Coraggio Consulting Hanover County Board of Supervisors Meeting, Wednesday, February 25, 2026 Date: Wednesday, February 25, 2026 Place: Hanover County Board of Supervisors, Virginia Length: 3h 57m (video) Official meeting video (CivicClerk): https://hanovercova.portal.civicclerk.com/event/1571/media Official agenda (CivicClerk): https://hanovercova.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=5418,plainText=false) Official minutes (CivicClerk): https://hanovercova.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=5504,plainText=false) Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting. Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-24. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [00:01:17] good afternoon and welcome to the february 25th 2026 hanover county board of supervisors meeting [00:02:46] as is customary we'll open with an invocation led by miss floyd and the pledge of allegiance led by miss devil miss floyd thank you chair davis please bow your head with me and pray dear heavenly father thank you for all that you do and for loving us we are very blessed here in Hanover County, and we are grateful to you for that. Please watch over our meeting and everyone here. Please open our hearts and our ears so we may hear you and each other. Give us your wisdom and discernment as we make decisions that affect our whole county. Please be with our first [00:03:20] responders as they go about their days keeping us safe. And above all, we seek your will. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. Please rise and join us in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [00:03:50] Thank you, Mrs. Floyd and Mrs. Debel. There is a proposed consideration for the board on an amendment to the agenda. However, I need seven board members at the dais and present during the meeting in order for that to be considered. So I will move to comment period. [00:04:09] Are there any comments by board members? Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm hurriedly looking up the times because I thought I had a moment. This Sunday at Patrick Henry High School is the annual Black History Untold Stories event, Growing Up Black and White in Hanover and Ashland. [00:04:30] And this year is particularly interesting because it showcases Vietnam veterans from our community. I think it's going to be a really excellent program. I think there are people you know maybe singing in the gospel choir. And in two seconds, I'll know the time, and I'll let you all get back to you. [00:04:48] Thank you, Ms. Pritchard. Anyone else? This double yes, ma'am. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to formally announce that on March the 23rd at 1 p.m., we're going to be gathering in beautiful Montpelier at the Wickham Ball Field to dedicate that particular field. [00:05:08] It's going to be a great, sunshiny day. have fire ems with us members of the uh sheriff's office as well as my colleagues here from the board so uh get that on your calendar march 23rd at 1 p.m and we hope to see you there mr chair four o'clock on sunday the first at patrick henry high school thank you ma'am anything further uh i do have a uh a comment the uh number of board members have spoken to me forwarded me emails [00:05:42] I've gotten to myself with a number of citizens requesting the board to do a resolution establishing Hanover either as a sanctuary county for the Second Amendment or reaffirming our constitutional oaths as it refers to the Second Amendment. [00:06:01] First of all, there is no legal sanctuary county for anything. You can't make yourself a sanctuary against or in addition to any matter. That said, on December 19, 2019, the board did pass a constitutional support resolution. [00:06:22] I have 20 copies here with Deputy County Administrator Shardine. He's there, so free to read. There have been no revisions, changes, additions to that resolution, and it still stands. But I do want to acknowledge that I know when folks see stuff coming out of the General Assembly or Congress, they get concerned, and this is the easiest government to access, and they can come to the boardroom and you can speak. [00:06:47] You certainly can't go into Congress. I don't even think they have a podium there for folks just to come up and speak. So I recognize that. I appreciate that folks come to the board for those types of things because they want reaffirmation. [00:07:02] Some folks have talked about, well, is the sheriff, Colonel David R. Hines, or the undersheriff, Lieutenant Colonel Greg Sixx, what are their thoughts? Sheriffs are putting out statements that they really, really support the Constitution. I would have expected us to know that when they raised their hand, but I know some of that is in response to their citizenry. [00:07:24] I want you to know when the constitutional officer, when the sheriff is sworn in, all of his or her deputies must also be sworn in again. Our county, as far as I know, we're the only county in the Commonwealth where the sheriff has a mandate that all of his deputies carry a copy of their oath with them. [00:07:45] I've spoken to the undersheriff, and he says he's going to continue that policy. And I say this not in jest, but if you want to know if the undersheriff is going to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, I would suggest that you be here at his swearing in, and that if he raises his hand and says he is, then I would take him at his word. [00:08:04] So I do recognize that while folks are nervous about legislation that they see, if the board passed a resolution against everything we didn't like that the state did, I'd have a printing machine over here, and we would just vote for hours and hours and hours and hours. [00:08:20] So while I recognize that and I appreciate it, we do have a standing resolution. Again, Deputy County Administrator Sharned has those at his desk. I've had 20 copies printed out, but I just wanted to let folks know that resolution has had no changes to it whatsoever, and it still stands. [00:08:36] Hearing nothing further, Mr. County Administrator, Mr. Hudson. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I wanted to take a moment and speak to the folks and make them aware of the Miss Hanover Abilities Pageant 2026 that is put on by the Hanover Community Support Services. [00:08:54] as you can see there in the flyer it is at mechanicsville high school i have to tell you it is a wonderful uh dinner and date night it is an inspirational event all of these beautiful young ladies the junior miss and the uh the senior miss i guess we'd say uh will will be coming across the stage and sharing their time and talents with us uh and i will i do have to say i definitely am biased before the the pageant they do do a bit of a popularity contest so most most popular candidate and i would ask that maybe you would consider voting for amira hudson because i think [00:09:33] that she is pretty great and she will be gracing the stage with her presence and talents so saturday march 7th 6 p.m at mechanicsville high school in the auditorium please come out and enjoy this great and inspiring event for these wonderful ladies. So thank you, Mr. Chair, for your time. [00:09:50] Thank you, Mr. Hudson. Mr. County Administrator. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have just a few brief comments. First, I want to talk about the small area plan update on the Route 1 corridor. Hanover County is working with the community to create a long-term vision for U.S. Route 1 between the Chickahominy River, right at the Henrico County line, and the town of Ashland. The presentation and informational boards from the February 12th workshop are now available online for your review at engage.hanovercounty.gov slash RouteOnePlan. [00:10:22] The online materials include a summary of community feedback, overall study area strategies, a design guidelines overview, and additional project information. So we invite all of our residents to review the information and share your feedback by 5 p.m. this Sunday, March 1st. [00:10:38] FY27 Budget Update. Today we will continue the FY27 budget process with scheduled budget presentations from several departments to include human resources, fire and EMS, the Commonwealth Attorney, utilities, and finance. [00:10:54] As customary, the proposed FY27 budget is now available for your review online at engagehanovercounty.gov and the county's main website, which is hanovercounty.gov. Today's presentations will be available online very shortly. Residents are encouraged to explore the details, learn more about the county's priorities, and share their feedback as part of this budget process. Additional budget work sessions are scheduled for March 11th, March 25th, with public hearing on April 1st on the budget and the tax rate. [00:11:25] Budget adoption is set for April the 8th. There will be a community meeting regarding pickleball courts at Taylor Park. The community meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 4th at 6 p.m. at the Taylor Park's office for the Conditional Use Permit Amendment and a special exception for planned and funded pickleball courts at Taylor Park. [00:11:44] We encourage citizens who are able to attend to attend and provide their feedback. And finally, Mr. Chair, I want to say a really strong welcome to our new Deputy Fire Chief. We have Mr. Joe Powers. He is here in the audience today. We went through a very long and arduous recruitment process, and we are excited that he is here and a part of our team. [00:12:06] Thank you, Mr. County Administrator. Welcome, Chief Powers. I also want to recognize Under Sheriff Lieutenant Colonel Gregory Six is with us. We will have a presentation from our Commonwealth Attorney, Ms. Babinchenko. Thank you for being with us, man. course uh also our fire chief chris anderson uh we have a number of presentations so we'll get to hear from them but thank you for joining us um with that uh consideration of amendments to the agenda mr stoneman thank you mr chair as you uh previously stated we do have a couple of items that uh there are amendments to the agenda for the board's consideration and i'd like to go ahead [00:12:39] make a motion at this time that we enter in our regular regular agenda item six before recess we'd like to enter into a closed session pursuant of virginia code 2.2-3711 a-8 consultation with the county attorney regarding specific legal matters related to the upcoming special election on the proposed constitutional amendment authorizing the modification of congressional districts. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Is there a second? Second. Very [00:13:18] well. Hearing the second, properly made. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor, please indicate my saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. All right. The second item on this list is going to be, I'd like to make a motion to add the following consent agenda item is 8E1 appointment to the transportation committee of Mr. Stephen Lankford filling an unexpired term expiring 1231-2026. Very well heard the motion is there a second second we have a motion in the second is there any discussion all those in favor please indicate by saying aye aye any opposed [00:13:54] motion carries thank you sir next item on the agenda is citizens time citizens time is a time where anyone who wishes to address the board on any matter within the board's authority is welcome to come forward. We do not allow slide presentations, but if you have a presentation that you would like to hand the board, we will enter that into the public record and certainly receive that. Deputy County Administrator Shardine is here. You can give him those. Any handouts are certainly welcome. We ask that you address the board, not the audience. You have up to five minutes. We do ask that if you are willing to sign up with a card. You are not required to fill lot of car but it does help us get matters to the specific district and allows for an opportunity to [00:14:34] follow up with those who need additional information. I've had two folks pre-register and then I have one here. We'll start with Ms. Ashley Covington. Please come forward, state your name, the district that you live or the entity that you represent. Thank you for being with us. [00:14:50] District. So good afternoon. I'm here as a resident of Hanover who loves Hanover because of what this place represents-- a rural oasis of winding country roads, productive farmlands, clean water, and quiet nights. [00:15:12] Our comprehensive plan vows to protect those things. Today, I'm asking you to honor that vow when it comes to data centers. My concerns are when the eventual tenant, some trillion-dollar tech giant we can't yet name, decides to push the limits. [00:15:31] Who pushes back? If they exceed their water draw, if their generators run more than permitted, if our air and our water start showing the effects, what then? And we don't have to imagine. [00:15:47] Let's look at Memphis. XAI built a data center there. They installed 27 methane gas turbines without permits. No public input, no notice. The NAACP and Southern Environmental Law Center are preparing to sue right now. [00:16:07] When regulators caught up, XAI said they planned on copying and pasting this strategy to their next facility. They knew what they were doing, and they did it anyway. Tech companies can and are polluting, paying fines, and then polluting more, because for them, fines are just the cost of doing business. [00:16:33] But we can't fine away the pollution in our water or in our air. So I have to ask this board, does Hanover have the legal firepower, the financial resources to take on a company like XAI or Amazon in court when they break their promises, when they can outlast us, outspend us, and outlawyer us. [00:16:59] Goochland County just spent $250,000 defending a lawsuit over a data center overlay, and they haven't even broken ground. Their county attorney couldn't handle it. That's the cost of just showing up to court. Senator Bernie Sanders recently called for a national moratorium on new data centers saying we have not a clue what is coming. He asked a question that really haunts me. Are these people staying up nights worrying about working class people? Is that why they're doing this investment? [00:17:33] The answer is no. We are unprepared for what is coming. But we don't have to be. Tracked Capital already has land in Hanover. They told us that data center would start generating money for Hanover in 2028. [00:17:51] But last week at the Planning Commission meeting, they admitted that date had slipped to 2030. The only reason we even learned that was because someone asked. A company with no completed data centers anywhere is asking for more of our land while delaying on the land they already have. [00:18:11] No prototype, no proof, just promises. Now ask yourself, would you sign a contract with a builder who's never finished a home? Of course not. So why would we hand over more of our rural land to a developer with nothing to demonstrate but delays? [00:18:31] Which raises an uncomfortable question. Why would any elected official push to approve a data center for a company with no track record, no tenant, and no completed projects anywhere? Why the urgency? Why the pressure? [00:18:48] We'd be naive to ignore Prince William County. A Politico investigation found two supervisors there received over $300,000 in campaign donations from data center developers. Supervisor Pete Canlan was forced to resign after his property was included in a proposed data center footprint. [00:19:09] He now works for a data center lobbying firm. And I'm not saying that's happening here, but I am saying that when a developer with nothing to show us asks for everything, when approvals move forward despite unanswered questions, residents have a right to wonder who benefits. [00:19:28] We have a choice. We can protect our water and health, or we can welcome the bubble and promises from developers who won't be here when the problems start. Or we can say, not here, not yet, not without answers, we don't have. [00:19:45] Our comprehensive plan vows to protect our rural character, our water, our land. Those aren't just words, they're a contract. Please be the stewards, your titles imply. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you so much. Next speaker, Mr. Mike Flagg. [00:20:04] Mr. Flagg, please come forward, state your name and the district that you live or the entity that you represent. Good afternoon, Chairman, members of the board. My name is Mike Flagg. I'm in the Beaver Dam District. A few years ago, I worked for the county. It's been almost three years. [00:20:20] It's kind of hard to imagine it's been that long. But in my time since then, I've chosen to go out and do a number of little construction projects for myself and my family. And, you know, I'm not a novice to the construction process, but I don't know if any of you tried to read the building code lately. [00:20:39] It's pretty extensive. It's not an easy read. But I can't say enough about your building inspections department that's good. I came yesterday. I was struggling with how I was going to meet code on something that I was working on. So I said, I'm going to drop by and see if they have time to speak to me. [00:20:56] So I walked in, was met at the front door with smiling faces. A few minutes later, I was in the back, plan reviewer going over some things. and within 10 minutes or so he helped me solve my problem and then I got to reflecting on my experiences from my son's renovation that we worked on and you know I go back and look and on the plans that I submitted put some little red notes don't forget this and don't forget that you know so if you stick in two windows in your bathrooms and they aren't tempered glass you know you're looking at probably replacing about three thousand dollars worth of work later [00:21:32] so those real reminders are really helpful that extra effort really speaks to you know how how that goes and the inspectors were the same way when they came in and inspected things later i didn't pass every inspection but they were like well don't forget this later you know and and look out for this and i'm going to tell you their attitudes were really just exceptional i didn't meet a single person that looked like he was having a bad day at work and uh that's carried through about four projects. Now, I'll be there first to admit, I don't like everything in the building code. When you start putting handrails on handrails on your deck, to me, that starts to [00:22:10] seem like it's a little bit overkill. But I realize that building inspectors, they're not the ones creating that code. They're just enforcing it. So I just wanted to pass along. I didn't know most of these guys because there's been a lot of turnover. So they don't know me from Adam. They don't know my background. But I just wanted you to know, I don't know if it's good people or good leadership i suspect it's a little bit of both but i want you to know that that group really does take customer service to the point it needs to be and it's been a great experience for me so thanks a lot appreciate what you're doing appreciate your service to the county and i hope you have a great [00:22:46] spring thank you mr flatt we have one individual signed up on location miss amanda cronenberg miss cronenberg thank you for being with us okay my name is amanda cronenberg i'm the president of the Hanover County Council of PTAs, which oversees the 20 parent-teacher associations in the county with their 5,500 members. I reside in the Ashland District and I have a child at Chickahominy [00:23:24] Middle School. A budget is essentially a statement of priorities and I understand the complexities of putting together a county budget, taking into account federal, state, local funding, that not everything can get funded. But not fully funding the mental health clinicians program so that all our secondary schools have a clinician sends the message that students' mental health is not a priority in Hanover County. In November of 2024, just 15 months ago, a mental health panel was presented by the Virginia School Board Association. At that panel, Hanover County's embedded mental health clinicians program was lauded and held up as a model for other counties to emulate. [00:24:00] Here are some quotes about the program at that time. One, what we found is that by having professional clinicians in our schools, students are more receptive to going to them and talking to them in a safe environment. Two, the first year we had one clinician in high school. Second year we had two and now we have a clinician in every one of our secondary school settings and it really makes a difference and we've seen a real cultural change in our schools. Three, we've partnered with the community services board so this partnership is so important. The clinicians are working side by side with the counselor. A lot of the load on the counselors is mental health which they're not really able to handle professionally so that's another way we've [00:24:38] had an opportunity to lighten the load on counselors. Four, so we've got a professional in the building that's right there checking on them, giving them some one-on-one time but also helping students navigate their future. Five, quote, students don't have the knowledge of health help. They don't know, they don't have financial capacity, and so we're very proud of what we're doing here at Hanover County. Now, was that glowing description of school-based mental health clinicians program given by a clinician who was proud of the work they'd done? No. Was it given by a parent who was thankful for how the program was free of charge and it helped their child? [00:25:15] It wasn't. Was it given by a bleeding heart proponent of social and emotional learning? Nope. So who did give that impassioned speech? Supervisor did. At this past summer, Hanover County was so impressed by this program that they posted an article on the county government website about its accomplishments entitled, Hanover Schools Lead the Way in Mental Health Support. [00:25:37] Yet just half a year later, the county is not willing to fully support a program that it recently trumpeted as a great success. What happened? Do you not want to lead the way in something that's having such a positive impact on students? Why, just a few months later, are you balancing a budget on the backs of our students' mental health. I've been told that the Board of Supervisors does not appreciate it when people come to a meeting and point out problems without offering a solution. [00:26:01] Seems to me that you guys should probably be the solutions people, but I've got an option for you anyway. The county budget has to spend, is projected to spend, $1.3 million on pickleball courts next year. How about you don't do that, and instead you fully fund mental health clinicians? There are already four outdoor pickleball courts in the county and three more indoor spaces for pickleball at the new Montpelier Recreation Center, not to mention all the tennis courts in the county that can be used for pickleball. [00:26:29] Pickleball only recently became a sports craze. People have been begging for splash pads and water-based activities at the parks for their kids for ages, and they haven't gotten them. So I think the pickleball themes could make do for a little while longer. Having mental health clinicians enter a secondary school has been an unmitigated success. [00:26:49] Why would you choose to take a step backwards? Please amend the budget and fill all of these positions. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak at Citizens' Time? Yes, ma'am. Please come forward, state your name, the district that you live, or the entity that you represent. Thank you for being with us. [00:27:12] Hello, I'm Holly Manky, South Anna District. I'm also with Friends of Hanover. [00:27:28] I will start with Mark, Chapter 4, Verse 22, since we are in Lent. For everything that is hidden will eventually be brought into the open, and every secret will be brought to light. This timeline I'm going to read has been collected from board meeting minutes, the SEC, documents collected from Dominion, and the eTrackit system. [00:27:47] April 5, 2023, Hanover holds a public meeting on proposed tax rates for 2023 and creates the data center equipment rate of $0.45 per $100, as opposed to all other businesses, which pay a rate of $3.57 per $100. [00:28:04] It was approved April 12, 2023. There are no applications on file in Hanover County for any data centers, but the county created a tax rate specifically for data centers. The comprehensive plan update was approved September of 2023. [00:28:22] TRAC submitted the first application for a data center September of 2023. The Planning Commission approved the TRAC-requested zoning changes and conditional use permit for the Hanover Technology Park, also known as Hickory Hill, in January of 2024. TRAC held its needs meeting with Dominion in January of 2024 for a substation for a data center at Hickory Hill named by Dominion as Sladen. [00:28:46] The TRAC Hanover Technology Park was approved March of 2024. TRAC registered Valco Hanover County LLC with the State Corporation Commission for qualification in Virginia on April 19, 2024. September 13th of 2024, TRAC holds a second needs meeting with Dominion for Route 33, a substation for a data center. The Dominion names Flamingo. The 33 Gateway Small Area Planning Process does not begin until January of 2025 with public events. The 33 Gateway Small Area [00:29:22] Plan is approved August 27th of 2025. TRAC submits an application for Mountain Road Technology Park, also known as 33 Winds Church, September 26th of 2025. At the Planning Commission meeting February 19th of 2026, TRAC acknowledges that they are two years behind on the Hanover Technology Park, so revenue promised to Hanover will not start until 2030 instead of 2028. TRAC states the energization is now expected for the second quarter of 2029. It also announces [00:29:56] energization for Mountain Road Technology Park expected the fourth quarter of 2029. Which brings me to how this timeline makes people not trust the process. Before TRACT filed a single application for the 33 Winds Church Mountain Road Technology Park, they were meeting with Dominion about substation Flamingo, the infrastructure the Mountain Road Data Center would require. TRACT was planning, coordinating, and laying the groundwork before the project even officially existed. Meetings about the substation were already happening before any applications were filed, [00:30:29] as if approval was already granted. Think about that. No application submitted, no public review started, yet TRAC was already lining up infrastructure with Dominion. TRAC's own energy expert told us at the community meeting that they had to pay $250,000 to hold a spot in the queue. Why would TRAC spend this money? How is this process fair? This seems to be proof of a system where the outcome was decided before the public even had a chance to weigh in on the 33 gateway plan or any of the elements of this data center please show hanover county that this is not [00:31:06] a done deal one done behind closed doors that the stakeholders of this process are the citizens of hanover county and not an obstacle to be overcome deny the mountain road technology park and restore confidence in this process thank you thank you ma'am anyone further yes ma'am please come forward state your name the district that you live thank you for being with us i shannon todd mechanicsville chairman and members of the board thank you for the chance to speak about an issue that will shape our economy energy bills and environment for decades to come i'm here to speak today about [00:31:45] the simple yet powerful idea of senate bill 619 stating that if a new high load facility such as a data center plans to put a huge new strain on our electric grid it should have to prove that it won't hurt ratepayers, reliability, or our clean energy commitments before connecting to the grid. [00:32:05] Virginia is now the largest data center market in the world with more than 600 in operation and 200 in the pipeline. These facilities already consume about a quarter of Virginia's electricity and are on track to drive massive new demand. This pushes the grid far beyond what was assumed when the Virginia Clean Economy Act set our path forward to achieving 100% carbon-free power by 2050. Our state is trying to move toward cleaner, cheaper, more reliable energy, which is directly threatened when data center growth is unconstrained, uncoordinated, and heavily subsidized by [00:32:41] taxpayers and ratepayers. Without these guardrails, we are looking at rising bills, pollution, and demand for energy that the grid alone cannot sustain. This is just the beginning of a number of guardrails we are seeing come into place to contain and control these huge projects. There may be many more in place by the time local projects are completed. Are we going to let them build massive facilities that will just stand as rotting infrastructure in our backyards? Please think before you act, not only approving projects like this, but for the future of preserving our rural [00:33:17] oasis that is Hanover County. Let's not wait until the bills spike, the air gets dirtier, and our landscape is transformed before we act. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Seeing none, we will close citizens time. Next item on the agenda is presentations of proposed FY27 budgets starting with Hanover County Fire and EMS Chief Chris Anderson. Chief Anderson. Good morning Mr. Chairman [00:33:53] how are you this bit today? I'm well sir. Good good. Members of the board Mr. Walter, Dr. Brown thank you for the opportunity to speak before you and present the Hanover Fire EMS proposed budget for FY27. First I want to thank the women and men who make up your Fire EMS department. [00:34:11] January of last year was relatively challenging for the entire community with the snowstorm and the water crisis. And then this January was also challenging with the snow and ice that we received. I can't tell you the number of emails, phone calls, and letters that I've received from the community over the past several weeks talking about the stories of heroism our folks did and saving some of our folks out in the community and providing extreme services. [00:34:38] for for that selfless service and their choice to serve Hanover County is truly what makes us a great location to be in. Without their without their service I wouldn't be able to stand here before you today. I also want to acknowledge the support and responsibility that each of you carry in balancing the many needs across the county while also ensuring that Hanover remains a safe and resilient community moving forward. As your fire chief my responsibility is to ensure we deliver the highest level of emergency services possible while remaining good stewards of the funds that [00:35:16] are entrusted into us. This proposed budget reflects just that. It focuses on three priorities, maintaining operational readiness, supporting the workforce, and preparing our system to meet the evolving needs of our community. To achieve our mission and focus on the future, we align our work around four strategic goals. These strategic goals are officer and member development, adequate resources and personnel, technology, and health and safety. They're not just planning words. These are truly what guides our decisions on a day-to-day basis, including our investments, [00:35:56] and it's how we measure progress across the organization. This slide highlights what your sustained support has already made possible. With your support over the past year, we have improved unit availability and response capacity by uncross-staffing Eastern Hanover Station 3 and Farrington Station 11. We implemented the part-time ambulance program in Mechanicsville as well as the town of Ashland, which has strengthened EMS coverage during peak demand volume. We continue to invest in our apparatus and capital replacement plans, and we invest in [00:36:32] training and leadership development, which is enhancing our system and capabilities and growth for the future and investment in our people. This is a tangible outcome in what we see as progress and moving forward in the organization. [00:36:51] Our value to the community comes in many different ways. It's not just emergency response. Every day, our teams are providing an all-hazards approach to our response capabilities, EMS transports, fire suppression, vehicle rescue, hazardous material support, prevention, citizen engagement, as well as citizen and community advocacy activities. [00:37:13] The key here is the capacity on the right. Our service is measured in minutes. The community experiences value when the right number of trained people arrive quickly with the right equipment. In calendar year 2025, Fire EMS responded to more than 19,000 incidents, which is a 6.4% increase over the prior year. [00:37:39] The total responses exceed 36,000. The incidents represent a specific call for service, one 911 call essentially, whereas the responses represent the number of units or the personnel that it takes to mitigate that specific incident. This is also known as our effective response force which I'll touch on a little bit later in the presentation. When we step back and look at the five-year trend the picture becomes even clearer. Since 2020 the total incidents have increased by just over 40 percent averaging approximately 52 calls of service a day across the system. This is a significant rise in [00:38:18] workload in a relatively short period of time. This sustained growth increases the likelihood of concurrent calls and places greater pressure on unit availability across the system. [00:38:33] The trend also is shown in our EMS transports where we're roughly seeing about the same 40% increase, which is averaging 29 transports per day. And each transport that we're on represents about an hour and a half that that particular unit is dedicated for that call of service and not available for another incident across the community. [00:38:54] This is a candid slide that really shows our growth in call volume since 2020 and it overlays our compliance. As illustrated, the correlation with the increase in call volume, but it also shows that decrease in compliance. The board's adopted goals for Fire EMS to arrive in less than nine minutes for high priority calls. With the service demand, that has made some more challenges for us to accomplish that and stay above that 80 percent mark. However, there was positive movement in 2025. I just mentioned that improvement and that investment that you all allowed us [00:39:30] with uncrossed staffing East Hanover Station 3 and Farrington Station 11. And implementing the part-time ambulance program, you can see the tangible results, how that has improved our response capabilities. Earlier milestones that also contributed, even though it's not directly reflected on the map here, earlier milestones are also with the staffing of the Laurel Meadows Station 17 in 2021 and the expansion of the Henry District moving the ambulance to 24-hour coverage in 2023. This is a familiar map that we show that helps us really guide where our calls are and [00:40:09] understand the demand on the system. This is a way that we start using data to predict future growth as well as staffing challenges and needs in the future. Most of the calls, as you can see, represented here with 80 percent of those are within the suburban services area along the Ashland and the Mechanicsville corridors. When we talk about staffing, we want to make sure that we're continuing down a positive model. Overwhelmingly, the majority of our personnel are assigned to [00:40:43] operations. This is intentional and is consistent with a service delivery organization. We maintain a very lean structure in our administrative training, community engagement, and our senior leadership essentially we're ensuring that our personnel are focused out in operations where really the rubber meets the road and our community is receiving those services as a combination department our volunteers remain a force multiplier and contribute to our success in 2025 our volunteers contributed more than 37 000 hours in service for our operations division [00:41:19] that's essentially equivalent to 18 full-time personnel at the same time we we continue to see the decline in volunteerism much like the rest of the industries across the country but their continued contribution is valuable but the trend reinforces a need for a balanced and sustainable staffing model as we move forward earlier in the presentation i talked about the effective response force and i was trying to find ways to really show this in general terms outside [00:41:51] of the typical fire EMS jargon. So we developed really the rationale and the correlation with the road construction crew. It really illustrates and helps us explain what that effective response force is and why our responses are greater than our particular incidents with the total number of people that are required to provide services at a particular job. Complex tasks do require more time. They require more personnel, and they require more equipment to ensure that it [00:42:25] is carried out safely and effectively. No matter how skilled one person is, you cannot safely complete the mission without the right number of people. Continuing with the data theme, this slide brings the data together and really highlights how our incidents and transports have increased by roughly 40 percent during that same time period, and unfortunately our compliance has dropped and experience and pressure. We have made meaningful progress and through the invested targets and personnel that's been approved by this board. Other staffing areas still remain where we've got [00:43:03] volunteer staffing reliability challenges at the courthouse station five, certain ladder truck coverage, rescue companies, and cross staff stations across the county. As mentioned in the county Administrator's proposed budget last week, this slide highlights the request specifically associated with Fire EMS. What you see here is a phased, predictable growth model that was proposed. [00:43:31] The intent is to avoid large hiring spikes that can strain the organization, while also spreading experience evenly across shifts and stations. This approach supports long-term succession planning and helps us maintain a stable and well-developed workforce. It is important, though, to understand what this is and what it is not these positions are not tied to new fire stations instead they would they would be to provided and design relief and provide reliable career staffing for units that have historically depended on volunteer coverage as the county administrator [00:44:07] presented last week currently these positions are not funded as a result consistent and reliable staffing for those units is not achievable and the gap continues to play strain on the system my intent with this slide is to provide context especially with some of the conversations that we've heard from our community from our volunteers and some of the conversations that we've had if funded in the future this is a phased approach that clearly identifies what capabilities these positions would support and how they would strengthen reliability across the community [00:44:40] the operating and service level plans and project before you focuses on maintaining readiness it is is supporting our workforce. These investments include equipment replacement, officer development, technology upgrades, technical rescue capabilities, and health and fitness resources. [00:45:02] Each of the items directly relate to the strategic goals that I mentioned earlier of OATH, and it provides safe and effective field operations. Along the same lines is maintaining our apparatus replacement. That maintenance schedule is critical for our operations. [00:45:19] Fire apparatus today are complex safety systems with extended manufacturing timelines. In many cases, delivery times still exceed two to three years. Our logistics folks have worked tirelessly with our vendors to find ways to improve that, and from what we were being told, we should start to see a decrease in delivery time over the next several years, which is a significant benefit for us moving forward. [00:45:45] Staying on schedule ensures reliability, it controls maintenance costs, and most importantly, it keeps our personnel operating on safe and modern equipment. Similar to our fleet, our facility projects shown here are replacements. [00:46:03] They are not expansions. The Montpelier Station 8 and the Chickahominy Station 10 were not originally designed for 24-hour staffing. Modernizing these facilities supports our personnel and improves sustainable infrastructure. While the public safety is outside of the fire EMS budget, it shows that continued investment that you all are doing across all of our public safety departments in the public safety infrastructure field. [00:46:32] So where do the funds go? This slide provides transparency into how resources are used. This is also a question of where does the funding that goes, that FireUMS gets, how is it spent, and what are the costs of some of the things that you all are experiencing. [00:46:51] You can see the ongoing cost of fleet maintenance, medical supplies, protective equipment, and personnel. It also highlights the significant investment required for modern fire apparatus. Just five years ago, a fire truck was $500,000. [00:47:06] Now it's over $1.3 million. Our decisions are derived by strategic goals, response matrix, and data analysis. These are disciplined and needs-based approach in managing the public's funds. [00:47:22] From a revenue snapshot, we anticipate a modest increase in local revenue tied primarily to EMS billing activity. The projection is intentionally conservative. As we know, EMS reimbursement can fluctuate based on transport volume. Even though we are seeing an increase in transport volume, it also is tied to federal reimbursement rates through Medicare and Medicaid. For transparency stake, I do want to point out in FY25, the actual versus in local revenue versus the budgeted in FY26, [00:47:55] there is a relatively significant gap there. This gap is tied directly to the cyber attack, if you remember from last year during that budget cycle, where we were not able to bill for about a six-month period. Once the cyber attack was over and we moved to a different billing company, we were able to go back and back bill for that time frame. That's why our actuals were greater in FY25 than what we've actually budgeted for in FY26. So it's not that we're expecting less [00:48:27] revenue. It's where that gap was in our billing capabilities. Turning to expenditures, the primary increase reflects merit adjustments proposed by the county administrator last week, and notably our operating essentially remains flat, increasing by less than a half percent. As I close, I want to emphasize on two things. First, we must remain forward-looking. Demand continues to grow. Community expectations are increasing, equipment and infrastructure needs will continue. But lastly, [00:49:06] and certainly not least, we are extremely appreciative for the board's sustained support over the years. That support has allowed us to uncross staff key stations, modernize apparatus and infrastructure projects, strengthen our leadership development, expand our training capabilities, and remain competitive in the region, which is all contributing to maintaining a highly trained and qualified workforce to protect our community. [00:49:37] I also want to explain this a little bit clearer. Each of you have taken the time over the years to meet with me directly and understand the capacities that Fire EMS has. Understand the gaps, understand our staffing challenges, and understand ways that you all can partner with us even greater than what you already do on a day-to-day basis. [00:49:58] Whether that's participating in community events for Fire EMS across the entire county, or that's participating in citizens' academies or coming up to our graduations or even coming out to the fire training center and putting on turnout gear and seeing what it actually takes to do the fire EMS responsibility. [00:50:17] That's not something or the level of engagement that's normally seen across the entire country. Many of my peers don't have that luxury and that engagement from our board to come out and understand what it takes to actually run and operate a fire EMS agency and understand what our needs are. [00:50:36] For that, I am truly grateful for that opportunity and that partnership that each one of you have had and shown over the past several years, certainly as I've been the fire chief. Mr. Chairman, that concludes my presentation for today, and I'm happy to answer any questions. [00:50:53] Thank you, Chief. Are there any questions or comments from board members? Mr. Herzberg. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much for your presentation, sir. So I know you mentioned uncrossed staffing, Station three and station 11. So for our Community or citizens who may be watching. Can you explain exactly what that means? Yes, sir. Thank you for that opportunity so we have a Dynamic staffing model where we have several of our stations that are cross staffed meaning that we've got one crew that's at that station typically staffing of three people and Depending on the type of call that comes in they will either [00:51:33] respond on the fire truck if it's a fire call or that entire crew will hop on the ambulance and take the ambulance for an ems call the challenges that that poses for us is when they are out on that particular unit there's no other unit at that station to provide coverage in that district so if the crew hops out on an ambulance call for and transports somebody to the hospital that district is covered without any fire suppression or any first response ems coverage for for a little over an hour and a half if not more in some of the rural areas so by uncross staffing the station station 3 and station 11 last year what that did is that [00:52:11] independently staffed an engine and an ambulance at both of those stations so when a call for service goes out and even though we may have an engine and an ambulance respond to the same call once that patient is transported to the hospital that engine is now back in service that can provide the same level of ems first response in that district with minimal disruption or coverage so what we have seen totally is is by putting those units in place if you remember my presentation from last year we've seen that ripple effect which has caused our compliance to also increase so as we increase those staffing capabilities and uncross staff some of the [00:52:47] other stations our compliance will continue to rise and unit availability will also increase for our community well thank you for that explanation so is it accurate to say that additional tax revenue was used to provide better funding for the fire and ems which is more staff which provides better response and service for our community is that accurate yes sir as you uh if you look at the the past five years uh especially working with our folks over in finance uh i probably have caused some of the the headache and gray hair and and missed uh missed hair in some cases uh with the [00:53:26] number of needs and requests that fire ums has um but they uh you all the county administrator and finance have done a tremendous job over the past several years of trying to find every available additional dollar to fund the needs and staffing that we've got in the community well thank you very much thank you sir thank you mr chairman thank you mr hersberg anyone further Chief. Thank you. I just wanted to say thank you for your presentation. Deputy County Administrator [00:53:59] Shardine and myself had the opportunity to go to the facility and dress out and wear the outfit and I don't know how you guys do what you do. That equipment is very heavy. I don't think I could get myself out if I were in a fire wearing that, let alone getting someone else out. So I appreciate you guys so much. I have a better understanding after doing that and better appreciation for all of you. So thank you guys for everything you do. Thank you. Thank you. Anything further? Chief, thank you. Thank you for being with us. I just want to cover a couple of things. [00:54:36] I appreciate you making mention in a public setting on a couple of things. First of all, the cyber attack. That was an external cyber attack on one of our vendor suppliers. It was a service that we have. And so those payments did come in in arrears, if you will, to use a financing term. So thank you for that. And your department was great to work with, along with Dr. Brown, trying to work through that. Nobody likes to get that phone call. And I know that we got the phone call about three minutes after y'all got the phone call. So thank you for that and helping to manage through that. Your Citizens Academy is going great. And that's just part of, again, increased [00:55:15] public outreach. I did, you know, one of the things we talk about, and when I talk to the citizens, particularly around this time of year, we're talking about budget. And I tell folks that we're really in the insurance business. The largest insurance policy that Hanover County has is public safety. You don't know when you're going to use it, but it's got to be funded. Your policy has to be up to date. Nobody pulls in their driveway at night and is upset that their house didn't burn down just because they made a premium payment to their homeowners insurance right and so we don't have time to to hire we don't have time to build a fire truck out or to construct a fire [00:55:55] station once the once the fire comes in so it is important to be on standby one of the things that you have done that hadn't been done previously but i think it's really important folks sometimes say well what were your responses and you say well we had 21 responses uh that could be one structure fire there's a lot of personnel that go there uh but i remember sometimes after presentations folks would say you know did we have you know 422 structure fires last year it's like no we did not have 422 structure fires but we did have 422 responses from individual going to uh multiple structure fires throughout the the calendar year uh or whatever so so thank [00:56:34] you uh thank you for that i made mention i was gonna wait till you got here um during the last budget presentation that um i had the sheriff the former sheriff the former commonwealth's attorney uh that live in my district and the fire chief also lives in my district so for those who who really want to live in a safe area the henry district's a very very safe area so uh thank you um so i'm going to put a period there on my official comments uh as a board member and i want to talk to you about um potential staffing issues uh in the anderson family have you uh have you been called out yet has has has there been an addition to to your staffing yet there's not been [00:57:14] in addition to my staffing yet my wife is here thank you for being here as well uh so so that that's an indication that um there's been no uh no additions as of this presentation i didn't figure potential grandma would be here if there had been an addition so i can assure you she would not and uh so but that that is potentially coming soon is that correct any day now any day now well we wish you all the best i know you're juggling that uh with your other duties uh 24 7. so uh well uh do we when you become a grandfather we put another stripe on there or something probably a more couple more gray hairs dark that's left chief we appreciate it thank you so much and [00:57:54] thank you for being with us thank you miss anderson thank you for being with us ma'am thank you and And again, I do appreciate all the support that you all provide every day. So thank you. Yes, sir. Next item on the agenda is a presentation of proposed FY27 budget Department of Public Works Director Longshore. Thank you for being with us, Director. [00:58:12] I did want to recognize Colonel David R. Hines, who joined us here, a part of public safety presentations. Thank you, Colonel, for being with us. Did I say public works? My apologies. Mike Flagg was here earlier. I said public works. And here's the thing. [00:58:27] We'll take it. I apologize, Matt. You know, you give, because of the nature of your business, you give the most boring presentations because that's the nature of the business. One of the most important presentations, and you're the only person that doesn't come up asking for money because you run an enterprise fund. [00:58:46] So it's literally my favorite presentation. You know, and I was going to try to liven it up this year just for you, Mr. Davis. Yeah, I don't know how you're going to liven up public utilities, but we are excited to hear you. Thank you for that. Knowing that boring is a good thing. I'll try to stay in that lane. No question about it. no question about it. So anyways, well, good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board, Matt Lonshore, Director of Public Utilities. This afternoon, I'm honored to present our proposed budget for the department, as well as a few ordinance amendments we'd like to include [00:59:20] during the budget process. We've also just completed a comprehensive rate study for the department, and we have our consultant team here from Arcadis today to present the results and recommendations from that study. Before I get started, I just wanted to give a big thanks to our deputy directors, our team of accountants, our business staff, all of our superintendents who poured countless hours into bringing this budget together, making sure that it's accurate, [00:59:54] that it's needs-based, and that it addresses operational priorities in what continues to be a very financially challenging time in the water and wastewater industry. So a big thank you to those folks. To start out, just a quick overview. [01:00:10] The overall mission of our department is to responsibly provide clean, sustainable, and environmentally responsible water and sewer services, almost 26,000 residents and businesses throughout the county. So we do that by operating the county's public water and wastewater systems, some of the key assets in those systems include our doswell water treatment plant our wastewater treatment plants in doswell ashland and our totopotami wastewater treatment plant in the mechanicsville area we also operate a large sewer pump station in the mechanicsville area [01:00:47] our beaver dam pump station that sends about 2 million gallons per day of sewage to henrico county for treatment a couple other functions of our department is we operate eight water booster stations, seven water storage tanks, 36 wastewater pump stations, over 900 miles of pipeline. We have a construction services division, an engineering group. We also operate several certified laboratories in our department and we have an in-house systems engineering controls and automations group to name some. So whenever I talk about budget, I always want to include some performance metrics [01:01:26] because when our customers pay their water and sewer bills, we like for them to know where that money goes in exactly what they're getting for it. So what that looks like for us so far in FY26 is 2.1 billion gallons of water produced, 1.6 billion gallons of wastewater treated, almost 1,200 water meters replaced or installed, over 6,300 customer service orders completed, 108,000 feet of sewer lines CCTV inspected, and over 150,000 feet of sewer lines flushed and [01:02:02] cleaned. Our construction group has responded to 21 water main breaks and made those repairs. And our water distribution group has collected and completed almost 600 bacteriological samples for the water system. And that's so far in FY26. And as impressive as some of those numbers are, perhaps the most impressive and important number is zero. So far this year, we have zero notices a violation from vdh and deq and that goes to the hard work and dedication of all of our staff [01:02:37] showing up every day and just doing their jobs so thank you to those folks just a reminder mr davis alluded to it at the start here for our business model we operate as a standalone business unit of the county the primary funding source are the utility rate payers within an enterprise fund we do not take revenues from the county's general fund we have multiple revenue streams those include the water sewer rates that's our primary revenue stream but we also collect capacity fees septish [01:03:12] disposal fees and construction permit fees all of our revenues except for capacity fees support our operations capacity fees support cip projects only so our proposed budget for fy27 is right at 33 and a half million dollars that does represent an increase of about 10 percent from what was approved in fy26 however this budget addresses operational priorities and those increases include include an increase in labor costs increases in electrical costs water supplies materials that we have to to purchase equipment we have to replace and an increase in professional [01:03:50] services our department is also requesting three new full-time positions one of those is a utility technician another being another utility engineer both of those positions have been in our long-term staffing plans the third position is a division manager of support operations if approved that would be the third and final division manager position as part of a reorganization in our operations division for our capital improvement plan we categorize our projects two different ways the first way being capacity and system development projects the second way [01:04:28] being rehabilitation and replacement projects for capacity development projects our water improvement projects include funding to purchase easements for our hickory hill water line phase two project we also are requesting funding for water line extension project in the walnut grove Creighton Road area that would be a betterment to a project that public works is already working on for our wastewater improvements we're proposing an additional 500 000 for our hickory hill sewer [01:05:02] pump station enforcement project that's due to a new cost estimate we received from the preliminary engineering report that was completed since the initial 6.6 million dollars was appropriated in fy 26. for our rehab and replace projects we have planned improvements at our dyes well water treatment plant a georgetown well system a significant load of projects in our joint capital agreement with the city of richmond some additional funding for our pamunkey regional gel waterline project a million dollars of funding as as is every year routine funding for waterline [01:05:42] replacements and valve replacements and funding for the demolition of our quarrels road and pleasant street tanks and booster stations those assets are currently offline and not in use for the wastewater improvements we have improvements planned at all of our wastewater treatment plants so that's totopotami ashland and doswell we also have funding included in this cip to replace the odor control system at our beaver dam pump station we're requesting 900 000 for some sewer rehabilitation work in the mechanicsville area also some funding to get design going on a gravity [01:06:18] sewer project that would ultimately take the truck stop pump station offline and we've included funding for equipment replacements and fall protection upgrades at various pump stations throughout the county so one thing that's unique about this year's capital improvement plan as opposed to years past is we've also included some fy 28 projects in fy 27 and the reason is we anticipate needing to issue some debt in the form of revenue bonds at some point fy 27 to to handle some of these projects and so the projects that were included were the lockwood booster pump [01:06:57] station upgrade that project's currently under design as well as an expansion project for our our totipotomy wastewater treatment plants um for our hickory hill area uh the waterline phase two project in that area and again some additional calls for the city of richmond joint capital so those projects have been moved from fy28 to fy27 even though we don't intend to construct those this year in order to consolidate those projects into one single bond issuance in fy27 that's why we have moved those so the total CIP for FY27 is 33 million dollars however with 41.6 [01:07:37] million from FY28 added to this year's budget we come to a total budgeted amount in FY27 of 74.6 million dollars you can see in the pie chart to to the right the the lion's share of those project costs are going to rehabilitation and replacement projects for existing infrastructure so at this time, I'd like to call up our consulting team from Arcadis to go over the results and recommendations from the recently completed rate study. Thank you, Director Longshore. Good afternoon, everyone. [01:08:15] I'm Alex Polino with Arcadis Financial Consultant, and I completed the results, I'm sorry, I completed the utilities rate study. And as Matt said, I'm here to complete, discuss the results and recommendations of the study. The main purpose, though, for why I'm here today is to speak to you and ask for you to adopt the 2027 proposed rate revenue increase of 6.5%. [01:08:38] So while you'll see throughout the presentation some other recommendations beyond 2027, today we're focusing really on fiscal year 2027 only. But I'm also here, as I mentioned, to discuss the results and recommendations of the full cost of service and rate design study. [01:08:56] So you will see rate recommendations beyond 2027 in this presentation. Ladies and gentlemen of the board, I want to open this up to workshop format in the event that there's any questions what that means sir is that folks could just fire off questions or absolutely with you so we're in workshop format at this time absolutely and there will be also at the end of slide if we need to hold some for some questions at the end that's also there but as you can see on this slide here we have a list of four significant projects as Matt had meant our director Longstreet mentioned there's a significant capital needs in [01:09:31] the next five years with these four projects here totaling about 180 million dollars so while debt is anticipated to be needed to fund some of these projects rate revenues will be needed as well so that's really driving one of the main drivers for the six and a half percent rate revenue increase that we're discussing today so here we're showing the forecasted fund balance and debt service coverage with six and a half percent annual revenue increases from 2026 through 2033. So the top shows the water and sewer operating fund balance, which is the target [01:10:08] is two months of operating reserve. That's that black line. And so with that six and a half percent annual rate revenue increase from 2027 forward, we show that the operating fund is able to meet its bond covenant requirement of two months of operating reserves. And right below that is the debt service coverage graph annually, which the bond covenant establishes a 1.15 target for a requirement for debt service coverage, which is the utility's ability to meet its debt obligations, and the 6.5% is applied to that chart as well, and we can see that [01:10:43] it meets and exceeds that 1.5 times target in that graph. So now I'm going to just kind of talk about the general methodology that we used for this study. Really, we use industry standards which are established via these two main manuals of practice. [01:11:05] The first being the AWWA, Principles of Water, Rates, and Fees, and Charges, otherwise known as the M1 Manual for water. And on the sewer side, we use the Water Environment Federation, Financing and Charges for Wastewater Systems, Manual of Practice No. 27 for the wastewater side. [01:11:24] And to just do a quick overview of what a rate study is, right? So the first step of the RAID study is what we call revenue sufficiency analysis, basically establishing what are the revenues required of the system, right? And that's where we get that 6.5% rate revenue target for today. [01:11:41] It's established in that rate revenue sufficiency study. From there, we go to the cost of service portion of the study, where we break down the costs on a system level, then a functions-based level, which ultimately allows us to allocate costs to specific customers and establish a cost basis for each customer class and then the third part of that study and the final step is rate design where we basically take the costs that we've allocated to each customer class and design the rates to be based on a cost of service based approach which essentially means you know paying your fair share uh based on your [01:12:18] cost um so i'm going to go over the first step of the rates analysis here uh the revenue for Sufficiency Study. One thing I'll mention, the six and a half percent annual rate revenue increase from 27 to 2033 is a rate revenue increase. It is not a flat, across the board, six and a half percent increase to every single rate on your rate schedule for water and sewer. [01:12:44] It's a rate revenue increase, which means overall system revenues need to increase by six and a half percent essentially. The rate design portion, you'll see that the rates changed, you know, know they vary depending on the customer class so there will be inconsistencies in terms of the rate increases for each customer class but the overall revenue level that we're trying to achieve is six and a half percent and we'll see that in further slides but to kind of go over some of the summaries of the revenue sufficiency portion of the study you can see we forecasted out to 2033 and we did recommend rates of six and a half percent or rate revenue increases of six and a half percent every [01:13:22] year to meet operational and capital demands. The increases also cover all capital operating needs and contribute $3.4 million to the long-term water supply reserve, which will be used for future water resilience projects, which occur beyond our 2033 timeline here. [01:13:40] Total capital improvement plan from 26 to 33 was around $286 million, as we mentioned a pretty significant capital need. As Director Longshore stated, future bond issuances are anticipated in 2027, but also in 2029, 2031, and 2033 will be required to fully fund the capital plan. [01:14:03] And we're showing approximately $218 million in bond issuances as across 27 through 33. We did hit that two-month operating reserve target as maintained by the bond covenant as I showed in the slide before with the 6.5% rate revenue increases, and we met our minimum debt service coverage of 1.15 as required by the bond covenant all right so now I'm going to discuss the rate design and cost of service portion of the study now the rate design elements that we built into our study [01:14:40] are to occur incrementally over a five-year forecast period so the rate adjustments and rate structural changes don't all occur in 2027 they will be spread out across five years so keep that in mind and we do show some of the recommended rates beyond 27, but today we are focusing on 2027 rates. [01:15:05] Some of the recommendations from our rate design study include rates in all customer groups will need to increase over the next five years to meet revenue requirements of the system. So all customer classes will see rate increases, however they will vary depending on each customer class based on the cost of service results. [01:15:24] We're going to eliminate the commercial or we recommend eliminating the commercial declining block rates. We recommend increasing irrigation and commercial two rates to align with the cost of service. Align fixed charges with AWWA meter ratios, which is the industry standard manual that we mentioned earlier for the wastewater system. And then align tiered rates to support revenue stability. All right, so here we're showing a residential bill for an average, a low, and a high [01:16:01] usage customer. I know that the county is billed on a bimonthly basis, but we converted it to a monthly bill equivalent just because most people think of their expenses on a monthly basis. And so the average we're showing is a 5,000 gallons bill for a month. That is based on the county's latest billing data information. So the average customer, 5,000 gallons, will see a $2.39 increase in their total water and sewer bill on a monthly basis, which equates to about 2.7 percent. So you can see that a typical residential customer is not [01:16:38] going to see that six and a half percent rate revenue increase applied to them in 2027. And then below, you can kind of see the grayed out highlighted area. It does show our recommended our bills with our recommended fee increases as well over that five-year implementation period. [01:16:56] And you can see for the average customer, it doesn't really go beyond the 509, but we do see increases annually. Now to do a quick comparison of other monthly residential bills for local entities. [01:17:15] We can see Hanover County has an $86.95 bill currently, with the proposed 2027 rate increase bringing the bill up to $89.37. The overall average of all these comparable entities is $98.10. [01:17:32] So Hanover County, even after the 2027 proposed increase, is below the average. And we've also specifically highlighted some of the more local comparable entities, such as City of Richmond and Ricoh County and Chesterfield County. And their average bill is actually $91.38. [01:17:49] since Soannover County still is below that $91 threshold after the 2027 fiscal year proposed rate increase. All right, so here we wanted to also address affordability as affordability is a major topic and major focus in our industry. Affordability can be defined in multiple different ways, but the EPA defines affordability as the annual, as something being affordable as 4.5% of a household's annualized income. So what we're showing here is the annualized water and sewer bill [01:18:29] as a percentage of median household income for each of these entities with that four and a half percent threshold there at the end with that highlighted orange dotted line. So we can see that all the entities are affordable right below that four and a half percent as defined by the EPA but we can see once again Hanover County is below the average at 0.95% and 0.98% with the average being 1.35% of a total annualized bill this is also once again based on a 5,000 [01:19:04] gallon usage on a monthly basis here now we're going to show some some changes for a commercial bill a typical commercial customer with the average bill usage being about 7,500 gallons per month. This is assuming a one-inch metered customer. We can see that the bill goes up by $12.98, and we can see for the recommended rates as well going up by about $14, $13, $15, and $16 in the future. The bills for commercial customers will be going up slightly [01:19:37] higher than the residentials that we saw, but that is to bring the rates in alignment with the costs to serve the customers. Here is an example of a commercial 2 bill. [01:19:52] There's only five commercial 2 customers, they're large customers, and they'll all be receiving the same recommended rate adjustments, however, they will be individually affected differently based on their usage. [01:20:12] Now here are the proposed 2027 rates with the left-hand side showing the water fixed charges which is the monthly fixed charge irrespective of water use amount um excuse me um and then the right side is the water usage charges which is based on uh annual excuse me charges of per 1000 gallons of water used excuse me for each customer class um the meter size on the left hand side is applied to the residential irrigation and commercial one customers whereas [01:20:52] the commercial two bills excuse me whereas the commercial two bills have their own base charge So that's why you can see base charge on the left-hand side for commercial two now for the sewer proposed 2027 rates It's the same setup what you will see and as we mentioned in a previous slide on the meter size Portion with the fixed charges the sewer base fees or fixed charges are going to be adjusted [01:21:30] Beyond that that two inch meter mark to be in alignment with the awwa standard meter ratios that are established in that manual practice and to be kind of in alignment with the current uh water meters um so that's one of the main uh major adjustments that we are doing in 2027 and implementing over a five-year period um as well as uh some of the other adjustments that we see here like uh bringing commercial two in alignment with commercial one customer usage charges and increasing some rates higher than others on the commercial side versus [01:22:09] the residential side to bring rates in alignment with the costs. Sorry about that. All right, any questions? Any questions? Any discussion? Yes, ma'am. Ms. Percher. Thank you, Mr. Chair. [01:22:29] Thank you so much for this very detailed report. And while I know this is for us, I always think about this really largely being for the public who pay the money for the services that we offer. And I always fear when I either give or receive a report this detailed that to our citizens we sound a little bit like Charlie Brown's teacher. [01:22:53] Wah, wah, wah, wah. Because I think people start to be hit with this many numbers and they phase out a little bit. I want to talk about several big takeaways. And for me, the largest takeaway I might have for my citizens is that for a nominal monthly cost, we will improve our service greatly. [01:23:17] And we stay in very good company with our fellow counties. One of the things I'm unclear about is the variance in rate revenue classes. So what's a rate revenue class? How do I know which one I'm in? [01:23:36] Sure, miss pitcher. That's a great question. So we have multiple rate revenue classes in our code already. We have a residential Class, but we also have a commercial class and within our commercial classic customers We have commercial one customers and commercial two customers commercial two customers are the very large customers that use great amount of water and wastewater so for each customer class we have different rates depending on and based on the different capacities they typically use [01:24:12] so I hope that answers your question can you tell me that the overall rate differences between those those classes so I'll back it up to the water rates in the residential class we have different tiers of usage so we have the first tier of usage goes up to 4,000 gallons. That is the lowest cost tier. It takes a certain minimum amount of usage of water and wastewater services just to maintain life, right? Everybody needs [01:24:50] to use water. And so that's really what that lowest tier is for. Above that, we have a middle tier, 4,000 to 15,000 gallons, and then greater than 15,000 gallons. And once you're getting into that you're as a residential customer you're typically getting into irrigation demands outside usage stuff like that more non-essential uses of water we have irrigation only customers those are commercial customers that have separate meters just for irrigation and then we have commercial customers and tiers within that that are that are more or less based on the capacity [01:25:26] needed within the system and customers that are using a lot of capacity essentially are taxing the system more right we have pumps that need to run harder we need to fill our tanks more stuff like that and so you have more usage of our assets and that drives some of the cost of service in those tiers thank you man yeah absolutely great question anything further uh mr thank you mr chair excuse me and thank you gentlemen for your presentation i was just wondering if you could [01:26:03] just take a minute to highlight the upgrades and the redundancy features that are in this budget and projected budget so that we could we're working towards minimizing the water crisis that we had because i know it's in here but i think we should highlight that for the public so that they know that we're we're not just putting our head in the sand on this and hoping we're really really we have a plan and a mission absolutely another fantastic question miss dibble and just to give [01:26:37] you a sneak peek we have another presentation coming in march where we're going to go specifically into the details of a water supply resiliency analysis we just completed we're going to lay out immediate options for the board to take action on as well as some long-term strategic options that we need to start weighing both from an engineering perspective and also from a financial perspective so we're going to lay those all out in in our presentation in march but i can show you just backing up talking about the capital improvement plan as it sits now there are some [01:27:16] resiliency functions in that the biggest one in the water system will be the lockwood booster pump station upgrade and so what that pump station can do right now is you know roughly 16 to 17 million gallons per day and our main feed from the city of richmond goes through that pump station our capacity contract with the city of richmond is 20 million gallons a day and we want to make sure we can get as much capacity through that station as possible so what that requires is some plumbing upgrades at the station some pump upgrades electrical upgrades things like that [01:27:51] that is a big resiliency project we're already tackling to make sure we can we can get more water in our system quicker if needed we have some other things after our presentation next month we hope to include in you know in immediate cip but also in future cips and kind of filter those through so we're going to be working on that all on the back of the resiliency analysis but also a future master planning where that those projects will funnel in so that is certainly [01:28:24] top of mind uh to us we are working on it and uh we are excited to present to present those in uh next month's meeting so thank you sir for those uh cliff notes and we look forward to uh the full presentation in march thank you mr chair yes ma'am mr hersberg thank you mr chairman thank Thank you for your presentation. You mentioned the Creighton Road waterline betterment. Is that a water pipe improvement? Does it include sewer or is it just water? It's a waterline extension. [01:28:58] So the Department of Public Works is already working on a project, I believe, to construct some roundabouts in the Creighton Road, Walnut Grove area. We have waterlines in that area. So as a betterment to that project we want that contractor to go ahead and extend those water lines through that construction so in the future when those water lines were to be extended you wouldn't have to dig up brand new construction so essentially our plans are to piggyback off of public works project and go ahead and get that piece of water line in the ground it saves the county cost and a lot of a lot of headaches down the road when that line needs to [01:29:38] be extended so that's what that's for thank you thank you mr chairman and i would like to say uh i'm sorry to disappoint everyone i've got like two more slides uh i know this is questions and discussion but more focused on the rate study and in some of that so um i will get through these very quickly so but but let me just go over our proposed revenues we anticipate an operating revenue of just over $39 million. FY27, a bulk of that is our rate revenues. Non-operating revenues [01:30:15] of $3.8 million, with most of those being capacity fees. Retained earnings, which is unallocated cash from previous fiscal years, is a big part of the budget to handle some projects, as well as those anticipated debt proceeds. Total revenue budget is anticipated at right at $108 million, including the proceeds. To summarize it, you'll see the expenses are right at 108 million revenues are the same, so the budget is balanced. One thing I would like to note for those who notice that [01:30:51] operating revenues exceed operating expenses, the Department of Public Utilities in no way, shape, or form generates a profit. Every revenue, every operating revenue that exceeds operating expenses, every dollar goes back into the system in the form of projects, in the form of rehab and replacement projects. So with this budget, the Enterprise Fund remains balanced. We meet our operational priorities. We continue funding the CIP and the five-year rate adjustment strategy outlined in the rate study avoids rate shock. A couple proposed ordinance amendments we'd like [01:31:29] to include in this year's budget process uh in section 2364 this is the ordinance that governs how we administer leak adjustments in our departments the proposed revisions for those are to revise the calculation for average use uh to use corresponding billing cycles for the past three years for that customer we'd like to add a statement that the county can't provide billing adjustments resulting in amount less necessary to cover the cost of providing the service and add a statement that limits customers to one leak adjustment for two years. [01:32:03] So essentially what this does is it widens the eligibility criteria for customers in that position to get, uh, to be eligible for a leak adjustment. But now, uh, through the, the rate study process that we know our true cost of service, it limits the county's, uh, financial liability as far as administering those adjustments. [01:32:23] So, um, that's one proposed ordinance amendment. second being in section 20-24 this ordinance codifies septage dumping rates and the proposed amendments are to increase the dumping fee from 25 to 26 dollars this is to cover the new lease rate amount with the property owner of the septage dumping site but also to remove the language referencing oil and grease dumping we have not accepted oil and grease at the septage site for several years now due to major major operations and maintenance issues we don't anticipate accepting oil and grease there again so we'd like to go ahead and remove that language [01:32:59] in that ordinance so with that the final question slide if there are any more questions i'm happy to answer those very well any questions mr hersberg the proposed amendment ordinance change yes sir it said is that a customer side leak on the customer side yes sir so that could be like a water hose or a water pipe in the house it could be a lot of things it could be a plumbing leak in in the customer's house. It could be an underground leak in the service line. It could be a running [01:33:35] toilet that the customer didn't know about. We want to make sure if there's an extraordinary circumstance that causes the customer to get an unusually large bill, if they qualify per the criteria, we're able to rebate them an amount back. With that, there has to be guardrails in that process, and that process has to be supported by the code. So that's what we're looking at right now um and again uh just looking to make some tweaks to what's already in the code so hopefully answers your question it does but i have a follow-up okay great is there some sort of [01:34:11] documentation required that the leak has been found and or repaired there is so the eligibility requirements uh include the leak has to be found it has to be repaired the customer has to submit that documentation the leak has to be in excess of double their average usage so we run all those calculations we document every requested leak adjustment and we coordinate that with the customer if they qualify or if they don't. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Thank you Mr. Herzberg anything [01:34:44] further? Okay Sina thank you Director Longshore I appreciate it. We are going to take a five minute recess but I just want to inform the board just a few moments ago I endorsed a letter on behalf of the Board of Supervisors to a grant review committee in support of Hanover County Sheriff's Office grant application to upgrade portable radios with GPS-enabled features. [01:35:08] The letter states, in part, on behalf of the Hanover County Board of Supervisors, I am writing to express strong support for the Hanover County Sheriff's Office as they apply for the grant in the amount of $3,040,224.60 to replace portable radio equipment to include GPS enabled features Last paragraph Hanover County stands ready to partner with the sheriff's office the grant program administrators and other stakeholders again in part Thank you for your continued commitment to public safety and the community well-being Just want to let the board members know that that letter was signed on behalf of the board [01:35:42] As it was a quick deadline that the sheriff's office was just notified about and so that was my meeting with major flag The board will stand in recess for five minutes. We are in recess [01:44:28] right and then yeah you turn around you say okay this board is back in session the next item on the [01:46:06] agenda is a presentation of proposed fy 27 budget from the office of commonwealth's attorney the honorable mckenzie babenchenko commonwealth attorney for hanover county thank you for being with us ma'am thank you mr chair and members of the board i want to start by echoing some of the comments that fire chief made earlier which was i know there's a lot of need i know all the needs cannot be met and I know you all have to make some really tough decisions and I appreciate your time and attention and allowing me the opportunity to talk a little bit about what we do. I would also just like to note every single one of [01:46:44] you individually and collectively have been an amazing partner to our office and I'm just very very grateful for that it is not the same in every other locality. So in the interest of time I have many slides they're very detailed I I could say every single slide, I was just telling Mr. Walter that it could be their own two-hour town hall themselves, but they're detailed. I'm going to do some highlights here, and if you would like to go back or have any questions, I'm happy to look at those with you and answer any of those questions you might have. [01:47:19] So I'll be covering what we do, how we do it, last year's accomplishments, and some of our anticipated challenges coming up, which are informing what we've requested. So our mission statement and our values, those can all be found on the website. [01:47:38] So just know that we have them. They're largely consistent with Hanover County's mission and values. What it all boils down to is our ultimate purpose of the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office is to partner with the county, partner with our law enforcement agencies, and it's to create a safe community. Everything we're doing is to create a safe community is what it boils down to. [01:47:57] So we do that by enforcing the law with our effective prosecutions. That's our primary objective. We support victims of crime. We train and advise our law enforcement partners and collaborate. We educate and engage the community. We analyze our data and try to feed it back into the system to improve upon it. [01:48:15] And we do some legislative advocacy. This is our structure and our staffing. So it's my understanding this is all going to be PDFed and put online. I'm hoping it's a good resource, a reference for citizens, should they have those questions. [01:48:31] So starting with criminal prosecutions, that's our primary objective. And we are funded-- and I always like to go over this-- we are mandated to do felonies only. That's the only thing we're actually really, truly mandated to do as far as prosecutions go. We choose to do misdemeanors. [01:48:47] We choose to do juvenile cases. But because of that, the state only funds us for felonies, which is important to note that they don't actually even fund us for all the felonies. We had a work study. We're supposed to have 12 prosecutors specifically to accomplish our felony caseload. [01:49:04] The state gives us 10. If you add misdemeanors and juvenile work on top of that, we are supposed to be at 17 prosecutors. We are currently at 13 prosecutors. So our county, you all, and we really appreciate the current support, funds three prosecutors in full where the state fails to fund us. [01:49:24] So we certainly appreciate that. We are much better off than many of our other localities. And I always like to know what goes in-- what do we mean by case prosecution? To the right on the slide, case screenings, search warrants, discovery, preparation, meeting with witnesses, motions, plea negotiations, juries and bench trials, sentencing events, appeals. [01:49:44] So those are kind of everything that I'm talking about when I say a case. So recent prosecution highlights, I just wanted to note some of these. We're going into general district court every day handling DUIs, sometimes in JDR domestic violence cases, we don't do traffic. [01:50:03] petty larceny cases, you know, you have your property crimes, but these are the more notable cases that I think are related strongly to public safety and some successes. And we have kind of, this is just a sample, of course, a murder, the vape shop, and I would note $192,000 is coming back to the county from the asset forfeiture petition that happened. So that's coming back to the economy, the local, our local accounts here. Gun violence, child sex crimes, drug distribution, and fraud of public funds. [01:50:37] So that's just a sampling of some of our recent successes. So then we have-- we'll call them additional statutory duties. I call them unfunded mandates. We have to facilitate multidisciplinary teams. We do extradition, governor's warrants. [01:50:52] For anybody who has never heard of a governor's warrant, that's when someone is charged with something. They go to another state. They get picked up there. And then they say, I don't want to come back to Virginia. So I'm opposing this. So then we have this very paperwork-heavy, time-intense experience, so each one of them is a massive time suck, for better or for worse. [01:51:13] Those have been on the rise. T visas, U visas, that's in the immigration space. We are a part of that process. Geriatric parolee reviews, when somebody comes up for geriatric parole, I respond to that, review the file, talk to the victims, take a position, and advocate on behalf of our victims and public safety. [01:51:32] not guilty by reason of insanity reviews, and then this kind of ever-growing space of responding to civil filings. And I'm acutely aware of it. I personally respond to every civil filing that we receive. Those include gun rights restorations, license restorations, substantial risk orders, asset forfeitures, expungements, writs of vacatur. [01:51:51] And July 1, which is something that's going to be an upcoming challenge, is the sealing legislation that's coming our way. It's another form of record relief, such as expungement. So we expect a lot of paperwork, a lot of filings, which is going to be a basis for why we need another legal assistant. [01:52:08] So everything's increasing. Here's some data and some trends. Governors, warrants, like I was telling you, in 2021, there was one. Then we have two. Then we have three. Now, we're up to 10. It's a lot of time. It's a lot of coordination. So I expect those to increase as people just say, I don't want to go back to Virginia and be held accountable. [01:52:25] It's not worth my time. And they'll fight it. We'll still go after them. It just takes time. Civil filings, we've got your license restorations, firearm restorations, expungements. They're all up, especially the expungements, 13, all the way up to 38 in the past two years. [01:52:40] And I'm anticipating sealing to track where expungements are, just because it's a similar record relief. Our Victim Witness Assistance Program. This is a critical program for us. Our-- boiling it down, I mean, you can read some of the bullet points there. [01:52:56] But basically, our system is very, very harsh when it comes to victims. The pendulum has swung. We're focusing more on rehabilitation, a lot of questions. Why did the defendant do something? What resources can we give this person? That takes up a lot of time and effort, and often our victims, their voices get lost in the mix. [01:53:14] Our advocates are with them all the whole way. They help keep them up to date on what's going to happen, when their court dates are, what they can expect, what the judge just said, and can answer any questions with restitution and referral services. So for somebody that has already gone through a trauma and this may be the worst experience of their life to come to court, it can be very comforting and it can be the difference between somebody thinking that the system worked and feeling heard and thinking that the system does not work for them and losing faith, which is what we do not want. [01:53:46] So I want to call your attention to a few of our statistics. I think two years ago we were given an additional victim advocate. This board gave that to us. I believe it was this board. And I want to show the difference in how many people we've been able to serve with the addition of that new advocate. [01:54:04] We've gone from-- so the number of victims served, from 687 to 924. The number of times advocates have accompanied victims to court, that's a really big deal. And we feel very strongly about having that support for somebody going through the process. [01:54:20] It can be very scary. 529 to 1,559, that's triple the amount of victims that our people are able to walk through the process and support them. Number of case updates given. A lot of whether a victim is satisfied or feels like they've been heard has to do with communication. [01:54:38] So that's doubled, 991 versus 2,088. And then the number of meetings arranged and attended with victims, 346 were up to 436. Another thing that we do is we train our law enforcement partners. [01:54:53] So our collaboration with our law enforcement partners is the most important partnership we have. Specifically, I would be remiss if I did not mention Sheriff Hines. He's been an incredible partner to our office, to me personally. I certainly thank him for all of his years that he's given to this community and to me and to our office. [01:55:14] But we make sure we are attending the police academy, providing legislative updates, facilitating mock trials. And we do roll call trainings. When we know we have an issue, we go and talk to patrol. And those are just little 15-minute, we're here for 15 minutes, that's when we can catch you all if we see that there's an issue that needs to be addressed. [01:55:33] Fire Marshal Academy, we have one of our attorneys that goes there and educates the fire marshals on law changes. Education and community engagement, which is another piece to all of this, making sure that maybe, just maybe, when you come to court, that's not the first time that you've met a prosecutor, and it can make it a little less scary when that happens, if we are out in the community putting names with faces and letting people know what we do. [01:55:59] And also, I always like to tell everybody, if you ask for a speaker, the answer will always be yes. If there is a community group that is interested in having a presentation on any topic under the sun, the answer will be yes. So some of the trainings and other achievements of our office over the past year, this is for 2025. [01:56:17] There's a lot. Again, this is a sampling. It's just some of the stuff that we are doing. We have a presence at the local level, at the regional level, at the statewide level, and soon to be at the national level. There's an upcoming National District Attorneys Association training, a conference. Our chief deputy has been invited to present there. [01:56:35] That's a big deal. We're very excited about it. I'm very proud of the work that she has done, and she'll be representing Hanover County nationally. And then we have an upcoming, it's ICAC, which stands for Internet Crimes Against Children. There's a training. [01:56:50] We are partnering, Hanover's partnering with the Commonwealth's Attorney Services Council. I know there's a lot of acronyms up there. That is our state training entity that provides most of the training for the prosecutors statewide. And we are partnering with them to host the first ever day-long prosecutor and law enforcement training that is specifically targeted at effective prosecutions against internet predators. [01:57:13] So very excited about that. That will happen in March. We have the Commonwealth's Attorney Services Council Paralegal Program. That was created as a statewide program that was the brainchild of our office. It was two attorneys and two of our paralegals got together, came up with the program, and put together a training in conjunction with our Commonwealth Attorney Services Council. [01:57:36] And that's been released, so that's statewide. And I always love to point out we were the recipient of the J. Sergeant Reynolds Community College Academic Impact Award, Most Engaged in Academic Career Pathway Work. And that was based on going down as a group to the criminal justice class with some of the students there. [01:57:57] One of them is now actually a new law enforcement officer, just got sworn in recently. And we just presented about the paralegal program and the criminal-- different paths you can have in the criminal justice system. We also hosted a class from J. Sergeant Reynolds to come walk around the courthouse and meet people and sit in on some court. [01:58:16] So they were very excited about all of that. And I encourage young people all the time to come to our court and actually see their local criminal justice at work, so that they can give feedback. Education community partners. That's another that brings me right there. [01:58:32] This is really trying to address a major problem that we have, which is a prosecutor desert. So this is a long-term solution, which is trying to catch our new generation and inspire them to want to be prosecutors early on. I've been certainly in law school. We have law school interns. [01:58:48] We go into the colleges to talk to their criminal justice classes. We go into high school in a variety of ways. And all the way back to middle school gifted and talented classes, they've invited us to come and do mock trial with them. And I absolutely, every single time, tell them how amazing it is to be a prosecutor. We need great people, and that's the perfect way to impact your community in a positive way. [01:59:09] Another big part of what our office does is we look at our data, and we want to improve the system. And we do that by having the multidisciplinary teams. We participate in public safety subcommittee. I know several of you have seen me there. Board work and work groups. So here's some of our regional and statewide representation. [01:59:26] You can read that at your leisure. There's a lot of places where we are represented in the community and on statewide and regional boards. Local collaboration. This is a general list of the things that we're doing at the local level. And I would like to point out the Human Trafficking Community Response Team that we started about two years ago and developed protocols for. [01:59:45] We are now called the gold standard. And when other agencies call up with questions, when they call the state, when they call some of our other community partners, they are referred to us. We have a footnote in Richmond's protocols, giving us credit for all of our hard work. And they actually used, thank you for letting us plagiarize your protocols. [02:00:05] So we are also sharing all of our work in our protocols, trying to help others around us. And then the adult recovery court, that's been going strong. The point we are anticipating expansion. We are negotiating right now on taking it regional and including Caroline County. They have the resources to participate in ours but maybe not have their own independent one but there is a need there and they would love to partner with us and their board just approved the finances to do so so we are in the process of working on those logistics legislative advocacy [02:00:41] this is something I feel very strongly about and I always tell people you know while the people of Hanover are my boss I get elected to to use my discretion and to help enforce the laws as my community wishes me to do so. Changes down at the state and federal level really impact my ability to do my job, whether it be funding or some of these criminal justice bills down at the General Assembly. It can make it very, very challenging. So it is important to make sure that the prosecutors versus heard during a lot of these policy discussions. If I am not down there advocating, [02:01:18] if one of my fellow prosecutors is not down there advocating, our voice is not being heard, and we're coming up with one-sided solutions to very real problems and that ultimately just makes it more difficult and requires more time and more resources for us to do our jobs when those policy discussions are going on and they are not aware of how it is going to impact our office. So just a little bit at the local level, I worked with Mr. Walter to go through distracted driving ordinance and update the theft ordinance to comply with state law. That's what you all voted on. I thank you for that. I think that was well received. The distracted driving ordinance was well received by [02:01:58] members of the community and our bench. At the state level, we have a litany of criminal justice bills that I have been serving on a legislative watch group on behalf of prosecutors and trying to help either make them better or advocate against them or advocate for them. So I'm working on that. And funding for prosecutors and victim services, that's always a big one, making sure that they know we need funding and it's important. Federally, last year, there was a prosecutor advocacy day in 2025 where we advocated for VOCA funds, which is something that was cut. But we want those to come back, which will help county and take the burden off of the county, certainly [02:02:36] on our victim witness program. And then fentanyl as a schedule one controlled substance, which I think that did pass. So trends and challenges. Really what we're seeing, defendants are requesting more jury trials. We're just inundated with jury trials. Some of them go, some of them don't. We still have to prepare them. That's time and effort, even when they get continued, for great reasons. [02:02:58] Jury trials are a lot. Individual cases are involving more technology. So each case, it's not like our caseload is necessarily skyrocketed, but each individual case is requiring more. It's more discovery, more review, more phone. We look at phone logs. We look at a computer. We look at social media. We didn't do that before. And if you don't do it, we have to do it. So these cases just take more. I think I referenced already there's a heavier focus on rehabilitation, which isn't necessarily, that's not a negative thing. I think our goal is to make sure the bad people are held [02:03:36] accountable. But if there are people who deserve a second chance or are an appropriate candidate for rehabilitation, we need to be identifying those. That takes a lot of work. That takes a lot up resources to differentiate between the two. So we're expected, as prosecutors, not just to look at some numbers and say, this is what I think should happen. [02:03:56] We're expected to look at somebody's entire life history, look at what their needs are, balance that with public safety as well as our victims, and then come up with an appropriate disposition, and then go try to duke it out with a defense attorney and ask the judge to make the right choice. Expanded discovery. [02:04:11] There's legislation that expands what we will have to do to prepare for our cases. That will take more time and resources, all of the unfunded mandates that I discussed earlier. And then this is the big one, the limited pool of qualified prosecutors as well as staff. Our job is hard, and it can be thankless sometimes, and you can do everything right, and still come up short. [02:04:33] So that's not necessarily what people are lining up to do. You have to really want to be there. You have to really love it. And there are, you know, 10 years ago, there used to be, when there was a job opening, 40 people would sign up. They were dying to be prosecutors. And now we're lucky if the people who are replying have a law degree and are qualified to do it. [02:04:51] So we really had to take a look at what our job looks like and see what we can change internally, the things that we can control. And then lastly, under legislative attack-- and that's how I say it, through the criminal justice reform-- I am in no way saying that our system is perfect. [02:05:06] It is not. We need to change a lot of things. Our issue is that we are not as often having a meaningful seat at the table, and that results in one-sided solutions, which ultimately, long-term, do not work. So for prosecutors, when we hear people talk about us that don't know us, and that happens because we're not down there, it can be very disheartening when we hear people talk about us that think we just want to lock everybody up, we don't care about people, we're heartless, all of those things. [02:05:38] So that feeds into why people do not want to be a prosecutor, because it's not worth it. you can work from home, you can drive an Uber, you can do all of these other things that don't have all of this animosity associated with it. Strategies. Long story short is we are trying to focus on our people and recruitment and retention is our biggest investment. We're trying to make sure our staffing levels allow for the professional development and avoid burnout. Burnout is very real in our field and we really are trying to keep our good people. Seeking out and supporting the professional development opportunities for attorneys and staff, making sure that I'm doing [02:06:16] my job and finding trainings and finding things for our people to participate in and making sure that our staff feels included in our mission and that they don't feel like they're relegated to an office and just pushing papers. That's absolutely not what we want. We want those people to feel like they're routinely and perpetually growing. Allowing for flexible scheduling compatible with productivity and office needs i would love for everybody to be able to work from home we cannot do that unfortunately but we are trying to be flexible and to make sure that you know if you're a family person that you can still have a family and do [02:06:52] this job you don't have to quit because you have a family or you might not have a family there just might be something else you want to do but we allow for that flexibility allowing for specialization and focus in areas some people just want to do human trafficking or they want to do domestic violence and we really try to match people with their areas of interest remaining competitive in the region with salary benefits, you all have helped with that. [02:07:13] Improving online presence and branding to attract the top candidates to apply in the first place, which is building a modern and accessible website, expanding social media presence and monthly newsletters, and then developing recurring internship opportunities. So that's kind of a snapshot of everything that our office is working on to improve and to invest in our people, which our priority position proposed that's in the budget, a legal assistant, that's to accommodate all of that paperwork that I was going over, where we are going to be hit with come July 1. Certainly, we looked at some other, we requested some other things that cannot be funded, and we understand that. And if you want to go, I have [02:07:51] the details on these slides. You can look at them. We don't need to read them. But here's the other things that we weren't able to get. Legal assistant, victim witness advocate, business systems manager, and administrative assistant to fill in some of those gaps that we're seeing and to address our kind of shortages and well-being to make sure we're curbing burnout. So I have been honored to lead this office. I am honored to do it with my current staff. We have incredible staff. I can't say enough about them. I am so blessed. I would not be successful without my staff. So and then I'm honored to be here in this community in this time to be doing it. So I appreciate you all so [02:08:30] much for listening and for giving me this opportunity to share what our office is doing And how we're doing it and why we need why basically we need the things that we need so I am available for questions My door is always open. I know all of you are pretty good about calling when you have questions, but Door is still open and thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Thank you Mr.. T car there any questions from board members any comments mr. Herzberg. Thank you. Mr.. Chairman I just had one quick comment. You know when Sheriff Hines was here He said the crime rate in Hanover is trending down, which is a good thing, right? Yes And I'd just like to point out I think part of that is because we have good [02:09:07] prosecutors and a good Commonwealth Attorney's Office and you all are sending the message that we're not going to tolerate these silly crimes and so thank you for that. Absolutely thank you and that's part of community policing is also I guess you could call it community prosecuting where the little things matter. The punishment will fit the crime but we are still going to point it out Call it wrong and disincentivize people from doing even small infractions. If you don't force the law, then it's not really a law is it? [02:09:38] Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman certainly sir anything further. Yes, name is Floyd. Thank you I appreciate your presentation. It was very comprehensive. I'm glad I got a full look at everything you guys do Feel much more educated about it and that's that's definitely true if it's if you don't enforce a law It's not really a law. I guess Thank you. Thank you all. Anything else? Ms. Babenchenko, would you mind if I had a second? [02:10:07] Not at all, Mr. Chair. If you've got to go, I understand. You're a constitutional officer, you can leave. But I'm here voluntarily for you. You are here on a voluntary status. That is correct. You've not been subpoenaed. Thank you for what your office does. You know, the partnership between all the folks in public safety um is is something to be admired and i know it is within our region and even within our state but certainly within the region you're talking about working with firing ems and working with those those folks over there um i don't think folks always understand and it's it's it's almost a [02:10:44] comfort when when you talk to folks and they say i didn't realize commonwealth attorney's office did this uh and the reason i say it's a comfort is because things kind of go on and they're like hey well that's kind of neat it just kind of works and i always have to follow up and say it works, but it's not on autopilot, right? It just doesn't run itself. And it's funny, I find myself with some of your prosecutors from time to time in Food Lion, you always pick up a prosecutor. We're the only two people with suits in there, ties are undone, and they just look [02:11:17] absolutely beat up at the end of the day from going and helping people get justice. And I think one of the toughest parts of the job for a prosecutor is knowing that justice served does not always complete restoration. You can't take away that worst day. And you were mentioning Ms. Skipper going and representing us nationally. She does a phenomenal job, and I know you've spoken so highly of her in the past, but I mean, she's serious about helping folks, putting bad people in jail, making them pay for their crimes where the law allows. But we appreciate your leadership. It's interesting you were talking about drug [02:11:56] court. I know there's challenges there, jury trials and those types of things. Drug court is very difficult now, as many folks know, and I don't think the public knows, where someone going into drug court, it's not worth the negotiations because with some of these reduced sentences, folks say, well, why would I go in and do a mandated urinalysis over and over and over again. [02:12:19] Why would I go and meet with a case officer, a parole officer? Why would I come back in court and talk to the judge? And their attorney is sitting there saying, hey, you're probably not going to get hammered on this because sentencing guidelines don't allow it. So they're telling their folks, you know, take your conviction because your sentencing is so minimal compared to voluntarily coming in and putting all of these things in record and hopefully trying to get some folks back to where they're a productive member of society. [02:12:50] They just take the lighter sentence and walk, and it's problematic. But I know your folks continue to work on that, so thank you for that. It is no doubt that the Commonwealth Attorney's Office, along with Sheriff's Office, and again, even Fire and EMS, working with the Fire Marshal's Office and all those folks over there, is one of the reasons that Hanover is safe, so we appreciate your leadership. Thank you. [02:13:15] If you don't have anything for me, you can leave, but again, I can't hold you here. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, ma'am. I do want to recognize our treasurer, Mr. Boshan, is here, again, a constitutional officer, so he's not mandated to be here at 2 o'clock. [02:13:31] So I'm sure he was doing yeoman's work over there in the treasurer's office. Thank you for being with us, Mr. Boshan. Next item on the agenda, again, with presentations for the proposed FY27 budget. This is compensation and benefits presentation. is Susan Bell, Deputy Director, Department of Human Resources, Hanover County. Thank you for being with us, ma'am. Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, Vice Chair, members of the board, Dr. Brown, Mr. Walter. My name is Susan Bell, Deputy Director of Human Resources for Hanover County. I will be reviewing the recommended workforce investments for FY27 and also sharing [02:14:09] some highlights from fiscal year 26. These are the main areas that I will be focused on this afternoon. Beginning with compensation, there is a recommended 3% merit increase. This will help Hanover remain competitive in attracting and retaining employees. We also want to maintain our minimum pay rate at $15 per hour. This is more than the current Virginia minimum wage rate, [02:14:40] which just increased January 1 of 2026 to $12.77 per hour. The General Assembly is considering legislation to increase the state rate to a minimum of fifteen dollars per hour and if that passes it certainly could have future impacts on us remaining competitive for our entry-level positions in addition to the merit increase funding is included to continue market-based compensation adjustments and our strategy includes a review of all positions on a four-year rotation [02:15:18] As presented last week by Mr. Badeski, there are four positions requested in the proposed budget, and those are listed here, a legal assistant in the commonwealth attorney office, an administrative assistant for court services and general services, and a part-time solid waste equipment operator for public works. [02:15:39] I want to highlight the ongoing investments into our greatest asset, and that is our people. We continue to focus on responding to our employees' feedback, encouraging and supporting their growth and development, and providing a well-rounded benefit package and wellness offerings. [02:15:59] Starting with employee feedback, for the second year in a row, Hanover County received the Top Workplaces Award. The overall satisfaction score increased by seven points, giving Hanover a 71% overall workplace experience score. [02:16:16] In addition to that, we were recognized in two subcategories, Purpose and Values. This celebrates organizations that have successfully communicated their mission and integrated that into the culture, and then also meaningfulness. [02:16:32] This recognized organizations where the employees emphasized the quote, my job makes me feel like I am part of something meaningful. I am happy to share that we have also once again been selected as a top workplace for 2026, now for the third year in a row. [02:16:51] was just announced and more details on that will be shared soon with our team. Our main reason for participating in these engagement surveys is to hear from our people about what is working well and on this slide is just a very small portion of the answers to the question why employees love their job at Hanover. We know that providing this type of work environment where they feel this way supports our decrease in turnover for fy25 which was at 10 just over 10 but it is also important [02:17:30] to hear from our employees about areas that need improvement and in 2025 the scores related to benefits indicated a notable concern in response to this hr conducted eight focus groups these were available to all employees in the county to come meet with members of the hr team and provide specific feedback now while we know we're not able to provide responses to all requests on the next few slides i will be sharing the results and some of the changes that have already been made based [02:18:06] on these focus groups we are grateful that the county leadership fosters an open communication with the goal that team members can feel heard prioritizing our people includes supporting their growth and development in response to some of the feedback received we have increased the reimbursement amount for tuition assistance to $2,000. We again had a great response to staff furthering their education using this program. So far we have provided $50,250 in assistance to 31 [02:18:43] employees and the average reimbursement received is $1,620. A top initiative in retaining employees continues to be clear pathways for career growth. Our career ladder program, which encompasses 71 positions addresses that need and we are proud to so far for fiscal year 26 have 123 employees that have advanced on their ladders this allows them to increase their compensation while gaining new skills to better serve our customers and our citizens during the last year [02:19:22] we have focused on enhancing the internship program here at hanover we know that it is important to invest in future professionals with a structured and impactful program for high school and college students. We also know that we get a return because we've had eight interns from prior years that have returned now to Hanover as full-time employees. This fiscal year, we hosted 12 interns across 10 departments. We celebrated Virginia Intern Day by hosting a luncheon with county [02:19:57] administration and department heads, where our interns presented about the projects that they had completed. And we also recognized our interns here at the Board of Supervisors meetings in July and August. In partnership with General Services Fleet Division, we established a new collaboration with the Hanover Center for Trades and Technology, and we have already hired our first Fleet Services intern out of that collaboration. Moving into benefits, one of the largest concerns for employees [02:20:33] and organizations is the rising health care costs nationwide. As a self-insured plan, our current monthly claim spend is approximately $4.2 million, plus additional costs to administer and protect the plan. This is expected to rise to $5 million in 2026. The larger the claim spend, the larger the increase in employee premiums. Hanover has absorbed the majority of these increases from prior years, but we recognize that that is not sustainable and could have budget impacts. [02:21:15] In addition to cost, there were other concerns shared in the focus groups that we have already been able to respond to. We hosted two benefit fairs in August, and this gave employees opportunities to speak directly with our vendors and learn more about their offerings and also ask questions or share concerns directly to those people who are providing the service. Over 150 employees attended and we plan to repeat this in the fall. In December, we established a partnership with Accomplish Health. This is to address the many requests around GLP-1 and other weight loss [02:21:53] measures. Accomplish Health is an evidence-based weight management solution that uses virtual clinicians and they design care plans, nutrition plans, they monitor key metrics, and they possibly can prescribe medication at a reduced rate. In July, we provided total compensation summaries to all employees. This provided them a snapshot of their full package that not only included salary but also county contributions to benefits, retirement, and paid time off. [02:22:35] Having a clinic dedicated to our employees is a way to offer cost-effective quality care and keep health care expenses reasonable. A frequent topic in the focus groups was related to the Marathon Health Clinic. We shared those concerns with the vendor and advocated for the needs of our employees. [02:22:53] In response, Marathon added one and a half providers. They increased same-day appointment availability, added a dedicated line to call for same-day appointments, added an option in the portal where employees can submit questions and receive an answer from a provider at no cost. And based on the charts there, you can see the visits for acute care have steadily increased with these changes because we knew that same-day appointments were our priority. The overall satisfaction rate has also increased by 4% compared to this time last [02:23:33] year. Looking ahead, we will continue to prioritize our people with a focus in these key areas, performance evaluations, because we know feedback is critical between employees and their supervisors. [02:23:50] We already implemented step one, which was adding a six-month check-in with employees. They complete an online self-evaluation that provides a pulse to their supervisor of how things are going halfway through the year and fosters two-way communication. [02:24:08] Step two will be updating the annual format to align with Hanover's core values and refresh the competencies. The intern program will continue to be enhanced with an online inquiry process, increased visibility, and outreach to schools to promote our opportunities for students. [02:24:28] As mentioned already, finding ways to lessen the cost of healthcare will include a review of plan designs, which encompasses coverage, out-of-pocket maximums, and deductibles, in addition to the contributions paid by the county and the employees. [02:24:45] Based upon forecasted increases, HR will continue to work with county partners to try and minimize this impact to our people. And as always, a focus on recruitment and retention of employees. This will include providing in-depth training to hiring managers to support them in identifying the best qualified candidates, utilizing creative resources to source candidates, and relying on our current team members to be a voice in promoting Hanover as a top choice for a career. [02:25:23] And this is our wonderful HR team that does a great job supporting our people. I'm so proud of all of them, and thank you for your time this afternoon. I'm happy to take any questions. Thank you, Mrs. Bell. Any questions? Y'all have any questions for HR? Nothing. [02:25:39] Oh, there we go. Mr. Vice Chairman. Thank you. You look desperate, man. They're scared of HR. Most of these folks out there are very nervous. They have not had good experiences in the past with HR. Not with this team. Not with this wonderful team. [02:26:00] Okay. Mr. Vice Chairman. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you so much for your presentation. I just have a quick question for the viewers that may be watching still online. Is there a portal or something that folks can come to and look and see what job availabilities there are, whether full-time or part-time? [02:26:17] Absolutely. On the county website and then also at HanoverCountyJobs.com. And then we're also on GovernmentJobs.com. Thank you very much. And I see on your picture up there Ms. Ashley. She's working in your office. [02:26:33] Yes. We are good friends. And tell her I sit high, please. I will. That was a great program that we implemented last year with our community services board, a supported employment program, and so we were grateful to hire her through that program, and she's a wonderful asset. [02:26:50] I know. She's bright. She is. Thank you very much. Yes, thank you. Mrs. Dittle. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was just curious with regard to the 10% turnover rate, how does that compare to other localities, same size as us, and how does it compare in the Commonwealth? So we are right in the middle of our peers, and it's less than 1% either way. So we're trending right on target with them. Okay, thank you for that. That's very telling. We appreciate you uh taking the steps necessary to make people feel good and feel a part of team [02:27:30] handover so um also as far as um the marathon clinic i'm just curious what do we suggest to folks um when they're sick after hours or saturday and sunday so if it's during hours where marathon's not operating then they can see their own provider or an urgent care center. Which is typically extremely more expensive. Yes that's the option for if there's not if Marathon's not open and [02:28:07] available. Have we had many complaints about that? Not regarding after hours no. I had a couple complaints is they went uh on a saturday instead of the typical 25 or 50 dollars depending on what program you're in at marathon they ended up paying 225 dollars for just a visit to uh what they thought was like a not necessarily an er but the smaller version of that so it's a pretty substantial difference yes and that's why we really wanted to work with marathon to to do the [02:28:47] things that they've done and respond because we want to drive people to that clinic because it's such a cost savings. It is it is is there any appetite for a Saturday hours I mean with kids in school people working Saturday is is a day that they could maybe get there. We can certainly take that to them as another point of advocating. Thank you. Thank you Ms. Dibble. Mr. Hudson. [02:29:13] Thank you Ms. Dibble for bringing up something that is actually should have been in the forefront front of my mind anyway. In regard to Marathon, if I understand correctly, they do not accept walk-ins. They do not. Their model does not take walk-ins. How did we get away from that? Because when it, I'm just going to say it, when it was the old way, it was fantastic and I never heard any complaints. And then for some reason, and the rollout of Marathon was a train wreck. And so I just stayed away from it, told my wife, don't go. Well, recently she needed to go and there was no [02:29:51] even effort she needed to be seen. So yeah, she was not impressed. So we're back to not going again. So I guess I just want some understanding from there. I know that their model does not support that. Why did we want their model then? So I appreciate your feedback. And I can share that we heard many concerns raised about the walk-in as well. So, you know, there's a balance [02:30:27] and we, you know, we moved to this model hoping that it would address some of the concerns that were shared about the walk-in model. Being, for example, employees would walk in but then have a two-hour wait. Yes, that's not good. And so that was a recurring complaint that we would hear. So the hope was that going to this sort of model would, and we didn't seek this sort of model, but being that they were the vendor selected, we were hoping that model would address some of that. [02:30:59] As their client, I imagine it's very expensive. I don't think they're doing this to lose money. Do we have the ability to kind of tailor that model as we're going through the, you know, the contract with them to kind of try to meet the needs on the ground that we're seeing? [02:31:22] Well, I think that's some of what we've done through advocating the specifics heard from our employees and some of the changes made. We can continue to talk through walk-ins, but until that comes up, that could be something addressed in renewal. But we hear you. [02:31:38] All right. Appreciate that. And we really, and we shared this with our employees, it's very important that we hear the feedback so that we have specifics to take to the vendor that always carries more weight with them for us to have specifics and so that's what happened there's always a flurry of activity in regard to it on social media for sure so thank you miss bell i do i appreciate your candor thank you anything further miss bell yet thank you for being with us i am you know you brought up the [02:32:14] insurance cost, and I think a lot of folks think because we have a 5,000-member employee base, that's to include the schools, that in some areas that would give you some negotiating power, but it doesn't. And it's not just our size. Private sector companies much larger than us are seeing substantial increases. I mean, it's just astronomical, drug cost, just cost of health care. And so they're passed on. At some point, it is the rate payer. And you're right, [02:32:46] the county has absorbed that. And we've actually talked about having employees recognize and understand that that absorption may not be able to continue. So it becomes informational purposes only, but they're real cost. And we send that information out to employees at the county and the schools and show them what the cost increase was, where the county was able to absorb, but that's likely not to continue, certainly on the pace and scale that it has, but it's really a [02:33:23] pass-through cost, and I know some folks say, well, what did you do? And it's like, there's nothing you can do, because oftentimes insurance companies will say, this is our rate, and this is they take it or leave it in order for us to write this many souls with the company. [02:33:40] And, of course, there's actuarial charts and those types of things. But with that, I see Ms. Ash is in the audience. I got to tell you, I hear so many compliments about you, Amy. I mean, you've got like a PowerPoint presentation. You sit down with employees one-on-one. [02:33:56] We have 1,500 employees. And you sit down with folks in your office and go through PowerPoint. I've heard a lot from the public safety community on how you've helped them and other folks. I think they were just kind of surprised that the time can be taken during the day to help them with that. [02:34:11] Your name comes up a lot, so thank you, Amy. That means a lot. I was happy to see the over 10% increase in workplace experience score. I guess that's probably due to Mr. Herzberg being the chair, I would imagine. He did a great job last year. He got people well over 10%. [02:34:28] Some of those additional comments, folks fill out surveys, and then they just click, and they move. They'll hit a 10, they'll hit a 1, or whatever. But to have those comments in there, it is important because, as many of us have said, the employees of Hanover County serve a joint constituency. [02:34:45] We all have different roles in where we serve, but we're serving the same people. And having a well-qualified, engaged workforce means that the citizen engagement is going to be at a higher quality and higher level. And I think that's extremely important. As a matter of fact, somebody came here today and was talking about their citizen engagement with building inspections. [02:35:07] and so on and so forth. Mr. Boshan has a lot of citizen engagement on a daily basis, Commissioner Revenue, those types of folks planning, a lot of citizen engagement. And then you get out there to fire an EMS and the Sheriff's Office. I mean, huge amounts of citizen engagement. [02:35:23] And generally speaking, you know, folks are saying, hey, the experience that I have is good. And I think a lot of that, well, actually I know a lot of that and believe that a lot of that is because of the quality hires that we have, the environment that we have here. certainly not perfect. And there's times where, you know, things need to be addressed in certain areas. But overall, the citizens in Hanover County, the bosses are the ones that have said, you know, that engagement is quality. And so I'm pleased to hear that, to have that feedback. So thank you for being with us, ma'am. Thank you. Please send my best to Mr. Bell. I hope he's [02:35:59] doing well. Is he doing well? Always doing well. Always doing well. Thank you. You're welcome. You're welcome. Please send him my best. Thank you all. Have a great day. All right. supplemental financial information folks find that interesting we just had a budget presentation and here we are a week later we're supplements but this is a normal part of the process thank you for being with us mr highfield our budget division director of finance management services thank you sir well now i don't need to introduce myself except for people listening on the microphones i'm mark highfield budget division director for the county and here to prevent to [02:36:36] present some information that's a follow-up to mr bedesky's presentation last week i'll be going over some highlights of revenues and expenditures. And I'll say this presentation along with the other presentations from today will be available on the county's website. The fiscal year 27 general fund is proposed at $427 million. This is up 3.3% from the current fiscal year. One of the highest priorities of local government is support for public education. 39% of the general fund budget [02:37:14] supports school operations, school capital improvements, and debt service payments on previous school projects. County support to the school's operating fund increases 4% in the fiscal year 27 budget to $138 million. In addition, $27 million is used to support the capital improvements and debt service on prior capital commitments. A properly sized and well-equipped public safety team is essential to the health of the community. At $121 million, [02:37:53] this budget continues our strong investment in public safety operations and capital needs. Human services and direct aid to our most vulnerable residents also continues to be a focus in the budget. This includes the staff providing needed mental health and social services assistance and increasing support through the Children's Services Act, as well as this board's continued support for the tax relief program for the elderly and disabled. Now, the remainder of [02:38:30] the general fund budget supports the other functions of the county that help make Hanover a premier community for its people and businesses. Now, this slide, drawn from Mr. Badesky's presentation last week, illustrates the growth in the county support for public education. So, since fiscal year 24, when the state and local shares were roughly equal, the county has increased operating support to the schools by 26 million, while state support has increased 12 million. Nothing new there, but I [02:39:04] thought this slide was worth repeating. Going to revenue. In our budget process, we distinguish between ongoing and one-time revenue. One-time funds are not used for ongoing expenses. One-time revenue is generally reserved for capital projects or as part of a grant. So this slide presents the ongoing revenue. This is where we pay our people and support the services provided to the residents of Hanover. The fiscal year 27 general fund budget is expected to bring in $416 million in ongoing [02:39:44] revenue. While all the major revenue categories are up, the largest local revenue increase is from real property taxes. Compared to our FY26 project forecast, the real property taxes are about $12 million dollars of a $16 million increase. Now ongoing revenue also includes aid from state and federal governments. This usually makes up about 11% of the ongoing funding each year. These intergovernmental revenues are generally targeted to specific programs and I have another slide [02:40:24] later with a little more on this. The big three of our ongoing revenues are real property, personal property and sales taxes. These make up 84% of all local revenues. Looking forward, we see revenue from real property continuing to increase, but at a slower pace than in recent years. After dropping to 3.3% in 2025, reassessments were higher in 2026. But at the same time, the rate of growth [02:41:02] from new construction has decreased gradually since 2024. So collectively, the fiscal 2027 budget is based on the expectation that reassessments will normalize to that 3.3% growth rate and that growth from new construction will again decrease slightly. In personal property, growth has slowed the last two years. Revenue this year is expected to be up but slightly below budget for 2026. [02:41:34] The fiscal 2027 budget reflects continued slightly slower growth than we've experienced before. Finally, sales tax annual growth slowed in fiscal 25 to less than 3% as opposed to 6% to 13% growth experienced in previous years. [02:41:56] So the fiscal 27 budget reflects that slower growth in the future. So collectively, these major revenue sources are forecast to come in slightly above budget in fiscal 26 and continue growing in 27, though at a slower pace than in the immediate post-COVID era. [02:42:19] A shift in these major revenue sources to a more normalized growth pattern has been projected in our five-year planning process. So here's more information on state and federal aid. We receive $15 million annually for the state's share of relief under the Personal Property Tax Relief Act. [02:42:41] Per the state code, this amount has remained unchanged since the inception of the no car tax program. The state's compensation board provides funding to support the county's five constitutional officers. [02:42:57] This $7.8 million provides for only 14% of the total cost to run those offices. In Mr. Badeski's presentation and with regard to the schools, we noted that state aid is not keeping pace with costs. [02:43:16] It is the same story here for the constitutional officers. And the largest single category of state and federal aid is in human services. This includes services to assist with mental health, services to support families in need, senior transportation through our DASH program, and others. [02:43:36] At 42% of the total state and federal aid, this is the area where intergovernmental funding has the most impact on the general fund. This slide, because federal funding has been an area of concern, this digs a little deeper into federal funding. The fiscal year 27 budget assumes that the school programs and school nutrition fund will receive $13 million of confined federal funding. [02:44:08] This is down slightly from FY26, with slight reductions in their Title I budget and in Medicaid and school nutrition reimbursements. The county expects to receive about $5.6 million, including $5.2 million to support residents in the human services area. [02:44:28] Again, services like Hanover Dash, foster care, support for substance use disorders. We do also have federal funding supporting our roadway improvements and airport improvements. I mentioned earlier, one-time revenue supports capital and capital projects and grants. [02:44:50] So fiscal year 27 includes $313,000 of grant funding received in prior years that will be put to work in fiscal 27. And fiscal 27 also includes one-time funding from capital assignments and projected year-end savings that will be used for county and school capital projects. [02:45:11] This one-time funding supplements $12 million of ongoing revenue that also supports capital projects. Before I conclude, a reminder for members of the public. [02:45:28] While there will be a formal budget public hearing in April, Hanover's budget development is a year-round process. Input from citizens is welcomed throughout the year via calls or emails, during citizens' time, and in town hall meetings that board members periodically hold in their districts. [02:45:45] And finally, this slide presents upcoming board meeting dates with budget presentations. The public hearings will take place on April 1st, and the board will be asked to move forward with adoption on April 8th. [02:46:02] And Mr. Chairman, this concludes my presentation. I'm happy to take any questions the board may have. Any questions from Mr. Highfield? Mr. Highfield, I just want you to know, I think you could have done this by yourself. You've got your director, you've got all these people. I think you've been here long enough, you could have done it by yourself. [02:46:20] Maybe they just want to get out of work and sit in here, but you did a fantastic job. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Shelly, good to see you, Lauren. With that, thank you. We appreciate that. Certainly an important office that supports the board and supports the community. The chair now recognizes Vice Chair Stoneman. [02:46:38] Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this time, I would like to make a motion that we move into closed session pursuant to the following authority, Virginia Code 2.2-3711A8, consultation with the county attorney regarding specific legal matters requiring the advice of legal counsel, discussion of matters related to the upcoming special election on the proposed constitutional amendment authorizing the modification of congressional districts. [02:47:06] Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. We are in closed session. Yeah. Well, I don't have any... [02:47:25] yeah okay so vice chair stoneman thank you mr chair um i'd like to make a motion at this time [02:48:15] for the board of supervisors to certify that during the closed session only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements of the freedom of information act and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion of closed session were discussed second we have a motion second by ms pritchard any discussion all those in favor [02:48:35] please indicate by saying aye aye any opposed motion carries this board is in recess board is [02:50:53] now back in session the next item on the agenda is citizens time let me ask I have some folks who've signed up but how many people here present want to speak at citizens time okay please keep your hands up I just need to do a count okay we have 12 that'll be three minutes each citizens time is a time where anyone who wishes to address the board on any matter within the board's authority is welcome to come forward please state your name the district that you live or the entity that you represent while we don't allow presentations you are allowed to um give uh any materials that [02:51:32] you have dr brown down here the board will receive that and make sure that it is in the public record i will start with those who pre-registered if you do want to speak we ask that you fill out a card you are not required to fill out a card but it does help us with follow-up or if there's a district specific uh matter that someone needs to speak with their board member on or have their board member contact them this does help us uh follow up with folks so thank you for that i have miss amy cheely miss cheely are you present thank you please come forward to your name the district that [02:52:04] you live and you have three minutes ma'am we're so we've got 12 speakers now so we have to take it to three minutes when i signed up it was an agreement that i would have five minutes so i'm to try and make it fit it in sure thank you you'll have three minutes machine okay to the board of supervisors and residents of hanover county we're often told to trust the process we are told that the comp plan in our zoning laws are the bedrock of a fair playing field but today we're looking at a project the proposed track 33 data center that didn't just win the game it built the stadium [02:52:42] wrote the rule book and hired the referees perhaps most egregious is that in 2024 months before the small area plan process kickoff was announced. Before the plan was developed and a full year before an application was even formally filed, TRAC placed a massive down payment with Dominion Energy. Before a single small area plan meeting, survey, or public hearing was held, TRAC placed a huge $750,000 down payment to Dominion Energy for a substation dubbed Flamingo. You can see some of it over there. I'm going to pass these out or you can pass them out. Then they got to work and they embedded themselves in the small area plan process. This ensured for that tract [02:53:22] that the area land use plan was etched into existence for one purpose, their own. This isn't community planning. It's corporate greed disguised as public policy. It disenfranchised the entirety of the county citizens and created an illegitimate Hanover County comprehensive land use plan. [02:53:41] Developers would have you believe that they're part of the process. They point to the small area plan part of the comprehensive plan and say, look how perfectly our facility fits the landscape. But let's be honest about why it fits so perfectly. They drew the lines. They will tell you this is tailor-made for our community's economic future. But when a suit is tailor-made, it only fits one person. It doesn't fit the community. It doesn't fit small business owners. And it doesn't fit the residents who told you they wanted a diverse community gateway, not a massive 24-hour, seven-day-a-week polluting industrial complex. Most importantly, it doesn't fit the spirit of [02:54:19] transparent community development. By limiting things that the community asked for, restaurants, shops, and other commercial areas, TRAC effectively rigged the site. They created a reality where no other business could move in because a developer had already bought the air out of the room. You cannot claim to follow a process when you have already bought the outcome. It is time we stop allowing developers to tailor our public resources to fit their private pockets. Someone or some group is responsible for making a mockery of our comprehensive land use plan process. I'm here tonight to call for the abandonment of the 33 gateway small area plan due to this shocking [02:54:54] revelatory discovery. I would like to formally request a complete investigation into the legitimacy of the Hanover County comp plan's 33 gateway small area plan. Where did they get the buy-in? Who vouched for them to Dominion? What really happened during the process? While an Investigating gation is ongoing. I want to formally request the denial of Valco Hanover at all tracks rezoning Conditional use permit and special exception. This isn't bad planning and bad business for Hanover This could forever taint the process and those responsible your final thoughts to the citizens of South end and all the Hanover [02:55:29] We deserve better. You can see I've got a presentation for you and I've got thank you. She's out Miss Chile and if you have if if you didn't finish your comments, you're free to email those to the board We'll put them part of the public record. Do you want to leave any of that with us? Okay. Yeah, we'll take it. We'll receive that. Thank you, ma'am Mr. Robert the Coyito wait - was it was it okay? [02:55:57] Please come forward. Thank you for being with us So, um, before I started I cut some things out to try to I was time for about 4:45. So yeah, thank you You know what will and I'll ask County administrator, we probably do need to I was not aware of that the board rules We do have that to get all the business and we have a certain number of people Well, it's finding so much as folks do need to know So we'll make a note of that on the website that should other folks come in That'd be fine. So thank you. I appreciate that I'm gonna move a little quick just because I wasn't I was poised to talk [02:56:32] Practically not move quick, but I'll try to move quick. Sure. So good evening. I'm Rob DeCoy from the South and a district Mr. Bill, hi, thank you. Chair and board members, thank you for your time and the work you do for our county. Thank you very much. My topic tonight is property taxes. The bottom line up front is this. Hanover residents should benefit more from county economic development and revenue than board and administrator resumes in terms of increased county development and increased revenue that they achieved and managed. Commercial investors come before this board month after month touting how their project will pay for community enhancements and how their businesses will [02:57:09] create significant revenue for the county. I cut some stuff out there with me. In 2024, my real estate tax change was 14.3 percent, and in 2026, it increased 9.22 percent. My annual income does not increase at this same pace. As I consider retirement, I'm seriously reconsidering staying here in Hanover County because that trend is just not appealing. It is also very, it seems very, unreasonable for the data center tax to be according to the 2027 budget and information [02:57:46] that the data center tax to be 45 cents per hundred dollars and aircraft tax at the airport over here is 50 cents per hundred dollars while my real estate tax is 81 cents per hundred dollars personal property tax at three dollars and 57 cents per hundred should be less than business property tax, not equal. Additionally, it's concerning that the 27 budget reflects a 17.1% delinquent tax increase, a 9.3% board of supervisor increase, a 10.7% commonwealth attorney increase, a 14.3% county administrator increase. Yet, as a key stakeholder, my cost of [02:58:26] living increases to fund these budget increases. In November 25, our county administrator at the Hanover Chamber of Commerce annual breakfast stated, I quote from the Hanover press release, the work we do each day makes a difference in the lives of Hanover County's 117,000 residents. [02:58:44] The board set out this year to work consistently on strategic plan. Everything we do is intentional and done with purpose, including the budget and planning, and we do it by working together, end quote. Mr. Turner, our economic development director, noted visitor spending and hotel tax revenue as very high and implied will be higher considering events such as the planned four-day PGA Tour tournament being held in Hanover County. [02:59:12] Also noted in the Hanover County press is that our $8.7 billion economy ranks 19 with gross domestic product among 105 localities in Virginia. And he emphasized that this makes us well-prepared and insulated as any community in the United States. [02:59:28] in closing yes residents want a nice and safe community which we have let's sustain it yes we want quality residents and businesses to come and stay here but not at the cost of our development like over development like short pump in Fredericksburg yes we want well managed and sustained revenue to ensure our shared your final thoughts sir yes given our county's economic power I would like to see the board of directors focus a little less on new development efforts and focus more on intentional and purposeful strategic planning efforts thank you for being with the same um our county but to give so i'll make you the same option if you've got further comments i'm done thank you i just no thank you for being i tried to come prepared yeah you did [03:00:05] so i was just madam clerk uh thank you for so our website does not state five minutes then okay so i don't know where somebody customarily we do five it says in general yeah so what we need to do is it doesn't okay we'll look at it what we do need to do is probably have some uh place on there five minutes and then do it but thank you for that clarification i received your message sir if all of your comments if you wouldn't mind uh please email those to the board we'll make sure they get in the in the public record as well thank you for being with us uh miss susan parlayer [03:00:39] miss parlayer we'll go back mr clint robertson mr robertson thank you for being with us sir again i've cut my minutes down so my name is clint robertson with the south and district i don't want to be here tonight but i have to be because i'm worried about the potential damage to our county we've been told to trust the process but when it comes to these data centers most of us are worried that the process isn't being honored it has been suggested to track the developer behind [03:01:16] the mountain road data center project work behind the scenes to influence the small area plan along 33. i really hope that's not true the reason i'm worried about our county is that even with hundreds of signatures on petitions and hours of testimony against these data centers our county in our county the planning commission delayed their vote until next month instead of denying the application right there on the spot that seems contrary to the process the planning commissioners are your appointees so i'm asking that you contact your people and tell them the community doesn't want another data center in hanover county especially not one in an area that was supposed to be for [03:01:55] businesses they're supportive and beneficial to the surrounding community according to the employment center definition. Employment centers are supposed to be for clean businesses. It's supposed to be for businesses that do not produce noise, odor, or environmental impact. Data centers don't comply with any of these descriptions, and the proof is seen in the studies and responses to data centers around the country. All over our country, the impact of these data centers is being felt and not in a good way. Many representatives that have voted to approve these industrial facilities are regretting their decisions and even facing lawsuits. [03:02:33] Increased evidence is coming out about the health effects and environmental impact of these data centers when they are too close to communities. Just the micro particles that come from the cooling fans are enough to cause lung issues, including asthma and more serious lung problems. There are studies showing that the low-level noise constantly coming from these facilities causes a variety of health issues. [03:02:55] How is it considered a clean business? Why would you consider gambling with the health of your constituents when this area was designed to the comp plan to enhance people's lives, not destroy them? We count on you, our elected representatives, to protect us from these exact threats to our health and enjoyment of our community. [03:03:12] A small area plan was supposed to be developed with input from members of the community. Those members overwhelmingly told you time and time again that they want to keep Hanover rural. A heavy industry like this that pollutes our environment, taxes our infrastructure to the the point that increases people's water and electric bills, along with the worst aspect of all causes, physical harm to those that live around it. That was never asked for in any survey. [03:03:38] You've already approved one of these facilities in Hanover County. I would ask that you put a moratorium on data centers until we see if the one you've already approved benefits our county rather than harms it. I would also ask that you allow time as new laws are being passed that are to protect the citizens not these corporations from the health and financial burdens of these data centers that have caused it across the country thank you sir sir i'll offer to you as well if you didn't get your full comments in please email them to the border we'll take a copy now we'll make sure they're in the public record and board members will have an opportunity to read [03:04:13] those thank you for being with us sir hey um jamie white jamie white present okay uh mr bob nelson mr nelson thank you for being with us please come forward state your name in the district that you good evening chairman davis and board supervisors my name is bob nelson i reside in the ashland district my comments concern tract in march 2024 the board approved tracks development of a 2400 megawatt data center off hickory hill road track has now proposed to develop a 900 megawatt data [03:04:52] center project off mountain road wegmans had an approved site plan one year and seven months after it filed its zoning application and a certificate of occupancy two years and two months later that's development with a purpose and mission. By contrast, TRAC filed its first construction plan for an internal loop road in August 2025, almost two years after its zoning applications. [03:05:19] The 2.5-mile loop road is essential for data center construction but remains pending. Mr. Pompey and others have identified multiple compliance issues with board-mandated buffers and buff natural areas. The most outrageous was a proposed construction staging area in a buffer and resource protection area off Hickory Hill Road. TRAC hasn't filed a construction management plan required by a board proffer. TRAC hasn't filed executed agreements with Dominion and [03:05:53] Virginia Natural Gas to protect Hanover Utility Services. TRAC hasn't filed a half dozen requirements for loop road approval. In addition, sewer, water, road, and fiber optic infrastructure does not exist. Energization of the first 300 megawatt substation will not occur until the second quarter of 2029. No applications to actually construct data centers have been filed. [03:06:21] In March 2024, TRAC told the board that Hickory Hill data centers would be generating 25.7 million dollars in real and personal property taxes beginning revenues beginning in 2028 and 1.78 billion over 20 years. In fact, there will be no data centers constructed and operating at Hickory Hill in December 2027. County tax revenues from TRAC data centers will be zero in 2028, 2029, and likely beyond. [03:06:56] TRAC's revenue claims for Hickory Hill have become total lies. TRAC hasn't performed, honored its proffers, or told the truth. Given this record, under no circumstances should its applications for the Mountain Road Project be approved by this board. [03:07:14] Thank you. I have 10 copies of TRAC's tax revenue slide and a comparison of Wegmans and TRAC's performance timelines. I will provide the complete copy of my comments, which I've cut down, to the board after the meeting. [03:07:29] Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Nelson. Mr. Signorelli. Mr. Signorelli. Thank you for being with us, sir. Please come forward, state your name, the district that you live, or the entity you represent. Good evening, Board of Supervisors. [03:07:47] My name is Joe Signorelli with the Peaverdam District. I come before you tonight to speak on the process we were supposed to trust. Every time something comes up, our Board of Supervisors, Stoneman, tells us, trust the process and things will work out. I'm now here trying to figure out what process I should trust and who is actually looking out for. [03:08:02] Earlier this month, I attended the Historic Commission meeting where they discussed the proposed quarry on Verdon Road. This was the second time the Historic Commission saw the matter because the first time Linwood Thomas and Luck Stone were ill-prepared and incomplete plans. However, this time, rather than having all the answers to the questions, they brought with them Ms. Joy Howard, who had not made a Historic Commission meeting in several months going back to May of 2025. [03:08:27] Ms. Howard was not at the first meeting, however conveniently made it to this one, where she made the motion to accept Luck's proposal and give the commission's blessing, even though they were still unanswered questions and issues. Now you say, what's the big deal with Ms. Howard and why did I mention Ms. Howard? [03:08:44] Well, she just happens to serve as the president of the board of Montpelier Center with Linwood Thomas of Luckstone, a sponsor of the Montpelier Center. Not only does Ms. Howard work alongside with Linwood Thomas, Ms. Howard is also related to an employee of Luckstone who has been working on the project at the community meetings. [03:09:02] Then, after motioning and voting on the motion to move this project through without any further conditions, the following Friday after a historic commission meeting, yet another generous donation was made to the Montpelier Center, this time for the Treasure Galley from Luckstone. [03:09:18] Can you see where the lines are a bit blurry? I have seen the text messages from Linwood Thomas and our current economic developer, Director Brandon Turner, requesting routes to donate money. Text messages giving heads up on certain issues from our planning department. [03:09:33] Personal invites to visit the site and emails during Linwood's time as economic developer where he is making connections with other companies to Luckstone and clearly states he will see them shortly when he gets to Luck. Now, how are we supposed to trust this process when it's deep rooted in a system like this? [03:09:51] How are we as citizens supposed to trust the outcomes proposed in future projects knowing that it can be infiltrated and manipulated by people who only care about money? When a used car salesman wants to use an abandoned building for storage on 33, a supervisor intervenes with an ordinance. But when a big corporation comes that will destroy our role character and expose citizens to unsafe situations, dirty our air and create loud noises, we are told to trust the process. [03:10:13] When the federal government wants to purchase a building as a detention facility, you hold a closed session and have an immediate response stopping them all. Why can't you do this when it comes to the outcomes of other companies? Are these moves only acceptable when they're in your best interest? Stop this trend of selling out Hanover like Linwood Thomas did when he told data centers we were over for business and when he told companies we would gladly build their warehouses and our farmlands. [03:10:35] Do better and be better. You serve the residents, not the short-term temp employees hired by big companies to try and get over on us, and then they are fired when they fail. Rid Hanover of these cancerous people and companies and show us you have integrity, good ethics, and deserve to be in the seat you hold. Thank you for your time. [03:10:51] Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Signorelli. All right. Mr. Nelson. [03:11:07] Mr. Denton. Mr. Nelson, you spoke on track. Got you. All right. Ms. Denton, Kathy Denton, thank you for being with us, ma'am. Thank you. I won't take up much of your time. [03:11:24] Thank you very much. I just wanted to share with you an article because I tried to write a speech, and I couldn't have said it better than Rosemary Brown of Pennsylvania said it herself. She is a Republican senator, and she is actually proposing a residence-first legislative package addressing data center development and expresses support for a moratorium. [03:11:46] And I will read directly because she said it best. Several months ago, Brown introduced legislation establishing pre-application requirements for data center development to ensure transparency and accountability before a project can formally begin. Last week, she announced three additional proposals to complete what she is calling a comprehensive residence-first legislation package. [03:12:07] Additionally, Brown has signed on as a co-sponsor of legislation that would establish a moratorium on data center developments. She said, I have listened carefully to concerns about water usage, utility capacity, zoning protections with the long-term viability of this rapidly evolving technology. [03:12:25] This package is designed to answer the important questions residents and I share about the much needed clarity the people I serve to preserve regarding any proposed data center development. I have said since the beginning of this issue that everyone should be focused on doing things right, and for that reason, I support a temporary moratorium. [03:12:46] Um, it goes down to the bottom as I have spoken to residents and local officials and attended community meetings and hearings. There are still too many unknowns at this time to rush forward. That is why I'm supporting this moratorium to give us time to learn more and move forward responsibly. That is the mission of my four point legislative package as we learn more and more steps maybe need to be taken and I'm ready to do so. But today our top priority must be protecting our communities from unintended consequences from moving too quickly. [03:13:16] and which is why my residence first package is so important brown encouraged the residents to stay engaged and i certainly promise you that i will also please read the article and understand how much is at stake here in hanover county i implore you to please stop the data center at route 33 thank you ma'am i see uh senator brown i see senator brown's comments is there is this the article you're referring to it is it is on her website and it's actually um highlighted so you go straight to the web and find where it's posted okay but this is this is your submittal tonight [03:13:49] that is yeah okay thank you ma'am thank you all right mr knuckles matthew knuckles thank you for being with us sir uh so i had a packet that i handed out did you receive my packet with the picture in it oh yes sir okay please come forward state your name in the district that you live okay my name is matthew knuckles and i live in the beaverdam district on january 14th luckstone conducted their balloon test their focus in the conversations around the quarry have centered around Burdon Road, but I predicted the balloon would be visible from Old Ridge Road. In the packet [03:14:25] I provided, you will find a photo that was taken on that morning on Old Ridge Road at Katie Lane. It reveals that the structures of the proposed quarry will definitely be visible from Old Ridge Road and the distant forest below that balloon will disappear from the landscape. This demonstrates the massive size of the project going from Burdon Road all the way to Old Ridge. Old Ridge Road is also designated as a scenic road and I've included a map in the packet that shows that as well. The The Hanover County Comprehensive Plan describes the scenic road as roadways that highlight the unique aspects of the county's rural, natural, and historic character. [03:15:04] The term appears 28 times in the Comprehensive Plan, and that indicates how important scenic roads are to the county. A rock quarry is not natural, and it will destroy the scenic view on that road. Going back to the photo, you'll also see on the right side that it actually captured a bald eagle flying by over the little river. [03:15:25] I believe in signs, and having a bald eagle fly by just as the photo was taken is a sign that cannot be ignored. This eagle is one of many that rely on the Little River to survive, including all of the creeks that flow into it and the surrounding forests. The rock quarry would destroy the eagle's habitat. [03:15:42] It would pollute the waters that it hunts and the air that it breathes. It devastates the home of thousands of animals, birds, and fish. Please do not play a role in the destruction of this habitat. Deny the rock quarry. Preserve our rural character and scenic roadways. Protect our precious wildlife and the health of our residents. [03:16:02] Thank you. Thank you, sir. Mr. Kirby, Gary Kirby. Mr. Kirby, thank you for being with us. please come forward state your name in the district that you live again thank you for being with us thank you for your time my name is gary kirby i live in the beaverdam district and i am a member of friends of hanover i recently saw a video of this body's meeting in march of 2024 where supervisor pritchard made what we feel to be a very wise and a reasonable recommendation and i [03:16:42] believe you all had just approved Hickory Hill, which would include a data center. And if I remember her comments correctly, I believe she said that on her visit to Loudoun County, she noticed that it appeared that there was a data center on every corner. And she expressed concern among her colleagues that there were lots of unanswered questions and that she was concerned, as she knew the citizens were, about preserving the rural character of Hanover. And I believe she suggested [03:17:15] strongly to you all to her colleagues that you consider Hickory Hill in her words one and done we support that now you didn't turn the timer on so I'm not gonna I'm not gonna take advantage of you now I'm gonna be your conscience that was my that was that was my role when I was uh with a large health care firm I was uh the management team's conscience that's what they referred to me as I want to speak to that part of you that keeps you up at night or maybe lets you sleep well [03:17:51] I was born and raised in Hanover County, but I worked out of the county in southwest Virginia for about 40 years. So I'm just recently come back. So I'm just learning. And at my age now, I'm actually paying attention. When I was younger, I was like most young people. I didn't care about county politics. [03:18:08] But I'm paying attention now. And I've talked to politicians at the state level and occasionally at the national level, written letters, written e-mails. And we all will agree there's a lot going on in our country. [03:18:24] A lot of it's good. Some of it's not so good. A lot of division. Same thing for our state. And I think many of us get the feeling that when we speak to the people who make decisions about our lives, that we are small voices. They don't hear us or they don't listen. We have a vote, yes, but how much impact does it have? I know that I have had several people share this feeling with me, and I have felt it too, that in my communications with a politician, it's like [03:18:55] being patted on the head and they say, you stupid peasant. We know what's best for you. You don't. So just move along. I would like to think at this point in my life that I'm looking at a group of people who don't feel that way about the people that they represent. So here are our voices. I've been to two planning commission meetings and this is my second board of supervisors meeting and I see how you can possibly ignore the opposition from your neighbors and your constituents to any [03:19:35] more data centers your final thoughts are in hanover county we are should be with hickory hill one and done thank you thank you i'm looking at the handwriting here i want is it brandon or brayden hey hemp okay thank you thank you please come forward thank you for being with us thank you for your time sure so uh brandon hey the ashland district today i want to speak regarding the [03:20:14] deferral of the route 33 data center along with data centers in the county in general i want to address some of your comments concerns along with some of my own concerns that i have here so i'll start off with the 2026 hanover county budget plan for economic plan it states encourage strategic business investments that will support a diversified local economy attract new capital investments and facilitate creation of new jobs to enhance the quality of life for residents and provide a diverse and stable tax base for the county but the unknown taxes these data centers produce along with the unknown technology advancements data centers do not fit in this definition we have to look at this as a long-term investment when you look at the first computer the [03:20:54] size wouldn't even fit in most residential houses now with the current technology world we live in we have computers that fit in our pocket what happens when technology makes these data centers obsolete in a few years and the industry no longer needs these facilities the tax revenue is majority coming from the equipment inside the property not from the facility when these facilities are no longer needed because technology has advanced and the size isn't needed we're stuck with the vacant property just as we are now 2026 fiscal year budget shows 782 million in tax revenue earlier the planning commission approved the beaver dam hickory hickory hill data center which was producing a 1.78 billion dollar tax revenue over a 20 year span this revenue broken down over those [03:21:33] 20 years equates to about 89 million a year which is over 11 of the current annual budget if the higory hill is generating that much tax revenue why do we need additional data centers in our county when we have other sources of tax revenue to hit our budget i'm going to call it to faye as well faye britchard is on record mentioning back in march of 2024 she did not want to see our county have multiple data centers similar to loudon county let's do the right thing and shut this proposal down during the meeting the proposal plan stated that data centers will not use wells but instead use the county water the demand this facility will put on our water supply can put our county at risk and local residents at risk from the town meeting back in october of 2025 [03:22:12] the water usage was brought into question and the applicant's response was more information regarding water usage will be added to their website and reviewing the website this morning there is still no data on the potential water usage if we look at similar sized data centers and their water consumption we would be looking at the equivalent of adding over 2 000 residential homes with four individuals in each property that's 8 000 residents that's a seven percent increase in population for the county in just this one geographical area 30 seconds um they also point to no potential uh electrical increase but they state that electrical demands are coming [03:22:47] from electric vehicles and home electrification how is the electric vehicle when home electrification Increasing our electric bill but at 428 acre data center is not going to do that I also want to mention real quickly about the balloon test that was mentioned I believe that needs to be run they they propose an 8 o'clock in the morning test and that's when everybody's going to be gone And at work final thoughts are they had a test earlier in January that was just mentioned at 6 o'clock in the morning We need to do the same thing so we can hear from our residents the impact of this facility. Thank you, sir. Thank you [03:23:21] Thank you wanda i've got is there somebody in here first name wanda jacobus okay it's got it right here [03:23:48] thank you mr jacobus thank you for being with us good evening members of the board i want you to imagine sitting down at dinner tonight with your family you've had a long day and you tell them i did something good for hanover today i approved a massive industrial rock quarry right in the middle of an a1 residential neighborhood how massive a thousand football fields go ahead and [03:24:24] Tell your family, tell your children that even though the U.S. EPA and the CDC warns that silica dust cannot be seen and is so small that enters the bloodstream to trigger heart attacks and permanent lung scarring, you voted for it anyway. Tell them that while the University of Virginia just documented how non-eligious lead and arsenic into our water, you've decided that it's just a private matter for the families here to handle on their own. [03:24:52] Tell your children that when your neighbor's wells go dry because of a cone of depression, a geological certainty documented by the State Departments of Natural Resources, the county will simply wash its hands of it. Tell them that you voted for business over the neighbor's basic right to breathe clean air and drink clean water. [03:25:11] But don't stop there. Tell your family tonight that you've also proved a life of chronic stress for these residents. The developer will promise you berms and muffled equipment, but tell your family the truth. Dirt piles do not stop low-frequency noise and seismic vibration. [03:25:31] I'm going to skip a couple things. I want to move from the dinner table to the law. To approve a conditional use permit and special exception for Luckstone, the board is required by Hanover County Code Section 26 to make a specific finding. Standard number four states that the use must not adversely impact the public health, safety, and welfare. [03:25:54] I've included peer-reviewed evidence that I've submitted. It's a scientific impossibility to meet that standard. You cannot approve a Group 1 carcinogen in an A1 district in claiming you're protecting public health. When the county attorney tells you that this is a civil matter between the developer and the residents, remember, Standard 4 is your responsibility. [03:26:19] The state DEQ and Virginia Department of Energy does not decide if it's appropriate for the community. You do. Deferring your duty to other state agencies is a violation of the trust we place on the board. If you approve the quarry, you are knowingly craving a public health liability and an inverse condemnation of our property. [03:26:42] The community isn't against business. We are against the destruction of our homes and our health. Please deny this quarry. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you for being with us. Again, if you weren't able to complete your full comments, please email them to us. [03:26:57] We'll make sure that they know. We'll take more. We'll take more. Thank you. Anyone else? Anyone else? Very well. We're now closing the... Okay. [03:27:13] Well, come on up. Be quick. Well, you said no. Now you want to speak. Is your no, I'm not going to speak, or is your no, let her go first? I got you. I got you. You're being chivalrous. That's good. Thank you. Our apologies. Yes, ma'am. Hi. Thank you, Chairman Davis and members of the board. [03:27:30] Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I'm here to speak in opposition of the Luxton Rock Quarry, Asphalt Plant, and Concrete Plant planned for Beaverdam, Virginia. It's not just a quarry. Recently, the applicant conducted a balloon test, and I have some concerns regarding the validity of the test. The test itself raises serious procedural and methodology concerns. First, the balloon size. Three-foot balloons were used, while industry standard often uses six-foot balloons. The more important issue is the National Park Service guidance which states that a balloon test should simulate both the height and the [03:28:10] approximate width of the proposed structure. This did not. A three-foot balloon does not approximate the width, mass, or visual bulk of a 70-foot asphalt silo, a concrete silo, or associated industrial equipment. Height alone does not convey the scale. Second, the balloon test timing. Between 9 and 9 30 a.m the applicant's team observed that two balloons were down and then worked to replace them as quickly as possible. However there is no documentation of how long those balloons were down [03:28:47] nor verification of the visibility during that interval. This time frame matters because it overlaps with the window when the county officials and the National Park Service representatives were conducting their site visit, which reportedly occurred between 8 30 and 10 a.m. A view shed test depends on the continuous visibility. Gaps, even unintended ones, undermine confidence in the result. Third, site coverage. The rear 283 acre parcel proposed to hold a significant portion of the overburden was not included in the balloon test. This is not a minor omission. It is a large [03:29:26] operational area that will materially affect the view shed. Fourth, despite these limitations, one balloon was still visible and documented from Old Ridge Road. Even at only 120 feet and even with undersized balloons, visibility occurred in a heavily wooded environment. That fact alone suggests the actual structures, which may reach 150 feet and have substantial bulk, will be visibly intrusive, which leads to another concern. The application requests approval for structures up to 150 feet yet the balloons were flown at 30 seconds 120 feet the application has not been amended to [03:30:03] reconcile this difference if the board is being asked to approve 150 foot structures those structures should be tested at their full height fifth NBC reportedly had three employees on site one left to photograph the balloons while others monitored them across a large parcel with more balloons and personnel and significant distances between the locations it is unclear how continuous monitoring was ensured were time logs kept and were all balloons simultaneously observed was the photographer a professional your final thoughts repeatable viewpoints and i'll include my the rest of my thoughts but i respectfully ask does the county accept this test as valid [03:30:42] and the methodology and procedure as sound thank you thank you yes sir thank you for being with us please come forward state your name the district that you live or the entity that you represent Again, thank you for being with us. [03:30:58] Rob Wilhoyt, Chickahominy. I want to speak to the Planning Commission meeting that went on for five hours. All we were talking about was TRAC's new project out on 33. I would say 95% of the people in this packed room did not want TRAC to build this project. [03:31:21] For five hours, we listened to them present their case, and we rebutted. And at the end of the night, the best the commission could do was call it a draw. And I believe if it hadn't been for one member, they would have voted this project through. [03:31:38] Now, I understand most things that come up, it's a simple thing. Commission, the board, they use their judgment. But when a room full of people tells you, we don't want it, and we are the citizens of the county, there should have been no doubt, just like Hunting Hawk, that thing should have died last week, and it didn't. [03:31:59] So I'm hoping when it comes up next month, same thing. And if for some reason it makes it to you people, I hope that it dies that night. Because, again, like Faye said, one and done. And I believe truly we should wait and see how this first data center benefits this county. [03:32:21] Because there is no point in ruining agricultural land for something that's not going to work. And you all know me well enough. If anything affects the cow, corn, and tomato, it's dead on arrival to me. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? [03:32:37] Anyone? Last call? Very well. We will close citizens' time. Thank you all for being with us. I'm going to do a consent agenda, then we'll recess. I've got a feeling maybe the room might clear, maybe it won't, but for folks who don't want to be here for the planning public hearings, but you're welcome to stay. [03:32:55] With that, have all board members had an opportunity to review the consent agenda? Are there any changes? Does anyone wish to pull anything from the consent agenda? Hearing none, is there a motion to approve? i make a motion that we approve the consent agenda as is motion in a second is there any discussion all those in favor please indicate by saying aye aye any opposed motion carries we'll recess for about three or four minutes uh give folks an opportunity to leave if they'd like to or [03:33:20] certainly welcome to stay for planning public hearings as well we're in recess yes [03:37:27] all right this board is back in session we will now move into our planning public hearings [03:38:38] Mr. Pompey, our Deputy Director, thank you for being with us, sir, is a request in the Cold Harbor District to rezone just over five acres from A1 to AR6 to accommodate a family division. [03:38:54] The property is located outside of our suburban service area, which is a designated growth area in the county. It's designated rural and agricultural. The property itself is zoned A1, as are many of the properties on Market Row, but there are some AR6 subdivisions nearby, including one that is across the street from the subject property. [03:39:12] In this case, in the A1 zoning district, a family division requires 12 acres, 10 acres for the principal parcel, and then 2 acres for the family division. In this case, this parcel is 5 acres, so the applicant is requesting to rezone to AR6 to allow the creation of a lot for their son. [03:39:29] This is an aerial view of the property, and there's an existing home closer to Market Road, and that's where the applicants live. It's mostly wooded, except for the western portion where a utility easement crosses the parcel. This is the conceptual plan that has been proffered by the applicant. [03:39:45] It shows the lot where the applicant will live and the existing home will be. That's Parcel A. And then the newly created lot for the sun is Parcel A1 on the screen outlined in blue. It will be accessed by a 20-foot easement that goes from Market Road. The applicant has agreed that on their lot, a 100-foot natural buffer will remain along Market Road, which aligns with comprehensive plan recommendations to help protect the views along that roadway. [03:40:09] These are the eight proffers that have been offered by the applicant. These align with many of the proffers that have been accepted with other AR6 family division cases, including adherence to conceptual plan, tree preservation, preserving trees, five-inch caliper or grater outside the building area, the 100-foot natural buffer I mentioned, brick and stone foundations, reserving right-of-way along Market Road 25 feet if there are any future improvements along that roadway, and then some steps that will occur during the family division process related to environmental features. [03:40:39] And the family division, that new lot that's created for the sun, must be owned by the sun for at least five years. The planning commission reviewed this request at a previous meeting and recommended approval with a vote of 7-0. No members of the public spoke during the public hearing. [03:40:54] That concludes staff's recommendation. The applicants are here tonight, but they do not have a formal presentation planned. Very well. Any questions for Mr. Pompei? Mr. Ersberg. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One question. You did mention the tree preservation. There is an exception for the easement for the driveway. [03:41:13] Is that correct? That's correct. Thank you. That's all. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My pleasure. Anything further? Very well. We will now open the public hearing. I understand the applicants here doesn't have a formal presentation. Would they like to state anything? Does anyone who wishes? Say again? [03:41:31] Okay. Do you want to walk all the way down to say that or just? For the record, the African hollered out. He hopes it passes. Thank you for being here, sir. Is there anyone here who would wish to speak in favor? Anyone in opposition? [03:41:50] Seeing none, we will close the public hearing. We'll send this to Mr. Herzberg as it is in the Cold Harbor District. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is in the Cold Harbor District. I did have the opportunity to meet with Darlene Grubbs and her family member, which is her son, Cody. And this use is consistent with the area. [03:42:11] I don't see any outstanding issues or any concerns. And I think it's good to keep families like this together, and this use does that. So the motion is to approve REZ 2025-00027. [03:42:26] That's a motion to approve. There are multiple seconds. Hearing those, is there any discussion? All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Mr. Pompey. The next planning public hearing is a request in the Mechanicsville District to allow a garage for more than four vehicles on a property zoned R2. This property is at the end of Lexington Drive. That area is designated suburban neighborhood residential in the comprehensive plan, which reflects many of the uses in that area. It is in the suburban service area, which [03:43:03] is the county's designated growth area. The subject property and other properties along Lexington Drive are zoned R2. So to have a garage that can serve more than four vehicles or is over a thousand square feet, the applicant needs a special exception. That's what they're here requesting tonight. This is the applicant's property in aerial view on the left with the house shown closer to the end of Lexington Drive and then the existing home that they live in on the right. The proposed garage will be located near the existing detached garage that you see on the right side of the picture. So again, the applicant's requesting a special exception to allow a garage with more [03:43:40] than four vehicles. This property is located outside of a recorded subdivision. It's one of larger lots at the end of Lexington Drive and the proposed garage will be used to store a Traverse trailer and additional personal vehicles. So one requirement of this special exception is that it's not used for commercial purposes, it's for personal use. This is the sketch plan that shows the overview of the property. [03:43:59] Again, it's a larger property in that area, almost five and a half acres. The existing house and garage are shown in blue and then the new garage is the orange color on the screen. There would be a wooded buffer that is there right now that would remain per the conditions of the special exception this is a view of the garage it'll be a metal garage with a color that matches the color on the main house roofing that matches the color in the main house and it'll have a lean-to in addition to the fully enclosed space so again this area is designated suburban neighborhood residential one thing that is [03:44:35] unique it's one of the larger lots in the area over five and a half acres and to help the structure blend in with the property and the surrounding area it will be again those similar colors as the main house and the existing wood line along the edge of the property would remain. The staff recommended conditions address the size of the structure, adhere it to those elevations that again the garage can only be used for personal use and not commercial purposes. That natural buffer will remain along the property line and then the standard condition with all of our special exceptions that will adhere to all applicable development requirements. That concludes staff's presentation the applicants are here tonight but they do not have a formal presentation planned [03:45:14] very well thank you are there any questions for mr pompey seeing them we will open the public hearing understanding applicants here does not wish to make a formal presentation and please don't yell from the gallery uh would you like to state anything even if you don't have a formal presentation very well does anyone here wishes to support this application is there anyone in opposition seeing now we will close the public hearing mr hudson this is in your district sir [03:45:43] Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have to say that, admittedly, if the applicant hadn't called me to come out and take a look at the property, my initial thought was, there is no way that this is going to fit anywhere in the Mechanicsville district. [03:45:58] So it is tucked away. They have a beautiful little oasis there at the end of Lexington Drive, and I appreciate that inviting me out to take a look around. So with that, Mr. Chair, I make a motion to approve SE 2025-00032 with recommended conditions. [03:46:17] Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Mr. Pompey. The next item involves two public hearings or a joint public hearing for two different cases a proffer amendment Which is a type of rezoning and then a special exception the proffer amendment and special exception would allow fiber Amplification huts with a fence surrounding the compound taller than permitted. This request is in the Ashland district on sliding hill road [03:46:51] The property itself is directly across from the intersection with totipotomy trails in a transitional area in the comprehensive plan the property itself is designated industrial and as are many of the properties around the airport and in the air park area. And as you move closer to Interstate 95, the corridor transitions to highway commercial. [03:47:11] So this is one of the last properties designated industrial as you move towards the interstate. Most of the properties in this area along Sliding Hill Road are a commercial or industrial zoning classification, except for a few remaining A1 pieces. [03:47:26] This property itself is zoned M2 and was rezoned M2 in 2020. The property is currently vacant, and again, it's opposite of Totepotomy Trail on the side of Sliding Hill, the same side of Sliding Hill Road as the airport and the air park. [03:47:43] As I mentioned, this property was rezoned in August 2020 to allow development of industrial and office flex space that building never developed and the site remains vacant. The proposed use of these amplification huts are permitted by Wright and M2, but the reason they're coming through with this proffer amendment is that there was a conceptual plan that was proffered, and this proposed design does not match the conceptual plan for an industrial building. [03:48:07] So they are amending the proffers in the conceptual plan. These amplification huts would be unmanned, and they would also have associated generators within a fenced compound. and that fence compound of a fence that's eight foot tall so that requires a special exception as the maximum permitted height for fencing in this district is seven feet. This is the Proffer conceptual plan. It shows the amplification huts in that orange color within a fence compound, the accessory generators in the yellow, the blue is the BMP and there are pretty significant buffers proposed around the site. There's a 50 foot enhanced buffer along Sliding Hill Road. There [03:48:45] is 20 foot industrial buffers on either side of the property and then existing vegetation which adjoins other industrial properties will be retained at the rear of the property. Additionally there is shrubs and landscaping around the fence compound itself. So there's perimeter buffers plus additional landscaping around the compound and the BMP. This is what the amplification huts will look like. Again these are not occupied but there's equipment in those structures and they'll be earth tone neutral colors and the top part that's visible below the fence will be brick [03:49:20] and the applicant has proffered the brick and the different color palette. This fence is shown in black and white but the fence will be a black trex fence. The maximum height permitted in the district is seven feet with the applicant proposing eight feet that requires a special exception. [03:49:37] As I mentioned there is landscaping around the fence and the design of the fence and the landscaping is intended to have a more residential appearance. There was a community meeting held on request and several adjoining landowners and residents of the area attended there were questions and comments about the view shed from sliding hill road and adjacent properties the design of those structures maintenance of the facility lighting impacts the impacts of generators and potential stormwater impacts based on the feedback received the applicant did make some changes to the application they changed the elevations to add that brick band at the top and they made sure the [03:50:15] colors were neutral so they'd be a little bit more attractive as viewed from Sliding Hill Road. They also enhanced the landscaping around the entire site and agreed that at least two of the species of that front buffer will include native pollinators and the conceptual plan notes which species are native and which species are native pollinators. As I mentioned most of the area is industrial and commercial along the Sliding Hill Road corridor but this property is next to some existing residential homes that are zoned A1. [03:50:46] And then Totapotomy Trail, of course, goes to a residential subdivision across the street. But this property is designated for industrial uses and is already zoned M2. And so it can accommodate a range of industrial uses. There is enhanced landscaping to provide a transition to the adjoining highway commercial areas and to protect the view from Sliding Hill Road. [03:51:05] And this particular use generates less traffic than the previously approved use since it's manned. There's only periodic site visits. The applicant has offered four proffers, including adherence to that conceptual plan I showed, dedication of right-of-way along Sliding Hill Road, limiting uses, the property may only be used for utility type uses per that proffer, and then those elevations that I showed that have the brick and the earth tone colors. The fence is a separate special exception, so there will be two actions on this particular development proposal. The conditions recommended for the special exception include the fence must be no [03:51:45] more than eight feet and designed and constructed as shown in the sketch plan and it must be maintained with a certain time period for when any damage panels must be repaired, tree preservation, preserving those existing trees outside the development area that are five inch caliper and greater, and then the standard condition with all our special exceptions that the fence will hear to all development regulations that are applicable. The Planning Commission reviewed this request at a previous meeting no members of the public spoke and after the public hearing recommended approval with a vote of seven to zero that concludes staff's recommendation the applicant's representative who is the engineer for the site is present but does not have a formal [03:52:25] presentation planned very well thank you mr pompey uh any questions for mr pompey i just have a clarification question it's a little bit hard for me to tell from these tiny little drawings of the fence. It's obvious to me that the fence sketch on the left definitely looks like it's all Trex material, but the one on the right looks very chain linkish. I made that word up. Do you like it? [03:53:00] Ms. Pritchard, that was a good word make up, don't you think? As an English teacher, I totally approve. Yeah, that looks like the gate to the compound, but maybe the applicants in here can Clarify that that response. My name is Michael McIntyre. I here represents a calm and This drafting motion. So the treks fence that you're seeing there you're seeing how it would look on the backside So that's all the bracing. So that's treks fence in the front side and that you're seeing all of [03:53:38] Bracing to brace that treks fence because normally it would be a cheap link fence that slides So that all the materials that are visual are Trex that are made out of Trex material 95% wood and 5% plastic. Okay. Thank you Anything further very well. Thank you. Mr. Pompeii I understand the applicants here does not wish to make a formal presentation if they have any comments they'd like to make none very well So what we're going to do is we're going to combine these public hearings That's going to allow folks to speak to either the rezoning or the special exception [03:54:16] You don't have to designate which one but it will require a separate vote but is there anyone here who wishes to speak in favor of either the rezoning or the special exception anyone at all saying none is anyone who wishes to speak in opposition of the rezoning or the special exception but now we will close the public hearing miss Pritchard these are in your district again ma'am they require separate votes thank you mr. Davis um I do have a request of the applicant as we move along but I was at the community meeting for this and there were very few people there the conversation was quite good there wasn't [03:54:54] overt concern here just more what's this gonna look like what's this gonna do the community and and one of the things that I think really speaks in favor of this is every time we have something that comes in front of us that's that's along sliding Hill the greatest issue is traffic and traffic safety and this seems to be to me to be made exactly for this spot because there's no traffic and I I think you all understand that the addition of the of the pollinators was me, but we did we did get that [03:55:29] The only concern I've had from anyone is someone nearby who also wants to develop their property and is Going to pay a somewhat costly amount for utilities And while I'm aware you don't need any utilities for your site What I'd like is for the applicant to reserve the utility easement so that the folks who build I've checked with steps They think that's fine for you So that it makes it a little bit easier for the folks who want to develop nearby and if there's no issue with that Miss Anna, please come forward, sir. Okay [03:56:08] Okay, so with that in mind, thank you. I will make a motion to approve rezoning 2025 - zero two four with the addition of a reserved utility easement okay we have a motion we have a second by the vice chair is there any discussion all those in favor please indicate by saying aye aye any opposed motion carries mr. [03:56:33] Pritchard okay and then I will also make a motion to approve se 2025 - 0 0 0 3 1 for the taller fence second we have a motion in a second is there any discussion all those in favor please indicate by saying aye aye motion carries next item on agenda is announcements are there any announcements by board members mr county administrator no sir thank you mr county attorney time is 7 0 6 we will adjourn until 2 p.m on wednesday march 11 2026 for a regularly scheduled board meeting to be held in this building in this room located in the Hannover County Complex. We are adjourned. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Coraggio Consulting ยท aguyonx.com