Board of Supervisors Meeting   9/9/2025

Yeah.

I've been to the AT&T tower up here.

You can see the 29th Avenue.

Four different directions like that.

We were up there wholesome.

Got shot at twice.

That cured me.

And there was guys that are my age now that I was working with and I was like 10 to 8 or something like that.

I was bulletproof and I still hate it.

I mean, it was steep.

No, we were doing a boundary on the 1,000 acres of them.

We're a family that's owned it since like the 1800s.

And I guess they were splitting it up.

and the deed research took like two months and it was wild, but it tore us up.

We dropped two or three, them instruments were like $30,000 back then.

I dropped at least two.

You couldn't help it.

I got to report this morning from Fox News that we're going downhill.

Don't worry about students.

They can't add two and two.

They can't read, so I guess we'll have to all start speaking our own language.

That's the truth.

Well, I mean, if you believe, if you believe Bill Gates, 85% of people are going to have to do anything based on AI.

They're all going to be displaced.

I mean, they're predicting everything too.

They're predicting, I mean, doctors are predicting lawyers.

They'll put a data center in every house that's vacant.

They try to do driverless trucks.

I always have a job.

I believe, I'd be happy when they come up with something like bones on Star Trek.

Oh, y'all are so barbaric, yeah.

And he goes, he's healed.

Yeah, it's for the peeling, coming up with a... When you're young and chapped up, venture in space.

Ms.

Sir, whereas the Board of Supervisors of Greene County desires to discuss in a closed meeting the following matters.

Discussion concerning perspective business or the expansion of existing business or industry where no previous announcement has been made of the businesses or industry's interest in locating or expanding its facilities in the community.

Consultation with legal counsel employed or retained by a public body regarding specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel

regarding a memorandum of understanding, whereas pursuant to section 2.2-3711A5 and A8 of the Code of Virginia, such discussions may occur in a closed meeting.

OK, do I have a motion?

So moved.

Do I have a second?

OK, we have a motion and a second on the motion to go in executive session.

Roll call vote.

Mr. Lamb?

Aye.

Ms.

Durrer?

Aye.

Ms.

Goolsby?

Aye.

Ms.

Do I have a motion to come into open session?

So moved.

Is there a second?

We have a motion and a second to come into open session.

Roll call vote.

Mr. McGuigan.

Aye.

Mr. Goolsby.

Aye.

Ms.

Mr. Lamb.

Aye.

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?

Roll call vote.

Mr. Lamb.

Aye.

Certified.

Thank you.

Ms.

Durrer, I certify.

Mr. Goolsby, I certify.

Mr. McGuigan, I certify.

And the chair certifies.

We do not have anything to come out of closed session, so we will move on.

So moved.

Is there a second?

Second.

Okay, we have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda roll call vote.

Mr. Goolsby?

Aye.

Mr. Durham?

Aye.

Ms.

Thank you, ma'am.

Good evening.

My name is Linda Copeland and I live here in Greene County.

Greene is the forgotten county for healthcare.

A group of registered nurses and concerned residents have joined together to solve a healthcare need.

The members of the Greene Healthcare Collaborative are here to respectfully request your support in the deployment of the University of Virginia's mobile primary care unit to Greene County.

As you know, Greene County faces significant challenges in access to health care.

Currently, the state ratio for primary care physicians to individuals is 1 to 1,326 people.

Greene County has a ratio of one primary care

provider to 5031.

And those references I can supply you if you're interested.

Currently, there are five practicing PCPs that have been identified.

There's a qualifier there.

I can also answer that question if you have it.

Using the state ratio, we need 15 providers here to be able to provide primary care.

With a limited number of PCPs, residents must travel outside of the county for even basic health care.

For older adults, families with children, and those with have difficulty with transportation, the barrier can mean missed appointments, unmanaged chronic conditions, and declining health.

The UVA mobile primary care is fully equipped clinic on wheels staffed by UVA professionals and capable of providing preventive care, chronic disease management,

screenings, and connections to specialty services when needed.

The unit will see patients with commercial insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, and a sliding scale for those financially responsible.

The mobile primary care unit will augment the Greene Care Clinic.

Their volunteer professionals who provide services to individuals who are medically and financially indigent.

Your letter of sport is a critical step.

It would demonstrate that Greene County values equitable health care and access to it and is willing to be a partner with UVA to make the resources available to all residents.

Thank you, Ms.

Blue.

Good evening, Chair and members of the board.

My name is Tina Merrill.

I live here in the Stanardsville District, and I am a registered nurse who works here in Greene County.

In my experience as an oncology nurse, I have seen firsthand the

consequences of delayed cancer diagnosis and treatment, especially in underserved populations.

And as Linda just explained to you, Greene has a profound shortage of primary care.

So my concern is that some of our residents are not getting the screenings they need before it's too late.

Bringing primary care directly to the residents of Greene is not just about convenience.

It's about equity.

It is a cost-effective and really practical way to reduce health disparities.

And I really believe it would improve the well-being of our whole community.

So I want to thank Ms.

Shafrick for her advocacy on behalf of the UVA Primary

Mobile Unit coming to Greene on a regular basis.

And I just respectfully urge you all to lend your voices to this really important initiative.

Thank you.

Good evening, Chairman and members of the board.

My name is Scott Mingledorf.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

On Saturday night, a week ago, a large private gathering played amplified music for hours and created a significant disturbance for their neighbors.

It should call all of us to examine how Greene addresses noise, particularly from outdoor amplified music.

The state of Virginia recognizes that general noise ordinances have been inadequate to deal with the impact of that type of music.

Other Virginia counties that have experienced this disruption it causes have responded with ordinances written with more stringent criteria.

Importantly, unlike many general noise ordinances that depend on highly technical approaches to sound management, those for amplified music reference a plainly audible standard.

Greene continues to rely on a decibel based general noise ordinance.

It is only superficially simple.

It requires specialized equipment that has been recently calibrated and must be operated by a sheriff's deputy trained to take multiple sound measurements over a period of time.

Bottom line is that it is resource intensive and is neither simple nor quick.

Most importantly,

If the state recognizes the inadequacy of applying general noise ordinances to outdoor amplified music, shouldn't we be paying attention?

I doubt any of us would relish a repeat of the Airbnb party house acrimony that resulted in prohibiting all such rentals in the R1 district.

All residents, even those in A1 and C1 districts, should have a reasonable assurance of protection from excessive noise levels generated by amplified music.

When I last appeared before you, my message concerning the Agritourism Ordinance was good fences make good neighbors.

By adopting an ordinance for outdoor amplified music that protects residents and that provides clear guidance to event promoters, we can get ahead of a potential problem.

You have been presented with a draft agritourism ordinance that includes provisions of outdoor amplified music.

Please consider it.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, sir.

Welcome, sir.

Thank you, Chair.

I'm Steve Phillips.

I want to support Scott Minkledorf's statement and add a bit.

The incident that Scott mentioned was on August 30th.

The epicenter was a property on Dyke Road, the site of the new Beard Winery event center.

For your information, I don't live there, not near.

I'm two miles and two mountains away.

So the place is not in my backyard.

But that shouldn't matter.

The August 30 incident is a wake-up call for all of us wherever we may live.

Now, what happened?

Very briefly, very loud music for hours at night.

Started about 8.40 p.m., still going after 11 p.m., and a light show, a searchlight waving across our rural sky.

The lighting ordinance be damned, I guess.

The atmosphere overall of a carnival or a rock concert, not a rural atmosphere.

And all of this without even a courtesy notice, no advance warning to the neighbors at all.

Just one incident in one location.

But it illustrates too well the seriousness of the threat to rural life that comes from noise trespass from amplified music.

We can't be naive about this.

In this world, we all know that we can't count on all of our neighbors to act in a neighborly way with consideration for others.

Some just won't.

So that's why some rules are needed to limit the damage that one person can do to others when actions on their property spill over harmfully to others.

And this is the key point.

The need for effective noise rules is especially great

when businesses have a big profit incentive to generate noise disturbance.

Being able to conduct loud events frequently, even at night, means for them more customers, more money, it's too tempting.

So this incident should be our wake-up call.

Greene needs to develop workable policies on noise trespass, ones that have some teeth.

Right now,

It's especially important that the new agritourism ordinance get this right.

The ordinance proposal sent to supervisors in June does get it right.

It avoids the unworkable decibel-based approach.

Instead, it takes an approach that's been proven to work well in other Virginia counties.

And I want to emphasize this.

It gives wineries, event centers incentives to voluntarily comply with the ordinance.

rather than to be chronic scofflaws facing only small fines.

So, Insom, please consider that proposal you received in June.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Chairman, Members of the Board, Ken Copeland from Stanardsville District, following up on the prior two speakers.

As has been said, neighbors on Dyke Road were burdened with unreasonable noise for several hours Saturday night of Labor Day weekend, beginning at 8 and continuing past 11.

I do thank Steve, Catalano, Kathy, and Sheriff Smith for responding to inquiries from my wife and neighbors and providing more information about the context.

But this brings us to the Farm Winery Ordinance being considered for revision.

What this event did point out was the need to include a balance between commercial interests and the interests of the residents, which a group of us have been advocating.

appropriate and enforceable language around not only noise and amplified music, but also number of events and attendees, size of event buildings, periodic review and penalties for noncompliance, and opportunity for public comment and input prior to approval are all necessary to maintain the rural character of our county and protect the residents.

In the course of the meetings, public hearings, and workshops on the ordinance, I have heard no mention of the proposed ordinance put forth by our group.

This proposal is not a treatise on banning commercial activity, but adapts an existing ordinance from a county that supports many wineries, breweries, and cideries

to Greene County.

It's past time for residents' voices to be considered along with those from commercial interests.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chancellor.

Typically, we live up here so that it's to whine about something.

Well, yes, one, I'm not going to do that.

I want to start by thanking you, Mr. Catalano,

for responding at two o'clock in the morning when you found out what was happening a week ago Saturday.

I appreciate it.

The sound and light show that Ken referred to could have been seen from outer space.

It was that bad.

And something's got to be done.

I also want to thank Linda Copeland and her fellow nurses.

I'm married to a nurse for going on 60 years now.

They are the heart of the medical community.

And the importance of primary care brought home to me today with my regular, and I'm blessed to have primary care physician.

He's now 15 minutes further away.

So I drive an hour each way.

But I'm blessed to be able to have a doctor to go to.

And if additional primary care physicians and care can be brought to the county, it'd be wonderful.

I thank Ms.

Shaffir for contacting the UVA Medical Center to make that request.

Ken, Steve and Scott all made mention to the draft ordinance which we have tried to get you all to give attention to.

That's the booklet.

You all got it back in June.

We hope at some point soon you'll take a good hard look at it and realize that it answers all the concerns, both the frequency of events, number of attendees, sound like everything else you can imagine.

and if you could give this your serious consideration, let's get it on the books soon.

Thank you.

Welcome.

My name is Hope Barber.

I live in the Stanardsville district.

I am with the group of ladies who are

trying to get the primary care van here.

And I just want to say that I've, in petitioning people, I have talked to so many who are so interested in getting this done.

You know, there has been a huge need for it for a long time.

And I just hope that you guys can help get it here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Welcome.

I was disappointed to read the letter that the board wrote to VDOT regarding the Blue Ridge Meadows development in Stanardsville.

It would be great if that area were not going to become a neighborhood, but it is.

It can be developed by right, as you know, and that seems to be the owner's intention.

In a case like that, the board's role should be to mitigate the impact on current residents.

Instead of allowing an entrance on 33 Bypass, which would reduce the traffic impacts, you would have the construction vehicles and ultimately the vehicles associated with 439 homes clogging our tiny little main street.

How that serves or makes sense to anyone is hard to understand.

I am not pro-development at all.

I am sick about what the Murphy's are doing to the property that borders mine.

Things like getting one plan approved and doing another, building a bridge without permits or permission for which there was no consequences, and building a giant barn that apparently they want to be the next Yoder's.

What used to be one of the most iconic views in Greene is now a ridiculously long white fence and houses with people that light them up like Times Square.

and they have already begun to do the same on the east side of 29 as well.

So no, I'm not a fan of development.

I see the ravages of it daily in our county, but the reality is we have laws that allow for development by right and landowners that want to make big bucks selling to developers, thinking that we can control that in other ways

doesn't seem to be working.

So using common sense and looking for ways to mitigate the impact on current residents is key.

And sometimes that's going to be choosing commercial development over a neighborhood.

Neighborhoods mean more daily traffic.

They stretch our schools and our services in ways that commercial developments do not.

So while I'm guessing that it was an attempt to appear anti-growth for voters, it just kind of comes across as anti-critical thinking, and it's not a great look.

These issues are nuanced and they require nuanced solutions.

For the case of Blue Ridge Meadow, I'm hoping that VDOT will just ignore your letter realizing that the current road cannot handle the traffic created by this neighborhood.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone that's joining us via Zoom?

If you would like to address the board, please use the raise your hand feature that you can find under the reactions button on your screen and we'll give you time to indicate that you want to speak.

OK.

Thank you, Mr. Friedel.

I want to speak.

I think James Henshaw, some of the department takes that UVA call with Jim and James.

But anyhow, what just came up, Colin, to see if somebody wants to speak.

What's the policy if you get here a few minutes late?

Can you sign up and bring your oats there and bring your thing?

Well, it just seems kind of embarrassing.

And I've gotten here late a few times, so I have to come up and sign.

You know, it looks like sometimes they take your paper right away.

From matters from the public.

Well, that's why I opened it up to the crowd, because people do come in late.

I was just wondering if it's, and I appreciate that.

I was thinking, you know, just sitting here, and I thought about it before the fact that I've been here

meetings, and it always gives the people that are not here at the meeting, if they can sit at home watching, they have an ability to speak, you know, vote you see in them or anything, and be very precise in what they say.

So I'm not sure if we're on the right path or not, but I did want to question that.

The other thing I think we're supposed to do here tonight about the war in power,

It's night tonight?

Yes.

That's a separate public hearing.

Right.

But if you could take and bring us up to date, or sell some literature or something, instead of just letting people get up and speak, and see who did what, when they did it, and why we are where we are.

Because the more I think about it,

It just seems that today I was on a beautiful site here in Greene County and I'm sure we got all the water we would ever need.

You can see the mountains in Greene, Madison, and Orange County.

Very few houses that you see at all.

And it just seems like we need a committee of something or the people of this county to look at where do we want to go?

Do we want to keep building and building to bring more people in to change our county?

or should we form a committee like we used to do when I was on the board and get opinions from responsible folks here in the county instead of just... And the other question, I'm gonna end it there.

A lot of localities, especially who are in high residential areas and

right nearby, I guess that Albemarle County has been doing it for a long time.

Our settlement's still off.

They said it's Charlottesville, I think.

But it's the first in January, they give the dates that anybody has to sign up to get on the agenda for the year.

And that's for builders or whoever.

And it just seems like no matter how

How things are moving along, if it's a holiday weekend or whatever, different things that affected the county, that we could do a better job of scheduling these meetings and getting better attendance.

Okay, maybe a better house.

We used to do ceremonies, but I know I've used my time up, and when the guy was crowded, we were a good courthouse.

Supervisor Durrer can attest to that.

Thank you, sir.

OK, I will close matters from the public.

We will go to number eight public hearing.

Certainly.

Good evening to the board.

You have in your packet the actual deed that Ms.

Kemp has done and the easement showing the actual physical layout.

The picture here really illustrates that's up on the screen what's happening.

When this lot for that water tower, which is a critical part of our water infrastructure, when it was created, you can see it was created as a flag lot.

It has a 50-foot extension that goes to Amicus Road.

I'm not sure that's been used in decades.

It has a gate that's rusted and falling down.

It's overgrown.

It's a steep bank even to get to it.

So for decades, anybody that's gone to do maintenance on the water tower has driven through the entrance that you see on the right of the screen and accessed the water tower that way.

the church that has built there has expanded their parking and you can see this picture it doesn't show the full parking but you can see a tiny crossover extension that goes across the pipe stem that we haven't used in decades and don't intend to use so in working with the church

The deed that you have allows them to cross from one parking lot to the other parking lot.

So from the main parking lot to the overflow parking lot by driving on that little small section across the county.

So they have an easement, a right of access across that.

It's not a parking lot.

It's just a travel way.

and in exchange, they are giving us formal, official permission to use their driveway.

It's always been a policy of the landowner, but now it's a deeded, it would be a deeded access if the board approves this.

So it's a very simple process.

A member from the church is here, but I don't know if there's even any questions regarding this.

OK, thank you, sir.

What is public hearing?

So I guess we'll open it up to the public first.

Thank you, sir.

No one has signed up for the public hearing here.

If anybody at home would like to participate, please raise your hand.

I will close the public hearing and we'll open it up to the Board of Supervisors for discussion.

I don't think there's any question.

I think we need to just clean it up.

I mean compared to, I remember years ago all the water would come out of the

leaking out of that tower and wash that whole road, they turned into the main road.

They finally fixed that problem.

Any other discussion?

Do I have a second?

Second.

I have a motion and a second for approval.

Roll call vote.

Mr. McGuigan?

Aye.

Mr. Goolsby?

Aye.

Mr. Durrer?

Aye.

Mr. Lamb?

Aye.

And here to talk about that is Courtney Rogers.

Evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.

There it is.

All right.

Short presentation tonight.

Well, raise that delay again.

Can you take it back?

Can you go back to the first page?

Mr. Chairman, members of the board, of course, we did the plan of finance back in August, August 12th.

And so tonight, as we talked about that evening, we were bringing to you the actual bond documents, the formal resolution that approved us to be able to move forward with the water and sewer revenue and refunding bonds in an amount not to exceed $43,500,000.

Basically, the documents that this resolution approves would be the master indenture.

This is a bond document that basically sets forth for the bond purchasers

the covenants and things that you will have to follow in order to issue not only these bonds but any other bonds down the road.

There's also a first supplemental indenture that covers just this bond issue and a preliminary official statement that will be for this bond issue as well as the specimen bond.

I'm not the lawyer in the room.

We actually have from Sans Anderson Bond Council, Jesse Vowles is here.

So if there are questions about the documents themselves, he is here to answer those.

If you've got a page two for me, sir.

But I'm gonna give you just again, some more big picture items.

The proceeds basically gonna be used for the reservoir project, as well as the permanent financing of the band, something we've talked about with interest rates being in a good spot right now, we'll lock that up and not have to worry about potential for having to do

take it out later in the future.

We'll be capitalizing some of the interest.

We're going to borrow some of the interest that'll buy us a little bit of time, build up some reserves and then cost emissions.

So this not to exceed number, basically you're basically authorizing us to issue up to that amount and that gives us a little bit of room in case we need it as far as any changes that may happen into the market.

This gives you kind of a breakout of the various amounts that get to that $43.5.

We do have some cushions in there.

We have a 2% contingency in case we need it.

Without getting too far in the weeds, sometimes when we're selling bonds, the bondholders want to have premiums.

Sometimes they want to have discounts.

And so we need a little bit of cushion in there.

And that's what that 2% is there in order to make sure that we get the best interest rate possible for the account.

So some of the details, the maximum maturity date is not later than 12-31 of 2057.

That's 32 years.

We're projecting that we'll be right at 30 years, but we wanted to give ourselves a couple of years extra just in case something came up between now and when we sell the bonds that we needed.

We have an interest rate not to exceed of 6%.

That's given us some cushion.

We don't exceed to sell.

We don't hope to sell at that higher rate right now, but that's just something we do as a matter of course when we're doing these types of resolutions throughout the state.

The revenue covenant is in that master indenture that I talked about, the master indenture trust.

Essentially that you'll fix, charge, and collect rates and fees and other charges that basically will cover at least one time's debt service.

So after you've paid all your operations, that there will be at least revenues to cover the senior debt service as well as any subordinate debt service.

You're proving the form of that first supplemental.

The first supplemental basically gets into more details about this particular bond issue, dates for payments, things like that.

The POS is what we call the prospectus.

It's in the municipal world.

That's what we call our selling document.

It also allows flexibility.

Our goal is to sell this in a competitive market, but should some things change?

Not expecting it, but like in the credit crisis days, we ended up moving to a lot of negotiated sales.

It gives us the ability to do that if we need to.

It designates the board chair or vice chair and the county administrator as authorized representatives to finalize any other terms, conditions, anything that we need to finalize between now and the bond sale.

And then it outlines the pledge repayment of source basically being the revenues of the system as we've talked about.

And then the final bullet there talks about basically a non-binding intent of the board of appropriation, if you will, basically as requested by the county administrator if needed to cover shortfalls, which at this point, of course, we're not projecting that we need that.

We also talked about back in August doing financial policies.

You have those in front of you to be considered.

We're thinking that if you would want to take some time and look at those and approve those at your next meeting before we actually go to New York and talk to the agencies, that gives us the ability to tell them that they have been adopted.

But we wanted to give you guys an opportunity to give us feedback if there's any changes you want to make.

I know some of you just probably got them in the last several days.

That also includes the debt ratios that we talked about, fund balance reserves, and also the treasurer provided you with investment policies that we looked over and looked very good.

She did a great job with those.

So our timetable here is, again, for you all to consider the authorizing resolutions tonight.

We're going to push the financial policies to the later meeting this month.

We're scheduled to go talk to the radicies at the end of the month on the 29th, 30th.

And then we would expect to get some initial feedback from them early in October with formal ratings coming in the middle of the month.

And then we're shooting for a bond sale around October 20th, give or take.

and then that would have the funds in hand basically early November and then those would be put basically would be invested until such time as they're needed for the any invoices that come on the project.

Okay I think I'll just open up the public hearing and we'll question you after that.

Perfect.

Ms.

Kemp.

Thank you sir.

Fred Turt.

Your handwriting's like mine.

That's why I could read it.

Welcome, Lord.

Hi, Fred Turk, Stanardsville District.

Yeah, I'd like a couple things.

And, you know, this presentation and a lot of other previews, that's really great for you all and the knowledge of what you're doing and stuff, but for the layperson, the person out here in the county, I think we need to kind of just

You know, bring it down to some of what we can understand.

And I'll be the first to say that, you know, I'm not in a position to be buying bonds.

I didn't win the Powerball lottery and things like that.

So I don't know exactly except what I go online and read.

And I was trying to read about bond issuing and how that works.

and a couple, you know, cause many times they said, you know, it's not going to increase our taxes.

It's not going to come out of general revenue.

You know, it's not going to increase our taxes.

I don't know how many times I've heard that, but a couple of things I just want to read from what I went online and found.

Talks about, you know, bond issuance, government bonds, you know, the state and local governments.

Here it says for general obligation bonds, which are used to fund capital projects like schools, bridges, roads, et cetera,

You know, governments often pledge their general taxing power for repayment.

When voters approve the bonds, they are authorizing the government to raise property taxes to pay the debt service.

And from what I understand, when you bond, you know, you said it was 30-year maturity.

Well, you have to pay yearly

payback on the interests of the bond.

When it becomes mature, that's when the whole big chunk of money is due.

So what happens if our projected revenues don't cover the costs that you're anticipating?

Are you going to say here again that you're not going to raise taxes?

I know I'm not going to get an answer.

I'll go on further.

It says, in some cases, governments might market a bond issue with a no tax increase measure.

This often involves refinancing an existing bond or extending or repayment of bond or issuing other bonds to borrow money without raising the current tax rate.

However, taxpayers end up paying the same rate for a longer time, which is considered by some a de facto tax increase.

So again, from what I see on my side, I don't know the ins and outs and what bonds issuing and all that kind of stuff.

All I read is I see if the county doesn't come forward with enough revenue that you're anticipating from growth, the money's got to come from somewhere.

Where is it going to come from?

Do you have a secret pot of money somewhere?

Or are you gonna raise taxes?

Or are you gonna do something that, you know, take money out of something to cover the cost?

Again, like I've said before, just be transparent to us what it is we can expect for the next 30 some years here in the county.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Turk.

Thank you.

You are concerned?

Actually going to wind up following up on Fred's comments.

The board's taking action to address the county's water supply issue, issue that had been kicked down the road by too many prior boards.

The infrastructure plan calls for reduced estimated costs from that previously considered, which is a good thing.

However, the funding plan glosses over one aspect, which I have previously stated should be addressed as part of the resolution.

how debt service funds will be obtained in the event growth forecasts are not achieved, which we have demonstrated is a real possibility.

Davenport's August 12th presentation made this statement.

Davenport and the county have been working to develop a repayment plan

including EDU fees, usage rates, and general fund, only to the extent that there is not sufficient utility fund balance.

However, I've heard nothing suggestive of what such a repayment plan might look like.

Fred just pointed that out.

What it should look like is metrics to be used to determine potential for insufficient utility funds.

Timeframes at which these metrics will be reviewed by the board.

Guidelines the board shall use to implement when tapping the general fund.

For example, will they increase business real estate taxes more than they would residential?

Would there be higher increases relative for those in the service area than those who are not?

Regardless of the board's confidence in the forecast, prudent financial management requires contingency planning.

To wit, the total debt service the county is taking on is 50% greater than the county's total annual budget for 2025.

As of March, combined water and sewer expenditures had exceeded the total budgeted amount for the fiscal year.

while revenue was on target.

This suggests a shortfall on the order of $1.5 million for the fiscal year.

The county's forecast called for $3.5 million in EDU fees for fiscal 2025.

As of March, EDU fees had totaled $2.4 million, again suggesting a $300,000 shortfall in EDU fees.

These numbers cry out for oversight and contingency planning.

Without contingency planning, the board is implicitly telling us, as Fred suggested, we're all at risk equally.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Coppola.

OK, that was it for the sign-up sheet.

Thank you, Mr. Friedel.

OK.

I just like to say it.

Can you identify yourself?

I know I know we know the Ojibwe Hinshaw.

I would like to.

Say I agree with the first speaker.

It's just a lot of great questions.

And.

I know you have gone a long ways.

It's been a lot of money.

But you have announced it to taxpayers and said, are we going to continue to pay seven half percent of our taxes to go to the water utility?

As we're doing today, is that going to be decreased?

Or is it going to be increased?

You haven't told us what would happen if you doubled the capacity, tripled the capacity,

right there where the water plant is today.

And I don't know why the county didn't look at the Lamb Farm when it came up for sale, but it would have served the purposes of all the schools we would need for the necessary property.

It would have served as a reservoir for the water that this county would need.

Davis Stoves himself, it's one field, it's called the Bowl Field.

It's always been called the Bowl Field because it's

a bowl.

I don't know if some media come down and put that hole in there or what.

But it's those streams running in it, those streams running out.

You can go down there and dig and dig and dig.

Your reservoir's already there.

But it's a heck of a reservoir right now.

And it would be, the county's losing subdivisions, subdivisions for that land.

On both sides of 29th could have been used for water impalement.

It could have been used for site and plants.

It could have been used for county parks, schools.

I don't know the total language, but I'm sure Supervisor Lamb knows.

Maybe he was embarrassed to forward this because he's serving on the board.

I don't know.

There are other sites in the county.

I won't get into them, but they probably have a better water supply.

or being able to capture the water in a better shape than to go to a well white run.

So I would just say that I would try, if I was in your seat, to increase the older capacity and I would try to increase the output capacity of the plants.

And then when we saw the need down the road, we would look at it again.

but this county, I was on the board and group in Ruckersville and I guess I was like voting on a deal with the county to put up $10,000 for a study which indicated that the growth and move was coming on and this really amplified in the year 2000 and I pointed out to you, Mr. Catalano, what was going to happen to the county and the vote there but

also noted, and my three minutes is up.

But I think you are not in such a critical condition if your back's to the wall, that you can't stop this thing a little while.

And there may be other ways to finance it.

I'm sure there is.

I know USDA is one that puts the money in great interest like this.

Thank you, Mr. Hansell.

Thank you.

All right, I will close the public hearing and open it up to the Board of Supervisors for discussion.

Who would like to go first?

I was waiting on the question.

So it'll be- Is that 43 million?

It's built into that number.

That's what I wanted to know because I've been reading, like Mr. Turkbeck, if you're not able to make those payments, that it can come out of taxes.

that people pay or other revenues.

I got some questions.

You know, we obviously need to do this project.

And last year in March, we were looking at a project that was 33% bigger, but you gave us some figures based on that.

And what's interesting is I don't really know exactly if we've defined how much we're going to need to borrow because the numbers that you presented last year, there was the presumption that the wastewater treatment plant was going to be paid for by a grant.

and you were talking about, you presented 12 million in your presentation and in this capital improvement project, it was gonna be 11 million to upgrade Stanardsville's water system.

One of the problems that we've chronically identified, none of that's in here.

Right.

So.

It's just the reservoir tonight.

Yep.

And then, well, you've got the plan, I'm talking about all the borrowing.

I'm talking about your page 27 from what you presented in August.

So that's the entire projects you envision, a total of $81 million, including the 14 refinance.

Well, what we've done is we've taken Stanardsville sewer project that we've been saying is $14 million.

In your presentation last month, page 27, it's now $8 million, almost half that project.

The water system,

There's an assumption on the same page 27 that there's going to be a net of $7 million in funding for grants.

As far as I know, we've only gotten three.

You have a paragraph in there that's assuming that... I'm sorry, I'm not following you.

What I'm trying to do is define all of your presumptions about that we can afford this are based on this number of $81 million.

That was given to us by the engineers.

Correct.

And I'm not attacking you.

I'm just saying that when you look at it, we've got the Stanardsville water upgrade that's not in here.

We've thrown in an extra $4 million in grant money that we don't have.

We've got another 24 million that according to our CIP we need to do for upgrades of extending water lines in Ruckersville and in Stanardsville.

So the total was 127 million in our current improvement project projection through 2030.

I'm not making it up.

That's what the numbers are.

I don't know where that number comes from.

Sorry.

Except for the fact that there's no water tank for Stanardsville to allow us to have pumping water through the water.

I'm not an engineer, so I can't do that.

Then I would like to ask you,

Your presumption again in last month was a 5.5% interest rate.

This, as I explained a minute ago, this is, you go to, I do this in Albemarle County.

I'll do it in the city of Richmond.

I do it up in Loudoun County.

We always put a number that is well in excess of the market.

That's just

But isn't the affordability based on that?

We don't expect to issue it at 60%.

We do this the same way in Loudoun County and Albemarle County and the City of Richmond and all over the state.

The other thing that your model assumes, and I know you got, it's not you, it's you've been given data.

So the data is on page 30 of last month's report.

So you quote the Virginia Tech study that we funded.

The Virginia Tech study was interesting in that it said that the population estimate for the county was correct, it was being projected by the state, and that the numbers that we were getting on housing starts were correct.

When you looked at the data, the population growth Virginia expects will only allow us to have 2,400 builds financially because we have 2.5 people per new house.

That was in contrast to the numbers that we were generating last year, which we were saying in our planning department, 3,500 homes were going to be built.

Your data from page 30 suggests that we're going to build 6,168 homes by 2055.

Because you've got 292 that you're projecting are going to be built in the next four years on average, which is 1,168.

And then your graph shows.

I'm really getting lost.

Is there a question?

Yeah.

We haven't defined what we need to spend.

All of the presumptions appear to be based on fake data and what you put is that we're rarely going to need to delve into the general fund.

In rare instances, I think you actually use extreme circumstances in the current document, yet on page 30 you've got

One, two, three, four, five years out of the nine that you're projecting that we're going to have deficits.

So is that extreme?

And that's all built on a massive number of homes coming in that may or may not happen.

So I guess my point is why don't we go and actually state that it has to be a revenue bond?

only on revenue based on the water and sewer system.

That is what we're saying.

We have a backstop.

So why don't we... Because Mr. McGuigan, if we did it that way, you would be paying more to 60%.

Basically, I want... To stop the project?

Basically, no, I basically want the system to actually pay for itself rather than the general fund.

That's what we're going to try to do.

And guess what?

But the numbers are fake.

They're not fake.

6,000 homes?

We're going to build 6,000 homes?

Are you saying you won't?

I'm just saying that the state says we won't.

I haven't talked to the state.

And that was somebody else that did that projection.

Yeah, I think that's the point.

I think Mr. Rogers is just basically putting together data that we've agreed upon.

So he's just crashing it out on the internet.

But this number is double the number that

was generated by us last year.

And this is to pay for $80 million worth of debt, not $127 million worth of debt.

So you've got more than double the number of homes that we were projecting that we were gonna build last year to justify this expenditure.

And the expenditure won't even cover half of the water projects that we claim we absolutely need.

And the point here is I think we need to adjust the connection fees to compensate for that.

And yet we're refusing to do it.

And the one thing I do agree is that the first four years, yes, there's going to be a housing bubble.

But after that, projecting 200 home starts for the next 30 years, it just doesn't make any sense.

You still have the ability to change those connection fees, if you like.

But that's not in anybody's proposal because the models are all based on fictional numbers.

It doesn't matter.

We can change them anytime we want to.

That's right.

Well, when are we going to do it when you know the numbers don't add up?

You're the only one saying that.

And this issuance is only for the water impoundment.

It's not for all those other projects because we haven't decided.

We're not going to have to grade Stanardsville's water system.

Tonight we are talking about the rescue.

Yeah, but you cannot look financially with blinders.

You have to look at the entire picture.

And what we're talking about is getting the county to the point where we're almost up to our credit limit.

And yet, we've not only got water projects that aren't accounted for, we also don't have anything else in the CIP, whether it's EMS, fire, increasing all their services, increasing all the other $320 million worth of projects that we supposedly claim we need to build.

OK.

And all I'm saying is if we believe that this is true, if the planning department believes it's true, the water department believes it's true, the only thing I would suggest that you do is to strike one little tiny phrase, and that is that we will, revenues pledged for repayment sources, that we remove those other sources, and you just have it from the water and sewer system.

If people believe the numbers, that's all.

Up to you guys.

I will say this.

The first paragraph of the resolution today, we revised and tightened up the language.

It was way too broad as far as identifying project.

So we narrowed that scope down.

and also just instead of saying the reservoir, the intake, the plant, et cetera, it's the project.

The project encompasses everything that possibly can be conceived in dealing with Greene County's water supply.

So anyway, that's why you see all the blue lines on that document there.

Other than that, it's pretty much the same document.

Other questions, comments or opinions?

I'm ready to make a motion.

We have a motion and a second.

Roll call vote.

Mr. Lamb.

Aye.

Mr. Durrer.

Aye.

Mr. Goolsby.

Aye.

Mr. McGuigan.

Aye.

And the chair votes aye.

Okay.

Number nine.

Presentations, 10 minutes.

Five.

There you go.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Yes, sir.

Pleasure to be here.

Appreciate the time on the agenda.

Just wanted to spend a few minutes with you to give you a little update about state budgets and also a few legislative items as we look toward the 2026 General Assembly session and also talk a little bit about the regional legislative program.

You probably heard within the last couple of weeks that the governor made a presentation about the close of fiscal year 25 state budget.

There was excess of revenues of about $500 million, another $900 million or so due to some savings from vetoes and other actions, some other transfers.

There's going to be money that the governor will work with in the current fiscal year 26 for amending the current state budget.

It's also going to be the task of the General Assembly this coming session, though, to craft the next two-year state budget for 27 and 28.

And I think what we're going to see with that is a lot of uncertainty and a lot of caution as we move through that process due to whatever we may be looking at as far as the state of the economy

and trickle down effects from items and things that are being considered in Washington.

I'm standing here telling you that now is September.

We don't know what November is going to look like.

We don't know what things may look like with the time we get to February trying to put the wraps on a budget.

There are some expenses that are already known for the states related to the SNAP program, supplemental nutrition, some Medicaid expenses.

And then don't know, again, what we may be looking at coming down the pike and what the posture of the General Assembly may be faced with in terms of trying to fill some gaps if there are shortages that need to be filled.

And then the secondary question is, where does that come from?

And are they going to have to look at programs that the state partners with the localities in

like K-12 education or health and human services or public safety or what have you.

So it's going to be a session to definitely stay tuned for as we move through the process.

The governor will introduce his proposed amendments to the current fiscal year budget as well as his biennial budget the middle of December.

So we'll find out if it's going to be happy holidays or not.

On the legislative front, I think I've stood here before you the last couple of years and said that from local government perspective, we'll probably be playing a lot of defense, particularly as it relates to land use issues and land use authority.

I think we've seen that play itself out, especially this past year with a lot of the discussion in the energy realm, particularly solar siting and planning for solar.

The conversation is a little bit different, I think, heading into 2026.

It might be a broader conversation that's not just solely focused on solar, but is looking at energy capacity and loads and tax credits and things like that, a little bit broader perspective.

A lot of legislation last year concerning data centers.

None of those made it through the process.

I think that we will continue to see those coming forward.

Some of them may look exactly the same.

We may see some altered provisions coming through, but I think that will be an issue that the General Assembly will have to reckon with again.

And then finally, I think they'll continue to wrestle with affordable housing and housing affordability.

We've seen a number of bills that came forward on that this past session, and we expect to see some more of those this coming session as well.

Some may be sticks, some carrots, probably a mix of the two.

And, you know, again, I think with any of this, we'll know more about the prospects for where we might be headed after the November elections and what the makeup of the General Assembly will be and which party will be in the governor's office.

So I believe you had in your packet just a one page summary of the priority items that were in the 2025 TJPDC Regional Legislative Program.

Topics that are familiar to all of you all for a number of years, public education, you know, and wanting the state to

to provide more dollars for public education in that partnership with the local governments.

There's a position in there with regard to state budget and revenues.

Don't shift costs.

Don't send us unfunded mandates.

Pay your share of programs that are implemented at the local level.

And then finally the Land Use Authority and Growth Management position that I had alluded to earlier.

So it's the time of year to start looking at revisions to the program, any changes in the priorities and the additional items that you may want to see in the positions and policy section.

And so I'm here tonight to ask if you have any comments or suggestions and

Certainly to take your questions on any of those items.

Questions for David?

I agree with the gentlemen and the ladies that spoke on the UVA hospital van, bus or whatever they want to call it.

But the medical field has gone crazy.

I mean, I've been going out there.

and you can't even get an appointment for, I didn't get an MRI for two years.

Maybe one of those areas particularly talk about rural hospitals and rural health care that maybe it's not a

You know, I'm going to say direct impact on provisions in the state budget, but an indirect impact.

And then again, how does the General Assembly, you know, choose to deal with that and try to provide some support?

I mean, if you think about it, the traffic is backed up from Greene to Albemarle most mornings and evenings.

As you know, you know me well.

Very concerned about their overreach even though we exist on their behalf.

I'm particularly getting sensed about the land use stuff that's worse than the unfunded mandates.

We can just take four or five issues that we've dealt with here the last year.

The state had complete control.

I mean, we've been a victim of their regulation as it is, but they had complete control.

They could put a vineyard and a solar panel farm right next to each other, which has like no

relative effect at all to be together.

And that's only a local decision, right?

Nobody sitting up here would ever do anything like that.

So at the end of the day, they're not very well equipped to handle our local land use operation, I don't think.

It should stay here.

It should stay local, absolutely.

Right, exactly.

It's a harebrained idea.

Other questions for Dave?

I guess we'll put together something as a board.

Maybe we should review that and

Yeah, be glad to receive those between now and say the first week in October would be great.

So we don't get stale, we'll put some new stuff in there too.

Thank you.

Alright, great.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

We'll see you before December, I hope.

Right, Dave?

We'll be back.

Ms.

Durrer.

Aye.

Mr. Goolsby.

Aye.

Mr. McGuigan.

Aye.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Board Members, for having me again for this again.

When I spoke at the Citizens Academy,

I got the question of why do I have to come and ask you all to present and I just want to remind you all that our grant policy says I cannot

take any money from the county and promise it somewhere.

So I come to you before anything might include a match.

So that's why I'm here tonight.

Just for anybody in the audience that doesn't know either.

So brief history, we're getting ready to celebrate our fifth year as the Greene County EMS system in October.

They hit the ground running after 155 days.

after we were told by UVA that they were not going to be operating our ambulances any longer and the rescue squad had disbanded.

Public safety is the largest component of the county's budget outside of school system.

And public safety includes EMS, Greene County Sheriff's Office, and fire because you do, even though we do have three volunteer fire departments, there is some funding that goes to that.

We have received $608,722 in grant funds for EMS since I took this job in December of 2021.

So the first grant I got was in

January of 23.

We've matched them so far using local assistance, tribal and state funds, which we were given from the federal government during COVID.

And it was identified by the board at that time to be used as grant match.

And we've used ARPA funds to match for the ambulance and opioid abatement settlement funds to match for other equipment.

As you know, hospital travel may take up to 36 minutes.

Average time that a truck is out of service is an hour and eight minutes.

In 24, Greene answered 175 chest pain and cardiac calls, which was 5% of the entire Thomas Jefferson EMS region.

So the equipment we are asking in this grant is for three Lucas chest compression devices.

And if you haven't seen them, we've had a couple of demonstrations.

They are machines that do the pulmonary

pulmonary compressions, CPR for you.

And we have gotten this grant with others, and they have saved lives in our community.

And I have some stories about that.

And the other thing is a final life pack, which is the heart defibrillator monitor, which works with the Lucas device.

And they are expired.

Both of these requests were in the Capital Improvement Plan that were brought forth, so you've been aware of these needs, but they were not funded in this budget year.

The Journal of Emergency Services article from September 22 says turnover rates for EMS providers are about 25% a year.

That means every four years you're replacing your staff, basically.

and your ambulance staff.

Well, we have ambulance staff of two.

Automatic chest compression devices, which is what the Lucas devices are, are for small suppliers for smaller staffs.

We have two on an ambulance.

So we have somebody doing, if any of you have ever seen chest compressions being done, it is very tiring.

It's very fatiguing on the individual doing it.

it's not always precise enough the way that the machine is able to do.

With two people, one person's driving, the other person would be doing the chest compressions for that full 36 minutes manually.

One of the reasons that people are leaving EMS is burnout and injuries.

It is more dangerous to be in the back of the ambulance performing the chest compressions than it is the machine doing it and you're monitoring it using the defibrillator monitor.

and the equipment, the Lucas device equipment itself.

We've had a couple of times where the Lucas device has saved people based on needing to move somebody while chest compressions were going on.

And trying to do that manually would have been just impossible.

And so that's that.

I just wanted to explain what the equipment was for those that don't know.

Three new Lucas devices if you can forward on.

Our cost of 49,749.47 and one new life pack monitor defibrillator is 41,145.70.

The grant will probably be a 50% match.

We don't know how much the state will award.

They might cover one Lucas and the defibrillator.

They might cover only the Lucas's, might cover nothing.

We don't know.

So we don't know the full amount of the match.

It does not cover accessories.

So the accessories for the defibrillators cost $12,335.75.

The maximum required match if we were to be awarded the full grant is $36,973.06.

Matching funds can come from fund balance or other unobligated funds.

And we don't know what we need until the award letter comes in January or not come before you and ask if we can accept and appropriate

So I did a cost analysis of the equipment, which lasts about seven to eight years.

And so the cost for this, for eight years, is $2.52 per person for the county.

So this is due September 15th.

I have a question Ms.

Mehta could answer.

Does that machine, the CPR, does that break ribs?

Very dramatic looking.

We did a demonstration at our department head meeting with the Lucas and just watching people's faces.

It's aggressive, and it's traumatic.

It's traumatic looking, and there is always that possibility.

Case in point, I remember doing CPR.

I wasn't actually doing it on my grandmother at that time, but I was standing there and heard that when the provider went down first and you heard a puff.

And I remember my dad had a big problem with that when we were talking about it later.

And I told him, I said, I would rather deal with a couple of broken ribs than

Not having the person here at all.

So it still is a possibility, whether we're doing it ourselves or whether it's the machine.

The machine, of course, is going to reduce provider fatigue.

It's more consistent.

The depth level is, you know, I don't want to say perfect, but it's certainly, you know, you get your human error in there and we get tired.

It's a tool that definitely helps them perform their job.

There are some caveats to all the equipment really that we use.

There are some contradictions of when you can use things, not just the Lucas device, but other things as well, medications.

So we always have to wash that as well.

I could not imagine using a Lucas device on certain size people.

This is the last cardiac monitor that we need and the the Lucas devices I'm not sure that we'll get three and we'll just keep at it you know this grant program comes up twice a year

We're always looking for ways to offset and not come in here and ask you for the entire 100%.

But it would be great if the state would give us all of that.

But I think the cardiac monitor may be one Lucas device is what we'll get, but we'll see.

We'll just keep bothering them until they give us everything.

It's a good grant program.

It's definitely worthwhile for us.

Terry's absolutely amazing.

Other questions?

Second.

Okay, I have a motion and a second.

Roll call vote.

Mr. Lamb.

Aye.

Mr. Goolsby.

Aye.

Mr. McGuigan.

Aye.

Thank you all.

We do not have items for discussion.

though I think we do that all the time.

Informational items, updates, and reports.

Well, I had a soil and water meeting last Tuesday, and I mean, it was a crowd.

It was up at Little Washington.

Thinking about maybe putting maybe six or seven people to make the decisions of the state, just have like six or seven districts.

And one person, I mean, those seven would vote whether or not this funds and this fund.

So I don't know what's going on right now.

They're just still studying for it.

We had the Ag Forest and I think it's the quorum, which I don't know if that was appropriate to make the minimum number of people.

But they're putting together a concept for sort of

Anything else?

I had a packet handed out to you guys.

It was something that I participated in at the Tourism Center.

It was a seminar put on by the Attorney General's office, a lady named Jordan Tomlin, and it was about drug abuse and human trafficking.

The sheriff, the Commonwealth's attorney, myself, Karen Hamilton, who's running for office, several citizens attended it.

Interesting.

It tested your thought process on what you thought you knew about human trafficking.

And if you read this, you'll see the table of contents is basically what we discussed.

You got to raise awareness, advocate for investment, facilitate dialogue and collaboration, engage communities, empower youth, bring our faith community into the dialogue and promote local cooperation.

and obviously we invest in funding the Sheriff's Office and the Commonwealth Attorney's Office and any other thing indirectly from state funding.

But the page that I really want to call your attention to the most, the raise awareness page, and this is what really blew my mind, Greene County is only a one hour drive from high human trafficking hot spots.

We are a one hour drive from Interstate 81, particularly the Rockingham County area, did not see that coming.

We are a one hour drive from Fredericksburg.

We are just 30 minutes from Charlottesville, which is a high entertainment district.

And apparently that is a hotspot for trafficking.

And as parents and guardians, obviously, you have to pay attention to your kids online as we all live.

But it was incredible to me to understand what communities within a community actually foster that.

So read this.

It was very informative.

If we have another one, I encourage you to attend, but it really opened our eyes and it is a bigger problem than we think, closer than we think.

OK, so anyway.

It was a great, great presentation.

We've got a lot of fun events.

The fall is always really fun.

We've got October 11th is the Tour de Greene.

the different bike.

There's three different bike.

I shouldn't talk about it without in front of me, but you should sign up if you want to bike beautiful parts of Greene County.

October 25th, we have Oktoberfest here in Stanardsville.

So that should be really fun.

Coming up, we have a VACO regional meeting where we're going to talk about, VACO is the Virginia Association of Counties organization.

So we'll be bringing in

for this area, what our legislative priorities are and other concerns and other ways we looked at support, plus we get information back like we just heard from TJPDC.

So it'll be great.

And I'm sure you guys will be there too.

And that's over in Shenandoah.

What's the name of that town?

Woodstock, thank you.

We have the five-year anniversary, as Terry Biggie mentioned, coming up.

for EMS, and they're going to have an open house on October 23rd from 2 to 7 p.m.

More information will come out for that because that's in five, six weeks.

And the Greene Care Clinic is having a fundraiser on October 19th.

More information about that will come out.

I'm sure there's been a lot of discussion today about healthcare needs in the community.

I'm sure they would happily take either a participation in the fundraiser, which is a dinner or a donation or whatever.

Okay, perfect.

Other matters on the board?

Is that a motion?

All right.

Do I have a second?

Okay, we have a motion and a second to adjourn.

Roll call vote.

Mr. Goolsby?

Aye.

Ms.

Mr. Lamb?

Aye.

Chair votes aye.

You are on.