Board of Supervisors Meeting   12/10/2024

1. 1. Call to Order - 5:00 p.m.

2. 2. Legislative Priorities for VACo County Government Day on Thursday, January 23, 2025

• • SPEAKER_20
  • 00:00:00
    We're just so lucky that we've got people that realize and are willing to donate and give.
  • 00:00:03
    We're just so blessed.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:00:22
    They got right at $500.
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 00:00:29
    I think last year, you know, you figured during the pandemic would be the worst, but I think last year they were saying it's $450.
  • 00:00:36
    And the problem is like the donations were really, really good during the pandemic because I guess there was federal money and they say, you know, it's falling and like you're saying, the number is increasing.
  • 00:00:46
    A lot of people complain that it's downtown, but in me, I'm like, at least it's a reminder that, you know, there are people in our county that are a lot less fortunate than everybody here probably.
• • SPEAKER_20
  • 00:00:59
    It's not just family with children.
  • 00:01:01
    It's a lot of the elderly people that don't fix income have to rely on it, too.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:01:06
    And then you've got those that just need it but won't ask for it or accept it either.
  • 00:01:11
    That's scary.
  • 00:01:13
    Don't you appreciate him caring about the elderly?
  • 00:01:15
    Yes, I do.
  • 00:01:19
    Yes, I do.
• • SPEAKER_20
  • 00:01:22
    Gosh.
  • 00:01:25
    We didn't get the Harley store open as soon as we wanted.
  • 00:01:28
    I think their first week of January is what they're shooting for now.
  • 00:01:33
    They had a major setback on the floors or something, my other way, that when they sealed the floors, had a bunch of trash or something, what I heard, and they had to go back and redo all the floors and stuff.
  • 00:01:45
    So, you know, the last day of business down there is going to be... Okay.
  • 00:01:50
    I figured you got something.
  • 00:01:52
    Sorry, guys.
• • SPEAKER_10
  • 00:02:14
    We have 59 minutes?
  • 00:02:14
    No problem.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:02:15
    Generally operate on a much tighter time.
  • 00:02:18
    Where are you getting?
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 00:02:20
    Where are you?
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:02:52
    Good evening.
  • 00:02:52
    I want to call our Tuesday, December the 10th, 2024 Board of Supervisors meeting to order.
  • 00:03:00
    Our first order of business tonight is a workshop to discuss the legislative priorities for Vaco County Government Day on Thursday, January the 23rd, 2025.
  • 00:03:10
    I think we'll move down and have a more informal discussion.
  • 00:03:41
    That way you can split them.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:03:48
    That's where the building is.
• • SPEAKER_18
  • 00:03:53
    That's right.
  • 00:03:53
    Right.
  • 00:03:53
    Oh, me too?
  • 00:03:54
    Okay.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:03:54
    I didn't know if you wanted me or not.
  • 00:03:55
    I don't like my back.
• • SPEAKER_10
  • 00:04:12
    when you might throw his nails at me.
  • 00:04:13
    You see that?
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:04:29
    Well, I know it's here before you all in November to talk about the regional legislative program and the three priorities.
  • 00:04:41
    Two of them really related to funding from the state, education funding, funding for other programs that are carried out at the local level, their state programs.
  • 00:04:53
    And then the third would be the land use over the national category.
  • 00:04:59
    I think, you know, VECO probably has some similar positions to what we have recently.
  • 00:05:06
    I think of those three, I think that a lot of the discussion that I've been seeing in the previous months around the energy generation issue, particularly solar
  • 00:05:22
    given the legislation that we had last year.
  • 00:05:24
    It's probably going to be one of the, if not the top priority for BACO this year.
  • 00:05:31
    And I've been in some meetings recently where they're talking in the Commission on Electric Utility Regulation about how to move forward more quickly.
  • 00:05:44
    maybe more effectively and efficiently toward meeting the goals that were set out in the 2020 Clean Economy Act.
  • 00:05:53
    As I'm sure you're aware, there are some proposals out there that would really restrict local government authority when it comes to making land use decisions with regard to siting solar facilities.
  • 00:06:05
    and the planning districts are involved as well because they're talking about planning districts possibly serving as a convener of folks in the regions to develop regional energy.
  • 00:06:20
    I would expect that when folks come to Richmond this session and you're running into most any of your local government liaisons and VACO, myself included, you're going to hear a lot of talk about the energy proposals and particularly the ones that may propose to restore your local garden floor.
  • 00:06:41
    I've been telling people with regard to the different proposals that are out there in that regard, and there's been different stakeholder groups, there's been legislators, there's been this commission and some of its work groups that have been talking for months about a number of different proposals, and they're really kind of all over the place, depending on their perspective.
  • 00:07:02
    I think there's a long, long, long, long way to go in terms of finding some common ground and being able to
  • 00:07:08
    to do something for it.
  • 00:07:09
    And I don't need to get there this coming session, in a short session, when things move even more quickly.
  • 00:07:15
    And it's a statewide election year.
  • 00:07:24
    I'm glad that part of your conversation today, appreciate you inviting me.
  • 00:07:28
    I'm glad to answer any questions on that or anything else, funding-wise.
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 00:07:34
    I come energy calls to have gone up so much, just
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:07:38
    Yeah, everything, the way it's gone off is pretty hard.
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 00:07:45
    I had a guy come to me today and said they wanted to charge him $40,000 to get his electric line less than a quarter of a mile.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 00:07:57
    I like how they sent the increase out in the bill.
  • 00:08:00
    And they sat there and said, we're going to do this, this, and this with your money, which were things that I had originally thought they did anyway.
  • 00:08:07
    So like...
  • 00:08:08
    You know, never really justified the increase, right?
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:08:11
    You're always supposed to quit right-of-ways and upgrade stuff.
  • 00:08:16
    What are these bills coming from?
  • 00:08:17
    Yeah, so, you know, you've got your, you know, you're regulating utilities and operating under SCC, your sticks, your just co-ops, your difference.
  • 00:08:28
    That's a whole nother world.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:08:30
    So what's happening to lay down as far as micro-nuclear funds?
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:08:36
    Well, it's something Dominion has put out there that they would like to look toward.
  • 00:08:42
    Everything that I've heard with regard to the SMR technology, it's not there yet.
  • 00:08:49
    It is maybe five to 10 years away.
  • 00:08:51
    So...
  • 00:08:54
    You know, I mean, that that's certainly part of it, but it's not something that's here and now, as I understand.
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 00:09:00
    Now, they haven't done it, they've slowed up on purpose, so it's submarines and Gerald Ford has two, but just needs one, has one as a backup.
  • 00:09:10
    That'll run 50 years.
  • 00:09:11
    I'm just, you know, Enterprise had four.
  • 00:09:15
    I don't understand that.
  • 00:09:17
    And they're saying, is that because of permitting?
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:09:23
    I'm not familiar with the technology.
  • 00:09:24
    I just don't know that the technology is there to do it on a larger scale.
  • 00:09:28
    And I don't even know what the scale of the output of this is envisioned to be.
  • 00:09:34
    I'll tell you one thing that I thought was really interesting.
  • 00:09:37
    Yesterday was in Richmond for the JLAR meeting and they had...
  • 00:09:44
    a long-awaited report on their study of data centers and all the data centers that primarily have been popping up in northern Virginia and some other areas to our north, but other parts of the state as well.
  • 00:09:55
    One of the points that was made about the, depending on the size, the larger ones and the amount of
  • 00:10:06
    energy that they take.
  • 00:10:08
    And in one case, these large ones would be equal to the output of the channel right now.
  • 00:10:20
    I mean, just we're talking 100 to 200 megawatts.
  • 00:10:24
    Some of these will take part.
  • 00:10:26
    I think, you know, that probably comes into play.
  • 00:10:28
    Some of the things that are in the report, which probably comes into play with regard to, you know, discussions we've had this past year that have been primarily focused on solar, but, you know, solar, natural gas, you know, the CMR, you know, there's a conservation side.
  • 00:10:44
    There's a lot of new rules.
  • 00:10:49
    Yeah, informed view, I think, is largely of the same thinking that your county governments would be, I think, with regard to wanting to preserve that local authority.
  • 00:10:57
    And, you know, they're looking right now, I guess, at loss of agriculture and forest land in any given year, you know, now.
  • 00:11:04
    So, you know, what happens with the proliferation of whether it be data centers or somewhere?
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:11:11
    What was the recommendations that came out with Jane Mark's study?
  • 00:11:15
    Do you have a chance to look at it enough to see that?
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:11:20
    I was in the meeting.
  • 00:11:21
    I had it come back and looked at the report itself.
  • 00:11:24
    I think the thing that really struck me was the incredible amounts of energy that they take.
  • 00:11:32
    They didn't seem to be as concerned, I guess, about the water needs there are for cooling the centers.
  • 00:11:40
    In fact, I think the term they used was that Virginia was a water-rich state.
  • 00:11:44
    How about that?
  • 00:11:46
    I wouldn't agree with that.
  • 00:11:47
    It's probably just the energy that it takes to get it there to the Davis Center.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:11:57
    I think the other concern is this electrical needs of which the late demand that's out there for it, not just for the Davis Centers, but for other stuff.
  • 00:12:08
    How much of it is for Virginia versus to support West Virginia or North, you know, like other areas that might be around us, like we're not exporting power, are we?
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:12:20
    Yeah, no, they were talking more about, you know, what would there possibly be needs for us to purchase power from other states.
  • 00:12:27
    But, you know, it's interesting, one of the charts that we showed, when you talk about some of the other demands on energy in the future,
  • 00:12:37
    talked about electric vehicles on top of just normal growth.
  • 00:12:40
    But when they threw the data centers in and you see the line going like that, that you take the data centers out and it's a fairly flat line in terms of the demand.
  • 00:12:50
    What's the carbon footprint of all that?
  • 00:12:52
    I guess the whole thing kind of blows the whole model, doesn't it?
  • 00:12:56
    Yeah, it was interesting because they were showing what the demand was.
  • 00:13:00
    They weren't saying how to meet the demand.
  • 00:13:03
    But one of the things that I think
  • 00:13:07
    If there's something the legislature was going to consider, they were talking about, this is where you expect data centers to be over this period of time.
  • 00:13:15
    Right now, there's some tax incentives out there that the state has.
  • 00:13:19
    And I think they go through 2035.
  • 00:13:23
    So they were putting forward some scenarios of continuing the tax credits and then what that does versus letting it expire in 2025.
  • 00:13:35
    or conditionally moving it forward or whatever and what that might do in terms of the data centers becoming or coming online, I guess.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:13:50
    Well, I can say that that's definitely an issue, but our number one priority as a county has been water projects.
  • 00:13:58
    So last year, we were very fortunate to get $3 million added
  • 00:14:05
    to the budget to support our reservoir.
  • 00:14:08
    And at our elected officials request, we refreshed the same ask that we had last year and asked for another, because originally we'd asked for, yeah, seven.
  • 00:14:22
    So we asked for 4 million now that we're also making more progress toward that goal.
  • 00:14:29
    So I think that's
  • 00:14:31
    in terms of asks, you know, it's always good to have like at least one really strong priority and then maybe another, you know, for legislative day and figuring that out.
  • 00:14:44
    So if everybody agrees that water's the number one thing, then because they were very support, I will say we're also extremely fortunate to have, you know, between Senator Bryce-Reeves and Delegate McFreitas, very good support for our state
  • 00:15:00
    helped lobby very hard to get the rest of the state to go along with that.
  • 00:15:04
    So that's great.
  • 00:15:07
    So as maybe a second priority, what are the board's thoughts?
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:15:21
    If you don't mind, I would add, and I made reference to some of the funding issues.
  • 00:15:29
    The two things that kind of stood out to me, at least in looking at what the money committee staffs in Richmond are anticipating in terms of additional state expenditures funding wise.
  • 00:15:40
    One of them is it was a huge one in Medicare.
  • 00:15:43
    I'm sorry, Medicaid.
  • 00:15:45
    But the other one that they singled out was Comprehensive Services Act, now Children's Services Act, and $70 million statewide.
  • 00:15:54
    And Steve, you know, we've been talking about Children's Services Act since it was put into existence.
  • 00:16:00
    So there never seems to be enough funding for that.
  • 00:16:04
    And I don't know what your particular situation may be here, you know, in terms of the pool funding or if you're having to go back and
  • 00:16:11
    Ask for more individually.
  • 00:16:13
    I mean, it really, I mean, it comes down to, and you never know when you're going to have, you know, a placement come into your county or two placements that is just going to have all the funding, you know.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:16:27
    That's a good one.
  • 00:16:28
    One of the things I was disappointed in that it hadn't changed when I came back.
  • 00:16:35
    So to say.
  • 00:16:43
    last year.
  • 00:16:44
    He's down to the 30, 32.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 00:16:46
    And we're fortunate to have James because he does a great job making the most valuable out of what we do have the impacts of.
  • 00:16:54
    So that's helped us a lot.
• • SPEAKER_19
  • 00:16:58
    That one got a lot from both of them recently.
  • 00:17:03
    So then that number may go back up this year to show us.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:17:09
    Is anybody discussing that in general?
  • 00:17:12
    I think when it just came out there several weeks ago, I was surprised to see, because that's a bigger jump than we've seen from the state anticipating, so I haven't heard any reaction to that, like BACO or VNO.
  • 00:17:29
    Do you know currently where we're at with that issue?
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:17:37
    Like I'll see you safe.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:17:39
    Yeah.
  • 00:17:39
    So, yes, I can tell you that the needs outpace the funding.
  • 00:17:46
    And so James has been, you know, and actually Supervisor Lamb can probably speak to this as well, being on the Social Services Committee.
  • 00:17:56
    But, you know, what we are
  • 00:18:00
    incrementally going and asking for additional funding, especially at the end of the year.
  • 00:18:04
    You saw all those different appropriations where it was like every other meeting, we were asking for a little more, a little more, a little more because the state kicks in, but then we have to make sure it gets appropriated.
  • 00:18:18
    We are doing as effective and as efficiently providing services and helping families, but they'll
  • 00:18:30
    Again, the easiest way without using examples is that needs are outpacing that funding.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:18:41
    Would you approach that as unfunded mandates in general or would you get specific to CSA?
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:18:46
    Yeah, I think I'm probably the latter.
  • 00:18:48
    You know, it's an underfunded mandate.
  • 00:18:50
    It's been that way.
  • 00:18:51
    I know it's been that way.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:19:00
    Yeah, through special education.
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 00:19:03
    I understand Jay Lark has put together recommendations on changing the weight of school allocations.
  • 00:19:09
    Do you happen to know whether or not we will benefit?
  • 00:19:12
    Because we do pretty well.
  • 00:19:14
    So are we rooting for that as a county or are we trying to say no?
  • 00:19:19
    Because right now the ratio apparently is supposed to be 55-45 state to local.
  • 00:19:24
    And kind of statewide, it's the exact reverse of that.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:19:29
    Yeah, probably a little too early to tell.
  • 00:19:31
    I've heard that some folks are trying to do an analysis because the change I think they're looking at is, you know, right now when they set that composite index, it's done for a two-year period and it's based on data by the time you get to the end of the two years that's four years old because it's two years prior now.
  • 00:19:49
    So I think the recommendation was to move it to a kind of a rolling three-year average type
  • 00:19:57
    scenario so that you kind of smooth out those swings that you may have in any given two-year period.
  • 00:20:05
    I've heard of some folks that have started trying to do some analysis of whether they would be a winner or a loser.
  • 00:20:11
    But again, it's based on data that's only several years old.
  • 00:20:16
    So I think it's going to probably, they have to maybe say, yeah, this is what we're going to do and then start running some numbers that have
  • 00:20:25
    of better data.
  • 00:20:26
    And I don't, you know, I don't even know, you know, you mentioned income, you know, income, population, you have all these different value of real estate, all those formulas, you know, variables, are they going to stay the same?
  • 00:20:37
    Are they going to be different ones?
  • 00:20:38
    Are they going to wake them differently?
  • 00:20:40
    So probably a little too early to tell.
  • 00:20:42
    And that, you know, in terms of what the General Assembly is going to try to tackle some of those recommendations, you know, they kind of divide them up into short-term and long-term.
  • 00:20:53
    I think
  • 00:20:54
    I think they might try to do some of the funding things this year if they can, particularly if we can say this is, you know, one-time additional funds that we need to put in to make this change to legal recognition.
  • 00:21:05
    But some of those are, you know, they're tens of millions of dollars, but then, you know, the big one that's out there, it's been talked about for a number of years is this capital and the number of support personnel that the schools have and that the state pays its part of, it's like a 200 and something about.
  • 00:21:25
    just for the states.
  • 00:21:29
    Great question.
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 00:21:31
    On a more immediate scale, and I think it pertains to us, last year there was a number of bills that talked about taking away the board's ability to restrict, especially things like short-term rentals within residential areas, which we made an ordinance against.
  • 00:21:52
    that died.
  • 00:21:53
    Is that going to continue to die?
  • 00:21:54
    Because there's a series.
  • 00:21:55
    It seems like the same individual keeps putting up these things that are not oriented towards residents, but mainly oriented towards companies.
  • 00:22:05
    Sure.
  • 00:22:05
    Yeah.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:22:08
    I should have mentioned in, when I was talking about land use, I think between the solar and the energy generation and the housing related issues, those are the two where you really now seem to have an attack on local government authority.
  • 00:22:22
    The one bill in particular, there's one, this is not the short-term rental bill, yeah, the short-term rental one, you know, that battle's been going on from the years between
  • 00:22:32
    between the Airbnbs of the world and, you know, the local governments, the commissions of revenue.
  • 00:22:38
    And, you know, there's been recommendations come out of studies that, you know, they get to the legislature and they die.
  • 00:22:45
    The other side, you know, they thought they had peace in the valley and posted a green, and then that's not the case when you get to look at the particular bill.
  • 00:22:53
    So, yeah, I would expect there'll be another
  • 00:22:57
    around the bills where we'll have to play defense on those as well.
  • 00:23:02
    I think there's some housing issues as well.
  • 00:23:06
    Band-aiding that you have accessory dwelling units.
  • 00:23:10
    We saw last year that we went to a study committee, you know, got whittled down to something that was, okay, well, local governments should consider this when they're doing something.
  • 00:23:23
    But it's my understanding of the last year.
  • 00:23:27
    Backwood was built for last year.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:23:31
    The meeting on housing now calls like 459 in Green County.
  • 00:23:35
    Affordable housing.
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 00:23:45
    Then there was one other that I didn't completely understand how they can do it.
  • 00:23:49
    They were talking about the rehab houses that can be placed on a residential zone, and it's as many as five people unrelated with no assigned staff.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:23:59
    Oh, these are the recovery?
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 00:24:01
    The recovery units, yeah.
  • 00:24:02
    They're put in a residential zone, and some groups have tried to restrict the number of them because some of them tend to be in a cluster.
  • 00:24:10
    And the one thing that I didn't understand is I thought it was that it was kind of residential rules that you can't have more than four unrelated individuals living in a property that's, you know, a single family or a single dwelling.
  • 00:24:27
    Do you know how they're able to get around that?
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:24:29
    Yeah.
  • 00:24:30
    Well, that's another piece.
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 00:24:31
    Because there was like Arlington in particular, I guess, of getting in bed.
  • 00:24:34
    Right.
  • 00:24:34
    Yeah.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:24:38
    Yeah, you're right.
  • 00:24:38
    Some of the more populated areas and like that.
  • 00:24:43
    I'm probably going to need to get back with you some additional information on that because the recovery residence bill has been another one that's been looked at and studied the mission and made.
  • 00:24:52
    I believe we're getting close to something that they're going to submit as legislation this year and I don't know how that's different today.
  • 00:25:00
    the bill, Erica, as it was last making.
  • 00:25:04
    So let me do a little research on that.
  • 00:25:07
    I'll send all of y'all.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:25:10
    So we all agreed that number one is broad.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:25:13
    I kind of feel like you should generalize maybe unfunded mandates and then maybe generalize like
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 00:25:24
    Keep your hands off our local government.
  • 00:25:26
    Look at our land use issues.
  • 00:25:28
    I would say take them as a lump, not maybe as specific, and then if it all comes under the same can, you know, that's great.
  • 00:25:34
    But I don't know which order to put that in, but I would think that they are equally destructive.
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 00:25:42
    that we have, Kathy, that we could ask so that we're very specific in a request.
  • 00:25:50
    The reservoir is pretty clear cut, but I think for like four Greene counties, there's something that we could
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:25:57
    Well, the only thing that comes to mind and appreciate that question is when it comes to broadband, as you may recall, there was a carve out from Fireflies District to have Brightspeed come in.
  • 00:26:10
    And there's some, you know, some of the areas that are being that are Brightspeed's areas, they're falling behind on the schedule.
  • 00:26:19
    and I believe that they're coming in and asking for an extension some more time because originally everything was supposed to be done by the end of this calendar year which is in a few weeks and that's fairly not going to happen so
  • 00:26:35
    Perhaps, you know, the default was going to be maybe goes back, you know, like for areas where it looks like there's a struggle to get it done for whatever reason that they're, you know, like that area no longer is exclusive.
  • 00:26:51
    Is that a good way to say it?
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:26:52
    Yeah, I mean, the reason that Bright Speed has the territory that you're talking about is because we can see in Firefly put in the application for
  • 00:27:05
    in the RISE project or for the RISE project.
  • 00:27:10
    RISE be challenged to that area to say that they were already working in that area.
  • 00:27:14
    That challenge, I can't remember the exact terminology, I don't know if it was accepted, but it was kind of put on hold to allow them to
  • 00:27:22
    continue their work through a different agreement that goes to allowing a pipeline to get that territory.
  • 00:27:31
    I know that you all just agreed on I had talked, you know, had asked that the Department of Housing and Community Development not grant the intervention.
  • 00:27:43
    And TJPDC also made that request on behalf of Greene, as well as the other two counties that were part of the Bright Speed Challenge.
  • 00:27:52
    If that is as far as we know is still with the Department of Housing and Community Development is our read on the agreement that was made with bright speed, which the counties were asked to consent to as well as the PVC.
  • 00:28:06
    You know, allows them to know.
  • 00:28:13
    have the authority to not grant the extension.
  • 00:28:15
    It's a mandate.
  • 00:28:16
    So that's a legislator?
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:28:19
    It's not really a legislator.
  • 00:28:22
    So I think when it comes to the general idea of the local control on land use issues and then the unfunded mandates piece, I think what I've heard the board say in terms of local control, maybe making it more specific because
  • 00:28:41
    The state has definitely prioritized making it easier for agricultureism.
  • 00:28:46
    And if that's something that the county wants to have a different perspective on, I think that would be the most meaningful way of, you know, like local control in general is important.
  • 00:29:02
    But on that specific issue, it has a disproportionate impact in a rural county like us versus maybe a rural property county.
  • 00:29:11
    and they need to hear that perspective.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 00:29:16
    It's interesting you can have that through the state and then right next door, a solar farm, or excuse me, commercial power generation, right next door, right?
  • 00:29:25
    And all of it's out of our control.
  • 00:29:27
    It's amazing how that is the clash of people making land use decisions that don't need to be making land use decisions.
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 00:29:35
    Right there, perfect example.
  • 00:29:37
    There is actually one thing that comes to mind that might be very
  • 00:29:44
    with two of our roads designated scenic byways.
  • 00:29:48
    Is there any funding that can come with that that you've seen for people to either preserve or to beautify?
  • 00:29:55
    One of the ones that we're talking about was actually going to go by the Beard Winery.
  • 00:30:02
    One of the major concerns everybody had was safety.
  • 00:30:06
    coming in and out of that byway, especially if it sees increased traffic as a result of that designation.
  • 00:30:12
    Is there any coming out there for, again, preserving, enhancing
  • 00:30:19
    making it safer, compensating for increased traffic.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:30:23
    I do not know if that's simply a designation or if it's a designation or something behind it.
  • 00:30:27
    I know I'm more familiar with the scenic river designation process through DCR.
  • 00:30:32
    That's really just a designation that's used to promote the river and its assets, but I'm not sure exactly how it works with the right two roads.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 00:30:49
    I think it started with the Green Springs project up there on 15, because in my earlier days, the scenic byway didn't mean a little something, right?
  • 00:31:02
    It was supposed to be a preservation corridor or a more rural corridor, but probably somewhere along the line it got deleted.
  • 00:31:10
    who came into the historical district.
  • 00:31:13
    Right.
  • 00:31:14
    It's because that Great Springs thing wasn't part of that original push.
  • 00:31:16
    You have Ray Ealy down there.
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 00:31:18
    She brings in congressmen, senators, you name it.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 00:31:22
    David Rollins heard her name.
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 00:31:25
    It's an interesting one, though.
  • 00:31:27
    Because why do it if it didn't mean anything?
  • 00:31:29
    Well, I was just wondering, you know, if somebody else has used that, could we use that as a blueprint to kind of say, oh, you know, you gave this money to this county to, you know, preserve that.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:31:39
    You know, if you've got a rough stretch through there, you're fine.
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 00:31:48
    And we sort of touched on that a little bit with the tourism when we had the workshop.
  • 00:31:52
    We were sort of saying, is there a way that we can kind of preserve, especially the, you know, the gateway?
  • 00:31:58
    on 33 and then, you know, scenic back roads.
• • SPEAKER_10
  • 00:32:02
    Any further discussion?
  • 00:32:04
    We've got it wrapped up?
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:32:06
    I like the, what you said about the managers, that'd be number two.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:32:10
    Yeah.
  • 00:32:11
    This specific.
  • 00:32:12
    We can, we can write up some bullet points for you guys, you know.
  • 00:32:16
    And then I'm going to mandate being a journal.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 00:32:19
    Yeah.
• • SPEAKER_10
  • 00:32:21
    And I have asked Steve if he would be a representative.
  • 00:32:25
    I'm going to be reaching.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:32:27
    We're going to take a low down notice.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:32:33
    I would offer to the board and to you, Kathy, as well.
  • 00:32:39
    I'm down there all the time.
  • 00:32:40
    So if you're coming down, whether it's in conjunction with the local government day or any other time, you know, shoot me an email, give me a call.
  • 00:32:48
    Glad to pick up with you and, you know, do those systems.
• • SPEAKER_10
  • 00:32:52
    So we can register people.
  • 00:32:53
    They want us to register who's coming.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:33:20
    Did you want me to go?
  • 00:33:21
    I'm happy.
  • 00:33:22
    I was planning to go, too, if you would like.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:33:28
    And Steve and... Anybody can go.
  • 00:33:30
    I'm there.
  • 00:33:30
    Just ask Steve if he would be a spokesperson for more.
  • 00:33:34
    But sure.
  • 00:33:35
    Anybody that wants to go, let Kathy...
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:33:40
    Yeah, so just let me know we'll sign you up.
  • 00:33:44
    I think it's like $100 or something, you know, like some nominal amount for a registration.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:33:50
    All right, I guess we'll get back up there.
• • SPEAKER_10
  • 00:34:10
    Thank you very much.
  • 00:34:11
    Thank you very much.
  • 00:34:12
    Thank you very much.
  • 00:34:13
    Thank you very much.
  • 00:34:15
    Thank you very much.
  • 00:34:16
    Thank you very much.
  • 00:34:17
    Thank you very much.
  • 00:34:20
    Thank you very much.
  • 00:34:21
    Thank you very much.
  • 00:34:22
    Thank you very much.
  • 00:34:22
    Thank you very much.
  • 00:34:23
    Thank you very much.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:34:50
    Ms.
  • 00:34:50
    Kemp, would you kindly read our motion?
  • 00:34:53
    Yes, ma'am.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:34:54
    Whereas the Board of Supervisors of Greene County desires to discuss in a closed meeting the following matters.

3. 3. Closed Meeting

• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:34:58
    Discussion, consideration, or interviews of prospective candidates for employment, assignment, appointment, promotion, performance, demotion, salaries, disciplining, or resignation of specific public officers, appointees,
  • 00:35:08
    or employees of any public body concerning the animal shelter and the county administration.
  • 00:35:12
    Discussion concerning a prospective business or industry or the expansion of an existing business or industry where there's no previous announcement has been made of the business or industry's interest in locating or expanding its facilities in the community.
  • 00:35:25
    Whereas pursuant to Section 2.2-3711 and A5 of the Code of Virginia, such discussions may occur in a closed meeting.
  • 00:35:33
    Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Board of Supervisors of Greene County does hereby authorize discussion of the aforestated matters in a closed meeting.
  • 00:35:40
    Motion.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:35:41
    I have a motion to go in closed meeting.
  • 00:35:43
    Second.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:35:44
    Second.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:35:44
    I have a motion and a second to go in closed meeting.
  • 00:35:49
    We'll call vote.
  • 00:35:49
    Mr. McGuigan.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 00:35:50
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:35:51
    Mr. Goolsby.
  • 00:35:52
    Aye.
  • 00:35:52
    Mr. Lamb.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 00:35:53
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:35:53
    Mr. Catalano.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 00:35:54
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:35:55
    And the chair votes aye.
  • 00:35:56
    We'll be back at 6 o'clock.
• • SPEAKER_11
  • 00:36:19
    Good, how are you?
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 00:36:20
    Yeah, I did.
  • 00:36:37
    Well, I saw
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 00:36:46
    We called each other.
  • 00:36:47
    I didn't get that memo.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 00:37:08
    He's a very advanced bike rider.
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 00:37:10
    Mike has a 20-year-old bike without any coats on.
  • 00:37:14
    And he's still a monster.
  • 00:37:38
    It's just ready for you when you're ready.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 00:37:42
    I'm not going to sit down until it's the last minute.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 00:37:45
    Yeah.
• • 00:38:30
    Thanks Thanks Thanks
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:39:01
    that never has been cooked.
  • 00:39:03
    It hadn't been cooked.
  • 00:39:04
    It hadn't been cooked yet.
• • SPEAKER_10
  • 00:39:34
    Well, that's very good.
  • 00:39:35
    Yes.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:39:56
    Good evening.
  • 00:39:56
    Welcome to our Tuesday, December the 10th, 2024 Board of Supervisors meeting.
  • 00:40:02
    We've been in closed session.
  • 00:40:03
    Is there a motion to come out of closed session?

4. 4. Open Meeting - 6:30 p.m.

• • SPEAKER_05
  • 00:40:06
    So moved.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:40:06
    I have a motion and a second.
  • 00:40:08
    Roll call vote.
  • 00:40:10
    Mr. Catalano.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 00:40:10
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:40:11
    Mr. Lamb.
• • SPEAKER_11
  • 00:40:12
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:40:12
    Mr. Goolsby.
• • SPEAKER_11
  • 00:40:13
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:40:13
    Dr. McGuigan.
• • SPEAKER_11
  • 00:40:14
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:40:15
    And the chair votes aye.
  • 00:40:19
    Is there anything that needs to be brought out from closed meeting?
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 00:40:23
    No, Madam Chair.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:40:25
    It was certification.
  • 00:40:26
    Do all members certify that only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirement and only such matters as identified by the motion to enter into closed meeting were discussed?

5. 5. Reconvene, Certify Closed Meeting and Take Action from Closed Meeting

• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:40:38
    Mr. McGuigan.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:40:39
    I certify.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:40:40
    Mr. Goolsby.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:40:41
    I certify.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:40:42
    Mr. Lamb.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:40:43
    I certify.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:40:44
    Mr. Catalano.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:40:45
    I certify.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:40:46
    And the chair of certifies.
  • 00:40:48
    Thank you.
  • 00:40:49
    If I could ask each of you to stand and have pleasure to believe in response by a moment of silence.

6. 6. Pledge of Allegiance; Moment of Silence

• • SPEAKER_09
  • 00:40:57
    I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation,
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:41:30
    Thank you.
  • 00:41:31
    You may be seated.
  • 00:41:32
    Is there a motion to adopt the agenda?

7. 7. Adoption of Agenda

• • SPEAKER_05
  • 00:41:42
    So moved.
  • 00:41:43
    I second.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:41:44
    I have a motion and a second to adopt.
  • 00:41:46
    Roll call vote.
  • 00:41:47
    Mr. Catalano?
  • 00:41:48
    Aye.
  • 00:41:49
    Mr. Lamb?
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 00:41:50
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:41:50
    Mr. Goolsby?
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 00:41:51
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:41:51
    Mr. McGuigan?
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 00:41:52
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:41:53
    And the chair votes aye.
  • 00:41:54
    Thank you.
  • 00:41:56
    That is from the public.
  • 00:41:57
    Ms.
  • 00:41:57
    Kemp, would you hit our sheet, please?
  • 00:42:00
    Thank you.

8. 8. Matters from the Public

• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:42:01
    I want to remind you that according to the bylaws of our board, anyone wishing to speak may sign up and have three minutes to address the board.

9. 9. Public Hearing

• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:42:21
    Michael Traber, please come forward and welcome.
  • 00:42:24
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_15
  • 00:42:26
    So good evening, Madam Chair and board members.
  • 00:42:29
    Thank you for taking the time to listen to me this evening.
  • 00:42:32
    My name is Michael Traber.
  • 00:42:34
    I am a resident of Greene County, have been fortunate to call Greene County my home for 14 years.
  • 00:42:40
    Also proud to serve as a planning commission member for four of those.
  • 00:42:44
    Tonight, I simply want to publicly follow up on a letter that we sent you introducing Impact Green as a new community organization for Greene County.
  • 00:42:54
    The goal of Impact Green is to partner with local government as well as community members to further responsible growth in the county.
  • 00:43:02
    To do this, we're looking at inspiring, advocating, and supporting those activities that are ongoing in the county.
  • 00:43:09
    We see the Greene County Comprehensive Plan really as our foundational document and the document that we're going to use to drive the matters that we want to drive forward with the county and making those things a reality for the county.
  • 00:43:23
    said the plan actually, because I helped finalize the last one, has a really good set of goals and components within it, strategic goals that we want to drive forward.
  • 00:43:33
    So it's already there laid out for us.
  • 00:43:35
    So we still want to rally around some of those goals.
  • 00:43:39
    As we're driving forward with development of this community program,
  • 00:43:46
    We're really looking to drive at four major areas.
  • 00:43:48
    There's going to be infrastructure, recreation, education, safety, and emergency services.
  • 00:43:54
    Those are the places that we want to begin to focus in on.
  • 00:43:56
    So our first issue, really, though, is going to be supporting and achieving the following goals, and that's establishing a safe and reliable water supply, and then two, proceeding with the construction of the White Ronde Pumped Storage Reservoir.
  • 00:44:12
    We officially began our Impact Green project, who I'm partnered with my co-founder is Bill Martin on that.
  • 00:44:23
    on 29 November with our establishment of a Facebook page, which allows for open discourse about those goals and those objectives that we just talked about within an open forum that we're allowing many people to comment in on.
  • 00:44:38
    And we invite others to get on that page so long as they're following the rules and regulations of the page.
  • 00:44:43
    We're hoping for an open discourse.
  • 00:44:47
    So we are now in the process of establishing a 501c3, and I'm going to shamelessly plug that we're looking for board members that are not connected to government.
  • 00:44:56
    We would like them to be civil members of the county residents who are interested in supporting infrastructure, recreation, education, and safety.
  • 00:45:04
    So I'm looking for board members in each one of those.
  • 00:45:06
    So if people have ideas of people who want to get involved with this organization, we welcome that.
  • 00:45:11
    So I'm gonna end with a shameless quote.
  • 00:45:16
    And it's a sort of a skewing of quote, but that is, don't ask what your county can do for you, ask what you could do for your county.
  • 00:45:26
    And that's a large chunk of what we're trying to drive forward on.
  • 00:45:28
    Thank you for your time.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:45:30
    Thank you.
  • 00:45:32
    Sarah Sharp, please come forward.
  • 00:45:36
    And Kelly Carr.
  • 00:45:40
    Welcome.
• • SPEAKER_14
  • 00:45:41
    Good evening.
  • 00:45:42
    My name is Sarah Sharp and I am from the Extension Office and I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce our new 4-H agent, Kelly Carr.
  • 00:45:51
    She is relatively new anyway.
  • 00:45:53
    She's been with us since June as an emergency hire and then officially since October the 10th.
  • 00:45:58
    So I asked her just to come give a very brief overview of what she has been doing and we are looking forward to hopefully getting back maybe for a workshop next year to
  • 00:46:09
    Talk a little bit more about what we've been doing here in Greene County.
• • SPEAKER_00
  • 00:46:13
    Thanks.
  • 00:46:14
    Hi, I'm Kelly Carr.
  • 00:46:16
    I'm really excited to be here in Greene County.
  • 00:46:18
    I actually interned here seven years ago, so I'm excited to be back.
  • 00:46:23
    I worked in Extension before and then I was a classroom teacher, so I'm really excited to be here working with the Youth of Greene County.
  • 00:46:30
    This summer I was able to hold four workshops for youth.
  • 00:46:33
    So we had all different ages.
  • 00:46:35
    One that was really perceived well was a life skills workshop.
  • 00:46:39
    So we teamed up with the sheriff's office and then maintenance department.
  • 00:46:44
    We did all sorts of things, budgeting.
  • 00:46:46
    We did how to change your tire, things you need to look at.
  • 00:46:51
    for your vehicle maintenance.
  • 00:46:53
    And we hope to partner with other departments and continue that next summer.
  • 00:46:56
    I've also had the opportunity to be in the classroom here at some of the different schools.
  • 00:47:02
    I was just in the ag department at the high school today talking about honeybees.
  • 00:47:07
    But
  • 00:47:09
    We've also partnered with the high school to do some cooking programming with post-graduates.
  • 00:47:15
    Outside of the classroom, we have 4-H clubs that are meeting.
  • 00:47:18
    Right now we have six clubs that are meeting monthly.
  • 00:47:21
    There's a horse club meeting happening right now at our office.
  • 00:47:24
    They're decorating cookies.
  • 00:47:26
    and playing pin the tail on the horse.
  • 00:47:29
    But everything is education based and we wouldn't be able to have 4-H without our volunteers.
  • 00:47:34
    But I'm really excited to continue to grab new people, to be able to volunteer and actually participate in our programs and
  • 00:47:44
    really strengthened connections and partnerships that we have here in the county.
  • 00:47:48
    Is there anything else that I missed?
  • 00:47:51
    I don't know.
  • 00:47:51
    I'm really excited to be here and continue doing workshops, meeting youth, meeting you all, and really just serving this county that we all are serving together.
  • 00:48:00
    So thank you.
  • 00:48:03
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 00:48:04
    Kelly, congratulations and thank you for your service.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:48:08
    Steve Barber, please come forward and welcome.
• • SPEAKER_01
  • 00:48:21
    Good evening, my name is Steve Barber, Stanardsville District.
  • 00:48:26
    The reason we need to borrow money for the water and sewer department was the lack of the planning commission, the planning and zoning department, and the board of supervisors to see the implications of how the new housing developments would impact the infrastructure that would be needed as a result of these new subdivisions and developments.
  • 00:48:49
    Anyone looking at the trends
  • 00:48:52
    could have seen the need to get more funding.
  • 00:48:56
    The need to have the developers and builders provide for these costs should have been obvious to all involved that the projects were gonna be an asset or a liability.
  • 00:49:09
    The funds needed for the new infrastructure caused by the new housing should have been borne by the developers.
  • 00:49:19
    In the current year,
  • 00:49:21
    there have been at least four presentations to the board showing the annual debt service likely due from the county to pay off the water and sewer capital projects.
  • 00:49:35
    None of these presentations have shown how the debt service shall be paid across time.
  • 00:49:41
    While the county has developed a detailed plan for paying for the service department
  • 00:49:49
    they refused to share the plan with the board and with community members.
  • 00:49:58
    It was thought that the new developments would increase the tax base and that that would cover the expenses for the new infrastructure.
  • 00:50:08
    If this had been true, the county right now would have plenty of funds to cover the cost of the new infrastructure.
  • 00:50:19
    We are now faced with having to increase the water and sewer rates substantially.
  • 00:50:25
    We will need to take funds from the general fund to pay for the water and sewer.
  • 00:50:30
    These are taken from real estate taxes, personal property taxes, et cetera.
  • 00:50:35
    Only one third of the county is on water and sewer system.
  • 00:50:39
    Those on private wells and septic will be subsidizing those that are on water and sewer.
  • 00:50:49
    Now we come to the EDU fees that are charged for the new hookups.
  • 00:50:55
    When the combined fees were set at $20,000, the cost of a new house was approximately $200,000.
  • 00:50:58
    So that $20,000 was 10% of the cost of that house.
  • 00:51:01
    The same house would cost about $300,000 to build.
  • 00:51:16
    If the EDU fees were set at 30,000, that would still be 10% of the cost of those houses.
  • 00:51:27
    The developers and most of the builders are not from Greene County.
  • 00:51:30
    They come to our county, make money, and leave us to pay the infrastructure needed.
  • 00:51:38
    EDU fees can be raised at any time, stated at the last Board of Supervisors meeting.
  • 00:51:45
    I say the EDPUs used to be raised to $30,000 now.
  • 00:51:48
    Thank you.
  • 00:51:51
    Thank you, sir.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:51:52
    Mr. Freel, is there anyone on Zoom that would like to speak?
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 00:51:59
    Anyone joining us on Zoom?
  • 00:52:02
    Keep in mind, we've had a system change.
  • 00:52:05
    So if you intend to speak tonight or in the future, you have to log in to the Zoom link that was provided.
  • 00:52:13
    So if anybody has logged in through the zoom link and wishes to address the board, please use the reactions feature so at the bottom of your screen, you can go to reactions and raise your hand and at that point will allow you to unmute and address the board.
  • 00:52:43
    does not appear that we have any remote speakers.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:52:46
    Thank you.
  • 00:52:47
    Is there anyone in the audience that did not sign up that would like to speak?
  • 00:52:51
    Yes, sir.
  • 00:52:52
    Come forward, please.
  • 00:52:53
    Just state your name.
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 00:52:54
    Hi, my name is Fred Turk, Stanardsville District.
  • 00:53:00
    First of all, I want to ask Kathy, did two folks in your office pass along the information that I talked to them about on the railing here?
  • 00:53:10
    Okay.
  • 00:53:10
    All right.
  • 00:53:12
    A couple weeks ago, I was in this building for a meeting, and it was at nighttime.
  • 00:53:18
    And when I left the meeting, I went, I was pulling a cart, and I went down the ramp this way, and I took a real significant fall.
  • 00:53:26
    And, you know, I wasn't going looking for, you know, a...
  • 00:53:32
    Ambulance chasing lawyer or anything like that.
  • 00:53:34
    But I did get banged up a little bit.
  • 00:53:37
    And I came to the county administrator's office and there were two people working up front and I wanted to see you and you weren't there.
  • 00:53:44
    And I said, I'd like to tell you an idea of what happened, an idea of correction.
  • 00:53:49
    And they both followed me outside and I showed them and obviously they didn't pass it along.
  • 00:53:54
    But what it is, is the lighting and the railing out here on the handicap ramp isn't designed right.
  • 00:54:02
    It would take a couple hundred dollars to fix it.
  • 00:54:04
    I was backing down the ramp, see it's this way, with a cart.
  • 00:54:08
    Like if you had a wheelchair, you'd be walking backwards with it.
  • 00:54:11
    And when I got to, it was at nighttime, the light wasn't there, wasn't bright.
  • 00:54:15
    When I got past the wall on this side, the brick stopped.
  • 00:54:21
    I thought that was time to turn this way and get off the ramp.
  • 00:54:25
    Well, it was about an eight, 10 inch drop.
  • 00:54:28
    And I took quite a tumble.
  • 00:54:30
    And it would take just a couple hundred dollars to put a little metal railing handrail along that on that side of the ramp.
  • 00:54:36
    And I'm just suggesting that you look at it a little bit closer and do what's needed to make that truly a safe ramp for handicapped people, anybody in the lighting there.
  • 00:54:49
    That's what I'd like you to look at if you would.
  • 00:54:50
    Thank you.
  • 00:54:51
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:54:51
    And I'm glad you're doing okay.
  • 00:54:53
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 00:54:54
    Thank you for you.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:54:57
    Okay, our next item will be public hearing to consider granting a non-exclusive easement of right away over county owned property on Knight's Drive to tax map parcel number 38-A-59.

10. 9.a. Public Hearing to consider granting a non-exclusive Easement of Right of Way over County owned property on Knight’s Drive to Tax Map Parcel # 38-A-59 - Kelley Kemp, County Attorney

• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:55:12
    Kelly Kemp, a county attorney representative.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:55:21
    Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board.
  • 00:55:23
    This is should be a relatively straightforward issue.
  • 00:55:28
    Currently, Knight's Drive goes up sort of beside the sheriff's office to the tower behind the sheriff's office and then continues on and serves a handful of houses sort of back behind there.
  • 00:55:41
    There is currently a prescriptive easement.
  • 00:55:44
    I think it's noted on the subdivision plat and the county county owns the land up to a point
  • 00:55:50
    and has been maintaining it for the sheriff's office in the tower.
  • 00:55:55
    I believe due to a death of the family, ownership has changed for one of the first property essentially on Knight's Drive.
  • 00:56:04
    And I guess they're needing financing and the attorney came to Mr. Friedel and myself saying the bank is requiring some additional language.
  • 00:56:13
    And we kind of started at a road maintenance agreement and
  • 00:56:19
    couldn't quite get what we needed needed there.
  • 00:56:21
    So the document in the in the packet is basically just an official record of what really exists and what is happening now.
  • 00:56:34
    They they essentially needed it.
  • 00:56:36
    Out of an abundance of caution, I said we should have a public hearing because anytime county, you know, sells or gives any land or land rights, you have to have a public hearing.
  • 00:56:45
    But this is no change in the status quo.
  • 00:56:48
    that people not only this parcel, but the parcels that we find there have been using this, I guess, road slash driveway for years.
  • 00:56:58
    So this was to accommodate basically some financing requests and not that you all do things because one person asked, but there is no change in what is currently happening.
  • 00:57:10
    I think this is the way it's been.
  • 00:57:12
    So I'm happy to answer any questions that you all may have or concerns.
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 00:57:19
    where the asphalt stops on that little road because I drove back.
  • 00:57:23
    It's not no more than like 100 feet if I'm correct.
  • 00:57:27
    I'm correct on that chair to get into the tower.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:57:32
    Yeah, and the other residents that live back there aren't affected.
  • 00:57:38
    I mean, I think a road maintenance agreement probably could have been a solution, but they weren't they're not impacted.
  • 00:57:45
    So getting them to sign it at this late date
  • 00:57:48
    May or may not have happened.
  • 00:57:50
    But yeah, it's not much and the county doesn't want to commit to maintaining it all the way back.
  • 00:57:55
    That's not what we're doing.
• • SPEAKER_20
  • 00:57:57
    So basically just satisfying easement for that first property.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:58:04
    Right.
  • 00:58:04
    Yeah.
  • 00:58:04
    And there's an easement on the subdivision plot and it may be reported differently on some of the back.
  • 00:58:10
    We didn't.
  • 00:58:11
    look at all the deeds for every property back there.
  • 00:58:13
    So.
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 00:58:16
    What you say it is a prescriptive.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:58:19
    And this is a non-exclusive easement that this particular parcel would be getting.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:58:27
    Is there anybody signed up, Ms.
  • 00:58:28
    Cameron?
  • 00:58:28
    There is not anyone signed up.
  • 00:58:31
    Okay.
  • 00:58:34
    Ms.
  • 00:58:34
    Bradle?
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 00:58:35
    Anyone joining us online if they'd like to address the board about this easement for Knight's Drive?
  • 00:58:41
    will give you an opportunity to use the raise your hand feature.
  • 00:58:45
    Go to the reaction button on the bottom of your screen and indicate you'd like to speak by raising your hand.
  • 00:59:04
    Does not appear we have any remote speakers either.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:59:07
    Thank you.
  • 00:59:08
    Any further questions?
  • 00:59:10
    Are we ready for a motion?
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 00:59:12
    Madam Chairman, I'd like to make a motion to approve the right-of-way easement on Knights Drive as presented.
  • 00:59:17
    I'll second that.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:59:18
    We have a motion and a second to approve as presented.
  • 00:59:21
    Any further discussion?
  • 00:59:24
    Mr. McGuigan.
  • 00:59:25
    Aye.
  • 00:59:26
    Mr. Goolsby.
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 00:59:27
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:59:27
    Mr. Lamb.
• • SPEAKER_16
  • 00:59:28
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:59:29
    Mr. Catalano.
  • 00:59:30
    Aye.
  • 00:59:30
    And the chair votes aye.
  • 00:59:31
    Thank you very much.

11. 9.b. Public Hearing to consider amending various sections of the Zoning Ordinance regarding performance bonds and to add language to clarify the differences between subdivision plats and subdivision site improvement plans – Jim Frydl, Director of Planning and Zoning

• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:59:33
    Our next public hearing is to consider amending various sections of the zoning ordinance regarding performance bonds and to add language to clarify the differences between subdivision plants and subdivision site improvement plans.

12. 10. Presentations (10 Minutes)

• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:59:48
    Mr. Breedle, Director of Planning and Zoning, welcome.
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 00:59:52
    Thank you.
  • 00:59:52
    Good evening.
  • 00:59:53
    I don't have, it's a number of pages in your packet.
  • 00:59:57
    It wouldn't
  • 00:59:59
    It wouldn't really display on the screen, so I don't have a presentation.
  • 01:00:02
    Just to give you a background, this has been ongoing and a lot of work with staff and the Planning Commission.
  • 01:00:09
    The original notice or resolution from the board was September 23rd.
  • 01:00:14
    We've had, I believe, four
  • 01:00:20
    public, I mean, excuse me, four work sessions at the Planning Commission and a public hearing.
  • 01:00:25
    A lot of great input.
  • 01:00:28
    We've had people, landowners, people that were developers that had questions about some of the ambiguity in our ordinance.
  • 01:00:38
    all look at it.
  • 01:00:39
    People are pleased with the results of all the work.
  • 01:00:45
    And to put it in its very simplest form, there was some confusion that was identified and required some interpretation that we wanted to avoid.
  • 01:00:56
    We wanted to be very clear about what the rules were for everyone and how it matched with the state code.
  • 01:01:03
    The definition of site
  • 01:01:06
    Platts and site improvement plans came out of that because the code of Virginia kind of interchangeably uses the word plat and plan and so did our ordinance.
  • 01:01:21
    So it wasn't clear what
  • 01:01:24
    type of drawing required public performance bonds for public improvements and what ones didn't.
  • 01:01:33
    And then in our review, we had just one review.
  • 01:01:39
    So as we got through this and worked through it with the planning commission,
  • 01:01:43
    We identified the need to be clear.
  • 01:01:47
    One's a construction plan.
  • 01:01:49
    The other is a two dimensional layout of the boundaries of the property.
  • 01:01:53
    And the construction plan is where the public improvements are, where we bring in all our partners and get their comments and approve a construction plan.
  • 01:02:04
    And that's where we need the performance bonds to be very clear.
  • 01:02:09
    The plats are literally just a recording similar.
  • 01:02:13
    We just talked about a plot.
  • 01:02:14
    So an easement plat simply shows where the border of the easement is.
  • 01:02:20
    If that were a new road that had to be built, there would be a site improvement plan and they would have to bond or provide money in case they weren't able to complete that public improvement so that the county on behalf of the citizens would be able to take that project over, use that money and complete it.
  • 01:02:39
    So that's the difference.
  • 01:02:39
    So we were talking about a flat, which is a two-dimensional picture.
  • 01:02:44
    And what we want is to make sure everybody understands when they have to give us a surety or basically a guarantee that we have money to cover the cost of the project.
  • 01:02:57
    So in doing that, obviously, if we had one set of instructions for two different types of activities, by separating those out, we made it much longer.
  • 01:03:10
    But it's very clear when you have a plat that these are the rules you follow and when you have a plan and there's no confusion between the two anymore.
  • 01:03:18
    So that's the gist of a year's worth of work.
  • 01:03:23
    There is one thing that I would ask the board to weigh in on and highlight it.
  • 01:03:31
    So on the red line of the package, it's page six or seven.
  • 01:03:36
    It's marked in the packets where it has the definition of immediate family.
  • 01:03:43
    And if you're looking at the clean version, it's 2-2-17, which is on
  • 01:03:53
    Page six of the clean version or page 55 of your packet, depending on what you're looking at.
  • 01:03:59
    And it's the definition of immediate family.
  • 01:04:02
    So in the subdivision ordinance, immediate family is who you can
  • 01:04:12
    give land to under a family subdivision.
  • 01:04:16
    So when you're making a family subdivision, you get some benefits compared to someone that's creating a giant neighborhood, right?
  • 01:04:25
    So if I'm giving land to my child, two acres to my child, there are less hoops to jump through than if I'm developing 100 acres into 200 parcels.
  • 01:04:35
    So right now we have
  • 01:04:42
    the minimum definition for that it's basically it's the grandparents the siblings children stepchildren and the state code then has an allowance specifically written in and you can see it it's in parentheses because depending on what which way the board wants to go we'll remove the parentheses or just remove that line
  • 01:05:07
    but the state code allows us to also include aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews.
  • 01:05:13
    So I wanted the board's thoughts on that and the majority will either red line through that or leave it or add it in.
  • 01:05:26
    So I didn't know if there was any thoughts that you had and that's really that's the key thing
  • 01:05:33
    Obviously, we're here for any questions.
  • 01:05:35
    There's a lot of changes in there.
  • 01:05:36
    Any questions that you want to go through, that's great.
  • 01:05:40
    But if we do adopt it, I would like you to consider whether you want to keep it the more strict one or add aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews.
  • 01:05:49
    And that's staff's presentation.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:05:53
    Any questions to Mr. Cradle?
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 01:05:57
    I mean, I think it's mainly for Kelly.
  • 01:05:59
    I mean, I had brought that up about we're changing the definition of immediate family, which most of the time is, you know, a direct relative.
  • 01:06:08
    And the question is, how do you enforce who's a niece, nephew, etc?
  • 01:06:14
    And, you know, like you were saying, it's a legal document.
  • 01:06:18
    And, you know, there's a recourse in theory, if you discover that it's a problem, that you can take it.
  • 01:06:22
    But I just didn't know what you felt, Kelly, about using a term that immediate family that usually has a connotation built into it.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 01:06:32
    It does, and I think, I was just looking, you know, immediate family, you know, I can't tell you that it's even defined the same way, like, I don't know that it's the same in the social services portion of the Virginia Code as it is in the sub, you know, where it talks about subdivision.
  • 01:06:47
    I can find out, but, you know, it's referenced throughout, so I guess you can technically prove someone is your niece.
  • 01:06:59
    Family Bible?
  • 01:07:01
    Yeah, Family Bible.
  • 01:07:02
    I mean, I don't know that it's, I don't know the situation in which it would be a good use of style of time to, you know, 21 and me or something.
  • 01:07:11
    I mean, you can't make people do genetic testing on this, but you could do a reasonable... Birth records should tell...
  • 01:07:21
    and marriage records.
• • SPEAKER_20
  • 01:07:22
    Yeah, something like that can definitely take a pinpoint.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 01:07:24
    I don't know that I've ever had a situation where someone, you know, it comes up mostly in the subdivision ordinance with family divisions and other counties have a lot more family divisions than here.
  • 01:07:35
    I don't know that that's ever been challenged, honestly.
  • 01:07:39
    It's usually the length of time that you have to keep the property one side or the other that gets challenged.
  • 01:07:45
    That's usually the problem.
  • 01:07:46
    I can certainly research it.
  • 01:07:47
    I don't know that
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:07:49
    And Supervisor McGuigan and I talked about this.
  • 01:07:52
    What we do have in our ordinance, we don't have any IDs or ways to check that because it is a legal document that's recorded at the court.
  • 01:08:01
    It definitely has a civil issue.
  • 01:08:02
    I don't know, criminal or misdemeanor, but we do require that recordation.
  • 01:08:11
    receipt, and we keep that in the packet.
  • 01:08:14
    So they're telling us it's the truth, they're putting it on legal documents, they're recording it at the courthouse, and then they have to give us the actual recordation of the deed and plaque so that we have that in the file.
  • 01:08:30
    So we're protected on our end, but on their end, that's on them.
  • 01:08:37
    And we're open to any ideas.
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 01:08:41
    And the subdivision triggers a deed, gift?
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:08:44
    Yeah, any, so if you look at it in real simple terms, there's two documents that go with it, a plat and a deed.
  • 01:08:54
    And gift or sale, doesn't matter.
  • 01:08:57
    But whenever you make a change in a parcel, you have to show the picture and the words.
  • 01:09:03
    And both those have to be recorded.
  • 01:09:05
    And so the deed are the words and the plat is the pictures.
  • 01:09:09
    And we have it.
  • 01:09:11
    that this, if it's a family division, the family division, the person named, how they're related, all of that is recorded on the plat and in the deed.
  • 01:09:21
    And banks do check and look at that because there is a time limit, as Ms.
  • 01:09:26
    Kent pointed out.
  • 01:09:27
    And if I try to sell it to someone outside of my family a year prior to that ending or a day prior to that ending, the bank won't allow it.
  • 01:09:38
    Well,
  • 01:09:39
    Yeah, I guess there are circumstances where people transfer property without a bank.
  • 01:09:48
    Insurance companies can keep an eye on that, too, and title companies.
  • 01:09:51
    So there's multiple agencies looking at it.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:09:55
    Further discussion?
  • 01:09:57
    We're ready for a motion.
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:09:59
    Well, it's a public hearing.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:10:00
    Oh, yes, they have a public hearing.
  • 01:10:01
    Sorry.
  • 01:10:02
    Sorry about that.
  • 01:10:02
    We sure did.
  • 01:10:04
    Ms.
  • 01:10:04
    Kemp, now we have two of them.
  • 01:10:17
    James Henshaw, come forward please and welcome.
• • SPEAKER_18
  • 01:10:42
    That paper wasn't very clear to me, but I guess we could speak to what Freda just spoke about.
  • 01:10:49
    Yes.
  • 01:10:50
    Performance bombs, I can call back when I was on the board.
  • 01:10:55
    And I was kind of surprised because I saw in the news here in the last couple of years, Wood's Draft down at Quinquay.
  • 01:11:03
    I guess it's not in the state highway system, BDOT system.
  • 01:11:10
    And that's when I was on the board.
  • 01:11:14
    Then we had a policy that once you built the third house, you had to have the road.
  • 01:11:21
    And we also had advice and insistence that we didn't support them.
  • 01:11:27
    We had a cash bond requirement.
  • 01:11:31
    Who now releases the cash bond?
  • 01:11:37
    An employee or a board of supervisors were all for me.
  • 01:11:43
    or a performance bar.
  • 01:11:44
    In my opinion, that you guys should vote for whoever gets that.
  • 01:11:52
    For our opinion, it has to have a performance bar and have it completed in an open meeting.
  • 01:11:59
    That will be on the agenda.
  • 01:12:01
    The public could be present.
  • 01:12:04
    The other requirements that's put on the builder and the obligation to and from the county.
  • 01:12:12
    and then it was released not be sound of anyone at all, but the chairman of the Board of Supervisors, that person's not available for the meeting to any vice chairman after a vote of the board.
  • 01:12:28
    This thing at Quinquish should have never been and it shouldn't have been.
  • 01:12:37
    I can think of other situations throughout the county, but I do believe going forward
  • 01:12:43
    that when the board requires a bond, the county owners require a bond, shall do an open meeting and vote on it.
  • 01:12:54
    It's the same thing when it's working still.
  • 01:12:58
    So that's all I can speak to now because that's all the most friendly folks.
• • SPEAKER_19
  • 01:13:04
    Thank you.
  • 01:13:05
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:13:06
    Mr. Crittle, is there anyone on Zoom that would like to speak?
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:13:10
    Anyone joining us on Zoom, if you'd like to address the board, please use the raise your hand feature found at the bottom of your screen, and we'll give you a moment to find that.
  • 01:13:34
    Does not appear we have any speakers at home.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:13:36
    Thank you.
  • 01:13:37
    Is anyone else in the audience that didn't sign up that would like to speak?
  • 01:13:43
    Thank you.
  • 01:13:43
    Okay.
  • 01:13:44
    Further discussion?
  • 01:13:45
    Motion?
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:13:48
    In regard to, what was it, 2-2-17, page 55.
  • 01:13:53
    I mean, that's enabled by the state.
  • 01:13:55
    So like that's the max anyway, right?
  • 01:13:57
    So I don't know.
  • 01:13:58
    I don't think I have a real big problem with that.
  • 01:14:01
    But I think we should monitor it.
  • 01:14:03
    If it becomes an issue, we can always revisit that.
  • 01:14:08
    I just feel like at this point, sometimes giving land to a family member is the only thing people can give.
  • 01:14:15
    So if we can open it up just a little bit more, it might be appropriate for families to be able to stay in the county.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:14:22
    I have to agree with you, Steve.
  • 01:14:24
    I don't have a problem with that either, but I do like the idea of monitoring it so it doesn't get out of hand.
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:14:31
    If we all of a sudden have 48 nephews and our family subdivisions double, then we will monitor it and we do monitor the nine grandchildren.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:14:45
    I don't want to overthink the proof part.
  • 01:14:46
    I would suspect that people would turn each other in for being false relatives at some point.
  • 01:14:52
    Do you mind if I adopt you all as nieces?
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 01:14:54
    Sure, no problem.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:14:55
    I don't know, we'll talk about that in a minute.
  • 01:15:02
    And so that is added, that's already in what you're proposing, right, Mr. Friedel?
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:15:08
    It is.
  • 01:15:08
    I have it in parentheses and we'll just remove the parentheses and most of the words and just go from parent of the owner, comma, and uncles, nieces, and nephews.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:15:23
    So we don't have to isolate that in any particular motion.
  • 01:15:26
    It's in there.
  • 01:15:26
    Okay.
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:15:28
    I would ask to mention that that's the one change if you do make a motion.
  • 01:15:32
    Okay.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:15:37
    Do you want to make a motion to that?
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:15:39
    Hold on just a minute.
  • 01:15:40
    Was it nieces, nephews?
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:15:43
    Aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews.
  • 01:15:45
    And if you want the section numbers 2-2-17.
  • 01:15:47
    Okay.
  • 01:15:47
    All right.
  • 01:15:49
    Any more discussion?
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:15:58
    I would like to make a motion to amend various sections of text of the zoning ordinance in Article 19-5 and 19-8 in the entire Greene County subdivision ordinance regarding performance guarantees for subdivision plats and subdivision site improvement plans for purposes of correction, modification, and elaboration of the district and general regulations.
  • 01:16:17
    to include also amending section 2-2-17 to match the state code restriction, which includes nieces, nephews, aunts, and uncles as part of family divisions.
  • 01:16:34
    Easy for you to say.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:16:38
    Do I have a second?
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 01:16:40
    Second.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:16:40
    Okay, we have a motion and a second.
  • 01:16:42
    Any further discussion?
  • 01:16:45
    Mr. Catalano I'll probably have my own subdivision Mr. Catalano Mr. Lamb Mr. Goolsby Mr. McGuigan and the chair votes aye we're going to investigate you next is the presentation for a jaunt update by Mike Murphy CEO please come forward and welcome welcome

13. 10.a. Jaunt Update – Mike Murphy, CEO

• • SPEAKER_12
  • 01:17:16
    All right.
  • 01:17:16
    Well, thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board, members of staff.
  • 01:17:20
    I'm Mike Murphy and about
  • 01:17:25
    Just under a year ago, I came to Jaunt under some emergent circumstances to be the interim CEO.
  • 01:17:32
    And about six months ago, I agreed to stay long term as the CEO.
  • 01:17:37
    I'm here to give you all presentation on what's happening at Jaunt as you prepare for your budget cycle.
  • 01:17:47
    I know that you've recently had an inquiry from a member of the public.
  • 01:17:51
    and to get you up to date on some studies that are reaching completion that should positively impact Greene County.
  • 01:17:59
    And for the record, relatives of all kinds are allowed to ride it, so shouldn't be a concern there.
  • 01:18:06
    Should I be pointing it at something in particular?
  • 01:18:09
    Sometimes it likes to be stubborn.
  • 01:18:12
    There we go.
  • 01:18:14
    All right.
  • 01:18:16
    So today, what you need to know is there's really two kinds of service that Jaunt provides for residents of Greene County.
  • 01:18:25
    And that has been for just under five years now.
  • 01:18:31
    So, you know, Greene County operated a separate transit system for quite a period of time.
  • 01:18:37
    And then it came under Jaunt in the spring of 2020.
  • 01:18:41
    We do operate Monday through Friday with some service that gets people back and forth to the urban ring in Charlottesville and Elmont County.
  • 01:18:49
    and then Monday through Friday circulating within the county as well.
  • 01:18:54
    This is a little bit of service statistics.
  • 01:18:57
    What you need to know about this, because I know the numbers are small, is we're going to continue to transport about 18,000 passengers a year.
  • 01:19:07
    That could be the same passenger many times, but that is the unduplicated county.
  • 01:19:14
    and this is a really small version of the budget that we just submitted to Shafric and her staff.
  • 01:19:21
    And what you need to know is we're asking for a little bit less in the year that starts next July.
  • 01:19:27
    However, you all had some service reductions under the previous CEO that we're able to bring back as of July.
  • 01:19:37
    And we'll be talking about that with the team here in Greene.
  • 01:19:42
    The first thing that comes to mind that's really important to your citizens is there used to be a midday run that was eliminated that I hear about both from our drivers and dispatchers and your residents that were able to bring back, which is great.
  • 01:19:59
    What you need to know is that every dollar that you give does leverage both federal and state dollars.
  • 01:20:05
    This graphic is just meant to tell you that it's about a four to one ratio, just a little bit less than that in the investment that you make in Jaunt, and that those investments happen both to operate the entity, pay drivers and mechanics and things like that, and also capital expenses, have the building, pay for those buses, all of that.
  • 01:20:27
    And we try and be good stewards of the dollar.
  • 01:20:30
    And so that you know, Greene County, along with the other folks who are receiving service from Jaunt, each year at the end of our audit period, we determine by policy how much we might return to the localities.
  • 01:20:46
    And right now, actually tomorrow at 10 a.m., I'll bring to my board a recommendation to return dollars again to the localities.
  • 01:20:53
    And Greene is in line, as you see.
  • 01:20:56
    based on this is, you know, looking to receive about another $58,000 return from the money that you put into job.
  • 01:21:04
    There's been larger amounts in the past.
  • 01:21:07
    And, you know, that'll be continued each year to be approved by policy in December, and then actually recirculated back to the locality on July 1.
  • 01:21:22
    We had a study about rural transit needs.
  • 01:21:27
    And, you know, other than that urban core where we serve ADA customers in Charlottesville and the urban core of Albemarle County, all the rest of our jurisdictions are rural by definition of the federal government.
  • 01:21:42
    And we wanted to find out
  • 01:21:45
    What are the needs of these jurisdictions?
  • 01:21:49
    How closely do the current services that we provide match that?
  • 01:21:53
    And how close can we get to that in the future?
  • 01:21:55
    What should we be striving for?
  • 01:21:58
    And what I want you to all to see in these next couple of slides is
  • 01:22:02
    The group that did this is a transit study think tank out of North Dakota State University.
  • 01:22:09
    And they say, well, there's certain things about a population that make people more likely to want to get on transit, public transportation.
  • 01:22:17
    One of those is when you have some density and obviously you see that there's higher intensity in that urban core, but the green, you know, in both the Ruckersville, Stanardsville has a little bit of that of intensity, which has driven your high usage of that circulator service.
  • 01:22:35
    The next thing you need to know about public transit is, you know,
  • 01:22:40
    folks who are elderly are more likely to use public transportation and you see a really high intensity of older residents in Greene at the northernmost section of the county and in the far southeast and southwest and a little bit different band of less intensity of older folks kind of in that cross section there through Ruckersville and Stanardsville.
  • 01:23:06
    Folks with disabilities often ride public transportation.
  • 01:23:13
    I often get questions about do I know in the rural jurisdictions what percentage of the riders happen to be disabled and qualify for ADA transport?
  • 01:23:26
    And actually we don't know that because we just take reservations from anyone in the rural jurisdictions.
  • 01:23:34
    It's only
  • 01:23:36
    where we are the complimentary paratransit for the big bus in the city, CAT, that we have to determine if somebody is eligible.
  • 01:23:44
    And the reason is that that curb-to-curb service in urban settings is only meant for folks who can qualify.
  • 01:23:53
    And so there's an eligibility process.
  • 01:23:55
    Otherwise, it's intended that you use the bus routes, right?
  • 01:24:00
    And so we run that in the city, in the core,
  • 01:24:03
    within three quarters of a mile of everywhere there's a bus stop.
  • 01:24:06
    If you live in that area, we'll pick you up at your curb, but we do the same thing for the service in Greene, Louisa, Fluana, Nelson, et cetera, except there is no eligibility process, so we don't have to track that.
  • 01:24:19
    We do know a little bit about who needs assistance because we have a lift or a mobility device, but other than that, we don't know.
  • 01:24:28
    What else drives people to use public transportation, of course, is, you know, the percentage of folks who live in poverty.
  • 01:24:35
    Some similarities here about where that is concentrated in your locality.
  • 01:24:42
    And then this is an additional slide that tells us big picture coming out of the needs assessment
  • 01:24:51
    What did we learn about Greene County?
  • 01:24:55
    And what we learned is actually because you have a little bit of that density, you use the service at a little bit higher ratio than some of your other rural counterparts and that you have the type of residents who are likely to use transit.
  • 01:25:12
    And I think that we're conditioned to make good use of transit because you had your own transit service here in Greene County for such a long time.
  • 01:25:21
    Where did the recommendations say we could possibly add value for the residents of Greene County?
  • 01:25:29
    One is to look at a model called microtransit, which I'll talk a little bit about in the next few slides after this.
  • 01:25:37
    The second is to extend the 29 connect route which goes from the urban core of Charlottesville as far as Hollymead and have that come all the way up to Greene and to possibly encourage some conversation between Albemarle and Greene about sharing some costs for the extension of the route because it would impact both Albemarle and Greene going a little further.
  • 01:26:03
    And then the other is our current circulator service ends earlier in the day than we might like.
  • 01:26:11
    One of the key facets of transit systems ought to be, if we get you there, can we get you back?
  • 01:26:18
    Right.
  • 01:26:19
    And a little bit about the circulator service says, if you work a traditional nine to five or 10 to six or something like that, it's hard to get home with the level of service we're providing on jaunt right now, because by that time of day, I think we only have one
  • 01:26:37
    the one and a half FTEs driving, right?
  • 01:26:39
    And so it makes it challenging in the way we've distributed the services, super high intensity early in the morning and then a little bit of drop off.
  • 01:26:48
    There's things we could do to implement split shifts with drivers and things of that nature, but we do probably need to look at how could we get a little service later in the day, get somebody home, you know, if they get off at six, seven o'clock or they wanna take, you know, public transportation to dinner or something of that nature.
  • 01:27:06
    So microtransit actually is in some ways what you all did before, except with some software as a service backing it.
  • 01:27:19
    And what I mean by that is one of the biggest changes for your residents was that when Jaunt took over the provision of service,
  • 01:27:33
    We have a reservation system.
  • 01:27:35
    People can call somewhere between 24 hours in advance to seven days in advance to book a ride, right?
  • 01:27:42
    and the bulk of service that was provided to Greene County residents in the old system was an on-demand model.
  • 01:27:49
    You called somebody and we figured out how soon we could get somebody out there to pick you up and take you wherever you needed to go.
  • 01:27:56
    Well, microtransit in most places is that on-demand model, not so much about the reservations.
  • 01:28:03
    How can you in the moment schedule with a phone, tablet, computer, or by calling, right?
  • 01:28:09
    We would never do away with our call center.
  • 01:28:12
    arrived.
  • 01:28:14
    And what you need to know is we've just finished a study, which you're hearing about tonight.
  • 01:28:21
    I'm only telling my board about it tomorrow.
  • 01:28:23
    Mr. Jacobs scored on Thursday, which I don't usually do that.
  • 01:28:27
    Just it's a matter of the timing.
  • 01:28:30
    And so this dispatches drivers through the software.
  • 01:28:35
    And I think you'll see a little bit here in just a moment why it should work in Greene County.
  • 01:28:43
    So is it right?
  • 01:28:44
    Yes, there's definitely a great reason to think that it works, particularly in that urban core.
  • 01:28:50
    But why does it work in Greene County so well?
  • 01:28:53
    So we mapped every trip.
  • 01:28:56
    that happened in Greene County over a year's period.
  • 01:28:58
    And you see where all of these wonderful purple lines are going, right?
  • 01:29:04
    And so it is concentrated into a portion of the county where over 90% of the rides are in a place where we could be dispatching people quickly, right?
  • 01:29:15
    We would still service the county residents who need to get, you know, to the far northwestern corner or something like that.
  • 01:29:22
    But our history, our data of almost five years of serving your residents tells us that that's not, you know, going to be a high intensity activity.
  • 01:29:33
    And so the table here is just a little bit about we can do that with the current resources today.
  • 01:29:40
    In fact, we think we'll be more effective with the resources if we implement this.
  • 01:29:46
    The real trick to this is, though, in the way that government moves, and Jaunt is a public service corporation,
  • 01:29:53
    We ask money for the state and the localities and then they give it to us and it becomes available in July and then we're allowed to go out to bid and all that stuff.
  • 01:30:02
    So I think that maybe in 12 to 15 months, we could have a model like this that would be able to pilot for Greene County residents a new way, which is kind of more like the old way for Greene County.
  • 01:30:21
    So I know you asked for this in the budget.
  • 01:30:24
    This is just a finer point.
  • 01:30:27
    If you want to understand more about our structure, I'm very happy to present to you all at any time that you ask.
  • 01:30:36
    It may be great if it was on a day that Fabio's was open, but I'm happy to answer any questions.
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 01:30:52
    Do you have a connection with the transit buses at all times where you can connect?
  • 01:31:02
    Say they're in Ruckersville and someone wants a ride just up the road on 33.
  • 01:31:08
    I mean, can they call and then that bus?
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 01:31:14
    Yeah.
  • 01:31:15
    So we could...
  • 01:31:19
    take that call directly to a dispatcher at the main line at Jaunt.
  • 01:31:24
    But the system today mainly runs on the concept of we guarantee booked rides that are done 24 hours to seven days in advance.
  • 01:31:34
    Same day calling, we can't guarantee the service.
  • 01:31:38
    We have a system where a combination of our 80 drivers are deployed to 2,800 square miles.
  • 01:31:49
    And so we might decide based on the number of trips that are booked in Greene County, we need more or less folks on Wednesday.
  • 01:31:56
    And so it could be hard to get those same day calls in.
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 01:31:59
    Appreciate that.
  • 01:32:02
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:32:05
    Are you considering having rides on Saturday by any chance in the future?
  • 01:32:11
    Is that something you've looked at or thought about?
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 01:32:14
    I've never been asked for Saturday rides, Madam Chair.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:32:18
    Well, I've had several people call me and want to know why you can't do it.
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 01:32:22
    That's why I'm asking.
  • 01:32:24
    Yeah, that's a great question.
  • 01:32:25
    I think here's how we construct the budget.
  • 01:32:29
    And I think that we, I have a little bit different way about implementing the resources than my predecessor that I think gives you the ability to reclaim some hours.
  • 01:32:41
    But essentially what happens is
  • 01:32:44
    We can operate a certain number of hours for the dollars that you distribute to us and we can leverage a certain number of dollars back from the state and the feds.
  • 01:32:55
    And so is there potentially a trade off that says, do we need less of something on Monday through Friday in order to get Saturday?
  • 01:33:06
    Maybe.
  • 01:33:07
    Is there some efficiency to be had that would gain us hours on Saturday?
  • 01:33:12
    It was not particularly brought up in the rural transit needs assessment.
  • 01:33:17
    A lot of folks want to get to seven days a week.
  • 01:33:20
    If there was feedback that you wanted to funnel to us either directly or through the county administrator, very happy to try and figure out how that would work.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:33:32
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 01:33:34
    I'll
  • 01:33:36
    A problem that I've heard, and this has been a few years ago, where someone would make a hospital visit or a doctor's visit, and they'd give them a time, how long they'd probably be there, and they would say, well, we'll pick you up at such a time, and they pulled up, and they waited maybe five minutes, and then left.
  • 01:33:58
    I don't know if they're having that problem anymore or not.
  • 01:34:01
    I haven't heard anyone complain.
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 01:34:06
    Again, I'm very happy to receive your feedback at any time about individual constituents who experience an issue.
  • 01:34:13
    What I will say is, if you were to call and say, hey, I'd like a one o'clock pickup from anywhere you like, Mr. Lamb, and then we would say, okay, we're going to establish a 30 minute window and we will come somewhere between 1245 and 115.
  • 01:34:31
    You can expect us to be there.
  • 01:34:35
    And by policy, we will wait from your originally asked for time at one o'clock for five minutes.
  • 01:34:41
    And so you're supposed to be looking for us anywhere in that window.
  • 01:34:45
    But, you know, we will stay for those five minutes after the book time.
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 01:34:50
    I appreciate that.
  • 01:34:51
    It's a good thing doctors' appointments, they're always spot on.
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 01:34:54
    Spot on, exactly.
  • 01:34:56
    Only at 8.30.
  • 01:34:58
    Look, medical appointments are tricky to book return trips, right?
  • 01:35:03
    Because we all know that there's been times where we have waited longer than we might have expected.
  • 01:35:10
    And that can be difficult and inconvenient.
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 01:35:14
    Because the doctor's not going to see if you're 15 minutes late, I can tell you that much.
  • 01:35:21
    Right.
• • SPEAKER_20
  • 01:35:22
    Is there any way to implement some on that case?
  • 01:35:26
    I mean, if it's a person's only source of transportation and a doctor's visit carries over a lot longer than there, is there any way to implement like an emergency, just a little shuttle van or sort of the big van that, you know, you have somebody on standby that can
  • 01:35:45
    and do emergency pickups like that and for something to think about too on that aspect.
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 01:35:51
    Yeah, we absolutely, I can give you examples about where because of the nature of the service, we take a call directly into dispatch and send a different bus out at a different period of time.
  • 01:36:05
    They may need to wait a little longer in order to make that happen.
  • 01:36:11
    But, you know, there is some hierarchy, right?
  • 01:36:13
    You know, when you think about
  • 01:36:15
    You know, jaunt is taking people to jobs and medical employment and connecting to social activities and shopping and all, you know, all these other activities.
  • 01:36:28
    But the number one thing that gets brought up to me when we say, hey, weather's bad or restricting service or something like that is they say, oh, well, what about the dialysis patients?
  • 01:36:38
    Right.
  • 01:36:39
    And that's the kind of buzz word, you know, about like,
  • 01:36:44
    What about people with significant medical issues?
  • 01:36:48
    And how are we going to ensure that there's continuity of service?
  • 01:36:51
    And so, as I said, we don't like to drive people to places where we aren't the return trip.
  • 01:36:57
    And so as much as possible, we want to be able to do that.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:37:04
    Any further questions, comments to Mr. Murphy?
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 01:37:08
    I appreciate everything we do, to be honest.
  • 01:37:11
    I know a lot of people that need it.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:37:19
    Thank you, Mr. Murphy.
  • 01:37:19
    We appreciate you coming and giving us an update.
  • 01:37:22
    We look forward to budget time here.
  • 01:37:28
    Thank you.
  • 01:37:30
    Okay.

14. 11. Consent Agenda

• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:37:32
    Consent agenda is the minutes of our previous meeting of November the 12th, 2024 and ratify our local emergency declaration for the Green Mountain Lake Dam emergency.

15. 11.a. Minutes of previous meeting

• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:37:45
    Motion to adopt consent agenda.

16. 11.b. Ratify Local Emergency Declaration for Greene Mountain Lake dam emergency

• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:37:47
    Is there a second?

17. 12. Action Items

• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:37:48
    Second.

18. 13. Items for Discussion

• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:37:49
    I have a motion and a second to adopt a consent agenda.
  • 01:37:53
    Roll call vote, Mr. Goolsby.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 01:37:55
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:37:55
    Mr. McGuigan.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 01:37:56
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:37:57
    Mr. Lamb.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 01:37:58
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:37:58
    Mr. Catalano.
  • 01:37:59
    Aye.
  • 01:37:59
    And the chair votes aye.
  • 01:38:01
    Thank you very much.
  • 01:38:03
    There are no action items.
  • 01:38:05
    Our next will be items for discussion.

19. 13.a. Resolution to direct staff to investigate a partnership with Orange County for the reservoir - Cathy Schafrik, County Administrator

• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:38:08
    Resolution to direct staff to investigate a partnership with Orange County for the reservoir.
  • 01:38:15
    Kathy Sherbrooke of County Administrator will present.
  • 01:38:18
    Thank you and welcome.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 01:38:19
    Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the board.
  • 01:38:23
    Obviously, we've had a lot of discussion about our community's need to create a reservoir, not only for our current needs, but also to responsibly plan for future needs.
  • 01:38:34
    And of course, this has been, as we've talked about, exacerbated by droughts we've had the last couple of years, which have impacted the whole state.
  • 01:38:42
    I know we're water rich state or whatever somebody said earlier, but we've definitely felt the impact of those droughts.
  • 01:38:49
    And I've talked to you about our need to be more resilient.
  • 01:38:53
    And we've also discussed needing to be more comprehensive with regard to a project of this size and scope.
  • 01:38:59
    And as such, I've had discussions with the Orange County administrator because we have a great opportunity to collaborate and help both our localities.
  • 01:39:11
    The resolution before you would support our mutual interest and engaging in more formal discussions before bringing back some proposals to you guys and to Orange County to their board.
  • 01:39:23
    High level, the concept is we don't need the full capacity of our reservoir on day one because it's size for the future as it should be.
  • 01:39:34
    Though we'll need that capacity in future years.
  • 01:39:37
    Meanwhile,
  • 01:39:39
    Orange County has an immediate need for water during peak periods while they're actively pursuing building their own reservoir.
  • 01:39:47
    Although, as you guys know, anybody in this community knows it takes a while to get that project going.
  • 01:39:55
    But in the meantime, there be some sort, the concept is there's some sort of Orange County financial contribution to Greene County
  • 01:40:03
    to gain access to water from our reservoir for some period of time.
  • 01:40:07
    And then we'd reacquire the capacity back so the reservoir would be Greene County only.
  • 01:40:13
    There's a lot of details in that, but high level, that's the working concept.
  • 01:40:17
    So this is a partnership that would match our needs.
  • 01:40:21
    So we'd be
  • 01:40:22
    We have presented to you a financial plan and that financial plan is under review by an outside economist for validation and for comments and I'm sure there'll be some recommendations that come out of that that's going to come back to the board on January 28.
  • 01:40:38
    But a deal like this would strengthen our position even more.
  • 01:40:42
    So with your approval of this resolution, we'll work out the details for this collaboration and bring back more than once because I'm sure it's going to be complicated enough that it's not going to be like we just present some magic solution and everybody's happy.
  • 01:40:59
    So we'll bring back the different iterations.
  • 01:41:02
    a similar resolution to the one before you was voted on unanimously by Orange County at their regular meeting last Tuesday on December 3rd.
  • 01:41:11
    So again, this is designed as a stopgap measure while they're working on moving forward with their reservoir project and it helps us financially get going with our project.
  • 01:41:24
    That's it, unless you have any questions.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:41:30
    I don't have a problem with it at all, but I would like to add that I think we should add just a number four since it's such a detailed resolution that just reiterates that the final decision to move forward rest with the board's advisors because we have reporting, but it doesn't show the final decision.
  • 01:41:44
    So I think we need to put that in there.
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 01:41:48
    Yeah, I'd agree as long as it's a non-binding discussion.
  • 01:41:51
    Exactly.
  • 01:41:51
    Yeah.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:41:54
    For the questions or discussion?
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:41:58
    Madam Chairman, I'd like to make a motion to approve a resolution directing staff to investigate the feasibility of collaborating with Orange County to construct a reservoir with the as published with the addition of number four final decision to move forward with any initiative rests with the majority of with the Greene County worst advisors.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:42:20
    I have a motion and a second.
  • 01:42:23
    Any further discussion?
  • 01:42:25
    If not, roll call.
  • 01:42:26
    Mr. McGuigan.
  • 01:42:27
    Aye.
  • 01:42:27
    Mr. Goolsby.
  • 01:42:28
    Aye.
  • 01:42:28
    Mr. Lamb.
  • 01:42:29
    Aye.
  • 01:42:30
    Mr. Catalano.
  • 01:42:31
    Aye.
  • 01:42:31
    And the chair votes, aye.
  • 01:42:32
    Thank you.
  • 01:42:34
    Up next is planning and zoning priorities with Mr. Friedel.
  • 01:42:37
    Mr. Planning and zoning, please come forward.

20. 13.b. ​Planning and Zoning priorities - Jim Frydl, Director of Planning and Zoning

• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:42:42
    Good evening again.
  • 01:42:44
    This is simply kind of a check-in with the board.
  • 01:42:48
    We had the work session with the Planning Commission, and at that time we talked about
  • 01:42:54
    Ranking the priorities.
  • 01:42:56
    who currently out of that discussion and all of the previous resolutions, we have one, two, three, four, five, six active ordinance revisions.
  • 01:43:09
    Well, six ordinance resolutions for revision.
  • 01:43:12
    And I wanted to kind of give you an update on where we stand on those, some projections.
  • 01:43:17
    We don't know how long it takes for each group to make a decision.
  • 01:43:22
    So I'll just give you some guesses on
  • 01:43:25
    where things are and look for suggestions from the board on moving things around or any direction from the board as the status of everything.
  • 01:43:39
    So we'll start with the easy ones.
  • 01:43:42
    One of the long term that we worked on, we just finished 20 minutes ago.
  • 01:43:47
    So that one is done.
  • 01:43:49
    We proved it today.
  • 01:43:51
    So now we're down to five.
  • 01:43:54
    And we have two that we have yet to start.
  • 01:43:58
    And by that, I mean, staff hasn't put significant time into those.
  • 01:44:03
    We haven't brought it forward for any conversation at the Planning Commission at this point.
  • 01:44:09
    And that is data centers and solar panels looking into having each of those maybe by special use permit with a set of performance standards, minimum performance standards.
  • 01:44:25
    We haven't begun those yet.
  • 01:44:28
    The first priority that came out of our work session was the agritourism, which includes agritourism, farm wineries, farm breweries, and we have started on that.
  • 01:44:42
    So we had a very lively discussion at the Planning Commission.
  • 01:44:46
    We looked at pretty much, we have a document that has all of
  • 01:44:51
    the ordinances from across the state.
  • 01:44:54
    We have that as a reference.
  • 01:44:56
    We brought in three operators to get perspective or two operators perspective from people that have that business.
  • 01:45:04
    And we also had the ag extension officer person here, Sarah, who we spoke to earlier.
  • 01:45:13
    And she's still here.
  • 01:45:15
    So, so it was a good discussion.
  • 01:45:18
    And we have a second discussion scheduled work session for this meeting.
  • 01:45:24
    So typically, depending on the complexity of an issue, we'll have a work session, staff will do some research, put together a lot of things in front of the planning commission, have a work session, they'll give us some direction, we'll
  • 01:45:38
    narrow that down, have a final work session.
  • 01:45:42
    Typically, they're ready for it to go to public hearing, depending on the complexity, or some of the directions we've had from the board.
  • 01:45:52
    At that point, we'll ask the board about whether we want to schedule a joint work session at that point, which gives us an opportunity to say, you know, great, you've been working, we understand the work that you've done.
  • 01:46:07
    And we like these parts, but not those parts.
  • 01:46:09
    So, you know, give the direction to go back and have another work session.
  • 01:46:14
    And once all that's worked out, we go to public hearings.
  • 01:46:17
    So on the agritourism, we're scheduling the second work session.
  • 01:46:24
    The first work session was great, but
  • 01:46:27
    and there were some concepts that were laid out after all the reviews, but we're not close to having some direction for staff to put something together as a draft to see what their comfort level is.
  • 01:46:41
    I'm
  • 01:46:42
    It's funny because the next thing I'll talk about seems like it should be much more complicated, but it's actually simpler.
  • 01:46:48
    Even though this is part of one article, there's so many nuances, right?
  • 01:46:53
    So you got music, trips, people, events.
  • 01:46:59
    So there's a lot of variables, whereas the next one we're talking about has fewer variables.
  • 01:47:06
    But I assume that the board would probably want to have a joint work session once the Planning Commission comes to some sort of concept resolution.
  • 01:47:17
    We don't have to have that step, but I'm guessing that we would like to.
  • 01:47:22
    So on that one, if we move forward quickly, we may get to some consensus to get to a point where in January, we could have another work session to clarify that the planning commission is good with where we are.
  • 01:47:38
    If we meet in January, then we could schedule a joint work session in February, start the public hearing process in March and finish either March or April.
  • 01:47:52
    So that's kind of where that is in process.
  • 01:47:56
    One of the other ones is come up in conversations with our economic development director, our county administrator, and both of them participate in a regional defense initiative group.
  • 01:48:13
    It's not the right word for it, but there's a lot of opportunity for the flex technology research development
  • 01:48:23
    Zoning.
  • 01:48:25
    And that's the one I was referring to.
  • 01:48:26
    It is simpler, even though it's a whole chapter that doesn't exist.
  • 01:48:32
    The chapters in this scenario are typically just what uses you're going to allow and what uses you aren't going to allow and if there's any special uses and then setback language.
  • 01:48:42
    So literally about three
  • 01:48:47
    three pages, four pages, maybe, and done a lot of research, looking across at 10 different communities across.
  • 01:48:56
    Almost everyone is pretty close with some minor changes.
  • 01:48:59
    One community may like a use and another community may not.
  • 01:49:03
    But the language, the setbacks, it's relatively simple.
  • 01:49:08
    So because of the things we're hearing from our
  • 01:49:13
    regional partners and an economic development and state economic development.
  • 01:49:16
    We've bumped up simultaneously that for a work session at the planning commission next week.
  • 01:49:25
    Now we can, it's up to the board.
  • 01:49:27
    We can stay on that schedule.
  • 01:49:28
    If the board has a different preference, we can move it, right?
  • 01:49:32
    So we already have
  • 01:49:33
    something to do at the planning commission meeting let's talk about the ag tourism we were going to have two work sessions as our plan so I just want to bring that forward because there's been some changes coming to us about that one and if we that one again it depends so if we have a work session most likely
  • 01:49:58
    I think because it's a fairly simple thing that the Planning Commission will likely have a really strong concept after our work session, whenever we have it.
  • 01:50:08
    If we have it next Wednesday, have a good idea.
  • 01:50:12
    It's up to the board on that one if we'd want to have a joint work session.
  • 01:50:17
    so that the schedule depends on that so if we meet next week we'll stick with that schedule I think we'll be ready for either a joint work session or a Planning Commission public hearing as soon as January so a little bit of direction on that if we want to keep it on the schedule as a work session and you know whether or not we want to have a second or a joint work session together and then
  • 01:50:45
    The other one that's out there is it's mostly completed and that is
  • 01:50:54
    the regulations for water and sewer mandatory connections on the system that we have.
  • 01:51:03
    So we don't have a service area basically.
  • 01:51:09
    And we've talked about that.
  • 01:51:10
    We've had the joint work session.
  • 01:51:13
    So it's pretty much ready for public hearing, but there's a lot
  • 01:51:19
    involved in that, right?
  • 01:51:21
    Because it's tied into the project.
  • 01:51:24
    It's tied into many things.
  • 01:51:27
    So the question is, do we want to go forward as quickly as possible on that through public hearings?
  • 01:51:35
    Do we want to delay setting the public hearing schedule?
  • 01:51:38
    It's our ordinance change, so we control the schedule.
  • 01:51:42
    And the other option is in between a hybrid.
  • 01:51:45
    We can move it forward as soon as we have time, have the public hearings.
  • 01:51:51
    But much like the rates, we don't have to adopt the public hearings the day of the hearing.
  • 01:51:55
    We can set a date in the future.
  • 01:51:58
    for the ordinance to begin.
  • 01:52:00
    So we have options on that one.
  • 01:52:03
    So we're looking for a little bit of feedback on how quickly we should go on that one.
  • 01:52:09
    And that's the priorities now.
  • 01:52:11
    We could talk and we probably end up, we'll end up talking during the year.
  • 01:52:15
    There's probably 30 things really at any given moment, small and large that we need to update and change in our zoning ordinance.
  • 01:52:24
    It's just a matter of time.
  • 01:52:26
    So there'll be plenty more things after we finish things.
  • 01:52:31
    And that's the update and just looking for some direction.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:52:37
    Discussion?
  • 01:52:38
    Comments?
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:52:39
    Timeline, you showed me this is fine.
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:52:42
    Okay.
  • 01:52:43
    Is everybody okay with us doing the simultaneous FlexTech next week with the PC?
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:52:49
    I'm fine with that.
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:52:51
    Depending on how that goes, do you want me to kind of give you guys all an update so that you can decide whether we want to do a joint work session after the Planning Commission comes to a conclusion on that one?
  • 01:53:04
    Do we want to just definitely schedule that or play by ear?
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:53:08
    Which one?
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:53:09
    FlexTax.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:53:11
    Do that meeting and then maybe we should look at it.
  • 01:53:13
    Okay.
  • 01:53:15
    Maybe a joint meeting would be worth it to...
  • 01:53:19
    if we had any questions to deal with it that way.
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:53:21
    I can give everybody an update on what happens.
  • 01:53:26
    Mr. Goolsby, of course, will know because he'll be there.
  • 01:53:28
    But what happens next week and then look for consensus from the board on how to schedule how it goes forward from there.
  • 01:53:35
    And again, I think my guess, if I had to guess, I think the Planning Commission would be probably
  • 01:53:44
    January meeting.
  • 01:53:45
    So we have the December meeting next week.
  • 01:53:47
    At the January meeting, we'll probably be ready for a joint work session on the Ag Tourism One also.
  • 01:53:55
    And that could, it could bounce forward one week, one month or not, depending on, because that one's complicated.
  • 01:54:02
    So if they feel like they want to have one more work session before they're ready to give direction and get feedback from the board, it could be February.
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 01:54:16
    What's the state limit?
  • 01:54:18
    I think they have a limit.
  • 01:54:19
    What's the percentage the county can have in solar panels?
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:54:25
    So there is no state limit.
  • 01:54:30
    In Greene County, we have
  • 01:54:33
    whatever limit we want it to be.
  • 01:54:35
    You know, it's not necessarily clear for anybody that wants to come or doesn't want to come because it's a special use permit, which gives us a lot of flexibility, but it's not necessarily, you know, one thing like a baseball game, nobody really cares whether the umpire calls balls and strikes
  • 01:54:52
    in the zone, just so long as they call them the same way.
  • 01:54:55
    So right now, with the special use process only, it gives us all the power and all the ability, but it doesn't give anybody, if we were interested in certain types of solar, it doesn't give any directions for anybody that might consider it.
  • 01:55:12
    So from our standpoint, it's not urgent at all that we get to it as a county because we have
  • 01:55:20
    We have the ability to take every regulation that's out there and put it into an SUP.
  • 01:55:27
    But good governments would be to put into a law that everybody can read up front of the general preferences that we have.
  • 01:55:36
    And that's why we want to look at it.
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 01:55:38
    The reason I asked, I think someone mentioned it when I was in resolutions and things.
  • 01:55:45
    They were saying something about 6%.
  • 01:55:47
    of the total mass of the area in the county or something.
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:55:52
    Some counters have that.
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 01:55:53
    For a prime agricultural land.
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:55:56
    Yeah, exactly.
  • 01:55:59
    Some do it as only agricultural land.
  • 01:56:02
    Some do it as a total mass of the county.
  • 01:56:04
    There's so many different ways.
  • 01:56:07
    And honestly, if we get one before we are able to change the ordinance or put more details in the ordinance,
  • 01:56:15
    Literally what we're going to do on behalf of the board is find whoever's going through the latest revisions and look at all of the things.
  • 01:56:24
    Because I'm sure if you've been to some of those meetings, you've heard about counties that put in an award-winning
  • 01:56:32
    ordinance.
  • 01:56:33
    And then three months later, they're already changing it because they found out things that didn't work or that they needed to include.
  • 01:56:40
    So we're my theory is if we get an application, we haven't had any yet, but if we get one, we're going to we're going to borrow from everybody else's hard work.
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 01:56:51
    Yeah, I mean, some of them
  • 01:56:52
    They want sheep grazing underneath of them.
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:56:56
    I mean, there's a lot of ideas, great and bad.
  • 01:57:00
    You know, I mean, some are great, some are different.
  • 01:57:02
    Some work for other counties that wouldn't work for Greene.
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 01:57:06
    They require them to have to mow them at least twice a year.
• • SPEAKER_20
  • 01:57:09
    Louise and Fluvanny right now, they're touching on that right now, hot into...
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:57:18
    We have two things right now against large solar projects that are deterrents.
  • 01:57:25
    We're in between power grids, so we don't really have a very strong power grid in Greene County or an upgraded grid to support that type of construction yet.
  • 01:57:37
    It can come, and with enough money, anything can be built.
  • 01:57:40
    Whereas Louisa has, you know, the nuclear plant right there.
  • 01:57:45
    So they've got a ton of power access.
  • 01:57:48
    And then, you know, it's one of the situations where being very small, not having large parcels and being more vertical helps us too.
  • 01:57:57
    I mean, we're not...
  • 01:57:59
    Attractive.
• • SPEAKER_20
  • 01:58:00
    I'm going to find 100 acres of stained soil.
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:58:08
    Right now, there's so many cheaper options than us that it's kind of protecting us from some of those applications.
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 01:58:13
    Well, they're also trying to pass, well, they're going to put forth a resolution to
  • 01:58:22
    Create a fund and it's a solar farm that's set up where at the end of its life, if you don't restore it, then you're going to have to pay, have money aside to clean it up.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:58:35
    Yeah, that's a big thing that people have learned.
  • 01:58:38
    And also stockpiling topsail where they strip it off and then have to reclaim it and put it back.
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:58:42
    Now we'll see, you know, it's one of the things that you mentioned indirectly in your meeting with Mr. Blunt is last year there were regulations that were considered that would take away local power.
  • 01:58:56
    Totally.
  • 01:58:58
    Mr. McGuigan referenced it, Mr. Catalano referenced it.
  • 01:59:01
    These situations, which they all provide service, right?
  • 01:59:05
    Some counties it's better floor than others, but they all have more money and better lobbyists.
  • 01:59:12
    Not that, man, Mr. Vaughn is great, but when you have 40 of him and the money to spread around for dinners and everything else, it's easier to get laws passed than it is when there's five of us on the board, right?
  • 01:59:24
    Yeah.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:59:27
    Thank you, Jim.
  • 01:59:29
    Thank you.
  • 01:59:29
    We appreciate that.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:59:30
    Okay, thank you.
  • 01:59:32
    Commercial power generating facilities, just remember that.
  • 01:59:35
    That's what it is.
  • 01:59:36
    Not a farm.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:59:39
    Our next item for discussion is regarding a general fund excess.
  • 01:59:43
    Francis McGuigan, a large supervisor, is going to be presenting that.
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 01:59:47
    Yeah.
  • 01:59:48
    Get that first slide, Jim.

21. 13.c. Discussion regarding General Fund excess - Francis McGuigan

• • SPEAKER_13
  • 01:59:49
    Can you see it?

22. 14. Informational Items, Updates, and Reports

• • SPEAKER_13
  • 01:59:58
    I mean, this arose out of a comment that Supervisor Catalano made at the end of the last meeting about trying to give maybe back for what is an excess amount of our general fund in reserve.
  • 02:00:18
    So on the 26th of March, Davenport presented to the board kind of an overview of all Greene counties, the fund status and a series of recommendations about how to approach it fiscally responsibly.
  • 02:00:30
    So based on that presentation and a subsequent investigation, and it was kind of a team effort.
  • 02:00:35
    I mean, I've talked to Kathy Shafrick, I've talked to Kelly Kemp, Dan Chipman, our treasurer, as well as our
  • 02:00:47
    director of or commissioner of the revenue.
  • 02:00:51
    And it was a team effort.
  • 02:00:53
    All the all the praise might go to them if this passes, if it's faulted, it's all my fault.
  • 02:01:01
    So, you know, based on that presentation, I think we could invest a little bit more wisely, the general fund that we we access that we do have.
  • 02:01:10
    that we should consider rewarding our volunteer firemen and firewomen for the service they provide the county
  • 02:01:18
    that we can give a rebate and should give a rebate to taxpayers, especially in a time when they're kind of hurting after several years of excessive inflation.
  • 02:01:26
    And then finally, consider taking whatever remainder of that recommended fund that we would try to pay off some of the existing debts, which there's a few in there that are currently much, much higher than what we're getting as a return on the fund.
  • 02:01:45
    So you get the next slide.
• • SPEAKER_19
  • 02:01:47
    Yeah.
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 02:01:51
    So Davenport recommended an unassigned fund balance of 25% of expenditures.
  • 02:01:57
    So the rule of thumb is 15%.
  • 02:01:59
    And then you want to do about one quarter of the salaries for the county employees, which brings it up to about 23.5.
  • 02:02:10
    And they just recommended rounding up to 25%.
  • 02:02:13
    Got a little fooled on what they wrote as available fund excess.
  • 02:02:20
    so that it's not a good term.
  • 02:02:22
    It's a term that really doesn't fit in.
  • 02:02:24
    So really what they're talking about is that when you take away the assigned balance, the remainder is the unassigned balance.
  • 02:02:37
    And that's what they're really talking about.
  • 02:02:38
    Once you take away from that, this 25%.
  • 02:02:41
    So what that yields us
  • 02:02:45
    is about $2.9 million above the most conservative recommendations they have.
  • 02:02:51
    And what I discovered is that our general fund balance right now is in an account that's yielding 1.25%.
  • 02:02:57
    I didn't ask how long because I really didn't want the answer.
  • 02:03:01
    It could have been a little bit depressing.
  • 02:03:04
    So the next slide.
  • 02:03:07
    When you look at it, we've got a number of these loans.
  • 02:03:10
    And as it turns out, if the loans and bonds are greater than 10 years, there is usually not a prepayment penalty.
  • 02:03:18
    So those would be available for us to pay off, which again, makes us look fiscally responsible, especially when we're looking at maybe...
  • 02:03:26
    borrowing up to $87 million.
  • 02:03:28
    So maneuvers like that kind of add an extra arrow in the quiver when you're being looked at.
  • 02:03:34
    One of the things that I did discover, and I think this is something that we need to look at in the budget cycle, is for some of these non-long-term capital improvement projects, some of the short ones, we had a lease that was entered in by the school system last year at a 6% interest rate.
  • 02:03:52
    And you look at that and you compare it to the 1.25, I mean, we're losing money in the exchange because if we had that fund, which again, the total is actually almost $30 million invested, you're looking at about a million in interest that we could be acquiring.
  • 02:04:11
    Next slide.
  • 02:04:13
    So,
  • 02:04:15
    Volunteer firemen and women, I think they deserve a little bit more appreciation than we give them because our alternative is a professional service.
  • 02:04:22
    And from what I've been able to understand, talking to people who have dealt with this before, that's going to make our emergency services, which are currently at 3.2, 3.5 million, look kind of cheap if we have to go professional.
  • 02:04:38
    So how long we can delay that is in our best interest.
  • 02:04:42
    Now, right now, we voted in this year a 500 person personal property tax credit.
  • 02:04:48
    The problem with that is if you're a kid where a lot of our volunteers are 17, 18 year old kids, you're not getting anything and you can't transfer it to anybody.
  • 02:04:58
    Additionally, non-county residents aren't eligible for it.
  • 02:05:02
    And then finally, if you don't have an expensive car and you don't have real estate, you're kind of hosed.
  • 02:05:08
    You can't use that full 500.
  • 02:05:09
    Then the final thing is we cap the number per fire department.
  • 02:05:15
    So I think we can do better.
  • 02:05:19
    Next slide.
  • 02:05:21
    And then finally, you got residents who, as we talked about earlier,
  • 02:05:27
    Our average income, not median, our average income is $39,000 a year.
  • 02:05:33
    So giving those individuals a break, I think especially with the economic situation they've been in for the past few years, would be a goal.
  • 02:05:46
    So final slide.
  • 02:05:49
    So what I think, and this is just supporting the treasurer, we can't tell the treasurer what to do.
  • 02:05:56
    but we can make a recommendation.
  • 02:05:58
    And I think she's very receptive.
  • 02:06:00
    It's supposedly on her tickler list to try to get a higher yield conservative investment until the Greene County really develops an investment strategy.
  • 02:06:12
    So right now, Vanguard and other organizations, they're looking at about 4.5% in a treasury fund.
  • 02:06:19
    I've been told now by her that there is a Virginia backed fund
  • 02:06:24
    that is at 475.
  • 02:06:27
    And that might not be able to issue checks as well.
  • 02:06:31
    So maybe you could mix the two, but certainly we could double, we could at least triple the amount that we're getting currently.
  • 02:06:38
    You cannot pay firefighters.
  • 02:06:40
    You cannot really do as a county organization, we can't
  • 02:06:46
    Give Money, and this is where we talked about it, about what we can do, and it sounds like we could establish a morale and welfare fund for each volunteer fire department, and that active members, meaning not emeritus, and they would create their own criteria for what that reimbursement would be, but it would be a sliding scale, in my view, based on the amount of hours that they do, and that if you funded it to $1,500 approximately per firefighter,
  • 02:07:16
    that that would only cost the county about $135,000, assuming 30 of these full-time active members.
  • 02:07:23
    We're not talking about people who are showing up and doling out spaghetti at the spaghetti dinner, even though that's valuable, but we're talking about people who are going in there and fighting fires and putting their lives on the line.
  • 02:07:36
    If you considered a rebate to each Greene County resident family, family is the emphasis, of $200
  • 02:07:46
    you're looking at about 1.6 million because there's about 8,000 plus families.
  • 02:07:52
    Now you can do it a lot of different ways.
  • 02:07:54
    And we played with this.
  • 02:07:55
    If you do a real estate tax rebate, then you're gonna be giving rebates to people outside our county, right?
  • 02:07:59
    People who own property and are just using it for an investment purpose.
  • 02:08:04
    And what the easiest thing seems to be to give the people a tax credit rather than a tax rebate.
  • 02:08:10
    So unfortunately it would actually show up next year.
  • 02:08:14
    but I still think that's better than nothing.
  • 02:08:17
    And it would be easy to try to exclude a couple of things which would be if for some reason a family had two accounts, you'd be able to look at address plus names and probably eliminate those.
  • 02:08:32
    The only people that would leave out would be potentially a resident and unfortunately on a fixed income that might not have a vehicle.
  • 02:08:42
    So that's one group that would fall through the cracks a little bit.
  • 02:08:45
    But when you looked at all the other different scenarios, that seemed to be the best one.
  • 02:08:49
    And then the final thing is I think that we should do, and it's something that Dan's already doing, a deeper dive on existing loans that are more than 4% that we're not going to get hit with a prepayment penalty to pay off.
  • 02:09:06
    And it looks like we would have about almost $2 million to do that.
  • 02:09:11
    And that would, again, be a safe way to get a much higher interest rate payment than what we're getting right now.
  • 02:09:20
    So I think this is a reason why I leave it up to the board members.
  • 02:09:24
    But maybe it needs to be fine tuned a little bit.
  • 02:09:28
    But I think these sentiments would still not
  • 02:09:33
    in peril in any way, shape or form our financial status, because this fund's building up in most of the years, it's building up about 4 million each year.
  • 02:09:42
    And it's just, you know, are we using that wisely?
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 02:09:44
    I would like to make some comments on the rebates for the volunteers.
  • 02:09:55
    So over the last year,
  • 02:09:58
    Five years.
  • 02:09:59
    We've tried to do this at the ESAB level when it was a more formal committee.
  • 02:10:05
    It always, I mean, spent extensive time at it.
  • 02:10:07
    It always came back to that compensation and it perplexed everybody because, you know, Pennsylvania pays for retirement, you know, Long Island, New York pays for retirement.
  • 02:10:18
    You know, we would we would just come with all these issues and we were just to find that in Virginia,
  • 02:10:24
    It's compensation, it's compensation, it's compensation.
  • 02:10:27
    But the only gap, I think, or the only spot that we'd be covered in is to do that voucher.
  • 02:10:33
    And I agree, it's not equitable, because no matter how old you are, right, you could be 60 years old and decide you're going to drive a 1978 Plymouth, you know what I mean?
  • 02:10:43
    So you don't get the benefit of that money.
  • 02:10:47
    The boards have supported it through all these years, but we're all at this question mark point.
  • 02:10:52
    So I don't know, do we maybe send that back to ESAB and try to get the actual legal opinion finally that says exactly what we can and cannot do?
  • 02:11:02
    Because I feel like we backtrack a lot, right?
  • 02:11:04
    This is the law.
  • 02:11:06
    Well, then somebody says, no, it's not.
  • 02:11:07
    This is the law.
  • 02:11:08
    So I think it'd be worth another run.
  • 02:11:11
    Yeah, we'll bring Ms.
  • 02:11:14
    Kemp to the meeting.
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 02:11:17
    I was going to say, we sort of discussed that and the way around it would be to just establish within the department that fund so that we're basically hands off
  • 02:11:30
    but their understanding without- Can we make the criteria though?
  • 02:11:35
    Can we make the criteria right now?
  • 02:11:37
    I think we could suggest the criteria and then the question is you monitor them for abuse, right?
  • 02:11:44
    And if it's abusive, then you go, okay, you guys killed the golden goose, if you will.
  • 02:11:49
    But I do think that there's a lot of trust involved, but I think most of these people are intrinsically
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 02:11:56
    Yeah, I'm not worried about trusting them, but what I'm worried about is making sure we're accountable to the taxpayers as well.
  • 02:12:02
    So something written, you know, I mean, maybe it's written on their side and we agree with it.
  • 02:12:08
    I think we need to do a little work on it, I guess is what I'm saying.
  • 02:12:10
    And coming into budget, like you said, most of the stuff has to be kicked into the budget discussion anyway.
  • 02:12:16
    So maybe we should get on it as soon as possible and see if we can come up with something at the ESAP.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 02:12:21
    Yeah.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 02:12:23
    Yeah, but I mean, we're not going to come up with it one night.
  • 02:12:25
    It took five years to come up with what we got.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 02:12:30
    I can prepare a member that I don't represent the volunteer fire departments.
  • 02:12:34
    I get it.
  • 02:12:35
    And so, and you all do give money to the volunteer.
  • 02:12:38
    I mean, it doesn't pay your budget every year.
  • 02:12:40
    However, they're going to risk their tax exempt status if they're giving their members cash.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 02:12:45
    That's what I mean.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 02:12:45
    And I don't represent them.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 02:12:47
    Right.
  • 02:12:48
    Because it does violate their non-profit status.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 02:12:50
    It does, I think.
  • 02:12:51
    I mean, but I can put together a memo, but it's not going to be comprehensive on their responsibility.
  • 02:12:58
    But I don't think you all want to do anything that's going to jeopardize that.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 02:13:01
    It's like a post hole digger on a rock.
  • 02:13:04
    That's all I can just say.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 02:13:06
    But you all could increase that amount of money to get them supplies that they need that make their jobs easier, that make...
  • 02:13:13
    you know things just easier for them within the station that is not compensation that's just something you already do you could increase that amount that's revenue for them basically that's their lifeline right all right I would love to do that I would love to get that back there and we hit it again I can prepare a memo okay that would be great is that good yeah yeah
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 02:13:40
    I'm way in favor of supporting our treasurer and reinvesting.
  • 02:13:43
    I think that's a smart thing.
  • 02:13:45
    And I think she's on top of that working through since she's just been reelected.
  • 02:13:50
    So I think she's working greatly on that.
  • 02:13:52
    So I think we'll see a big change in that.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 02:13:56
    Yeah, I think it'd be good just to...
  • 02:14:07
    use this all as a starting point for our budget discussions.
• • SPEAKER_11
  • 02:14:10
    Right.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 02:14:11
    Because I don't think we all agree with it.
  • 02:14:13
    That's the time to implement it.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 02:14:23
    I do think, you know, this is something we can think about and get ready through our budget process, which is going to be here before we know it.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 02:14:33
    And that's the thing like on the on the rebate, like maybe we just do it in the rate.
  • 02:14:37
    Right.
  • 02:14:38
    We already know we might do a rate to X. Maybe we do X plus a smidge.
  • 02:14:43
    You know, when we get talking about is that how you saw that or what do you the only thing?
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 02:14:47
    I mean, I agree with you, but and it's, you know, you get into people who don't believe you should do some social engineering, but you're trying to give it to the people who need it the most.
  • 02:14:58
    Right.
  • 02:14:58
    So the problem is, if you build it into a rate,
  • 02:15:02
    You're giving a much, much greater rebate to people who are better off.
  • 02:15:06
    And the idea here was to sort of say, look, the people who need it the most are going to be the people at the lower ends.
  • 02:15:14
    And this way, you know, people can still complain, oh, you know, it should be proportional.
  • 02:15:20
    But I think that what we're trying to do is just help people that might not be as fortunate and still giving everybody something.
  • 02:15:29
    That was the thought process.
  • 02:15:31
    Got you.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 02:15:40
    Any further discussion?
  • 02:15:46
    Thank you, Mr. Good PowerPoint.
  • 02:15:52
    Our monthly reports, we appreciate the department's giving those.

23. 14.a. Board liaison reports

• • SPEAKER_08
  • 02:15:57
    Board liaison reports.
• • SPEAKER_03
  • 02:16:00
    I'd have to apologize to Sarah because I didn't make it to soil and water.
  • 02:16:06
    A lot of them weren't.
  • 02:16:08
    Brad was on all of us.

24. 14.b. Monthly reports

• • SPEAKER_08
  • 02:16:12
    We can't make it to everything, that's for sure.

25. 14.b.

• • SPEAKER_03
  • 02:16:14
    Did you miss a meal is the question.
  • 02:16:16
    I wanted to.
  • 02:16:17
    I didn't eat very much at all.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 02:16:21
    We have a Central Virginia Regional Jail Board meeting Thursday afternoon.
• • SPEAKER_20
  • 02:16:25
    I studied American journalism council this morning and they're working on their budget to be presented and
  • 02:16:35
    do other things that they're trying to promote into tourism itself and try to get more tourism to the county.
  • 02:16:43
    And so they're working and I think they're doing a pretty good job over there.
  • 02:16:50
    I sat in with the Thomas Jefferson Commission last week and all the counties are pretty much the same place we are.
  • 02:16:58
    Everybody's got things in the fire and just stuff like that.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 02:17:05
    We're on fire Okay, County Administrator's Report, Ms.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 02:17:09
    Shepard
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 02:17:15
    Sure.
  • 02:17:16
    So thank you, everybody who came out for the parade and the tree lighting.

26. 14.c. County Administrator update

• • SPEAKER_06
  • 02:17:20
    It was very nice, very well attended.
  • 02:17:23
    Lots of volunteers to make that happen.
  • 02:17:26
    It was chilly, but it was fun.
  • 02:17:30
    Also, we've had several recent, on a different topic, several recent emergencies that have really highlighted the need for communication and
  • 02:17:40
    There's flyers out there for the Civic Plus.
  • 02:17:43
    It is a GIS based application, which allows emergency management to draw a corridor around something so people particular in that corridor can be notified.
  • 02:17:58
    You can sign up whether you want emails, text messages, phone calls, how you want to get the communication, how much communication you want.
  • 02:18:06
    Do you want special events?
  • 02:18:08
    Do you want schools?
  • 02:18:10
    What are the stuff you want to be notified about?
  • 02:18:14
    You can also follow the Greene County Facebook page.
  • 02:18:18
    Make sure it's the Greene County, Virginia Facebook page because there's lots of Greene counties in this country and
  • 02:18:25
    We routinely get people from, there must be a Greene County, New York.
  • 02:18:32
    But Greene County, New York, people seem to be the most confused about coming onto our site.
  • 02:18:36
    We must have a similar mountain vista backdrop.
  • 02:18:42
    And then lastly, I went to the County of Stanardsville's meeting last night and
  • 02:18:50
    One exciting thing they reported on is they are the building that is between the library and the nursing home.
  • 02:18:59
    I can't remember.
  • 02:18:59
    The historic society is going to kill me.
  • 02:19:02
    It's a historic building.
  • 02:19:04
    What is it?
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 02:19:04
    William Mills House.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 02:19:05
    Yes.
  • 02:19:06
    Thank you.
  • 02:19:06
    The William Mills House is going to be donated to the town with a proviso that for the next 50 years, they move the city or sorry, the town hall there and they have their town hall meetings there.
  • 02:19:19
    But they have great plans of what they can do with it.
  • 02:19:23
    They're very excited about it.
  • 02:19:25
    And I think it's going to be, you know, that was a nice thing for the town to be able to get.
  • 02:19:31
    So they have two years to make that move and everything happen.
  • 02:19:35
    So I'm sure there'll be a lot more coming on that.
  • 02:19:37
    But it's exciting to think about all the improvements that are happening, you know, right here in the town.
  • 02:19:43
    So that's it.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 02:19:47
    Thank you, Ms.
  • 02:19:48
    Sharpe.
  • 02:19:48
    Any other items from board members?
• • SPEAKER_13
  • 02:19:52
    I'd just like to do one thing.

27. 15. Other Items from the Board

• • SPEAKER_13
  • 02:19:53
    I mean, I think since it's the end of the year, I'd personally like to thank all the county staff, your efforts, Chairwoman Durrier and my fellow supervisors for what I think was a lot of excellence work throughout the year.
  • 02:20:10
    And I think everybody should be pretty proud.
  • 02:20:12
    And when you look, I think it's a fitting time to look back at what we accomplished.
  • 02:20:17
    and kind of a list.
  • 02:20:19
    We took a lot of measures at the beginning of the year to increase citizen involvement and transparency in the government.
  • 02:20:25
    We lowered real estate tax and personal property tax for the first time in many, many years.
  • 02:20:30
    We raised the tourism tax and established a recreational fund.
  • 02:20:35
    So amongst other opportunities, our children are going to have a school, which has again been a goal for many, many years.
  • 02:20:42
    We made definitive progress towards building the reservoir and ensuring water for the county, an objective that prior boards largely ignored for 17 years, provided a 3% pay raise to all county staff.
  • 02:20:55
    We raised tipping fees in the waste processing center and made it really financially stable, reduced the waste we produce and process, installed new scales, and performed a long overdue cleanup with spectacular results.
  • 02:21:10
    We removed the eyesore of the trailers behind the court house and we restored the courthouse to its former glory.
  • 02:21:16
    These are just some of the highlights of the efforts and I think that we need to realize that that's only our efforts and there was spectacular work done by our educators, the police, the fire and the emergency personnel throughout the year.
  • 02:21:36
    There's much more I think that we still need to do to involve citizens in our local government to continue progress on the water and sewer project to create a business environment so that all of our residents will have well paying jobs and finally to protect our vital agriculture rural areas as well as the conservation district.
  • 02:21:54
    So even though we've disagreed at times, maybe sometimes even too much, I think hopefully in the future we can look beyond those disagreements and realize that everybody here is trying to do the best for the county and the people of Greene.
  • 02:22:07
    And I personally wish everybody in the county a safe festive holiday, a Merry Christmas, and a very Happy New Year.
  • 02:22:15
    Thank you.
  • 02:22:15
    Excellent.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 02:22:16
    It's been a good year.
  • 02:22:16
    It has been.
  • 02:22:20
    I too wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and look forward to starting out our new year in January and look forward to working for us citizens here in the county and as you depart tonight be careful I don't know whether it's still foggy out or not but I think it is Miss Minner says it is just be careful going home and if nothing further I'll entertain a motion to adjourn
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 02:22:45
    So moved.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 02:22:46
    Second.
  • 02:22:47
    I have a motion and a second.
  • 02:22:48
    Roll call vote.
  • 02:22:49
    Mr. McGuigan.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 02:22:50
    Aye.

28. 16. Adjourn

• • SPEAKER_08
  • 02:22:50
    Mr. Goolsby.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 02:22:51
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 02:22:52
    Mr. Lamb.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 02:22:53
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 02:22:53
    Mr. Catalano.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 02:22:54
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 02:22:54
    And the chair votes on.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 02:22:55
    Merry Christmas.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 02:22:56
    Thank you all very much for coming out tonight.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 02:23:00
    Francis, just explain why we're also