Board of Supervisors Public Hearing (County Executive’s Recommended Budget)   2/19/2019

Good evening.

I call the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors to order.

And if we would, if would everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

and if everybody would please join in a moment of silence.

Very good, thank you.

I'd like to introduce those on the dais.

We have with us tonight Officer Sam Thomas and Officer Clayton Clarkson.

Thank you both for being here.

To my right, County Attorney Greg Campner.

Of course, we have the County Board of Supervisors members.

We have our County Executive, Mr. Jeff Richardson.

And we have Andy, scrap the Bowman.

I'm sorry, Andy.

and Lori Allshouse from our finance department.

Is that the right way to say it?

Office of Management and Budget.

Finance department is a different department.

And from our clerk's office, we have Travis Morris and Claudette Borgenson.

We're here tonight to hear from the public regarding our recommended budget.

I believe prior to that, Mr. Jeff Richardson will make some comments.

Mr.

Chair, I will make a very brief, quick overview of the recommended budget for the purpose of our public who may not have had an opportunity to hear the high-level overview and I'll try to be concise and move quickly so that I can turn it back over to you, Mr.

Mr.

Chair, with that I'll get started and I would

Thank this board for the hard work that we will be undertaking over the next few weeks.

As you said to my left, Andy Bowman and Lori Alshouse are here with the Office of Management and Budget.

And at the conclusion of my overview, before we leave tonight, our folks will highlight the upcoming budget work sessions that we have over the next few weeks.

A lot of work that lies ahead for us.

This is the beginning of the process.

I'll cover several items, including some of the economic drivers that are driving the opportunities that we have before us with this budget.

An overview, a quick overview of the budget, recommended investments, and then our next steps in the process, Mr.

Chair.

Regarding a recap of fiscal year 19, I would remind the board that we align our budget resources on the Board of Supervisors' strategic priorities.

We also look at being able to sustain a high-quality organization.

We also try to save capacity within our budget for emerging opportunities, especially those that are transformative in nature.

This is a snapshot of indicators from our community using data comparing 2017 with 2018.

As you can see on the left side of the page, assessment values are up 4%, residential dwelling permits are up 23.5%,

Our population for the county continues to grow at just under 1%.

In county schools, student population has grown by just under 2%.

Unemployment has continued to fall and is hovering around 2.2%, which is below state and national rates.

And due to internal strong management within our organization, we currently continue to enjoy and maintain our triple AAA bond rating.

Some of our major drivers of our local revenues include, most prominently to the left of the page, real estate.

Local revenues remain strong.

Real estate revenues grew by 7.5%, and that includes assessment growth and new construction and land divisions.

Personal property is up $2 million.

Business and consumer-driven revenue categories are also performing strong.

We have several categories including the Children's Services Act, our self-funded healthcare program, and our revenue sharing, which is formula based with the city, which has also had a net positive impact on this year's budget.

As I mentioned earlier, our board and our budget process, we look at the board's strategic plan.

This past fall, this board worked diligently to update and refresh our 17 through 19 strategic plan, and we now have before you our nine highest priorities going into the 20 through 22 budget years.

I would suggest to this board that we've taken an opportunity to look at resources and aligning with our strategic priorities.

The board worked hard last spring and summer on the FY19-23 capital improvement plan, and you expressed an interest and a desire for a capital plan that will consider up to $59 million in support for projects that addresses school space needs in High School Center 2, capital needs for existing schools, and what we called quality of life projects that addresses the needs for park

Bike, pedestrian needs, 21st century infrastructure.

That's what we term that.

In addition, I reminded the board last week when we talked about the manager's budget that another critical driver is the impact on the bond referendum projects that were approved overwhelmingly by our voters in Albemarle County in 2016.

Over 73% of our voters in that election approved up to $35 million in school projects, including the renovation and expansion of Woodbrook Elementary School, as well as modernization and security projects at schools throughout our community.

Due to strong revenue growth, the tax rate increase that had been projected to support this debt service for these projects were deferred in 2017, also deferred in 2018.

However, when taken together, I am recommending that in this coming year that the tax rate be increased by 1.5 cents, all dedicated to our capital improvement program.

This slide compares new shared resource investment in our current year, which is to the left, versus the fiscal year 20 year, which is gonna start this coming July 1st.

I'd want the board and our public to pay close attention to the green shaded piece of the pie, which represents the projected 1.5 cent tax rate increase for the CIP.

It's growing that part of the budget,

which means it's capital infrastructure investment.

It's about a 16% increase from last year to this year.

And I would also remind the board and the public that that CIP debt service is both for general government and for schools.

This slide represents the total county budget, which we report at $456.8 million, which is a 5.7% increase from this current budget year to next budget year.

To drill down just a little bit further, our general fund is $306 million and that is a 5.2% increase over fiscal year 19.

I would point out that the state portion of revenue coming in on the total general fund is about 8%.

Our federal money coming into our local community is about 2%.

So 90% of the general fund budget is all driven from local revenues.

Now let's take just a little bit of time to look at the 2020 budget.

I've recommended a balanced budget at 85.4 cent per 100 assessed value.

Again, that's a 1.5 cent increase dedicated totally to the capital program.

We're looking in three areas, and that is, and this is tied very closely to the county's vision, and that is excellent education, strong economy, while honoring our environment.

All underpinned by sustaining government services, customer services, and continuing to invest in the things that we need to be able to respond to on a day-to-day basis to support the foundation of government services.

That requires investments in learning environments that prepare our kids for the 21st century economy.

This budget supports operational needs articulated by the school division and it provides capital support for a second high school center and school maintenance and modernization projects.

Our vision calls for a thriving economy that means strategic investments in both time, dollars, and partnerships this year that have supported access to broadband in underserved rural areas, spurred revitalization in aging industrial center areas, and it has also facilitated local employers to grow and invest in their company and in their workforce here in Albemarle County.

Thriving economy needs more.

It needs all the pieces to make our community a great place and a great place to live so that employers continue to grow here in Albemarle County.

That's supported by bike and pedestrian infrastructure, transit, affordable housing, and reliable broadband.

It's about public works function, maintaining our built environment, and our ability to plan for future development

while creating an inclusive and equitable environment.

This budget provides funding to enhance access to new and existing natural areas, as well as supporting our more global environmental priorities, which includes our efforts in climate action planning and solid waste management.

Briefly, to talk about investing in our foundation, this is to support our critically important work reinforcing our foundation, providing good quality government service in support of investments to further our vision.

None of that is more important than our public safety and welfare.

This budget prioritizes investments in public safety, including support for our public safety departments, our key agencies, and volunteer organizations.

It invests in ensuring our business processes are continuing to be optimized for the 21st century.

It includes integrating project management into complex projects, providing more robust workforce training, enhancing leadership depth, centralizing some of our technology procurement, maintaining a competitive position in our employment market.

In addition, this budget provides support for the broader community with recommended funding for partner agencies that support public safety, education, health and welfare, and cultural offerings.

Our partners include Rivanna Solid Waste Authority, Regional Transit Partnership, Jefferson Madison Regional Library, and our Regional Emergency Communications Center.

This budget also recognizes that through cooperative partnerships, we achieve common goals that benefit our entire community.

In wrapping up, Mr.

Chair, Albemarle County's vision is ambitious, exceptional education, a thriving economy, protected and accessible environment, all of which are emblematic of what helps Albemarle County enjoy our national acclaim as a top community in which to live.

Education is critically important to this community.

This budget prioritizes public education, and it also shares our limited financial resources in a balanced way to support our local economy, enhance our environment, and continue to invest in core county operations as a foundation piece to our continued success.

All of these are important, all of these are interconnected, and we believe that this budget

shares our resources in a way to where we're moving this board's strategic plan forward for the betterment of our community.

I'll close by saying that, again, I'm recommending a 1.5 cent tax rate increase for the fiscal year 20 budget.

That brings our county tax rate to 85.4 cents.

This tax rate increase generates about 2.95 million annually.

and that's primarily devoted to public school, county parks, and bike and pedestrian infrastructure.

This necessitates an increase, total capital and debt service funded primarily, overall 15% increase and it serves to create the necessary capacity for us to keep pace with the county's increasing list of capital infrastructure challenges.

Mr.

Chair, that concludes my presentation at this time.

Thank you and thank the board for your investment of time and the guidance that you've provided us to this to this point.

Our staff is here to work with you through the upcoming work sessions.

At the appropriate time this evening, I can turn it over to Ms. Alshaus and she can remind the board and the public of our upcoming work sessions.

Okay, thank you, Mr.

Chair, members of the board, I'm Lori Allshouse, the director of the Office of Management and Budget.

This slide shows you and the public the upcoming work sessions and other public hearing that's going to be in place for discussions about this budget.

As you know, it's a 300-page budget document.

It is online for people to review.

You can search it just by typing in a word and then you can find that page

of any item that you're looking for in the budget document.

So I encourage people to our website.

In addition, on Thursday, February 21st, that's this week, we'll have our first work session.

We're going to do revenue and expenditure overviews and the school board is going to bring their funding request forward to you.

On Tuesday, February 26th will be our second work session.

We will start off with the CIP and the capital budget and then start moving through the categories of the general government budget.

The following Thursday, February 28th will be your third work session.

You'll receive a revenue update at that time and then we will continue on through the budget document.

On Monday, March 4th will be your fourth work session.

At that point, you will finalize your tax rate for advertising.

This is not your final tax rate.

This is what you would advertise for consideration for the following public hearing.

On March 26th and 28th, you have placeholders if you'd like to have more work sessions at that time to discuss any items you have in the budget that you didn't fully discuss.

You'll have another public hearing on April 9th, and that is on the tax rate and the board's proposed budget.

And then on April 16th, the board will adopt your tax rate and the fiscal year 2020 budget at that time.

And I'll just note that at our board meetings March 6 and March 20, there could be some placeholders there for some budget discussions as well.

And as everyone knows, those have opportunities to receive comments from the public as well at our normal budget sessions.

Before we open the public hearing, I would like to remind those who are here who wish to speak.

We do have a sign up sheet over here on House Right.

If you'd like, we do encourage you to sign in so that we know who's here to speak for the record.

Okay, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Individuals will be allowed to speak for three minutes this evening.

I will read three names each time when I'll start off with three names, then after the first person speaks, I'll then read three names again.

So when your name is read, I would ask that you come down front.

so that you're available when the person in front of you clears the mic and finishes speaking, you're right here, rather than having us all wait as you get out of your seat and come down the aisle.

Those of you not familiar, we operate on a lighting system, and please be sure that when you come up to the podium, you put the mic directly in front of where your mouth is, not above your head,

because we can't hear you we're down here we can't hear you so if you would just make sure you speak into the mic the green light will go on indicating that you have two minutes to speak during that time period at the end of the two minutes the yellow light comes on for the third

Minute, and at the end of the third minute, the red light comes on.

If you still have a paragraph and a half to go, we would ask that you just wrap things up in a sentence at that point in observation of other people that will be speaking.

I want to start with a quick announcement.

Albemarle County now has over 100,000 acres of private land in the county that's been permanently protected with conservation easements.

That is the second county in the Commonwealth to have over 100,000 acres, making us still the second most highly protected county in the Commonwealth.

with Fauquier County being first.

I do hope to pass them sometime in the next couple years so it is a goal of mine.

This is a huge milestone for our community and I'm glad to see a continued commitment to land conservation that Albemarle County has made through the budgeting process by allocating $500,000 annually to the ACE program.

This is an important program that the county has been running for what, almost 20 years now.

And the county has played a really important role in that conservation success that we have had.

here.

Of those over 100,000 acres, about 20,000 acres, almost 20,000 acres, are conservation easements that are held directly by Albemarle County through the county authority or through the Board of Supervisors itself that holds those counties.

So about 20% of that success that we've had is directly related to the work that you all have empowered your staff to do through those allocations of funds.

Also in the budget, I'm excited to see prioritization of bike and pedestrian infrastructure.

These are quality of life improvements for our residents with an allocation of $6 million to needed bike and pedestrian projects.

Our work on community engagement and development of the Jefferson Area bike ped plan in cooperation with the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission has shown a huge need and a huge desire for this type of investment in our community and I applaud you guys for stepping up to the plate and making that an important part of this budget.

Likewise, we support the ongoing commitment that you've shown to that effort through the creation of a new greenway planner position, which will be important to moving forward with that $6 million of funding.

Finally, my one critique is the 2018 recreational needs assessment indicated that our community already has an overabundance of remote rural parks that we need to drive to to access and enjoy.

Hedro Park, which is in the budget, is yet another park like that.

When coupled with the intense demand for urban infrastructure, we're disappointed to see the proposed budget continues to prioritize Hedro with a $2 million appropriation, yet has no capital money allocated for Biscuit Run Park.

Since Hedro will only be duplicative of the types of park resources that we already have in abundance,

Those funds would be better spent on Biscuit Run, which can be directly connected to residents in the urban area, and I would encourage you to consider making a change of allocation.

Thank you, Rex.

Robert Mattern from the Ann Mallick District.

That's how she so identified herself, Supervisor Mallek.

I thought you'd enjoy that.

Good evening.

My name is Robin Mattern.

I'm a resident of Albemarle County and live in the White Hall District with my husband and two children who go to Meriwether Lewis Elementary and Henley Middle School.

I'm here tonight to express my strong support for the inclusion in the fiscal year 2020 budget to upgrade Dargentown Park, including the installation of synthetic turf and lights.

I've read the 2018 Albemarle County Parks and Recreation Needs Assessment, which listed youth athletic fields as a high priority ranking.

including a major upgrade to Darden Tow Park.

I can safely say that I am here representing thousands of families and even thousands more young athletes in our community who would strongly support this initiative.

The number of youth athletes in our community per our capita is incredibly high in comparison to other areas.

We owe it to our athletes to provide them with adequate athletic facilities so they can enjoy their sports and develop their talents.

Ironically, tonight, my children are playing soccer in a parking lot on asphalt because the grass fields are too saturated from Sunday night's rain.

Our county and city fields are crowded and overused.

These facilities are worn and often unsafe due to their surface conditions.

Sadly to say, with climate change and global warming, we are experiencing more rain than ever.

Our athletic fields cannot handle this weather.

They are deteriorating quicker than ever and almost impossible to maintain and allow for safe play.

Practices for various sports are constantly being canceled.

The solution to this ongoing problem is synthetic turf fields, which can withstand the elements.

Lights are also necessary to allow players to practice year round when we have limited daylight.

Organizations like SACA, Seminole Lacrosse, and Monu and others do their very best to provide fields, build new facilities, and rent fields from high schools, UVA, and ACAC, but we need the city and county to also help.

The athletic fields at Darden Tow are currently in atrocious shape.

However, Darden Tow has the potential to be an amazing multi-sport facility.

The infrastructure is there.

There's parking, bathrooms, picnic areas, good access roads.

The Pan Top area is booming with new homes, businesses, and restaurants.

It only makes sense to refresh Darden Tow Park.

With two children who play travel soccer, I am constantly going to athletic facilities across the state and to other states.

Many of these complexes are owned and operated by local cities and counties.

For instance, Glover Park, owned by Henrico County, Warhill Sports Complex in Williamsburg, owned by James City County, Hampton Road Soccer Complex, owned by the City of Virginia Beach, and the River City Sportsplex in Richmond, owned by Chesterfield County.

All of these facilities have synthetic turf fields and lights.

These facilities also are able to host tournaments bringing in revenue to communities.

An upgrade to Dardantow Park would allow our community to also host these tournaments.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Can you guys hear me okay?

It's always nervous addressing you guys.

I apologize if my voice is shaky.

Thank you guys very much for the opportunity to address the board for public record.

My name is David Deaton.

I'm from the Ann Mallek district, as it was so renamed recently, the White Hall district.

But I'm here representing Charlottesville Alliance FC, which is a nonprofit organization that serves the community through soccer.

It gives me great delight to return to this forum

to provide my strong support and endorsement for the budget to improve sports infrastructure at Dardan Tau Park.

On September 6, 2017, I provided a public statement for matters to the public on just this very topic.

Investing in public soccer infrastructure, open for all, is not just about improving the quality of life through active lifestyle.

It is also about creating economic growth and, most importantly, creating the infrastructure needed for positive social change.

Today, soccer is Albemarle County's most popular sport with over 20% of youth participating, yet the infrastructure of soccer is grossly behind.

As example, there are nine publicly funded, publicly accessible and lit tennis complexes in Albemarle County, and that excludes high schools.

There are none for soccer.

The economic benefits for improving infrastructure are significant.

There are over seven organizations providing soccer programming from individual training to semi-pro teams like ourselves.

In Richmond, we have learned that just three counties surrounding Richmond make more in tax revenues for the area than the entire region does in NASCAR.

Organizations that are based here in Charlottesville are courted by Richmond to host activities there because they understand this economic reality.

We are missing out.

And perhaps the most important and certainly the most passionate for Charlottesville Alliance FC is improved public infrastructure creates positive social change.

It is only at public parks where otherwise disparate groups convene together.

I love all sports.

As a father of three kids, I see the positive value that sport participation has.

However, it should not be overlooked that soccer is unique because it is the world's most popular sport and therefore people from all over the world participate.

I greatly appreciate your support to fund and prioritize field improvements at Dardentile Park.

Please appreciate the importance of this investment.

Thank you.

Thank you, David.

Good evening, I'm Robert Ho, Samuel Miller District.

A tax increase through assessments or a tax rate increase hurts a lot of people.

First, people that are just making ends meet without being on welfare can't after a tax increase because rent and or home ownership and other costs go up.

Second, people saving for retirement so they're not a burden to other taxpayers can't save as much.

Next item, parks should only be funded through user fees.

This includes biscuit run, parks or entertainment.

Taxpayer funded drug treatment programs.

The drug acts that successfully complete these programs should have to pay back some of the costs.

Non profits or charities should not receive our tax dollars.

People are still mad about the senior center receiving tax dollars.

School sports and activities should be fully funded by the parents.

Again, if you're over 50 and have never had children,

That's the key word, never had children.

You should receive a tax reduction.

Quit punishing people financially for not having children.

Hold your parents responsible because they are not paying their fair share of taxes.

Real estate tax relief for the elderly after their death, back taxes should be collected from the sale of their property.

It's not fair for the rest of us to have to pay for their taxes.

Also, I hear some other senior citizens asking why they have to pay their property tax when others don't.

This pits neighbor against neighbor.

In closing, I ask you to hold people responsible, make cuts in this budget, and do not raise your tax rate.

Thanks, Robert.

Good evening.

My name is Brian Corby.

I'm in the Ned Galloway district or region.

Long time Albemarle County resident, 12 years, first time speaker at one of your events.

I'm here to ask for your support as many others are in the Garden Town soccer fields and the improvements there.

I'm actually here really representing my son, my daughter, who plays lacrosse.

My son plays soccer.

but also you see I'm in a red Aetna shirt.

Aetna is a national company but we have over 100 employees right here out of Albemarle.

I'm the senior employee, the VP here.

We keep expanding which is, Albemarle is a great place for us to add employees.

But I'm also here because of Man U which is the red, you'll see the red shirts in the back for the local soccer club.

Aetna is a proud sponsor of Man U because we believe in the youth sports and the wellness activities, but clubs like Man U can't do it with just support from a company like Aetna.

They need the support of the county and the city to build out the field so our kids can play the game.

So we can build clubs, but we need better fields to be able to provide that for the children.

So as an Albemarle County

a longtime taxpayer.

I'm asking for your support on the fields.

Thank you, Brian.

Sorry about mispronouncing your name, but I thought your E was an O.

But I'm not from your district, so that's okay.

Thank you, board.

My name is John Martin.

I live in Free Union.

First of all, there's a tax increase in this budget, recommended budget, and in my experience, which goes back 20 years coming to board meetings, you know, when there's a tax increase, it's treated like a big deal.

A big deal.

Even a small increase, they add up.

They're treated as a big deal.

It's very unfortunate to get a budget, get a budget on Friday afternoon for the first time online

over a holiday weekend and then have to come to a public hearing on Tuesday evening to address it.

It's very, very unfortunate more time should be allowed, but I know there's a lengthy process after this.

And I also know

from prior experience, whenever there's a tax increase in the budget, the board agonizes over many work sessions to try to find some alternative to a tax increase, if they possibly can.

And it goes on and on and on, right till a very, very bitter end.

I've seen it a number of times.

Thank you for that.

but I took a look at the budget, I went through the budget, I listened to the work sessions, the December work sessions and then went back to the budget and realized that there is a very obvious glaring alternative to a tax increase here which I think should be followed and that is, I mean, a tax increase would raise $2.95 million in the past years

One time money has been used to pay the bond service obligations.

This year you can go to the budget and you see that it's proposed that 3.2 million dollars is being proposed of one time money to be conveyed to the economic development fund.

What should happen is that that money should be used for no tax increase for another year and that would give the economic development fund a quarter million extra dollars.

They have a million dollars in the fund right now that would give them a million and a quarter dollars for the next year.

I think a failure to take this kind of move would really disregard the public's need here.

Thank you, John.

Good evening.

Thank you for allowing me to address the board tonight, even though I'm a resident of the city of Charlottesville.

I'm here to speak in favor, though, of an item in the budget regarding the improvement of Darden Tow Park, which is, as I understand it, a joint city county park.

So, as I said, my name is David Manka, and I'm a coach and parent of three young soccer players with the Monticello United Soccer Club, which is located in the county.

It's a nonprofit youth soccer organization serving the city and the county.

and our youth soccer teams regularly travel all over the region to Richmond, Fredericksburg, Virginia Beach, Williamsburg for one of the previous speakers so eloquently outlined for you just what is out there outside of this region in terms of facilities for youth soccer and those governments have invested in this public soccer infrastructure and it brings people from all over the area

surrounding areas into those places by the hundreds really, and thousands even.

And traveling for hours to play in a youth soccer game is a strain on any family.

Montel United is proud of the fact that about a quarter of our players come from the underserved community in Charlottesville and Albemarle, mainly from the county, and travels

Just traveling across town a mile or two to our practice field is a challenge, let alone traveling to these facilities outside of our immediate county area.

And many of these parents have never even seen their children play soccer, despite the fact they've been playing with our club for years because they're working in restaurants and can't get weekends off.

So it's a real tragedy there.

And so, in summary, we really do welcome the addition of a regional public hub.

for soccer at Dardan Tau Park.

This is really important.

It's not some abstract idea.

You'll be able to go there and see the families gathered there on weekends with their kids just playing.

At all ages, men, women, kids, even over 40.

I play in over 40 men's league, proud to say, gorillas.

And this also drives, it's an asset that drives crowds, as I said, into the region.

So I'm Don Long, excuse me, President of the Board of SACA.

I'm also a resident of the White Hall District.

And I just want to commend you all for, and Jeff, for including this money for the development of Dardantale Park and the athletic fields there.

It's a great need that we have in our community.

Other communities have it.

I think for a community like ours, we need these infrastructures, we need these improvements for the quality of life.

And not just the fields, but all of the quality of life.

commitment that you've made.

And I also just want to raise the same points that some of these others have done around the economic development benefits of this.

It's not purely a this is something that makes everyone's life better, but we have opportunities to bring other people.

It's not hard to convince people to come to Charlottesville, so if we have a tournament here, we can get people in town.

We just have to have the infrastructure to support the teams and to get people here.

Thanks Don.

Bill Muller followed by Matt Wilson.

Good evening.

My name is Bill Mueller.

I'm a county resident in Ms. Mallet's district.

I'm also employed by SACA, the soccer organization of the Charlottesville area.

I've been working there for 22 years and during that time one of our biggest difficulties and greatest priorities has always been the development of field facilities.

We've had

Over the years, many conversations with folks both in the Board of Supervisors level and in the Parks and Recreation Department.

We've advocated for just this sort of project that is being proposed at Darden Tow Park.

for a long, long time.

So I'm really excited to see this in the budget.

I know that you'll be faced with lots of choices over the coming process on dealing with issues of tax increases and priorities.

I will simply say that the soccer fields in our community

are being loved to death.

We have thousands and thousands of soccer players on the fields on weeknights and weekends and they would love a place to play.

They'd love a place to play that is safe and appropriate, doesn't put their ankles and knees at risk.

and these fields, as they're proposed, the improvements at Darden Town Park would be a great measure toward addressing some of those issues.

The issues of quality and quantity are connected in that we need more fields and we need more fields of better quality and if we have more fields, we can spread the use around.

The beauty of the proposal at Darden Town Park, with the artificial surface, they can get used

session after session without deteriorating the field.

The lights will allow us to play during times of the year when natural light prohibits us from playing.

So it's the most effective, most efficient use of public money to make a facility become much more usable than it presently is and much more viable as a resource for the community.

So I'm delighted to see this in the budget.

I hope it makes it all the way through the end.

I know you've got a lot of things to consider, but we've been chasing this dog for 22 years, and we hope that we'll finally see these improvements.

Thank you, Bill.

Hello, I'm Matt Wilson.

I'm the executive director of SACA and I'm here to advocate for the inclusion of the money to help improve Darden Tow Park.

Last year when Albemarle County conducted its needs assessment for Parks and Recreation, they called in each of the user groups to speak individually about their particular needs.

And when I came in on behalf of SACA,

the conversation we quickly agreed that the fields in the area needed improvement and the initial idea was well let's just build a whole new complex that could serve that but I thought that

The better idea really is to improve DART and TAO rather than to build something from scratch.

I think Biscuit Run and some of these ideas are great, but the quickest and frankly cheapest way to improve our infrastructure with facilities is to make DART and TAO a usable and durable facility.

It's already built.

It has parking.

It has bathrooms.

The fields are there.

All the infrastructure is done.

It's just a pity that the fields aren't of a quality that people want to play on.

So it's in a great location as well.

It's very central.

So to turn those fields into something that people would actually want to be on could move us forward very rapidly for a relatively cheap price, I think, as opposed to building something

As a few other folks stated, there's a lot of players in the area.

SACA alone, we have over 7,000 players that play in our organization.

One in five youth between the ages of five and 18 register with SACA in Albemarle County.

A lot of people play from all different economic stripes.

It's a great game.

And having a facility with the synthetic turf and lights would advance us rapidly.

The only fields that I'm aware of in the area that have these qualities are the local high school stadiums at Albemarle, Monticello, and Western.

And I think if you spoke to the athletic directors at those schools, they would tell you that it was a real game changer when those facilities were improved.

And it would be the same thing for all the local youth sports organizations, not just soccer, but lacrosse and field hockey and football and everyone that could benefit from this.

And I do think the points about tournaments is a good one.

We host a tournament on Labor Day.

it's about 200 teams but we've had to split that tournament between Charlottesville and Lynchburg and the reason we've had to split it is because there's not enough fields in the area to support hosting that event so half of that economic benefit actually goes to Lynchburg every year and half comes here we just split it by gender boy and girl

But if we could improve the fields, we could host it here and that would be a great boon for hotels and stores and restaurants in the area that would have people come in over the weekend.

So I thank you very much for putting that money into the budget and I encourage you guys to keep it there.

Thank you.

Thank you, Matt.

Anyone else care to speak?

So Mr.

Chair, I go ahead and turn it back over to you.

All right, so the public hearing is now closed.

I would like to express my gratitude.

Thank you to all those who came out this evening to give us your thoughts.

There will certainly be more opportunities to do so as the budget process kicks off this Thursday as Lori went over.

We'll go over that calendar again.

It's up on the screen.

But there'll be opportunities at future meetings and the future public hearing in April to continue to give comments back.

and then I would imagine supervisors will begin holding some meetings out in their districts.

There will be chances to come out and interact with your supervisor in that venue as well.

Just what you said was thank you very much for everybody coming out.

We really appreciate the information and the opinions.

So we'll go to matters from the board.

I'll just take a minute to announce three town halls for people to study for and come to in March 7th, Earliesville at Broadus Wood Cafeteria at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 9th at the White Hall Community Building from 10 to 12 and then Monday, March 11th at Brownsville Elementary Cafeteria.

So I hope to see other White Hall folks there.

I guess I can do one really quickly.

I had already started meetings today and I had one down in Scottsville and one at Wegmans and will be tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock on the fourth floor of Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital, it's not the operating room, in the cafeteria on the south side for anyone that would care to meet with me.

and my full schedule is online.

All right, so we'll move on to matters from the county executive not listed on the agenda.

Mr. Chairman, members of the board, in my former life I was a weatherman, actually.

I just wanted to give an update to the board on conditions and preparations by staff.

Forecasts, you guys are tracking, just like we are, somewhere between three to six, five to nine inches of snow.

It's an event that will start overnight.

The concerning part for staff is that it looks like it's going to proceed through the day tomorrow and at some point probably cut over to freezing rain or sleet, which makes it challenging.

Our process is that we'll have staff here overnight starting around 2 in the morning to make sure we keep our pumps open, fuel pumps open here at the McIntire location.

and then because Fifth Street's 24-7 ops, we maintain that open throughout the event.

We'll have park staff come in about five o'clock, assess the current conditions, we'll look at the forecast, so we'll get an assessment of our facilities tomorrow morning.

Mr. Walker will be talking with Public Safety, VDOT, to get an assessment of conditions out in the area and then by 5.30 we'll make a call whether to

delay or otherwise for tomorrow.

So I just wanted to kind of walk you guys through that process.

We'll be up early making a recommendation to Mr. Richardson and then whatever we decide.

If it's operations normally, we'll communicate that out to the range of a delay or a cancellation over the day.

So board, if staff determines that it's appropriate to shut the building down tomorrow, that is going to cancel the board meeting, and then we will move and rearrange things into future agendas.

The agendas in March have room to build some things in, especially the public hearings.

So that should work out fine without even having to go to a third meeting.

The tricky part will be if it's a delay, and then depending on the conditions, do board members want to weigh in on how they feel about the matter for themselves or for constituents?

I always get concerned that if we're having something with public hearings and it's, you know, that would be the evening portion right when the freezing rain and then the going after sun's gone down.

I find that problematic to be asking people to come out to speak to us in that type of arrangement.

I personally can get here, but I'm thinking more along those lines.

Well it's one of the most miserable decisions anybody has to make because you're in trouble no matter what you decide because often you cancel and then it gets better and there's no way to know.

The only thing we do know is having the safety of the staff and the people who come, the absolute most important thing.

I just want to say that I agree with Ann certainly.

One of the things we always need to remember is that a lot of people live really far out on roads that are dangerous when all the other roads look great.

Well, and that's right, and it can be warmer in the urban ring when you're talking about freezing, and then you go out into the county and it gets somewhat colder, and a little bit of a difference can make a big difference.

So while I agree with Ned, I can get here.

That's why we evaluate both current conditions at our facilities and what's happening in the county.

Well, if you wake up and hear that the county office building's been closed, then obviously you know the answer.

For the benefit of the public, it would be recommended that if the building is closed that the chair actually declare the meeting to be continued.

And everything would continue over to March 6, which is the board's next regular scheduled meeting.

The only thing you need to remember is, and I don't think you would possibly go this far, but the Thursday, February 28th, I think it is, work session, we're going down to the transit partnership.

I just wanna make sure.

Be aware of that.

All right, very good for that.

Thank you.