Coraggio Consulting
Hanover County Board of Supervisors Meeting, Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Date: Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Place: Hanover County Board of Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 3h 53m (video)
Official meeting video (CivicClerk): https://hanovercova.portal.civicclerk.com/event/1323/media
Official agenda (CivicClerk): https://hanovercova.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=3387,plainText=false)
Official minutes (CivicClerk): https://hanovercova.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=3513,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 2026-10-25. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[00:00:15] I'll move the microphone a little closer. Anything. Got it now. How about that? Awesome. Thank you. So, once again, thank you for being here with us. Thank you for joining us here live. And thank you for those that are live streaming with us today.

[00:00:35] As is our custom, we will begin with our invocation, led by Mr. Ryan Hudson, followed by the pledge by Ms. Danielle Floyd. Mr. Hudson. Thank you, Madam Chair. Bow with me in prayer. Loving God, we humbly come before you and ask you to be in our midst.

[00:00:55] Bless our work as we do the people's work for our great county. May we always be mindful of the needs of others. May we be aware and remember all those near and far that are suffering and have great needs, whether they be spoken or unspoken.

[00:01:11] We thank you for the blessings that we know lie ahead through our faith. Lead God and direct us in all we do. For it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Amen. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you, Mr. Hudson, and thank you, Ms. Floyd.

[00:01:48] On to item number two, our consideration of amendments to the agenda. Mr. Herzberg. Thank you, Madam Chair. Make a motion to add closed session to the agenda. Item 11A, Virginia Code, Section 2.2-3711A1, discussion of candidate for employment, assessment.

[00:02:13] Thank you, Mr. Herzberg. We have a motion on the floor. Do we have a second? Thank you. We have a motion and a second by Ms. Pritchard. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, no.

[00:02:33] Any additional revisions to the agenda from board members? All right. Hearing none. Moving right on to the chairman and board member comments.

[00:02:49] I do have a few comments that I would say are probably, at this point in time, reflections. I just want to definitely thank my fellow board members for this opportunity in 2024 to be your chair.

[00:03:09] It has been an honor and a privilege, and I do thank you. And when I sat here a year ago, I rolled out the slogan, Team Hanover. And it's something that I've always believed in, is teamwork.

[00:03:26] And I think that over the past 12 months, as we've progressed through each and every month, we've grown stronger. and really embrace the concept that working together, we are stronger together. And when I speak of Team Hanover, it's not just this board members, it's not just their administration, our employees, it includes our citizens.

[00:03:51] And together, we are strong. And last summer at Convocation in our Hanover County public schools, I rolled out a theme song from the high school musical, We're All in This Together. Love that song, love the rhythm, but love the concept that it brings because we truly are all in this together.

[00:04:13] And last week, Team Hanover faced a huge challenge with this water crisis. And what I saw was Team Hanover working together in a unified way like we never have before.

[00:04:33] Our fire department, our sheriff's department, community services board, social services, public works, our administrative team, and our public relations personnel, we all joined arms together to keep our constituents safe and to keep our constituents informed. And I have to say that together, me as the chair who sat in on many briefings and meetings, what I saw was a sense

[00:05:09] of calmness and working together efficiently and effectively, and I was just so proud of the way that we came together. And what I also heard a lot last week was a question, and that question was, what can I do to help?

[00:05:30] And so that's going to be the phrase for me for 2024, because everyone, whether you were affected by this water crisis or not, wanted to know, what can I do to help?

[00:05:45] And so we saw so many volunteers really stepping up and helping each other. And I will say that as our leader, as our administrator, John Badesky is someone that I know that my board members are so proud of, and I just want to thank him and his team for their tireless efforts.

[00:06:07] When I say tireless, these people didn't sleep for days. So we have strength in leadership and we have strength and support here at the board level and we also have strength in our constituents and their concern for each other.

[00:06:24] And so as I end my chairmanship, I just want to encourage this board to continue to grow stronger as Team Hanover and to also remember we're all in this together and I just want to thank you all for this opportunity.

[00:06:46] with that mr budeski thank you madam chair and thank you for the kind words regrettably last week was not an event that no one wanted to have to address in the first place and tonight i will share more information as it relates to the events of last week and how we will move forward i do want to share just a few other announcements before we begin that tonight though obviously we are here at school board offices i want to thank dr penny cuff and her staff for helping us

[00:07:20] here we are here specifically because the boardroom at county administration complex is under some levels of renovation some of you may know that that boardroom was built 25 years ago the technology that was installed 25 years ago is slightly different today and so we are upgrading that technology it begun in december and will be done by the end of january and so we we anticipate our first meeting in february being back at the boardroom all stars aligning to have that project up and running and and the meetings from there forward continuing there but next week's meeting

[00:07:59] will also be here and that's an evening meeting beginning at 6 p.m we do not have the exact same systems here at school board offices that we have at county administration so tonight's this afternoon's meeting and next week's meeting is available through a zoom link that's on the the county's website we've been promoting this but those that like to see this meeting streamed they can do that through a zoom link typically our other system most nights after the meeting is concluded we can upload the board meeting with a zoom meeting it will not be able to be re-uploaded

[00:08:35] till tomorrow morning and so just to give folks a little bit of understanding of if you want to access this meeting you won't be able to go back to do it tonight but it'll be available tomorrow and so on for this meeting our planning commission and our school board meeting back here for this this month i did want to share that this is the time of year that we stop and and begin reflection on the amazing volunteer commitments that residents throughout hanover county give to our community each day we are now seeking nominations for the spirit of volunteerism awards and these are if you look at the criteria they're for individuals and groups that make a difference in our community

[00:09:14] this ceremony will be on april 8th at atlee high school this is open and free to our community you do have until 5 p.m on monday february 10th to make a nomination and please if you know someone going above and beyond in our community this is a great opportunity to have them recognized for their service the stories you will hear on april 8th are uplifting heartwarming and just proud to make you hanoverian to see the folks that go above and beyond in our community so I encourage you to consider someone that's going above and beyond in our community and make that

[00:09:51] nomination. I do want to share that we do have an open house for the Henry Clay School coming up on January 21st, and the second meeting will be on February 5th. These are 5 to 7. They will be in the gymnasium of the War Memorial side of the campus, and they're 5 to 7. We're also on our website are soliciting feedback from the community on what our community and certainly the residents of the town of Ashland would like to see in the future of that facility and once we complete those

[00:10:28] that feedback session we will work with this board of supervisors to determine our next steps on how that building will be utilized for our community but right now we have not predetermined anything other than that the county does not have any planned use for our needs we are working with community to understand the community's needs and what may be feasible to to operate renovate and maintain that structure that is good for our collective communities we off every year we also

[00:11:04] bring in our development community to talk with them about changes anything from building codes to planning processes because it is an important that we work with our our development folks engineers planning folks designers to understand the changes in storm water and erosion policies year over year and those planning and code updates and really get that feedback on how we can continue to work well with the building community and also make sure that we're efficient every once in a while you hear well this works better in this community and by the way everywhere

[00:11:40] i've been they say it works better in hanover and when you come to hanover they say it works better henrico um i'm proud of what we do but we can always make it better and that process and our team that works with our development community really does try to go above and beyond and learn so we can focus on our continuous improvement i do want to take just a few moments and i apologize and ask for some indulgence because i think it deserves some explanation as to the events of last week that impacted substantially residents that live east of 95 that are on hanover county's

[00:12:17] public water system i want to be very clear that was an event that was preventable that was an event that will not happen again as long as we can make an effort to change it and i'm going to share with you some of what happened last week and what our plans are moving forward as you have learned if you were not aware because some residents came to me last week and said didn't even know we got water from the city of richmond or how long has the county been getting decades has been our

[00:12:49] relationship with the city of richmond never have we had an event like we had last and there were a number of issues what you're seeing in the in the rtd and other news agencies there is some underlying truth in systems that were not as backed up as they should have been other equipment failures and other operational failures that caused some of those issues last week it's also factual that that incident happened monday morning at 6 30 a.m hanover county was notified at 2 p.m

[00:13:26] we moved into action with our teams into monday evening and throughout the entire week monitoring the situation at 2 p.m we were told richmond city's plant was going to be back online at 6 p.m that did not occur until sometime later in tuesday there that had ramifications on us because we certainly wanted to make sure our residents were impacted as minimally as possible we got our teams together and tried to understand what supply do we have that we can support our

[00:14:00] residents and we initially determined we had ample supply for at least 24 hours and the information we were getting from that time from the city of richmond was it was coming on at six then it was coming on at 10 p.m and so on throughout the day into tuesday when it ultimately did come back on later into wednesday when when you started to see water returning back into our system we had meetings and calls throughout monday into tuesday early tuesday morning approximately 6 a.m the city of richmond put out a call for assistance we sent five hanover county employees to the city

[00:14:40] of richmond early saturday morning to assist with bringing that system back online it took throughout that day to recognize which pieces of equipment some of which were impacted by the flooding of the plant were going to be operational which were not which ones we needed to find alternative equipment to bring that up and there was also a computer system that also operates all of the pumps and equipment there a determination needed to be made on which ones were going to be sustainable and which ones needed repaired and even to this day you may have heard last night that a pump still went down we are continuing to work with the city of richmond we did throughout

[00:15:19] last week as the systems got up and running at 8 30 on wednesday night and even though during the day wednesday some residents started to see water coming back into their system it was not truly pressurized that was gravity feeding water coming back into hanover county system 8 8 30 pm on wednesday night we put our pumps back on by wednesday morning when folks woke up most of the the lines were pressurized but we were under a boil water node during that period of time we until we believe that our residents there were certain residents that had basically no water

[00:15:57] for 24 to 36 hours plus an additional 48 hour boil water advisory and as you now know both of the tests came back negative and we uplifted our boil water advisory at roughly 11 30 on Saturday in between that time there were countless numbers of pull-up meetings, follow-up meetings.

[00:16:21] We sent staff yet a second time down to the city of Richmond. This was an issue that impacted all of Henrico's eastern side was mostly impacted, our eastern side of 95 was mostly impacted, and all of the city of Richmond customers were impacted.

[00:16:41] And so part of the reason I shared with you that we were notified at 2 o'clock and we evaluated our systems, even though there was the potentiality for impact to our residents sometime Tuesday, We believed, based on that plant coming back online, that we were in a good position.

[00:16:56] As we were notified later and later that it was coming back online, we knew we were going to, we began our notification to our residents. We stood up water distribution at approximately 2.30 on Tuesday. Water distribution, the demand was very high.

[00:17:13] Those of you that had showed up on Tuesday initially, we had trucks coming from even out of state throughout that event. The demand was so high that folks started to show up around noon on Tuesday. We could not get the tractor trailers to the distribution sites because the traffic had gone basically back to Sliding Hill up by Atlee and down to 301.

[00:17:35] It was down by the Cold Harbor. Certainly the traffic wrapped around roundabouts and beyond. We had supply, but we ran out for a very brief time on Tuesday. We restocked, and then we provided water to every customer in line on Tuesday until everyone left the parking lots we said seven o'clock and it was sometime after eight o'clock by the time we shut down the water distribution on tuesday by the time we opened and commenced water distribution on wednesday we had full supplies of water bottles and we never ran out again throughout

[00:18:12] the rest of the emergency we also added water tankers of potable water at two locations on wednesday and at the courthouse complex and at pass pro as the week went on and the and the water came back online the demand for all of those had really dissipated come friday what i can assure you is throughout that event we were doing everything we could including offering equipment off of our shelves to do whatever it was going to take because no matter what we did on providing

[00:18:47] bottled water the real solution was getting the city of richmond plant back and operational and during an emergency like that while a lot of folks wanted to find blame our immediate response is always going to be knowing what we know how do we best take care of our residents first and that's always going to be our first action and i hope you saw we did our very best to do that i also believe that it's important after any event to do an after action report to understand what we could have done better because there is always that opportunity i can tell you i have a list of my own that that we

[00:19:27] would have done different better especially given better notifications and so on i think as this event unraveled very quickly we were in a meeting as we walked into an 11 o'clock meeting on wednesday or on tuesday thinking we had enough water supply until late tuesday we realized that as soon as we put out the water conservation notice and and i understand i had kids home from school as well as soon as we put out the water conservation notice our demand for water actually went up by

[00:20:03] a third and so the combination of that demand and the plants not being online as quickly actually depleted our our reserves quicker than even we thought and as we walked into our 11 o'clock meeting we had planned a briefing for our residents later in that day but we stood up a press conference by 12 30 to be able to share what we knew and did not stop that until roughly noon on saturday there were a lot of people that lost a lot of sleep myself included but i also know there

[00:20:40] was a lot of residents that lost a lot of sleep over this and so it was okay it's what we needed to do for our residents during that time there will be a lot of work done to back into what we could have done better certainly getting word out to our residents is always a challenge we used different means including the the media it's always best when we can get out to folks that are shut in we actually even offered delivery services for folks that were shut in to their homes and delivered cases of water to folks that could not get out to the pickup sites that was our

[00:21:18] csb folks our social services folks board members other volunteers stepped up to do that i have to tell you that i was extremely proud and while you never want to have the emergency in the first place our leadership and teams in both fire and ems and our sheriff's office jumped right in and they are the ones that procured the water they are the ones that helped set up the station the recruits helped the volunteers helped sheriff's office had to make sure that we had orderly and safe passage to and from all these sites. And I'm proud of that work. Certainly wish we didn't need

[00:21:56] to do it, but proud of what was done in short periods of time. I'm proud that our residents gave us a little bit of grace and patience. I know some a little less than others, and I know some were frustrated and were rightfully so, and we don't take that for granted. In fact, your government works best when you're not worried about your government working. And most folks take for granted that you're going to turn on the tap and water's going to come out and power's on and you should because if you're worrying about it we're not doing our job as well as we should

[00:22:32] and we're committed to continuing to identify ways to assure events like last week didn't happen i do need to say we're not out of the woods yet we're monitoring every four hours the city of richmond's progress their operational equipment and working across jurisdictions with henrico county the city, and even folks less impacted in Chesterfield. We began in earnest on Monday the collection of data on our after-action reports. We will continue to do that work. I anticipate and I shared at the press conference and reaffirmed that commitment today in about 30

[00:23:08] days. We're going to be able to share more as it related to what locally we could have done better to respond to this crisis, including earlier response, wider notices, and beyond.

[00:23:25] We are also commissioning an effort to find out what we can do in the short order to develop further resilience in our system. And so in the next 30 days, we are also going to be working with our engineering firms to identify what opportunities could we have done to extend the water that we would have had available to our residents.

[00:23:48] I know some have called for us to completely abandon the city of Richmond's relationship with Hanover County. I was frustrated along those lines some of myself last week, but the reality is a water system to be stood up and developed is not an overnight activity.

[00:24:03] We have to get that partnership and relationship and that operation bolstered, because in the near term, we need them to be successful to meet the collective region's water needs. The James is a powerful water source for the entire Richmond region.

[00:24:20] We just need to make sure the systems and operations are supported enough to make sure that it's effective properly. You notice I didn't mention in my comments much about our public utilities department, but I do need to step back and recognize our public utilities director, who also had needs and functions back here to take care of our own residents, put in countless hours at the city of Richmond to assist them getting their system operational to ultimately impact our residents.

[00:24:49] proud of Mr. Longshore's work, his entire team stepped up, both of our customer service staff and our operations staff. We worked with our partners in Henrico. Many of you know that we were lucky, and I'll continue to knock on wood in this winter season, we didn't have as many line breaks, but others had tons of line breaks that also created pressure problems while we were trying to get our residents back and serve. We sent people to assist and offer assistance where we could there. Hanover County has the smallest utility operation in the region of the big four jurisdictions and we were sending talent to assist wish we never had to hope we never have to again

[00:25:27] but we're going to be prepared if we do we're going to be prepared if the water system goes down talk to chief anderson if we need to stand up anything for a residence we're going to do so some quick lessons learned where is we need our residents you are our partners with us we can't get words out as well as all of you can we need you everything we put out as you share with your neighbors and friends and faith groups and so on, that helps get that word out and helps our community. While our schools were closed, and I too had a son that needed to be at school last

[00:26:01] week rather than home, they stepped up. Dr. Penikoff, thank you. Thank you for offering your facilities and to our residents. It was not only our schools, it was our faith communities that stepped up and offered water and showering facilities to our residents. Restaurants on their own without prompt stepped up and were just setting buckets outside their door for residents to come because they knew they needed it neighbors were helping neighbors there was in in that difficult time for many of our residents last week the resilience and spirit of folks was amazing

[00:26:38] and so government is better when it's team hanover it's better when it's not just your government working it's us working with you and you working with us we take what happened last week extremely serious this board reminded me almost hourly how serious they took it on your behalf as well and we are committed as we move forward not only to the after action report that we plan to do on our response in the next 30 days in the next 30 days we're doing our resiliency report you may have seen today that the city has committed and hired folks to do a regional after action report

[00:27:14] and we are committed to being part of that and just in full transparency likely some of the minutiae of what went wrong in the plant may not be in our after action report our after action report really starts at two o'clock on monday not when the plant flooded at 6 30 a.m monday the regional report will really dive much more into the the equipment failures operational failures and those kinds of things to do that right it's the real it's realistically 60 to 90 days to have that regional report done i said earlier we're not out of the woods that work of

[00:27:52] doing that regional report happens parallel with making sure that the equipment that's operating down there now sustains so we don't have this problem again i and your utility staff and been reporting to this board regularly they have someone literally 24 hours a day now assigned to just watch the valve that caused this they have brought on they've doubled all of their shifts they have brought on multiple consulting agencies to get this resolved as quickly as possible there's a

[00:28:26] equipment as we speak being shipped in. There's equipment being renovated, revamped. As the plant is aged, as we all know, there's some equipment that you just can't go buy the new pump off the shelf. You have to retrofit it to fit how it was installed there. They're working through all of those challenges right now. They have bypass pumps in place and ready to respond should there be an issue. The reservoir in Richmond is back up 10 foot's about the operational need. It's up around 17 and a half foot last report we are monitoring our systems and pressures throughout the day we will continue to do that throughout the evenings and so on until we have full confidence

[00:29:06] that this system is returned to full operational capacities and safe for all in our community there's a lot of work to be done but some of that work will also include the long-term work of what can we do to reduce our dependence on the city of richmond some of you know that i that there we have customers on the west side of 95 that were were not as impacted and why was that that's because most all of those residents that are on the public water system are served by our doswell water treatment plan we will look at all ways to leverage our existing infrastructure further

[00:29:45] work with other partners identify other water sources whatever it may be but i want to be honest this is a long-term effort you cannot just do something next week that's going to solve these kinds of issues i don't want to promise something that we can't deliver upon hanrico county just opened their reservoir in cumberland county they started that project 25 years ago it took them 250 million dollars to build it in today's dollars we have one on the books for hanover county as

[00:30:19] well it's 20 to 25 years out we estimate that to be a half of a billion dollars and maybe more by the time that can be constructed some of you that and i know many of you in this room have been hanoverians for generations some of you know hanover had some very serious conversations about a wet water reservoir back in the 80s back in the 80s our residents said we don't want this and the board did not adopt it and we continued over the years of building our dependency and resolve on utilizing the richmond system other than during major hurricanes our operational

[00:30:58] effectiveness with our water system here is above 99 percent we don't want what happened to our residents to ever reoccur we're committed to doing what we can to try to avoid it from reoccurrence and look at long-term resolution i would love to promise you that i can get you off of richmond system quickly but i wouldn't be being honest with you i wouldn't be being honest with our residents but i can tell you there's interim things we can do that will help there are interim things that we can do that could extend any potential impact should this reoccur and we're committed to working

[00:31:35] with this board our community there's nothing to hide here all of this is going to come out and be transparent it may take some time to really understand all of the components but i i told you some things here that some of you may be hearing for the first time we have nothing to hide as it relates to this your interest in making sure you have clean safe water all the time is our interest and we're committed to doing that with you board i do thank you you basically said to me last week do what it takes and your staff did what we could do last week we certainly will

[00:32:14] learn from that in our after after action report that we've committed to share here in the next 30 days but there is a long-term effort that will move along with this but i do i just want to thank our residents for your patience and understanding and continued patience and understanding while we make sure we get this right moving forward and so i'm chair i thought i needed to share a little more than some may have heard um we are twice a day have set meetings with the city of richmond and beyond to make sure that if there are any issues we will report those out we learned of

[00:32:49] an issue last night press release went out as soon as soon as we could after we learned of that issue and that wasn't an issue that we were concerned about eminent failure we just knew about an issue and wanted you to know um and we're gonna there's a fine line of letting you know about every single thing that happens in a utility system and letting you know what happens in a utility system that will impact your life and we wanted you know we're trying to make sure we find that line of letting you know what's going to impact you but also don't want you to believe that if a water line broke that we're hiding anything from you if we don't tell every resident of the county

[00:33:26] and so we're trying to find where do we need to make sure we know what to share water lines break very often in utility systems as normal routine business especially this time of year the ones that cause an impact to you not just locally where that water main break is but it could impact our system like that you're going to know about you're going to know about if we have major concerns in the city of richmond as soon as we possibly can i have to tell you it's not the joy of my life to to give press conference. It's not natural for me. But what is natural is I was a resident that

[00:34:03] lost water. I was a resident that had kids home from school. I shared your concerns last week and wanted to do everything we could possibly to do so. And many members here were impacted as well. So we don't take it lightly. So thank you for giving me the opportunity to share this.

[00:34:22] There's a lot more to come. And just please know we're committed to getting it right. Thank you, Mr. Badeski. And I did want to also officially recognize our sheriff, Sheriff Hines, in the back, in addition to our fire EMS captain, our leader, Chief Anderson.

[00:34:44] And I just want to say these three guys, Mr. Badeski, Chief Anderson, Sheriff Hines, were major players in putting together what happened last week. And the folks that work under you were just phenomenal.

[00:35:01] they just stepped up got it done never complained and we're not going to stop until we succeeded in our mission each and every day and so it was just like i said a phenomenal thing to do and and i guess as the chairman of the board i will leave you with this challenge those of you that are here with us those of you that are listening those that are not ask yourself the question what can i do to help we're in this together so thank you are there any additional comments from board

[00:35:35] members at this time all right we might be approaching my favorite part of this meeting almost moving on to citizen's time or is there anyone in the audience with us tonight this afternoon i do have one name i have a uh kip davis is kip here with us today thank you mr davis

[00:36:07] you'll have five minutes and mr herzberg will let you know when you're nearing i won't take that many. Good afternoon, board members. For the record, my name is Carl or Kip Davis. I come from the Coal Arbor District, lived there about 65 years. I don't have a dog in this fight on the water issue, but along with your thing about wanting to help, I'm here to help you. Okay, maybe.

[00:36:41] In 1987, the board of supervisors at the time approved $65,000 in 1987 to do a study on Crump Creek. Now, to my knowledge, the engineer at the time was Richard Wood, and the only drawbacks to it was Georgetown Road Bridge and an old county dump site. I sure would like to know what happened to that. That's number one. During this same time period, Bucky Stanley came

[00:37:19] to me and wanted a fourth vote. And I can, you all should understand what a fourth vote means. You can make the sunshine in Hanover with a fourth vote. He said General Crush Stone, which is now Martin Marietta, wanted to dig another hole, for lack of a better word, a quarry, on the other side of the road. They needed both a rezoning and a CUP. He could not get the fourth vote, so he came to me. Now I realize that Bucky Stanley's house is about an hour and a half drive from my house.

[00:37:56] I said, what can you do for me, Bucky? Well, we sat down with General Crush Stone, and sidebar on that. If y'all have not seen the original quarry, you guys need to take a look at it. That's close to being in the mountains in Hanover County, because you're looking, I believe, a mile down and a mile across. General Crush Stone agreed to give us the park and the hole. Now, if you can picture that hole full of water from the North Anna or South Anna River, I'm not sure which one

[00:38:33] it is, that's about 200 yards away, it would dwarf everything Richmond and Henrico has. Now, yes, it's going to cost money. But this was thought of in 1987. We were scared to death of Richmond back in those days. Maybe I should have stayed on the board. But anyway, I wanted to put that to you guys because that hole belongs to Hanover County unless things have changed since then.

[00:39:03] Is that not true? But if you need anything, I understand staff has a hard time reproducing stuff from that time period. I have it all in my files at home. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. David.

[00:39:19] Could you please raise your hand if you would like to speak today? Five speakers. Come on up on the front row, sir.

[00:39:35] Please state your name and the district in which you live. Good afternoon. My name is Warren Rice, and I live in the Mechanicsville district. I'm here to speak about an agenda item that will be coming up sometime about the roundabout in Mechanicsville. I've lived in Hanover County my whole 72 years.

[00:39:52] For the last 50 years, I have lived within one half mile on both sides of the Coal Harbor, old Mechanicsville, Pike area. Rule Point Road, it won't work.

[00:40:08] It'll never work. Don't build it. They built it. Life moves on. I think it's a better site, better thing. Coal Harbor, Crate Road. Oh, my gosh, what are they going to do? What are they going to do to the people that live in that area?

[00:40:25] What are they going to do with the business in the corner? It worked. As I said, I live now within one half mile of Old Mechanicsville, Coal Harbor, Atlee Road area. It will work.

[00:40:43] I try to get into my driveway two times in a day. I can't get out on Atlee Road. In the mornings from the school, in the afternoons from the school up, and in the afternoons from the stoplight at Mechanicsville and Old Mechanicsville and Coal Harbor, they're backed up to my door one half mile away.

[00:41:07] Folks in the back, Henrico County, Hanover County, use that corridor for emergency services every day, many times a day. When those roads are backed up, they have to make alternate routes to get to the hospital on Attlee Road.

[00:41:29] When that agenda comes up, I'm asking each and every one of you to pass that agenda. It will work. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Rice. Next on the second row. ladies and gentlemen over the board. My name is John Walsh. I live in the Mechanicsville District.

[00:41:56] And in the 70s, I moved to Hanover County. I bought Bob Greenwood's cleaners. He gave me the plans for the renovations of Mechanicsville. And he said at the time that the Virginia, that VMI, no, Virginia Tech, the students at Virginia Tech were working on the project.

[00:42:31] And so Tommy Thompson and I took the project probably 10 years later, and we tried to do something. I think the roundabout, and that's where I'm getting, the roundabout will jumpstart the renovations of Mechanicsville. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Walsh. And just to be clear with regard to this uh citizens comment period for now is comments on items that are not on our agenda

[00:43:10] today so just want to make sure we're all clear on that and i believe miss pad hunter jordan had your hand up madam chair yes sir um clarification and not on the agenda for public comment time this item would be uh item 10c and there's no public uh hearing on that so uh respectfully i now would be not only the appropriate time, but the only time for these folks to speak on that. Thank you, Mr. Davis, for that. I didn't realize it was on a public hearing,

[00:43:44] so thank you. I appreciate that. Good afternoon, board. My name is Patricia Hunter-Jordan, and I am from the Cole Harbor District. I'm here today to thank our Hanover County administration team. Yes, it was a rough time without water, but I saw what was being done, and I'm grateful for the work that they put in. I saw Mr. Bideski out there looking uncomfortable,

[00:44:19] but he was there. We could see all of our department leaders there. I'm grateful to our Hanover Sheriff's Department and our fire department for the work that they put in. You all have done what you could have done in that particular instance. The one thing that I look to for improvement is communications in that. And I've shared this already with my supervisor as well

[00:44:53] as Mr. Badesky. Because Hanover doesn't have, and a paper wouldn't have been helpful, but we don't have a paper per se that all of our residents receive. And until that, I really was not even signed up for the code red alert because I didn't know about it. And as much as I'm here, I think I should have known about it in some way. And so I'd like us to perhaps in public bills that

[00:45:28] are sent out to put a notice in there for all residents to sign up for those alerts, which would help us. Also for community leaders, communication with us would have helped us get the word out to those involved with us as well.

[00:45:49] And so those are a couple of things I'd like to offer for a future and hopes that we will never see this again, but again, to show our gratitude from the Hanover NACP for the work that was done by our county leaders in this instance.

[00:46:09] Also, one other suggestion would be for each of our supervisors at that time to put on your social media page what's happening, because I did check at that time to get announcements, and i saw it on miss pritchard's page but she was the only one and so that would also be helpful for those in your particular districts they know their supervisor and those who could could go to those particular pages and get the information that the county is being providing for all of us

[00:46:48] thank you so much thank you ma'am i believe in the back please come up ma'am hello my name is Brandy Bovell. I own Old Mechanicsville Health Spa in the village of Old Mechanicsville, so I wanted to speak on the proposed improvements. I hope that you do vote in favor of them, simply because things that make a neighborhood aesthetically more pleasing will bring in

[00:47:23] more businesses to the area, which will bring in more revenue and more clientele in that area. That's it. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. And I think I had one more in the middle aisle here. Good afternoon. My name is Jennifer Bruce Atkins. I'm in the Mechanicsville District.

[00:47:48] I am the granddaughter of John Gillard Bruce Sr., who founded Bruce Auto Parts in 1939. I'm also the daughter of John Gillard Bruce Jr., known as Jack Bruce. My daddy loved Hanover. Our whole family loved Hanover.

[00:48:06] He always strived to do what he could to make the village of Mechanicsville the best place possible for everyone. Unfortunately, he had to consistently fight anything he wanted to do to improve that area.

[00:48:22] One thing that my daddy always said was measure twice, cut once. He believed in doing things the right way the first time. When we do quality work, we can be proud to connect our names to that work.

[00:48:38] And I personally feel sorry for Hanover now that he has passed because every business and neighbor in the village area missed out on having a beautiful entrance from the swamp into the village of Mechanicsville. An entrance sign between two beautiful brick pillars would welcome people into our beloved county of Hanover.

[00:49:01] My daddy's vision was to have a sister building, which is Potts Pick and Pay, if you're all familiar with that. A sister building, a single level, mirror the brick Bruce Auto Parts building that is on the other side. But unfortunately, previous boards chose to fight against his vision, against his ideas, until he was no longer alive in order to make that happen.

[00:49:27] So his vision never came to fruition, and I know personally and can assure most everyone is regretting that now. I personally am not a big fan of roundabouts, but I get it. To be honest, I was not aware that this plan was even passed, nor were several others, many others that I know as well.

[00:49:49] However, I did see a picture of it, and I have to admit it looks beautiful. It's actually kind of exciting when I see that. But I am here to ask that you just pause and just reconsider this plan, not that you're not going to do the plan, but just if you truly want to put your name to this project and if you truly love Hanover and you respect your constituents, let's measure twice so it's done well and for long-term benefit and you'll only have to cut once, meaning let's consolidate this project with what's being planned for the old Safeway area down to the windmill so

[00:50:28] the village of Mechanicsville will be a cohesive and connected rather than look like afterthoughts of different projects. It's okay to halt and to slow down in order to do something the right way. If you're going to be spending all this money, let's spend it responsibly by having a unified plan for all of the Village of Mechanicsville, which represents and improves the area for everyone.

[00:50:56] Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Atkins. Are there any additional speakers at this time? Seeing none, we will close Citizens' Time. Now we're moving into section number five of our agenda, our annual reorganizing section. And the first item on the agenda is the election of a chair. I would like to open by nominating my vice chair, Mr. Michael Herzberg, for chair.

[00:51:29] Second. There are no seconds in this. Are there any additional nominations at this time? And is there a motion to close the nomination? We move. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, signify by saying aye.

[00:51:47] Aye. All those opposed. And I would now call for the vote, Mr. Herzberg, to move forward as our chair. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, no. Mr. Herthberg, it's all yours.

[00:52:03] Well, thank you very much, Mrs. Dibble. Next on the agenda is Item 5B, Annual Reorganization Session, Election of Vice Chair. We now open the floor for nominations for Vice Chair. I'd like to nominate John Davis as Vice Chair.

[00:52:24] I'd like to move to closed nominations. Nominations are closed. All in favor of electing Mr. Sean Davis as vice chair to the Hanover County Board of Supervisors, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Congratulations, Mr. Davis.

[00:52:41] Thank you very much. At this time, I would like to invite Mrs. Dibble down front for a presentation.

[00:53:39] Mr. Chairman.

[00:55:22] Recognize Mr. Sean Davis, Vice Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, through the astute observation of Ms. Floyd, there needs to be an amendment to the agenda, and I move that we amend the agenda on item 5E to add rules committee with the following assignments of board members to the previously identified committee, Mrs.

[00:55:48] Floyd, Mrs. Pritchard, and Mr. Herzberg. Second. All in favor of amending the agenda as recognized by Mr. Davis, please indicate by saying aye.

[00:56:03] Aye. The amended agenda has been amended for the Rules Committee to Item 5E. Mr. Chairman. Mr. Davis.

[00:56:19] Thank you, sir. I move to amend the agenda and add Item 5F to vote on a resolution to confirm the local emergency inaction taken by Hanover County under the direct authority of Mr. John Badeski, who was acting in capacity of Director of Emergency Management to declare local emergency.

[00:56:48] And, again, that would be 5F to have that motion come forward and be voted on by the board. 5F or 5G? 5G. 5F's. Mr. Chairman, I amend my agenda. I previously stated to add that as 5G.

[00:57:06] 5G, is there a motion to approve to amend that agenda? So moved. Is there a second? Second. All in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, hearing none, an agenda has been amended for item 5B.

[00:57:24] Next on the agenda is 5C, remarks from incoming chair. First, I'd like to thank board members for your support.

[00:57:42] Chair, thank you very much. I do pledge to work hard for the citizens of Hanover County and our taxpayers and also for each and every board member. some board initiatives for 2025 i think the top of the list is as mr videsky already spoke to and mentioned the water outage the after action report is certainly a big part of that and we do expect to receive that report within the next four weeks receiving a report is good having a plan after

[00:58:21] that is even better and so we want to make sure our citizens know that we will be engaged in the process we do understand the concerns and we will work hard to advance some sort of plan whatever that will be i don't know but we will keep it in our fourth on the forefront of our minds and our policy decisions the other board initiatives i want to mention are are very closely related to previous board initiative and it's one thing to say we have an initiative it's another thing to

[00:58:58] actually deliver on some of these initiatives. And my five years on the board, the previous board, this board also, we have always prioritized public safety as the top of our initiative. And we will continue to do that.

[00:59:14] Over the past few years, we have supported the construction of Fire Station 17, which is in the Henry District there on Lee Davis Road. Mr. Davis was very supportive of that project, and I was very supportive of that location also.

[00:59:32] And we work together because we understand the need to provide world-class public safety to our citizens. And whether you're in the Lee Davis Road corridor or the Station 17 service district or not, this fire station brings additional assets and resources to our county.

[00:59:55] One thing that it does is reduces the burden on other fire stations. At the top of that would be station seven. Additional assets are always a good thing, especially when there's two things going on at once. And it will also provide a better workplace for our staff and employees at the facility.

[01:00:19] And we can build 50 fire stations if we had enough money, but that's not good enough, is it, if we don't have the people to do the work and to run the calls. And that's why in the past, our board has recently supported additional staffing and budget to employ about 20 or so additional fire and EMF staff to serve the eastern side of the county and also the western side of the county.

[01:00:52] And these will continue to be board priorities moving forward. With that, also, I'd like to recognize Chief Anderson here, also Sheriff Hines. Thank you, gentlemen, for being here. World-class Hanover County Sheriff's Office, thank you very much for everything that you do, sir.

[01:01:13] It has always been a priority of the board since I've been here in five years. It will continue to be. I remember when I first met and spoke with Sheriff Hines in 2019 on my way to the meeting, I had something in my mind.

[01:01:30] I'm going to tell you what that is. I've never told you this before. I am going to do 95% listening, and that's what I did in the meeting. But I got one thing in in my 5%, and that was this.

[01:01:47] I just want to make sure that, you know, when I turn on the TV and I see the news and I see these reports on some of these tragedies across the country, I want to make sure that we're protecting our students and our schools. And I think it's better to put the resources in to prevent some of these types of things than to have to deal with a tragedy.

[01:02:09] And I still remember what our sheriff said. He said, that's the way we see it. And I've always felt like I've been on the page with his plan to provide safety for Hanover County and our citizens. And when our schools are in session, that is the highest concentration of our citizens at any one time, and they deserve protection.

[01:02:33] And I'm sure that that will continue to be a board initiative and priority moving forward. Thank you very much. And the final thing I'd like to mention, I'm glad Mr. Innes is here today, on my list is high-speed internet. And we have seen a few different providers working across Hanover County.

[01:02:53] I think that's very welcome. The unserved areas will continue to be a priority. We've got to make sure we get those people connected, sir. It will continue to be a priority and initiative for this board, as well as providing other services to serve there, to provide choice for our citizens.

[01:03:12] Citizens have been loud and clear over the past four years that they wanted to have another option or another choice. This is an initiative that does affect just about everyone in the county. We do have some folks that, as many of us know, are not included in the VATI grant simply because they may have Comcast on the road, but they may live a half mile back.

[01:03:38] Technically on the state map they're considered served, but in their mind they're not. are going to continue to work on those applications right mr nelson right mr fideski to make sure that we you know we don't leave those people out or forget those people but we want to make sure that they are on our radar and that they are a priority and with that our county administrator is currently in the process of looking to add a deputy county administrator for what purpose to work with our

[01:04:12] citizens to help with the implementation of the internet across the county served and unserved because what we have seen is in certain neighborhoods from time to time maybe a pipe gets hit or a wire gets cut or a cable or a gas whatever could be in the ground or whatever happened and so we want to have a person who will be able to be contacted to answer the phone to answer the questions and citizens the questions and concerns that our citizens have when these types of things take place so we can get them corrected and remedied as soon as possible. And that concludes my remarks

[01:04:50] today. Thank you very much. Next on the agenda is item 5D, Annual Reorganization Session, Adoption of Proposed Board of Supervisors Meeting Schedule for 2025. Is there any discussion?

[01:05:09] Mr. Chairman, I move for the adoption of the proposed Board of Supervisors Schedule January 2025 through December 2025. Second.

[01:05:16] There is a motion and a second. All approved, please indicate. All in agreement, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Aye. None opposed. The schedule has been adopted. Next on the agenda is item 5E, annual reorganization session, appointment of board members to committees. This has been amended previously for rules. Mr. Davis. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Board of Supervisors adopt the appointment of board members to committees as amended previously. Second. Second. All in favor, please indicate by

[01:05:55] by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, none. Assignment support members to committees has been approved. Item 5F, Annual Reorganization Session, Consideration and Readoption of Board of Supervisors Standing Rules and Procedures. I'm going to recognize Supervisor Pritchard in a short moment. First First of all, I would like to say, hopefully, Supervisor Pritchard, as our Chair of Rules

[01:06:31] Committee, that you will help to put together our meeting this month before our February board meeting, and I thank you for serving as Chair of Rules Committee. You served Hanover County very well, and I would also like to point out that one of the things that we did on Rules Committee with our Chair and Mrs. Floyd and myself was we We worked hard on the school board appointment process to have a better process.

[01:07:00] We heard from citizens we wanted to have more time for board members to be engaged with some of the nominees to have a more transparent process. I think that work has been beneficial, and the chair now recognizes Supervisor Pritchard. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[01:07:17] I will make sure that we get a committee meeting together as soon as possible. I'll meet with Mr. Badesky to try to make that happen. look forward to working with you this year would you like to make a motion thank you sorry um i would like to move for consideration readoption of the board of supervisors standing rules and procedures committee second there is a motion and second all in favor please indicate by saying aye

[01:07:55] aye opposed i was having trouble turning the page hearing none the standing rules and procedures are approved which could be amended later after rules committee and board support then agenda item 5g mr davis mr chairman i move that the board of supervisors about the following resolution whereas on january 7 2025 the county administrator acting as directly director of emergency management pursuant to the authority of the board of supervisors declared that an emergency existed

[01:08:30] in hanover county because of a municipal water supply shortage requiring activation of the emergency operation plan pursuant to section 44-146.21 of the Code of Virginia and related laws for the purposes of providing assistance to residents and mitigating the effects of the emergency conditions and whereas the Board of Supervisors finds that an emergency does exist warranting the declaration by the director due to the municipal water supply shortages requiring that the declaration remained in effect. Now therefore be it resolved by the Hanover County Board of Supervisors that the declaration of emergency, a copy of which is attached to this

[01:09:10] resolution by the county administrator acting in his capacity as director of emergency management on January 7th, 2025, is confirmed and be it further resolved and ordered that during the existence of the emergency and until further action is taken by the Board of Supervisors to declare the emergency has ended, the county administrator shall take such actions as are necessary pursuant to the applicable laws included in Section 44-146.21 of the Code of Virginia to implement the emergency operations plan to provide assistance to the residents of Hanover County and to mitigate the effects of the emergency conditions in order to protect

[01:09:50] lives and property. Second. There is a motion and a second. All in favor of the option, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Hearing none. Ayes have it.

[01:10:06] Item six, consent agenda, Mr. Davis. Mr. Chairman, I move for the adoption of the Consent Agenda. Second. All in favor of approving the Consent Agenda as amended, please indicate by saying aye.

[01:10:24] Aye. Any opposed? Consent Agenda has been approved. Agenda Item 7, Presentation, American Legion, Law Enforcement Officer of the Year and Firefighter, EMS of the Year. Commander Kevin Glathar, American Legion, Post 90.

[01:10:45] Vice Commander Jim Siss, American Legion, Post 90. welcome gentlemen good afternoon everyone how y'all doing all right we'll try not to be so controversial about water or anything here um i'm gonna get my notes up here real quick again i'm kevin glather from america legion post 90 um i'm not sure if everyone's aware here in hanover county we're unique in in virginia um we are the only county in virginia to have more than one american legion post we have three we have one in uh mechanicsville post 175 we have one in ashland

[01:11:21] Post 206, and then our very own in Beaverdam, Post 90, which we are representing today. On behalf of all three posts, I want to make these presentations today. I had not originally put that in remarks, but I want to make sure that y'all are aware that all of those other posts are certainly recognizing our public servants here today as well.

[01:11:38] Again, I'm Kevin Glather from Post 90. Just a few opening remarks before I help have the sheriff and the chief help us give these awards today. Each year, the American Legion recognizes local law enforcement, firefighter, and emergency medical services professionals who have exceeded the requirements expected of his or her position has shown a distinct pattern of community service and professional achievement. Most of us don't give much thought to the members of our local government who not only serve the people, but do so knowing that they may require to forward their lives both on and off duty. But when the need arises at times under dangerous conditions, those folks serve in an unwavering and professional

[01:12:16] manner. Today, we will recognize individual accomplishments, but before we do that, I'd like to take a moment to applaud, and we've already talked a little bit about it today. Let's applaud the Sheriff's Department and the Fire Department today. Thank you very much, gentlemen. At this time, I'd like to ask Sheriff Hines to come forward and help us with the first award. I'm going to go ahead and forfeit the mic to you, sir. Good afternoon. Mr. Chairman, congratulations,

[01:12:52] Mr. Vice Chair. Ms. Dibble, thank you for your service. You know, it's always great to get up here and talk about the efforts that someone puts forth. And we're so fortunate to have this individual with us. And I think, in fact, I know the entire staff of the Hanover County Sheriff's Office and I think this entire board would say that this is certainly greatly deserved. And that's to recognize uh captain terry sullivan you know terry's terry is unique that that is correct right

[01:13:30] okay just making sure uh you know terry's unique terry is uh one of those individuals that he well first he captures your heart and then he uh he captures your mind and he's always there willing to to help and we have a chaplain's program because terry sullivan works hard at it now The rest of the department works hard, and we're so fortunate to have the people we have.

[01:14:02] But you always have those that stand out. You know, Terry has been our representative to New York City, to the New York PD. He's been our representative there for a right good while. Terry's been our representative to the state police.

[01:14:19] He's also represented you, me, the citizens of Hanover County, as well as the Sheriff's Office in Belgium to speak about community policing and what we do here in Hanover collectively, as I think Ms. Dibble would say, as Team Hanover.

[01:14:39] He's also represented us in the UK, again, to talk about community policing, which I always find funny because the United Kingdom is the home of modern policing. And your Hanover County Sheriff's Office was invited there to talk about community policing and what it is we do here and why it works.

[01:15:00] And a lot of this is about Terry. Terry does a lot of our outreach. But most importantly, Terry also runs our intel unit and our intel unit is second to none. It is second to none. And there's not an event that takes place that Terry Sullivan is not involved in.

[01:15:18] And that means every aspect of our department. I cannot think of a person that is more deserving of this than Terry. I'd like to thank you all for recognizing Terry. And I'd like to ask Terry to come up so that it can be presented. Terry? Hey, don't forget about the stars.

[01:16:11] Now, I would invite Terry to the mic.

[01:16:27] As you know, Terry's also a Baptist minister, and I don't think y'all want to go into the late evening. So, Terry, if you want to say thank you, you can. Most definitely. I do want to say thank you. Just don't say amen because I'll keep going. But I will tell you, it is a true honor to be honored by members of our community in many ways, but particularly the men and women that serve our country because they recognize service.

[01:16:50] So to be honored by you is something I'll definitely cherish. So thank you very much. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, this is a little uncustomary, but I did have a question, actually two questions. Commander Glather, you served in the United States military at one time.

[01:17:06] Would you, just for the record, we keep copious notes here. Would you mind stating what branch of service you served in, sir? The United States Marine Corps. That's interesting. I'll write that down. And then, Captain Sullivan, you had thought about military service at one time as well. And I think you did. What's the connection?

[01:17:23] Sir, I didn't think about military service. I was in the military of the United States Air Force. Okay, I just wanted to make sure. So I just want you to command a great honor here this evening. And I just appreciate you greatly, Terry. And I thank you for putting that on the record.

[01:17:39] Thank you, sir. Thank you. Mr. Chair, can I take just very short? I'm not going to have the mic again. I just want to, you know, a lot of people have been thanked today about what went on with the water situation. But I truly want to thank John Budetsky.

[01:17:56] most of y'all were there at some point you saw what was going on and john i just want to personally thank you for your leadership on all of this thank you very much all right and i think there's another devil dog in the room but he didn't make it clear so do we get a new raw not right now semper fi all right and also at this point in time uh to get our next two awards uh done i'd like to invite chief anderson up here to help us out with recognizing those two

[01:18:30] individuals thank you uh i appreciate it uh it's truly an honor to serve as the fire chief and represent the women and men of Hanover County Fire EMS and the partnerships that we have with our community partners and the American Legion to take a moment and recognize some of our folks, which is often one of the things that we find most difficult to do in the fire service and in public safety is to just turn around and say thank you to one of our own from that standpoint. We take it

[01:19:06] for granted when we sign up what we do on a day-to-day basis. It's something that we love to do. It's our passion. So it's often hard and it's very humbling for folks to be recognized. And so this partnership gives us that opportunity to say thank you to our folks.

[01:19:26] On the wake of last week, the amount of work that was put in by all of our public safety partners, our community, and the moment today just to stop and say thank you. I could not imagine an opportunity to say thank you to two more of our finest folks that are pillars of our organization.

[01:19:45] Both have served in a variety of capacities in a variety of our stations. One of them was recently promoted, serving more than 12 years, and Lieutenant Whitaker and then Firefighter Medic Tarbox. I've been here more than seven years. Both of these individuals are representations of you all and represent our community to the highest standard and are looked upon by their peers and are leaned on for a number of variety of activities from the day-to-day responses to even

[01:20:20] our educational opportunities and mentor for our new folks coming in. So with that being said, And I'll ask for both of the gentlemen to come forward.

[01:20:37] Lieutenant Whitaker, we'll start with you.

[01:20:49] Firefighter, Medic, Tarbox, next with you. On behalf of Hanover Fire EMS and the partnership with the American Legion, congratulations and thank you for your hard work.

[01:21:02] I just want to thank everybody for having us here today.

[01:21:51] It means a lot to us to be recognized and to be able to represent Hanover Fire EMS and the county of Hanover. So thank you all for your continued support. It's been a whirlwind over the last eight years of progress. I can't wait to see what we can do for the next 20. So thank you.

[01:22:11] right we don't have anything else one invitation uh over post 90 the third saturday of every month we have a country breakfast over there and nobody from law enforcement fire ems pays for breakfast so come on over fellas and ladies uh and we'll get you set up for breakfast this saturday board members thank you again for your attention they appreciate the opportunity all right bye-bye okay

[01:22:48] thank you very much just another reason to be proud to live in hanover county we will now take a five-minute recess based upon where we are in the agenda and with what is remaining. Board is in recess for five minutes.

[01:23:08] Compton's Community College Annual Update, Dr. Paula Pando.

[01:32:42] Welcome, ma'am. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. Congratulations, members of the board, Mr. Budeski, and all present today. It's my great pleasure to talk to you a little bit about what's happened since the last time I was here. It feels like yesterday, but it was a year ago.

[01:32:59] So what I want to talk to you about, before I talk about anything, I want to publicly recognize two amazing board members. One could not be with us today, one is with us today. Owen Matthews, he serves as the vice chair of our college board and a tremendous advocate.

[01:33:15] And Anne McDougall, really wonderful representatives of the community and great ambassadors for the college. So what I wanted to talk to you today is about impact. I spend a lot of time sharing with you some of the things that we're doing. I thought I'd spend a little time today talking about the impact that those things are having on our various communities.

[01:33:37] And you can see before you a picture of the kinds of talents that we produce at the college, whether they're our automotive technicians, our nurses, electricians, HVAC technicians, chemists, biologists, biotechnologists. This is the talent pipeline that we are producing for our region, which helps our employers grow and thrive and make more people want to come here and make their home in the greater Richmond region. So I want to talk to you a little bit about some of these partnerships that we're having that are incredibly impactful. With VCU Health, we're able

[01:34:12] to scale our output in healthcare professionals. As you know, I don't know of any area that isn't talking about crisis levels of shortage of healthcare workers at every phase of the spectrum from your surgical technicians to your RNs to your respiratory therapists and our partnership with VCU Health is really helping us scale the production of workforce talent by sharing facilities, faculty, clinical appointments, etc. We recently partnered with the YWCA to

[01:34:46] increase the number of early childhood educators, another field that may not be incredibly high wage, but it is of incredibly high societal value. And working closely with them, we are able to increase our development of talent in that critical area. We recently received a million dollar gift from the city of Richmond to produce our biotechnology labs, new programming in our downtown campus in the biotech park. As you know, this region has become a magnet for pharmaceutical manufacturing, as well as the research and development arm in biotechnology

[01:35:26] and life sciences. And that gift came to us to be able to equip new laboratories in that sector. We also received a nearly million dollar federal earmark to expand healthcare programming.

[01:35:42] incredibly proud of that work the faith that we have engendered with our public servants with our officials with philanthropic groups and loyalty toyota an incredible partner that has helped us build an automotive program that is of high distinction that again has an incredible high regard from the industry hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships in equipment vehicles tools, and uniforms for our students. So an incredible partner. And one that I was not able to put in here because we just learned of the award yesterday. And that is a nearly $4 million

[01:36:21] grant from the US EDA. And that is winning the Good Jobs Challenge. Only eight regions were awarded that this year and we are the eighth and the only in Virginia and that big project with multiple partners will allow us to produce in excess of 220 more people in the pharmaceutical manufacturing and biotechnology spaces and I believe that the reason we are not just winning grants but having incredible partnerships is because people are seeing results

[01:37:01] Our resources are precious everywhere. And so when folks decide that the resources and the partnership will go to the college, it's because we deliver and we have done so consistently so. Our enrollment is booming. We are, oh, something happened funny here.

[01:37:20] Okay, I'll advance that. Our enrollment is booming and we are outpacing every community college in the Commonwealth of Virginia in percentage growth. I stand before you today at a 15% enrollment growth over last spring, and we hear a great deal about enrollments declining.

[01:37:43] Ours is booming. The only, there it goes again. It doesn't like my slide. I was going to say the only, okay, the only community college that is outpacing us is a little one there that I've circled, and that's the Eastern Shore Community College.

[01:38:02] And that's because if they gain 30 students, that is a 25% increase in their enrollment. We are among the largest community colleges, and so that pace is really the result of a lot of work. But really, the most important part of that equation and why our enrollment is booming as much as it is, is because of our student retention efforts.

[01:38:27] It's one thing to enroll a lot of students, but if they're not staying and completing what they started it is not of any value to them and so the work that we've been doing over the course of six plus years is really ensuring that our what's happening in the classroom is important is relevant that our programs lead to good paying jobs in our region and that the support services are there so students can complete what they started and get to work or transfer as a junior In addition to that, retention spikes that we've not seen, by the way, since 2006, our credential attainment has been growing.

[01:39:06] In spring 2023, we awarded 890 credentials. In 24, that went up to 1,196 credentials, an increase of 34% in credentials awarded. and that's again very significant for us because a little community college does not buy you a lot in life but completing a credential of value is life-changing for many and education is a tricky thing it's a sticky thing I should say and that it folks the children will then go complete a

[01:39:41] post-secondary credential as well. A few points of pride I mentioned to you our automotive program and the great partnership we have with Toyota North America. Last year, I shared with you the opening of that new facility. One year later, I'm proud to say that we have received the highest and most rigorous accreditation available in automotive technology.

[01:40:02] And that is officially accredited as a Toyota T-10 institution, only 38 in the country. And these are master technicians working on Toyota and Lexus vehicles. It is the most rigorous accreditation and prestigious one to have, and we were recently, I was going to say awarded, we recently earned that accreditation.

[01:40:25] There was a lot of work that went into that, and that work has been recognized. Folks are writing about us, calling into us, what's happening in that program, how do I get into that program. we're looking at evening sessions now because we're maxed out during the day. And so that means looking to hire evening faculty to work from 6 to 10, 11 o'clock at night and to flip our bays from the day students then to evening students to keep up with that demand. Our nursing program continues to excel. It was a program that was in trouble about a decade ago. And we have now a

[01:41:03] nearly 100% pass rate. I wish I could say 100% because it has been for the last three cohorts and the last one, one gentleman in that cohort did not pass their NCLEX on the first try. He passed on the second try, but I can no longer say 100% for all of our cohorts four in a row.

[01:41:22] So we're at nearly 100% and as you know, that is not our examination. It's a national board licensure. You can finish your nursing program with a degree. You cannot practice as a without passing your boards. Rigorous examination and our students are excelling. You may have recently heard that our horticulture program is now working in partnership with the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden and our degree program will actually be offered at the gardens. You might imagine what kind of program that can become and how many people from outside of our service

[01:41:59] region might even be interested in this program working together on future facing curricula and programming we're incredibly proud of that of that work but I'm here at Hanover County so you might be interested in well what's happening specifically in Hanover well this at last second this last fall we enrolled over 1,200 students from Hanover County 30% of them were the first in their family to go to college, 21% were awarded Pell Grants, and 16% are adult learners.

[01:42:33] I would say all of our students are adults, even when they're 17 or 18 years old, a lot of life going on. But we do have a lot of non-traditional students that make up your student population. And an additional 145 students are taking non-credit workforce programs. And that is an increase of 28% over last year. Those are programs in commercial truck driving, technology certifications, HVAC, welding certifications, apartment maintenance,

[01:43:06] those kinds of programs. So we continue to see more growth in people accessing programs that are in the non-credit side of the house, but lead to a credential that leads to a good job. A little bit about dual enrollment. I know it's always of interest.

[01:43:23] In Mechanicsville High School, we currently have 94 students enrolled in our dual enrollment in our advanced college academy. Unlike regular dual enrollment, these are students who are on track to earn an associate degree before they graduate from high school. And 88 students at Patrick Henry High School.

[01:43:42] And the class of 2024, you can see the lovely students from Patrick Henry and Mechanicsville. that was the class of 24, at the Segal Center waiting to get their college degree about a week or so before their high school graduation. 234 students now have graduated from the Advanced College Academy. 234 students who are graduating from high school as college juniors. And that number continues to grow, and it's a great partnership with your school division. And an additional 200 plus students are enrolled in dual enrollment, not necessarily in the academy,

[01:44:19] but taking a math class, an English class, a history class, all classes that they can then take. It's in their war chest. When they do go apply to colleges, they might go into college without a degree, but they will go into college with 20, 30, 40 college credits in their pocket.

[01:44:39] Imagine again, the savings for our families. And in terms of scholarships and aid awarded, this past year, over $2.1 million in scholarships and aid were awarded to Hanover County students.

[01:44:55] Again, we have a tremendous foundation that works very hard to ensure that dollars are not the reason that the doors to an education are closed. So we're very proud of the work that we do. Last year, we awarded $1.7 million just in scholarships.

[01:45:15] And those are dollars that are raised through our funding efforts. And with that, I will thank you for all of your support. And if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them. Any questions or comments from board members?

[01:45:31] Mr. Hudson? Dr. Pando, thank you for that presentation. I just wanted to say that I'm a proud 2007 graduate of the School of Nursing at J. Sergeant Reynolds. And you all continue to make an impact in my life. And in my view, the Virginia Community College system is the greatest thing that the Commonwealth of Virginia did in the last half of the 20th century. So just thank you for all you do for our community. Thank you. It's a joy to do this work. It truly is. Supervisor Pritchard. Good afternoon, Dr. Pando. I'm going to start by saying

[01:46:10] the same thing I say every single year when you're here, but I think it bears repeating. I am now in my 30th year of teaching at a four-year institution, and I have taught many students over the years who really didn't belong in a four-year institution. It's not that there was anything wrong with the students, but their parents tell them that they need to go to a four-year to be successful. And in fact, most of those students would be happier in a trade and be more successful at someplace like Reynolds. And what you do is really valuable, and I try to repeat that story often. My question for you is a little bit different. We are in a critical shortage of

[01:46:50] healthcare workers, and I have known a number of folks who were registered nurses, have maintained their license, but no longer work in nursing, but would like to go back and, in fact, have had trouble finding, you know, you're out a while, you don't know how it works anymore, have had trouble finding refresher courses. Is Reynolds doing something like that to retrain or to update the skills of folks who have been out for a while? I don't know that we do have a program specifically for somebody wanting to go back in, but I will share with you that the dean of the School of

[01:47:26] Health Professions, Dr. Patricia Lawson, she will always identify herself as a nurse first and maintains her RN license, even though she's a dean of a school within our college. I will certainly reach out to Dr. Lawson and ask if we do offer any just even guidance on or connect with an agency or or an entity that helps people return to the field.

[01:47:56] And I'd be happy to do that. This is Dibble. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I saw that a lot of our students have received Pell Grants. Can you give us a little more information on exactly what a Pell Grant is, qualifications, and what that really means to these students and their families?

[01:48:19] Sure. The Pell Grant is estimated based on a family salary, and the acronym that we use is the EFC, what the federal government says the estimated family contribution should be.

[01:48:36] And so, again, depending on how much a family makes, they're eligible for a full Pell Grant. And for those, when we say a full Pell Grant, those are folks who fall well under the poverty line.

[01:48:52] There are some families that have four children. They make $50,000 a year. They may qualify for some, for a Pell Grant. And the Pell Grants are the ones that do not have to be paid back. and so there's a financial threshold those that get the full amount and and that's been kind of a fight in various administrations on what the maximum Pell Grant should be it has not been moved that the needle has been not been moved in many years in Pell Grant and as you know tuition and fees have gone up everywhere so the power of the Pell Grant is a little less powerful today than it was perhaps 20 years ago but that grant is you do

[01:49:32] not have to pay it back, it is not a loan, and it is based 100% on family income and certain thresholds as to being able to access the full amount or a partial amount. Just seeing the amount of our students that participate tells us that your team is doing a great job to make sure that our students are made aware of all these possibilities that are there.

[01:49:59] I appreciate that because you guys are really getting it done. Thank you. Thank you very much. And I will say that there are some families that make $50 above that threshold and qualify for nothing. And so that's where our foundation kicks in with scholarships, awards, emergency grants to ensure that, again, that dollar sign is not the reason why they can't access an education that helps them realize their potential.

[01:50:34] Okay. Well, thank you, Dr. Pando. As always, thank you for your presentation and for your time and your willingness to come here to the Hanover County Board of Supervisors. We appreciate all that you and your community college do to provide a good education, and we look forward to having a good relationship with you in the future.

[01:50:54] Thank you so very much. Happy New Year, everyone. Hope it's a healthy and joyful one. Thank you. Okay. Next on the agenda, item nine, presentation, quarterly Connect Hanover Broadband Initiative update and i would like to also take a moment to recognize mr kevin nelson who will be retiring who has announced his retiring uh his retirement and i believe this will be your last board meeting and we certainly want to take this time to thank you and to show appreciation for all the good

[01:51:31] work that you have done for hanover county and its citizens mr nelson thank you mr chair and and members of the board. I am Kevin Nelson, the director of information technology here to talk to present on the quarterly update of connect Hanover internet initiative for the county.

[01:51:52] I've got a few quick comments, but we're going to focus today's presentation on two, one from bright speed and one from all points. So we're limiting the presentations to those guys. And that is because construction is underway. And that's, that's exciting for us to say it's a long time coming no doubt about it but both bright speed and all points are going to update you on their their progress I did want to mention glow fiber glow fiber has been a great partner for us or with the county in extending cable and internet service they have finished phase one and now

[01:52:28] they're going to expand to 12 mr. Kilduff said it might be as much as 17 areas in the county. So they liked, I guess, the people who were signing up in the areas they were in. So they're expanding their effort within the suburban area. So I want to recognize them.

[01:52:49] I did want to recognize as part of our VATI grant, you remember or you hear over the last 18 months the challenges we've had with the Make Ready initiative, which is whether you're dealing with the utility companies or just the preparations for fiber.

[01:53:13] The General Assembly recognized that and made funds available to localities like Hanover where those challenges were really delaying our project. And so I wanted to announce to you that we did get supplemental funds for the grant.

[01:53:32] You can see up there almost $3 million in state grant funds and all points put in almost a million dollars to help with that, the make ready process. So we're trying to accelerate and that could be aerial or underground construction. So we're very pleased to add another of almost $4 million to our project. And I do want to note that the county did not have to have any match within that program. The last thing I really want to talk about is we call it the five percent and you know you you as well as the county staff get calls from folks who say

[01:54:11] you know i'm in the all points area the bright speed area you know you're behind schedule and those are tough calls to take but at least we have an answer they're coming and now they're under construction they're going to be there there's still a small area of the county where for a variety of reasons we did not have a plan and that is this broadband equity access and deployment bead is the acronym and again I've talked about this before but it is what we're

[01:54:44] going to rely on to address that last five percent of folks the county does not directly make the application for these funds we rely on internet service providers and I'm happy to tell you today both all points and Comcast have said they're going to apply for these these funds and so the county staff will work with them on what exactly that means there's no county funding match required applications are due March 1st so this is coming fast but to get the county support for your application is nine

[01:55:19] percent of your score and that's that's a very high percentage if you if you did the math on, you know, whether you got 90s and had our support versus not having our support. So we're very excited about that for all points and for Comcast. So we have presentations. Chris Dillon with Brightspeed and Tom Ennis with all points are here. Unless you have questions of me, we will continue. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Nelson. Any questions or comments from board members for

[01:55:53] Mr. Nelson? Supervisor Pritchard. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Nelson, I just want to thank you for all the help that you've given me since I've been on the board all that you do for all of us and you will be missed except I know where you live this is devil I did have a question with regard to the bead money applications are March

[01:56:26] the first is there a anticipated date there is no time but I would guess that it's going to tie to the other applications are awarded July 1st and they that the difference is this is federal pass-through money so you do have to the state will have to go to the feds to get sign-on and that I'm certainly hopeful

[01:56:59] will you know be not a delay process but you never know what the federal government the state is ready to roll the state is going to approve these things and these things but the federal government is the federal government and I just want to remind you that you and I have one more final mission together thank you so Chris mr. Nelson I had one question for you sir for the gentleman approaches the podium I meant to write you earlier

[01:57:39] but it just you being here reminded me we have some citizens behind the cold harbor national battlefield that are unserved and i remember when mr davis and i we held the community event out in the old church community center a couple of those residents had approached us and it can be served off the dominion pole off bulla church road we just want to make sure that this mrs patrick and her road is looked at and not left out in the bead application because i don't believe they're in

[01:58:14] in Nevada. For some reason, they missed out. It's via Farm Drive. You've probably heard about that. I know she's contacted me about three times over the years, and we just want to make sure she's not left out. Yes, she is definitely on the list that I have, which I'll be passing on to Todd.

[01:58:36] Comcast tried, but couldn't pull it off. Okay. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Nelson. Okay, sir. Thank you, Board. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Chris Dillon. I'm with BrightSpeed, HighSpeed Internet. Thank you, Kevin. Kevin's been a tremendous help to me as I got ramped up in my position over the last year and a half. I did want to mention Bede, as Kevin mentioned.

[01:59:04] So every ISP had to provide a letter of intent to the State Broadband Office on where they were intending to apply we did write a letter of intent for hanover and i'll be working with todd as we move forward and we do you know we're in 20 states so we have a lot of beads coming in at the same time and we are a little concerned about the new administration and what happens with ntia the where the pass-through money comes from if there's a hold on that as the administration gets their people in so that's that'll all be worked out with state but but it will come fast and furious

[01:59:38] And to Kevin's point, if you have three, four, five ISPs who all want to apply for your county, you can write a letter to support all of them. It doesn't detract from one or the other. It really is based on the merits and how the money works out.

[01:59:55] So with that, I have been inundated with questions from your very active community on when am I going to get service for high-speed Internet? And I would like to share this website, and it goes to this page on what is your street address.

[02:00:12] And, you know, if we're not offering service yet, it will be available, and we will email you and contact you on when it is available. I'm happy to announce there are roughly 250 to 300 homes that are high-speed Internet is available today.

[02:00:29] So I'll get to that as we move forward. I've been through this slide with you many times, Brightspeed and who we are. We are a two-year-old startup. We are investing two, two and a half billion of our own money. Our state grants have gone up to about 275 million in our 20-state footprint.

[02:00:49] And if you see our fiber passings that we intended to do within five years is 300 million. I mean, three million, and that includes the passings here in Hanover. So I did want to say this release that came out last week, last year we passed 1.82 million fiber locations throughout our 20-state region.

[02:01:17] So that is 103,000 miles that we totally have in the ground. We put 17,600 miles in the ground last year, and we are well above where we expected to be. And now we're, instead of 3 million homes, we're looking at 4 million homes in our nationwide footprint.

[02:01:37] So with Hanover, this is our historical footprint of where our ILIC is, where our telephone service is. Our RDOF build that we're doing is outside of that footprint for the most part. Some is within that footprint. So if you're a BrightSpeed telephone customer, you might be served by another ISP for high-speed internet, but that doesn't mean we won't come back in that territory and overbuild on those lines.

[02:02:02] For Beaverdam, that's one of our three areas within it. It's 347 addresses with this RDOF grant. Right now, we have all of our permits. We have all of our make-ready. We're at 88% of our conduit.

[02:02:18] We're at over 50% of our aerial placement. And as of yesterday, we have service that's being able to be provided to 70 homes within the Beaverdam area.

[02:02:34] So that means out of 347 addresses, 70 are currently lit and open for sale as of today. With all of this make ready, all of our permits approved, and I have to thank Rappahannock and VDOT. They have been exceptional partners through all of this and working with us that Beaver Dam should be completed by the end of this month.

[02:02:55] With Gumtree, that's 752 addresses. We have 64% of our VDOT, and we have a railroad permit in there. We're at 87.5 of Rappahannock Make Ready. I think we've got one permit outstanding, and that may have been resolved this week.

[02:03:14] We're at 32% of our buried conduit, but with our VDOT permits pending, we can do another 51,000 feet of conduit put in the ground, and our area replacement is at 20%, and that'll move very, very quickly once we're able to build out of the CO. For Beaverdam right now, we're offering service to about 150 homes that are lit up as of today.

[02:03:35] So for Montpelier, that's a trickier build, a larger build. It's a little bit, you know, almost 1,100 addresses. But we've got 75% of our VDOT permits approved. We've got about 31,000 feet pending approval.

[02:03:51] Again, great thanks to VDOT and the hard work by those people. We're complete with Rappahannock Make Ready, and we've got one permit outstanding with Dominion. We're about a quarter of the way with Buried, and we're about 22% with our aerial. And by the end of this month, we expect about 70 homes in Montpelier to be open for sale, which means lit up fiber by the home.

[02:04:13] I did want to let you know Lamberts is our construction crew on the ground. Your staff has worked great with their team as well as our team. We have five crews on the ground throughout the county right now. Next week, they're bringing in an additional three crews, which means we'll have eight crews on the ground building out this build.

[02:04:32] I will tell you, our team has never seen this excited that we have so much ready to build so that Lambert's is bringing in an additional three teams for their building. So with that, numbers for your constituents to know, our customer repair line, our ordering new services line, and then if you want to do online services, you can do a chat with us.

[02:04:55] You can do brightspeed.com, but the next time that, Kevin will be gone, but the next time I'm invited to present, hopefully we'll be well on our way to completion, if not complete. So with that, Mr. Chairman, I'll be glad to have you answer any questions.

[02:05:10] There's my contact information, if anybody from the public or yourselves ever need to contact me. Thank you. Any questions or comments from board members? Mr. Deaver, Dan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for your presentation. And a couple of things I wanted to note.

[02:05:27] I know you talked about overbuild in some of the sections so that you can serve people that are really not on your list right now. Was there any thought when you're putting in the interduct? Because just for reference, where I live at, they put the interduct in to the pedestals leading in the subdivision.

[02:05:43] It's a dead-end road with six homes on it, and so they didn't finish it. If you were planning on it, that would have been the time to do it, build out, so that you're ready for the overbuild. Well, what we're running into on some of these private roads or some of these subdivisions that aren't VDOT-maintained roads is getting permission from some of the homeowners along the way.

[02:06:04] We're running into getting easements on private property. Right now, again, we don't charge for long drops. So if you live a half a mile off the road, we'll run a line to your house, no extra charge. I don't know of anybody else who does that. But if there's a specific situation while our guards are out there that you know of, please email me or call me or ask Todd or Kevin, because while we've got the crews out there, we want to get it done so that we don't have to come back in and redo work in the future.

[02:06:33] So please let us know. Yeah, that would have, I mean, like I say, you're within your right-of-way. You know, the pedestal's there. You just needed to serve two more pedestals, and you'd have ended that project. And the only other thing, I just want to speak for the Citizens Beaver Dam. I'm sure you're aware that they're pretty active, is that the level of current service with the copper, you know, you need to maintain that because the level of service seems to be dropping. As you're putting it in, the fiber, the other level of service seems to be dropping. And so, you know, we're struggling out there just to maintain phone service.

[02:07:10] Mr. Supervisor, thank you. And I hope your constituents know how active you've been. I came and met with you personally up here and the former chair about your concerns with that. And I've taken those back to our company. Copper is not long for this world. I mean, you're spending, Virginia's getting $1.47 billion to build fiber to everybody.

[02:07:33] So as we place fiber along these routes where copper is, eventually over the next five years, we will be getting rid of copper, but the customer shouldn't know it because it'll be a direct switch over to voice over internet through the fiber.

[02:07:50] So a lot of the larger companies, Verizon, AT&T, they're doing this throughout the United States just because you're not going to maintain two systems anymore, especially with the federal government spending, I think, $147 billion or whatever bead was nationwide.

[02:08:07] So the copper will be replaced within the next five years. But yes, sir, thank you. you thank you thank you mr dylan for your presentation thank you mr next we have mr ennis with all points broadband mr chairman members of the board thank you for this opportunity to provide an update on the hanover broadband project rich stroman is our primary point of contact he's

[02:08:44] out today but obviously i can answer as many questions as possible happy to be here we see some recurring themes between our construction and our project and the critical path that Bright speed experiences, getting permits, then construction and then service.

[02:09:02] First of all, a reminder of what our project is. So this is a Virginia telecommunications initiative. We received about a $14 million grant from the state, matched with a little bit over $14 million of local American Rescue Plan Act dollars.

[02:09:21] The remainder of the project, about 50%, is funded by the private sector. The only way that we can access public sector funds is we deliver our milestones in the county. At this point, none of the grant funds from the state or the county come to all points until we build fiber in the county that is active and lit and customers can sign up.

[02:09:43] So we're very incentivized to get that out there. The original project scope is about 560 miles of brand new fiber between All Points Broadband and Dominion Energy, Virginia. That is to get fiber-to-the-home broadband to about 62 unserved locations throughout the county.

[02:10:01] We will take installations well beyond the actual grant period, but the grant period is, for now, it was extended into the end of this year. And we're working diligently with Dominion and REC.

[02:10:17] We've got some details in here about the implications for MakeReady, as Kevin alluded to. Through that process, we've secured, I believe it will be up to an additional $5 million. We have some awards pending that obligates all points to contribute an additional $1.7 million for the same number of locations.

[02:10:41] So we hit on our key dependencies at every update. Number one is middle mile capacity in place is Dominion Energies. Their construction is done at this point. It's just a matter of splicing their fiber to our fiber. Utility pull make ready process is seems to be always ongoing.

[02:11:01] And we got a couple of bullet points later on about what the General Assembly did last year. They created the Virginia Make Ready Initiative program, a $30 million statewide fund to be competitively awarded to programs and projects like ours in Hanover, where the cost and time for aerial make ready exceeded the budget.

[02:11:23] We propose pre-approved expenses to that program. We apply for it competitively with other counties and other projects. And if the state broadband office determines ours to be competitive, they awarded it. They are.

[02:11:39] Every single thing that we apply for in Hanover has been awarded. So we dramatically reduced the volume of make-ready construction. The network on the eastern side of the county is currently under construction. And then in the western part of the county, that is the area that will benefit mostly from this MakeReady initiative.

[02:12:01] So in the Beaver Dam, South Anna District, that is where we're transferring a lot of the network from aerial to underground. Part of that strategy was applying for this MakeReady fund. As I said previously, the next milestone that we achieve will be fiber completed and people signing up.

[02:12:21] And that is the trigger for us to be reimbursed for a portion of our cost. And at the end of the presentation, I have some slides about BEAT as well. Here is the slide of the mileage completed by Dominion Energy. Those are the green lines.

[02:12:37] They've built their middle mile fiber. At this point, it's just about splicing and interconnecting with the fiber that we build. It's hard to see on the screen, but the lines and the dots that we're looking at here on the left is the status in October.

[02:12:56] On the right is the status today. Anything that was yellow in October and green now, we have permission and the ability to attach to. For the Virginia Make Ready initiative areas, mainly in the South Anna and Beard Am District, we're going to have the same colors and maps with respect to permitting for our underground routes.

[02:13:21] So that'll be included in the next update. So you can keep track the same way that we're keeping track of the Make Ready progress. Here is a picture of the cabinet in Hanover 2. We call it Hanover 2. It's the main interconnection between the upstream internet and our network. And this is out there in the field today. There is a little piece of cardboard in the meter box on the upper left hand corner. Dominion is putting in the transformer and the electric service. Part of that will be complete this week. The rest will be complete next week.

[02:14:01] when the meter goes in, that is the trigger for our upstream internet provider, a company called Segra, to connect to our network. That is the critical path item to get our first customer lit. So we're pushing very hard on those third parties. We have two more cabinets under construction in the eastern part of the county, working very closely with the county on electric inspections, making sure we keep those on track. But this is the key cabinet that we're focused on right now.

[02:14:33] The area is under construction in the Cold Harbor area here in red. Our vendor is a company called Mastec. So if you see a Mastec crew, they're out there building and constructing on our last mile.

[02:14:50] They're about to swarm this part of the county. We'll keep up-to-date information about those routes and the areas that they're working on through county staff. Here's our general project schedule working from east to west.

[02:15:06] The colored polygons here are our fiber service areas. That's the kind of individual discrete network areas that we can serve individually at each time. Each one of these polygons has their own active cabinet. And then the fiber from there works its way out to the unserved locations.

[02:15:24] The way we designed this network and building that 550 miles, not only will that serve the 6,200 unserved locations in the original VATI program, There is enough excess capacity there to expand off of that network, not only for Bede, but also for locations that, in the future, when we close out the unserved grant area, we could offer some competition in the future.

[02:15:50] But this is the schedule for construction and service across our fiber service areas. Here is a timeline and Gantt chart of the major gating items to getting to activation, which is going to happen in late February for those first customers.

[02:16:10] and there will be some ongoing and parallel make ready last mile construction throughout the county but the first activation is going to happen in late february we get to bead there's a lot of rad on that map these are individual locations that at some point the state has determined to be unserved and eligible for bead and there are primarily two reasons why a location would be on this map and eligible for bead and not in a vady project or in the bright speed art off

[02:16:43] program. Two things happened since we put together our project. One, the definition of broadband went up. So previously, maybe you could have been on copper DSL service and you were considered served and the definition of broadband back then was 25 megabits a second down. Now the definition is 100 megabits per second down and you're no longer served by broadband. So that may be a reason why you are a red dot on this map. And the second reason is that the reporting for service of

[02:17:18] broadband when we scoped our project was done on a census block basis. So if one location in a census block was considered served, then they were all considered served unless we could prove otherwise. So now service is reported location by location basis. So the FCC and the state broadband office have a lot more granular data about what is served now. So the folks that were mainly overlooked previously are now on this list, and the state is obligated to spend that billion and a half dollars to make sure that every single location on this list has a plan

[02:17:55] for broadband. So that program is open now. They opened the window on December 1st. The applications are due on March 1st. Similar to the VADI program in that it primarily awards private sector ISPs who have the most cost-competitive application.

[02:18:15] There are a number of other scoring categories in there, including support from the locality. Ms. W, you asked about the timing for VEED. Right now, we know that the applications are due March 1st. There is some time period for Virginia to evaluate those.

[02:18:34] But in July, they will send their plan for every single location to NTIA. At that point, it's in the federal agency to review Virginia's plan and give Virginia the go-ahead to sign its contracts.

[02:18:49] Now, that time period is to be determined, but by the end of July, that plan will be submitted to NTIA for every single location on the list. That is where we stand right now for Bede.

[02:19:06] We are going to submit our application on March 1st. They will announce those by July, and every single dot on this map will have an obligation to get fiber broadband. Some of them may get alternative technology, but the overwhelming majority of the locations on that map will get an obligation for fiber login, whether through us or another applicant.

[02:19:36] I wanted to share a couple of our mailers and flyers that are going out to your residence. These are based on the fiber service area that they live in and an estimated time to activation. So the first letter that they will get is going to be this one here on the left.

[02:19:53] This is a general welcome to the All Points Broadband Network. We're coming to your neighborhood. Sign up soon, or sign up now for service soon if you go to apbfiber.com. The best way to get out of receiving a whole bunch of mailers is to give us your email address, but we will send a different message leading up to service activation and then following up with that with door hangers, text messages, yard signs, know traditional boots on the ground advertising and marketing so with that i would be happy to

[02:20:30] answer any questions that the board may have thank you mr ennis any questions or comments mr bedesky mr chair thank you um thank you and for the partnership that we we have um it's this is exciting but i want to just clarify a few things that you had showed the service area map in this room it's difficult to see that that service area map and in our discussions what we shared his timelines at the last quarterly update we're still on track to meet all those deliverables

[02:21:06] at this time correct me if i'm wrong yes including first connections in february first connection in february uh the there are obligations and strings attached to the virginia make ready initiative and those have to be done uh believe the state budget says by june so even though it has changed from aerial to underground uh we still have obligations on the timeline for those as well so including the first uh quarter would be the first on the eastern side through the middle

[02:21:40] summer we'll be transitioning to western and complete all construction by the end of this calendar year yes sir and those connections from the date the service is lit up they have a year to connect at no additional charge regardless of how far they are off the road correct one year from notification yes so they all locations would pay a standard installation cost but if you are you know a quarter mile off the road as long as you sign up within the first year of your area

[02:22:14] being activated and and we will tell you about that multiple times and then there is no long long drop fee after that one year period i believe right now we charge two dollars a foot after a thousand feet so but that's a good thing to point out even though the the project is through the end of this year that time period will go for one year after we turn on your fiber service area and i appreciate the commitment you guys have made to us to the weekly updates with our team i know we had talked about making sure that we had the contracts that were executed and with the

[02:22:53] time frames to meet our deliverables and having an update weekly on the progress so we make sure we know, fall behind between quarterly updates. So thank you for making that commitment with us and look forward to seeing more progress with you. Thank you. Any other questions? I have a few, Mr. Ennis. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir, very much for your willingness to be here today and to provide this presentation. Mr. Kevin Nelson had mentioned earlier about an all points investment in the amount of $970,000 for some additional areas.

[02:23:34] So I thank you for that. Thank you for that. So one of the questions that I have, I have, I think, about three. So I've personally seen Cabinet 2 on Old Church Road, and thank you for that.

[02:23:51] I believe I heard you say that Cabinets 1 and 3, well, Cabinets 4, FSA 1 and 3, that construction is underway. Is it a concrete pad? Is it trenching? I believe the pad for one is poured yesterday or today, but the pad for three, I think the work order has gone out.

[02:24:24] Can I follow up with you and send you the details for one and three? They are released to construction. For those who may not know, cabinet one is Westwood Road area and three is a study area. The next question I have is, in summary, if a resident wants to sign up for All Points Broadband, it's $199.

[02:24:48] Is that right? Yes, sir. About three weeks ago, I went on the All Points website. Maybe I missed it, but I'm looking for a pricing page, a place where folks who are interested in the service can go to somewhere and see, you know, option A, option B, option B.

[02:25:09] see i think we can see the options the blaze and the others but i don't think that there were prices it should be based on your zip code but i will i will confirm with the marketing team and make sure that i'm communicating that correctly there's a place where you put in your zip code and you should be able to see the the pricing available to you okay that's what i would like to say maybe i missed it i checked a couple times i i don't believe that link is on the county website so So we can just get that, and then we can link it so our citizens, when they go to the county

[02:25:48] website and they go to the broadband, they can click on there, and they can go to all points and see that. I think that would be helpful, get those questions answered. And they're able to sign up when they receive the mailers, the flyers, the door hanging?

[02:26:05] So right now, they can sign up for notifications, and they can verify that their address is in the project. But until they get the notice that says your area is now accepting sales, they can't actually create an account.

[02:26:22] I understand. And then I think the final question I have right now is, since Cabinet 2 has already been installed, and you showed the picture of it, is FSA 2 the first to have service connections?

[02:26:42] They will be the first to have connections. And then, will the whole area have to be complete for that to be lit up? Or can part of FSA 2 be lit up while the other is under construction? Part of FSA 2 will be active before the whole thing is complete.

[02:27:03] Thank you very much. Yes. That's all I have. Okay, moving on. Agenda Item 10, presentation, transportation update, highway matters.

[02:27:23] Actually, it's 10A, highway matters. Mr. Marshall Wynn, VDOT, thank you for being with us, Mr. Wynn. Have you announced, have you provided any news on your work in the last few months?

[02:27:40] No. No retirements, right? Not until later this year. Okay. I didn't want to say something that was odd. I will announce it, though. Okay, but I didn't want to leave it out either. Okay. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Mr. Badesky, Marshall Wynn with VDOT.

[02:28:00] This past quarter, we had 714 work orders. We completed 1,279, but that sounds misleading, but we do work orders for our own work, so we had 500-plus work orders that we initiated ourselves to get work done.

[02:28:18] I had 22 after-hours call-outs for different types of things. It could have been tree in the road, stop sign down, an accident, that sort of thing. Been doing regular maintenance activities, pothole and asphalt repair, ditching and shoulder work, pipe replacement and cleaning and inspection, tree and brush removal and cleanup.

[02:28:44] We did complete all our mowing cycles in November, late November, for primary and secondary, trash pickup and sign maintenance. We just completed two snow events. We do have a conference call tomorrow for possible snow events Sunday.

[02:29:02] So, don't have anything else, not let you all have any questions. Any questions or comments? Supervisor Pritchard. Thank you. Mr. Nguyen, I don't exactly know how adopt-a-spots work around highway cleanup and that kind of stuff.

[02:29:23] Adopt-a-highway? Yeah, adopt-a-highway. If someone wanted to adopt the area within a roundabout, can it be that specific? I'm thinking about one in my district.

[02:29:42] Or does it need to be a larger road segment? How does it work? How do you get to adopt-a-highway? It's usually a larger road segment. If you would, you know, send me an email, I can put you in touch with the right person. Okay. I had somebody inquire about adopting an area, and I just didn't, I had no clue how it worked.

[02:30:02] We do have an Adopt-A-Highway program, but it's usually roadways from this point to that point. Okay. And we supply signs and trash bags and that sort of thing. And once the trash is picked up, they let us know. We pick it up and take it on to the proper dump site.

[02:30:20] I'll call you. Thank you. Okay. Mrs. Dibble. I just had a question about intersection that we've talked about a lot in the past couple months, Scotchtown Road and Route 54.

[02:30:36] We just asked how great the rumble strips on Route 33 are, and I do believe we're going to save lives because of them. But the rumble strips on Scotchtown Road are just nonexistent, And I was hoping that we could get those upgraded or turned into real rumble strips because you just don't even feel them at all.

[02:31:02] Okay. I can put a request in there to, you know, to refresh them. I know that Mr. Stoneman and I travel through the West Point area frequently, and as soon as you get off 64, you hit Rumble City. I mean, those are some serious rumble strips, and they get your attention.

[02:31:21] Okay. And I think they've just worn down. You just literally just drive right over them. And I also had, for some reason, this past week, three folks talk to me about the potholes on Greenwood Church Road.

[02:31:38] If we could just have someone drive Greenwood Church and address those. Okay, Ms. Dibble. Other than that, we really appreciate you cleaning out all of our culverts on our main roads.

[02:31:54] It's really helped. Okay. Thank you for that. Anyone else? I have one comment, and you know, we talked a few times about Old Church and McClellan. Yeah. I go through there regularly, three to four to five times a week.

[02:32:13] I think it's working great. Good. And I mean, you know, it's different every time you go through there. Sometimes there's no car approaching, you know, McClellan North at Old Church, so there's no flashing light.

[02:32:29] And I've been observing every time I go through when the cars approach, when does the light flash and in my view it flashes perfectly right and i know it took a long time to get that done but i think at the end the result considering the circumstances is a good result i want to thank you yeah i agree with the outcome is is a good outcome but when you have to deal with certain citizens to make it happen that's why it takes so long so appreciate it i understand sir thank

[02:33:03] you very much thank you okay next is agenda item 10b road project status report mr joe by dunas good afternoon mr chairman congratulations on your selection um so i have 20 projects that i'm going to roll through i'm going to go through quickly i know we're getting late into the into the day and you're familiar with a lot of these you're very familiar with this very first one which is a view

[02:33:35] Route 360 from Old Hickory looking to the west. You can see that it is nearly complete. We still have some paving remaining on Lee Davis. We hope that we would have finished that. The weather caught us. As soon as weather conditions improve, we expect that that work to be done. There's some work related to drainage and stormwater in the I-295 cloverleaf. That will have to happen, but we are or the contractor is on pace to have the project wrapped up by April 1 which is the

[02:34:10] official completion date. Here we're converting the southbound shoulder on Route 301 between Natalie Road and Natalie Station Road into a continuous right turn lane. An agreement allowing this work within the railroad right away and permitting items are still in process. Once those have been completed, we expect tuition notice to proceed to the contractor. Again, weather is a factor, so once weather conditions improve, we expect that work to take about six months

[02:34:45] to complete. This is the Paper Street Paving Project. You'll recall back in October, you authorized us to move forward with the paving of Shelley Lee Drive under this Paper Street Paving concept. We've since received a favorable proposal from our on-call contractor, Talley and Armstrong, to construct the improvements. We're reviewing some drainage items just to ensure that we're in compliance, that the project drains properly. And so we're probably looking at early spring before we're actually able to do that work. We expect that to take probably no more than about

[02:35:25] 90 days tops. The contractors for VDOT is continuing to make very good progress on the fall line trail. The photo on the left is looking north for the RICO side. That's the bridge over the Chick crossing. And then the photo on the left is at the far opposite end. That's at the tie-in point to the existing trolley line trail section in Ashland. The official completion date

[02:35:59] for the project. VDOT's holding fast with their September, but I can just tell you they're well ahead of that schedule, at least for some sections, and they are assuring the public that as soon as sections are completed, they'll be open to the public. I know that our Parks and Recs office is getting calls daily about when the trail will be open, and I've heard the same thing, and VDOT just As for the public's patients, it's important that they stay off the trail while construction is in progress for their own safety.

[02:36:39] Next up, this is the intersection of Route 1 and Route 30 to improve safety and operations at that intersection. We're currently addressing a design issue related to drainage. Once that's resolved, we'll move forward with right-of-way acquisition.

[02:36:56] This area is very flat and has experienced long-term drainage issues. So we want to make sure that we are properly addressing the drainage with the improvements that we're making. This is the project specifically to provide pedestrian improvements in the courthouse area, including crosswalks at the north and south entrances to the courthouse.

[02:37:25] We do have approval for the crossing at the southern location on the northern end. we're still reviewing that with vdot we do not have formal approval we're kind of been on a on hold here pending formal engineering authorization from vdot we expect to get that any day in fact i think that's coming tomorrow we hope and then once we have authorization we'll get back into the design details and anticipation of a public hearing this summer this are these are a couple

[02:38:02] renderings of the roundabout improvement project at Lewistown and Ashkate Roads. As I noted in my last update, we entered into a memorandum of agreement, or we were required to develop a memorandum of agreement to address some adverse effects related to environmental impacts on the community. That agreement's been drafted. It's being circulated for signature. It's one of the outcomes of that will be that we'll be developing interpretive

[02:38:36] historical signage at each and to be placed at each of the three crossings. And so we begun work on that. And we do have some utility coordination relocation plans need to be finalized. Just to be frank, Verizon, and Dominion have not been very quick to respond, but once we get that ironed out, then we'll be in a position to proceed to the right-of-way acquisition phase. Last thing I would point out is that the landscaping and the wall and the wording on the wall have all been

[02:39:16] worked out. That's been vetted with the community, and we seem to have buy-in from everybody. We did add the established date to the wall, and I think it looks quite nice. Okay, so this is rendering reflects the current design at the Route 360 Attlee Road, Cold Harbor Road roundabout. We have another agenda item to discuss this project and some potential design changes, so I'm not going to say too much more about this. We can get into that when we get to the next item on the agenda.

[02:39:54] So we're planning left-turn lanes on Creighton Road at Sleds Lake Run and Tammy Lane. The field survey and other design activities began last fall, and a preliminary plan will be available in February, after which we'll schedule a meeting to present the plans to the public.

[02:40:23] Okay, so this is 301-54 roundabout. In October, you all approved the extension of the existing sidewalk along 301 from the post office north to the gas station convenience store. Since then, we've been coordinating with VDOT on that aspect of the project. It's complicated. We haven't worked out the details yet. There are some issues that surrounding something called logical termini, how you end a sidewalk. We're still working through that with VDOT. Once we have that ironed out, we expect to

[02:41:02] come back to you and brief you all on what that entails and what the cost entails for extending the sidewalk. In the meantime, however, we'll continue to advance the plans in preparation for a public hearing in the spring. Okay, so this is Creighton Road, Creighton Parkway, Walnut Grove Road. These are the two roundabouts. Last month, we held a public hearing, and we're in the process of processing input from that meeting. We'll take that feedback and, excuse me, continue to develop

[02:41:38] the plans to the right-of-way stage in anticipation of beginning right-of-way activities later this year. So at the other end of the Brown Grove District, this is the Sliding Hill Peaks, Mount Hermon, Ashcake Road intersection, the proposed roundabout. We are mirroring the landscaping as to what we are proposing or planning at Lewistown Ashcake. So they kind of

[02:42:11] book in the district. We are submitting our environmental findings and recommendations to DHR this week. And as you know, the other end, we received adverse effect finding. We're hopeful that we don't receive the same finding, but there is the potential that we do. If we do, we'll probably go through the same steps but given the experience that we had at Lewistown Ashkate we'll be able to expedite that process this is Attlee

[02:42:49] Road in front of a mechanics of elementary school turn lane proposal here the unfortunate news is that our traffic analysis shows that the turning lanes will not be adequate to address the backups there's just not enough space and too much traffic through that area. So we're looking at options of potentially expanding the length of the project to provide more capacity to get vehicles through there.

[02:43:24] You heard a comment earlier today, I believe by a citizen, speaking to that very fact of the congestion and the difficulty for emergency vehicles. So more work to be done before we really have a recommendation that we're comfortable putting forward. I shared this with you at our last update. We have developed two options. They both work fairly similarly, same level of service,

[02:43:57] similar right-of-way impacts, similar costs. They do carry various pros and cons to each option. We're going to share these with the public upcoming as an informational meeting, get input, and then at that point be in a position to make a recommendation on one of these two concepts as to go forward with.

[02:44:25] Route 54, Gaudens Hill, left turn lane field survey and other design activities began last fall. And a preliminary plan will be available next month, after which we will schedule a meeting to present the plan to the public. This is the Polgreen Road corridor.

[02:44:47] We're in the right-of-way acquisition phase. This map is to indicate or to provide an update as to where we are in terms of right-of-way. The shaded parcels are parcels that we need right-of-way from, but we do not require the entire area that is shaded.

[02:45:06] So the green areas are properties that have been cleared from a right-of-way standpoint. The gray are properties where we have either extended offers or offers that will be pending to property owners. So hopefully when I come back in three months, we'll see a lot more green on this map.

[02:45:31] We made great progress on Atlee Station Road, our Phase 2 section. We've actually begun some preliminary right-of-way activities. We've begun the title work, and we'll begin the appraisal work soon.

[02:45:47] So, you know, at this point, it's mostly focused on right-of-way acquisition. That's a lengthy process. as we all know. And so it's about all I have to say about that one. This is the next phase of Atlee Station widening. This picks up at approximately the King's Charter entrance and continues the widening to Sliding Hill Road. Field survey and other design activities began this last fall, and we expect that we'll have a preliminary 10% conceptual plan available in

[02:46:27] March. Rural Point Road, this was scheduled for trench widening. We were expecting this to be done in the fall. It was not. Now weather has interfered with that plan for sure. The contractor, VDOT expects the contractor to perform this work in the springtime. Just a side note, this has been a difficult process. VDOT is administering this contract, which basically

[02:47:05] assigns these roads on an on-call basis. We have discussed with VDOT a different contracting mechanism that we think is going to be, will have the contractor be more responsive. It will be much more like VDOT's annual road surfacing contract, where they put out a list of roads to be done, and the contractor would bid on those, and it has fixed completion dates for performing that work.

[02:47:34] And so we are somewhat, or VDOT is somewhat at the mercy under our current contract as to getting this work accomplished. I believe this is the last project.

[02:47:52] This is Hickory Hill Road Improvements. This is related to the track development. As you all know, field survey work has begun, and we are coordinating with the developer on monthly calls just to ensure that proper coordination is taking place between the improvements that we're responsible for and the on-site improvements the developer will be doing.

[02:48:20] That's a lot of information I know, Mr. Chairman, but I'm happy to take any questions about any of this. Yes. Any questions or comments for Mr. Vidunez from board members? Mr. Hudson.

[02:48:37] Thank you, Mr. Vidunez. Just a question in regard to Mechanicsville Elementary School. Is, or you, I don't think your staff is tremendously large, are you folks talking with the schools in regard to perhaps reconfiguring their parking lot or even coming over some of the, we'll call it the ditch there?

[02:49:04] I think you follow me on that. So go ahead. Yes. As I try to find that slide, excuse me, I missed, I went by it. But to answer your question, yes, those conversations are taking place. The school is receptive to making some operational or maybe even some physical changes.

[02:49:25] That wouldn't be an easy undertaking if it requires some type of physical changes to the property. But they recognize, and I think we all recognize, that turn lanes alone are not going to be sufficient to address that, really, that concentrated peak period traffic in the morning and the afternoon.

[02:49:49] I mean, I know there's a different time when the parking lot was laid out, but even without traffic congestion, the parking lot itself is difficult, I guess I would say. So I'm glad that you all are coordinating on that. Thank you. Yes. Mr. Davis.

[02:50:07] Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Similar question to Mr. Hudson, Mr. Fidenis. Are there opportunities on property for additional opportunities, maybe for stacking and queuing, even if there's a reconfiguration?

[02:50:26] We can talk with the school board. Much of what we did with Rural Point Elementary, I know the geography was a little bit different. We had a little bit more dirt over there and a large bus lot, so we can do some things, but in addition to that, because that is going to, that and a couple of other elementary schools, but that's going to be a huge safety issue, so I know it's a priority, and I appreciate that, I appreciate Mr. Wynn and all these folks working on that, but over there on mechanics, is there any opportunity to look at some of the real estate over there?

[02:51:01] One is a short-term fix, I know we still need to do the road improvements, but then, to Mr. Hudson's point, getting folks off the road even before this improvement potential improvement may be made and then having kind of a permanent opportunity for stacking and queuing uh their own property to get people off out of travel lanes any any opportunities or thoughts there sir so so there's a definite recognition on the part of the school and a part of us that it has to be kind of a complete solution it can't just be road or the schools um as far as this was specifics as as to what they're looking at and what is feasible

[02:51:37] I haven't been part of that and so I really can't answer that but but I can assure you that that schools are behind it and they understand there's an issue there I just maybe that's just something we could look at is they do have some real estate and that could be part of a comprehensive plan along with the road improvements is to get people out of travel path onto the property and then again queue and stack there so thank you for that thank you Mr. Chairman thank you very much Mr.

[02:52:11] by Dunes. Next is agenda item 10C, Route 360 Business, Attlee Road, Cold Harbor Road Roundabout Project, consideration of additional architectural and aesthetics. Yes, so just kind of segueing from the presentation a moment ago, this is the 360 Attlee Cold Harbor proposed roundabout.

[02:52:34] the rendering that you see here is the current design proposal and primary purpose of the project is to address traffic and safety concerns in the intersection we in this rendering I'll just kind of note that our standard design includes a landscaped central island that is flush with the truck apron. We have standard plain colored concrete for the truck apron and for the sidewalks. And

[02:53:11] I know it's difficult to make out in this rendering, but we have standard light pole features and the standard is a silver colored pole. So in December, we reviewed a proposal with the transportation committee to make certain design changes, which I'll outline for you right now. One proposal was to provide a raised central landscape island, very similar to what we're doing and have planned at Lewistown and Ashcake and Sliding Hill, New Ash, Sliding

[02:53:49] Hill, Ashcake Road, excuse me, whereby we would create a retaining wall with lettering. That leathering. I would, could say, Village of Mechanicsville, have it repeated four times on the wall to align with the approaches to the intersection. We also discussed changing the color of the concrete of the truck apron to a stamped or embossed surface, tinted some other color than the plain color. There would be cost, added cost, of course, for these proposals. And

[02:54:25] based upon discussions with our engineer. And it's difficult to put an exact price on these things. They gave us a range of $165,000 to $330,000 for the retaining wall and the concrete color, an additional $35,000 to $50,000 to go with the embossing and the color for the concrete.

[02:54:49] With that, and this is the case with anything we deviate from VDOT standards if we if we deviate from VDOT standards then maintenance responsibilities become a county responsibility so in other words if there were some type of damage to the wall or the truck apron if if we had changed the design in some way then that would be a county responsibility the landscaping also would become a county responsibility so basically anything

[02:55:24] inside that truck apron area, including the truck apron, becomes a county responsibility to maintain under this type of proposal. We also reviewed with the committee a proposal to change the coloring of the light poles. As a standard practice, with all of our roundabouts, we provide lighting. We have lighting at the Creighton Cold Harbor roundabout. We have lighting at the Studley Rural Point roundabout. We use standard poles. Typically eight poles is sufficient to light the

[02:56:01] roundabout. It's done for safety reasons. That light is directed into the roundabout and it's so it doesn't spill out into the neighborhoods that might be surrounding it. And the VDOT standard is, and they leave it open, but it's either a brushed aluminum or a galvanized steel silver color pole. The proposal or the request was to look at a black pole. This would be likely powder coated, but a pole that was painted black. To change the color, again,

[02:56:39] this is our best guess or best estimate, I should say. We don't have exact figures, but we're thinking approximately $12,000 to change the color of the pole. However, with that would also come the maintenance responsibilities, just as with the changing of the color of the concrete and the retaining wall. The county would then assume costs for maintenance and upkeep of the lights, so everything from changing a light bulb to paying the electric

[02:57:08] bill on those poles and anything else. So just to summarize, the committee looked at essentially four options, okay? One would be everything that I've discussed, the retaining wall, the embossed tinted concrete, and the lighting. That would have a range in price we estimate between $212,000

[02:57:39] and $392,000, along with maintenance, to status quo, which is basically the current design that I showed you with the first slide. And there's some other options in there. I will add that there is what we would call an ad alternate option. Like I said, we don't have exact pricing of these things, so it would be possible to do an ad alt to our contract for the light poles, for the concrete. I wouldn't recommend that for the wall. I'd recommend that you all provide a decision on

[02:58:19] the wall, either to include it or not. But for those other items, we could have the contractor bid that that way we would know the price and we could either stick with the standard or if there was a there was your desire we could select one of the one of the options that are presented here last thing that i will say mr chairman is that i did mention that this was reviewed with the transportation committee the transportation committee chose to defer these four options

[02:58:55] to to the board for their determination so they didn't put forward a recommendation their recommendation was that these four items be presented uh to you all um for consideration okay a couple quick questions about what you've shown and then i'm going to recognize mr hudson the concrete trench stormwater trench that's in the road now uh as as it is this plan eliminates that concrete trench and it puts the storm water in an underground pipe and carries it away is that

[02:59:32] right? Yes. And the other thing that's not shown is the right turn lane for Shady Grove Road. I don't remember seeing that. It's just off the picture here. I can barely make it out, but it's right there where the pointer is. You may, I'm sorry, you may not be able to see, but if you were to turn around, I have it. Well, there is one, and I just want to make sure that the people who are watching it are here know that those two enhancements have already been included in the project. Is that right? And the approximate dollar value for the plan as is, is it six million? What

[03:00:10] is it? It is roughly 5.7 million. Okay. That's all I have for now. Thank you, Mr. Vidunas. And I'd like to recognize Mr. Hudson. Thank you, Mr. Chair. First, I just want to kind of say a couple things before I move further. But first, I want to thank and commend my colleagues for committing to the revitalization of the Village of Mechanicsville in the 360 Business Corridor

[03:00:42] and at our March 2024 board retreat for a year two small area plan. And I was excited to actually see the community meetings for our year one project in the Mountain Road small area plan in that corridor. So the Board of Supervisors is committed to revitalization of that district, and I'm grateful for that. I have heard loud and clear, and in hindsight perhaps,

[03:01:22] have learned that because this is a road project, period exclamation point, as noted, that perhaps the enhancements or improvements could have come from or gone through another committee.

[03:01:41] I don't know which one that is, but I learned from different colleagues different things, and one was that when it goes before the transportation committee, that's their scope, that's what they're going to look at as it. And I get that it is a grade F intersection, and then that is what they looked at.

[03:02:05] And in the time that we have been going through this, and I have been speaking with business managers, business owners, and that sort of thing, I have tried to make it clear that the project itself is approved and is coming, and that my goal is to work to have a cohesive plan, comprehensive plan,

[03:02:36] to create, yeah, cohesiveness throughout this business corridor in order to spur further economic growth. And so with that, I have said and learned from Joe and John and others, one of the things that Joe mentioned.

[03:02:57] So, for example, I talked to Sue, the stamped stained concrete apron, I don't, that's not a sticking point for me. And honestly, Mike, I just learned from you in this instant that it changed the way that the water is run off.

[03:03:13] No one had said, at least registered in my mind, that the updates actually did that. I guess what I'm saying is there's more than one way to skin a cat. And I'm asking my colleagues, last asking Joe, I talked to Ms. Pritchard.

[03:03:29] She gave me some many ideas and things of that nature, which I'm grateful for. Is there a way, Joe, to put up the existing lights, and then when you do the small area plan, you wrap that into?

[03:03:45] I did speak with the business owner that handles an account. The business owners are willing to give the $15,000 to go towards the project to pay for the lights to be upgraded. And Ms. Pritchard gave me the idea of could we vote on the project as we see fit today?

[03:04:07] Help me, Faye, if I falter on that, until we can, I guess, proffered on the fact that we would find an entity, the Mechanicsville JCs, I don't know, that would pay or be responsible for the light bill.

[03:04:23] Because there's going to come a time, whether it's through Dominion's lamppost program that they have, when we come down the hill, somebody's going to have, they're going to have a light bill and somebody needs to pay it, and everyone that I've spoken to is aware of that, business-wise, and that sort of thing.

[03:04:39] So I just want us to have a conversation because Ms. Pritchard, Mr. Davis, Ms. Dibble particularly, Mr. Herzberg most recently have all kind of given a different way of framing things, and it's enlightening.

[03:04:57] And I'm kind of saying, how can we, maybe we only move the ball to the 25-yard line right now, but we did move it and recognize what we're trying to do, if that makes sense. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for that's all for now. Mr. Vidunas, do you have a response to that, or would you like to accept other questions and comments from board members?

[03:05:23] I didn't hear a question. Okay, so those were just comments, okay? Any other board members have comments? Ms. Supervisor Pritchard. Thank you, Mr. Hirschberg. I'm sorry, Mr. Chair.

[03:05:38] I really think that Mr. Hudson has worked very hard to make sure that his district is taken care of and that his long-term vision for what happens to downtown Mechanicsville happens.

[03:05:56] The problem is, and I really mean this in the kindest of ways, you've been here for one year. And so you haven't had the experience of seeing how a lot of these things work holistically. And I do think that you might be better served to get what you want by doing a small area plan and planning the whole thing rather than saying, I want this nice thing, I want this nice thing, which could end up with a really disconnected product that isn't what you want.

[03:06:27] In my own opinion, I think we should pass this like it is and then get your small area plan and figure out exactly what your community wants to do for the whole area. I mean, I think that's largely what I said yesterday.

[03:06:46] Okay. The chair now recognizes Ms. Bibble. And I just want to piggyback on what Ms. Pritchard has said. I think that I absolutely applaud you for wanting to have design guidelines, specifications, And I just don't think this is the best avenue to go about it.

[03:07:09] And I believe that in the small area plan, which I believe this is plan number two, that you will be able to not only talk about the guidelines and specifications, but also uses, architectural standards.

[03:07:24] And I think you will get a better finished product with that small area plan And if we could just be a little more patient and maybe learn from this first small area plan that we're in the process of doing right now.

[03:07:41] And I think, like I said, you would get a better, more cohesive project, as Ms. Pritchett said, and be better served by your community. I think the key to the success of this is community input, and I think it should be more of a complete public input and obvious input instead of I don't feel comfortable telling mechanics still what it should have because it's y'all.

[03:08:16] So with that, are we ready for a motion or more discussion? We have more discussion, Mr. Davis. Thank you, sir. And thank you, Mr. Valladonis. Yeah, by way of background, so it is the CVTA funds, and I want to be clear because this came up. These are Central Virginia Transportation Authority funds. They are the local portion that comes to us through that legislative act.

[03:08:46] It is a $5.66 million project. Previous expenditures were $282,444. So, I mean, we're starting to see those numbers come in. When we start moving things, it's going to be very expensive. The reason I would support the plan, because this has already been approved, staying the way it is at this point, is, one, Mr. Hudson brought this up, it's a level F, it's a transportation safety issue, so the issue needs to be handled.

[03:09:15] As far as the other issues that come in with small area plans, business owner input, I'm fine with that, however that should develop. But I heard Mr. Rice, Mr. Wash talk about their comments, build the roundabout, build the roundabout.

[03:09:32] I didn't catch the other lady's name. First name was Brandy. It said build the roundabout. So I want to be clear, this is already an approved project. It should continue. I don't think we need to stop this because you don't find a lot of level F areas, and this would be concerning.

[03:09:50] So I'm going to support moving this project, this pre-approved project, forward and making sure that we do get it built. As far as developing a small area plan and bringing in ideas from the community, the business owners, those who have a stake in that area, I'd be willing to listen to any of those comments at a later time as that develops organically from the folks down in that area, no question about it.

[03:10:18] Okay, I'll make my comments first as Chair of Transportation Committee. Thank you, Mr. Baidunes, for all the good work you do on the committee and for your presentation. This intersection first came to light in 2021 when I read and studied a traffic analysis.

[03:10:33] and I pointed out that the level of service in this intersection as shown in the analysis in 2021 in the PN peak is a level of service F and I made the comment publicly if it could be it'd be a letter G. To Mr. Rice's point I can confirm that what he says is true. I've been going through this intersection since 1991 and I've seen the traffic backed up in this intersection past Signal Hill Road at 5:30 and I've also seen it backed up past the old shopping center down that hill up the hill all the way to 360 and i do think that there is a you know

[03:11:13] a serious need for this i think it's a good project to do in 2022 we held a community meeting in 2024 we had a presentation at transportation committee with some voting options however there was there was no majority support on any of those voting options we then had discussion and it was not unanimous but I voted with the majority to send the presentation to the board which is not typically what we do but I felt like in this case it was the right thing to do so board members could see to see the

[03:11:51] plan and get the information and then weigh in on the what's before us I I continue to support this roundabout in this location. I have supported the Old Harbor Creighton roundabout in the past. I've seen that intersection go from a level of service F to a level of service C.

[03:12:13] This is more than just a roundabout project, just to say it again. It's also the removal of that concrete trench, which is a traffic flow improvement. And the addition of the turning lane for Shady Grove Road is something that I have pointed out and have supported all along and still do.

[03:12:35] Those two enhancements, I think, bring added value to just the intersection improvement. As far as the small area business plan, I'd like the people here to know and those who are watching that at the board workshop, Mr. Hudson referenced, the small area business plan for this area was actually in year three.

[03:12:59] And I made the suggestion and made an offer to take something out of the Cold Harbor area and to put this up to year two. And I did that because I see a need in the area, and I know it was important to Mr. Hudson, and the board confirmed that decision.

[03:13:22] Not comfortable with anything that causes the Board of Public Works to pay a light bill, and then the CVTA, it's called Transportation Authority for a reason, transportation. and so what i'd like to see those dollars used for things that are directly trans transportation improvements and i think i can make the case that supporting the underground storm water is a transportation related issue that that the funds are appropriate for and the right turn lane

[03:13:58] for shady grove road is another transportation issue that the funds are appropriate for so that That concludes my remarks. Okay. The chair recognizes Mr. Hudson. And it's kind of a staff question.

[03:14:15] Is there a way to have it entered into the minutes, I guess, or the record that this will come back up during the small area plan design? I don't know how you all do it. Review?

[03:14:31] Is that not making sense? Is there a way that it can be entered into the record that the proposed and enhancements, whether it just be the lights or what have you, be a part of the small area plan when they begin the design.

[03:14:52] Chair recognizes Mr. Davis. Thank you. And I'm speaking on this point, obviously, as a board supervisor member, but as chair of the Central Virginia Transportation Authority. I think any discussion could come in. I would want to be clear that I want to say this as respectfully as I can with deference to a fellow board member.

[03:15:15] When this project has already been voted on, but if there's a confirmation vote, if you will today the project will move forward as designed and then so as a as a hypothetical as a smart airplane came in and said oh those light poles that are already installed we'd like to have them black at that point you would be looking at this project completed 100 from a transportation standpoint if somebody came in and said oh i'd like to redo those light poles that would then mean that those would be taken out new ones would be added in so on and so forth

[03:15:45] But I wouldn't want anybody to have any expectation that if this governing body voted on that, that there would be an open end to maybe something would change. Because this is a project that comes through state, a legislative matter from the state, reforming the CVTA, whatever is approved here, maybe in a few minutes.

[03:16:08] And I want to be clear, this is already an approved project. But if there's a confirmation on it, then it goes forward as what's written. Small area plan comes in and says they want to hypothetically, you know, put an American flag and pink stripes on the roundabout. That, just because it's entered in the minutes that that may come up, would not affect in any positive or negative way the completion of this project as voted on by the governing authority.

[03:16:32] And I'm not arguing with you? Yes, sir. I'm trying to make sure that the ball doesn't get dropped on it five years from now. That, you know, if they come to it, they come for it, and it's part, just want to make sure that it's part of... And in order to be very transparent, there would not be a connected nexus for future discussions in the small area plan by the approval of this as any type of contingent matter.

[03:17:03] Okay. I don't know that we even need to have a vote today. That will be for you all to tell me. I'm just trying to make sure that. Well, then maybe I need to say it with your permission, Mr. Chair. I guess what I'm saying, Mr. Hudson, is whatever happens with a potential small area plan in the future would need to have a lot of daylight between this project here moving forward and any potential hypothetical discussions later.

[03:17:31] There's not a connection between this project at this time and any potential hypothetical small area plan. Fair enough. All right. Thanks, sir. So that is not to set unrealistic expectations for someone. I'd like to make a comment.

[03:17:48] You know, I see a need for this roundabout, and I understand what you said about the turning lanes in front of Mechanicsville Elementary. That came to my attention two years ago, and I think it's certainly an area that needs an improvement, especially with the hospital down the road, and an ambulance may need to get through there, and then the road's fogged up because of the traffic.

[03:18:12] I'm a little disappointed that it can't proceed as is simply because the need is now, and And so if it can't happen, that's fine. I understand. And I'm saying the same thing about both. The needs are now, and I don't want to do anything to hold this up, slow it down, and I think that it would be wise to at least give staff directive that the plan that we have should at least move forward.

[03:18:47] That's just my position. Mr. Chairman, if I may, I think I offer a friendly suggestion. As Mr. Davis pointed out, the project has been approved and will go forward.

[03:19:04] If the board takes no action today, the project will go forward. I think Mr. Hudson's comments was that he wants these improvements to be considered as part of the small area plan. So perhaps one way to resolve this issue and go forward is for Mr. Hudson to make a motion that the proposed improvements that were discussed today, that staff be directed to consider them whenever the small area plan is considered.

[03:19:29] That way it is not tied to this project, but these specific improvements, improvements to light poles, additions to the interior of the roundabout, that that would be considered part of that, and staff would have a clear direction to include that discussion once those begin.

[03:19:47] I have a question for that now. We may look at a small area business plan, but it may never happen. That's true. It would just be for staff to consider it and to discuss it as they begin the small area plans. There will be other improvements, there will be other discussions, but these specifically be included as part of those discussions.

[03:20:08] Okay, Supervisor Pritchard. I think I'm certainly not in any position to interpret the attorney, but I think what I heard him just say is this takes care of Mr. Hudson's concerns, that it's on the record. That we have said when they do a small area plan, this is documented somewhere that it can be looked at, but we need to move ahead with this for the safety reason.

[03:20:31] That's the way that I see it. I don't—this project's going to move forward no matter what, so I don't think we need to vote on that, and I understand that. I would just—exactly what Dennis said would be great, just so that we—they have a direction for the future. As a consideration to, I believe it was Sue's point, the local folks, when the time comes, they may say, eh, we thought we wanted that at a time.

[03:20:55] That's not what we want to do. Well, that's okay. It doesn't make it written in stone. It just means that staff knows that it's out there right now. Thank you. The chair will entertain a motion. Mr. County Attorney, I would like to make that motion, but I'm not sure that I have the words, so if you would like to help me with that, sir.

[03:21:17] My suggested motion is that staff be directed to consider the improvements that were discussed today whenever the Mechanicsville Small Area Plan gets underway. I'll wait to make sure. Okay, the next thing we're going to do is we are going to entertain a future motion, but we are going to close out this agenda item first.

[03:21:45] Okay. All right. Is there a motion to close out agenda item 10C? Moved. So moved. Second. Is there a second? All in favor of closing out agenda item 10C, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed?

[03:22:01] Okay, so that agenda item is closed out now. Got it. I would like to recognize Mr. Hudson to make an additional motion. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would just like to make a motion that county staff would be directed to consider the improvements to the Cold Harbor-Atlee Road 360 business roundabout project as a part of the small area plan design whenever that may start.

[03:22:31] And I'll second that motion. All in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries. Okay, next on the agenda, item 11, presentation. Mr. Vadunas, thank you again. Agenda item 11, presentation, legislative update, 2025 session of the Virginia General Assembly.

[03:22:57] Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman. Congratulations on your election and to the vice chair as well. I'm here today for a brief discussion on the bills of interest for the board that are being considered down at the General Assembly.

[03:23:15] Just a brief summary of the calendar as to where we are. The session began last Wednesday, although, as we all know, effectively it began this Monday due to the water crisis. It will actually just be a few weeks until crossover, as you can see on the screen, February 4th is when crossover is considered.

[03:23:36] So the committees are going to be doing a lot of work over the next two weeks, and they have a lot of work to do. I will direct your attention to the third to last column, the pending column. You can see if you add the House bills and the Senate bills together, my quick lawyer math is that's about 1,700 bills.

[03:23:53] It's about two to one ratio from House bills to Senate bills. That is about par for the course of the last few years, but it is a lot of legislation. I can tell you that I have been compiling bills to keep track of, and those that involve either the schools, the county, the constitutional officers, it's about 500 bills that have either a direct or indirect impact on Hanover County.

[03:24:22] I'm going to try to focus on the board's legislative agenda, and the first thing I'm going to focus on is the action items. The first one that is on there is House Bill 2624. That is in response to the board's request for the adoption of language regarding the removal of appointed members of boards, committees, or commissions.

[03:24:43] Delegate Fowler has introduced that bill. He had some concerns about it being open-ended, and so I will go ahead and read that summary real quick because I know it's kind of small on the screen. his bill would allow any officer appointed to an office for a term established by law and who receives compensation for his services by the appointing authority to be removed from office if that officer fails to perform his duties as outlined in the description of the position or the rules of the public body to which he has been appointed. The rest of the summary talks about how prior to removal there has to be a warning given to that individual so that they

[03:25:19] can correct their action and that any removal has to be by a majority vote of the appointing authority and it has to be made by the motion of the supervisor or the council member representing the district for which the officer serves so that is in direct response to the board's action item it has not yet been assigned to a committee as you can see based upon the house bill number the house is a little bit slower in terms of assigning bills but I'm assuming that that will be assigned somewhat soon the other two legislative agenda action items one dealing with the use of controlled substances by those who are who operate

[03:25:58] emergency equipment and the other dealing with excess fees for some clerk's fees there hasn't been any bills introduced for either of those but with respect to the excess fees matter I have been told that there's been some discussion about trying to address that in budgetary language the next portion of the board's legislative agenda is positions on anticipated legislation and The primary one that I'm going to focus on deals with land use matters.

[03:26:24] As you all know, the last few years, the General Assembly has made some significant discussions about limiting local authority, and this year is no exception to that. House Bill 1832 and Senate Bill 932 both would provide that accessory dwelling units would be required to be permitted accessory use.

[03:26:50] in single-family residential zoning districts. There's no local option on that. Those would, in essence, wherever we have a single-family residence, someone would be allowed to have an accessory dwelling unit, which is, in essence, a second house on that property.

[03:27:09] It's not completely independent, but in terms of numbers of folks who live in neighborhoods, it does have the possibility of doubling that. Senator Van Valkenburgh's bill, which is another repeat, have by right multi-family development in any area that is zoned for commercial use that in it and in addition it would be fast tracking if that individual project included a affordable housing component that would be by right which would mean there'd be no opportunity to review plans layouts

[03:27:42] any of the sorts of things that normally happen during the rezoning process and senate bill 1351 is another repeat this would allow for affordable housing on properties owned by religious organizations other tax-exempt properties those are owned by 501c3 organizations so if you know of any properties in the county where it's a church or another group that has a large piece of property those would be eligible under this type of bill not to say that any of them would but a fair amount of Christian Church at Cold Spring Baptist Church the Episcopal

[03:28:19] Church has property across from the Food Lion Shopping Center on 301 those would all be eligible should this bill pass so as you can see the General Assembly is continuing to try to find ways to increase housing stock and by dictating how that will happen House Bill 2289 is one of the more traditional ways that the General Assembly has sort of nibbled away at it as we all know there are certain group homes that are considered single-family residential this This is another one. This would be for recovery residences.

[03:28:51] These are for individuals who are recovering from substance abuse issues. There'd be no treatment on site, but they would live in a group home setting. It would be treated as single-family residential with no notice to the neighbors or those sorts of things. House Bill 2641 would set a target of at least 7.5% is the percent that each locality would have to increase their housing stock over a five-year period.

[03:29:23] So obviously, each locality has a different baseline, but it would have to be increased by 1.5% is the housing stock. If you remember from the comp plan discussion, that is approximately our anticipated population increase in terms of a max, but this would require that to be the minimum in terms of housing stock.

[03:29:44] This also would establish a housing approval board, which if a locality turned down, in essence, too many residential requests, the state could override that and actually approve requests that come through.

[03:30:01] So as you can see, the General Assembly continues to deal with land use matters. It isn't all bad. I'd say that somewhat tongue-in-cheek because House Bill 2068 Delegate Garrett's bill basically would say that local authority can't be ceded to any state agency or state-sanctioned body.

[03:30:22] I really doubt that that has any likelihood of passing, but it certainly has been introduced. The next area where the board has indicated some positions on anticipated legislation deal with the support of law enforcement, House Bill 1554, I just point out, is a way for more rural neighbors to ensure that they have adequate funding from the comp board.

[03:30:50] Right now it's one deputy per 1,500 persons. For some, that's a small number, so it also includes a square mileage, which would not impact us, but it certainly is better that the General Assembly is looking to increase funding rather than to reduce it.

[03:31:06] And then House Bill 1784 is another one of those where currently it would be a traffic infraction. If you have expired registration, this would provide that that would still be valid for an extra 60 days. Again, another one of those instances where there are limitations on law enforcement to enforce traffic laws.

[03:31:28] The next area of anticipated legislation deals with tax reform and that the boards view that it should be a more comprehensive approach. One bill that is interesting is House Bill 1561. This would separate real property and the improvements on it in terms of having the ability to impose a real property tax.

[03:31:50] So in essence, all property owners would be taxed on the dirt. And then there could be a separate tax rate for the improvements that are on there, which, depending upon your property, could have a substantial difference and would also allow for an assessment of those improvements perhaps a little bit differently than is currently in place.

[03:32:15] That might provide some relief for some property owners who have a large piece of property but have no improvements on it, especially farmers, but it is one that is currently being considered. There are a number of sales tax bills dealing with the removal of the last 1% for groceries, for instance, but all of those provide, in essence, hold harmless provisions for local revenues.

[03:32:41] So I will continue to monitor them, but there does not appear to be anything substantial as there has been in prior years. This next screen has a whole lot on here because this is the General Assembly. again, has got another 30 or 40 bills dealing with voting. The board has wanted to make sure that the General Assembly supports the provisions of the governor's executive order from last summer, and these all address those in various ways. Some of these bills are starting to be acted on.

[03:33:13] The ones that I have seen are those that have been attempts to limit the current 45 days before an election for early voting down to a smaller number, whether that be 10 days or 14 days. There have been some recommendations that those bills be defeated. I'm not sure if all of them will have that same fate, but as of now, the subcommittees that have been looking at those have not been acting favorably upon them. Last bill, which is not part of the board's legislative agenda, but it was dropped rather late. It would provide, in essence, that

[03:33:50] all school boards in virginia would be elected i would remove the i'm going to call it right now the default is appointed and you can have the local option to go to elected this bill would remove the ability to have appointed school boards as you all know hanover's the largest county that has an appointed school board i think there are either two or three the others are smaller jurisdictions. I have not heard anything about this beforehand. I will continue to monitor it. I want to make sure that you all are aware of it since our our voters

[03:34:26] just recently decided they wanted to maintain the current appointment levels. I know Mr. Chairman you referenced earlier the rules that we made the rule changes that were made last year to provide a more open and transparent process for the appointment of school board members but this bill would remove the option for appointed school boards it's been appointed to assigned to committee but has not been acted on I will take a look to sort of see when that is the senator who introduced this is out of Northern Virginia so I don't know

[03:35:04] if it's directly related to any individual jurisdiction or if it's just sort of a more philosophical approach. With that, I realize I kind of went through that quickly, but I wanted to highlight the bills that were directly related to the board's legislative agenda.

[03:35:23] Last week, you all should have received my new format for the board's report. It is lengthy. There are a number of bills. I hope it was more readable. Please let me know if there's something about the format.

[03:35:40] I will continue to provide those. My goal is once a week, and if there are bills that need to come up or actions more frequently, but I want to make sure that you have that report in sort of an ongoing capacity.

[03:35:56] As I said, if you have any feedback on that, I've tried to follow the VACO format in terms of the categories, but I realize I went through that pretty quickly, Mr. Chairman, but I'm happy to answer any questions on any of the legislation.

[03:36:13] Any questions or comments from Mr. Walter and board members? Mr. Stoneman. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to commend you on your new format. I did read through all those bills, and it was very readable, and I very much appreciate that.

[03:36:30] Thank you. I have one question, Mr. Walter, HB 2624. believe it was the first bill that you showed, what is the definition of an officer in this specific topic? So the way that the Code of Virginia provides individuals who are appointed to boards, committees, or commissions is those are considered appointed officers. So anybody that this board appoints is considered an officer. And so the terms that are used is that where you

[03:37:05] officer, you can just read member, because that's really what it means in this context. Okay. Thank you very much, sir. Thank you. Okay. Next on the agenda is item 11A, closed session. Mr. Davis. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Board of Supervisors move this meeting into closed session pursuant to the following authority, Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711 Alpha one discussion of candidate for employment assessor there a second all in favor please

[03:37:43] indicate by saying aye aye we are in closed session we are going to stay in this room

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Coraggio Consulting · aguyonx.com