caseloads and things of that nature, we've been able to, over the last year, really take a strategic effort to stabilize our workforce.

[01:51:20] We've experienced a 4% reduction in our turnover rate from last year. We are the closest that we have been since the pandemic and the great resignation. So we're not where we want to be, but we're much closer to the goal that Dr. Casey set for us, established for us of 11% actual turnover.

[01:51:42] So that's going to be traditional turnover minus retirements and probationary separations. We also have reduced our vacancy rate by 7%. And it has been through targeted efforts, looking at areas, again, using data, looking at areas where we're seeing the highest turnover, greatest vacancy, and really leaning into coming up with strategies to improve those circumstances.

[01:52:09] Employee wellness and engagement is also an area that we've been very intentional about. Secondary traumatic stress is a reality for the work that we do. The work that we did with the University of Kentucky showed us that it's not just our child welfare area, but our front desk people are experiencing the demands as well, walking alongside people and being the first point of contact, as well as our benefit programs area.

[01:52:35] We oftentimes meet folks not during the best of times in their lives, and sometimes, you know, you're the first person that they release their frustrations about life on. And we have really been intentional about focusing on just employee wellness through a partnership with the new employee behavioral health team.

[01:52:56] They have set up shop at our department, and they hold monthly support groups for our staff. They have been available to come over and do consultations if we reach out to them and say, hey, I've got a staff person who really had a very challenging situation.

[01:53:13] I had a conversation with one of the employees and they were talking about how they had responded to a situation where there was a child fatality. And they were working with law enforcement and things like that and those folks.

[01:53:33] And then they had to step back and say there was a social worker who was out there who saw that, who experienced that. And so it's really giving recognition to the staff about the level of trauma that they have to work through. We've also focused on a care committee, revamping that.

[01:53:51] That's a group that's really focused on fun. How can we have fun, come together with the picture that you see up there? It's a game day, an event that we have for employees. We'll just take time out of the day just to have fun and relax a little bit.

[01:54:09] We created a group called Boots on the Ground, which is a staff-led group that helps us to solve problems. It's solution-focused. That's what our strategic plan is all about, coming to the table. We do allow you to complain for a little bit, but then you've got to get your boots on the ground to help us to solve the challenges.

[01:54:29] That team is led by our human resources team, and we've been able to walk alongside staff so that everybody feels part of the solution. One of my saying that I always say is be the change that you want to see in the workplace.

[01:54:44] And we're trying to create opportunities for people to be part of the process. We also created a rock star bazaar that we share with our board. It is a document that seems to be growing by pages every time it's published of just shout outs that our staff have received.

[01:55:02] We usually receive a lot of complaints. And so it's good to just centralize all of the positive things that our staff are doing. Also focusing on professional development, we had 12 promotions, as well as three staff complete the career development plans.

[01:55:19] This is still continuing, but we've also dedicated training and support to our leadership team and have created a leadership series to strengthen their leadership and how we move the department forward.

[01:55:35] I did want to take time to recognize three accomplishments that our staff made. One is that we received a NACO award for our kinship collaborative with the citizen engagement and resources team, where oftentimes relatives assume custody of kids.

[01:55:52] Grandparents are caring for kids. That's the multi-generational stuff Dr. Miller was speaking about. And we created a resource group that really helps to sustain those families who oftentimes, you know, their financial situation shifts.

[01:56:09] So we just wanted to create space for them to go and to learn all the resources that are available. We received an award with Housing Families First during the 2024 Governor's Housing Conference for our efforts with their Bringing Families Home program that I'll talk a little bit about.

[01:56:28] We also had a staff person, our Child Protective Services staff person, who was given this year's Outstanding Service Award by the Domestic Balance Task Force. So that just highlights a few of the things that our staff has accomplished this year.

[01:56:44] I wanted to continue with some examples of the results of community collaboration. One of the ways that we continue to focus on economic mobility is through our career and resource fairs. Since September of 24, we resumed these career fairs, and they've grown each time.

[01:57:03] We had our fifth one September of this year, which yielded the largest amount of participants. We had 87 participants, 12 employers, and we have six people who we definitely know received employment as a result of that fair last month.

[01:57:23] And so that's just one way that we're engaging with the community. Another is we've launched a partnership with the Virginia Healthcare Foundation. They are on-site helping people to access medical care, helping with filling out applications, answering questions, just being a resource to customers who are in the lobby and who are trying to access health care.

[01:57:46] Last year, Capital One, we worked with them and they donated 30 bikes to our young people being served through child welfare. This year, their staff donated 90 bikes and helmets to our kids that we'll be able to distribute during the holiday season.

[01:58:03] Our department was the first site on the county property for the self-serve naloxone. I worked on that word. Distribution. And it continues to be the most popular county site.

[01:58:23] not only do we administer naloxone we also administer just administer or provide resources in general again those are examples of the way that we are able to expand our mission our board is very committed to moving us away from being transactional and that our work is solely focused on the safety net programs that we administer we're really looking at how can we make people better off as a result of their contact with us and moving more into a transformational model.

[01:58:57] Our Motel to Home for All partnership is a great example of that. Last year, you all provided $300,000 to us to continue with eviction prevention using ARPA funds, and we partnered with Acts. That money has since been depleted. Through initially Trinity United Methodist, They donated almost over $30,000, and then they brought on St. Mark's.

[01:59:27] And so we've received over $40,000 of funding through our partnership with the faith-based community, which has allowed us to serve an additional 19 families after funding had been exhausted. We are also working with the county and the Surge Center, which is a regional effort to provide shelter during extreme weather.

[01:59:53] And the great thing about the partnership with Caritas is that they offer a continuum of services. And so our families and individuals who are there have access to things such as jobs or substance abuse treatment. It's more than just a bet that they can get through Caritas.

[02:00:15] I want to, I hope this works, JC's videos works, But I want to kind of switch course and talk a little bit about the federal or legislative changes that are underway. I'm going to actually let Jonathan, who is featured here, to do the highlights of the changes specifically regarding the SNAP program.

[02:00:37] Jonathan is from my department. It worked! As of October 1st, 2025, SNAP applicants and recipients will be required to provide verification of housing, medical, and dependent care expenses.

[02:00:53] Also, the work requirements have changed. Individuals between the ages of 18 and 64 must work at least 80 hours per month to be eligible to receive SNAP and fix. Exemptions to this requirement have been removed for homeless individuals, veterans, youth aged 24 and under who have aged out of foster care, and persons with children aged 14 to 17.

[02:01:17] Changes to the SNAP work requirement are the result of H.R.1, also known as One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was passed on July 4th, 2025. H.R. 1 also requires states to maintain a payment error rate below 6% to receive full federal funding.

[02:01:33] As a result, Governor Youngkin issued Executive Order #13, which requires expanded verification requirements. To avoid delays in processing your application, please have all required documentation read when submitting new or renewal applications.

[02:01:49] If your address or phone number changes, report it immediately. to ensure you receive important notices on time. You can update your information online at commonhelp.virginia.gov or by phone at 855-635-4370.

[02:02:07] Keeping your contact information current helps us serve you better. We are here to help you. Please remember that these changes do not automatically mean you will lose benefits or be denied. We review each situation carefully to determine eligibility. We have been asked to provide an education.

[02:02:24] There are several convenient ways to get them to us. Upload online, commonhealth.virginia.gov. Email them directly to us at dss.net at chesterfield.gov. We accept both pictures and screenshots. Visit your local library.

[02:02:40] They will assist you in sending documentation to us. Mail or hand deliver them to our office. Thank you. That video was done very quickly when we received some additional information from the state.

[02:02:58] In less than a week, the Constituent and Media Services worked with our staff to put together a plan, a campaign to really help inform the community about the resources, wanted to make sure that people knew what now would be asked of them when they came.

[02:03:17] Before I move on to the Medicaid changes, I did want to highlight and stay with the SNAP program that some of the changes that we are currently facing and planning as it relates to the government shutdown. We received word that at the end of the month currently, unless the appropriations are made, that SNAP benefits will not be distributed for the month of November.

[02:03:42] And so once we received that information, we began planning locally, meeting with our food partners, trying to identify how we could meet the needs of the community. Since that time, regional efforts have also begun, and we're meeting regionally every other day to ensure that we stay on top of the changing landscape as it relates to the SNAP benefits.

[02:04:11] When we're looking at impact, currently we have for Chesterfield almost 15,000 benefit cases. That equates to a little over 31,000 SNAP recipients. And so we're working now to address things such as messaging.

[02:04:30] We've reached out to the Virginia Department of Social Services and asked them that any messaging that they do, that they please communicate to the public the limited role that local departments play. It's an effort to reduce the traffic at the department.

[02:04:48] We've taken precautions and working to create contingency plans so that customers as well as staff are safe and prepared should there be an influx of folks. So I did want to highlight that and share that with you, but we're continuing to watch that and ensure that we are planning and prepared for the impact for our residents.

[02:05:13] If I should, for you. Sure. 15,000 recipients currently in Chesterfield County receive SNAP. It's 15,000 cases. Cases. Individual recipients is 31,305. Okay, 31,000.

[02:05:28] What's the total dollars for that? I have September's disbursement. Just to feel disbursement was almost $6 million, $5,868,278 for September.

[02:05:46] $6 million just for September? Correct. Okay. Now, the payment error rate is for all of Virginia, correct? Correct. We have a target of 6%? Correct. What is the current payment error rate in Virginia right now?

[02:06:03] 11%. You're stealing my slide. Am I jumping ahead? No, you're good. I'm sorry. That's the fiscal impact slide that I'm going to share. I will hold up on my questions. I can scoot through the slide. Yes, it's 11%.

[02:06:19] She knew where I was going. Yes, and for the air rate, if Virginia air rate stays that way, it will be an additional $270 million that Virginia has to absorb. And so there is a plan that currently the state is working to implement to lower Virginia's rate under six, if we get under six, then there's no fiscal impact to states.

[02:06:42] And that's where our planning is now because we have until October of 26th, I think. Okay. I'll hold up for my questions. You're probably going to answer them. Okay. Three. That's it. I'm almost done. The legislative changes with Medicaid are really focused on the Medicaid expansion recipient population.

[02:07:03] And that population, the change for residents as well as our staff is that they we used to have to do annual redeterminations we now will have to do it every six months the other is the 80 hour a month work requirement that is going to be required and so we're continuing to build on our collaboration looking at how we can partner using our career and resource fairs to meet the needs just trying to be innovative and how we can make sure that anyone who wants a job we can help them to get one leveraging our partnership with economic

[02:07:40] development they've been tremendous partners in this sport helping us to stay abreast of and connected to employers who are coming into the county this is our fiscal impact slide i kind of already shared about the snap error rate and the potential 270 million dollar impact to the state Virginia has not communicated what that would be in terms of any costs passed down to localities.

[02:08:10] As soon as there's clarity on that, I'll definitely be sure to communicate that. But what we do know is that the legislative changes also created an administrative cost-sharing model shift, where before it was 50% federal and 50% state.

[02:08:26] It's now 25% federal and 75% state. The local fiscal impact we're looking at is about an 8% increase, which is about $278,000. And so we've been working with Matt and Gerard to look at making sure that we are taking that into consideration as we plan for FY27.

[02:08:48] Did I get your question? All right. All right. And so we have our own, the state has an implementation plan. And we have also an implementation plan where we're looking at and focused on workload as well as error reduction strategy. We're focusing on four key areas, training, process improvement, using technology.

[02:09:09] Mr. Engel is going to get us using AI. That's the last thing he does. As well as community engagement and really having the community, business community, faith-based, nonprofit. some of the work requirements can be um you know done in the community doing community service type things and so we're really trying to leverage everybody's uh input to get us across the finish line i'm going to end with where i started which is highlighting the tremendous impact that collaboration has this year we held our first back to school event for our young people who

[02:09:48] are in the department's custody. We had a great time out at the Perry Daniels Park. It was through the partnership of folks like Clover Hill, which is the church that our lovely board chair, she's the pastor's wife or first lady, all of that. They're extremely supportive. We also partnered with Anthem and Work Days and Home Depot. People gave free haircuts. We had a game truck out there we had backpacks just a really great opportunity we're looking

[02:10:22] to grow it even more next year but it was really a opportunity for it's usually a tough time before kids go back to school that we can kind of help them to get ready geared up to start working on their reading and make sure everybody's reading on the third grade level what was it dr. Kate yep that's all that we're focus on so again I just wanted to thank you for your unwavering support over the years I think that this board has definitely for the last nine years have

[02:10:59] been instrumental and just the department really going in a different direction a needed direction where we could respond to the changing needs of of the department. We're continuing to do that. Having been there for 20 some years, I always say if there's something that we're still doing, that we were doing when I started, we need to change it because there's no way that we should be doing the same thing we were doing 20 years ago. So I appreciate all of your support to make the needed changes so that we can best meet the community's needs. Board members, any questions, comments? I do want to clear up a little bit on the AI.

[02:11:40] There's a lot of data that has to be computed individually for each case, one at a time, by a person. And I want to get it to where we don't have people's time being taken by something that could easily be calculated through other means.

[02:11:59] It's not to use AI to take the place of people that are doing the work in the field on the ground. Just wanted to make sure I cleared that up. Again, I want to thank you for having the outlook that we need to lead people better off than we found them, not just continue to keep helping people stay in the same situation that they're in.

[02:12:24] I think that's very important, so thank you. Thank you. All right, thanks. Mr. Chair, we need a motion to recess for dinner in room 502 with the Social Services Board. Motion. Second. All in favor? Aye.

[02:13:58] Good evening and welcome to the evening session of October 22nd Board of Supervisors meeting.

[02:19:24] Before we begin this evening, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of our dear friend and respected board colleague, Dale District Supervisor Jim Holland, who passed away after a courageous battle with cancer. No matter whether we agreed or not, we knew Jim's approach was always to do what he thought was the best for his district in Chesterfield County.

[02:19:48] We will greatly miss Jim's calm, deliberate, and gentlemanly approach to navigating the work of this board. We ask that everyone keep his wife and loved ones in their thoughts and prayers. We will appoint someone to take his seat until a special election can be held, but we will never replace Jim Holland.

[02:20:13] I've verified that all board members have received copies of comments posted to the online comment portal for consideration on matters before us tonight. These comments are part of the public record and will be attached to the meeting minutes.

[02:20:29] In addition, for those citizens who are here for a zoning portion of the meeting, we have one update. The applicant for case 24SN1321 Double Creek Court Modular Unit has withdrawn their case from the Board of Supervisors' consideration.

[02:20:46] At this time, I would ask Ms. Snyder to give the invocation and to remember Mr. Holland. Thank you. Please join me for a moment, a prayer, a reflection in whatever way feels best for you.

[02:21:06] Gracious and loving creator, we gather before you this evening with hearts that are both grateful and heavy, grateful for the gift of this day and the privilege of serving our community of Chesterfield, and yet so very heavy because one of our own is no longer among us.

[02:21:26] Creator, we give you thanks for the life of our dear friend and colleague, James Jim Holland, of the beloved Dale District. We thank you for his faithfulness, his dedication to his community, and the kindness and wisdom he brought to every conversation and decision.

[02:21:52] He made such a difference here, and we all are so very much better of people for having worked beside him. We ask you to comfort his family and loved ones with your peace that is far beyond our understanding, and surround them with your presence in the days to come.

[02:22:19] Surround them with your comfort and peace. Help them and us to find hope in the promise of eternal life. As we carry on the work before us, may your spirit guide our words, our choices, and our hearts.

[02:22:41] Help us to lead with compassion, humility, and courage, as Jim did. And may all that we do honor you and the legacy of faithful service that he leaves behind.

[02:23:02] Grant us humility to listen, courage to act justly, and grace to work together in unity as he would have wanted. We ask this in your name, Creator. Amen.

[02:23:18] We would like to call forward Deputy County Administrator Matt Harris to lead the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic in which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[02:23:49] Item 12, County Administration Update, Dr. Casey. Good evening, members of the board, the public that's here, and the public that is watching. My first update would be to call J.C. Poma, our leader of sports visitation and entertainment, to make a special presentation with Mrs. Johnson also to be on the stage here as well.

[02:24:14] And I think he wants, J.C., you want the board members to come down. Yes, please. Thank you very much.

[02:24:29] Thank you, Mr. Harris. Thank you, Dr. Casey.

[02:24:50] Members of the board, Mr. Chair, it's great to be with you again this afternoon, and it's great to have a special guest with us this evening. Ms. Johnson was someone I got to know throughout the lead-up to the second annual Chesterfield Sports Hall of Fame. And in talking with her beloved son, Rudy, and working with him to send, trying to get him up here, he had a very busy schedule in his professional career down in Florida, talked many, many times leading up.

[02:25:21] And when we worked on Rudy's video, we really did not know what was forthcoming down the road. And that video, Ms. Johnson told me, you know, how much peace that video has brought her and the platform that our Hall of Fame had. And in looking at the future of the Hall of Fame, I got to really study Rudy Johnson's foundation that Ms. Johnson has a big, big part in hand in.

[02:25:46] And it really moved a lot of the selection committee for the Hall of Fame. Dr. Murray, who spoke at the Hall of Fame, our superintendent, was very, very pleased to be able to honor Rudy. And when the tragedy happened, we took, it was the easiest decision we've ever made.

[02:26:03] We've been able to honor community partners every year at our Hall of Fame. And it's something you as the board, we love to tell the stories of our community. And in moving forward, we thought it would be a tremendous honor. And we did a lot of good things. Some of them Chesterfield County actually was involved with because I remember we did bone marrow drives.

[02:26:22] And for one year, you actually let us come to the voting precincts and sign people up. And so that was to save somebody's life. And so we believe that we have helped to save some lives. In addition to that, now we're working with the NFL and some of the other experts in the field to talk about brain injuries, CTE, and all those kinds of things.

[02:26:46] And so we're hoping that we'll be able to take this as an opportunity to do more work and preserve Rudy's legacy. So thank you, Chesterfield County, for raising up a native son. We appreciate you and all that you gave to us and Rudy.

[02:27:05] And so this is quite an honor. Thank you so much. Thank you for continuing this with Chesterfield County and partnering with us with our Hall of Fame.

[02:27:29] We really appreciate all of the work that your family has done to support our community, and this is our opportunity to give back to supporting you. Thank you. I just thought I'd take a moment and just read what's down here because you may not be able to see it.

[02:27:47] It says, the Rudy Johnson Community Impact Award will honor a community partner who exemplifies resiliency, strength, and commitment to community that defined Rudy Johnson's life and legacy.

[02:28:08] Okay, I'm sorry. I just caught up. I feel terrible. I didn't realize that he had passed. I was at the event, and it was such a wonderful tribute for you to be. Oh, well, this makes so much more sense.

[02:28:24] Sorry. I've been gone. apologize I feel like I've lost a couple of things I've been dealing with I'm sorry my mother-in-law in Germany who's passing who's dying also and so I've kind of been in and out so what a wonderful wonderful way for us to pay tribute to that and hence how committed he was to having that community impact and so thank you so much for allowing us to use his name and continue that that's amazing. So I haven't told anybody else this yet, but I was contacted by a

[02:29:04] member of the community and they would like to put some type of plaque or statue somewhere down in the Edric community and so we are going to work on that. I think that would be absolutely appropriate.

[02:29:35] As Ms. Rogers approaches the podium, and you all are resuming your seats, the Christmas

[02:30:13] Mother update is an annual October ritual for us. And this year is no different, so it's my pleasure to have Keva Rogers, our social service director, who is a key partner in the Christmas Mother program to introduce the 2025 Christmas Mother.

[02:30:31] Ms. Rogers. Chair, members of the board, Dr. Casey, I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce This year's Christmas mother, Carol Ricker. Ms. Ricker is a long-time resident of Colonial Heights. She has served diligently, having a career of almost four decades of public service in the Department of Defense, as well as the Defense Commissary Agency.

[02:30:57] Beyond her professional endeavors, she is a committed charter member of the Swift Creek Baptist Church. And she's also been with the Christmas Mother program for over 11 years. She's married to Donna Ricker. She's been married for 30 years, and she has two daughters and three granddaughters.

[02:31:17] And she's an active member in her sorority, the Beta Sigma Phi sorority. I'd like to read a little bit about her. Ms. Ricker's unwavering commitment to her family and community exemplifies her belief in the power of service and connection.

[02:31:33] She continues to inspire others through her leadership and dedication to make a difference in the lives of those around her. I present to you this year's Christmas Mother. Thank you, Ms. Rogers, for the introduction.

[02:31:52] And good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the Board of Supervisors, and members of the community. I was born and raised in Colonial Heights. My father was born in Chesterfield before there was a Colonial Heights. And he was a graduate of the old Thomasdale High School.

[02:32:11] So I do know a lot about the community where we all live. The people that live in our community are kind and generous. They help the Christmas Mother each year through sponsoring families, donating money, or volunteering their time during gift distribution.

[02:32:29] We're very grateful for the continued support from Chesterfield County, from the Board of Supervisors, the Department of Social Services, the Sheriff's Department, Parks and Rec, and all of the other volunteers that help each and every year.

[02:32:46] For 2025, we had 1,440 families that were approved, 187 seniors, and 33 what we call grandfamilies, which are grandparents that are raising their grandchildren.

[02:33:07] And each year, that number increases, unfortunately. We will also be helping the foster children when we get these numbers. This all equates to over 5,000 individuals and 3,209 children, and that's a lot.

[02:33:30] I know this is a stunning array of numbers. 92% of the Christmas Mothers approved applications in 2025 are for Chesterfield County. Last year, 44% of the applicants were sponsored.

[02:33:47] This means that once again the community helped out immensely. Churches, businesses, organizations, and individuals are the ones that sponsored these families, and we hope to do even more in 2025. But don't worry, the other 56% of the applicants were set up with appointments to shop at our committee-made distribution center at the fairgrounds.

[02:34:14] They shopped for clothing, toys, books, and they receive a gift card to go to the grocery store to get fixings for their Christmas dinner. Everyone that was approved at applications will receive Christmas for their children.

[02:34:31] This leads to a very happy distribution center, and everybody has a smile on their face there. Our mission is to help as many as we can that are in need within the county lines and Colonial Heights.

[02:34:47] With the community's help, we can do that. I'd also like to say that the Chesterfield Colonial Heights Christmas Mother is very sad over Mr. Holland's passing. He was a wonderful man, and he was a great supporter of the Christmas Mother.

[02:35:05] He was actually on our board of directors. His wife, Judy, has been on the committee for several years, and she also is a wonderful person. And may he rest in peace. Thank you. Thank you.

[02:35:22] I just had two more items. Last week, the National Association of Government Web Professionals announced its 2025 Pinnacle Award winners, And Chesterfield came in first place for the excellence in digital information and engagement for their pending planning cases application.

[02:35:48] Again, this award from the organization states that it celebrates forward-thinking digital projects that demonstrate creative use of technology to enhance public engagement, service delivery, or access to information. So I want to congratulate IST and our planning department for collaborating on this public service product that is available to all.

[02:36:08] And my last item, if I could get Mary Romanello, our Constituent Services Project Coordinator, to come up to the podium. We have had, at a historic courthouse, bricks representing those who have given their careers, if you will, to Chesterfield for 25 or more years in front of our historic 1917 courthouse.

[02:36:28] But what we have done since then is also, thanks to some input from Mr. Carroll, to better organize these bricks and create a lasting memory and manner for people to see their friends and family who have worked here forevermore. Ms. Romanella.

[02:36:46] Thank you, Dr. Casey. Good evening, Mr. Chair, board members, and Dr. Casey. It is truly a privilege to share more about the Employee Recognition Program, which serves as the memorial to employees who have dedicated 25 years or more to Chesterfield County.

[02:37:02] Many of us have witnessed a recognition ceremony for an employee who has served 25 years or more with the county. We understand that these moments carry great significance and represent far more than a career milestone. It's a celebration of decades of commitment for individuals who have served this community with their family, friends, and colleagues standing by their side.

[02:37:26] The resolutions detail roles, projects led, and achievements. What the employees truly leave behind is a legacy of service that has strengthened the very foundation of Chesterfield County. The Employee Recognition Project embodies that spirit.

[02:37:42] Just as a single brick begins a foundation, each employee gives their own piece to the structure of progress and excellence. Together, these collective contributions form a lasting monument to public service. To honor employees and bring this project to life, our team manually collected and verified the names of nearly 1,000 employees, documenting their years of service and installing a link to their resolution from the county's database.

[02:38:12] Through collaboration with IST, this information was transformed into an interactive web page that invites visitors to search any name, click their profile, and learn more about their service to the county with the resolution and board meeting media that broadcasts the ceremony. You can visit chesterfield.gov slash employee service recognition or scan this QR code on the screen to learn more. The general services team worked with the contractor to pull every brick and lay a new chronological walkway by retirement year. Additionally, a sign was designed

[02:38:49] and stands in front of the bricks with more information about the employee recognition program and another QR code linking constituents to the webpage. I sincerely thank general service Services, IST, Human Resources, the Chesterfield County Historical Society, Constituent and Media Services, and Deputy County Administrator Clay Bowles for their hard work on this project.

[02:39:14] Finally, I want to express my sincere gratitude to the Board of Supervisors and Dr. Casey for their vision and support in sustaining a legacy of excellence in public service. This project stands as an example that local government is built on individuals whose daily work strengthens our community and ensures that chesterfield county continues to be an extraordinary place to work thank you don't go anywhere yet don't go anywhere yet

[02:39:51] do any board members have anything they'd like to share surprisingly me um why first of all thank you for all the hard work that you put in uh to this project um when i first got elected uh back in 2020, we made a change to the policy, and we went back and looked at all the previous county employees that had not had a brick that had retired prior to 2007, look up and inquire about the service. Like those plaques on the walls that you did that talk about the previous Board of

[02:40:30] Supervisors who have dedicated their lives to public service and the community from everything from social services to public safety. And everything that we are today, everything that we've become in Chesterfield County is a combination of not just our community and the people we have living here, but all those who serve that community, both in the board of supervisor capacity and the county employee capacity. And I just felt that it was really important for people to be able to learn something about those people, not just see a name on the ground in a brick. Many of the names

[02:41:07] I know, and I know histories about many of the names, but the general public doesn't. So I personally really appreciate the hard work that all of you did on this and I hope that if people are watching if you're in the area come on down to the to the Chester County Historic Courthouse and take a look at this this employee recognition because I don't know of anywhere else in the country that they do this and they really should because every community is built on the people that helped form it to what it is today all those county employees that created our fire service

[02:41:44] creator, police department, all of the different facets of Chesterfield County, our park services, you name it. And I just think we're very unique in what we do, which is why I think we hire such great people. And we get awarded with VACO and NACO awards every year. Why we probably have, quite frankly, one of the second county in the country to get a AAA, AAA, AAA, AAA bond rating out of over 3,500 counties. And it's because of the people that work here. So I just want to say

[02:42:16] thank you personally as with everything that you do is very well and detailed oriented researched you you're just always so you put all the dots on all the I's and the T's and thank you so much for all that you do I did bust Joe's chops because when you click on my name it comes up to Kevin Bacon because he retired. Not the actor, but a very, very good Chester County police officer who was probably

[02:42:55] the face of crime showers for years. And I have no problem playing some fiddle to Kevin Bacon whatsoever. I think it was awesome. But just so happens, our resolutions were on the same night. But I had to give Joe a hard time for that. But again, what a great job you guys did. Thank you. Mary, thank you for the hard work. I'm curious. I'm sorry I'm going to put you on the spot and you can throw something at me later. Was there anything that surprised you as you were going through it something that you learned I'm kind of curious that's a really great question I don't think this necessarily surprised me but it it reinstilled my values of wanting to be a public servant and work in local

[02:43:34] government the team that had to come together to do this project that when I say it was manually done this project started with a pencil and an iPad going outside in the cold to take pictures of the bricks that were already laid and then individually storing them and then chronologically sorting them. It took a team. And so I wouldn't say I'm surprised that Chesterfield County has incredible employees, but I'm proud to be an employee. And I think this program emulates what it means to be in Chesterfield County. I mean, we are beacons of

[02:44:11] light for a lot of other districts to see. I think that the surprises that came with it are sometimes we got a surprise of, oh, we may have forgotten this brick. And so having to ask our amazing general services team to relay a few bricks for us. But it's been a true blessing.

[02:44:32] And I truly thank you all for your comments. I came into this position as the Stegmaier Fellow, which was the first fellowship that Chesterfield County has hosted under Mr. J. Stegmeyer's name, who was the county administrator. I take a lot of pride in that position, and now I work as the project coordinator, but I'm just very grateful for you all giving me the opportunity to represent Mr. Stegmeyer's legacy well, and I hope and continue to do so, so thank you.

[02:45:02] Well, I have to start with this project is in the Dale District. Yes. And in the Dale District, everything that's done has to be done with excellence. Yes, sir. And what you've done, in the spirit of Mr. Holland, you've done it very humbly, and I know there was support around you.

[02:45:23] Absolutely. But this was your project. You did this, and it was done with excellence. Thank you. Something to be proud of. We made a great decision bringing you in under Stegmaier's opportunity, and then we made a great decision to hire you full-time.

[02:45:45] The only problem you're going to have with this project is you've done so well. I think we're going to have to give you some more projects. That's okay. I love projects. Thank you. I look forward to it. Thank you for your work on this. Thank you all so much. Thank you. Item 13, board member reports.

[02:46:11] All right. I think that's me. That's okay. All right. It's dusty in here. It's okay. All right.

[02:46:27] So this was the GRP annual meeting. I am on the board. I represent Chesterfield on the GRP, which is the Greater Richmond Partnership. This basically is an organization we help to draw economic development projects here to the region.

[02:46:51] And so this was just a recap this year at the annual meeting. GRP helped to attract $2.7 billion in capital investments to the region this year, along with almost 400 new job announcements.

[02:47:08] So thank you so much to GRP for the continued support of Chesterfield's economic growth. They have been partners in a lot of our previous announcements that we've had. So thank you. Next was the YMCA symposium.

[02:47:29] YMCA of Greater Richmond hosted their fourth annual symposium, which was a powerful and inspiring day. We heard from amazing guest speakers who shared messages about the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the role our community plays in creating opportunities for economic mobility.

[02:47:54] There's some really great conversations that day about the past and also the future, then how we can help to create a better one here for the whole region of Richmond.

[02:48:10] So always good to have those kind of conversations. Next, I attended the Latinos in Virginia Empowerment Center's very first inaugural Fiesta Latino.

[02:48:26] So Live is actually an organization that their focus is supporting Latino community with domestic violence issues. They do a lot of other things, but that is their main focus.

[02:48:42] And it was very appropriate to have this during October, which is leading into my next slide. But we heard inspiring words from Congressman or Congresswoman McClellan had wonderful, authentic food, dance performances, and just raised money for their wonderful work that they do in the community.

[02:49:06] So, as I just said, October, we're wrapping up, is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, time to work together to raise awareness about domestic violence, honor survivors, and work to stop the abuse in personal relationships.

[02:49:32] So, in honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, several board members and I attended the kickoff for the Domestic Violence Task Force Go Purple Month. They always have that at the beginning of the month just to kick off and they give awards to some of the employees and people that work in the domestic violence field.

[02:49:56] And some of them are just like officers, police officers, nurses that do amazing work in the field. So they give out those awards. I will also be attending the YWCA's Remember My Name event tomorrow night.

[02:50:14] And it's a ceremony where we read off the names of people that have not been fortunate enough to make it out of domestic violence. And we read all those names as a remembrance. So I have the honor of reading 20 of those names tomorrow night.

[02:50:32] We had our fifth annual Community Cup at the Sportsplex. This is a wonderful collaboration between Henrico, City of Richmond, and Chesterfield, as well as the Virginia State Police, and cultural community members.

[02:50:57] So the event features a soccer tournament. It's a good way of having some friendly competition. I think for the first year, and I don't know how long, the Virginia State Police did not win. So everybody's excited about that. So they always have such great performances, cultural performances, and food, and community resources, and it's always such a great event watching, as I said, healthy competition between the localities.

[02:51:30] And this last one was the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Sisters had their Day of Pink party. Mrs. Holland is an AKA, and she could not be there that day for obvious reasons.

[02:51:54] And I sent her this picture and said that we missed her so much. And she's like, oh my gosh, Jessica, you've got a pink and green dress, Jessica. She was very, very happy. But yeah, it was a lovely day. They have their youth representatives there that they are teaching their traditions on how to do community service and learn how to do, how to become responsible citizens, and they participated in voting, registration, drives, and all sorts of just really great education for the kids.

[02:52:32] They also did CPR training. They had health checks and all sorts of different, we did some line dancing also, but that's beside the point. So it was just a great day and they're always so great about community service and I just love that.

[02:52:54] So thank you so much. That's it. - Thank you, Ms. Snyder. Mr. Carroll. - Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was pleased to have spoken in support at the recent public hearing regarding expansions to the Bon Secours, HCA and VCU medical networks.

[02:53:17] VCU Health's proposal to build a 66 bed hospital near the county government complex was endorsed by BDH staff as was Bon Secours' request to add 40 acute care beds to its existing St. Francis Medical Center. HCA's proposed to build a 60-bed hospital with Mosley was recommended for denial, but we're not stopping there.

[02:53:39] The recommendations came this week by a staff report issuing guidance on the projects to the State Health Commissioner, who was expected to make a final decision on the proposals later this year. VCU's new hospital would be VCU Health's first in Chesterfield and would be geared toward patients in needs of less intensive care.

[02:53:56] If approved, the facility would be targeted to open in May of 2030. HCA Virginia proposed building a 260-million-bed acute care called Magnolia Hospital, which would have been located in the Mosley on Hull Street Road. They plan to demonstrate the need for this project on November 7th, a fact-finding conference where all the parties will be present at their proposed projects prior to the State Health Commissioner's decision next year.

[02:54:24] As a 32-year veteran of the Chester County Police Department, I am familiar with the critical importance of locating hospital services where they are needed. I know I speak on behalf of all my board members when I saw that ensuring that residents have access to quality medical care they deserve is of utmost importance.

[02:54:42] And we're going to continue to push the state to allow for that hospital to be built in the western part. And if you're at home watching and you live out there, then I suggest you contact your local House of Representatives, your senator, governor's office, and let them know how important it is to have a hospital out there.

[02:55:04] If you look at Chesterfield County and you look at the Milothian District, which is a great district, by the way, but it has St. Francis, Johnston-Willis, and on the eastern side, just inside the city of Richmond, has Chippenham. But when you get south of there, you don't touch another hospital until you get to Petersburg or Hopewell.

[02:55:26] Now, VCU will be a great hospital here, but living west of 288, between the Clover Hill District and the Matoka District, You have greater the population living there than the Midlothian District or the Clover Hill District individually or any district individually.

[02:55:45] And the ER that HCA put out there is the busiest ER that they have in their network. And the fire chief and Joe Casey both talked about tremendous statistics. Forty-five percent of the patients that are treated at Johnston-Willis and Chippenham by HCA live in that western part of the county.

[02:56:05] Forty-five percent of the people. So it's critical, in my opinion, that we push to get this other hospital through, and we're going to continue to do that on behalf of the people. Additionally, the Chesterfield Fraternial Order of Police, Lodge 47, which I am a life member of, every year they hold an annual stake night.

[02:56:26] They invited the board to it and other elected leaders. I was joined by the chief of police, our Commonwealth attorney, Aaron Barr, and delegate Mark Earling, and it gave us an opportunity to sit down with the members of the Fraternial Order of Police and talk about issues relating to public safety and I thank them again for putting this event on and inviting us to attend. It's just like today when Mark and I went to lunch at Dante's across the street. It's a great opportunity to have the ability to talk with first-line people

[02:57:04] who work in our public safety. We get to see our sheriff's deputies here. We always get to talk about important things but when we're there in that setting and like we were today we have an opportunity to interact and talk with them and find out things that only they can tell us. And so it's great when we have these opportunities to interact with our employees of all walks of life, don't get me wrong, all of our departments. But you know me, I'm kind of biased a little bit for public safety, just a little bit. Next slide. We had Mark join me down in Ettrick at Ettrick Elementary School. The Chespierre Education Foundation, alongside with Google, a new partner

[02:57:42] in our community, awarded Ettrick Elementary School and VCU School of Education with a $30,000 grant to fund their innovative second-gen pilot program. The two-generation or second-gen approach is designed to support both children and their parents or caregivers by providing integrated services that address their needs. I'm looking forward to seeing the positive impact. I think there'll be two families that will work towards their degrees and then hopefully if they get a degree in education, which I believe that's what we're working towards, we'll be able to hire them teachers so I think it's a it's a pilot program and I think it's going to be

[02:58:22] really good and there's some other things that they're going to try and do down there as well which we'll report out on those later which I think would be great a great program for all of the kids in Chesterfield County eventually so a lot of people don't know this but medical costs food and wellness cost for Chesterfield's retired canines will now be covered thanks to the generous gift from the Richmond businessman Richard E. Dick Strauss and the family and the National Automobile Dealers Association Foundation. Following their life of service, canine dogs

[02:58:57] retire to a well-deserved life of leisure. Unfortunately, they often face high job-related medical costs. Thank you, and I want to say thank you again to the Strauss family for your generosity and your long history of philanthropy here in Central Virginia. Oftentimes, these cost to maintain these retired canines falls upon the individual officer and they can get very expensive and and so it's a great program that the and the canine foundation is a great association that helps with this um i had the opportunity uh to attend again this year the cattle barons ball

[02:59:36] supporting the american cancer society over the past 10 years the cattle barons ball has raised over 10 million dollars for programs supporting cancer patients their families and life-saving research uh again thank you the american cancer society and haley automotive group for a fantastic evening forward music dancing i did not dance uh food and fundraising and as in the picture on the left is our retired sheriff clarence williams uh we're promoting fighting cancer uh and um on the right which was a complete surprise to me is a lady by the name of susan quinn who i met that

[03:00:14] night whose son Bobby Quinn was a good friend of mine who died of ALS and I had not had the opportunity to meet her until that night and so it was what was really meaningful catching up with her to talk about her son's journey and and what a great guy he was and so it's you never know it's crazy how small the world it is you never know who you're going to run into and who you're going to meet just stopping and talking with somebody and and she's a real nice lady and I surprised that I had not run into it before, but we had a great conversation.

[03:00:50] And well, Jessica, I thought this is in your district. I'm only the guy holding the sword, but a lightsaber, of course, and that is Obi-Wan Kenobi's lightsaber. But our annual spooktacular event is right around the corner. We can't wait to see everyone there next Tuesday, October 28th from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. at the Riverside Sports Complex in the Clover Hill District for lots of candy and some awesome costumes. And Mr. Chair, this concludes my report. Thank you for the opportunity to give a report on the wonderful things we get to do in this job. Thank you,

[03:01:28] Mr. Carroll. Dr. Miller. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was recently selected to serve on the Virginia Association of Counties Nominations Committee. The nominating committee presents a slate of officers, the general membership for election to VACO's annual meeting each November. And I am just really honored and proud to be part of VACO. I was introduced to VACO by Jim Holland, and

[03:02:01] going to a VACO, a Virginia Association of Counties conference, is with 97 counties across Virginia. And being so new and showing up at this conference with Mr. Holland, And it was quite an experience.

[03:02:25] He was so respected with Vaco that when he would enter a room and it could be crowded, there would be a hush that would go over the room. Bill is shaking his head because you know, man, because just Jim Holland just entered the room.

[03:02:47] Jim Holland just entered. So it was that kind of gravitas, that kind of love that everyone and respect had for the man. And so for me to be following in his footsteps, it's just a huge honor to be part of that.

[03:03:06] I am so grateful to Mr. Holland for making the space at these conventions. He would introduce me around. I felt like a little puppy just wandering around with him. But he never made me feel like that.

[03:03:23] He always made me feel like I could, that I had every right to be there and every right to be part of that. And so I just want to thank Mr. Holland for the honor. The conference will be in November, right after the election day.

[03:03:43] And I'm looking forward to it. And there are big shoes to fill. And I'm going to do my best. I know we were just talking about Rudy Johnson and the kind of career he had in the NFL, but it was also mentioned in Dr. Casey's comments for the second annual Chesterfield Sports Hall of Fame inductees.

[03:04:06] There were seven incredible athletes that were added to its ranks. J.C. Poma, thank you for the hard work that you've done to pull this together and your staff. Chesterfield is proud to have a strong legacy of athletic excellence, and we're proud of our athletes and their many accomplishments.

[03:04:30] We celebrated this year the second annual African Diaspora Heritage Month in September. It was just a wonderful celebration. I participated in it last year. And to be honest, it never occurred to me in a million years when I was presenting a year ago and talking about the African Diaspora and just the heritage and the celebration of the whole month that I would end up actually going to Africa and to have spent a week in Rwanda

[03:05:07] and bringing those experiences back. But more importantly, Jibril, who is there in the picture with me, when I left Rwanda and what they've gone through with the genocide there, I met such incredible people.

[03:05:23] I was there with the sheriff and with Carl Leonard and Kerry Rhodes to talk about what we do here in Chesterfield when it comes to treating trauma. So much, in fact, that we were invited to Rwanda to talk about how we treat trauma.

[03:05:43] And so being with Jabril and learning about what they're trying to do in Rwanda, partnering with that organization to see what we can do to support those communities in Rwanda and Uganda is a huge honor and I'm looking forward to working with Jabril this year to see what we can do to support folks around the world. I had the honor of speaking at Bryan and Stratton's college commencement ceremony and to spend time with the bright and accomplished graduates. I'm grateful

[03:06:21] for Bryan and Stratton for their long-standing partnership with Chesterfield and for preparing their student for success their students for success um i've never spoken in a college i've spoken in a high school we all have um at a commencement but college uh it in its own right is a very humbling experience i'm grateful uh for um uh for mr carroll mr engel to have attended um that um graduation with me uh brian tratton does great things in our community and uh what

[03:06:57] that day was was about celebrating. It was about celebrating when folks have a vision and decide to go back to school or continue school and then ultimately accomplish what they set out to do and to be part of that was an incredible honor. Mr. Chair that's definitions or concludes my report. Thank you Dr. Miller.

[03:07:17] Mr. Chair just to add to that it's important to note number one he did a great job speaking but number two a lot of those graduates all going into the medical field and many of them already have jobs working in all of our hospitals in this area. It's amazing. Thank you. Dr. Casey, Chief Center, Dr. Worsley, and I had the honor of visiting Chesterfield County Juvenile Detention Center to visit some of the residents there who had acted heroically in responding to a staff member who was having a medical emergency.

[03:07:54] Together, these young people, there was four of them, they jumped in to take care of this staff member mind you these are four young people that are locked up because of things that they've done that um they could have done make better choices for but when they saw this staff member that was in medical distress they worked together as a team and they made sure that he got the help that he

[03:08:28] needed and um it was wonderful to see four young men in that environment that obviously have been changed in their thought process because instead of taking advantage of that situation, they found a way to take care of a human being that was serving them. And so it was just really, it was great to be able to go in. Each of us had some wisdom that we were able to share with them, and

[03:09:01] I hope that they're able to use that in the time that they have in there to make some good choices when they get out and be great citizens in the future. Next, please. I had the pleasure of attending the Recovery Court's first annual art exhibit this month.

[03:09:22] Recovery Court is a 14-month treatment alternative to incarceration for adults with substance use disorder. Throughout treatment, participants created art projects that showcase their journey through recovery. I'm grateful for the work put in by the staff and the participants throughout the Recovery Court process and especially thankful for the impact this program has on the lives of our residents.

[03:09:49] There was some pretty creative art there, some drawn, some made out of other materials. It was wonderful to see how much through art they were able to use that as one portion of healing in their journey back to sobriety.

[03:10:14] so I'm glad that I could attend that as well. Next slide, please. This was a fun one. We got to go celebrate a huge milestone at Lego. Of course, we can't say Lego enough, but Lego Group's chest-filled facility, that day we were able to place the final beam on their 1.7 million square foot facility. I would say that Mr. Holland wasn't able to make it there with us,

[03:10:49] but we made sure his name was added to that beam and Jessica's name was also added to that beam so that all five of our names were on that. The Lego group has already done incredible work supporting the community and we look forward to the completion of this building we believe in early 27th. Next slide. I had the pleasure of speaking at the fire and EMS awards and promotion ceremony. At the ceremony six officers were received promotions five units and 15 individuals

[03:11:24] were awarded Life Save Awards, and a little nine-year-old Mackenzie Price took the show with the reception of the Medal of Valor. Earlier this year, she woke up to find that a space eater in her home had started a fire in her home, and she was able to sound the alarm and get all of her family safely out of the house. And, you know, we really need to congratulate all of those that

[03:12:00] received awards and promotions that night. Thank all of our public safety for their bravery and service. And they made Mackenzie a honorary firefighter, and I hope that that inspires her to maybe become a firefighter permanently later on. Next slide, please. This month, we welcome new police officers to our ranks at the Police 90th Recruitment School graduation.

[03:12:35] This graduation is the product of months of hard work, and we're so proud of our newest officers. One of the things we get to see during that graduation ceremony is a video of the things that those that are going through police training do in the academy.

[03:12:57] And some of them look really fun, Some of them don't. They pretty much show all of them being sprayed with oleocapsum or pepper spray.

[03:13:13] And that's just one of the few things that always seems to be in the video. But they do seem to have a lot of fun driving the cars in the video. So we're very proud of our recent graduates. We know they're going to serve us well.

[03:13:30] and we wish them the best in their career and their safe career with Cheshfield County. Next slide. This morning, we broke ground on HCA's newest freestanding ER located on Iron Bridge Road. This project is expected to reach completion in mid-2026 and includes nearly 11,000 square feet of emergency room.

[03:13:54] We're grateful for HCA's Virginia's continued investment into the health of our residents. Next slide, please. To conclude my board report, I want to highlight one of the final events Mr. Holland was able to attend.

[03:14:14] This event was a mural unveiling at the James M. Holland Recreation Complex at Beulah. The mural entitled Roots of Beulah was painted by the artist Ross Brown and paid for by Mr. Holland personally.

[03:14:35] Roots of Beulah represents the diverse and beautiful community within the Dale District and is a wonderful reminder of the legacy Mr. Holland leaves behind. We know that Mr. Holland touched the lives of many.

[03:14:53] A community visitation will take place tomorrow evening at Meadowbrook High School and a celebration of life will be held Saturday at Victory Tabernacle Church. In lieu of flowers, Mr. Holland wishes were to provide a scholarship to students in the Dale District.

[03:15:14] Donations can be made to the Chesterfield Education Foundation, noting Holland Scholarship in the memo field. And I would add that I know that there will be at least a $10,000 matching donation for the first $10,000 raised to that scholarship so that we can ensure there's enough money there to have a recurring perpetual scholarship to be offered to somebody from the Dale District.

[03:15:45] and Mr. Holland's name for years to come. And finally, county flags were lowered to half-staff on October 15th and will remain lowered through Saturday in remembrance of Mr. Holland.

[03:16:03] The county flags will be lowered on the day of interment, November 3rd as well. In a show of solidarity, those in the region will also lower their local flags that day to honor Mr. Holland. Thank you. Mr. Chair.

[03:16:20] You know, earlier in the work session, we had an update on sports tourism about the AJGA golf tournament that's going to be here in Chesterfield County. And I do believe if Mr. Holland was here tonight, he would tell you that that's in the Dale District. It's in his district.

[03:16:38] And I simply helped with that on behalf of Mr. Holland. He was aware of the whole project the entire time, but was unable to, he had other things he needed to take care of. And so I worked with staff to make sure that happened.

[03:16:54] But it's in the Dale District. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Item 14, new business. A, authorization for county attorney to petition the circuit court on behalf of the Board of Supervisors for a writ of election to fill the vacancy on the Board of Supervisors for the Dale Magisterial District.

[03:17:15] Mr. Minks. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, this is another very difficult but necessary item that needs to be addressed. With the passing of Mr. Holland, there's a vacancy in the office of Dale District Supervisor, which needs to be filled by election.

[03:17:40] The board will make an appointment for the interim before this election, but then the election, we're recommending that that be held on November 3rd of 2026. And this item is to authorize the county attorney's office to petition the circuit court for a writ of election for that date.

[03:18:02] Board members, are there any questions for staff? Motion to approve. Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. B, approval of a performance grant agreement with Hill Phoenix, Inc., Mr. McLaren.

[03:18:20] Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board, and Dr. Casey. I'm here tonight to introduce the performance agreement for Hill Phoenix slash Dover Food Retail related to their recent expansion. Many thanks to those of you that were able to celebrate earlier this week at the announcement and ribbon-cutting of the new Dover Food Retail Facility with Governor Youngkin and senior leadership of the company. And I would like to add a personal note that Dr. Miller represented you well, Mr. Chair. This state-of-the-art facility will round out Hill Phoenix's three-building

[03:18:56] Chesterfield campus. Their new 500,000-square-foot warehouse and expanded manufacturing facilities will begin operations later this year, and the project will create 321 new jobs taking total employment county-wide to over 1,400 positions and making this their largest manufacturing site in the United States. Hill Phoenix will invest $25.25 million to relocate and expand these operations at this campus where they manufacture commercial refrigeration systems and display cases for use in commercial retail and grocery operations. The new tax revenue, increased

[03:19:33] economic activity, and the new jobs created constitute to benefit the county and staff recommends that an economic development grant be awarded to the company. Chesterfield County proposes to match the state's competitive $900,000 Commonwealth Opportunity Fund grant with a $599,000 grant funded by the company's real estate taxes paid to the county. The remaining local match, the difference between the $599,000 and the $900,000 will come from the benefits that the county will receive from the Buy Right Technology Zone program. The company will make

[03:20:10] capital investments in the facility of at least $25.25 million within three years, which will be supported by verifiable documentation provided to the EDA and county upon request. This project will create in excess of $599,000 in new tax revenue during the first full year of its operations.

[03:20:28] And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions you might have about the item in front of you. Board members, are there any questions for staff? Mr. Chair, so based on what you just said, within two years, we'll get our money back. Correct. It's actually within the first year.

[03:20:45] We'll get the money back. First year. First year. The first year, depending on how the taxes to that new building go in terms of the biannual or the semiannual tax bill. Relatively quick. Correct. And they moved here from where? This latest operation moved here.

[03:21:00] They moved here 30 years ago from New Jersey. Right. And they've grown. And this latest facility came here from California. Right. Because we're a great state to do business in. That's right. And we were recognized multiple times during that event. Any further discussion?

[03:21:17] Can I get a motion? So moved. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. C, appointments. Mr. Chair, we have one appointment to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission. Can I get a motion?

[03:21:36] So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Last, we have one appointment to the Citizens Budget Advisory Committee. So moved. All in favor? Aye. D, consent items. Mr. Chair, there have been no requests from board members to remove items from the consent agenda for public comment.

[03:21:56] Do any board members have any items they wish to remove? Seeing none, can I get a motion for approval of the consent agenda? Second. All in favor? Aye. Item 15, 15-minute citizen comment period on unscheduled matters.

[03:22:16] This time is designated for citizens to talk to the Board of Supervisors. It is not a time for dialogue with board members, and it is not a question-answer period. 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.

[03:22:42] We have two speakers, if they'll please come forward and speak in this order. Tom Pacuar and Wendy Little. Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board, Dr. Casey.

[03:23:14] My name is Thomas Pacuar, and I reside in the Clover Hill District for the last over 50 years. My purpose tonight is simple and urgent, to ask this board help to remove cancer-causing substances from our drinking water.

[03:23:31] I want to begin by commending this body for the foresight expressed in the 1997 landfill zoning case proffers, which stated the facility does not pose a substantial or imminent risk to public health and safety.

[03:23:51] The statement is not just a safeguard, it was a vision for responsible guidance, governance. The late Honorable James Holland, representing the Dale District, carried this vision forward by voting against the landfill expansion into the quarry next door.

[03:24:08] Supervisor Holland lived out the moral principle of doing no harm. He understood that unproven technology should not be tested on the public, and he demanded evidence of safety before exposing citizens to risk. That is the strength of the precautionary principle, which shifts the burden of proof from people to technology.

[03:24:32] We should not assume safety. We must require it. History shows what happens when this principle is ignored. In Flint, Michigan, switching to a new water source without proper testing led to devastating lead poisoning.

[03:24:49] If precaution had been applied, families would not have been spared that harm. The lesson is clear for us today. Water treatment plants follow the EPA law, but these laws lag behind modern science.

[03:25:05] EPA still allows a 1 in 10,000 cancer risk standard. By contrast, California uses a stronger 1 in 100,000 standard, 10 times more protective and keeps you cancer-free for life.

[03:25:21] Here in Zip 23112, water tests show that nine chemicals present at concentrations averaging 122 times higher than California's health safety goals. I think it's time to act.

[03:25:37] We have the technology to remove cancer-causing chemicals from drinking water. We see it in San Diego, California, Wilmington, North Carolina, and even the Niagara Bottling Company here in Chesterfield. purified water shows that these methods show that it is possible. Tonight, I urge the board to reaffirm its visionary approach to protect public health. I ask you to direct the utilities department and join with Mayor Avila's regional water efforts to apply the precautionary principle

[03:26:13] to eliminate cancer-causing substances from our drinking water. Together, we can provide cancer-free order for Chesterfield and the region. This is a true win-win for our health, our economy, and the future of our children.

[03:26:28] I thank you. Thank you. Any questions? Next speaker. Wendy Little. She did let me know she might not be able to make it.

[03:26:43] Okay. Item 16, deferred items from previous meetings. We have none. Item 17, zoning requests. Mr. Chair, you have one withdrawal.

[03:27:00] 24 SN 1321 in Dale Magisterial District, Double Creek Court Modular Unit and Shipping Container Storage Rezoning and Exceptions is a request to rezone from Agricultural A to General Industrial I-2, plus an exception to Section 18-60 of the Utility Ordinance for connection to the public wastewater system on 10 acres known as 8101 Double Creek Court.

[03:27:27] The applicant has withdrawn this request. No action will be taken by this board tonight. 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's no previous opposition.

[03:27:46] With all the 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. The first case is 25SN 1069 in Matulka Magisterial District.

[03:28:03] Gordon Family Daycare Home is a request for conditional use to permit a family daycare home for up to 12 children in a residential R9 district on 0.27 acres, known as 18526 Twisted Oak Court. The applicant, who currently resides in the single-family home on the property, will have one employee from outside of the home assist with the business, which will operate from 6.45 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

[03:28:30] Planning Commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on Case 25SN 1069, Gordon Family Day Care Home. Is there anyone who would like to speak to this case?

[03:28:48] If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to close this public hearing. It's back before the board. This case is in the Matoka district. Mr. Chair, my understanding is that nobody came out and spoke against this at the planning commission or at any of the community meeting that was held.

[03:29:11] I think that the applicant's going to provide the necessary service for working families in the area by providing the daycare opportunity. I'll make a motion to approve case number 25SN 1069, subject to the conditions in the Staff report.

[03:29:28] A second. All in favor? Aye. Next is 25SN1165 in Dale Magisterial District. Wyatt Farm Animals is a request for conditional use to keep farm animals for female ducks in a residential R7 district on 0.38 acres known as 4908 Cochise Trail.

[03:29:52] The ducks will be kept in a designated area in the rear yard within an enclosed run and coop. Planning Commission and staff recommend approval subject to the conditions in your staff report. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on case 25 SN 1165, Wyatt Farm Animals.

[03:30:11] Is there anyone who would like to speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to close this public hearing. It's back before the board. This case is in the Dale District, and I believe the Midlothian District representative is going to make a motion.

[03:30:29] Thank you, Mr. Chair. On behalf of Mr. Holland, I'd like to move for approval of case number 25SN1165, subject to the conditions in the staff report.

[03:30:44] All in favor? Aye. Last on consent is 25SN1166 in Midlothian Magisterial District. Resilience Massage Therapy is a request to amend zoning approval, case 83SN0026 to permit a massage clinic in a general business C-5 district on 7.59 acres known as 11617 Busy Street. The massage business focuses on sport therapy and rehabilitation from sport-related injuries. The applicant is the only employee of the business and operates on

[03:31:21] an appointment-only basis. 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 SN1166, Resilience Massage Therapy. Is there anyone who'd like to speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to close this public hearing.

[03:31:45] It's back before the board, and this case is in the Midlothian District. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to move for the approval of case number 25 SN1166, subject to the conditions in the staff report. Second. All in favor? Aye. Mr. Chair, that concludes your consent items for this evening. You have two discussion items, the first of which is case 25 SN1055, Raymet Road Rezoning. Mr. Ramsey.

[03:32:15] Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board, and Dr. Casey. Case 25 SN1055 in the Bermuda Magisterial District is the Raymet Road Rezoning Request. This is a request to rezone from agricultural to heavy industrial I-3. Development of the property for industrial uses is planned.

[03:32:34] No specific user or conceptual development plan has been developed at this time. The property contains 64.68 acres and will be zoned for heavy industrial I-3. Adjoining properties are also zoned heavy industrial I-3 to the south and west. Property to the north is zoned light industrial I-1, and we have properties to the east that are zoned residential R-7. The subject properties outlined in white in the images in the current slide. The aerial image illustrates the site being undeveloped and forested. Surrounding properties are developed with industrial uses or remain vacant. The Gene Court subdivision is located to the west and developed

[03:33:13] with single-family dwelling units. The land use plan designates the property for industrial, and this suggests the property is appropriate for those uses that would be within the realm of moderate to intense manufacturing uses. Development of the property for industrial use is planned. However, no specific user or conceptual plan has been developed for the property. The applicant's intent is to reason the property to support a future sale of the property for industrial development. Any permitted or restricted use in the heavy industrial I-3 district would be permitted, except that a data center use would not be permitted. An enhanced

[03:33:52] buffer along a portion of the western property line has also been proffered to provide an enhanced transition area between the existing subdivision to the west and future industrial development on this property. The applicant is property 200-foot buffer along the western property boundary next to the 10 lots that are part of the Gene Court subdivision, and that's highlighted here by the green line on the subject property within the slide. Access from the property to Riverside Drive and Gene Drive, which serve the residential uses to the west, would be prohibited. Access to the site would instead be provided from Raymond Road, which serves residents of the Gene Court subdivision

[03:34:30] and other area industrial properties. The Planning Commission with the unanimous vote recommended approval of the request. Staff also continues to recommend approval. The Comprehensive Plans Land Use Plan designation supports industrial uses for the property. This designation supports the development of moderate to intense industrial I-2 and I-3 land uses. The applicant is proffered to permit uses that are by right or with restrictions in the heavy industrial I-3 district except for data center use. To address concerns posed by neighbors in the adjoining Gene Court subdivision, a 200-foot buffer has been proffered where the property adjoins the subdivision. Lastly,

[03:35:09] the applicant is proffered to prohibit vehicular access to Riverside Drive and Gene Drive from this development. At this point, I'd be happy to take any questions from the board. I don't believe there's any questions, but you're probably not aware of this. A couple things. One, I'm going to to preside over this, but I am going to recuse myself from discussion or from a vote on it as I may be employed by a party that may seek an opportunity to purchase this property. That being

[03:35:42] said, I also believe that there's going to be a motion for a deferral tonight to the next meeting. So, I would like to open the public hearing on a deferral, not actually on this case, because if we have the public hearing on this case tonight, then there would not be an opportunity for a public hearing in the future.

[03:36:05] Is that correct, Mr. Manning? That's correct. Also, if you are going to recuse yourself from any of the substantive consideration of the case, you would recuse yourself from a vote on the deferral as well? That's correct. Okay, that's correct.

[03:36:23] That being said, I'm going to open the public hearing, but I'm going to open it slightly different than it was written here. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on the deferral of case 25 SN1055 Raymond Road Rezoning.

[03:36:42] Is there anyone here who would like to speak to the deferral on this case? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to close this public hearing. is back before the board. Mr. Carroll, are you going to make a motion?

[03:37:01] Yes, sir, Mr. Chair. I do think that staff's recommendation for approval is appropriate. However, I'd like to see some more definitive uses than just a blank open use for any type of industrial use whatsoever. It does back up to an R7 neighborhood. I think that within 30 days with consultation with the EDA, they can probably come up with an appropriate list that would be acceptable. And quite frankly, I think the EDA may actually be able to help them

[03:37:35] find a client to actually want to utilize the property. And I would hope, and I've talked with the applicant, and this is an imposed deferral, so it won't, it's not to punish them in any way, it's on us. But I make a motion to defer over to the next regular scheduled board meeting, which I believe is November the 19th, if I'm correct.

[03:37:55] That is correct. Second. All in favor? Aye. And again, I did not vote. Mr. Chair, your last discussion item is case 25 SN 1176, cross street buffer reduction.

[03:38:19] Mr. Ellis. Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board, and Dr. Casey. Case 25 SN 1176 in the Bermuda District is a request for conditional use plan development to permit exceptions to ordinance requirements on 4.35 acres.

[03:38:36] Subject property is cross-hatched in red above and located generally east of I-95 adjacent to the Bellwood Estates subdivision, south of Bellwood Road and north of Cross Street. The zoning of the property is heavy industrial, or I-3, as are all surrounding properties. The applicant's requesting relief from the required side yard buffer prior to the development of the site.

[03:38:58] A 100-foot buffer is required along the eastern side of the property, which abuts single-family residential homes located in Bellwood Estates. The applicant has indicated that discussions with adjacent property owners have resulted IN A PRIVATE AGREEMENT FOR LANDSCAPING AND FENCING TO BE INSTALLED ALONG THE REAR PORTIONS OF RESIDENTIAL USE PROPERTIES ADJACENT TO THE SUBJECT PROPERTY.

[03:39:21] AS THAT AGREEMENT DOES INVOLVE LAND OUTSIDE THE BOUNDARY OF THE ZONING CASE AND SUBJECT PROPERTY, STAFF IS UNABLE TO ACCEPT ANY PROFFERS OR IMPOSE ANY CONDITIONS ADDRESSING THAT AGREEMENT. WITHOUT THAT CONDITION, WITH INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT PROPOSED ON THE SUBJECT SITE, STAFF IS CONCERNED THAT REMOVING THE REQUISITE BUFFER COULD RESULT POTENTIALLY INCOMPATIBLE land use is being located on adjacent properties with no form of buffering or screening as required by the ordinance. Accordingly, staff is unable to support the case, however the Planning Commission does recommend approval.

[03:39:55] I'd be happy to address any questions. Any board members have any questions for staff? So what they're asking for is the removal of that buffer. I'm curious to know, if the property is sold, what happens with that buffer? Does that get reinstated what happens or is that just the way it's removed going forward like how does that work the removal of the buffer would run with the land so if the property were sold to somebody else the buffer reduction or elimination really would still be present they would not have to do that

[03:40:34] buffer they would still not to have that buffer correct is it possible to make it so that it's only for these property owners and that if the either one of those property owners were to sell that we could then put the buffer in is that possible okay can i just the the property that um the house is on is zoned industrial it's um uh industrial overlay it's not a residential property even though there's a house on it and the property is being purchased with the with this

[03:41:14] agreement or this case being passed the owner of the industrial property is purchasing the residential property from the homeowner and allowing her to live there rent free for the rest of her life and then he will own the property which will never be a home at that point they'll demo it and it won't be a home anymore it'll be industrial backing up to industrial so you don't to see, Mr. Ingle, any situation where we would regret, like I'm thinking about the staff denial,

[03:41:52] and that's my question here. Their denial was because you can't proffer anything on the property that's not subject to the case, and the current owner won't sell the property until all of this is worked out, but she has submitted a letter in writing that they have a deal worked out, And if this case passes and they're able to close on this property, that she's very happy with this.

[03:42:22] What she's also getting that's not in the staff report is that her home has a very poor well to it. And they are adding county water to her property and to that house next door, which she also owns, that they spent $40,000 on to get a well.

[03:42:41] they produce less than one gallon a minute and they're going to be putting water into that which her son lives in at this time as well and he's going to also be able to continue to live there until he's um finished building another home that they're going to be moving to so basically what we have here is two property owners that are in agreement and it affects nobody else okay thank you mr jeff i'm correct too there's a letter the lady's name is helen hartman and it's in there that's correct agreeing to it and so really this is uh two property owners that

[03:43:16] came to an agreement it's kind of like did i ever think i'll put a sawmill in a neighborhood no but when everybody's in agreement um why would we get in the way and it is it is actually industrial up against industrial even though it's a residential home any other questions Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing on case 25 SN 1176, Cross Street Buffer Reduction.

[03:43:50] Is there anyone here who would like to speak to this case? If so, please come forward and state your name. Good evening. I'm Kerry Hutcherson here for the applicant. I don't think I need to say much more because, thankfully, we've had questions and answers already provided.

[03:44:09] I do have the contract right here between the two landowners, And this is a pretty unique situation where we really only have one landowner impacted, and that landowner has said what we've worked out is going to address any issues. So that's about all I have to say.

[03:44:27] If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them. Thanks for your support.

[03:44:40] Joseph Walter, President down there, Board of Members, Chairman. That property, we don't need a 100-foot buffer down there when it's all I-3 property from Justin Davis Route 1 all the way to the James River.

[03:44:56] And the property that we're talking about, the Hartman's property, is 140, 150 feet deep. So if they ever had to develop it and they had to give up a 100-foot buffer and then they had 25 foot back from the front, they ain't got but 15 or 25 feet of land to develop. So what they're doing, if we get rid of this buffer, the land will be able to be used for the I-3 zone that it's designed for.

[03:45:18] The houses are zoned I-3. So it's not like we're bumping on residential people. I mean, there's some older houses down there. There's 10 of them, I think, in the whole area. We need to look at developing this land and using it for what it's designed for. So I say let's get rid of the buffers down there and let's start using the land for what it's supposed to be for.

[03:45:35] Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Renee Eldred here. I'm not in disagreement with the thing. My issue with this is kind of the same issue I had with the road that was beside the motels.

[03:45:58] Two private entities are working together, but you're creating a zoning case. So there's always an unknown. You never know what tomorrow is going to bring. So when you can't put everything inside the case, you have nothing to fall back on to control it.

[03:46:23] So like I said, I'm not against this because these people, you know, it's one of these few places that have a few houses and a lot of industry around it. So, but I think going forward, maybe y'all should think of some means to be able to make everybody put their information in the case, either, you know, one party buy out the other party beforehand or whatnot.

[03:46:52] But when you don't have a means of doing what the case is intended to do in writing in the case, then there's no guarantees that that will actually happen. Thank you.

[03:47:10] Thank you. Seeing no other speakers, this case is back before the board. I make the motion. Mr. Chair, can I just confirm the public hearing is closed? I'm sorry. Thank you. I close this public hearing, and this case is back before the board, and I make the motion to approve case 25-SN-1176, subject to the conditions in the staff report.

[03:47:37] Mr. Chair, I second, but I have a comment. Go ahead. I think there is a way to enforce this outside of the zoning case, and that is the written contractual agreement that the two parties will have. We have, and there is a letter in the case indicating that the seller is a willing seller and they support the zoning case.

[03:48:00] The written contractual agreement that's between the applicant and the seller is how it will be enforced if for some reason the applicant decides to go back on their word. And I believe the discussion that we've had tonight and this dais will be video evidence presented in court on their behalf if for some reason the applicant decides to change their mind.

[03:48:28] And I think it's all worked out, and I think that's how, in this case, You know, we can't put in a zoning case the ability to enforce an outside contractual agreement. We just can't legally do that. But there is a means for the persons involved to have a way to enforce it.

[03:48:50] And so that's why I'm comfortable with making the second to pass this case. Any other discussion? All in favor? Aye. Item 18, public hearings. A, to consider an ordinance to amend Chapter 8, Stormwater Management and Water Quality.

[03:49:11] Mr. Smedley. Good evening, Mr. Chair. Members of the board, this is a public hearing to amend chapter 8 of the county code, stormwater management and water quality, specifically to incorporate some changes from ZOMOD into this section of the county code for the long-term maintenance of permanent stormwater facilities.

[03:49:45] Any questions for staff? Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing to consider an ordinance to amend chapter 8, stormwater management and water quality. Is there anyone here who would like to speak to this issue? If so, please come forward and state your name.

[03:50:04] Seeing no one, I'm going to close this public hearing. It's back before the board. Is there any discussion? Can I get a motion? I'll move. Second. All in favor? Aye. B, to consider modernization of the subdivision ordinance, Chapter 17, Mr. Donahoe.

[03:50:28] Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board, Dr. Casey. Yeah, this is a public hearing for the proposed update to the subdivision ordinance. Very happy to be bringing this forward to the board. It's been a long time working on this project. This is an effort to, it's a component of the county's broader initiative to align the land use codes and policies with the recently approved, board approved 19.2, chapter 19.2, which is more commonly known as ZOMOD.

[03:50:58] So I know we had a pretty thorough review in last month's work session, but I did want a little bit of a refresher as to just what exactly is the subdivision ordinance. And quite simply, it's the subdivision ordinance provides the requirements and the processes for dividing property in the county.

[03:51:15] This covers everything from major subdivisions, which is inclusive of preliminary plat review, construction plans, final plats, to minor subdivisions, which includes family subdivisions, line modification, things of that nature. What I do want to point out is that we did not set out to completely rewrite the code.

[03:51:34] We do have about 80, 85% of the code being retained with this. What we have in today's ordinance actually works really well. We just needed to update in three key areas. In particular, we wanted to make sure we had consistency. We wanted to make sure we're aligning with what we have in ZOMOD, as well as state code changes.

[03:51:52] Implementation, we wanted to capture current policies. We wanted to make sure things like the connectivity and the stub road policy that we've long had as something that we've enforced, we wanted to put that into code. And last, we want to make sure that we're improving the user experience so that we're creating a simpler, more user-friendly, web-friendly version of the code.

[03:52:12] The key substantive changes come in Articles 2 and 3, the subdivision or procedure section and the subdivision standard sections. We touch on review authority. There was some shifting of the review authority to conform a state code as it relates to the review for preliminary plats and construction plans, shifting from the Planning Commission purview to more of an administrative review.

[03:52:33] And so things like a transfer request that we have in today's code, that is something that would enable an aggrieved party to request that a case be reviewed or a preliminary plat be reviewed by the Planning Commission. That is no longer something that's available to us under state code changes.

[03:52:51] And so we needed to essentially just update our code in order to reflect that. We've added an allowance for some level of concurrent review of our preliminary plats with our construction plans. That better streamlines the review process for applicants, and that's something that we expect to go smoothly moving forward.

[03:53:09] We have some new plat types that really just speak to the variation in the intended uses for the different plats that we have. It counts for different development types, and this really just better suits the needs of our customers. In Article 3, we've updated the code to include amenity space.

[03:53:29] This was a key alignment to our ZOMOD. we want to make sure that the standards are for different types of amenity space can be captured in our preliminary process and then more in detail in our construction plan process and therefore our final plats things like in installation of improvements within our subdivisions we want to accommodate for the potential for sidewalks to be constructed apart or a different timing as when the roads are constructed that would of course involve vdot approval and but it is something that would allow for sidewalks to be constructed at a later time so you don't have damaged sidewalks at the time during the phase of construction of homes.

[03:54:06] Connectivity and stub roads, as I mentioned, those are policies that we've had in effect for a number of years, and we've been enforcing those since 1989 for the stub road policy in 2004, five-ish for the connectivity policy. So we wanted to make sure that those are now in code. And then things like our mailboxes, some of the details relating to the location, the maintenance thereof and the timing for when they're provided uh in a new development we want to make sure of course any new resident in the county is then able to receive mail quite simply so we've added some standards as it relates to that in the subdivision code and then our definitions

[03:54:46] are are vastly improved from what we have in today's ordinance uh there's no repetition there's no uh variation in definitions for the same terms things like that between the zoning ordinance and and the subdivision ordinance. So with that, this is an essential update that provides for a consistent and effective implementation of our, not only the subdivision ordinance, but our zoning ordinance that we've recently had approved.

[03:55:10] And with the Planning Commission's support and staff's recommendation, we propose the subdivision ordinance to be adopted by the board. It would be chapter 17.1. It would have the same effective date as ZOMOD being January 1st, 2026.

[03:55:26] Thank you for your time this evening. I have to answer any questions. Board members, are there any questions for staff? One quick question. The word that I caught in the land use plan earlier, that particular phrase, a word that needs to be removed when we go over Chapter 10, that's nowhere in this section, right?

[03:55:47] No, sir. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing to consider the modernization of the subdivision ordinance, Chapter 17. Is there anyone here who would like to speak to this issue? If so, please come forward and state your name. Steve Motos.

[03:56:12] Uh, thank you for the board, um, one question that just caught me, mailboxes, uh, subdivisions don't only perform mailboxes, I built my own mailbox, I bought a big one, sort of put packages in it, and I have to run up to the porch to it, is, that, that was my choice, everybody else says their regular mailbox, but if I'm in a subdivision that says you all have to have the same small size mailboxes, that means all the post people have to run up to the porch and put the big packages on it.

[03:56:45] I think that's a choice of the individual, not necessarily a choice of government. Thank you. Seeing no other speakers, I'm going to close this public hearing. It's back before the board.

[03:57:02] The mailbox issue is by the post office. The post office has mandated that all new subdivisions have cluster boxes in one spot in the neighborhood so that the post office doesn't have to go to each house to deliver packages or mail whatsoever.

[03:57:20] They deliver it all to one spot, and that is being mandated by the U.S. Post Office. We're just putting it in to our ordinance so that it's clear to developers that they have to follow the federal law on that. And if there's anybody on staff that has anything else they wanted to share with that or correct me if there's anything I said wrong, that'd be fine.

[03:57:43] And Mr. Carroll. Mr. Carroll, we just experienced this in Harper's Mill. What was really sad is some people put some really nice mailboxes up when they bought their houses. And then they were told by the postal inspector that we're not going to deliver to those mailboxes.

[03:58:01] You have to pull them and you're going to have to have cluster boxes. And we've been fighting this, believe it or not. I agree with you that someone should be able to have a mailbox of their choice. And we're not happy with it either. But this is something that the U.S. Postal Service has come up with in a way to cut costs for their people and the amount of people that they're hiring to actually deliver mail.

[03:58:25] But I agree with you. People should have a right to get to whatever size mailbox they want. Can I get a motion? Mr. Chairman, on the motion, just add to the motion that the effective date of this ordinance change would be January 1st, 26.

[03:58:46] I don't think it specifies right now the effective date. So just would ask that that be part of the motion. Can I get a motion with the amendment to the January 1st, 2026? Yes.

[03:59:02] Yeah. Yes. Are we good, Mr. Finks? Yes. All in favor? Aye. Madam Clerk, going to take a moment of privilege. I don't know how much longer we're going to have the scouts here, but do you all have a senior patrol leader or the most senior rank here that could come down to the podium?

[03:59:31] We'll get you all down here if you want. It just looked like you guys might be leaving soon, and I noticed some of you left, and I just wanted to have an opportunity to have you come forward.

[03:59:53] Can you tell us what troop you're with and why you've come to join us tonight? Troop 777-2899, Girls Troop. And we are here tonight to observe the meeting and learn about it for our merit badge classes to check it off.

[04:00:12] That way we will be able to understand future references and be able to participate possibly. So is this for citizenship in the community? Yes, it is. And maybe you might be doing something for communications as well tonight. Possibly. All right.

[04:00:28] Well, thank you all for coming and learning more about what we do. I appreciate you being here tonight. While you're there, do you have any questions for us? I do not, personally. They might, though. I'm afraid this should come up. Thank you for welcoming us here, and this is Troop 2899-2877, Chester Presbyterian.

[04:00:51] Thank you for coming. Thank you. Thank you. All right, sorry about that interruption. Thank you. All right. C, to consider an ordinance to amend Chapter 18, Water and Sewers, Mr. Nannery.

[04:01:16] Mr. Chair, members of the board, Dr. Casey, this is a public hearing to consider amendments to Chapter 18 of the county's Water and Sewer Code. The detailed proposed amendments for your consideration are attached in your board agenda.

[04:01:33] The proposed amendments align Chapter 18 with the new zoning ordinance that was approved last month in September. The updates ensure consistency, modernization of the terminology, and elimination of redundancy between the codes, all while maintaining public health and protection and service.

[04:01:53] Specifically, we're amending Sections 18.1, our definition section, to cross-reference our definitions between the utilities ordinance and the ZOMOD zoning definitions. Also, we are including Sections 18.60, the required use of utility systems.

[04:02:11] Our revisions are made to link the public utility connection now to the zoning classification or conditions and remove the mandatory connection areas. Our next section is Section 1861. This section speaks to exceptions, and we're revising this to remove the exceptions process tied to the mandatory connection areas because these will no longer be needed, and the exceptions process will be in the zoning ordinance.

[04:02:40] Utilities has retained the administrative exceptions ability for rare cases where there are physical limitations on the ability to connect to the public utility system. While we're amending chapter 18 to align with ZOMOD, we're also taking this opportunity to go ahead and implement some actions to revise the code that were also already in process.

[04:03:04] Sections 1858, connection to the utility system, we're revising to allow two dwellings on a single property to share a public utility service while maintaining their prohibition against service sharing between two separate properties.

[04:03:20] Section 1860 is once again being amended, required use for the utility system. We are changing our 200-foot rule and changing it to the at the property line or abutting the property line and removing what we call the 200-foot rule.

[04:03:39] Last but not least, 18142, our cross connection and backflow prevention section. We're revising to align our cross connection and backflow prevention requirements to reflect the recent updates to the Virginia Department of Health's water work regulations.

[04:03:57] This gives us the opportunity to provide flexibility in maintaining our residential irrigation records while also still requiring strong public health and protection. So in summary, these amendments improve consistency between county codes, eliminate outdated requirements, and streamline processes for both the applicants and the county staff while maintaining public health protections.

[04:04:21] The Department of Utilities has worked closely with the Planning Department and the County Attorney's Office, thank you, on these proposed revisions, and we recommend approval effective January 1st, 2026 to align with the new zoning ordinance. Mr. Chairman, this is a public hearing, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

[04:04:37] - Board members, are there any questions for staff? - Ladies and gentlemen, it's a public hearing to consider an ordinance to amend chapter 18, Water and Sewers. Is there anyone here who would like to speak to this issue? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to close this public hearing.

[04:04:57] It's back before the board. Can I get a motion? Second. All in favor? Aye. D, to consider comprehensive plan amendment to chapter 10, the land use plan, Ms. Wewerka. Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board, Dr. Casey.

[04:05:20] This evening, I'll provide a brief overview of the proposed amendment to chapter 10, the land use plan chapter of the county's comprehensive plan, which you all received a thorough presentation for at your September 17th work session. The proposed amendment focuses on aligning the county's vision for land use, the Comprehensive Plan, with the newly adopted ZOMOD Zoning Ordinance. While density and land use boundaries remain unchanged, the update introduces additional guidance, renamed land use plan categories, and consistent design standards to better guide future development. The proposed amendment ensures

[04:05:59] that the plan, the vision document, and the zoning ordinance, the regulatory document, are more closely integrated to ensure consistency in land use decisions. So what's staying the same? No changes to density or land use boundaries. Where we call for residential today in the plan remains residential in the proposed amendment. Where we call for commercial remains commercial, as well as the overall vision. The overall vision is that it's established in the comprehensive plan and the land use plan remains the same. So it's changing. The intent of the proposed amendment is to further

[04:06:36] align the land use plan categories and guidelines with the new ZOMOD zoning districts and to supplement the regulations established within ZOMOD. Some of the land use categories are being renamed for clarity and so as not to confuse the land use plan categories with the ZOMOD zoning districts. The residential land use plan categories follow a new naming convention that should simplify and concisely present the categories with the number at the end reflecting the max density of the category.

[04:07:08] So, for example, where today we have low-density residential, which allows for a max of up to one unit per acre, that is becoming residential neighborhood one, one unit per acre. The proposed draft also includes a consolidation of commercial and office categories.

[04:07:24] Other changes include removal of the utilities requirement that now lives in ZOMOD. And lastly, the proposed amendment includes related updates to references to the land use plan categories that are having their names changed, and that occurs in Chapters 5, Business Development, Chapter 13, Transportation, and Chapter 15, the Community Facilities Plan.

[04:07:45] There are several new guidelines outlined on this slide that are included to supplement and align the plan with SOMAD. We wanted to show you one example summary of the new structure and language within a land use category.

[04:08:02] So you will see in this example for residential neighborhood 4, which was formerly our suburban residential 2, the max density remains at 4 units per acre or less, and that is the same. The area in orange on the map remains unchanged from where the plan calls for suburban residential 2 today.

[04:08:21] The plan also lists appropriate ZOMOD zoning districts that align to this category, as well as appropriate uses within this category, as well as a consistent design consideration section for each land use plan category. So now to the overall map.

[04:08:39] Again, the land use plan map remains largely unchanged, aside from the category renaming and the consolidation of some of the office and commercial categories. We do want to point out that subsequent to the work session last month, it has been brought to staff's attention that on page LU10 of the underlying strikeout version that was included in your agenda item, the word existing should have been stricken from the first bullet under the residential agricultural categories listed uses.

[04:09:11] This sentence should read single family dwellings on a minimum of five acres fronting a public road. This language should match the language that was included in the rural residential agricultural category and was merely an oversight. The proposed amendment to Chapter 10 of the comprehensive plan improves clarity and ensures that the zoning tools effectively implement the community's vision.

[04:09:38] On August 19th, the Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval of the proposed Chapter 10 amendment. Staff recommends that the board approve the proposed amendments to chapter 10, the land use plan of the comprehensive plan, including the minor revision that was presented on the previous slide.

[04:09:56] That concludes the presentation for this evening, and we're happy to answer any questions you may have. Board members, are there any questions for staff? So we're just connecting in with that and existing. How does it change anything by five acres fronting a public road or an existing public road?

[04:10:20] help me out with just what that means i can answer it for the reason it says an existing public road because it was a prohibit was prohibiting you from putting a road into agricultural land to create lots which means if you have owned land for example on i don't know sandy ford road and you wanted to put a house on it and it was agricultural you could do it but if you own land on sandy ford road and you wanted to put a road in and split into five acre lots you couldn't do it when we changed the ordinance when we allowed for five acre lots what we basically said is now you can put a new public road in and create five-acre lots or

[04:10:59] agricultural lots. It was caught in one section, and when I was reviewing it, I caught that this was still listed as an existing road, and it needs to be, as worded, fronting a public road, which means that if you create a new public road, it's fine. This would restrict it to only an existing public road.

[04:11:21] Does that clear it up? Yep. Any other questions? Ladies and gentlemen, it's a public hearing to consider a comprehensive plan amendment to Chapter 10, the land use plan. Is there anyone here who would like to speak to this issue?

[04:11:38] 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. Is there any discussions or can I get a motion? Mr. Chair, I'll make a motion to approve the Chapter 10 land use plan with the change in language under page LU10 in the striking out of and existing under that section.

[04:12:05] So it's a motion to approve the document with the language change on page LU10 showing a strikeout of where it says and existing. And it would just say of Public Road. That's correct. I'll need a second.

[04:12:25] Can I get a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. E, to consider acceptance of property for Mary B. Stratton Park and conveyance of an open space easement. Ms. Snow. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Casey, this is a public hearing to consider the acceptance of property for Mary B. Stratton Park and approve the conveyance of an open space easement.

[04:13:00] The county has leased the Stratton Park property from the Commonwealth since 2006, and they want to convey the property to the county. The open space easement will preserve the open space characteristics of the property and ensure its ongoing use for outdoor public recreation as required by the will of Mary B. Stratton.

[04:13:17] A public hearing is required to convey the open space easement across county property. The request has been reviewed by staff and approval is recommended after the public hearing. Board members, any questions for staff? Ladies and gentlemen, it's a public hearing to consider the acceptance of property for Mary B. Stratton Park in conveyance of an open space easement.

[04:13:39] Is there anyone here who would like to speak to this issue? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to close this public hearing. It's back before the board. Any questions or can I get a motion? So moved.

[04:13:57] I'll second. All in favor? Aye. F, to consider the lease of a portion of Mary B. Stratton Park. Ms. Snow. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Casey, this is a public hearing to consider the approval of a lease of two soccer fields at Mary Stratton Park.

[04:14:17] to the Richmond Kickers Youth Soccer Club, Inc., doing business as Richmond United to allow the continuance of its soccer program at the park. The lease will be for 15 years at $54,000 per year with two 10-year renewal terms and a 3% annual rent increases.

[04:14:35] Richmond United will assume all maintenance responsibilities and replacement of the turf during the term of the lease. Rent will be held in escrow to finance the turf replacement. A public hearing is required to lease county property. the request has been reviewed by staff and approval is recommended after the public hearing board members are there any questions for staff so they're paying rent but it's all being held in escrow anyway to pay for the turf okay thank you you're welcome ladies and gentlemen this is a

[04:15:12] public hearing to consider the lease of a portion of mary b stratton park is there anyone here who would like to speak to this issue if so please come forward and state your name seeing no one I'm going to close this public hearing. It's back before the board. If there's any discussion, let me know.

[04:15:29] Otherwise, please make a motion. I move that we approve this. Second. All in favor? Aye. G, to consider the lease of space on the county's Physic Hill water tank.

[04:15:45] Ms. Snow. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Casey, this is a public hearing to consider the lease of space on the county's Physic Hill water tank at 11-010 Winter Park Road to T-Mobile. Staff has negotiated a five-year lease at $30,000 per year with three five-year renewal terms with a 15% rent increase each renewal term.

[04:16:08] A public hearing is required to lease county property. The request has been reviewed by staff, and approval is recommended after the public hearing. Board members, are there any questions for staff? Yes. This is an existing lease already, correct?

[04:16:24] This is just a renewal? They already have equipment on the tank? This is the second carrier on it. This will be the second carrier. There is already a carrier. It's a new lease, but there's already a carrier. There already is a carrier. This is the second carrier. But it will help improve cell signal in the area.

[04:16:42] Yes, sir. Thank you. You're welcome. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing to consider the lease of space on the county's Physic Hill, Psychic Hill water tank. I said it right the first time.

[04:16:57] Sorry. Physic Hill water tank. I knew you were going to say that. Is there anyone here who would like to speak to this issue? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to close this public hearing.

[04:17:20] It's back before the board. If there's no discussion, can I get a motion? Motion approved. Second. All in favor? Aye. H, to consider conveyance of county-owned rights of way to the Commonwealth of Virginia for the Route 10, Route 60, and Route 360 traffic signal projects.

[04:17:38] Ms. Snow. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Casey, this is a public hearing to consider the conveyance of county-owned rights away to the Commonwealth of Virginia for the Route 10, Route 60, and Route 360 traffic signal projects. A public hearing is required to convey county property. The request has been reviewed by staff, and approval is recommended after the public hearing.

[04:18:00] Any questions for staff? Ladies and gentlemen, it's a public hearing to consider the conveyance of county-owned right-of-way to the Commonwealth of Virginia for Route 10, Route 60, and Route 360 traffic signal projects.

[04:18:16] Is there anyone here who would like to speak to this issue? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to close this public hearing. It's back before the board. If there's no discussion, can I get a motion? So moved. All in favor? Aye.

[04:18:32] Aye. To consider a request to vacate a portion of a 50-foot right-of-way within subdivision of Piney Branch. Ms. Snow. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Casey, this is a public hearing to consider the vacation of a portion of the 50-foot right-of-way within subdivision of Piney Branch.

[04:18:52] C.F. Curran Jr. has requested the vacation to accommodate future development. All adjacent owners were notified. There was no opposition to the request. This portion of right-of-way is no longer needed. A public hearing is required to vacate the right-of-way.

[04:19:08] The request has been reviewed by county staff, Verizon, Virginia Electric and Power Company, and Comcast, and approval is recommended after the public hearing. Board members, are there any questions for staff? Ladies and gentlemen, it's a public hearing to consider the request to vacate a portion of a 50-foot right-of-way within subdivision of Piney Branch.

[04:19:30] Is there anyone here who would like to speak to this issue? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to close this public hearing. It's back before the board. Can I get a motion? Can I get a second?

[04:19:46] Second. All in favor? Aye. J, to consider a request to vacate an eight-foot easement across Lot 20 within Westerly Subdivision Section 3. Ms. Snow. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Casey, this is a public hearing to consider the vacation of an eight-foot easement within Westerly Subdivision Section 3.

[04:20:08] Patrick and Ashley Connors, owners of the lot, have requested the vacation. The easement is no longer needed. A public hearing is required to vacate the easement. The request has been reviewed by county staff, Verizon, and Comcast, and approval is recommended after the public hearing. Is there any questions for staff?

[04:20:26] Yeah, what was the original intent for the easement? This is a rear yard easement, so it can be used. I'm sorry, this is, yes, it's a rear yard easement, so it can be used for a variety of purposes. It's a general easement. But it wasn't a road. It could have been sewer or something else.

[04:20:43] It was not a road. Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing to consider the request to vacate an eight-foot easement across lot 20 within Westerly Subdivision Section 3. Is there anyone here who would like to speak to this issue?

[04:21:00] 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. There's no discussion. Can I get a motion? Mr. Chair, I'll second it with a comment. I'm looking at the easement.

[04:21:17] Essentially, where the easement was in their property, it prevents them from using their backyard. anything, and so by removing it and it's not needed, it allowed them to utilize the rest of their property. This would have actually stopped them from being able to put anything over top of it because it's considered to be an easement.

[04:21:34] All in favor? Aye. Kay, to consider a request to vacate a portion of a 16-foot drainage easement within Timber Creek Subdivision, Section 1. Ms. Snow. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Casey, this is a public hearing to consider the vacation of a 16-foot drainage easement across lots 17, 18, and 19 within Timber Creek Subdivision Section 1.

[04:22:00] Highmark Engineering has requested the vacation on behalf of the lot owners. The portion of the easement is no longer needed. A public hearing is required to vacate the portion of easement. The request has been reviewed by county staff and approval is recommended after the public hearing.

[04:22:17] Board members, any questions for staff? I have no questions, but I think that you should get a special award for being here, the last, always the last person on the agenda. Thank you. With that, ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing to consider the request to vacate a portion of a 16-foot drainage easement within Timber Creek Subdivision, Section 1.

[04:22:39] Is there anyone here who would like to speak to this issue? If so, please come forward and state your name. Seeing no one, I'm going to close this public hearing. It's back before the board. Is there any discussion or can I entertain a motion? So moved. Second. All in favor?

[04:22:55] Item 19, 15-minute citizen comment period on unscheduled matters. We have no speakers. Mr. Chair, we need a motion to adjourn to the Chesterfield Chamber Legislative Breakfast on November 6, 2025 at 8.30 a.m.

[04:23:12] at the Virginia State University Multipurpose Center to then adjourn to a special Board of Supervisors meeting on November 12, 2025 at 6 p.m. in the public meeting room to then adjourn to the regularly scheduled Board of Supervisors meeting on November 19, 2025 at 2 p.m. in room 502 of the county administration building.

[04:23:31] Mr. Chair, before we do that, I'd like to take a point of personal privilege. Yes, sir. You know, last month we had a long meeting, and Mr. Holland stayed through that entire meeting as sick as he was.

[04:23:50] And if that doesn't tell you how much of a dedicated public servant that man was, I don't know what does. Over the next couple of days, the family with us and the community will have an opportunity TO PAY THEIR RESPECTS TO A TREMENDOUS SERVANT LEADER, AND HE'S MISSED.

[04:24:16] WE WILL FIND SOMEONE TO TAKE HIS POSITION AND CONTINUE IN THAT JOB, BUT I DON'T KNOW THAT WE'LL EVER FIND SOMEONE TO ACTUALLY REPLACE, I KNOW WE WON'T, WHO THE MAN WAS. I HAD A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF RESPECT FOR MR. HOLLAND AND LOVE FOR MR. HOLLAND.

[04:24:33] I KNEW HIM LONG BEFORE I GOT ON THE BOARD, AND I JUST WANTED TO STATE THAT FOR THE RECORD, MR. CHAIR. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. ANY OTHER BOARD MEMBERS WITH THE STATEMENT? I'd just like to add that all the way up until really the very, very end, Mr. Holland was concerned about his constituents in this county, and he was not concerned about himself.

[04:25:09] He was concerned about everybody else. That's what I remember. With that, can we get a motion? So moved. All in favor? Aye. Aye.

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