Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, Business Meeting, Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Date: Tuesday, November 19, 2024
Place: Board Room, First Floor, Government Center, 1 Harrison Street SE, Leesburg, Virginia
Length: 7h 28m (video)
Official meeting video (county, Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/player/clip/7820
Agenda (Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=73&clip_id=7820

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 2026-10-18. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:06:55] Hello, Supervisor Turner, can you test your audio and video, please? Test one, two. How's that?

[00:07:22] We cannot hear you. Can you say something? Yep, test one, two. I'm not, I don't think, no. I'm off mute. Testing one, two, three, four. Yes, we can hear you now. Thank you.

[00:07:38] Okay.

[00:17:13] Mr. Turner, can you hear us? Supervisor Turner, can you hear us? Yes, I can hear you, Madam Chair. Miss, you have just received a message, and you should check that and respond via text.

[00:17:28] yeah i i can i can see that um okay you may want to stop talking right now just respond to the

[00:17:34] message okay okay thank you well good evening supervisors good evening staff and good evening

[00:18:12] loudon i'd like to call the order the november 19 2024 loudon county board of supervisors business meeting this room has a hearing loop if you need hearing assistance please switch your hearing aid to the telecoil mode if you need a headset we have those available as well please see the clerk to request one this evening miss umstead will offer words of inspiration are an invocation and the pledge of allegiance miss umstead thank you madam chair dear lord in a difficult time in the world

[00:18:47] we want to thank you for everything and all the benefits that you have bestowed on loudon county please keep our first responders safe please keep our men and women in uniform safe and please keep all our children safe thank you in your name we pray amen if everyone could stand and join us in the pledge of allegiance

[00:19:33] okay all right um pursuant to virginia code section 2.2 dash 3708.3 and the board of virginia I'm sorry, the Board of Loudoun's Rules of Order, Supervisor Mike Turner has requested to participate in this meeting via electronic communication.

[00:19:52] A physical quorum of the Board of Supervisors is present in the boardroom and the Board has made arrangements for the voice of Supervisor Turner to be heard by all persons in the boardroom. He has made this request within the required timeframe and the County Attorney has determined that Supervisor Turner's request meets the qualifications to participate remotely.

[00:20:10] The board will record that it has been Supervisor Turner participated remotely from a private residence in Sedona, Arizona. Mr. Turner, can you hear us? I can, Madam Chair. Wonderful, wonderful. Mr. Sainz and Mr. Letourneau are both on their way.

[00:20:32] They are both running a little late from work, but they are on their way, and Ms. Glass is joining us now. Supervisors, I'm going to read the consent agenda. The consent agenda is as follows. Item R1, proclamation to recognize crash responder safety week.

[00:20:51] That's for approval and presentation. I don't have those in front of me. Will my staff make sure, please make sure I have those before we get to, okay. Item R2, proclamation to recognize the 50th anniversary of Loudon Therapeutic Riding.

[00:21:07] That's for approval only. I will be going to the Loudoun therapeutic riding banquet this Saturday to read that and present it. If anyone would like to join me, you're more than welcome to. Item R3, proclamation to recognize a day of remembrance for the victims of TWA Flight 519 in Loudoun County.

[00:21:27] That was a plane that crashed in Loudoun County some 50 years ago. Item 1A, appointments and confirmations. two, administrative items report of November 19, 2024. Item four, that item and the new motion on that item is going to be read by Supervisor Brixman. That item is the, no that's not item four, 5E, it's 5E, the Countryside Boulevard Area Pedestrian Safety Study. Ms.

[00:21:58] Brixman, will you read the new motion so everyone, so make sure everyone knows what they're voting on it's 5e yeah i'll go back i got it um okay i move the recommendation of the finance government and operation operations and economic development committee that the board of supervisors endorse the improvements as described in concept one missing sidewalk links technical memorandum

[00:22:34] countryside boulevard area pedestrian safety study provided as attachment one to the november 19 2024 board of supervisors business meeting action item and its inclusion in a future capital improvement program budget process for consideration and prioritization by the board i further move that if a proposed sidewalk trail missing link improvement listed in concept one is also listed in the sidewalk and trail program that improvement shall be removed from the stp once this project

[00:23:10] is approved into the cip all right no no since miss brixman read that as a as a motion um then what what i will now do is is just assume that the consent agenda in its entirety in its entirety will be a motion put forward by miss brixman and then somebody can second that after i finish reading the consent agenda because she didn't read that just as the item she read it as a motion so now we have a motion that is going to be folded into the rest of the consent agenda and so we're now going to have her having made the consent agenda motion overall

[00:23:50] i will finish reading it but she would have made the consent agenda motion overall since she read that as a motion um item 5a louding county communications commissions um 2024 annual report item 5b contract renewal job order contract for general construction item 5c contract renewal task order roadway transportation design services for federal projects. Item 5D, contract award construction engineering inspection services for Route 7, I'm sorry, for Route 7 and 690,

[00:24:24] the Hillsboro Road interchange. Item 5F, the space strategy update of the Leedsburg Government Center and Courts Complex. Item 5H, that was 5F, item 5H, proposed changes to Chapter 2.6, employment status and the definition section of the human resources policy handbook and item 6a elizabeth mills locks stewardship management program the motion to approve has been made by miss brixman miss miss glass i hear you second the motion to approve already okay it has been

[00:24:59] seconded by miss glass discussion on the consent agenda motion miss brixman thank you madam chair just on the uh thank you everyone for um allowing that uh just uh amended motion on the countryside project this project came about because of a letter we received in 2021 from the president of the countryside hoa with concerns about pedestrian safety on countryside boulevard staff conducted a thorough study and made these recommendations to improve crosswalks improve connectivity of paths and sidewalks, replace the stairs to Countryside Boulevard that were not up

[00:25:38] to code, and to implement a road diet on Countryside Boulevard. Concept one, not the road diet, concept one is what we are approving tonight to go into the CIP eventually after some deliberations. I spoke with the Countryside HOA leadership this morning. They believe the community may have some concerns about concept two, which is a road diet that we hope to accomplish through the VDOT paving program for bike lanes on the road, I have committed to the community that we will be deeply involved with VDOT when they bring designs forward for the road diet, and the community will have an

[00:26:13] opportunity to provide feedback. The addition to the motion this evening was brought by Supervisor Turner, who had a valid concern that we have projects listed in multiple areas in our prioritization for projects moving forward, and so what we accomplished, and I appreciate Mr. Turner's catching this, I know that we've had some discussions about different priority lists on projects, and we're still working on that, but, you know, the concern was that

[00:26:47] this missing links were listed in two different areas for staff and having multiple competing priorities and and funding sources for projects so that was rectified in the amendment to the motion and um happy to answer any of their questions if my colleagues have them uh after the meeting thank you thank you anything else on the consent agenda mr turner do you have anything on the consent agenda i do not madam chair thank you anybody else on the consent agenda seeing none all people say aye aye any opposed that motion will pass 7-0-2 mr latourno and mr sains being

[00:27:27] off the dais for the motion we do have two um additions and or deletions to the agenda item i2 response to the board member initiative for lgbtq inclusionary review has been deferred to a future business meeting it's been deferred indefinitely it probably won't come back again until next year sometime. And item six, a closed section item, has been deferred to the December 3rd business board meeting. That was only because we had six closed sessions, and that's just a lot of closed sessions in one meeting, and there were none on the meeting on the third, so we moved,

[00:28:05] we were able to move one to the meeting on the third, just to kind of ease up tonight's agenda for closed sessions, for closed meetings just a little bit. All right, I do have updates, and I I have handouts because I know you guys just love when I bring you stuff. So we had, we attended, some of us attended VACO, Virginia Association of Counties.

[00:28:27] I will say for the first time ever, VACO has asked every county, every city, and every town in the Commonwealth of Virginia to make their number one budget priority to the General Assembly the JLARC study on K-12 education.

[00:28:46] When the JLARC study was complete to assess what was the funding levels for Virginia schools, it was found out, and the JLARC study is a completely nonpartisan, non-biased kind of study group that will study whatever the General Assembly asked them to, to be honest.

[00:29:05] it was shown that our students in Virginia are underfunded per student. In fact, our student funding levels fall below Kentucky, they fall below West Virginia, they fall below a lot of other school systems.

[00:29:20] And so the request is that the General Assembly start the process of funding the schools at an adequate level. it was basically said that that probably can't all happen in one year that this may be a multi-year process to get them to get us up to where we belong but the truth is that some counties allowed in being one of them sometimes can help make up that delta that gap but other counties especially smaller counties can't and so if you're underfunding the school system across the commonwealth and there's a lot of kids in the commonwealth who are not getting what they need

[00:29:57] And so that was the number one request from VACO and will also be a request from VML, and that's never happened before. The General Government Committee, Mr. Sains normally sits on that.

[00:30:15] He couldn't make it, so I went to that for him. We do have a request in from Loudoun County that other counties have now signed on to and that was received very well in VACO. This request is if we have a no-joke emergency in the county, it is very hard for a chief elected official, which is a chair at large or a chair or a mayor, to inform all of their board members as to what's going on in an emergency because we're disallowed from talking to more than one person at a time.

[00:30:52] So in the middle of an emergency where you may not have time to even declare an emergency, and we have had that, I have to then make a phone call to every one of my colleagues one by one by one by one, which is not a very efficient way to do things.

[00:31:12] And for an emergency that happened earlier this year, a tragedy that happened earlier this year, it wasn't one phone call. I had to make, I don't know how many phone calls I made that night to my colleagues one by one, probably 30, because it was to let them know what happened and then to let them give them an update, to let them know what hospitals to go to, to let them know what we were doing next.

[00:31:34] it would have been so much easier if I could have put everyone in one email or one phone call and told everyone the same thing at one time and then came back, documented what we said when we said it, and then come back and document it and put that on the record.

[00:31:51] And so the idea that the chief elected has to make multiple phone calls in the middle of an emergency, one is not an effective way to do government. It's also very hard. It's a very taxing thing to do. So we ask the General Government Committee to consider taking this up.

[00:32:09] We will pass this through the FOIA Council, and we will see where it goes. But that is the request, and I will tell you, there was not anyone who objected with trying to communicate in a much more streamlined fashion in the middle of an emergency.

[00:32:28] I do sit on the Health and Human Services Committee. We, one of the things we are asking is that the General Assembly does fund, so the Step Virginia Initiative, which is an initiative to improve the mental health systems in Virginia, there were some mandates that they put out from the General Assembly that we have to do in Step Virginia, and it's done through the CSBs.

[00:32:54] Actually, ours is not called CSB, it's called Inmate SAS, but it's the same thing. So one of the requests is, if the state mandates that we do it, then the state gives us money for it. Otherwise, it's an unfunded mandate. And so we're not saying what the state has mandated is an issue or it's wrong or it's a problem, but it takes funds and it takes more personnel.

[00:33:14] And so we are asking that the state not give us unfunded mandates. Also, the state budget, well, that's not true. A preview of the state budget was discussed. The governor will present his state budget to the money committees at a joint meeting on December 18th.

[00:33:35] And that's when we will see the initial kind of tentative budget. I did bring back the VACO preliminary legislative priority list, because I know you guys are all chomping at the bit to see this. I know you, especially Mr. Kirshner, you really, really want to see this.

[00:33:50] I know that you were so upset you couldn't go down there with me, and this is all you were waiting for me. So I bought you one back. Congratulations. So I do. So I'm passing these down. Ms. Brickson, I'm passing these down. I also bought one for staff.

[00:34:09] So we have the preliminary legislative program. It was slightly amended to include a couple of things that we discussed. But for the most part, this is the program. The amendments will be out, I think, tomorrow. And so what I will do where the amendment, like the amendment sheet literally is a one-pager and not that much on it.

[00:34:28] When it comes out tomorrow, I will send you all the amendments to the program, but they are very few. For the most part, this is the legislative program that BACO will be putting forward in front of the General Assembly for the session in 2025.

[00:34:46] Let's see. DMV move was canceled in November. We will have a meeting in December. It's scheduled for December 2nd. NVTA, our Governance and Personnel Committee, did meet as did the full authority meeting in the Governance and Personnel Committee.

[00:35:04] We also talked about the ledge program from NVTA that we're going to send to the General Assembly. For the most part, it wasn't a whole lot different than last year's. We're still asking for that $38 million to be returned. Still hasn't got returns yet, and since 2018, we're going to keep asking for it because it's $38 million, so we're going to keep asking for it.

[00:35:24] But the other thing, the one thing that we did add to NVTA was a policy statement that says that NVTA will oppose opening up House Bill 2313 to add NVTA covering maintenance and operations.

[00:35:40] NVTA's House Bill 2313 was put forward for construction cost relative, construction and multimodal items, but it was for capital facilities, not for maintenance and operations.

[00:35:57] And we're starting to hear a little buzz about, do we want to do maintenance? Well, maintenance is a VDOT responsibility, and we shouldn't be paying for state roads that VDOT should be paying for, and so we're putting that in our Ledge program in NVTA. And then the last thing is the VDOT did give us their transportation update.

[00:36:15] It's fantastic, and there's a whole two pages for just Loudoun County. I will pass this around again because I'm sure you're excited, but one of the things that we did see, and Mr. Turner, you are going to like this, and Ms. Briggsman, is in their design is the Loudoun County Metro Rail Bicycle Pedestrian Improvements.

[00:36:35] And so that is the bicycle and pedestrian paths around the metro station. We have heard a lot about the fact that if you're going to have a metro station, you have to have to wait for people to get there except for just by car. And so this is the start of this discussion.

[00:36:50] The estimated cost on that is $32.7 million, but it has been included in BDOT's priorities. I will also say that there is a former supervisor named Andrea Magimsy who has called us and emailed us numerous times to ask about this, and so Mr. Turner, you or I can call her and tell her that we know that that is now coming.

[00:37:14] There are other things in here, the Bilge of Luckett Safety Improvement, Mr. Kirshner, that's here. St. Louis Road over Goose Creek, the bridge rehabilitation, that is here. The George Washington Overpass is here. Route 7 and Route 9 eastbound ramp extension.

[00:37:31] So those are quite a few things. The interchange between Edwards Ferry Road and Fort Evans Road is what the town of Leesburg asked for, and I pushed that really hard through NVTA and talked about that a lot in NVTA. So I will make sure that Mayor Burke knows that that's there.

[00:37:49] That has a huge price tag of $184 million. So yes, Leesburg, now you cannot ask for anything else for many years to come. But if anyone would like to have the VDOT book or see the VDOT book or get your copy of the VDOT book, I can do that as well.

[00:38:06] So I had a really, really busy couple of weeks here. All right, my voice for a cause today, hold on just one second. Sorry, I didn't have it out already. My voice for a cause today is the Adler Center for Caring.

[00:38:24] The Adler Center for Caring is a 50,000 square foot facility that contains 21 beds for inpatient care in which staff provides pain management and patient monitoring around the clock, and it's the only facility of its kind in Loudoun County.

[00:38:40] The Atler Center is operated by the nonprofit Capital Caring Health and since opening 10 years ago has cared for and supported thousands of patients and their families. With us today is Steve Cohn from the Atler Center. My gosh, what important work you all are doing.

[00:38:56] Thank you for being here. My pleasure. I have just a couple of questions to ask you. Can you give us a little bit more detail on some of the services that are offered at the Atler Center? Right, so Capital Care and Health, it's the largest hospice provider in the Mid-Atlantic, or non-profit, and most of hospice patients are cared for in their home, but around 10% of the time, a patient in the last few weeks of life needs around the clock, literally customized care to make sure they're pain-free and comfortable, and that's why we have the Adler Center.

[00:39:29] By the way, it's the only such center in all of Northern Virginia. Oh, wow. And we have 14 suites to take care of the patients, literally one nurse around the clock and different shifts is assigned to each patient.

[00:39:45] And we also provide specialized care, which is very rare for children who are terminal as well in the center. Wow. My gosh. So when people come and their loved one is basically having end-of-life care, the family members also are going to be having needs of their own that are impacting them.

[00:40:14] How do you support the families of your patients? Yeah, I like to say that at the end of life you have two choices, hospice or hospitalization. Why would you want to have the stress of a family dealing with repeated hospitalizations for a terminally ill loved one?

[00:40:30] Whereas in our case at the Adler Center, there are no visiting hours. Family and friends can come and go around the clock. A family member can also stay overnight with their loved one the whole time if they wish.

[00:40:47] And we also have two playrooms for children that actually were just refurbished a few weeks ago. so um it's really for the family as much as it is for the patient and we also have another unique service oh yeah i want to see this you can can you just walk right across and put him in the does he do something does he does he do something oh yeah we provide companion robotic pets

[00:41:14] if i can open them up here it's adorable come here you there we go oh my gosh he also has a heartbeat. He has a heartbeat. Yeah, and we have Kit Kats too. And that's for the patients? The patient and the family if they, yeah, it's for the patient. We allow one live pet to visit the patient, but we also provide these for the family, for kids, but also for dementia patients in

[00:41:53] particular, which calms them and usually makes their whole outlook way better than not having one of these little critters. I think that's amazing. Yeah, I started this whole program three years ago. Absolutely. Howard, this is not one of the questions down here right now, but how, do you have like a non-profit's contributions to fund to get those? I mean, those can't be.

[00:42:20] Yeah, as a matter of fact, I've raised many hundreds of thousands of dollars over the last three years through grants and personal donations. One thing I'm very proud of for capital caring is that over the last year, we have provided a whole bunch of these robotic dogs and cats for every one of the 300 long-term care centers for veterans across the country.

[00:42:44] Two weeks ago, I was in Richmond at the Veterans Center there with Suzanne Yonkin, and we were doing an afternoon event there. So the main purpose of these pets is to dramatically improve the daily lives of dementia patients. And half of those people who enter hospice care have some

[00:43:11] form of dementia. That is absolutely, I would have never, that's astounding. And they're not expensive either. That's astounding. And they, I mean, they're really, they're really pretty amazing. I mean, they sound very real. Yeah, and the more you interact, the more they interact back. Oh my gosh. They respond to sight, sound, and touch like real pets, but there's no upkeep. So people do try to feed them and that destroys them. Don't do that. No, don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that. So they're interactive.

[00:43:35] They're very interactive. They have motion detectors in their eyes, and so they're just a wonderful thing. They are. That's phenomenal. And we're leading the nation in this. We provide these pets at the Adler Center, in the homes of patients, and also to dementia sufferers locally, regionally, and nationwide.

[00:43:56] Phenomenal. So what ways can people learn more about you if they either want to contribute and give or if they have a need for the services how can they reach you right so the easiest thing to do is just go to capitalcaring.org okay just to our website uh we also have a a toll-free number uh 800-869-2136 um so either that or our website um we're we uh we don't have vacations we operate

[00:44:28] 24 by 7 every day of the year and we actually were one of the first handful of hospice groups to begin operation 48 years ago come this january wow we our original name was the hospice of northern virginia okay and we've been in loudon county since the very beginning that's absolutely amazing i you know i think i say all the i say this all the time we we talk a lot about how people come into this world.

[00:45:01] We talk very little about how people exit this world, and I think we should talk more about that, to be honest, and I think the exit is also really, really important, to be quite honest. Hospice is so much better for the patient and the family than the alternative.

[00:45:16] And to be there for those families during the most important moment, when someone is making their way out of this world. I'd also like to point out the state of Virginia has given us a three-year grant to help with the deficit that we run at the Adler Center.

[00:45:35] Okay, but you still need more money. Oh yeah. Okay, all right, all right, still more money. Thank you so much for coming in. My pleasure. Thank you for the work you do. It is absolutely phenomenal. Thank you so much. Mr. Hemstreet, do you have any comments for this evening, sir?

[00:45:53] Thank you, Madam Chair, I have four comments for this evening. The first is that the Loudoun County Hypothermia Prevention Shelter is now open for single adults aged 18 and older who are experiencing a housing crisis resulting in homelessness. The temporary shelter in Leesburg provides a warm indoor sleeping environment and meals seven nights a week and will be open through March 31st of next year. More information about services available to those experiencing homelessness in Loudoun County may be found at loudoun.gov slash homeless services. Second, small businesses in Loudoun that are owned by women and minorities that would like to do business with the Commonwealth of Virginia

[00:46:30] are encouraged to participate in an upcoming workshop hosted by Loudoun County Economic Development. The December 3rd workshop will provide an overview of the vendor certification process for small women-owned and minority businesses. Registration information and other details are online at biz.loudoun.gov slash SWAM.

[00:46:53] Third, with Thanksgiving and the winter holidays approaching, Loudoun County fire officials would like to remind everyone to keep fire safety at the forefront while preparing holiday meals. Thanksgiving is the peak day for home cooking fires with more than three times the daily average for such incidents. One of the most important things people can do to prevent cooking fires is to cook with caution by staying in the kitchen while the food is cooking and keeping flammable items away from the heat. More information on how to stay fire safe year-round is online at loudin.gov/fireprevention. And then finally two deadlines are approaching related to

[00:47:31] the board's arts programs initiative first the deadline for community members to respond to the county's comprehensive arts plan survey is december 1st as you know the plan will create a vision for the arts in louden county and develop a clear set of goals and strategies regarding the development of public support of the arts and second the deadline to provide comments about the development of the eastern louden eastern county arts center planning study is this friday november 22nd this input will be used to guide future programmatic requirements for a potential community arts center more information about the survey and the study may be found at loudin.gov slash arts those are

[00:48:09] my common sustaining manager thank you mr hemstreet supervisors we're running a little bit um early and so we we are not going to do five o'clock comments until five o'clock so i do think we can we can go on and do the item on the retiree health recommendations update so if the staff will come

[00:48:39] to the table for that item that'd be great it was it was oh i think good evening mr turner you still good you still with us i am indeed okay proof of life thank you all right we're ready when you are

[00:49:16] good evening board members uh thanks for having us here this evening um can you all see this presentation no no we no we have the presentation but no one else can see it and there's nothing there it's just mr turner's name that's all that we can see we have it we have it but the public

[00:49:35] can't see it it's making me crazy there we go great good evening board members thank you for having us here this evening as you know we were back here in october when we presented our 2025

[00:50:12] retiree premium recommendations and at that time some additional questions had come up that were not included in the item so we said we would come back here to provide a more comprehensive review of the retiree health plan some of this will be duplicative of what we talked about last month as well as duplicative of some of the board briefings that we had prior to that to that meeting but i think it's important that we all have a firm understanding as to where we started with this retiree health plan how that evolved back in 2012 and how it has been enhanced throughout the years and some of the rationale behind our our recommendations so this presentation

[00:50:50] here so madam chair if i can move forward and we can open up for questions afterwards sure so prior to 2013 uh the county's retiree health plan was opened to retirees with 10 years of with 10 years of service and had been enrolled in the active employee plan three of the past five years prior to retirement including the preceding 12 months the county's retiree health plan was split into two classifications of retirees based on age our pre-65 retirees and our post-65 retirees and This is important to note, as they are structured very differently and have different financial needs based upon how they're structured.

[00:51:28] One second. Colleagues, so this is a little funny. If you go to your item, you have to go to the second bullet, and it's going to ask you, do you want to download or do you want to view? And then just hit want to view, and that's how you get to it.

[00:51:46] It's a little bit of a task to find. Because when you come off of it, at least my eye legislator keeps jumping back to another meeting. But if you go to the meeting, go to the information item, and then go to the second option down.

[00:52:08] You don't see it? Mr. Kirsten, do you have it? I don't have a presentation. Just give me one second. Okay. I don't know what even though. Oh, now it's there.

[00:52:35] Kirsten, you're good? Sure? I can come. Let me come. No? You're fine? You're sure? I can. Okay. Yeah, look at me being, look at me being tech.

[00:52:54] I know, you're not, you're not kidding. You are not kidding. All right, we're ready. Just to reiterate there, the county's health plan was split into two classifications of retirees, both pre-65 retirees and post-65 retirees, and just, it's important to note that they are structured very differently based upon their designs and how they interact with Medicare, so they definitely have different financial needs.

[00:53:21] Pre-65 retirees could enroll in the same plans as active retirees, and as that's their primary plan. Our post-65 retirees have their own plan, but it does involve Medicare Parts A and B. And the amount that we contribute to these retiree plans does vary based upon the number of years with the county.

[00:53:41] So back in 2012, most organizations who offered retiree health understood that the designing costs were not going to be sustainable due to medical trend. And then complicating this position back in 2004, financial reporting standards came into play, which required organizations who offer retiree health, which are referred to as OPEB plans, other post-employment benefit plans, to start looking or to start booking their future liabilities.

[00:54:07] And this kind of created a financial strain and caused most organizations to start exiting this market. Booking these future liabilities really made clear to the organizations their financial status and the actual financial health of those plans. So in order to meet these financial standards, the county created an OPEB trust in 2008 that's managed by a local finance committee.

[00:54:29] Each year, our actuaries determine how much we need to fund that trust to meet our future liabilities with the idea that at some point those assets would grow enough that they could actually fund all of our ongoing funding, all the ongoing funding for retiree expenses.

[00:54:45] So for many years since we created that trust, we would engage in a pay-as-you-go. we paid for all the retiree expenses, but we were also on the side funding a trust and building up those assets. So back in 2012, the county partnered with Boomershine Consulting to review the retiree health plan and to figure out a way that we could somehow retain some level, some value of retiree benefit while at the same time being fiscally responsible as a county. And so we had, I think we had six objectives, three of which I think are probably the most important are on the screen here.

[00:55:18] Provide a competitive and affordable retiree health benefits program while maintaining the county's financial responsibility, minimizing to the extent possible the impact of changes on current retirees and those closest to retirement. And that's what I want to make sure we kind of keep close to us as we talk about this evening. And then slowly transitioning the retiree health plan from a defined benefit model, which is actual retiree health care, to a defined contribution approach, which is what we'll talk about soon, retiree groups C and D. So to achieve these objectives, the board approved the creation of four distinct groups with different eligibility

[00:55:54] criteria. Groups A and B would receive actual retiree health care, and they are our OPEB plans. And then groups C and D would receive an annual allotted amount to be deposited into a retirement health savings plan where funds would grow through financial investments. And then as they had health care expenses, when they retire, they can then pull that money out to be reimbursed for those expenses. So in addition, back in 2012, the county approved some financial measures for group a retirees to kind of help curb retiree costs for the county and we went through this I know it's got a little complicated we went through this last month we have an annual cap

[00:56:35] on county contributions that were said that were set based upon our 2013 rates and so that was at five percent so in any given one year it could not increase by more than five percent and if it did anything in excess of that five percent would be shifted to the retiree we also had another cap that was set um it was a total contribution cap of what we were contributing back in 2013 of 150 so once we hit that 150 percent anything excess would go then to the retiree for all the groups uh for for yes for a primarily for a okay b is just a kind of a different model and we'll talk

[00:57:14] about that in a second so over the years these caps um have not been an issue as our plans have run I've run fairly well but we do know as you know back in 2025 when we talked when we spoke last month that we had a fairly significant renewal and it did trigger that 5% cap so that was a rationale for making those changes last month if we did not make those changes that we did where we kind of reset the cap so we'll talk a little bit more about that our retirees would have seen upwards around a hundred and seventy five percent increase so we had we had to take that action to keep those those renewables down you say that one more

[00:57:50] time you're retired you said that very quickly i missed i missed it you said our retirees would have and then i missed the rest of what i received an increase of 175 because that 2013 cap was being triggered so we essentially had to modernize those rates and bring it up to 2025 so we weren't going to hit that cap so now they just get the normal renewal okay okay we knew this was what this was going to happen at some point uh we just didn't know when it's happened to happen in you know in 2024 for a plan year 2025 so with group b retirees uh the county contribution is structured a little

[00:58:26] bit differently uh retirees are provided a flat subsidy based upon their years of service these subsidies were also set in 2013 so once you set those subsidies you know each year they lose a little bit of value because their premiums go up but it's a flat subsidy stays the same so we knew at some point we would have to reevaluate that as well we then took a look at group c and d which do not receive retiree health care but rather this annual contribution that i referenced earlier from the county into a retirement health savings plan where the monies grow through investments and they can take advantage of market gains so back in 2012 when

[00:59:06] we set these groups up group c retirees were to receive a 2700 annual contribution from the county for each year for their first 15 years and then at 15 at year 16 it would then be reduced down to 2100 and the those group c employees were fairly unhappy with that model because group c employees relative to the group d employees have a shorter time frame within as active employees so they weren't able to accumulate that balance as quickly as as everyone else so the county did study that concern and in 2017 ultimately changed the formula

[00:59:46] so that they would receive the full $2,700 for each year, not just through year 15. So every year they're with the county, they get the full $2,700. And then over the years, Group C employees continued to express concern about the annual contribution, taking the position that the years they served prior to 2013, you know, the years they served prior to us making that change, they weren't accounted for.

[01:00:12] And that they were shorted giving, you know, compared to our group D employees. So again, we went back and we studied that concern and presented the board with a remedy that resulted in two major enhancements to their benefit formula. We first tiered them out into three different groups.

[01:00:29] You can see those groups on the slide, C1, 2, and 3. So they went from 2,700 per year to one of those different groups, either 5,660, 6,930, or 9,540. These are annual amounts that were changed in 2022 for these group C employees So the adjustment for C1 is the largest because they had the most years with the county And obviously if you have the most years with the county You're gonna have fewer years left with the county So we had to you know Artificially elevate that up to get them to that ending target balance that we want to get them to We also the other enhancement was that when these were originally designed

[01:01:08] We had set them with a target retirement horizon of age 65 and realizing that about 78% of group C was public safety and they typically you know separate a little bit earlier we move that horizon down to 55 so we gave them even fewer years to get to that target balance that also impacted that huge escalation from 2700 up to 9540 so back in the end of 2022 actually I think it was March of 2022 the board approved these enhancements and increased the annual funding for this

[01:01:46] group from 1.3 million per year up to 3.1 million per year, increasing about about 1.9 million each year just for Group C. So for a moment, we can move away from kind of the history and the plan design and look at what we did. As a reminder, what we did in 2025, the pre-65 renewal came in at 10.2 percent and the post-65 renewal came in at 31.1 percent. As I mentioned, because that renewal came in so high, we had to take some action, kind of reset the rates to 2025 rates and no longer use that 2013 contribution kind of anchored rate,

[01:02:23] and that allowed us to avoid those huge increases of 175% for our retirees. So essentially, we had to, you know, modernize our retiree health contribution structure. We also looked at increasing Group B subsidies by 50% to help mitigate the premium increases that we were seeing due to medical inflation.

[01:02:44] And then there was a third option that was evaluated that was put forth by the local firefighters' union for Group B retirees. which essentially changed the the model from a flat subsidy model to a cost share model so essentially moving um like a group b model to a group a model so we also evaluated that as well so when we look at all the changes uh that we recommended we saw that this was going to impact the opep trust in three different ways we talked about this about this last month first actuarially

[01:03:19] would increase the trust liabilities by about 50 million dollars impacting that funding ratio of the trust that we talked about you know we say if you know if the liabilities are 100 million for you know we have booked liabilities for 100 million but we have 80 million in assets that's an 80 percent funding ratio okay which is really really good and that's kind of where we were and for some time now we've been using that trust to pay for our retiree expenses because we have such a strong funding ratio the challenge with this is that when you increase these liabilities now by 50 million and you don't increase your assets that funding ratio plummets

[01:03:54] down, and it plummets down beneath 70%, and that's the threshold that we need to be at if we're going to continue to provide disbursements from that trust to pay for retiree expenses. Because we can no longer do that, we now have to come up with an additional $9 million in kind of a pay as you go.

[01:04:10] Go back to what we were doing back in 2008, we were paying both, we were paying retirees as we went, and then we were also funding the trust, so now we're kind of back into that model until we can get those assets back up and have that funding ratio get back up to exceed 70 percent the second impact um whenever we're enhancing benefits you know there are two main pieces one is the liabilities which we just talked about the other is the um the arc the annual required contribution uh the actuaries call it the actuarial determined employer contributions

[01:04:47] it's what we're required to fund the trust each year and with these enhancements you know resetting those rates and increasing those group b subsidies we have an additional 3.8 billion that we have to now come up with to fund that trust. So we have the $3.8 million now that we have to come up with, plus $9 million, so it's $12.8 million in new funding that we need each year, which we talked about last month.

[01:05:13] And the third and final impact to the trust is that, as I mentioned, the funding ratio is going to go down below 70%. In our disbursement policy, out of finance states that if we go below 70%, we have to get back to 70% within five years. And we talked about that.

[01:05:28] It could be anywhere 15, 20 million. We're not sure what that number is yet. I believe finance is working on that now, but that's another impact that we're going to have to deal with, at least come up with some sort of strategy in the near future.

[01:05:44] So what you see on the slide here, this is some of the rationale behind of what we've done for Group B. We looked at a couple of different models. One was to increase the subsidies by 25 percent, you'll see in that first row, the other was to increase it by 50%, and then we have that new cost share model that I referenced that came out of IAFF.

[01:06:08] We thought that 25% didn't give our retirees enough relief in their premiums. We thought 50% seemed more appropriate when you do the math. And then when we looked at the IAFF model, you know, converting from the flat subsidy to a cost share model, you can see in that top chart, the liabilities are pretty much doubled.

[01:06:29] from what we're recommending with an increase of 14 million in liabilities in the far right hand column for increasing by 50 percent that other model takes it up by another another 15 million dollars on the books then when we talk about that annual required contribution look at the bottom chart this new 50 increase that we recommended and had approved by the board increases our our incremental increase to the annual required to fund the trust by 1.6 million that last cost share model almost doubles that and because of that that was the primary rationale for not

[01:07:03] for not recommending that to the board last month so that was all i had for really um groups a and b regarding group c and d uh staff didn't have one sec so this was this all that was groups a and b that's correct okay hold on just a second does anyone because that's a lot you just did a lot um and i i know this may take a little little time to go through but i need to make sure that we all know what what's happening okay does anyone have any questions on just what we did on a and b

[01:07:37] just before we go to cnd so my only question well i i do have more questions i won't do them all right here in the days because it'll take a while and we have a whole full agenda but i will i'll do this later you've said more than once when you were on page 13 when you're on page 15 you talked about having to get the assets up and then i think you said somehow some way we have to have that conversation. I don't really know what that means. What does, what does it look like getting the assets up? I mean, how does that, how does that happen?

[01:08:11] Well, we had talked about real briefly, I mean, I believe George is here. He can maybe touch on that. I think there were a couple of different strategies that were thought about or contemplated. So, because if it takes a long time, we don't, okay, I'm going to come back to you or we can sit down and meet about that question.

[01:08:29] Like, what does that look like? What does that mean? And what's that timeframe look like. Other questions, we can do this later because it's a lot to do right now, but I'm going to come back with, I mean, I know where to find George. I know where to find you. Come back with some of those questions, okay? And then on page 10, is any of that, you talked about the fact that when you go to page 10, that that is based, the chart there is based on the years of service so none of that is based on age although those two things could be very

[01:09:06] similar because if you've served a longer time you might be an older age although that may or may not be true depending on when you started is all that based on years of service and not age correct yes okay just years of service okay all right all right that's all i have for for for groups a and b so let's go into group c c and d so regarding group c and d um staff didn't have any of their own requests to price out anything with boomer shine because we felt as though the the enhancements that we made in uh 2022 um kind of put group c back on track and and with to get into their target

[01:09:44] amount of you know the 250 000 which the target ending imbalance that we want in their accounts when they retire with regards to group d um these employees i mean it's kind of a different animal They were hired with the knowledge and knowing what retirement benefit they have and it hasn't changed. So that's very much different than Group C who were hired with an understanding and then we made those changes, you know, in 2012 for 2013. But IFF did ask us to look at a couple different scenarios here, looking more at an indexing model for these different groups and

[01:10:22] what those account balances might look like um at retirement looking at they gave us a we have a cpi of 2.5 percent in that middle column we actually did a medical trend factor of four and a half percent you can see what those account balances look like and then what that total cost would be would be for the county okay and that i mean that concludes my uh my notes and presentation supervisors do you have um questions for group c and d okay so i have one madam chair you have one

[01:10:58] mr mr turner yes sir um my only question is on um we've drawn down the the ratio below 70 we have five years to bring it back up again does that affect our credit ratings at all that might be mr hamstring or mr govan question no as long as it's planned it would not we're following the we're following the policy that the the fiscal policy the board has provided us okay thank you so mike so let's go back to page 17. the enhancements provided in 2022 were

[01:11:38] appropriate and addressed the concerns from employees okay but then when you go to the next page page 18 don't those doesn't doesn't all the page 18 um fly in the face of what that statement on page 17 is not necessarily because it's not just um what the account balance might look like but what we believe should be covered in terms of um is our expectation or assumption that we want to find an account balance that would pay for all of the retiree health care or a portion

[01:12:15] of it. So the higher you get, the closer you get to that 100% paying for your health care, and that's not, from a staff perspective, you know, when you look at these balances, they're just, they're higher than we believe they need to be. Because we do have this, we have this progressive methodology between A, B, C, and D, not to be equated, it just, that's how they go in terms of value. So it might be, would it be more appropriate then to say that what was done here was what we believe was fiscally responsible and what

[01:12:51] needed to be done versus all the employees in Group C agreed to it? Madam Chair, I don't think it would be appropriate to say that all of the employees in Group C agreed to what we did in 2022, but I do think it is a fair statement to say that the Department of Human Resources, worked pretty closely with members of IAFF in developing what was created in 2022, and I believe they even held their petition to actually go forward with certifying as their bargaining unit while we worked through this, because if they didn't do

[01:13:30] that, it would have been subject to bargaining. Which is why we're going to go back and talk about it again, though. Well, because we're in bargaining now. Yeah, exactly. Correct. So then And it just opens back up because now everything is open for negotiation. Well, everything is in working conditions.

[01:13:47] There you go. There you go. And are we saying that there were -- that for group C and D -- help me go back and say, what did the Boomer Shine report say about C and D? They have no recommendations? No, they did not.

[01:14:02] They did not have any recognition for C and D. Okay. We did not ask them for recommendations. You did not ask them for recommendations for C and D. Okay. If we ask them to price certain fact patterns, if we were to, I think I mentioned this last month, if we were to ask them for recommendations, they might ask us to restate our objectives.

[01:14:18] Gotcha. And just to be clear, I do think we had actually said in the past, maybe last week, that when they go back to the bargaining table, it's a narrow discussion. It doesn't open up, all of it opens up just this discussion, correct? Correct. Okay. All right.

[01:14:34] Cool. All right. Well, okay. Supervisors, you should also know that we did receive an email from Mr. Myers today that has some information in there as to, yeah, so if you haven't read that email or gone to that link, you might want to do that as well.

[01:14:50] So anything, I think that's it. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. All right. We do, we are right on time, maybe four minutes over, to do our speakers for the 5 o'clock hour. When I call your name, if you come to the podium closest to you, state your name for the record.

[01:15:10] you'd like to state where you live that'd be great as well um you have two and a half minutes when your time is up please yield the floor to the next speaker um first speaker is lana rohmeyer second speaker is susan mansion's third speaker is james stupp lana rohmeyer are you here good evening ma'am so whenever you're ready um hello my name is lana rohmeyer and i've been a resident of payoni springs for 12 years and leading the volunteer coordinator team for the payoni springs

[01:15:47] water and wastewater application process for seven years. I'm also working with community members to get the Payone Springs Village Council running again. Our village first had a feasibility study done in the early 1970s where a community water and wastewater system was recommended because of the obvious public health issues that were found across the community. It is now almost 50 years later and the problems are not getting any better. Even residents that have had deeper wells drilled have had issues with wells not passing testing. Many of the old shallower wells with Aging septic systems on quarter acre lots with no replacement area is a disaster waiting to happen.

[01:16:24] People have been hospitalized and houses on the National Historic Register torn down that do not have indoor facilities. It is an uncomfortable topic, however, a few of my neighbors still rely on outhouses. Some properties have failed septic fields or are now on pump and hulls, which include our historic post office.

[01:16:42] When we applied to the water and wastewater program, we had 75% of signatures from the community and received a letter from the Loudoun Health Department that strongly supports efforts to develop central water and wastewater infrastructure for the Pea Union Springs community. A major concern is that this project could cause excessive development. I do not want to cause a majority of the approximately 80 vacant parcels in the village to be developed in a full build-out scenario. Most residents want to preserve the quiet historic community as it is, which includes giving existing residents and structures the services that they need. This is why I've been involved with the Loudon Historic Village Alliance on the small area plans because we want to

[01:17:20] preserve our historic village and keep its charm. I would love if a community commission for residents in the service area would be created so that we're more involved with this project. Hearing directly from those involved would be beneficial for all, I believe. There are environmental considerations, but all western Loudon towns are supplied by groundwater wells, so Paynean Springs water needs are but a drop in the bucket compared to those. Criticism seems to fail to mention natural recharge once those septic fields and wells are taken offline as well.

[01:17:51] One way or another, the village of Paonian Springs issues need to be addressed. Since the board suggests an interconnected system, this allows for only one new property to be procured versus three. Obviously, it's beneficial that way. I hope this means we must no longer bide our time in Paonian Springs. Thank you. I'm going to go check because a couple of years ago, I actually asked for a study to see how many privies were still left in loudon county because i don't think there should be any and i don't remember those on there so i'm going to go check on that there still are okay thank you for letting me know that i appreciate that susan munch followed by james

[01:18:30] stuff followed by um alejandra hernandez good evening good evening chair randall supervisors my name is susan manch and i'm the president of the board of directors of the waterford foundation so the waterford foundation board is just as concerned as all other waterford citizens about the preservation impact the potential impact of this water and sewer project as stewards of the national historic landmark we're focused on protecting the landmark from unwanted development and the threats to preservation efforts and the environment what's clear to us is that none of the

[01:19:10] potential threats can be fully understood until we move from the concept phase where we are today to the design phase only when we can see the proposed design can we know exactly with certainty how this project will affect our area and whether the promised protections against harm such as limiting the connections and the service area will be upheld if the next phase of the project is delayed in order to pursue yet more studies we will never be able to make that

[01:19:41] assessment we've seen this movie before the arguments put forth seem common sense and they also seem dire which is understandable given that we are all reacting to broad concepts and we're making we're making suppositions about a wide range of hypothetical impacts what this project needs more than anything else is the clarity and definition that the design process can bring us we support advancing this process project into the design phase because we want to understand the impacts we want to work with the county to get it right clean

[01:20:20] reliable water would be an undeniable benefit to the community's health and well-being and to the foundation's properties we believe that currently unknown impacts can be mitigated through good design and a healthy partnership with the county with clearly defined and transparent guidelines I thank you for all you've done for Waterford and for all you continue to do for Loudoun County thank you thank you thank you very much James step followed by Alejandro hernandez followed by gus kearney good evening hi good evening my name is mike stop my first

[01:20:56] name is actually james but no name's mike i told the lady it's fine though i live in waterford um good evening supervisors mike here i've been a resident of waterford for 24 years currently serving as the waterford president of the wca and also a waterford of water volunteer liaison for seven years i want to start by thanking dgs mr fincham mr brown somewhere here and the board and our supervisor kirschner for your dedication to

[01:21:34] solve waterford's water quality and quantity issues thank you the board's commitment in february 23 meeting to establish a communal system addressing our health and safety concerns is commendable Chair Randall's explanation preserved on our WCA web page highlighting the intention is to serve only the villages thus addressing development concerns is a real benefit. We've shared that in WCA meetings quarterly and it's posted on our web page. Another pressing issue is fire suppression. The proposed interconnected system can provide the necessary capacity,

[01:22:15] crucial given the proximity of wooden homes. We've had multiple incidents here recently that have scared us to death. For decades, residents in water scarce areas have resorted to storage tanks, dry well timers, extreme conservation measures. The 25 still in use hand dug wells of 100 homes are plagued by heavy metals, bacteria, and E. coli poses significant public health risk.

[01:22:44] the communal water system offers a viable solution after 60 plus years of failed attempts to drill and get sufficient water through tight granite yes 60 years the first approval was 66 happy to provide more details we have a consensus on the problem statement and solution among citizens engineers geologists lawyers churches governing body the board has approved the the project forward thus far and loud and water our reliable partner for over 50 years is ready to assist

[01:23:21] can you imagine waterford if we didn't have a partner like loud water just a quick if some loud water folks are here thank you to their service um i believe we believe mr yes sir yes sorry uh your time is up um thank you for your time and continued support thank you sir happy Thanksgiving to you as well thank you so much Alejandro Hernandez I didn't realize that and Gus Kearney followed by Dana saucer good evening good evening

[01:23:57] good afternoon chair Randall and the members of the county board supervisors my name is Alejandro Hernandez I am a member of the new majority of Virginia an organization that identifies the needs of the working-class community are united to fight an instability for a country of immigrants the reason that him and that i'm here today is because one of the biggest needs for for us immigrants is the housing uh problem that we have right now is in the count in the county as many of those struggles to pay rent because it's getting higher and higher uh we have some programs in the county that uh so fortunately i've been

[01:24:36] blessed with the house the house vouching program that came out last year so i i do thank you for that but still we have so much need in the county especially for an immigrant scouts that we i'm asking here today to dedicate 14 million dollars to the voucher program so the families can at least pay the rent to be able to survive uh in a decent life so far so what i'm here today is like i want to let you know that we're not asking anything for free we are working class that we are willing to

[01:25:11] pay rent that we definitely some of us have to do two jobs some some of us have to have three jobs to be able to at least pay rent and at least to have a decent life as you can see or most so not just so my baby was crying all the way to the back because i'm a single mom so i want to be able to share at least some part of my time with my kids but with their rent being so higher and not having the opportunity for so many of us is really hard to to to have at least a decent life so why i'm here today is asking you to uh give us at least some of that money to support the

[01:25:50] housing program and once again we're not asking anything for free we're willing to work and we're willing to pay whatever is need but we definitely need some help from you guys that's all i have to say so far thank you very much mr fernandez thank you for coming thank you Gus Carney, followed by Dana Sawyer.

[01:26:12] Good evening. Good evening. My name is Gus Carney. I've been a resident of Paonian Springs for 20 years. I've been on the Paonian Springs Council for about the same time. I've been the president of the council for about 12 years.

[01:26:29] When I go for data points on these projects, I go right to Dana because she has all the data points on this entire study. I've worked side-by-side with her for the last six or seven years as she's been doing it. What struck me, what I wanted to sort of talk about, I looked at a map, you know, earlier today, I was going through the agenda for this project, and you look at a map in most of Loudoun County, especially western Loudoun County, there's big lots and old farms and two, three acre lots and all that, and you've got these clusters, one being Waterford, one being Pillion Springs, and they're really neat little towns and villages, as we know, we want to try to preserve them.

[01:27:04] We recently had a home that had to be demolished right near the post office in Pillion Springs, And it was unfortunate, but it had just fallen into disrepair, and apparently the septic was a mess and the well and all those sort of things. And when you look at the homes in Payoneen Springs and Waterford, but I'm obviously partial to Payoneen Springs, there are a lot of modest-sized working-class homes.

[01:27:26] And in this county, I know one of the things you deal with is the housing crisis here and how difficult it is to live in Loudoun County on, I mean, any reasonable home price. And, you know, even though she was speaking about something different, or she had, you know, the woman who spoke before me was talking about the cost of housing in this county.

[01:27:41] So this is right in front of us. This is these clustered homes. They don't have the accommodations to have proper septic, proper well water. They talk about all the health issues. If you go drive through these areas and you say these people are unwell in septic, you'd say this is crazy.

[01:27:58] And the feasibility studies have been done. The funding's essentially been secured. federal funding has come in stepped in to help this make this happen it's just got to happen and fire suppression wasn't even something i had thought of until you know five minutes ago but that's an issue as well so for a number of reasons it's it's just sort of got to happen and it's right in front of us to do it so uh that's all i had i appreciate your time appreciate your consideration hope you vote for it thank you sir thank you very much now last speaker is dana uh sawyer good

[01:28:31] evening sir good evening ready when you are all right my name is dana sour as in sauerkraut um fell the same way i'm a native loudener uh born in leesburg i've lived in peering springs for 70 years um i think i know a little bit about it my grandparents house which is where i was raised

[01:29:06] had an outhouse and for the last up until about five years ago we had a spring for the county condemned it i have no doubt that that is polluted and the increased growth of the the village is his you know it's time it's time we get a i've i am i've been hearing about this sewer

[01:29:39] system coming in for 70 for since 1970 something other and it just doesn't happen now i'm understanding that there's some opposition from waterford going to combine the two together i mean nobody knows we just need to get something moving um it's yeah maybe we need to propose a a committee group with uh loudon water from peonian springs and or waterford if waterford

[01:30:12] doesn't want this thing or i understand there's a group in between and you know put us we need it we we don't we've got terrible you know problems and i've seen them all my life um um i mean that that's that's basically it we just we just need to get something moving on this and all this dilly dallying around jumping around like the one fellow said i mean we just need to get something moving

[01:30:52] we don't need more studies we need something written down put down that's all i got thank you sir thank you thank you very much okay that is all of our five o'clock speakers and it's still a little too early to do um resolution so i think we can actually maybe be able to get in item number four which is the clark's i'm sorry the millstone clarks no we can't do that i'm sorry we have speakers we have we have figures six o'clock i'm sorry we can't we won't can't do that we won't do that and i don't i think well let's do nominations real quick and then wait uh let's do nominations

[01:31:29] if you have a nomination please put your light on mr turner do you have any nominations for this evening mr turner am i don't you do not miss glass thank you madam chair i nominate mr jack vega to serve as an at-large representative on the loud water board thank you are there openings on the lot of water right now yes it was uh up one year i believe and then the term is up and he supplied

[01:32:03] again and once again yes okay okay all right mr crony uh thank you chair randall i nominate bill hatch for the loudon um based winery brewery or distillery position on zock and i nominate stephen bradford for the agricultural district advisory committee you took bill hatch from me but okay mr kershner thank you madam chair i have two nominations for the loudon water board i nominate sean kelly as a at-large representative um re-upping um term is ending on the loudon

[01:32:38] water board and then for the uh for zak i nominate kate jerksme as the owner employee and designated agent of the land county based brewery winery or distillery representative on the zoning ordinance committee thank you miss umstead i nominate renee larue to at large position five to the disability services board and aaron swissholm to at large position seven for the housing advisory board

[01:33:12] thank you and i was going to do bill hatch but he's already been done and mr kirchner so you're you're nominating mr kelly to be re-upped for that loud and water position right i believe that's correct okay and mr and miss and miss glass you're nominating for maybe somebody else to take that same position because there's only is that the position you're talking about oh okay okay all right we'll see how it goes okay um supervisors the other two action items we have we do have public speakers on them at the six o'clock hour, and so we're not going to take those

[01:33:50] action items up right now. And I'm pretty sure that everybody who was here for the resolution is not here yet, because I'm looking and I don't see everybody here yet. And we can -- resolutions can start at 5:30, but they don't normally start at 5:30. They're not here yet. So the best thing I think we can do right now is do one closed session and get it out -- not get it out the way but i think we can go in do one come out in 10 minutes and and i think more people will have arrived for the resolution and that might be the best way to do that and then we're going to the six o'clock speakers that might be the well yes my understanding is all those

[01:34:28] folks for the the uh proclamation are out are they really and so i've oh they're on the hall oh they're out in the hall okay i've asked staff to okay well can they work their way into the room i'm looking like they're not here yeah oh there they are okay well there we go okay wait that's not this is not this is what i need the crash responder safety well there we go um okay this is for crash responder safety, and Ms. Bricksman, why don't you join me down front for this one.

[01:35:10] You want us to come down? I have known you guys are all out there.

[01:36:04] Well, I'm really happy you're all here.

[01:36:31] A couple of weeks ago, I was, don't ask me if I was going north, south, east, or west. I have no idea. I was going this direction. And an ambulance was, well, you could hear the siren.

[01:36:46] You could hear it. You can hear it. And there were people who were coming the other direction and then making a left turn. And I thought, like, literally, the ambulance had to slow down for all the people to make the left turn who shouldn't have been turning because the ambulance was coming.

[01:37:02] You know, you hear about these things, but I never actually watched it before. Like, three or four cars turned, and I was like, there's an ambulance waiting to keep going, and people are turning. Like, no matter what else you got to do, it could not be, I mean, as important as this ambulance turned this corner right now to go save somebody's life.

[01:37:20] And so right after that, I got the request to do the crash. And I was like, absolutely, yes. And really, that's the first time I had seen, you know, when you say, like, the Move Over Slow Down campaign or the Move Over campaign, you know, I've always been like, well, of course, sure, no problem. But I never really, really saw people not do it before.

[01:37:38] And it was shocking. I almost did a citizen's arrest. It was just, I could not believe I was looking at that. So, now we're going to read the resolution. Okay. Proclamation for Crash Responder Safety Week. Whereas, traffic incident responders worked tirelessly to save lives and secure traffic incident scenes as safely and quickly as possible.

[01:37:59] And, whereas, in 2023, 45 first responders lost their lives while helping to clear roadway crashes or incidents. Among them were 14 sheriff's deputies and police officers, eight firing emergency services or EMS personnel, 20 tow operators, and three department transportation and safety service patrol personnel, while many more sustained life-threatening injuries.

[01:38:26] And whereas motorists must do their part to protect first responders and tow operators by slowing down, moving over, and staying alert when approaching traffic incidents. And whereas the intent of the move over slow down law is to protect police and public safety officers and tow officers who work on the scenes of roadside accidents.

[01:38:52] and whereas motorists must yield the right-of-way to any stationary vehicle that is displaying a flashing, blinking, or alternating blue, red, or amber lights. Motorists must yield the right-of-way to any stationary vehicle that is displaying a flashing, blinking, or alternating blue, red, or amber lights, or reduce speed when approaching emergency vehicles stopped alongside the road and move to a travel lane furthest away from the stopped vehicles when traffic conditions safely permit such a move.

[01:39:27] Now, therefore, be it resolved. The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors does hereby proclaim November 18th through 22nd as 2024 Crash Responder Safety Week and recognizes the contributions made by Loudoun County's first responders and our tow providers yay okay before I hand the mic I do have one question okay so if somebody is going down the street and there's a median strip in the middle right there's a median and they see an ambulance or a tow vehicle or no doctor but a the first responded vehicle on the other side of

[01:40:07] the median strip does that person stop when they're on the other side of the median strip you I'm gonna hand this to you so for the same rule for school buses anybody correct me if I'm wrong if it's on the other side of the medium strip would be no but if you're going in the same direction then you should pull over or still no I mean the thing is you have to it's gonna be a common-sense approach when you come up and you should and so you should make an allowance if need be you have to read the road ahead the whole I think what you're trying to say

[01:40:47] here is we need to pay attention when we're on the road not be distracted and look at the road and then make the appropriate movements to accommodate it whatever it might be because things could change there you go common sense I can't do any better than that thank you anybody else put your phone down put your phone okay well okay put your lipstick down put your phone down and

[01:41:26] don't put them with the radio because that's my dad that yeah don't put it with it with your music but put your oh okay and don't maybe play your music so loud that you can't even hear the ambulance the first responders coming okay anybody else you have a you have a sign you want to do something with that you just want to roll it out for the picture for the picture okay nice yeah so I just like to say I mean this proclamation is all about crash responders but everybody in the county is impact crashes obviously the individuals who are involved in the crash directly but other motorists and you know everybody on the street this is specifically about safety for those

[01:42:02] working this crashes and I I can't say enough about the team of people that's here and the collaboration between these agencies we have phenomenal collaboration, not just between law enforcement partners, but VDOT, our tow operators. Everybody plays a really critical, vital role here to getting the roadways open quickly, getting them open safely. But these folks work often at night during really bad weather conditions. That's a lot of times when the crashes are happening. It can be really dangerous, precarious work. So obviously, yes we see them during the day when it's you know sunny and all that but especially in hazardous

[01:42:41] conditions this this crew of people really does a phenomenal job and we need to do everything that we can to keep them safe as they're working all right thank you very much sorry i appreciate it okay we're gonna i'm not gonna stand in the middle of the bed

[01:42:57] we can do we can do our board comments right now that's what or let's do board comments right now

[01:47:12] because i don't really want to leave and then have to come back and because i'll be freaking out about people sitting out here waiting for us i don't like that but we can do board comments right now because people are here we can do that supervisors how about doing the board comments right now and disclosures gotta do it anyway so yep okay board comments mr crony and disclosures

[01:47:45] do that yep thank you chair randall so on monday november 18th i met with matt pennington and aaron frank a milestone regarding the cell tower at clark's gap my staff also met with them on november 8th. So we had a wonderful village of St. Louis Charette last night, and I want to thank everybody who came out. We are going to get that small area plan done, and in the meantime, I did hear some issues that my office is going to try and take care of for the residents. Like, they also are

[01:48:22] experiencing water quality and quantity issues, so I'll be following up with the Department of general services to see what we can do to help the community, but it was a pleasure to see everyone. Chair Randall was with me, and we had a really good turnout.

[01:48:40] Last night, I chaired the joint school board committee because Supervisor Glass was not feeling well, and we heard that there's a need for a transition center for students with disabilities.

[01:48:57] so that's something that I think this board needs to consider. We had a bunch of speakers coming out with their kids, and I do think that's something that we should consider for the FY26 budget. Also, inclusive playgrounds were discussed at elementary schools, making sure every kid can play on a playground, I think is an important commitment that we should make, especially given our commitment to equity, inclusivity, and diversity in the county.

[01:49:31] I had the pleasure of attending on November 13th the Watson Middle School tour and dedication. In Watson Middle School is the 100th school in Loudoun County Public Schools, and it's a four-story school, and it is a beautiful building.

[01:49:50] You should go if you have the time to go. And one thing that I really thought was unique about the school is their mascot is a Yeti. So I really love that. The mascot is very creative, and I think the kids did a great job coming up with that mascot.

[01:50:11] I've been busy at Brambleton. We had a HOA meeting and I attended that and met with some community members about traffic needs in the community and also met with the Dulles Farms HOA to discuss their needs.

[01:50:31] They're down near Kirkpatrick Farms and Virginia Manor. And lastly, I just wanna, if people don't know, Oak Hill, the 1,200 acres in the Little River District. It's a historic park that, or will be a historic park. The county agreed to fund the $22 million to get a historic park. And it was originally, the property was owned by our fifth president, President James Monroe. So it'll be a huge marquee park, probably a state park,

[01:51:07] for the community with trails and camping sites and just lots of other amenities. It's one of the last remaining big properties left in the county, so preserving it is just a treat for the community and I think it should be preserved and I'm just happy that everybody agrees and it's right in Little River in Aldi near the village of Aldi. So I look forward to getting that open to

[01:51:38] the community. Thank you. Okay, wonderful. Ms. Glass. Thank you, Madam Chair. I have no disclosures for today, but I'd like to thank Supervisor DeCarone to be the co-co-chair of the BOS and Board of Supervisors. I appreciate you doing that. My staff attended the Disability Services Board meeting on November 12th and the Family Services Advisory Board meeting on November 14th. I also attended the VACO annual conference down in

[01:52:17] Hot Springs, Virginia. It's always interesting to speak to my colleagues from different jurisdictions and I'm on the Education Committee and Chair Randall had spoken briefly regarding that and just to hear issues from different jurisdictions I feel that we're really lucky to have the community

[01:52:50] that we have here as as teachers and educators and in our staff the hard work that they do I guess lastly I just want to wish everybody a happy Thanksgiving i hope folks are able to come together with family and friends and to share food and peace with one another and again just have a great holiday season thank you thank you

[01:53:28] mr turner can you hear us you will be next sir i can hear you madam chair on thursday november 7th i spoke with chuck cune from jk moving to discuss the application for greenland park on friday november 15th my staff spoke with colleen gillis from cooley llp to discuss the actually i think that's colleen gillis from curata to discuss the application for west element that's all i have okay um mr kirschner thank you madam chair i don't really have any comments but for disclosures on november 15th 18th and 19th my staff and i met with the applicant

[01:54:07] for Clark's Gap Monopole. And then on November 6th, I met with the applicant for Greenland Park. No further. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Umstadt. Thank you, Madam Chair. No disclosures. I just want to thank the VFW Post 1177 and American Legion Post 34 for putting on a very nice Veterans day ceremony at balls bluff national cemetery at dawn on veterans day this is something they do

[01:54:42] every year and they do it do it very well and i also want to thank tom greenspan and the george c marshall international center for putting on a 10 a.m veterans day ceremony on veterans day their keynote speaker was ken falk who i think everybody here knows is the founder of boulder crest the retreat for wounded warriors and mr falk gave a superb speech so that is all thank you

[01:55:18] mr saynes welcome sir thank you madam chair disclosures on wednesday november 13th met with THE APPLICANTS FOR STONE HILL RESIDENTIAL APPLICATION AND THAT IS IT FOR MANDATORY DISCLOSURES AND THAT'S IT FOR ME THANK YOU OKAY MR LATERNO HELLO EVERYBODY NO COMMENTS NO DISCLOSURES QUESTION YEAH DID YOU GUYS DO NOMINATIONS WE DID YOU WANT TO MAKE A ONE YOURS REAL QUICK

[01:55:57] Yes, I would like to nominate Nicole Morris for reappointment as an at-large representative on the Housing Advisory Board. Wonderful. Okay, I think that's everybody. Ms. Brooksman.

[01:56:14] All right, thank you, Madam Chair. By way of disclosures, my staff met with Milestone Towers on the Clark's Gap Cell Tower proposal on November 8th. I would like to, although he's probably not listening, I would like to wish my son a happy 20th birthday today, celebrating down at JMU, I am sure.

[01:56:35] The VACO annual conference was rewarding and very interesting. We did have a joint letter, and I don't know if we talked about this, but I sit on the Finance and Elections Committee, and our two committees, Education and Finance and Elections, worked on a joint letter to the governor that we would like him to prioritize the JLARC K-12 education funding in the upcoming budget deliberations and moving forward. I had the opportunity to moderate a panel on energy across the state with Senator Marsden and

[01:57:11] a representative from Dominion, which was also very interesting, and I know Mr. Freeman will be watching closely any bills that come out of Senator Marsden's energy summit that he had yesterday. And also, I attended a sports tourism panel, which was really fascinating. And we're working on getting those presentations over to Ms. Erickson at Visit Loudon. I would like to congratulate my chief of staff, Ethan Gardner, who is a recent graduate of the Sorenson Institute for Political Leadership for that Emerging Leaders Program.

[01:57:49] So congratulations to Mr. Gardner for getting into the competitive program and completing it. In other exciting news, the Potomac Lakes Playground, known in my area as the Blue Playground, is now open, and it is completely accessible and ADA compliant with a lot of very interesting pieces of equipment there, and I happened to be jogging past the other day, and I had to smile because there were so many people, parents and children, on the playground and playing.

[01:58:25] So if you get a chance to stop by, I think that you will be very impressed by the project. I had the opportunity to join Chair Randall at the Northern Virginia Family Services Early Childhood Education and groundbreaking ceremony today in Ashburn.

[01:58:41] So more attainable, affordable quality childcare slots for our county, which is another exciting thing that I'm excited to see happen. I wanted to comment just briefly on the LGBTQ inclusivity review, which has been deferred again from our agenda.

[01:58:59] And I just wanted to make sure that the community understands that we're deferring this because we really can't take additional action on the item until staff has submitted it to the Human Rights Commission Foundation for the Municipal Equality Index, and that can't really happen until August, 'cause it happens annually.

[01:59:23] So our intention is to have staff come back to us around that time to discuss our scoring. I wanna make sure the community understands that deferring this item does not mean that work is stopping on some of the issues that we have already identified, such as setting up a Human Rights Commission, which came up in our board retreat, and I know staff is working on that, and that would impact our MEI rating.

[01:59:43] Also, staff, we were able to work with our human resources staff on a healthcare issue that was impacting some of our employees of this community where they were being charged for certain medications that they should not be charged for, and so in that work on the MEI, we were able to refund actually 11 employees who had been charged for certain prescriptions that are common for this community and they're actually getting refund checks in the mail because they were charged and they should not have been by federal law.

[02:00:19] So the work continues. I just wanna make sure the community understands that the work continues. We just decided that to bring it back in August timeframe hopefully when we apply for the index rating, which seems like we're gonna do pretty well on.

[02:00:34] So thank you to staff for all that work. On gun violence, from the Gun Violence Archive, we have had 14,902 total gun deaths this year in 2024 with 465 mass shootings. The deaths include 213 children under the age of 11 and 1,034 teens ages 12 to 17.

[02:00:56] Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Thank you, Madam Chair. - Thank you. have two disclosures um my staff met with applicants for the milestone at clark gaps on november 8th and the applicants for the hidden wood assemblage on november 15th mr latourno and mr saynes i'm going to hand you the ledge program from vaco since you guys missed the my thrilling exciting amazing update on the on vaco i'm so sorry you missed it but i'm gonna give you the ledge program from that as well um ethan welcome to the sorenson family i am a sorenson

[02:01:33] grad as well welcome to the sorenson family and jacob i know today you are studying and not partying at all on your birthday i just i just absolutely know that that's what you're doing right now um do anything i will say is um sunday sunday uh quite a few people held an event for, it was a retirement party for Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton.

[02:01:58] Congresswoman Wexton will be stepping down at the end of this year, and you know, I will say that sometimes you really don't know the work someone's done until you hear it all at once, especially if they have a career of service that spans years.

[02:02:17] You don't even think about it because it spans years, but when you hear it all at one time, It is a very impressive body of work. She would prefer not to be stepping down, she's doing so for medical reasons, but I did want to just publicly say thank you to our congressman, congresswoman, and so many of our friends, Jennifer Wexton.

[02:02:38] Thank you for your service, thank you for your dedication, thank you for your courage, and thank you for the impressive body of work over many years, both as a prosecutor, as a state senator and as our congresswoman you are very appreciated all right so it's not quite six yet but what i'm going to do is i'm going to start doing the public comments i'm going to go down the down the list if someone is not here i will i will i will circle back to at six o'clock whoever's not here i'll circle back and start again so they can have time to speak and if you are here you can go on and speak right now because we're not going to we're not going to go into closed session for eight

[02:03:18] minutes so we'll start the public comments and and if I if I miss them I will circle back around to them so when I call your name if you can come to the podium closest to you when you are finished speaking after two and a half minutes if you will release the podium to the next speaker I'd appreciate that when you come up if you need to have an interpreter please let me know that so we can adjust the timer when you when you come up to speak and I will start calling their names in the order that they are in. And again, if I have people who we miss,

[02:03:54] I will circle back around to you. The first speaker is Letitia, I think it's Macchiato, followed by Carl Scheider, followed by Jane Williams. Are any of those people here yet? Letitia, are you here yet? Carl, are you here yet? Come on down, please, sir. You'll be followed by James Williams and you'll be followed by Omar Hussain. Yes. Oh, I started on page two. Oh, I miss people. Okay, come on down anyway, Mr. Snyder. And then I'll go back. It's Mr. Snyder. And then

[02:04:34] I will circle back. Hello, Mr. Snyder. How are you? Well, thank you. Thank you. I'll probably forget by the end. Okay. No, good evening. My name is Carl Sheeter. I'm a Waterford resident and I'm here to support the interconnected water systems between Peonian Springs and Waterford because we all have a right to clean water. As a retired federal engineer, program manager, and senior executive, I've got nearly 40 years of experience working lots of complicated projects. I've seen the long-term benefits of cooperative, innovative, win-win solutions such as this

[02:05:10] project. But since retiring, I've had the opportunity to put my heart into two very demanding, yet rewarding volunteer opportunities the first is with the Potomac River keeper network where I've helped establish and manage a water quality testing lab I've trained hundreds of community scientists to track water quality on the Potomac watershed to make sure that her rivers are safe my second volunteer opportunity has been with the Waterford Foundation first as a volunteer and now I'm on the board of directors and with the board directors I lead a team of hard-charging volunteers to manage and protect the foundation's open spaces.

[02:05:48] So through my efforts, I've seen how failing septic systems, storm drain overflows, and the agricultural runoff of excess fertilizer, pesticides, and animal waste, as well as PFAS contaminated soil can negatively impact water quality.

[02:06:03] Sorry, I didn't prepare the second page. Indeed in the topology of Waterford, as you may know, runoff from our traffic clogged roads and local fuels lead to frequent contamination of our wells including E. coli contamination. E. coli contamination. That's no small thing for us in Waterford. Most of us in the village are getting on years and we're more susceptible to waterborne illnesses. Multiple homes in the village rely on hand-dug wells which are highly prone to contamination and can contribute to the spread of this pollution. As you know in Waterford we have a whole lot of wells

[02:06:43] is put together in a very small footprint. Villagers who have resources install complex filtration systems, but these systems require constant maintenance, and if the power goes out, these systems go out. This new system will bring security and ensure everyone in Waterford and Peonian Springs has the option to choose to connect to clean, safe drinking water. There's no doubt there's issues that need to be addressed in a design phase, but no matter who you are or where you live, you have a right to clean water. Thank you.

[02:07:11] thank you sir all right starting at the top of the page uh i will call your names three people in advance and again we're still a little bit early so if you're not here i will circle back around to you our first speaker is james russell followed by samantha zaboli followed by carolyn barrett good evening mr russell good evening there is a holocaust in gaza and any person

[02:07:47] who feels compelled to raise a public objection to this Holocaust, risks being painted as an anti-Semite, that is, bigoted against the Jewish people. Personally, I am not intimidated by slander. I don't feel compelled generally to address such ridiculous accusations.

[02:08:09] In my personal experience, there are countless Jewish intellectuals, journalists, activists, artists, and statesmen, without whose influence I would not be here advocating for people that need it. In fact, there's so many Jewish scholars who are the leading authorities on matters pertaining to Palestinian rights and Palestinian liberation.

[02:08:42] There is, however, rampant in our communities and our American society, a ruthless and unrelenting bigotry against Arabs and against Muslims. That very bigotry was a central premise for a so-called global war on terror, a project of imperial expansion that enabled an impressive historic period of growth and development in northern Virginia and particularly in Loudoun County.

[02:09:18] I wonder if the hesitancy of Democrat elected officials at the federal, state, and local level to publicly acknowledge the identity, in fact, the very existence of Palestinian-Americans among their constituency, represents an aspiration to recreate the financial conditions that so enriched this region, as well as the corporations which take their presence in Loudoun County for granted.

[02:09:57] We have been told for a year about what a discrepancy there is between the Republicans and the Democrats. you will face an abundance of opportunities to demonstrate that difference. Thank you very much.

[02:10:13] Samantha Zaboli, followed by Carolyn Barrett, followed by Allie, I think it says OJ, I think. Good evening. Evening. Good evening.

[02:10:29] I took a break last meeting to process the results of our federal election. And some people, including those of you sitting on this board, may ask why we are using this relatively small stage for our larger issues. And that's because this is our community.

[02:10:46] This is the first line of defense. This is where we choose to show up directly for our neighbors. Muslim, Arab, and Latino voters were blamed and attacked for the recent election results. I was told to buckle up.

[02:11:02] It's going to get a whole lot worse for Palestine. And I saw hate online, like fudge Latinos and Muslims, I hope they get deported and banned. Our communities are continuously pitted against each other, othered, marginalized, used and blamed while the systems that were built to protect one class's privilege and built to protect their wealth and resources still dictates our everyday experiences.

[02:11:29] Enough people didn't even show up to vote, the ultimate expression of free speech, and that's when we know we failed. We need to admit that our election results are deeply rooted in sexism and racism. Anti-blackness is in any circle you draw and in every community, and until we are ready to show up in true solidarity, we will continue to fail.

[02:11:55] Malcolm X drew parallels to oppression in America and that of Palestine, stating that our problem in America is a problem that is worldwide. More recently, American author Ta-Nehisi Coates shared his experience of segregated streets, disenfranchised voters, separate judicial systems run by military with no due process in the Palestinian territories, and recognized that this was a world similar to that of his parents.

[02:12:22] Yet we continue to fund this oppression and celebrate Israel as the only democracy in the region when it doesn't meet the basic democratic principles and acts as an extreme theocracy more comparable to Iran. As a nation, our fates are tied.

[02:12:39] And to quote civil rights activist James Baldwin, we can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist. So I stand here today to ask all of you who feel helpless, disappointed, and downright angry to step out of the hate, into the pain, and join our collective fight for liberation.

[02:12:58] Thank you. Thank you. Carolyn Barrett, followed by, I think it's Ali OJ, followed by Sharon Frank. Good evening. Good evening. Anti-blackness is the fuel that runs this country, so it's not uncommon to see people who look like me standing in solidarity with other oppressed people.

[02:13:24] Lest we forget, before we were even considered people, we labored and fought to build this country. So I get it. Our country, we are used to bullying people and burning down their communities to steal their land, their resources, their lives, their humanity, their culture.

[02:13:43] So it's not easy to separate ourselves from the desire to rewrite the moment and claim our victory, our heroism. As we sit on stolen land, cultivated by stolen people, complacent, complicit, devoid of outrage.

[02:14:00] Because who would we be today if we hadn't destroyed civilizations and devoured communities to sit on our high horses and politicize our right to your pain, to your land, to your humanity, for our comfort. Land of the free and home of the brave, unless we are expected to be the change.

[02:14:20] We are violently silent when asked to free Palestine, chained to weapons of war and lies in liberty's name. That man condemned my child's cough while aligning with genocide like Adolf, and you have the audacity to call me anti-Semitic.

[02:14:37] Alternative facts aside, I am allowed to denounce genocide. This is not okay. Cease fire today. Palestine and her people deserve their say. Words like freedom, justice, democracy are not common concepts.

[02:14:55] On the contrary, they are rare. People are not born knowing what these words mean. It takes enormous and, above all, individual effort to arrive at the respect for other people that these words imply. James Baldwin was famously critical of our country, and he rightfully explained that it was due to loving her enough to be honest.

[02:15:17] Until history can ask the lamb or the lion, hunters will continue to lie on. They will rely on our silence, our compliance, our ignorance, our indifference to destroy Palestine's existence. To quote Fannie Lou Hamer, if I am truly free, who can tell me how much of my freedom I can have today?

[02:15:39] And Galatians 4 and 16 says, have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth? Free Palestine. Thank you. Thank you. Ali Ojay, followed by Sharon Frank, followed by Sarah Hussain Bazar. Good evening.

[02:16:00] Good evening. My name is Ali Ojay, and I'm an educator, a Loudoun County resident, but most importantly, I am a proud Syrian. Over 100 years ago, a newly created country began its occupation over an indigenous group. They came in, created treaties, many treaties, and allowed the indigenous to live on their lands. Smaller, but their lands. Eventually, this nation became greedy and wanted the promise of more land and resources. This new nation broke these treaties, occupied more land, destroyed major food resources, and murdered many of those indigenous people. This occupying nation

[02:16:40] forcefully displaced the indigenous, forcing them to live on reservations. If they did not agree to these demands, they were murdered, maimed, or severely injured. This occupying nation created genocide the occupying nation described was our beloved united states and the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous native americans as americans we created treaties we eventually broke we destroyed mountains streams and murdered buffalo a major resource to the native americans we forcefully displaced native americans and forced them into reservations where resources are still scarce and

[02:17:19] they are still treated poorly this sounds all too well like what is happening in palestine major resources have been destroyed palestinians have been forcefully displaced treaties have been broken and many civilian many palestinian civilians have been murdered maimed or severely injured like what we did to the indigenous israel israel is doing to palestine with approximately 70 of civilian deaths being children between the ages of three and three and nine excuse me and women

[02:17:56] this goes beyond a genocide and a femicide to a legitimate ethnic cleansing israel is killing off the future of palestine as of right now north gaza has been annexed and israel is denying palestinians access to their homes by definition an ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic racial or religious groups from a given area with the intent of making the society ethnically homogeneous israel is doing just that they are purposefully murdering palestinians with the

[02:18:28] intent of taking over their land and state over 30 days ago our u.s government issued your time is up thank you thank you thank you um sharon frank followed by sarah bizarre followed by um nubia menendez and miss menendez we'll have a translator when she comes up good evening ma'am hi oh can you hear me i'm sorry we can uh my name is sharon frank and i'm a resident of waterford since 2012 and i'm speaking in favor of item 5g paonian springs and waterford joint water and wastewater

[02:19:07] project i'm a member of both the waterford foundation and the waterford citizens association the mission of the foundation is to preserve the historic buildings and open spaces of the national historic landmark and through education to increase the public's knowledge of life and work in an early American rural community the mission of the citizens association is to foster community action further the common good and welfare of the community secure improvements preserve its unique history as a national historic landmark and maintain the waterford area as a desirable and attractive community in which to live both of these organizations are in favor of preservation

[02:19:45] i'm also one of the two community members to submit an application can you hold on just one second. Supervisors, I'm going to ask us to not talk while people are speaking. Thank you. You may continue. Sure. I'm also one of the two community members to submit an application for consideration in the County Water Assistance Program.

[02:20:03] The only requirement to apply was that we were residents of the community in question. We submitted the application in 2018. We received notice of our acceptance for a feasibility study in December of 2019. Since the beginning of the process there have been questions and concerns. The WCA website has a water study timeline that lists all emails and meeting notices from 2018 to the present to keep villagers informed i include the mission statements to illustrate that neither organization is in favor of development within the village but concerns do persist and until we have something more definitive than a concept we're not going to be able to address them that's why i'm in favor of

[02:20:41] moving forward to the design phase of the step from the study phase we can't ask for a plan to be revised until we actually have the plan we can't project against unintended consequences until we have the details before us thank you for your continuing support of waterford thank you sarah bazaar followed by i think it's nubia menendez followed by leticia macchiado good evening joseph gibbles a nazi propaganda minister who is known for the concept of the big lie, essentially saying that if you repeat a lie often enough, people will eventually

[02:21:21] believe it as truth. Israel is using the same method. It's called Hasbara. This information is dangerous because it spreads false information that can undermine public trust, harm health and safety, and disrupt social stability. The allegations that were spread about beheaded babies, mass rapes, babies burnt in ovens shared by Zion Nazi propaganda had grave consequences.

[02:21:43] They were then retracted by the White House, several news media outlets, even refuted by the Israelis themselves. However, the damage was already done. It was said that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and that Arabs living there have the same rights as Jews. Therefore there's no apartheid.

[02:21:58] In 2018, Israel passed its nation state law indicating Jews have more rights than the non-Jewish citizens. The Association of Civil Rights in Israel, an Israeli human rights organization, has documented entrenched discrimination and socioeconomic differences towards Arabs in Israel.

[02:22:16] The ICJ ruled that Israel is guilty of apartheid. Just recently, Israel passed a law to deport Palestinians with Israeli passport if they show empathy or support towards victims of the Gaza Holocaust. It was said that Israel has a right to exist.

[02:22:31] People have a right to exist. Hind Rajab had a right to exist. She was shot 335 times. Sha'aban al-Dalouh, the 19-year-old who was burned to death, had a right to exist. Shirin Abu Akla, Palestinian-American journalist, sniped, had a right to exist.

[02:22:48] It was mentioned that Hamas used Palestinians as weapon shields. This is false. In fact, the IOF has used Palestinians as human shields for decades and has been documented by human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International. It was mentioned that Palestinians never accepted the Oslo Agreement.

[02:23:07] Let's remember who and why the then Prime Minister Yitzhab Rabin was assassinated. Do your own research. Don't be fooled by a bunch of Zionist propaganda playing the victims like they did in Amsterdam earlier this month. Let's follow the example of the famous Jewish-Canadian physician, Gabber Mate.

[02:23:25] Get out of your bubble. Even Ehud Barak, former Israeli Prime Minister, said in an interview, if he was Palestinian, he would have resisted too. so free palestine divest now thank you thank you um nubia menendez you will be followed by leticia from macchiado followed by carl snyder and can we do please five minutes on the clock because she has a translator thank you good evening yes tardis

[02:24:07] My name is Nubia Menéndez, I live in Lisboa since 12 years ago. I work with my family in house and restaurants. I live in a apartment complex. I dream of having my own home, but I don't find options for housing according to our proposal or to the communities that earn minimum salary.

[02:24:30] Agradecemos a los miembros de la Junta que nos están apoyando para continuar con los programas de asistencia y prevención de desalojos. Estos programas ayudan a aliviar un poco el impacto económico de las familias más voluntables.

[02:24:48] Sin embargo, hemos encontrado algún desafío como el proceso de enviar fondos a la administración de los apartamentos. tarda mucho. Los desalojos llevarán a cortes, aumentan los fees y aún sabiendo que hay que estamos aplicando el programa hasta el punto de vernos obligados a sacar dinero prestado y terminar pagando la deuda por temor a ser desalojados. Pedimos el apoyo para dar los

[02:25:26] fundos para el programa de prevención de desalojos se acerca una temporada de frío donde el trabajo baja y las preocupaciones en cuanto a la vivienda aumentan y queremos permanecer en nuestro hogar gracias gracias thank you madam chair if you're okay with it i'll read the english translation that the speaker provided um is there nobody else from nuba jay majority to do that they asked that one of us do it for them tonight. Okay. Okay. Good evening, representatives of the Loudoun County

[02:26:01] Board of Supervisors. My name is Nubia Menendez. I have lived in Leesburg for 12 years with my family. I have worked house cleaning and restaurant jobs to get by. I live in an apartment complex. I dream of having my own house, but I can't find housing options within our budget. This experience is shared by many in our community, especially those earning the minimum salary. We thank members of board who are supporting the continuation of the eviction assistance and prevention programs.

[02:26:30] These programs help to somewhat alleviate the economic impact of the most vulnerable families. However, we have encountered some challenges with these programs. The process of sending us funds to the apartment managers takes entirely too long.

[02:26:45] This causes the apartment management to threaten us for eviction, taking us to court, increasing the fees and even though they know that we have applied to the program and they will receive a payment it has gotten to the point that we have been forced to borrow money and pay for pay them for fear of being evicted we ask for more support and additional funding of the eviction prevention program as cold as the cold weather season is approaching we are work where work slows down and housing concerns increase we want to stay in our homes thank you thank you thank you

[02:27:21] very much. Carl, oh no, no, no, Leticia Macchiado, and then you will be followed by Carl Snyder, followed by Jane Williams. Good evening. Hello. They wanted to bury us, but they didn't know we were seeds. It's a Mexican proverb. I don't have much of an idea what I'm doing here, but I'm going to keep coming back to address this board, because there is no time for this

[02:27:57] very in isolation. Because I know that I can go back to my lane and focus on the needs of the Latino community, but there is no time to compartmentalize our struggles. And as I discover how can I better serve this movement, elevate other people's voices instead. This is a statement from Neelam, a Pakistani-American who went to medical school with three now missing Palestinian doctors? Can we agree that genocide is wrong? Every single taxpayer is funding the atrocities

[02:28:31] to further colonialism, imperialism, and the empire. Loudoun County is also complicit in the atrocities when benefits of genocide outweighed humanity. There was a time when the economy was run on free labor of those enslaved. The mental gymnastics and gaslighting must be exhausting to find silver linings for racism. Supporting the racist, theocratic, ethnostate, oppression, occupation, apartheid, and genocide of Palestine is unacceptable, and this board should find the courage to stand against it. I'd also like to address the fallacy of Israel's right to exist

[02:29:10] being under threat by quoting the UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese when she said that Israel does exist. It is a recognized member of the United Nations. Furthermore, international laws do not recognize a right for nations to exist. Their right to exist is conceded to the people only. And one way to exercise such right to exist is by resisting occupation. Now, there can be disagreement on whether violence is justified or not when humans exercise their

[02:29:46] right to exist. But what is not up for debate is who decides that. In other words, it is not up to us non-Palestinians, non-people enduring occupation to endorse or condemn how to resist. And so you can see, I can feel my body shaking while I stand here. All I need to do, all I need with me to do it is the firm conviction that in standing here in solidarity with the Palestinian. Ma'am. Okay.

[02:30:16] Thank you. Free Palestine. Dismantled by a -- Thank you. Carl Snyder has actually already spoke, but we will go to Jane Williams and Omar Hussain. Good evening. Good evening. My name is Jane Williams, and I'm a resident of the village of Waterford.

[02:30:33] I rise tonight to speak to the process of transparency and community outreach conducted by the Waterford Foundation, the 2033 Committee, and the Waterford Citizens Association. Transparency through information is at the heart of the Citizens Association website.

[02:30:52] This website functions as a community bulletin board for all information regarding the history and current status of the Waterford water project. Information includes comments from Waterford citizens, a video produced by DGS in the feasibility study, and an FAQ about the Paeonian Springs and Waterford joint water and waste system to name but just a few examples.

[02:31:16] on the first page of the wca website a link to the county's water waterford water project is the very first item and i stress you do not have to be a member of the wca to get all this information the website is accessible to all waterford's community organizations held numerous meetings solicit community input information about these open houses presentations and even newsletters and I've submitted one of our newsletters for you, were mailed out village-wide.

[02:31:48] Again, you didn't have to be a member of either the foundation or WCA to receive this information. The 2033 committee held weekly, yes, weekly meetings on water and infrastructure every Tuesday at noon via Zoom for almost two years.

[02:32:08] These information and planning sessions were critical for community input and strategy. Again, you did not have to ascertain membership to any organization to join in. You just had to zoom in.

[02:32:23] Transparency and community outreach are not distant goals, but a fundamental process that directs the Waterford community organizations around water and infrastructure affecting our village. Thank you. - Thank you.

[02:32:40] Omar Hussain is on, I believe, the phone, is that correct? All right, let's go on and I'm going to go in order because it's just easier. After that gentleman would be Mohammed Bazeer, followed by Maya Bazeer.

[02:33:09] We're ready when you are, sir. Is he on? Did he come on? He is on. Can you hear us? Okay, I'm going to go to the next place.

[02:33:28] Oh, there we are. There we are. We haven't started your time yet. So if you were speaking, can you start over? Oh, OK. I'm sorry. No, no, it's our fault. No. Yeah, we're ready when you are. OK. Bismillah. First, in the name of Allah, the most gracious and merciful, may he guide us to the straight path.

[02:33:46] Some of the comments made by Zionist thugs that promote the Zionist propaganda stated that pro-Palestinian speakers are attempting to sway the board to institutionalize anti-Semitism into county policy by asking the board to divest from companies with financial ties to Israel and for ceasefire resolution.

[02:34:02] This is in no way, shape, or form anti-Semitic. Firstly, caring for another human life is not anti-Semitic. The word anti-Semitic has been watered down by Zionist thugs to a level that it devalues its real meaning. Further, as humans, it is a moral obligation to stand against government, companies, and even other people who not only commit war crimes and a genocide, but also enables it.

[02:34:25] The fact that this vote allows to invest in companies and governments that support ethnic cleansing, The genocide of innocent men, women, and children is mind-blowing. A member of this board pushed for human life, but yet your hands are deep in the mortar of a people by the simple act of continuing to invest in these companies that directly fuel the genocide to the people of Palestine.

[02:34:46] To add insult to injury, some of you are professed to be Christians, especially you, Ms. Fields Randall. As a Christian, you are called to be the voice of the voiceless, to stand with the oppressed, and emulate Christ, who spoke truth to Paul without fear. Yet today, as bombed Paul on Palestine, the land where Jesus Christ was born, the very soil of Bethlehem, to many of you, remain silent. The birthplace of your Savior, a land rich in faith and history, is now a land of destruction and despair. Innocent lives have been lost, families torn apart, and sacred places reduced to rubble. The people of Palestine, Muslim and Christians alike, are crying out for

[02:35:23] justice, for peace, for the right to exist. Yet many of you look away. How can you as followers of Christ remain indifferent? How can you ignore the suffering of those who live where Christ himself walked, preached, and brought hope? Your faith demands more. Jesus stood with the oppressed and he calls on you all to do the same. This isn't about politics. It's about humanity, about living the gospel you claim to believe. To be silent now is to betray the very message of Christ, love, justice, and compassion. Please find the courage to speak up, to pray for peace, and demand the end of violence, because if you remain silent in the face of injustice,

[02:36:01] you risk losing your own humanity and the very essence of your faith. Divest now, and as always, free Palestine. Thank you. Thank you. There are a lot of opinions that get to walk into this room and speak, because this is America, and whatever is said is said, but the one thing I wouldn't do no matter who you are, no matter what side you're talking on or what you're saying, is allow other citizens to call citizens' names because that is not what

[02:36:38] I can allow. So calling somebody a thug who spoke here in this room two weeks ago, I wouldn't allow it no matter what, and I'm going to ask that no matter what else you say, those types of names refrain from um and that's that's all i'll say to that um muhammad but i if i think it's i'm not sure if it's bazir or bizarre either one i do apologize if i say your name wrong or incorrectly and you will be followed by maya um and again bazir or bizarre let me know which which i i

[02:37:14] want to say your name correctly so if i am saying it incorrectly please correct me it's muhammad bizarre it's bizarre thank you okay when you are sir i'm ready right now i'm going to speak on behalf of the anti-zionist jew in occupied palestine i'm gonna play the video right now all right okay hi my name is elicarpaz i am an anti-zionist jew who live in occupied palestine i want to join the call for arms embargo on israel and i want to call all the people who have see themselves who people

[02:37:49] who care about humanity who care about morality who care about equal rights to everyone please oppose the zionist state and what it's doing to the people of gaza and to the people of lobanon and to the people of the west bank and also what it's doing to its own citizens because zionism is dangerous to jews and to israelis just as much as it's dangerous to palestinians and to all human beings this is a genocidal suicidal movement it's not serving jews it's not serving my safety the

[02:38:22] only thing that will ever serve my safety is dismantling this state and creating a democracy between the river and the sea with right of return for the palestinian refugees that everyone live together in equal rights and i'm ready to speak up for it and to fight for it with all the non-violent means that i have till the day i die so please share this message and free palestine I say now, divest from the illegal apartheid state of Israel, and as always, from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.

[02:39:02] Free Palestine. Thank you, and you will be followed by Maya, and you will be followed by, and this will be on the phone, Rula Nasir. Evening, ma'am.

[02:39:24] Good evening, board members. Bad evening to the Zionists. Ladies and gentlemen, today we stand at a crossroads of humanity. Faced with the painful reality of the ongoing oppression of the Palestinian people, for over 70 years they have endured systematic violence, dispossession, and discrimination at the hands of an apartheid regime that seeks to erase their existence.

[02:39:49] From the over 400 days of ongoing genocide in Gaza to the surmounting human rights abuse evidence and humiliation in the West Bank, Palestinians live under conditions of forced displacement, military occupation, and denial of basic human rights.

[02:40:06] this is not a conflict between two equal sides this is a systematic subjugation of an entire population homes are demolished families are torn apart and children grow up knowing nothing but the terror of an occupation the world watches but many turn a blind eye blind eye and some tragically enable this ongoing tragedy the united states as one of the largest supporters of israel has long provided the weapons the funding and the diplomatic cover that sustains this oppression U.S. military aid to Israel amounts to billions of dollars every year, contributing directly to the

[02:40:43] violence, displacement, and suffering of innocent Palestinians. By vetoing resolutions at the United Nations, by turning a blind eye to human rights violations, and by shielding Israel from international accountability, the U.S. is complicit in this injustice. Every bomb dropped on Gaza, every settler encroaching on Palestinian land is in fact part funded by US tax dollars.

[02:41:08] Every unjust policy that perpetuates apartheid is in part made possible by American political and military support. This is not merely a political issue, it is a moral one. The silence must end. The complicity must end. We must demand that our leaders stop enabling this genocide and and instead push for a future where Palestinians can live with dignity, freedom, and justice.

[02:41:37] My daughters, Saba, Isra, and Hanen, I went down to look for them. They were in pieces. They remained in pieces. Nine, seven, three years old.

[02:41:55] Pieces. The next speaker will be Rula Nasser, followed by Laina Hawa, followed by Mariam Hussain.

[02:42:11] Good evening, members of the board. My name is Rula. I'm a Christian, Semite, Arab-American. Therefore, I cannot be anti-Semitic. And today I want to share a deeply personal story, a story of loss, resilience, and hope. In 1948, Zionist Israeli occupation forces forced my grandmother's family out of their home in Jerusalem, a home they had cherished for generations. Stripped off everything, they were shipped to Jordan with nothing but their dignity and the will to rebuild. My grandmother, like so many Palestinians, carried the pain of displacement

[02:42:49] while refusing to let it define her. As an immigrant to the United States, her story lives in me. Her strength inspires my journey, but her pain feels especially raw today. I watch history repeat itself as Palestinians continue to face apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and unimaginable suffering. These are not just policies, they are injustices that strip people of their humanity.

[02:43:17] And now I see echoes of this oppression in my new home. The racist policies championed by President Trump against immigrants and the dehumanization allowed in the current climate remind me of the same forces of exclusion and hatred that uprooted my grandmother's family. Displacement, whether it's across oceans or borders, is fueled by the same dehumanization.

[02:43:42] But I believe in the power of change. As the Palestinian-American author, Ibtisam Barakat, writes, big change is the rule in history, not the exception. Today, I ask you to believe in that rule and become part of it.

[02:43:57] Let's stand together against injustice here and everywhere and fight for a future where no family has to endure what mine did. Last but not least, my two sons, Andrew and Theodore, would like to add, come on, stop genocide in Gaza.

[02:44:16] Free, free Palestine. Free, free Palestine. And as Nelson Mandela once said, we are not free until Palestine is free. Thank you. Thank you. Lena Hawa, followed by Miriam Hussain, followed by Xenia H, that's what it says.

[02:44:41] Good evening. Good evening. So, Honorable Vice Chair Julie Briskman, I stand before you with a heart broken by the suffering I witnessed firsthand in Gaza nine months ago as a medical mission nurse. The devastation, the innocent lives lost, the communities obliterated, and the overwhelming humanitarian crisis will forever haunt me.

[02:45:03] What I saw was not war. It was a deliberate act of genocide. Despite this, I'm filled with a deep gratitude for your courageous call for a ceasefire. This violence did not begin on October 7. For decades, Palestinians have endured oppression, violence, and displacement. What we see today is merely the continuation of a long history of injustice. This truth was echoed in a letter signed by 99 doctors and nurses, including myself, published in the New York Times with millions of views. In that letter, we called out the acts of war crimes that we witnessed and urgently called on the president to take action to end the bloodshed in Gaza. Ms. Briskman, you are not standing alone. You are supported by a powerful coalition

[02:45:41] of leaders who understand the need for justice and peace. Chair Randall, with her background in mental health therapy, understands the long-term psychological toll of witnessing such, um, toll of witnessing such devastating horrors. Supervisor Turner, a Desert Storm veteran, knows from his own experience that violence should never be the answer and peace must always be the ultimate goal. Supervisor Glass, a mother who's spent her whole life protecting vulnerable children, reminds us that the future of humanity depends on safeguarding our youngest. Supervisor Kirshner, a Commonwealth attorney, brings his legal expertise. He

[02:46:18] understands accountability. War crimes must not go unpunished, and those responsible for Gaza's suffering must be held accountable. Supervisor Letterno, with his focus on people-centered leadership recognizes the daily struggles American families face and reminds us that the suffering in Gaza demands our compassion and urgent action. Supervisor Tacroni, a mother and advocate for equality, knows that the fight for dignity and human rights in Gaza is universal.

[02:46:45] Supervisor Umstead's experience in the U.S. Naval Reserve and CIA knows that true security and peace can only come through diplomacy and not through destruction. Supervisor Sains, one of the first African-American supervisors in Loudoun County's history understands the urgency of creating a future where children can grow up in peace. His historic leadership reminds us that real change comes when we stand up for those who have been marginalized. Vice Chair Bristman, you and this extraordinary group of leaders can send a powerful message that we will not remain silent while our tax dollars fund genocide. Please call and push for a ceasefire. Thank you for your leadership.

[02:47:21] thank you ma'am um miriam hussein followed by um it it might be zayna h followed by mike taylor yes she's on the line she's on the phone she's on the way

[02:47:56] thank you thank you are they done okay so make sure before i go to the next person um it might be it might be zania h it's um it's z-e-i-n-a but then it says z-a-y-n-a so i'm not sure which one it is are you here you are here no oh okay and then you'll be followed by

[02:48:33] mike taylor followed by laura shaw that's okay okay ready when you are um good evening and thank Thank you, Chair Randall, and everyone for the opportunity.

[02:49:06] Statements were made last meeting by members of the Board of Supervisors that I would like to address. Mr. Sainz said that you welcome everyone's speech so long as it is factual, yet somehow spreading blatant lies dehumanizing Palestinians and pushing for the protection of Israel from criticism at the expense of the First Amendment doesn't make the cut of this Board's red Not just from the floor, mind you, but by people in your seats.

[02:49:36] When people like Ms. Amstead make outrageous statements spreading literal Israeli military lies and propaganda from her seat, it further exposes the anti-Palestinian hate and bigotry that is so easily peddled in these circles because of the empowerment of it.

[02:49:55] It speaks loudly to the double standards and the hypocrisy that exists not just in the political sense and lens, But to put it bluntly, in an institutional lens, not just here, I heard you frustrated and having to reiterate, Chairwoman Randall, that you will not have a ceasefire resolution.

[02:50:18] We all heard you. At this point, ma'am, it is not necessarily about a resolution. 180,000-plus Palestinians have been murdered 13 months into a genocide. It is about documentation of you all's positions on the record, time and again, refusing to call for an end to one of the worst injustices and atrocities of our lifetime.

[02:50:45] It is because it is about the integrity, knowing you have power in your elected voices and refusing to use them to stand up against the depravity we all know Palestinians and now Lebanese are facing by Israel and the U.S.

[02:51:05] I want to end with this. If it's fear about being called antisemitic or the pressure that I know you all face from outside people and lobby groups, rest assured that there are people on the international level like Francesca Albanese, who stood there when asked about her facing all the accusations, the false accusations of antisemitism for speaking up.

[02:51:23] She said, let's not divert, I'm paraphrasing, let's not divert attention from the truth. And the truth, Mr. Sains, is that there needs to be a call to an end to the genocide. And the truth is, your voices are powerful.

[02:51:40] Thank you. And the genocide. Mike Taylor, followed by Laura Shaw, followed by Jeff Bean. Good evening. Madam Chair, members of the board, good evening.

[02:51:56] i'm mike taylor uh as i stated last week's meeting i'm the closest residence to this proposed tower that milestone wants to put up at clark's gap uh since the last meeting i'm first off i am still supporting the tower i want to be clear on that since the last meeting i did have conversations with two of the deacons of the church uh one immediately after the meeting and yesterday on the phone uh another called we had very pleasant conversations this has been an ongoing issue with the dead space up there at Clark's Gap. Everybody knows when you go through you're going to lose your call. Everybody that's trying to get help, you know, you've got the bike

[02:52:33] path and the roads all coming together there. If you can't get help when you get hit off your bike, it's not going to be a good day. So I'm asking that you go ahead and approve this. I see it came off consent. So, you know, there will be some discussion, which is good. In no way am I dismissing the concerns of some of the people that are objecting but if this tower doesn't get put in and gets moved to another location or deferred we're getting right back on another two-year cycle to get anything done and it'll just bring another list of people that object for

[02:53:11] similar reasons from a different geographic area if we keep going through and deferring and deferring and deferring before you know at all points broadband will have actually hooked somebody's fiber up. And I don't see that happening anytime soon either. The only thing that I'll leave you with is I would ask the people in opposition how many would willingly stand in support and in solidarity with people who have complained about any cell tower project in the county by having their phones blocked from connecting to any existing tower that had similar

[02:53:45] concerns. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Laura Shaw, you will be followed by jeff bean followed by shane crow good evening evening my name is laura shaw i am a homeowner homeowner in waterford in 2017 a petition a petition was circulated to get signatures for finding a solution to the water problems of a few people in the village i was told there would be no cost to a homeowner for the new system and that if we chose not to use the system we could opt out

[02:54:21] most importantly everyone was told there would be an in-person meeting where an official vote would be taken prior to any water effort moving forward. To date, there has been no official meeting or voting opportunity on this effort. Community engagement as well as proper dissemination of accurate information by county personnel is needed. In fact, Waterfordians have yet to be informed there is a $15,000 hookup fee, a $5,000 well abatement fee, plus monthly water usage fee for the proposed county water solution. They have not been made aware

[02:54:58] that they will get a mere 1.2 gallons per minute, nor have they been told there could be mandatory water restrictions as surrounding towns have suffered. A Dewberry email was sent to village residents with a very short turnaround window in which only 11% of the village said yes to the water project. Many did not fill in the survey waiting for the official in-person meeting as originally promised. I have not received a certified letter asking if I would like to participate, nor have I been officially asked to vote at a county-run meeting. I have not been

[02:55:32] engaged by the county nor informed of pertinent facts. Please be aware, the Waterford Citizens Association and the Waterford Foundation do not represent all Waterford homeowners in this matter. I'm here today to ask you to press pause on the Waterford project and directly engage the community. Find out in an unbiased way who has water issues. What are the issues? How have the homeowners tried to resolve the issue? Have they tried to drill a well? Have they looked into low yield well management solutions? Find out in an official capacity how many residents in the village

[02:56:11] want the county to spend $13 million on a water solution. You will find it is not a majority of homeowners nor does it anywhere close to the county's required threshold of 60 percent all those who would like the bos to vote no tonight on the water project please stand madam chairman and board members of the board of food providers i ask that you vote no to moving forward your time is up thank you thank you jeffrey bean followed by shane crow followed by william stewart

[02:56:46] good evening she gets a little long-winded good evening madam chairman and the board members i am Jeffrey Bean, my wife and I, 29-year Waterford residents. First, I would like to clarify that our group is not at all about denying water to anybody, quite the opposite. We believe and have found that there are much simpler, much lower cost, more immediately attainable methods of getting water to those in need. Unlike what you may believe based on the opinion survey, the availability of water in the village is not the problem. It's merely that traditional well-pumped systems are

[02:57:25] inadequate for low-yield wells. Instead, a processor-controlled, low-yield well management system is needed and is successful in harvesting, storing, and pressurizing virtually as much water as the homeowner or institution requires, even if the well yields as little as one quarter of a gallon per minute. Proof? One such system is already in use in the village and supports a six-member family on a one-gallon-per-minute well with no shortage. The base system is the size of a refrigerator, is expandable, and costs less than the estimated $15,000 spent to hook up to the

[02:58:04] public water. Parcels that have absolutely no water can utilize shared wells. According to the Dewberry study, there are already six such shared wells in Waterford. The county is being asked to spend millions of dollars to solve a perceived problem based on inadequate data. The initial Dewberry study, by its own admission, does not have complete well-yield information.

[02:58:27] I and our group ask that before you spend $4 million, you instead spend $20,000, maybe $30,000 on testing the yields of questionable or untested wells at a cost of roughly $1,000 per test. Two parties would benefit from this.

[02:58:44] First, the parcel owner would know with certainty what their well can provide, alleviating worry, which was a big part of that initial opinion survey. Second, the county would have the complete data necessary to make an informed and prudent decision with our taxpayer dollars.

[02:59:01] I will happily round up all parcel owners that would be willing to take advantage of such in a test, should you be willing to fund it. We ask that you vote no, or at least defer the vote for the $4 million, and instead approve a few thousand dollars to complete the study.

[02:59:17] I, the Waterford Preservation Group, our Clarks Gap Road neighbors, and the taxpayers will thank you. Thank you, sir. Jane Crowe, followed by William Stewart, followed by Terry Murphy. Good evening.

[02:59:34] Good evening. Excellent. Quite some time has passed since the last time I've spoken to the board, although I must confess I do fear that the board's perception of my presence here may be devolving into that of a political gremlin because I appear to be summoned at the mere mention of rank-choice voting in our local discourse.

[02:59:52] Nevertheless, I do have some commentary I hope to fit in the next two minutes, which is, as an organization, of course, our mission statement is to maximize the power of the voter here in Virginia. And in that mission, we do stand in support of the General Assembly's House Joint Resolution 2, which would automatically re-enfranchise felons who have served their time here in Virginia. But of course, we also believe that re-enfranchised voters, along with all other voters, should enjoy the right to express their political will without fear that their support for their true favorite, but perhaps less popular candidate, will unintentionally spoil the result of an election where all voters end up with a nominee or elected official

[03:00:30] that struggles to garner broad community support and approval. Our elected officials should be a reflection of our community values from a rich selection of options instead of a result produced from restricted opportunity. Now, of course, in our recent elections this cycle, our fellow community members are demonstrating that they do not believe they should have to wait their turn to run for office to seek the opportunity to serve their community simply because the timing would be inconvenient for partisan reasons.

[03:00:59] We should help facilitate this desire our friends and neighbours show to us to participate in our democracy by ensuring that no matter how many people decide to run in a given election, the eventual winner will be someone who can garner a strong base of support as well as demonstrate an ability to appeal to a broad swath of the community beyond their own base of supporters.

[03:01:18] In other words, we hope to encourage more bridge builders to participate once again in our political process. Now, I must say, we are disappointed that the board recently struck Ranked Choice Voting from the county legislative agenda, as its inclusion on the agenda would have signaled to the General Assembly that more localities are interested in using Ranked Choice Voting and would have helped encourage further discussion to expand the local option that currently exists to include all other local offices, such as our school boards and constitutional offices.

[03:01:48] Every locality should enjoy the flexibility needed to consider how best to apply ranked choice voting for its local circumstances. And we at Upvote Virginia would appreciate all the support we can receive. And of course, that is the end of my time. But again, I do hope to continue this conversation once again.

[03:02:04] Thank you. Thank you. William Stewart, followed by Terry Murphy, followed by Ray Daffner. Good evening. Good evening, Chair Randall and members of the board. My name is Will Stewart. I'm here on item number 12, which is the joint water and sewage system for Peonian Springs and Waterford.

[03:02:27] I live in the area labeled PSD-7 in the study. Based on discussions with our neighbors in that particular zone, we have some serious questions and concerns about this proposed interconnected water system. First, we all have fully functional well systems that work very well and very reliable.

[03:02:44] The study has identified areas along Clarkscrap Gap Road from which to extract 600,000 gallons a day for this particular project, that's 600,000 gallons. The questions we have, how can the county ensure that developing community wells on this scale will not impact existing functional wells for the residents in this area?

[03:03:05] And number two, is the county willing to fully recompense any homeowner if the performance of their well is impacted by the waterworks such as this? Next subject, there will be construction impacts, for example, on the road, including like eight months of detour traffic or at least one-way flagged person congestion.

[03:03:27] There are very few ways in and out of this area, and those ways include dirt roads, such as Old Waterford Road, which is frequently not in very good repair. It will dump considerable amounts of traffic on the northwest corner of Leesburg, exacerbating Leesburg traffic and adding an inordinate amounts of additional travel time as drivers have to then filter through the Leesburg neighborhoods and downtown itself.

[03:03:53] So how is the county prepared to avoid or significantly minimize traffic impacts such as this if the project were to go forward? Finally, there are power lines and telephone poles in the right of way on both sides of Clark Gap Road, which will most likely either need to be moved or land acquisitions undertaken.

[03:04:16] There's no particular decision on this matter yet, so land acquisition ostensibly should not be undertaken during design planning, yet there are line items in the four million dollar plan for exactly that. Other questions are, are there specific land acquisitions that are planned for this?

[03:04:34] Would land acquisitions at this point then presume a particular approach would invariably be the fete accompli approach um and that's all i have for now thank you very much thank you um terry murphy followed by ray daffner followed by philip paschel good evening sir good evening chairman randall and members of the board thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening my name is terry murphy i'm a neighbor of will's i'm also in psd7 in the area on the south end of

[03:05:10] clark's gap road and as will mentioned we've had a lot of discussion with our neighbors about uh these i guess proposed projects at this point and we do have a number we have some additional concerns i want to share and some questions i want to get out there for the board to probably address at a later date first is we're incredibly disappointed with the i'll call it a lack of transparency and just a complete lack of any kind of public involvement process the way we became aware of these of these projects was received a certified letter in the mail requesting access

[03:05:47] to our property to explore the viability of groundwater there with no explanation really for what it was all about so we made some phone calls we dug in we found out there was a feasibility study for at that time a paonian spring system which is now morphed into this joint system so very disappointed in the lack of public engagement our question to the board is if you do decide to move forward is there are you going to ramp up the public engagement will we get a robust public engagement process moving forward so that the people that are potentially affected by the project are kept in the loop and have an opportunity to have their

[03:06:25] voice heard uh the next point we wanted to make is that uh in our discussions amongst our group in psd7 we've all kind of concluded that we're not interested in granting any kind of uh you know conditional contingent easement i guess it would be called so that somebody can come in and drill and see if it's viable to establish wells so given that we're not really willing to participate in that what we'd like to know is the county prepared to uh you know engage the imminent domain process

[03:06:59] to kind of force that issue and gain access to our properties and then finally just as taxpayers regardless of which zone we live in um we're just concerned about the scale of the project and is it you know it does it does it really make sense to us i mean we don't understand why the county and loud and water are pursuing what's you know looks like a very expensive project to solve problems that we just don't see as being commensurate with the solution that's being provided that's our final question thank you for the time thank you thank you sir ray daffner followed by

[03:07:34] Philip Paschel, followed by Beatrice Coates. Good evening. My name is Ray Daffner, and I'm here to speak about the Peonian Springs Waterford Water Project. I've been a resident of Waterford for over 25 years, and my three children started in kindergarten at the local elementary school and graduated high school at the Latin County Public Schools. I've also been honored to serve

[03:08:07] two terms as the president of Waterford Citizens Association. The work to get to this point and consider the proposal before you has taken many hands. Taken the formation of a water committee by the Waterford Citizens Association to look into these challenges. It has involved the formation of a partnership between the Waterford Citizens Association and the Waterford Foundation.

[03:08:33] And these priorities have been broadly supported by the community, which for the last four terms has elected officers advancing these priorities. Water and infrastructure have been long-term challenges in the village of Waterford, and we're pleased this measure is before the Board of Supervisors to begin the process to move solutions forward.

[03:08:55] We have many conveniences of modern life in Waterford, and it seems it's time to have clean drinking water, too. The proposal before you is a result of a lot of hard work by many community members, And I'm very appreciative of the volunteers in our community who have gotten us to this point.

[03:09:14] I urge the Board of Supervisors to support this proposal so that Waterford can continue to be a vibrant community, adding to the fabric of Loudoun County. And if I have a moment or two, I would just like to add one last point.

[03:09:32] I want to thank those that spoke with compassion this evening about the need for peace in Gaza. My heart was greatly moved. want to thank them for speaking out to support those that are suffering thank you chair randall good evening thank you good evening philip paschel passed shell followed by beatrice coats called by followed by kevin odell good evening sir good evening my comments have to do with the

[03:10:06] waterford union issue uh my position is documentation from louden county staff and their engineering contractors including a feasibility study supporting a new public water system for waterford omits the fact that the county and its contractors will need to obtain a federal license to construct its water system pipeline across balls run on route 662 balls run is a perennial stream inside the waterford national historic landmark obtaining a federal

[03:10:45] license from the Oversight Federal Agency the Army Corps of Engineers triggers section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act the requirements of which has the Army Corps of Engineers consulting with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and the Virginia State Historic Preservation officer they have to review and comment on the negative effects of this project on the Waterford Historic District Waterford preservation group would ask the county board of supervisors and county staff to contact the army

[03:11:22] corps of engineers to initiate the section 106 process the attached fourth circuit court of appeals i have in my copies is caption waterford citizens association versus epa and the louden County Sanitation Authority dated June 15 1992 it all outlines what these requirements are section 106 reads effect of federal undertakings upon property and National Register comment by Advisory Council on historic

[03:12:02] preservation the head of any federal department have an authority to the license any undertaken shall prior to the issuance of the license take into account the effect of the undertaken on any district site building structure or object that is included in or eligible for the National Register the head of any such federal agency shall afford the council on historic preservation a reasonable opportunity to comment with regard to such undertaking and undertaken is a new or continuing project by federal agency which can

[03:12:38] which can change the character or use of a historic property thank you very much Thank you, sir. Thank you. Beatrice Coates followed by Kevin O'Dell followed by Bill Steetley.

[03:12:58] Good evening. Hi. Good evening, members of the board. I'm here to strongly oppose the proposed cell tower near our neighborhood. While I recognize the importance of improved cellular connection, this project raises significant concerns. There is a viable alternative, a nearby Dominion Energy five-acre parcel, which is available. While I understand that developing on this land might involve additional grading or tree removal costs, that does not make it unsuitable.

[03:13:21] According to a representative I've been speaking to from Dominion Energy, Justin Cochran, he stated that a transmission engineer has identified a potential location on this property. However, the developer has not adequately assessed this option, which is necessary to make the best decision.

[03:13:36] I will provide a handout on the 465 East Colonial Highway property. Additionally, critically safety and feasibility assessments remain incomplete. I received a link from Darby Metcalf to retrieve the evaluation. However, an evaluation was not present. Two emails were there. One was provided by Maria Taylor who stated that she could not locate the fire and rescue information. I will provide this handout as well. She stated in the email that the response time for fire and rescue in the proposed area is within five minutes, which is standard for Virginia. The other email was uploaded was from Chief Michael Lamb, who did have some

[03:14:13] concerns. When I spoke to him this morning, he stated the need for cellular improvement in their equipment, although the communication lines are good since they utilize radios and cellular is backup. However, Chief Michael Lamb informed me that the fire department had not conducted a feasibility evaluation. Justin Cochran is also unaware that AT&T has conducted a coverage assessment on the identified property. In consultation with my husband, who works for a large international construction company, I confirmed that the alternative Dominion Energy property offers excellent access, lay down space for materials, and logistic support for development. However, I do understand that a civil engineer must conduct a thorough

[03:14:50] assessment, which has not occurred. Moving forward without these evaluations leaves too many unanswered questions. In conclusion, I urge the developer and the decision makers to delay the project until all viable alternatives including the dominion energy side are fully explored thoughtful well-informed decisions are essential in this process rather than a rushed and uninformed plan that compromises the rights of our local residents thank you so much it's beatrice costas thank you do you have do you have are you going to leave those right now okay do you have uh copies for the full board or just you you have one of each okay thank you

[03:15:27] no yeah that's just just you can just give them to her yeah yeah uh we will do that item after we we do closed session so if we need to see that we can all see that kevin odell followed by bill statley followed by donnie walker good evening sir good evening members of the board and i want to thank all of you took uh time out of your schedules to listen to me rant on the phone and on zoom meetings that was really appreciated so i didn't prepare anything tonight i'm just speaking from the heart lived in leesburg for 13 years my wife and i own two businesses in the town of

[03:16:03] leesburg we have roots in this community we're not going anywhere we plan to retire here we moved out off of route nine only a quarter mile from where this proposed cell tower is going to have that beautiful scenic rural view and while we do understand that there is a want a desire and even possibly a need for better cellular service we have county guidelines in place that state that there has to be every other viable option has to be vetted before you can grant a special exemption and that's what they're looking for so there should be a higher standard for that they have made inconsistent as well as uh uh i believe misinformed and misinformation statements

[03:16:42] to the board multiple times both in their application as well as in their statements this is from from height from location and i've sent alts into your emails and i also brought it it again I can leave it here so you can look through it and B spoke to this already so I also want to speak to the scare tactics and hyperbole that's trying to be utilized on this board about potential somebody falling off their bike and you know of course that can happen but we can talk about things that could happen on all day but if there's not evidence to support it then we can't rush into anything and I think at the very least that should be

[03:17:18] deferred until all these other all this other property is sorted through because they stated that that Dominion told them no but Dominion only told them no to a tiny portion of the 17 acre land and I actually brought evidence here to show that there is a huge amount of land and the land that they're actually proposing to use is only 2133 feet which is a fraction of an acre you're trying to tell me that they can't find 2133 feet on 15 acres of land no the reason they want this land this special exemption is because they want the free public land

[03:17:58] and maybe that's a question you can ask them how much are they paying for this VDOT land because I've asked and I haven't found out that they're paying a dime for this and that is why they're so gung-ho they'll tell you guys whatever they can to sway you so that they can get free land and make a higher profit margin and I just think like our community should be considered as well

[03:18:17] since we're taxpayers and we live there thank you thank you good evening sir everybody when you are certainly good evening my name is william steedley and i'm representing bridgeview christian church the church that is close to this proposed tower site and while we

[03:18:53] do recognize there can be a need for increased coverage including emergency services again we're opposed to the proposed site as we mentioned at last wednesday's board meeting and we do recommend at least be moved to the dominion power site and of course there are various reasons that we gave last wednesday that our church our church members being impacted but now since last week as the gentleman just alluded to we've seen that the applicant has been deficient in their due diligence or worse yet deceptive they've ruled out the dominion location asserting dominion refused

[03:19:29] but that's not true right they've also not performed coverage analysis for the dominion location my daughter asked after the meeting on wednesday and they do not have the coverage analysis yet they've asserted that that coverage from that location is not sufficient. Of course we're in a situation where various interests are being weighed against one another but not necessarily objectively especially when the facts aren't all in front of us. In fact when the representative applicants the representative applicants excuse me the applicants representative called me last month I learned that this tower was originally slated for Beacon Hill to the east.

[03:20:10] good question is, why wasn't it placed there? Especially since we've heard there have been comments about moving this tower to this other Dominion location might have a little impact to the east. And so, you know, we're also confronted, or we were confronted years ago with another infrastructure development to the east, and that was the burial of the power lines. Ironically, that burial of those power lines provides this pad that affords the opportunity to move the tower further from our church and still provide good coverage for the neighborhood in which it'll be in in Paoni and Springs. And if there's a little loss of coverage to the east, so be it, since

[03:20:49] those who already, since those who live there have already had the tower moved out of their neighborhood. If this is a serious concern for them, perhaps those to the east would welcome back the tower. Otherwise, again, Bridgeview Christian Church requests the tower be placed on the dominion site at the very least thank you for your time thank you sir um donnie walker and you will be followed by jessica royce followed by i think it's i think it's ace um you may i i hope i'm saying that right followed by bona milka good evening mr walker good evening good evening board

[03:21:28] i still support the location of the tower if the towers move to another location there's no guarantee that milestone will continue on with a special exception if it is the board's wishes to change locations or have them assess another location i hope that they fast track the permitting process for that peonian springs needs a lot of things including the water and sewer program that i came here to speak about tonight uh scott fincham with the county has done a lot of community outreach he's done a lot of meetings and i'm on a phone call with him at least once every two to three months so he needs a lot of credit him and lana for everything that has been done i believe that

[03:22:05] we should continue on with the plans that have been drawn up by the engineers for connecting the two communities even though that from day one i said when they propose a connection to waterford we could be adding three to five years to the plan there's a lot of people in waterford that don't want it and there's a lot more people in peony and springs that do need it so i hope that you all can keep this moving forward thank you thank you mr walker um everyone by our board rules we do public comments during board meetings for an hour and a half that's nine minutes from that from now so i will call people um for the next for until we get to that time but at 720 the public

[03:22:43] comments will stop at that at 720 but i'll go until then jessica royce you will be followed by I think it's Ace Umeh, and you will be followed by Banna Milka. Good evening. Good evening. I would like to share two stories of survivors of the genocide in Palestine.

[03:23:03] One was a medical worker who had been detained by Israeli forces for several months. He was tortured, starved, raped, beaten, and eventually when he was released, he went back to work. His PTSD was so severe that he just stayed in hospitals for days on end, and he wasn't really sleeping or going home to take a break.

[03:23:24] And eventually, one of his friends and coworkers suggested that he go home. Later that day, she saw him again, and she asked him what had happened and why he had returned to the hospital. And he said that his sister, where she was sheltering, had been airstriked, and his brother-in-law's legs had been blown off.

[03:23:46] And so this man had returned to the hospital to try and save his brother-in-law's life. Another story is of a child who was coming to after an airstrike and he woke up and said, I think my entire family is dead. I think they've all gone to heaven. And he said, I wish I had died too.

[03:24:04] He didn't realize that his sister was actually still alive, but she was so badly burned and maimed next to him that he didn't recognize her. So I know it may be inconvenient and irrelevant for you all to consider a ceasefire, to consider voting for a ceasefire, excuse me.

[03:24:21] But the truth is that this is one of the wealthiest counties in the nation and one of the most powerful countries in the world, and with 180,000-plus people dead, voting for a ceasefire should really be the least that we can do.

[03:24:40] And also, I would just like to say I know there have been accusations made against my pro-Palestinian activists and friends of being anti-Semitic or anti-Jew, and I would just like to say there's nothing further from the truth. If anything, we are anti-war, anti-genocide, and anti-violence, and anyone that accuses pro-Palestinian activists of being anti-Semitic are really just trying to silence the genocide further.

[03:25:07] They're trying to dismiss and erase Palestinians in the same way that Hitler erased the Jewish population, and I don't think that that should be welcomed in this room. Thank you for your time. thank you ace umi i think that might be and you'll be followed by vena melke good evening ma'am good evening hi this is yes aisha ewing um next thursday we will be celebrating thanksgiving

[03:25:44] and i learned how to celebrate thanksgiving when i moved here i was 25 years old later when i had my kids they started elementary school and around especially second grade third grade they started talking about native americans and thanksgiving and they would bring home paper made had things with the paper cut feathers on them or they made native american costumes they learned their custom what they eat where they lived and i was okay so i i asked my american husband i said

[03:26:22] so where are the native americans he said i don't know i didn't do it and he's right he didn't do it it was done long time ago long time ago it's not our fault and what happened with civil rights movement too it's not our fault it was like long time ago but what's going on right now in gaza we are alive now we see it right we don't have right to say we didn't do it

[03:26:52] and at least we can dive divest from israel there are other counties cities already did it we shouldn't be scared of it we are not going to be the first one we are not going to be the first hero doing it thank you thank you bana i think it's b-a-n-a and then you'll be followed by matthew noonan good evening good evening i would like to ask you and ask myself really why do we continue to show up here month after month, even after the board has explicitly expressed that there

[03:27:32] will not be a ceasefire resolution on the agenda. For me, I come for two reasons. The first is to bear witness not only to the atrocities of the genocide inflicted upon the Palestinian people, but to bear witness that our elected politicians, from local to state to federal, are actively involved in either supporting the genocide or in our best case scenario, which is the case of this board, remaining silent or indifferent, even to the concerns of the Arab American community here in Loudoun County who are facing increased bias,

[03:28:08] discrimination, and hate right here at home. The second reason is to keep record in the archives of this county that during the worst atrocity of our generation and that during the Holocaust of our time, members of our community refused to remain silent or indifferent. I haven't had the chance to search the archives of Loudoun County dating back to the Holocaust or even to the apartheid regime of South Africa. But I hope that local politicians weren't silent or indifferent back then. Today we're asking that our tax dollars in our county do not have any financial

[03:28:44] or political interests in entities complicit in Israel's war crimes. And as we hear tonight from residents about the struggles of water here in Loudoun County, I'd like to remind everyone that as a result of Israel's war crimes funded by our tax dollars, Gaza has no water whatsoever.

[03:29:05] And imagine that your water and your power grid is controlled by an occupying power. We continue to come here month after month in order to affirm that we categorically reject what a Palestinian-American legal scholar, Noor Arikat, calls the false demarcation between the over here and the over there. We reject the demarcation because over here, when we drive through Loudoun County, we see that our neighborhoods are home to offices and data centers of tech companies and weapons manufacturers that are complicit in supporting Israel's genocide against the Palestinian and now the Lebanese people. While it is your prerogative as board

[03:29:45] members to remain silent or indifferent, it is our constitutional right, our moral imperative, and our human instinct to continue to speak up. Thank you. Thank you. And our last speaker, because of time will be matthew noonan good evening good evening board of supervisors um firstly i want to address the claims of anti-semitism that have been levied against some of the speakers in this room uh the equation of anti-semitism to anti-zionism is farcical and ultimately dangerous for both jews and non-jews uh it ignores the voices of anti-zionist jews that

[03:30:24] have spoken out against the racist oppressive regime regime of israel since its inception it waters down the real definition of the word anti-semitism if every criticism about the state of israel is anti-semitic then is israel infallible of course not now i want to speak about the legitimate threats to this community that are on the horizon as you know the forthcoming trump administration and what it could bring deeply worries this community we are already hearing about potential executive orders such as reinstating the muslim ban mass deportations

[03:31:00] and targeting individuals and human rights groups that are simply advocating for an anti-genocide i'm curious to know what will you do these next four years to protect the people that you represent will you even acknowledge it if it happens knowing this board i can only assume that you'll ignore it like you have when we demand divestment from israel or the very basic call for a ceasefire i hope if and when that day comes i'll be proven wrong thank you mr newman mr newman will be our last speaker because that is an hour and a half of of speaking which is what we um

[03:31:39] allow for for during our public comment time so for the last two speakers that we're not able to speak i apologize but we we've hit our time um i will tell you who those last two speakers are if you'd like to send us your is it just might have just been just one oh i'm sorry it's just one it's it's miss zipta um if you'd like to send us your comments you actually absolutely may do that supervisors we need to take a break um because we need to take a break yes we are taking a break you just got here we've been here since four o'clock we're taking a break

[03:32:18] i'm taking a break and then we come back we're going to read uh into the uh well no one no no we'll take a break and then we're going to probably do the two action items and then go

[03:32:44] to closed session we're going to take a break first no okay we are we are back supervisors um

[03:50:45] not that you you won't have a long time to look at them but it doesn't actually take a long time time to look at them. I did make copies of the pictures that were referenced, or I didn't make copies, but copies were made for us as was the information that was referenced and so all of you have in front of you pictures. Most of those pictures I think are the Dominion site. There's one picture that's just kind of grassy area, I'm not quite sure what that one is, but most of them are, the point of the picture is showing you the Dominion site, So do with that what you will, but I did want you guys to -- I did want everyone to have those in advance.

[03:51:24] We are going to do that item first. So if the staff could come to the table, I'd appreciate that. So we're going to do the Milestone Clark's Gap item first, which is item number four.

[03:51:49] How are you? Good evening. I'm doing great. How are you? Very good. have anything new to have to let us know about that we didn't get before don't know about from before in anything that is new for us there have been no application updates since the board last week and there have been no updates to report following the distribution of the packet as well okay i have a presentation prepared if you would like me to review it's the same one though right correct okay i think we're good i think we're good we've seen it we've asked questions on it

[03:52:22] and it's in our package twice so I think I think we're good um you know supervisors I don't I you know I think we could probably go to a motion and ask questions inside the motion what might be the easiest thing to do because it's there's nothing that's been new today than than we have had all this time Mr. Kirschner this is in your district I'm going to go to you for a motion sir thank you Madam Chair um I move the Board of Supervisors ratify the Planning Commission's

[03:52:52] approval of legy 2023-0092, Milestone-Clark's Gap, CMPT-2023-0010, based on the findings for approval and subject to the commission permit, Platt, dated October 1st, 2024, provided as attachments 1 and 2 to the November 19th, 2024, Board of Supervisors Business Meeting action item, and I further move the Board of Supervisors approve legy 2023-0092, Milestone-Clark's GAP specs 2023-0027 based on the findings for approval and subject to the conditions of approval dated October 17, 2024 provided as attached at 1 and 3 to the November 19,

[03:53:31] 2024 Board of Supervisors business action item, meeting action item. Motion is made seconded by Supervisor Umstadt, Supervisor Kirschner. Thank you Madam Chair. I'm going to tell you quite frankly up front I hate this application, I hate this location, I'm going to vote to move this forward, and let me tell you what my reasoning is in this whole process.

[03:53:54] Anytime we have in the West an application like this come forward, you have to balance a number of different things throughout the process. You have to balance the visual impact, you have to balance the safety aspects, you have to balance a number of different things that go forward. If alternative sites, are you going to have similar issues?

[03:54:11] So let me just talk to you about my analysis when going through this. The first thing, and I think probably the primary thing that bothers me in this application is the visual impacts it's going to have. That is definitely, I think, those who spoke, the issues they had concerning it. And I will tell you one thing.

[03:54:27] I spent a lot of time yesterday and today on the phone with Dominion on the phone, with the applicant on the phone, with some of my constituents who had concerns about this. And so this is a very tough decision for me. I will tell, I will say that the first thing and first and foremost, and I think the chair would probably agree with me on this, is one of the things that is the most driving force on this is the safety issue.

[03:54:49] We do have Chief Johnson saying this is a very important issue. I live very close to here. This is actually going to impact me each and every day. So I don't go into this lightly. I have to drive by. I'm going to hate driving by. I hate going to see it. But I also realize that this is maybe the deadest gap in all of Western Loudoun.

[03:55:06] I lose people on a constant basis. I've been losing them on my cell phone through this area for the 25 years, 26 years, maybe it's longer than that, almost 30 years I've lived in Loudoun County. So it's absolutely needed. So then the question is, is there an alternative site? And obviously, I know there's been a lot of talk about the Dominion site.

[03:55:24] Is that a viable alternative? So I spent some time with some of the constituents. They had some concerns. I called Dominion directly to address a number of those concerns. Dominion has said absolutely no on the one and a half to two acres where they have the current substation.

[03:55:40] And that's a total of 17 acres. But they also acknowledged that there would be a significant difficulty, if not impossibility, with the steep slopes to moderate steep slopes behind the substation. It would also require a significant permitting.

[03:55:55] It would require significant land clearing, grading, and a number of other things. And then, of course, you still continue to run into the neighbors who are visually impacted on that side and whatnot. So it's kind of, in my personal opinion, choose your poison on this sort of thing.

[03:56:12] And it's absolutely needed. I think there's a safety issue. There's a convenience issue. I have noticed I've been picking up a lot more cell towers recently since this application has come across. Cell towers I never even noticed before. I do hope that this will kind of somewhat blend in after you drive by for a while.

[03:56:28] And I do understand and I hear the folks who have significant concerns about this. I'm not real happy about it. But I think we've had one application that came real close to this at Beacon Hill that kind of got shut down on a prior board. And this continues to be a problem.

[03:56:44] I think we have to just kind of fix it. Mr. Crony? Yeah, I just thought I'd ask a quick question just based on some of the documents that we were given. The fire and rescue referral, did Chief Johnson actually say that, you know, there were emergency response issues with the coverage in this area?

[03:57:11] Yeah, we got an email. Okay. I'm sorry, go on. As part of the land use application, Maria Taylor with fire and rescue evaluated the response time of the specific station, but that additional analysis was outside the scope of the land use application before the board tonight.

[03:57:28] Okay. Yeah, I would agree with Supervisor. Kirshner that I think the visual impacts are what concern me the most with this application I do think you know it's going to be right visual right off route seven in rural Loudoun County but if we move it to the Dominion site you know the probably visual impacts there too on the other side of route seven and then also I thought the applicant made a good point that there'll be other residents impacted moving it to the Dominion site it's difficult these applications are

[03:58:08] difficult you know coverage is needed but I do think the visual impact is is something to take into consideration I just don't know where else you know where else it can go given given the fact that if you move it somewhere else there will also be issues as far as residential residents coming out and saying they don't they don't want the cell tower near their near their homes so so it is a difficult application I appreciate a supervisor Kirshner doing

[03:58:44] the research and calling Dominion and looking into some of the issues that the residents raised thank you thank you madam chair I'll be supporting supervisor Kirshner's motion and I know it's a very difficult motion for him to make I really appreciate his looking into Dominion's position on providing an alternate site and it looks like they will not and it would it be far more complicated even if they did getting getting a similar tower on their site

[03:59:21] these are always shocking when they first go up whether it's cell towers or transmission lines or even as we have throughout the historic district in leesburg a lot of old phone poles with lines crossing the street and everybody wishes everything could be underground but it makes repair more difficult and more expensive i don't see a lot of the infrastructure

[03:59:52] that is all around us every day because it's been there for so long it has disappeared into the background. I appreciate especially the business owners in Leesburg who came out and took the time to meet with or talk to us about their concerns. I wish I could give them the result they want. I am, however, in agreement with one of our speakers tonight that his having lived

[04:00:29] closer to this spot than anybody else has, he thinks there's a real need. And as someone who is in a dead zone for one of our major carriers because of where I live, I cannot utilize my county cell phone from my home because there's just no coverage so it's frustrating but i think in the end the uh the better thing is to have more coverage for those who need it thank you mr turner do you would you like to say something you have a comment i have nothing madam chair

[04:01:07] thank you okay miss brixman thank you madam chair just a quick question for staff because i was confused um by a comment made earlier tonight um is it true that like with a special exception for cell tower that the applicant has to rule out any other possible site before they can ask for a special exception on a particular site as a component of a telecommunications application they do provide a rule out documentation to staff for staff's analysis they have provided that with

[04:01:40] information and additional comments i would i would defer to the applicant okay okay um i did spend some time uh speaking with with uh at least one of the neighbors um yesterday i guess and i do appreciate their concerns but what's really swaying me is the um to support is the public safety aspect and the there's an email from michael lamb battalion chief and it says the loudon county public safety community has long identified the area of Route 7 and Route 9, Clark's Gap, as an area of significant concern. The lack of cellular service creates two major areas of

[04:02:18] concern, the first being impact on our unit's mobile data computers. Units consistently drop their connection in and around the area, which creates a multitude of issues, most importantly an officer crew safety issue. Secondly, the lack of coverage impacts the public's ability to call for assistance in this heavily traveled area.

[04:02:39] And Chief Johnson said in an email this week that by putting up the cell tower, it will fill a critical gap in wireless telecommunications coverage that is essential to daily public safety operations.

[04:02:55] So I will be supporting and I appreciate staff's work on this and I appreciate the community coming out to express themselves. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. will associate myself with many of the comments made up here especially the comments about the importance of public safety i will also say some i don't know how many years ago i guess i guess like eight years ago seven eight years ago i remember going into a community and talking about and you know a cell tower and it was just absolutely no no no no no and then later on

[04:03:30] like seven years later like they realize that this is this is just the need and i don't want to see this happen some years from now with this community i do wish it were not i think the visual impacts are terrible i agree with mr kirschner and i certainly wish that the especially the church didn't have to deal with those visual impacts um but um i think it's six in one hand half dozen in the other if not here then someplace else and someplace else is going to have may be a different set of issues, but none that are less concerning or less valid. So

[04:04:08] it was a 51-49 for me for a long time, and I finally went over on the 51 side of saying yes to the application. Mr. Kirschman, yeah, Kirschman, would you like a closing? Yeah, just briefly. One other thing, I ran out of time and I just couldn't get to. I really empathize with the folks that came out and don't want to see this. I don't really want to see it either, but I will tell you that the applicant has promised me that when they get to the site plan process with the staff that they will include my office, and they have also told me that they will, as much as VDOT will allow, maximize at least

[04:04:47] obviously that's not going to control the higher levels of the poll and what we're most concerned about, the rise and that sort of thing, but in terms of driving by some faster growing trees, taller trees, as much as VDOT will allow, and obviously our planning department will allow to maximize the screening at a lower level in this particular location.

[04:05:07] So I'm appreciative of them for trying to do that. And I think that we should vote on this, vote yes on this, largely because of the health and the safety issues necessary, I should say, for the community in Catoctin, Western allowing those traveling that that road on nine and seven are significantly busy roads and obviously this is I I just want my constituents to know that I have to deal with this as well so this is not this is not taken lightly by any stretch of the imagination I don't want to see it but after a lot

[04:05:45] of analysis and thought hard thought through this process I have come down on the side as as the chair said, probably on the 51 versus the 49. Thank you. All right. Mr. Kirshner made the motion. Second the motion. All people say aye. Aye. Opposed? That motion will pass 9-0. Thank you.

[04:06:06] And then we are going to go on and do item 5G, which is the Peonian Springs and Water for Joint Water and Wastewater System Feasibility Study. Good evening. Same question. You have Updates of things that are different or new that we haven't seen before. So thank you madam chair

[04:06:43] We have we don't have any updates from the last presentation that the the board members saw during the Finance Committee We can certainly go through that or we can go straight to questions. Whatever your preference is. Well Actually This is a little longer item, but but I don't know that every board member has seen this Presentation actually I think obviously the Finance Committee has and but I'm not sure everyone has And Mr. Kirchner, have you seen this presentation?

[04:07:18] I honestly can't remember. I'm pretty familiar with the application, so. I know, but I mean, because. How long is it? It's possible that TLUC members. It's 13 slides. No, I'm sorry. 16 slides. I think it's such an important issue.

[04:07:36] So I know for finance people, sorry, just sit back grin and bear it. We're going to do the presentation. Yes, ma'am. we'll do our best to accelerate it that we give time for questions if that is acceptable to you so madam chair members of the board just a real quick high level overview of the project the project is designed to address public health and community sustainability concerns by providing adequate quantity and quality potable water supply and for the villages of peonin springs and waterford as well as addressing long-standing wastewater issues within peoning springs the

[04:08:14] The purpose of this item tonight is to provide the Board with the findings of the 2024 Peony and Springs Feasibility Study, which has been delivered to you all, and to seek Board endorsement and further guidance regarding the continued design of the water and wastewater interconnected systems between the villages. Again, this item does not ask the Board to move forward on the capital project. It is to continue the efforts of the design. A little bit of history. In 2019, the peony and springs water and wastewater feasibility study was completed in 2022 several actions were taken we did a little more work on the peony and springs water and wastewater

[04:08:54] work there by further refining the options and the actual area of service at that time the historic waterford water feasibility study was also completed and that same year the board approved 3.5 million dollars in arpa funds to be applied toward the design of the community water and wastewater system within peonian springs in 2023 in february specifically the board endorsed a communal water system in the village of waterford and allocated 1.5 million from the existing water and wastewater program fund to conduct preliminary design work for a community system we also had

[04:09:32] direction for staff to continue to evaluate the feasibility of an interconnected communal water and wastewater system between the two villages and that is what prompted the feasibility study that we're here to present the findings today. I have Mr. Fincham here and that he can go through the rest of the item to go over the details. I'm going to jump real quickly into the scope of the study and then I'll let Scott go into the details. Before we do that, was there any time, as you're going through this, if there were times where there were community meetings, community involvement, surveys, whatever, can you let us know that as well? And I think that's

[04:10:12] probably a good point of pause here. So the county's water and wastewater program policies lay out a community engagement process. This is for the feasibility studies and the next steps. We have never left the feasibility study phase of this particular, these particular projects. So we still have been in it. We've moved to a design in the context of feasibility because the board still needed more information. So we have been using that process, which is a community-driven

[04:10:44] process. 60% of the area within the interested boundaries have to put forth a petition. They do so. They have several champions. Is that the right term, champions? Coordinators. Coordinators started with a C. In each community, and then they facilitate the conversation. And In particular, Waterford, it involved both the Waterford Community Citizens Association and the Waterford Foundation, and they made those meetings very open to the public.

[04:11:15] I understand. And there were some additional follow-ons, questions, Q&As. We have FAQs on the website. We have two project boards on the website that people can ask questions and get updates on. But there have not been any formal county-led public meetings as you would traditionally see when a CIP project is being rolled out.

[04:11:38] Okay. And that is primarily because a CIP project is not being rolled out. We're not there yet. That would certainly be enacted in great detail should the board decide to take that next step. Gotcha. Okay. All right. I understand. Okay. I understand. Thank you.

[04:11:54] Thank you, ma'am. So the scope of the study did, you'll see the five things on there that it proposed to do. And in essence, it was really looking at the technical feasibility of the system and its connectivity, the constructability, and looking at the key technical feasibilities of it, as well as developing an opinion of probable costs for a most feasible solution.

[04:12:19] So at the end of the study, these are the two highlights, it did come to the conclusion that assuming that land acquisitions are completed and groundwater wells with sufficient yield could be located in the Clarks Gap quarter, and those are two really key elements that we need to hit on tonight.

[04:12:36] That the project could be, is not only, excuse me, the feasibility study confirmed that the project is technically feasible and financially beneficial to design, permit, construct, and all the components of the interconnected water system and wastewater system. Key factor with this is the development of separate systems, meaning if we can move forward with a Peony Springs separate system and a Waterford separate system, it would require the construction of three new treatment plants in rural Loudoun as opposed to just one plant, which would be a new water plant.

[04:13:11] As you may recall, the village of Waterford has an existing longstanding Loudoun water operated and maintained wastewater plant, which would, under this proposal, service both communities. I would like to go back and just say that the assumptions that were made there are, one, land acquisition could be accomplished, and groundwater wells with sufficient yield could be located.

[04:13:38] And that is the crux of the next step that we're asking the board to consider. Okay, sanitary system, high level. If you look at heat, okay, Scott, you've got to do this one. This is too technical for me. I tried. Okay.

[04:13:56] So, as Ernie just kind of laid out, basically we know that it's technically feasible. So, if you look at the high level of what something like this would look like, this is, we'll start with the wastewater system. So, to establish a wastewater system, we'd have to have a sanitary sewer collection system serving all connections in Peonian Springs, a sewage pumping station located in Peonian Springs, or at least adjacent to to send the sewage to the Waterford Wastewater Treatment Plant, a sewage force being to convey flows from Canyon Springs to the Waterford Sanitary Sewer Collection System, and an expansion of the existing Waterford Water Treatment Plant.

[04:14:33] On this slide in the top right corner there, that's the existing Waterford Wastewater Treatment Plant. It's been in operation since the 70s. Loudwater currently is actually in an upgrade project to meet current ammonia standards that are set by DEQ. So completely separate of this, that system is actually being upgraded.

[04:14:53] so a new system is being put in place, which gives us perfect timing for our conversation. On the bottom, you can see there, that's the community, that's the village of Peonian Springs, and that's what a wastewater system would look like. The purple lines you see there would be gravity system.

[04:15:08] The green line you would see there would be deep sewer. There is going to be a section that could be as deep as 20 feet. And then there's a small red section there. If done correctly, we would only need a small section of low pressure where grinder pumps would be required. So the water system, what would it take to put the water system in?

[04:15:29] We would need groundwater wells along the Clarks Gap corridor, if we can find them. A water treatment facility, storage pumping facility to be sited along that 2.5 miles. Other than the groundwater wells, your treatment facility and your storage would all be within the same fenced area.

[04:15:45] A water main can be in-treatable potable water from the wells to the water treatment facility to serve both villages. And then a water distribution system within both villages. To your right, that is what a water distribution system would look like in the villages. The blue lines are the water distribution system.

[04:16:03] And if it would work out perfectly, what you would be looking at is that the wells would distribute to a water treatment plant somewhere between the villages. To the right is the conceptual layout of what this would look like. that's just a high-level look there. The purple is your wastewater lines, the blue is your water lines. The right-of-way that goes down Clarkscap Road, it is variable, but our goal would be to try to stay within the right-of-way of all possible. The lines themselves need to be 10 feet apart. The one thing I want to point out, though, on that diagram is at the top, you can

[04:16:37] see the purple line stops before entering Waterford. That is because there is basically a manhole. There is a section there where the wastewater can enter this system without actually us having to go into Waterford, and that's an important note. We also know that it's going to take about 20 acres of different easements to make this system work. So that's easements for the well, easement for the treatment facility, the pump station, and so on. So we did it, the scope did, the feasibility study did identify some construction challenges. We heard one speaker mentioned tonight about the eight months of traffic. Absolutely right. There will be some

[04:17:17] traffic impacts, but part of our design will be to create a traffic control plan to help reduce that. We will be going across the Washington Old Dominion Trail. I just said across, but I want to clarify that. You know, the goal would be for us not to have any type of interaction or damage to that trail. We would go under it. So we basically would do a trenchless install. Archaeological and resources. There's plenty. We will work with our county, state, and federal agencies to assure that everything that we do is of at least impact for putting this system in. And then the easement

[04:17:53] and property acquisition that we just went over of 20 acres. So some advantages of this interconnected concept. Utilizing the Waterford Wastewater Treatment Site eliminates the need to acquire new land for a new wastewater treatment plant. The existing Waterford Wastewater Treatment Plant discharge permit can be modified to accommodate the punean springs flows without the need to obtain additional nutrient credits. Now that's important because if we're installing a brand new wastewater treatment plants there's a whole nother process we would go through. We've already started some preliminary discussions with DEQ about what that would be to expand that permit. Maintaining

[04:18:29] proper treatment and meeting net fluid discharge permit requirements at one facility instead of two produces the risk of environmental impacts and permit violations. The use of a single wastewater treatment plant and a single water treatment plant through the interconnected system helps to avoid visual impacts. Obviously the less we have the less impact. Increasing the evaluation area along Clarks Gap Road significantly increases our chance of success of identifying a water supply.

[04:18:53] And consolidated systems significantly reduces the overall operation and maintenance costs and life cycle cost of the facilities. So some additional considerations as you consider the interconnected system the feasibility study estimated about a 20 to 30 percent overall life cycle cost savings. The majority of those savings will come from operation and maintenance. Also, there's an estimate of six to eight million in capital cost savings. Most of those savings obviously would occur from not having a second wastewater treatment plant. And we also have a better estimate accuracy because the existing

[04:19:28] wastewater treatment plant exists. By having that plant, we know the flows, we know the conditions, we know what we have to do. There's a lot more unknowns with a new wastewater treatment plant. Some essential timeline items to note. So in the Punion Springs project, we have $3 million of ARPA funds that are applied to that Punion Springs project.

[04:19:46] It has to maintain and be obligated by December 2024, which it has been in coordination with Loudon Water, but it also has to be spent by December 2026. So any delays would impact that design. Loudon Water's upgrade, which I mentioned earlier, we're in perfect timing to work with Loudon Water.

[04:20:05] as they are doing their design to incorporate our increased flow from Peonian Springs. And DTCI, DTCI came in front of you maybe a year or so ago to introduce an infrastructure project that they were doing in Waterford. They've been approved to do a design.

[04:20:21] So if we're doing any type of water work in Waterford, we want to make sure that is done in parallel. And other potential services, we are asking that when we look at this, one of the concerns that we heard was fire flow. So we want to take a look at that. will we identify the water needs for that not sure but that's that's what we're asking to pursue and then adaptive reuse there was a letter that was attached to the board item from the Waterford Foundation that addressed the need of using water for an adaptive reuse of some of their buildings if they have water they can put those reuse it for funds to put back in

[04:20:56] preservation these are the cost the top half is what we're here tonight asking you for the design permanent and surveying, we've already received that funding. That is either through the CIP Water and Wastewater Fund or through the ARPA funds that we received. We will, of the $4 million that we're requesting tonight, $2.7 is for land acquisition, land use approval, and contracted services, basically consulting services that we may need, and then working with Loudon Water to ensure that our design is incorporated in their design, and that's $4 million. We also brought forth what a, under $20, $24, what it would look like of a full construction system of

[04:21:35] the entire project. So if we move to the next step, based on today's standards, construction costs could be as much as $51 million. Now we're at a very early stage, so take that as a negative 20 to plus 30. Then the overall project is $60 million. Next. So staff recommendations is to endorse the interconnected water and wastewater systems between the villages of Peonin Springs and Waterford to create a new CIP project titled the Village of Peonin Springs and Waterford Interconnected Community Water and Wastewater Systems to move available funds that

[04:22:08] are already existing for the Waterford project to the new CIP project. We would like to close out the existing CIP projects once this single community, this interconnected system is put forth. And we ask that $4 million be allocated to continue our design work. And then we would to return to the board with some type of construction funding strategy?

[04:22:33] So you'll notice that the first several bullets are moving CIP projects around. That is really just a housekeeping measure to simplify because we've had a number of different projects out there and we would like to consolidate those for housekeeping purposes.

[04:22:49] So we work with OMB to structure those recommendations to ensure that it was developed properly. The key tonight that we're asking the board to consider is the allocation of $4 million, as Scott mentioned, out of the existing water and wastewater program fund.

[04:23:06] The funding is there for exactly these kind of purposes, and that will go to $1.3 million of it will go towards the upgrades to the Waterford wastewater treatment plant to ensure that we are able to receive that. This is a significant savings of opportunity for that because they're already doing those upgrades now, So it's a lot less expensive to take advantage of that.

[04:23:27] And then the support of the easements. Now what I would say is on the easements, the way that we would address this is these would be conditional easements. You know that you've seen many applications come in before you that an applicant has proposed to purchase the property and it's conditioned upon whatever approvals are necessary to make the property or the project a reality.

[04:23:50] same construct uh if the board approves it gives us direction to do so we will uh we will pursue those opportunities if they have a properly uh the proper yields from a well on their property um so there's a there's a lot packed in that but that is the high level of requests that we have for you this evening and we are available for any questions well that was a lot thank you actually i i thought i knew but there's some stuff in there i didn't know so i'm glad we did that um this is a little different than the last one so i before we go to motions i before we go to a

[04:24:26] motion does anyone have questions mr crony yeah so um we heard tonight thank you ernie and and thank you scott um we heard tonight from residents that it could cost 15 000 to hook up is that something that's been um communicated is that the figure that so uh and i believe that actually came from a question that was asked um what are the average loud and water costs for accessibility fees or hookups and things like that nature so that information is out there what does it cost for loud and water uh to provide those services the agreement that we have with loud and water

[04:25:06] allows the board to to uh determine a lot of those costs uh for example when we did howardsville the decision was that we were not going to have um availability fees charged to the existing occupied dwellings within howardsville so that is within the board's purview to make those those determinations about that i will say that in no form or fashion did the feasibility study or the representation that the staff has made during the public meetings or part of the water wastewater feasibility process uh has made any representations of costs for for hookup or expenses associated

[04:25:43] with, um, with being part of the system. Okay. Long, long answer. I'm sorry. No, that's good. Um, so, and, and I know that some of the residents wanted to be involved in this design. You know, they said that right now it's just broad concepts and they wanted to be a part of the design process. So it sounds like you're going to bring them in on the design process by opening up a more public forum. So we, we, um, the, the process actually has been very open to this point um again the the water and wastewater program outlines how public

[04:26:18] engagement will transpire um and it's community driven um so we have been working with those communities you know springs and waterford um based on who they engage through the process as we move forward should the board approve this we will absolutely ensure that interested public is involved now that'll be um primarily through our webpage the project page and uh some probably some listening sessions as we've done in the past and ensure that interested partners have access to that. As it relates to the design, I would recommend that we leave that to the technical

[04:26:53] engineering professionals, but I think it needs to be informed by the community to ensure that it's not antithetical to their interests. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Kirshner. Thank you, Thank you, Madam Chair. So, Mr. Brown, and so my understanding is basically as a follow-up to Supervisor Tracone's question on the $15,000, that really is to be determined, that we aren't even at that point yet.

[04:27:19] Is that correct? That is correct. That's fair. Okay. The other question -- I had a couple more questions of follow-up. Obviously, one of the things I think was key in what was said during the presentation, it might have been you that said it, but there was -- this is kind of a continuation of the feasibility, correct?

[04:27:35] Yes. And obviously this is the next step in this process to see what the design would look like, where it would go, what maybe the problems are given what you find and obviously there's money that needs to be in the pot in order to do that for easements, et cetera, as you explained.

[04:27:51] Is that fair to say? That is absolutely correct, sir. We are unable to progress the design without knowing if wells can provide the yield necessary and then, two, where those wells are. Right. And the wells could be a variety of different places, could be here, could be there, could be closer to Waterford, could be closer to Peony Springs, could be off a little bit.

[04:28:11] We don't know at this point until we get in there and really begin looking at that. So I know along the Clark's Gap Road, we had a meeting yesterday, I believe it was, with some folks, and they expressed some concerns. Thank you for being on that. The other thing that I found interesting in the packet itself, it actually says that the 2019 general plan encourages public water and wastewater facilities provide service to the existing rural historic villages.

[04:28:37] So that was kind of how this got kicked off initially in, I think, 2017 because we were headed towards that. Now it's been adopted. And that really is largely because of issues that we're having. Is that correct with these water issues and wastewater issues? And these have been going back to the 67s, 70s.

[04:28:52] Yes, sir. been making suggestions to do this, is that right? Wastewater in particular, yes, sir. Okay, fair enough. Obviously, my constituents, the people are gonna be very wanna be, obviously as we heard tonight, gonna be wanna be involved in the process significantly. I appreciate you ensuring that that will, of course, be the case and that there will be continued outreach.

[04:29:13] Obviously, we're a little in the early stages 'cause we don't know what we don't know yet. Okay, great. I think that answers all my questions. I just wanted to make sure, kind of got that out and made sure I was fully on board and that any constituents who were listening heard that. So my first question is, why is it so cold up in this dais? And can you please make me so cold at this dais? Mr. Brown, my nose is cold, even freezing up here. That's my first question. But beyond that, I have a couple more questions. You know, I do get that we're still in the feasibility stage, but this is my thought. We spend $4 million. We do all the

[04:29:51] things that we're talking about doing tonight and then we have public hearings or public comment how likely are we once you get that far down the road to pull back and say we don't want to do this after all we're going to do something different when we spent a good deal of money and and have done design and have done so much already just overall we may want to in the future look and look look I understand your your answer is when we engage the public but it does seem a little late in the process to engage the public after you spend, you know, millions of dollars

[04:30:27] and you're pretty far. Because then, too, we and staff and everywhere, we're going to be much less likely to just go, okay, we're not going to do this or any other project because we've done so much with it already. It's just kind of human nature. Once you're that invested, you don't really want to pull back your investment. So just in general, or we may want to take a look at when we do, when we step into these projects, when we actually start to engage the public.

[04:30:57] And to your point, Madam Chair, you're right. There were a few areas where we could have certainly done a better job, especially when the letters went out for requesting access to the Clark's Gap Road community. We probably should have done some additional outreach at that time.

[04:31:15] We've acknowledged that, and we've already started working on a communication plan with PAC on how we can improve that process. There's some formalities that have to happen, and so recognizing that, we also need to make sure that the community and the adjoining property owners that could be affected have a better understanding of what is going on.

[04:31:36] So we've already started efforts to try to mitigate that. Okay, I appreciate that. I also know, you know, this Waterford water issue has been going on for such a long time, And it almost feels like one side of the street versus the other side of the street. And so, you know, not having water that is safe is also a safety issue.

[04:31:57] So it's not just a headache issue and not just an issue of, you know, gosh, I wish I had a higher yield. It's a safety issue if your well goes goody, if, you know, something happens, if the E. coli count is higher. I'm worried about that, to be honest. And as this has been going on for such a long time, I am going to vote for this item tonight.

[04:32:19] And then I look forward to joining you, Mr. Kirshner, for some of the public engagement when we start to do that. Yes, ma'am. All right. I'm sorry. I forgot to – Mr. Turner, I'm sorry. I forgot to ask you that you want to speak. And you actually recently had a house in Waterford.

[04:32:35] No. Yeah, I did. And as the owner of a house on Hamilton Station Road that had a well that had to be treated before I could sell the house at considerable cost, I'm sensitive to improving this whole water and wastewater network here in this area.

[04:32:51] So I agree with the staff's recommendation. Okay, thank you. Mr. Kirscher, would you like to make a motion? Thank you, Madam Chair. I move the recommendation of the Finance Government Operations Economic Development Committee that the Board of Supervisors and direct staff to create a new project entitled Villages of Paeonian Springs and Waterford Interconnected Community Water and Wastewater Systems and close the Village of Waterford Communal Water Systems and the Village of Paeonian Springs Wastewater Modernizations Project.

[04:33:17] it's closed sorry and move the remaining balance of the $1,289,200 from the village of Waterford communal water systems project to the new interconnected project further move the recommendation of the finance government operations and economic development committee that the board of supervisors endorse the continued design of interconnected water and wastewater system including fire flow between the villages of peony springs and waterford and appropriate 4 million from the water wastewater program to further support land acquisition land use approvals and costs associated with upgrading the existing waterford wastewater treatment plant to

[04:33:55] to accept peonin springs wastewater flow again i'm going to take that second mr kirsten would you like to make an opening so nice to get two seconds i like that um so yeah i don't have a lot to say i think this kind of i and i appreciate those i guess those who are have concerns coming out i really appreciate it i assure you that there will be ongoing ample opportunity i do take a little issue with you know there hasn't been this has been somehow covert or anything like this this is still in the fairly early early stages of this whole process i also will take a little bit exception with those folks who say we don't have a water problem in these two villages

[04:34:32] despite the fact they're named paonian springs and waterford um and one of the reason our general plan actually speaks to this and why they encourage this sort of thing is because we are having these continued issues and with these and you know a communal system is not completely foreign to the west we don't encourage it a lot but in places like this it does absolutely make sense and we have the concerns for the i have the concerns i think our staff will have the concerns we'll continue to make sure that throughout this process that we're not going to dry anybody's well up that our aquifers are sufficient enough and that's why we have engineers that will go through and study all of those ongoing issues and there will be plenty of opportunity for continued input i'm

[04:35:11] going to be watching it very carefully it is a it is something i think absolutely needs to be done it's had it should have been done long ago um i think we have a board who has the will to do it we have a general comprehensive plan that wants to do it and um we have the money to do it and so i think um it needs to be done and i think one of the things that is really important is it are our villages it's one of the things that makes western louden significantly unique and um we we want um some some thriving villages in the sense that it's a pleasure to live there it's a pleasure to visit there it is part of our western landscape and so if you have people using privies if you have folks

[04:35:50] using um you know getting one gallon an hour uh whatever the case may be it's it's it's a problem for those for those villages so i think this is a good solution that staff has moved forward on our engineers have looked at it's also cost savings in the sense that we're joining up to two villages that are close enough to be able to do that one has a wastewater plant treatment plant that needs to be upgraded it makes sense to combine that with with the peony and springs needs that they have over there and obviously then come up with a water solution if indeed that is possible and feasible and obviously that's what this money will do it will bring us to that process begin even furthering that process so thank you very much for staff for your work and

[04:36:29] the support of any of my board members just a point of um clarification a privy is an outhouse i say that because the word privy sounds kind of nice but it's an outhouse well my grandmother used to say what one modern convenience could you not live without and people will say their dishwasher their garbage disposal but running water is kind of a really important yeah such as a i agree with your grandmother grandmother completely all right motion was made by mr kirschner i seconded the motion on people please say aye aye opposed that motion will pass nine to zero thank you all very

[04:37:03] much oh waterford we don't clap thank you very much okay we're going to go into closed session i guess for all the five closed sessions five miss wait wait mr turner you're going to drop right i am dropping yes ma'am all right thank you you see you later thank you all right we're ready

[04:37:37] I move that the Board of Supervisors recess this public meeting and enter into closed session pursuant to section 2.23711A3 of the Code of Virginia to consider acquisition of parcels of property for public use in the Dulles Election District.

[04:37:56] I further move that the Board of Supervisors recess this public meeting and enter into closed session pursuant to section 2.2-371A3 of the Code of Virginia to consider acquisition of parcels of property for public use in the Leesburg District.

[04:38:16] I further move that the Board of Supervisors recess this public meeting and enter into closed session pursuant to Section 2.2-3711A3 of the Code of Virginia to consider acquisition of parcels of property for public use in the Sterling Election District. I further move that the Board of Supervisors recess this public meeting and enter into closed session pursuant to Section 2.2-2711A3, Acquisition of real property and A-8 consultation with legal counsel about a specific legal matter pertaining to White's Ferry.

[04:38:48] I further move that the Board of Supervisors recess this public meeting and enter into closed session pursuant to sections 2. 2-3711A8 and 829 of the Code of Virginia to consult with legal counsel pertaining to the negotiation of collective bargaining agreement where public funds are being expended and where negotiations in open session would adversely affect the bargaining agreement.

[04:39:10] position of the county all right motions made and seconded by supervisor sayings i think i heard first discussion on the motion seeing none on paper say aye any opposed that motion will pass

[04:39:25] 801 mr mr turner has dropped off huh thank you yeah but we have to move out of yeah we got it

[07:26:33] okay we are we are back miss brixman will you please read us out of closed sessions yes i move that the closed sessions be adjourned that the board of supervisors reconvene its public meeting that the minutes of the public meeting should reflect that no formal action was taken in the closed session and further move that the resolution certifying the closed session be adopted and reflected in the minutes of this public meeting motions made and second by the same discussion on the motion. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass 7-0 I'm sorry 8-0-1 but Mr.

[07:27:10] Mr. Turner did not vote for us to go into closed session. Would everybody please affirm? Ms. Umstead. Affirm. Affirm. Affirm. Affirm. Affirm. And I affirm as well. Thank you very much. We do have one motion on the dais. Mr. Letourneau. Thank you Chair Randall. I move the Board of Supervisors

[07:27:30] Authorized the county administrator to execute a purchase and sale agreement and closing documents approved as to form by the county attorney with Fairways and Greens LLC in the amount of $1. 3 million for the purchase of property with an address of 24600 Milstream Drive, Suite 400 and Suite 410, Aldi, Virginia, located on pin 204384399000 and authorized the expenditure of $100,000 for due diligence and closing costs.

[07:27:54] I further move the Board of Supervisors direct the amendment of the Fiscal Year 25 Capital Improvement Program by directing staff to execute a budget adjustment to move a total of $1.4 million from CIP contingency to a newly created 24600 Millstream Drive, Suites 400 and 410, Land Acquisition and Due Diligence Project and the Capital Loan Projects Fund to acquire the property and conduct due diligence activities.

[07:28:14] Second. Discussion on the motion, Mr. LaTournel? Anybody else? My only discussion would be, yay, it's about time. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion will pass 801.

[07:28:32] And I believe that that's everything. Everyone have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving. We are adjourned.

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